Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Along the near-empty streets of Musutafu, a young boy with a mess of curly green hair wandered aimlessly; nose buried in a notebook and pencil moving at a blinding speed, muttering to himself as he walked. The world faded into the background, his sole focus his notes.

“Kacchan says he doesn’t need any kind of support item, but his explosions have a pretty nasty recoil sometimes and that won’t be good in the long-run… maybe some bracers to protect his elbows and shoulders… yeah, and it’ll act like a thermal layer and help with sweat production especially in the winter…”

He tapped the eraser against his chin, looking over his rough sketch. “Maybe that’s what’s in Present Mic’s directional speaker? That could be why it’s so bulky- it’s also acting as a neck brace to account for recoil…. There’s gotta be a way to shrink that down, that can’t be comfortable…” 

Before the boy knew it, he was flipping to a new page, starting yet another concept, tongue peeking out past his lips. Lines sketched and erased, speculations on the existing item written in margins, notes for improvements scattered. Fellow pedestrians eyed him wearily, giving the tween a wide berth to avoid the muttering storm.

A frustrated sigh slipped past his lips. “Kami, I wish I could build this. It would be really cool to have for my Yuuei application… But where would I find- ack!” The pencil he was using clacked down a set of stairs as the middle-schooler just barely avoided the same fate, his lanky arm gripping tight to the nearby railing to stop his fall.

Somehow he had wandered all the way to Takoba Municipal Beach Park, his only clue to his location being the graffiti-covered rock near the entrance. It looked more like a junkyard though; piles of who-knows-what scattered along the coast. Emerald eyes glittered as the boy took it all in, a grin spreading across freckled cheeks. “Well… ask and you shall receive, eh?”

He whipped out his phone faster than lightning. “Hey Auntie Mitsuki? Have you gotten Kacchan that gym membership yet?... Okay, good. He won’t be needing it.” 

Soft smile turned feral at the woman’s confusion. “Let’s just say I found him an alternative.” Loud cackles echoed from the other end of the call.

“Well I wouldn’t wanna ruin the surprise, Auntie!” He began pacing back along the sidewalk, though something in the woman’s response made him pause.

He gasped, clutching at his chest as if he had a pearl necklace. “Auntie Mitsuki ! I would never endanger Kacchan! Well… not on purpose at least. I just need to exploit his strength!”

Unable to hold back his own chuckles, the boy interrupted the brash woman, trying to reassure her. “I can handle him, Auntie, I learned from the best!... Love you too! Oh! Tell Uncle Masaru hi for me!”

His explosive aunt’s hearty laugh was soon joined by a gentler chuckle in the background right before they ended the call, a soft smile permanently plastered across a sea of freckles. Mitsuki always had a way with words.

Izuku Midoriya stood before the beach, gem-like eyes taking in as much as he could, his brain running a mile a minute, already formulating a plan of attack. Could he probably tackle this alone? Yeah, but that would take away precious prototyping time and, though he still had two years before he could even apply, there’s no such thing as being too prepared. His entire life he’s been extra prepared, always one step ahead. Why? Well...

Izuku Midoriya is quirkless. He never really let that bother him, though. Quirks were a nice thing to have, sure, but he doesn’t need one. He never wanted to be a big spotlight hero like most kids his age. No, instead of collecting All Might merch or playing heroes and villains, he was researching materials and circuits, learning how to build and code, tinkering away in his room. He wants to help heroes use their quirks more efficiently, wants to build gear that can help civilians in their every-day lives.

With his hands on his hips, the greenette couldn’t help but puff out his chest, declaring to the world:

Izuku Midoriya will be the greatest Support Hero. Ever.

Chapter Text

How did he get into this mess?

“C’mon Kacchan! Keep up!” 

The nerd was skipping down the damn sidewalk, his stupid wagon just barely able to keep up as it jumped over the cracks on the sidewalk.

“Oi nerd! Where you draggin’ me so damn early?” Katsuki drawled, a hand coming up to stifle a yawn. He had been sleeping peacefully not too long ago until his hag of a mother let the green tornado loose in his room. It wasn’t even sunrise yet! He grumbled, moving to kick an errant rock but had to jump last second as the wagon came careening into his path. “And watch the ankles jackass!”

Zuku just turned around with that little shit-eating grin and twisted his wrist. Katsuki hissed, the side of the wagon crashing right into his shin. “It’s a surprise Kacchan, and that’s payback for the santaka pepper.”

Katsuki grinned through the pain, a few chuckles slipping past his canines. Oh yeah, he remembered that day fondly:

Auntie Inko had made some katsudon for dinner while the old hag and old man had to fuck off and go work or whatever. Since he helped cook, Katsuki got to pick his piece, obviously picking the biggest and best looking cutlet. Zuku, however, also wanted that piece and, being the little shit he is, decided to swap bowls when Katsuki wasn’t looking. The nerd looked like a damn strawberry chugging down a whole carton of milk.

“I called dibs. Not my fault you can’t handle a little spice, wimp.” He rolled his eyes, stopping when they locked onto a weird tower of… indescribable shit .

And then the nerd stops.

He actually stops. And smiles . 

“Here we are! Takoba Municipal Beach Park! I hope you’re up to date on your tetanus shot Kacchan!” His face was so bright, his stupid noodle arms stretching out like he were showcasing some gold mine.

Katsuki felt his eye twitch, familiar heat building up in his palms. Breathe. He filled his lungs - nope, he’s doing that thing where he ignores you again. Palms popped with bright explosions next to his face. “ZUKU WHAT THE FUCK?!” Against his better judgementKatsuki reached out, gripping the short one by the collar of his shirt. “Explain. Now. ”

Broccoli-boy rolled his eyes and pushed away. “Prototypes, Kacchan. Endless parts free for the taking! I just need help!”

Yeah . No . He scoffed, crossing his arms and turning heel. “Fuck that shit, I ain’t gettin’ myself killed out here. One wrong move and you're choking on rust and I ain’t calling Auntie to tell her you died of stupidity.” He was suddenly choking on his own collar, stumbling backwards a little as Izuku tugged at the back of his shirt; his stupid puppy-dog face in full effect.

“But Kacchan, think about it! You wanted to get some weight training in before UA, right? This is a win-win!” He let go of Katsuki, muttering under his breath. “ Plus mom said I couldn’t come alone and dad’s not back for another couple of months and yeah, sure we still have two years before applications but I’ll need time to build and test and it’s better to try and build muscle over a longer course of time than trying to cram right before, especially given how young we are and-”

Katsuki drowned him out, looking out at the shoreline like it personally offended him. The damn beach was littered with piles of crap, more junkyard than beach these days. He vaguely remembered the Old Hag going on about playing at some beach park as a kid but, thanks to off-shore dumping and current placements, shit just started washing ashore and people stopped coming. Then, naturally, that encouraged even more people to show up in the middle of the night and dump their own shit.

He grumbled. The witch was taking her sweet time getting him that gym membership, constantly forgetting or she was ‘too busy’. Shit. He really wanted to get started now that it’s summer break. Fuck. He was really gonna go through with this, wasn’t he? He still had questions though. “Oi! Zuku!” That snapped the greenette out of his trance. “So you just wanna go scrapping for parts, yeah?”

Fuck that smile was blinding sometimes. Green curls bounced back and forth so quick Katsuki thought the shitty nerd was gonna snap his neck. He pushed his hand to a freckled face, halting the movement.

“I’m not agreeing to anything yet, dumbass.” He ignored that knowing look fired back his way when he dropped his hand. “What about the shit you don’t need? We just leave it here?”

This time Izuku rolled his eyes. “Think about it Kacchan, no one comes here anymore. Not during the day at least.” Okay… “And the nearest apartments are like… four kilometers away so no one really lives around here either.” ...Sure… “Soooo…” He raised his eyebrows as if expecting Katsuki to finish the thought. “Kami, Kacchan, you could use your quirk and practice!”

Well shit… nerd’s got a point… guess it’d be pretty neat to see this shithole get cleaned up too… He sighed, dragging his palms across his face. “Fine.” He looked up and suddenly Izuku was donning thick rubber gloves, goggles, and a heavy duty garbage bag, holding some gloves out expectedly.

“Great! I think we should start by clearing out the base of the stairs and see where we go from there!” Zuku didn’t even wait until Katsuki had the gloves on before barreling down the stairs.

This is gonna be a long summer.

Chapter Text

“The fuck is this?” Katsuki growled, crimson eyes narrowing at Izuku. The boys had just made it back to the Bakugo house after clearing a decent enough section of the beach and bringing the bags to the proper drop-off when Izuku unceremoniously shoved a packet into Katsuki’s hands. 

The greenette beamed, his chest puffing up in pride. “It’s a schedule and meal plan for the next two years! I factored in your goal-lift weight, ideal muscle mass, and quirk training so you can be in your best shape for Yuuei!” He may or may not have spent an entire week planning this out. 

Katsuki flipped through the pages, the silence in the room growing with each flip. Finally he sighed, closing his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose with his free hand. “Zuku, this is why you don’t have any friends.”

The dramatic gasp from next to him almost made him laugh. Almost. “That’s not true Kacchan!” The green bean pointed an accusatory finger right in Katsukis cheek. “I don’t have any friends cuz you scare everyone away!”

Crimson eyes rolled and he smacked the offending finger away. “Whatever. We don’t need those stupid extras anyway.” He scoffed. “C’mon, I gotta shower this shit offa me before the witch gets on my case, and you smell like dead fish.”

After about a month, the boys were already starting to see results; Bakugo’s control with his quirk was getting better and he was starting to lift heavier objects without complaint and Midoriya was even gaining some muscle as well, though he was more proud of his growing pile of parts and half-finished prototypes.

Izuku couldn’t contain himself these days, animatedly chattering away about one project or another on their morning walks to the beach. In fact he was in the middle of babbling about his latest plans on possible quirk replication tech when Katsuki suddenly slapped a hand over his mouth and stopped them in their tracks. 

He pouted and licked the offending palm, getting the blonde to pull away, though it was a double-edged sword as his tongue started to burn a little from the nitroglycerin-like sweat the blonde produced. Izuku stuck his tongue out but otherwise kept quiet, focusing instead on the muffled noises coming from the alley.

Katsuki crept to the corner, keeping tight to the wall so he could observe. Something made his shoulders tense and fists clench and suddenly crimson eyes bore into emerald ones. 

-Shitty bullies. You distract, I’ll go around back.- Katsuki signed, finally making use of his JSL lessons Izuku kept insisting on.

Izuku nodded, watching as Katsuki stalked down a block or two before trotting down the sidewalk with little to no care, whistling a cheerful tune. Once he got to the opening of the alley, he stopped, glancing in at the scene. Four kids around his age were surrounding someone else on the floor.

Let’s see… One obvious mutant-quirk: big ol’ lizard tail… That guy's hair looks weird, kinda has a sheen to it when the light hits it, maybe metallic in nature? Blondie’s hard to tell, no obvious- nope, his fingers stretch. Gross. Okay so that leaves the tall ring leader with blue hair and no other tells just yet. Can’t even see who they’re picking on… Oh welp they noticed me. Showtime.

He put on his biggest grin and waved with his whole body. “Hi guys! Whatcha dooooin?” He rocked up on the balls of his feet, dragging his poor abused wagon back and forth with the motion.

Metal Head scoffed. “Who the fuck wants to know? Get lost, pipsqueak.”

Making fun of my height? Rude. Izuku couldn’t help the attitude that dripped from his mouth. “Uh… Me? That’s kinda the reason I asked?” He took a few slow steps into the alley, not missing the way the bullies tensed for a split second. All four of them seemed to size him up, however, and instantly determined he wasn’t a threat. He cocked his hip to the side, opening his stance and putting all his weight on one foot. 

From that angle he could only see a shock of messy purple hair slumped forward against the wall. “Y’know, it’s not very nice to bully people.”

The ringleader shoved at finger-stretch-guy, giving him a hard look. Mister Stretch rolled his eyes. “Look kid, this guy’s dangerous. We’re just puttin’ him in his place.”

Taking another step in, Izuku cocked his head. “Dangerous? Doesn’t seem very dangerous.”

There was a brief scuffle as the ringleader grabbed their victim by the collar, dragging him to stand. The boy was pale and skinny, his arms showing various stages of bruising. He refused to look up from his shoes but Izuku could still see some pretty bad bags under his eyes.

Before the ringleader could even say anything Izuku was growling. “I’d recommend putting him down and leaving him alone now.”

Lizard-boy sneered, slinking up to get in Izuku’s face. “What are you gonna do about it, ssssshorty?”

Ooh, snake quirk, not a lizard. Nice. Izuku smirked, catching movement further down the alleyway. “Me? Nothing!” He beamed, craning his neck to meet familiar crimson eyes. “My friend, however… I don’t think I’m strong enough to hold him back…” His smile turned dark and the bullies went pale. “I’m afraid he has a rather… explosive … personality.”

On cue sparks popped from prepped hands, illuminating Katsuki’s feral grin and making his eyes glow like embers. The ringleader was the first to flee, practically throwing Purple back to the ground and shoving past Izuku. He quickly flicked his wrist and whipped his wagon out in front, tripping the poor kid in the process. The rest were quick to follow, practically jumping over each other to get out first.

Izuku grinned, rolling his eyes. “See? You scare people too easily, Kacchan. But that was pretty awesome.” He turned to Purple,already fishing through his backpack. “You okay? Are you hurt anywhere?”

Purple just looked up at Izuku, a flicker of confusion crossing his face before it settled into a more neutral look. “I’m fine, thanks for the assist but I got it from here.”

Even Katsuki chimed in, crossing his arms over his chest. “C’mon nerd, Eyebags doesn’t want you bothering him. We got shit to do.”

Izuku pushed a hand out to stop Purple from moving. “Nonsense! Kacchan, this is perfect hero training! You just rescued someone and you gotta make sure they’re okay and you might need to administer first aid until medics can arrive.” He found his first aid kit, pulling out some alcohol wipes, antibiotic ointment, and some butterfly bandages. 

Purple blinked. “Wait… you guys wanna be heroes too?”

Izuku cocked his head, smiling softly. “Well Kacchan here does. Me? I’m gonna be the world's greatest Support Hero! Midoriya Izuku at your service!” He did a little two-finger salute before pointing over to Katsuki. “That angry Pomeranian over there is Bakugo Katsuki.”

He got a scoff from said Pomeranian. “Oi, Eyebags. You expect to be a hero with those noodle arms?”

The purple-haired tween looked at Katsuki incredulously. “Eyebags? The names Shinsou Hitoshi, dickwad. And yeah, I wanna be a hero. Everyone always tells me I can’t but I’m gonna prove them wrong.”

Izuku beamed, vibrating with excitement. “Well Shin-Chan, you’ve met the right people! Tilt your head for me please! Oh and this might sting a little.” Before Shinsou could protest, Izuku was pressing an alcohol pad to a cut on his temple, getting a hiss and a wince in response. “Y’know, Kacchan and I wanna get into Yuuei. I’m helping him train so he’s strong enough for anything come entrance exam time.” He fanned off the cut, waiting for the alcohol to dry before applying some ointment and closing it up with the bandaid. “If you’re interested, I think he could use a sparring partner.”

~

Hitoshi blinked. Did this kid seriously just offer to train me? He cleared his throat, about to protest but all words died on his tongue when Midoriya ducked his head, hiding behind an unruly mop of green curls. When the boy looked back up, he was met with the worst (and by worst, he means hardest to say no to ) puppy-dog face ever; Midoriya’s bright green eyes turned into emeralds, shimmering with tears, his bottom lip just poking out and quivering slightly. 

Ah fuck…

He scratched the back of his neck, trying so hard to avoid eye contact. “…. I mean…. I would really like to get into Yuuei…”

And just like that, it was like a switch flipped. Midoriya was bouncing on the balls of his feet, grinning from ear to ear with a way-too-bright smile. Hitoshi actually had to shield his eyes a little but the green ball of energy seemed to take that as yes please help me up and took his hand, practically launching him back to his feet. 

He barely got his bearings straight before Midoriya was dragging him out of the alley and back into the bright morning light, the angry blonde skulking behind them, though, his “angry guard dog” vibe was ruined by the red wagon wobbling with him.

“ Luckily we’re not too far from the beach! Ooh we’ll have to exchange info so I can give you your schedule and meal plan. Do you have any dietary restrictions? What’s your current workout?” 

Hitoshi tried, he really did, but the questions just kept coming and Bakugo wasn’t being any help; he just kept snickering every time Hitoshi tried to get a word in. The grip around his wrist was pretty tight too so he couldn’t just slink away like he usually would. He just sighed, admitting defeat and blindly following this smol green bean to… a junkyard …

He kept his face neutral as he took in his surroundings. At closer inspection turns out this was actually a beach with a decent looking clearing right by the stairs and connecting to the shore. There was a weird set-up in one corner - almost looking like a workout station with some rusted up dumbbells and a bench press made of scrap metal. 

“Okay, so, welcome to Takoba Municipal Beach Park! Or as I have lovingly renamed it: Ground Zero! Here Kacchan and I tear through these piles to find workable material for me and everything else gets used as target practice for Kacchan! Not only helps build core strength but working in the heat like this builds endurance and stamina and the sand is great for cardio! Anything that doesn’t end up in my parts pile gets recycled at the end of the day too!” Midoriya grinned, fishing something out of his backpack, brandishing it in front of Hitoshi’s face. 

“Here! I always bring some spares ever since Kacchan blew his pair up on accident.” They were thick rubber gloves made for heavy duty work. “We’ve been trying to clear the coast so there’s a better area for cardio training! Anything that looks remotely usable just put it to the side and I’ll dismantle it later!”

Hitoshi blinked, numbly sliding on the gloves. “Geez. You guys barely even know me and you’re willing to let me in on this? You don’t even know what my quirk is.” He muttered under his breath but Midoriya latched on. 

“Oh my gosh that’s right! Shin-Chan, what’s your quirk? I could help you develop a training exercise for that too!” The puppy dog eyes were in full effect again, but Hitoshi wouldn’t give in so easily this time. 

“Hey uh, what’s with the bench press over there? Did you make it yourself?” He tried the good ol’ ‘distract and preoccupy’ method but Midoriya pouted. 

“Yes but that doesn’t matter. C’mon I can’t help if I don’t know!”

He shook his head. Well, it was fun while it lasted . He trained his face back to bored neutrality, shoving a hand in his pocket. “It’s called Brainwashing.” He squeezed his eyes shut,  bracing for the taunts, the punches, or even the running away in fear… but they never came. Cracking one eye open, he was met with a blur of green. 

“That’s so cool! That would be so useful for heroics! How does it work? Ooh when you brainwash people can you control them? How many people can you control? Have you ever considered underground heroics?” Green Bean jumped in place. 

“I..” Hitoshi felt like he was under his own quirk; unable to move or respond. It wasn’t until Bakugo came over and clapped a hand on Midoriya’s shoulder, forcing him to come to a stop. “Uh… yeah I can control anyone as long as they respond to me verbally, but I have to actively intend to use my quirk for it to work. When they’re under my control I can make them do basic motor movements. I try not to use it so I don’t really know what my limits are, sorry.”

Midoriya stopped jumping, a hand instead comi to his chin. He was muttering so fast it was hard to hear what was going through his head. Kinda reminds me of a rabbit.

Suddenly, Bakugo was at Hitoshi’s shoulder, arms crossed. “Mental quirk. Explains why you’re so weak. You’re definitely not working out enough.” He motioned for Hitoshi to follow, taking out his phone and holding it out. “Here.”

“…. What?”

“Tsk.” Bakugo scoffed, shoving the phone into Hitoshi’s hands. “Put in your number dumbass. When you’re done, start stretching.” A sadistic grin spread across Bakugo’s face. “I’m gonna work you so hard you’re gonna hate life.”

Hitoshi couldn’t help but chuckle, entering in his contact info. Is this what having friends felt like?

Chapter Text

“Whooo boy, this is a fancy lookin’ place ‘Toshi! What did you say your friends’ parents did again?” The man ran a hand through his crew-cut purple hair, silver eyes sparkling in excitement and nervousness.

Hitoshi rolled his eyes and grumbled. “The Bakugou's work in fashion, dad. Mrs. Midoriya is a lawyer and Mr. Midoriya is an oil rig engineer over in America.”

His dad whistled, ringing the doorbell. “Maybe we should have gotten some better gifts then.”

Hitoshi bit his lip, adjusting the gift bags in his arms. Good to know I’m not the only one that’s nervous. Izuku’s dad was finally back in Japan and apparently they always do a big dinner at the Bakugou’s house. After training with the chaos twins for the past four months and being dubbed “the third musketeer” by their parents, he and his dad were invited to join. So now, there they were, outside the Bakugou’s really expensive looking house that put their measly two-bed apartment to shame. 

Before he could respond, the door was flung open by Izuku. “Hi Hitochan! Hi Shinsou-san! Come on in! Dinner’s almost ready!”

“Thanks for having us kiddo! You must be Midoriya! You can just call me Junichi, formalities are for chumps amiright?”

Hitoshi rolled his eyes and pushed past his dad after slipping off his shoes. “Pardon the intrusion. Brought a gift for your parents. Katsuki’s too.”

As if on cue, Katsuki came barging into the main room. “Oi, food’s on. Let’s go.”

“Katsuki Bakugou watch your tone around our guests!”

“Oh shut up! They’re used to it, ya hag!”

Hitoshi smirked. “Hey, Kacchan , my dad’s here so maybe chill your b-cups, yeah?”

Katsuki sputtered and Izuku burst out cackling, wiping tears away. “Oh my Kami, Kacchan! B-cups !”

“Shut it nerd! And wipe that smug look off your face, Eyebags, you’re doing extra laps for that.” Katsuki growled, ripping the gift bags out of his arms to bring to the respective parents. 

“Wow kiddo, you didn’t even hold back.” His dad was holding in chuckles, shaking his head fondly. “Good to see you makin’ some real friends, ‘Toshi.”

He scoffed. “Yeah, right. They aren’t my friends, they’re my kidnappers and tormentors.”

Hitoshi dodged the incoming hair-ruffle, thankful for not only his hand-to-hand combat with Katsuki, but also the ingrained reflexes of having to dodge shrapnel and exploding prototypes whenever the blonde and over-eager inventor were off doing their own thing. How Izuku managed to basically create a tiny bomb out of an old electric toothbrush, refrigerator guts, and duct tape was beyond his comprehension. Honestly, Hitoshi was really glad the mad genius wouldn’t be turning to villainy anytime soon… the day that happened would probably mean the end of the world as they knew it.

Dinner was… eventful. Junichi and Hisashi got along like two peas in a pod, bouncing off each other's energetic personalities. Mitsuki insisted Hitoshi call her “Auntie” and he only caved when Inko insisted the same. It was a death sentence to say no to Inko Midoriya.

Katsuki was actually being quieter than normal and Izuku was harassing him so much, Hitoshi felt bad for the blonde. A little.  Sort of. Though, it didn’t help that Auntie Mitsuki was encouraging him while Auntie Inko just turned a blind eye and held in snickers when Hitoshi would join in, not even caring about how many extra laps or push-ups he’d have to do as punishment.

The food was delicious . Masaru Bakugou was a god damn master in the kitchen and Hitoshi couldn’t help but get himself a second plate. Once the conversation died down, Izuku turned to Junichi.

“Um.. Mister Junichi-sama, Kacchan and I were wondering if maybe Hitochan could stay the night? We were wanting to get up extra early to go to the beach and-and I was hoping to show him some prototypes I started for his future support gear but-“

“Don’t even worry about it little Izuku, of course ‘Toshi can stay! If you want to, of course son.”

Hitoshi blinked. “Uh I mean yeah, sure?

And thus started a new tradition; one a month, everyone would get together for “family dinner” and Hitoshi would sleep over (usually bickering with Katsuki and egging on Izuku until Auntie Mitsuki gave them The Look and they all would eventually settle down for the night).

Junichi, of course, also insisted the boys have a “guys night” at their apartment every now and then, typically consisting of junk food, video games, and Hitoshi trying desperately to get his dad to stop embarrassing him. It never worked, of course. Being a motivational speaker for a living (on top of his quirk: Persuasion) really gave Junichi an edge, knowing exactly which buttons he could push without stepping over the line. 

It didn’t help either that Katsuki and Izuku were learning from the man. 

“Oh! So by appealing to someone’s social needs, you can make them believe whatever you want, right Uncle Junichi?” Izuku sat on the floor of their living room, writing in his notebook like a madman.

“Well sure, kiddo. But, the specific words you use alone can also pack a punch. Every word has some sort of connotation to it, so by choosing your words carefully, you can lead your audience towards the end goal you set for them but they think they did all the work themselves. That leads to happier customers and a stronger foundation for you to build off of!”

Katsuki hummed absentmindedly, mostly focused on beating Hitoshi at Wamio Kart. “Sounds like propaganda.”

Junichi laughed,wiping a stray tear from his eye. “Of course it is! Everything is propaganda, Katsuki! When you guys become heroes, the whole world will be watching, so your words will mean just as much as, if not more than, your actions.”

It gave them all something to think about, heading into their futures. Izuku was going to have to learn to market himself and his inventions, Katsuki would have a social status to upkeep, and Hitoshi needed those tactics to ensure he could use his quirk properly and effectively. 

Needless to say, much to Hitoshi’s chagrin, they had a lot more guys' nights.

A year and a half later, the beach was spotless and all three boys had managed to add quite a bit of muscle to their forms. Did it still take all three of them to remove the hulking commercial-grade refrigerator? Yes. But did they break anything in the process? Nope. They only suffered mildly strained muscles so, honestly, they all considered that a success. 

Katsuki had been developing some smaller, more precise attacks as a means of minimizing property damage after watching a particularly rough villain fight that involved Endeavor’s flames shattering nearly every window on the street. By prepping an explosion with one hand and making a circle with his fingers on the other, he could push the shot through the opening once his palm made the connection, allowing for a single beam to force its way through. He also worked on using parkour to clamber up to higher ground, then using his smaller explosions to propel and direct himself through the air as he fell rather than starting from the ground and forcing himself up. Not only was it minimizing damage around him, but it also eased the strain on his arms and joints since he had gained so much muscle mass.

Hitoshi, meanwhile, begrudgingly learned how to use puns and jokes to distract his opponents and hide his activation requirements. Thanks to all the training Izuku put him through, he could now control two people at the same time (though it still took separate activations) and it took more than just a simple nudge or shove to snap them out of his hold. They were still working on keeping that hold during combat, though, as he could only keep one person under and still defend himself. Trying to focus on that many tasks made his brain feel like it was splitting. He also practiced parkour and hand-to-hand, focusing less on brute strength and more on using his slim and lithe frame to out-maneuver his opponents. He heavily favored the make-shift tonfa and yawara, though once Izuku came up with a collapsible bo staff, it quickly became one of his favorites for defense.

Then there was Izuku. Not only did Hitoshi and Katsuki have their own notebooks dedicated purely to their training, costuming, and support items, but he easily had six others for the random support gear and quirk analysis just from those two years alone. After raiding the beach of all it’s usable parts, he had started prototyping the bracers for Katsuki and made the retractable bo staff for Hitoshi, using any electrical parts towards his re-design for Present Mic’s directional speaker. After researching the Support Course entrance exam, applicants were expected to bring a portfolio of whatever they wanted to showcase; whether that be blueprints, costume design, or actual physical prototypes. Izuku, of course, planned on bringing all three. What better way to show his goals of being the best, after all?

That led the Three Musketeers to the gates of Yuuei, after having taken their written exams already. Now came time for the Heroics practical exam. The two taller teens stretched outside the door to the auditorium, the shorter boy pacing back-and-forth down the hall, a hand on his chin.

“Okay, Hitochan, I’ve got this feeling you probably won't be able to use your quirk much… I mean, hero society as a whole has put an emphasis on powerful and flashy quirks thanks to the rise of All Might, and Yuuei is supposed to train and teach the newest generations so naturally they’re going to build their Practical around physical quirks. So just prepare to use whatever resources you can find.”

He just got a nod in response then turned to Kacchan. 

“Kacchan…” He paused, looking straight into those crimson eyes. He fought the shit-eating grin back as best as he could, adjusting his backpack strap on his shoulder. “Don’t be a dick.” He beamed and bolted down the hallway to avoid the consequences of his actions, cackling the whole way. “Bye guys good luck don't die!!”

Chapter Text

“Get back here you shitty nerd!” Katsuki growled, lunging out as Izuku bounced down the hallway. He stopped when he heard the snickers escaping Hitoshi’s mouth, rounding back on the troll doll. “Shut the fuck up Eyebags.” He murmured, shoulder-checking him as he stormed into the auditorium.

Hitoshi stayed on him like a shadow, leering over his shoulder. “Aw c’mon Kacchan, didn’t like ‘Zuku’s expert advice?” His face was split in that stupid Cheshire grin the entire time they checked in, constantly sending little jabs, trying to rile him up.

Thankfully, there is a God.

They were assigned seats by school, so Hitoshi had to sit on the opposite side of the auditorium. Before they parted ways, Katsuki made eye contact and flashed the bird while Toshi stuck his tongue out and pulled down his eyelid. “Don’t fuck up, Eyebags, or I’m sending you back to that alley.”

Toshi scoffed. “You’ve threatened me with that for two years now. Just admit you like keeping me around.”

Katsuki rolled his eyes and shoved his hands back in his pockets. “Only in your dreams, weather boy.” Well fuck… all those memes Toshi and Zuku shared were starting to get to him… Jackasses.

Everyone had a small packet of info at their seat, each containing a description of the exam, a breakdown of the points they could gain, and their assigned test site. The nerd was right… robots… He couldn’t stop the feral grin that spread across his lips. Good thing I’ve been turning metal to scrap two years straight. Once everyone was settled, Present Mic came strolling up onto the stage. Katsuki had to admit, seeing a pro like him in person was pretty exciting, but he couldn’t let himself get starstruck. He wasn’t here for autographs, he was here to prove he was the best.

Realistically, Present Mic didn’t even really need to be there; he was just repeating everything already on the paper, but this is U.A., so Katsuki honestly expected some theatrics. Right when Mic was explaining that friendly-fire was prohibited, some dumbass shot his hand into the air.

“Excuse me! May I ask a question?”

Goddamn he’s loud.

“There are no less than four faux villains on our handout! Such an error, if it is one, is highly unbecoming for a prestigious academy such a Yuuei! We are here in hopes of being molded into model heroes, not taken advantage of!”

Kami, just shut up already.

“And you, with the spiky blonde hair!” The loud-ass whipped around, pointing a stiff finger right at Katsuki, glaring at him from behind his glasses. “You were making very obscene gestures and using foul language to a fellow examinee earlier! If this is some kind of joke to you, then please leave immediately!”

Katsuki scoffed and rolled his eyes. “Oi, Glasses. Maybe shut up and let Present Mic finish talkin’, yeah? Or do you make a habit of interrupting the pros?”

That made Glasses stand ramrod straight, hands flat against his sides, before bowing at a perfect 90 degree angle. “I am very sorry for interrupting, Present Mic! Please continue!”

Katsuki pinched the bridge of his nose, fishing out his phone after it vibrated.

Three Musketeers

Eyebags

Kami what does that dude have up his ass? (;¬_¬)

Nerd

(๑✧◡✧๑) 

who do I ned to fght (∩`ω´)⊃))

Kats

No one, dumbass.

Stop texting like an idiot.

Nerd

NeVeR!**!!!***!!!*!* ┏( .-. ┏ ) ┓

Eyebags

… what even is that

Nerd

╮ (. ❛ ᴗ ❛.) ╭

Shoving his phone back into his pocket, Katsuki caught the tail-end of Mic’s warnings about the Zero pointer before they were quickly ushered to change and then loaded onto busses.

The gates were massive. Hitoshi gulped, looking around and taking in his fellow examiners, trying to keep his mind busy. Grimacing, he noticed that the loud-mouth from the auditorium was in the crowd doing obnoxious looking stretches. Offhandedly, he wished he had his phone to send a pic in the group chat cuz this guys work-out clothes were ridiculous. 

He shuffled his way closer to the imposing gates, idly aware of Present Mic’s voice echoing in the air. Slowly, teasingly, the gates parted, and as soon as Hitoshi was certain that he could slip through, he took advantage of everyone’s hesitation, finally entering the exam.

Katsuki leapt forward, an explosion tearing straight through the chest of the unfortunate one-pointer. It had practically disintegrated at his touch, leaving him feeling almost disappointed. 

So much for ‘big bad bots’. These things are weaker than half the scrap from the junkyard. 

After decimating three more that followed suit and not seeing any more nearby, he leapt onto the nearest fire escape, scaling up and onto the roof. Wasting no time, he was airborne, soaring past buildings to get further back into the test site.

There!

His instincts kicked in, adrenaline fully taking over as he dropped towards a pack of robots. He gripped the head of a three-pointer, decimating it and swinging his legs out, kicking back a two-pointer. Throwing his weight down, he landed hard on it’s chest, two explosions at the arm sockets quickly rendering them useless. 

Behind!

He jumped forward, tucking into a roll to avoid a swipe from a one-pointer before turning and practically punching an explosion through its midsection. He could feel the feral grin spreading across his features and let out a primal yell as he rendered the robots into nothing more than heaps of scrap. 

Making sure to keep up his momentum, he scaled up to the roofs once more, scanning for more targets. He was relentless, swooping in and taking out a handful of targets at a time. 

68 points… couple minutes left

In the distance, Katsuki spotted fresh bots emerging from the streets. 

Perfect. This exam is in the bag. 

“Shit!”

A pained cry broke Katsuki from his thoughts. Whipping his head around, he saw some black-haired kid cradling his arm after trying to karate chop through a three-pointer. The extra grunted, shifting his stance to a more defensive one and bits of his arms sharpened, almost looking like rock. As soon as they appeared, they faded away, leaving him open to another hit. 

Idiot pushed himself and bit off more than he could chew. Whatever, not my problem.

“Don’t be a dick!” Izuku’s voice echoed in his head, “What would All Might do?” Suddenly, memories flooded Katsuki. 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

They hadn’t finished elementary school yet… Izuku and Katsuki sat on the floor of Auntie Inko’s living room, scribbling on coloring sheets while an All Might movie played in the background.

“Kacchan? Why do you like All Might so much?” Zuku had stopped coloring, tilting his head in curiosity. 

“Cuz he’s the best, duh! He’s super strong and always wins! I’m gonna be strong just like him!” Katsuki beamed, puffing out his chest just like the superhero. 

Zuku pursed his lips, looking way too contemplative for a six year old looking back. “Yeah… I guess he’s really strong… but so is Endeavor… and-and he’s scary…” he fidgeted with his crayon. “Kacchan I… I don’t want you to be like Endeavor.”

That threw Katsuki for a loop. Endeavor was a big meany and Katsuki didn’t want to be anything like that! “Eh?!”

Izuku faltered. “I mean- look at the new heroes! Present Mic and Ingenium are really cool, right?”

Katsuki nodded. 

“But… they’re not strong like All Might but they all still have something in common! They all save people! No matter what, they make sure to save people!” Zuku smiled a bit. “That’s why I think they’re the best!”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“That’s what being a hero is all about!” Zuku’s voice echoed in Katsuki’s head and before the blonde knew it, he was leaping away from the foes and down towards the alley. 

The shitty bot was fast but Katsuki was faster, using his explosions to propel himself forward like a bullet. He shoved the loser out of the way just in time to take a laser beam to the back making him hiss in pain. Katsuki grit his teeth, whipping around and letting out his frustration on the stupid hunk of metal, leaving smoking piles of robot parts scattered around him. 

“Woooahh… That. Was. So. Manly! Thanks for the save man!”

Katsuki rolled his eyes, silently holding out a hand to help the extra up. “Whatever. Don’t go overusing your quirk ‘n you wouldn’t have to be saved, dumbass.”

“ONE MINUTE LEFT, LISTENERS!”

Fuck. Shit. Fuck. Okay…

Hitoshi’s chest heaved, fists clenched, gripping tight to his make-shift staff. Mic’s voice echoed in his head as he looked around, desperately trying to find any more targets. He had started losing track of points about three minutes ago, but compared to everyone else shouting out their numbers… he was behind. 

Suddenly, the ground beneath him shook, examinees around him freezing in place. Out in the horizon, a massive figure raised over the roofs, almost blocking out the sun. It was like one of those pre-quirk Godzilla movies come to life… and was now headed their way. All buildings in its path crumbled like old clay. 

Hitoshi’s ears rang from all the destruction but he could still hear Present Mic loud and clear…

THAT’S THE ZERO POINTER?!

Katsuki cursed under his breath, rubbing at his wrists after taking out a few stragglers that were in their way. “We need to move! C’mon Shitty Hair!”

Shitty Hair blinked, looking around as if he was talking to someone else. 

“Yes, you, dumbass! We’re right in the path of that damn thing and we both overworked our quirks!” He shoved the idiot in front of him, forcing him to run. “I’m not letting you waste my time saving your sorry ass for you to turn around a die ten seconds later!”

Thankfully the other boy decided to stop fighting him on the matter, buckling down and running in step with Katsuki to the exit as time ran out. 

“My name’s… Kirishima… Eijiro!” The dumbass called out between pants, a stupid grin spreading across his face, showing off shark-like teeth.

“Shut up! Keep moving!” Katsuki barked, wincing a little at his own brashness; the Zuku in his head yelling at him again. “Bakugo Katsuki.” He muttered, instantly having to shield his eyes from the million-megawatt smile sent his way.

Chapter Text

“Toshi, I say this with nothing but love in my heart. Shut the fuck up.” Izuku scoffed, shoulder-checking the purple teen as they meandered down the coastline. “You fought against robots using nothing but their own parts . You’re a badass, stop doubting yourself.”

“Uh-huh… a ‘badass’ that got my ass handed to me. Multiple times. And who didn’t even get twenty-five points.” Hitoshi scoffed, shoving his hands deep in his pockets. “At least they let me apply for Gen Ed too…”

Katsuki rolled his eyes, sidling up to Hitoshi’s other side. “Zuku’s right, Eyebags. Quit bein’ a baby ‘bout it.”

Hitoshi groaned and kicked at a shell. “Okay, fine, whatever, can we drop it now? What about you ‘Zu? How do you think you did?”

Izuku beamed, his smile stretching into a Cheshire-like grin; he could feel it in his cheeks. “Oh, I definitely made an impression.”

The whole set-up was fairly simple; all Support applicants were lined up outside an auditorium and were called in one by one to present in front of a panel. You only had three to five minutes each, so every second counted… and Izuku made sure not to waste a single one. 

“Please feel free to skim through my portfolio, I have provided everything from planning notes and blueprints to costume designs and swatches, however, I would love to showcase something I’m really proud of.”

As he pulled his pride and joy out of his backpack, he heard vague confusion from the panel (the only person he knew for sure was there was Powerloader and only because he’s the one that called in each applicant). What he brandished looked like nothing more than a simple portable speaker. 

“If you turn to page seven, you can see the schematics for this little guy. I was inspired by Present Mic and his directional speaker. I always thought it was really big and clunky, though, definitely not something any hero should want getting in their way.”

He pushed a button on top and the back folded out into collar-shape. 

“I’d like to introduce my version of a directional speaker!”

He attached it around his neck, smiling as it calibrated; the speaker itself swung around his neck before whirring back to place in front. His voice now crackled through the mediocre-at-best system. 

“With three-hundred and sixty degree movement, the speaker can be positioned to face any target without the wearer even needing to move. Right now it’s remote-controlled but ideally it would link to a neurological headpiece for hands-free motion. There’s also braces all the way around to help protect Present Mic from the recoil of using his quirk in different directions.”

He hit a button on his remote and the back clasp came undone, the device falling into his hands. 

“Magnetic interlocking clasp for a secure hold and a quick-release button for emergencies!”

He flipped back around, pushing the top button again to make it collapse. 

“Plus, it still functions as just an everyday speaker so you can always have it on hand! Does anyone have any questions?”

 Crackling nitroglycerin brought Izuku back to the present just in time to dodge a half-hearted swing. “Well then what the fuck took you so long, jackass! We were waiting forever!” Kacchan snarled, though Izuku ignored it. 

“Kacchan, do you really think they’d just look at our portfolios and go ‘yeah great see you in class!’?” Izuku rolled his eyes. “They made you guys prove you could use your quirks in combat. Well, we had to prove our skills too!”

After everyone presented, they were ushered into a large lab and assigned a table. At each station, they were provided with basic tools, a tablet, and a sewing machine.

Powerloader stood at the front with Midnight and Snipe, calling for everyone’s attention.

“Alright, we’ve seen everyone’s portfolios, but now we wanna see you in action. On the tablet provided is a basic profile of a hero that needs your help. You will have three hours and the resources behind me to do whatever you want, but we want to see something physical. Whether that’s building gear or designing a costume, the floor is yours.”

Toshi pinched the bridge of his nose. “Oh god they just let you loose in there?”

“Yep!” Izuku chirped. “They gave us a quirk that was a lot like Pixie-Bobs where the user could manipulate the earth via touch, however, the longer they use their quirk, the more their skin dries out and if they push themselves too far their skin effectively starts to crumble away. So y’know… I obviously had to make them a moisturizing costume.”

Izuku was running around that lab like a man on a mission. As soon as he read the drawbacks of this particular quirk, he had one goal in mind: moisture. Yeah, sure, he had some ideas about gauntlets that could store and disperse materials for easy access and protection but the judges had already seen his speaker. Now, he needed to bust out the knowledge his Aunt and Uncle passed down.

A cacophony of drills and wielding filled the air, putting Izuku at peace as he sketched away. He kept to a simple armored bodysuit of generic earth-tones since there weren’t any preferences provided . On his way to the fabric wall, he took a cursory glance at a cackling examinee. Her face was somehow already covered in oil and grime, the black starting to leak into her bubblegum pink curls as she wiped her face haphazardly. 

One look over her shoulder, and Izuku cringed. He cleared his throat. “Hey, uh… if you wire it like that… it’s gonna overwhelm the motor and explode.”

Toshi chuckled, though to an outsider it would have looked like he just pushed more air than necessary out through his nose. “You didn’t seriously help your competition? I thought dad taught you better, ‘Zu.”

Izuku huffed and crossed his arms. “Well excuse me for not wanting to get caught in a literal bomb !” He threw his hands in the air exasperatedly. “She didn’t even listen to me either! Told me to stay in my lane and stick to costumes! And guess what?! IT EXPLODED !!!”

Kacchan keeled over with laughter. “So that’s why you looked like a damn coal miner walkin’ outta there! I’ve never seen you so pissed!”

“Yes! And she laughed ! Kami I hope she won’t be in my class, I don’t know if I could take it!” He groaned, already getting a headache just thinking about her maniacal laughter.

“Bold of you to assume she’s even gonna get in, Zu.” Toshi drawled. “I doubt Yuuei would want someone like that in their programs.”

Izuku just shook his head. “No, her gear was really impressive. She made this glove that could dig through any material… It was a lot cooler looking than my stupid costume.”

Before he could get too into his feels, Kacchan smacked him upside the head… lovingly, of course. “Quit being stupid, dumbass! We all know you didn’t just make a costume. Prolly couldn’t stop yourself from going overboard, like usual.”

… No… He didn’t just make a costume… Izuku made a multi-layered moisturizing costume that, once the users sweat was absorbed, would combine with the embedded layer of glycerin and shea butter beads to then coat the users skin; giving the wearer an instant boost of moisture wherever needed. Of course, he also included a cross-body belt with various attached pouches so the Hero would always have some kind of material to work with…

And if Izuku crossed a line by including some skin-care tips and a recommended routine… well… no one told him otherwise!

As the sun set over the horizon, the trio prepped for their journey home (well… to Izuku’s home). They picked up random conversations. Katsuki boasted about his accomplishments, Hitoshi would meme about them, and Izuku… well… Izuku was confident in their future.

There was no doubt in his mind that all three of them would be roaming the halls together of the most prestigious high school in all of Japan. They’d be there together, one way or another.

Chapter Text

Izuku Midoriya would consider himself to be a pretty patient teen. I mean, he had to put up with Katsuki’s antics his whole life, his dad only comes home every six months or so, and he spent two whole years cleaning up a beach just to collect parts!

He is, however, also a man of engineering… His life is full of zeros and ones. He was used to his questions having a near immediate answer! ‘Does this work?’ Well, he could build or code something and figure it out that day!

Needless to say… he really hated waiting for his letter.

But what was even worse was when he finally got it about a week later but couldn’t even open it. Hitoshi and Katsuki swiped it and were holding it hostage until theirs came in! Not even the threat of glitter-bombing their costumes deterred them, so Izuku has instead resorted to using their full names as retaliation. 

Hitoshi doesn’t seem to care that much (though the insomniac has been working on his passive-bored face for a while now), but Katsuki’s eyebrow would twitch more and more, his face looking constipated every time. 

Oh yeah… he’s gonna break soon… he can feel it . 

Thankfully, right as Izuku was re-designing Katsuki’s gauntlets into glorified confetti cannons, he got the call. 

“Oi! Get yer ass over here, nerd! Eyebags and I got our letters!”

“ Finally! Gimme a few, mom and I will be right there!” He hung up without a second thought, practically shoving his poor mother through the front door. “C’mon mom! They got their letters!”

Katsuki wasn’t nervous, and anyone who says otherwise is a punk-ass bitch. He sweats a lot because of his quirk, damnit, not from stupid shit like anxiety*.

“Katsuki, stop pacing. You’re gonna wear a hole in my nice rug.” His mom’s voice took him by surprise. Normally, her volume stayed at a constant eight unless Izuku or Hitoshi were visiting, but they weren’t here yet so there was no reason for her to hold back. 

Unless she’s nervous …

He scoffed, shoving his hands in his pockets. “It’s a shitty rug anyway. I’m doin ya a favor, hag.” He smirked at her eye-twitch, knowing just the right buttons to press to get her out of her own head. Her gaze hardened and he shifted, poised and ready to run-

BING BONG

Saved by the bell…

Quirking his eyebrows, he dropped his stance, feigning nonchalance as he answered the door. “Took you idiots long enough.”

All three boys sat on the living room floor, each with their respective envelope in hand. Their family members crowded onto the sofa, with Inko holding open a laptop showing the very tired - but - present Hisashi on the video call.

Izuku swallowed hard around the lump forming in his throat. Now that he had Yuuei’s answer in his hand, he was second-guessing his entire portfolio. What if they didn’t like the costume? What if Present Mic saw his blueprints and hated it . What if he laughed?!

No. No, Izuku spent too long scrapping for parts in a tetanus-filled junkyard, sweating his ass off in the sweltering afternoon sun to second-guess himself now. He took apart broken computers, microwaves, speakers, and even freaking coffee machines and assembled them back together into a god damn support item ! If Yuuei didn’t want him, it was their loss. Plus, there would be plenty of other routes he could go to get his support license. It wouldn’t be the end of the world.

Noticing Hitoshi and Katsuki’s hesitation, he chuckled and ripped open his envelope. Not only has he been waiting to do that for a whole week , but it was like… three in the morning in America and his dad really needed to get back to sleep.

A small black disc rattled around on the floor, eventually rocking to a stop. Suddenly a screen illuminated in mid-air, projecting none other than Power Loader.

“Midoriya Izuku. Not only did you pass the written exam in the top 2% of applicants for every course, but you also submitted one of the most well-rounded portfolio’s I’ve personally seen in years . The costume you knocked out for the practical was well thought out; with obvious room for aesthetic changes according to the client’s personal taste while maintaining both practicality and functionality in dealing with their quirk drawback. It’s honestly really refreshing to see a kid with such foresight.”

Izuku could make out a proud smile underneath the bright yellow mask. 

“Your resourcefulness also gave you pretty high marks. I mean, taking literal trash and turning it into a functioning support item? Yuuei would be crazy not to want you. So I guess it goes without saying but…”

Power Loader spread his arms open in a welcoming stance. 

“Midoriya Izuku, welcome to your support academia!”

The hologram fizzled out and tears flowed steadily down Inko’s face, a few brimming up in Hisashi’s eyes as well.

“I knew you could do it, Izuku. Your mother and I are so proud of you.” His normally steady voice shook just so as the man tried to hold back his emotions. 

Izuku beamed, a few stray happy tears making their way down his face. There was a large packet of paperwork to fill out but that could all be saved for later, right now it was someone else’s turn. “Kacchan! You’re next!”

The blonde sputtered. “Wha-I mean…. Fine. Whatever.” He ripped open the large envelope, a similar black disc plopping to the floor. This time, when the hologram appeared, so too did…

“ALL MIGHT?!”

Everyone in the room was in such shock, they almost missed what he was saying. 

“-Katsuki! With your quirk skills, my boy, you scored an impressive 73 villain points! That’s more than enough to land you right here in the hero course! Way to go! But of course, that’s not all! That Zero Pointer was for more than just looks, Young Bakugou!”

The screen behind him expanded, playing some highlights of Katsuki. Though the one that stood out was when he rocketed himself forward to push a black-haired boy out of the way just in the nick of time. Then, he even kept pace with said boy as they ran away from the Zero Pointer Everyone’s jaw hit the floor, well… everyone except for Katsuki’s, of course. Mitsuki, however, looked about one breath away from beating her son, her temple pulsing in agitation at her son’s antics.

“That’s right! Yuuei has a panel of judges that watch closely for moments like these so that we can award RESCUE POINTS! With all your valiant efforts in the exam, and a side project a little bird told us about, our panel has awarded you with 41 rescue points! Totaling out to an impressive, and I believe record-breaking, 114 points! With that, Young Bakugou, it is my pleasure to welcome you, to your hero academia!”

His hearty laugh seemed to fill the room even after the hologram disappeared, bouncing off the walls in a never ending echo. Izuku, however, was the first to break from the spell, launching himself at Katsuki. 

“Look at you, rescuing people, Kacchan! I’m so proud!” He sat up on his knees, one hand clutching his chest, the other wiping a single tear from his eye. “They grow up so fast. Seems like just yesterday you were a hooligan that called everybody an ‘extra’.”

Hitoshi scoffed, a devious grin adorning his face. “That’s cuz that was yesterday, Zuku.”

Izuku cocked his head to the side like a confused puppy. “Oh yeah! Good times… good times…” 

Katsuki growled. “See if I use your design for my hero costume, Zu.”

Izuku gasped and shoved the blonde over. “Take that back! After everything I’ve done for you!” He flopped onto Katsuki dramatically. “Kacchan doesn’t want my help anymore! I have no purpose! Oh happy dagger, this is thy sheath! There rust, and let me die!” He mimicked stabbing himself, body going limp. 

Katsuki couldn’t hold back the roll of his eyes. “You’re quoting Shakespeare on me now? Get offa me, ya nerd. Eyebags still has to open his acceptance letter.” He sat up, pushing the limp-limbed greenette off.

Masaru leaned forward and ruffled Katsuki’s hair, a proud smile plastered on the quiet man’s face. Mitsuki just smirked, though anyone that knew her well enough could see through her facade. 

Hitoshi solemnly shook his head. “For never was a story of woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo.” 

That earned a pillow in the face from the explosive one and a cackle from the gremlin, all the adults stifling their own chuckles at the scene before them. Junichi cleared his throat, meeting his son’s eyes. 

“Go on son. Open it up.”

There was nothing but pride and anticipation behind those silver eyes, the softest smile gracing his lips. Hitoshi looked around to see the same look on the other adults, though Hisashi’s didn’t translate very well thanks to the computer screen but… he could feel it. 

Gaining a new surge of confidence, Hitoshi followed the footsteps of his friends. Gripping either end of his envelope tight, he pulled with all his might until the sound of ripping paper filled the air around him.

Chapter Text

For the third time that night, a black disc clattered to the floor. Everyone held their breath as the last hologram appeared before them. This time, they were less taken aback at All Might’s sudden appearance.

“I AM HERE! To go over the results for a Young Shinsou Hitoshi! My boy, you fought valiantly, using all your available resources to take down enough bots to get you 24 villain points! Very well done, though that wouldn’t be enough to get you into the hero course.”

Hitoshi gripped his hands into tight fists, already hating the look of pity that washed over All Might’s face. But just as quickly as it appeared, it was washed away by his comically large grin.

“HOWEVER! What kind of hero school would we be if we only focused on combat damage?”

The surveillance footage expanded out, just like with Katsuki’s, though there were more clips cycling through; Hitoshi batting away a one-pointer with a pipe to help a blonde examinee that was trapped in the corner, grabbing another by the collar before they could walk right into an ambush, but once again, the big highlight was when the Zero Pointer emerged. Hitoshi was actively running towards the kaiju-bot, well, more specifically, to a girl trapped in some rubble directly in its path. He called out to the blue-haired boy with engines in his legs, getting him to speed ahead and try to wedge the rubble off. Once Hitoshi caught up, they used his trusty pipe for leverage, getting the larger chucks off the poor brunette’s leg. He picked her up in a bridal-carry and passed her off to engine-boy, practically pushing the boy to run away.

The clip cut out after a larger examinee with multiple arms swooped in and grabbed Hitoshi, pulling him out of harm's way, All Might’s smiling form filling up the hologram once again. “That was very brave, my boy, and is exactly what a hero would do in that kind of situation. A good hero puts others before their own safety, so for reasons like this, we award RESCUE POINTS! Our panel has awarded you with 47 rescue points for your actions, but that’s not all!”

A new clip appeared, this time showing a familiar greenette. Everyone looked over at Izuku, but he was just as confused as the others.

“So, Midoriya. How exactly did you make this device? What kind of materials did you use?” Power Loader’s voice inquired from the background.

Izuku’s green eyes brightened as he showed off his million-watt smile. “Oh! Me and my best friends cleaned up Dagobah Beach, you know, the one that was a glorified junk yard? Over the past two years me, Bakugou Katsuki, and Shinsou Hitoshi would go to the beach every day and break down what we could. They got to train for the hero exam, and I got first pick at any salvageable parts! I wouldn’t have been able to make this without them!”

All Might filled the hologram again, the thumbnail behind him still showing Izuku’s beaming face. “Normally we don’t factor in outside events for rescue points, but because this feat you boys did was so great and directly affected Young Midoriya’s application, our panel decided to grant both you and Young Bakugou an additional five rescue points each for aiding your friend! So, Young Shinsou, that brings your grand total to 76 points!”

A chart popped up at the bottom this time:

“Welsome, Young Shinsou, to your hero academia!”

Hitoshi was immediately wrapped up in two pairs of arms: one set belonging to his dad, the other attached to Izuku. Together they squished him tight, yammering on and on about how happy they were and everything he’d be able to accomplish. Izuku, predictably, had tears welling up in his eyes, and Inko was already letting hers flow once again.

“Oi. You’re crushing him.” Katsuki’s low drawl broke through the incoherent muttering, making the smotherers lose their grip and allowing Hitoshi to escape… right into Katsuki’s disapproving glare.

“...What?”

“You dumbass! You ran towards the Zero Pointer, saved a chick, and got fuckin’ four-eyes to work with you, and you didn’t think you’d get in? And you didn’t wanna tell us any of this shit?!” He swatted at the gravity-defying hair, venting out his frustrations without… actually harming his friend.

Hitoshi pushed the invading arms away, rolling his eyes. “I didn’t think it would matter, plus I knew you would react this way and was trying to avoid the incoming abuse.”

Junichi grinned. “Well I knew you could do it, son. Go show the world whatcha got.”

Inko cleared her throat, “If I can interrupt, Hisashi would like to say a few words.” and turned the volume up on the laptop. 

Hisashi smiled fondly, making sure to make eye-contact with each of the three boys. “I’m so proud of all of you boys. Just don’t get into too much trouble, alright? Kats and Zuzu cause enough ruckus when it’s just them, I can’t imagine the shenanigans now that you’ll be going to the same school. Don’t harass your teachers too much and enjoy your time there. High school doesn’t last very long. Love you boys, I need to turn in for the night.”

They kind of muttered their thanks, embarrassed from the affection, except for Izuku who was waving proudly. “Goodnight dad! Love you too!”

After everyone said their good-byes and the chat ended, Izuku immediately jumped into analysis mode. “Did anyone else notice All Might kept saying ‘we’? Like, he was talking like he’s part of it. And it seems kinda sus for the number one hero to take time out of his day to record acceptance speeches, right?”

Junichi grinned, slinging an arm over the boys’ shoulder. “I was thinking the same thing, Izuku. What does your analysis tell you?”

Izuku hummed, resting his index finger on his chin, earning some groans from the other Two Musketeers. “Well… sightings of the number one hero have gone down steadily in the past few years, and All Might is getting up there in age for a pro. There’s also the fact that Power Loader, the only hero with both a hero and support license, recorded my acceptance letter… This alludes to him possibly being one of my main teachers - since all staff at Yuuei are pro heroes. Since All Might has recorded these acceptance letters for the hero course, one can only assume that - unless he records these for every hero student every year - he might just be teaching at Yuuei now. Who better to teach the future generation of heroes than the Number One himself? But then, does that mean he’s looking to retire? If that’s the case, that’ll put Endeavor in the number one spot and I don’t know if we as a society can handle that …”

Everyone - except Junichi - just stared at the boy in shock. All Might? Teaching at Yuuei? Masaru and Inko looked like they might faint. Mitsuki seemed to recover quicker, a smug grin finding its way back. Katsuki was a perfect mix of his parents, his mouth agape but with the slightest upcurve, like he couldn’t figure out if he should be more shocked or proud. Hitoshi recovered quickly, his bored expression taking over at the slump of his shoulders.

“Great… I can see it now… Spotlight Heroics: 101… Yippee …”

Izuku huffed. “Stop being so dramatic, Toshi, I’m sure it won’t be that bad.” He dug through his backpack, pulling out his notebooks. “Okay, so I brought copies of your costume designs with all the specs they should need. Although… I kind of want to send in swatches so they don’t fuck up the colors.” 

Mitsuki cackled. “That’s my boy! C’mon, Zu, I’ve got some spare shit in the sewing room.”

Okay… this uniform sucks .

Katsuki, Hitoshi, and Izuku all looked at themselves in their mirrors as they got ready for the first day. 

Katsuki decided to forgo the tie and left a few buttons undone, already dreading every second he’d be forced to wear this uniform. 

Hitoshi, on the other hand, was well and properly done-up. He normally would have altered his measurements so his jacket would be a little looser but Izuku refused to let that happen; taking their measurements and submitting everything for the two hero-hopefuls.

And Izuku? Well… Izuku was figuring out the hard way that no one actually taught him how to tie a tie. “What the hell? This is nothing but a scrap of fabric posing as a choking medium, why can’t I figure it out ?” He bit the bullet, though, and dragged himself out to the living room. 

“I need help with my tie…”

After plenty of mom-tears and pictures, he was finally ready to meet up with his friends before they caught the train. “Sorry I’m late! The tie took longer to figure out than expect- Kacchan, what are you wearing ?”

The blonde in question just scoffed and shoved his hands in his pockets. “My uniform, dumbass. Got a problem with it?”

Hitoshi rolled his eyes with a smirk. “Don’t even bother, Zu. He’s not budging on this ‘fuck the athority’ look.”

Oh but Izuku wasn’t going to fight him on it, not one bit. As he took in the disheveled look of his childhood friend, a sinister grin took form. Suddenly, he ripped the perfect tie from around his neck, waving it around in the air like a trophy of war. “Screw this choking hazard! Necktie? More like tie you to the necks of the patriarchy!” And, with a flourish, he shoved the offending fabric into his backpack, trotting away like nothing happened. “So, you guys excited to meet your classmates?”

Katsuki was quicker to recover. “Pfft, who cares about those extras? We all know-”

“That you’ll be the greatest in the class that no one can compare to.” Hitoshi droned, shaking his head. “Y’know, that kind of attitude is gonna make you a lot of enemies, Kats. Like that glasses guy from the exam.” He deflated as they got onto the train. “Kami, I hope he’s not in our class. He seems like such a buzzkill.”

Izuku chuckled, swinging with his tsurikawa*. “Well, if he is, I can glitter bomb his locker.”

“What’s with you and glitter?” Hitoshi asked.

Izuku merely shrugged. “It sticks around forever and is really hard to clean up. Like herpes. Craft Herpes .” He grinned innocently. “As long as that pink-haired maniac isn’t in my class, I think I’ll be happy!”

.

..

…

….

Sometimes… sometimes … Izuku really just needed to keep his mouth shut.

Chapter Text

Fate is a saucy temptress… and a bit of a bitch. Izuku must have summoned Murphy him-damn-self because everything that could go wrong… is going wrong.

Here he was, at his dream school and less than two seconds after he walked through the classroom door… he already wanted to go home.

There she was. The crazy bubblegum girl. Tinkering away with something at the podium… The few others in attendance smartly stayed on the opposite side of the room.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me…” He mumbled, setting down his bag before approaching. “Could you not blow up the classroom on our first day here? I like my lungs smoke-free, thank you very much.”

She snapped up in attention, hitting her head on the podium but seemingly it didn’t faze her. Her head whipped around and suddenly pale yellow eyes with crosshairs for pupils were in his face. Izuku cocked his head to the side, watching as her pupils expanded and contracted. 

Must be a sight-enhancement quirk. Would be good for seeing the small details…

Her eyes narrowed in on his face, scrunching her own like she was thinking really hard. “Do I know you?”

Izuku bit back a groan. “Your invention blew up in my face on exam day? After I let you know you were wiring it wrong?”

Her face lit up. “Oh! Costume-kun! I’m surprised you made it in without actually inventing anything!” Her voice was entirely too chipper for that jab. “And, yknow, since you tried to sabotage my baby.” Her eyes narrowed, the crosshairs shrinking fast. 

I’m sorry, what?! Izuku couldn’t have heard that right, right? “Me?! Trying to sabotage you ?! I was trying to help ! But you ignored me and it still blew up ! And, for your information, Support is more than just gadgets! And what do you mean by baby?! ” 

Right as she opened her mouth, the door swung open to reveal Power Loader and his iconic helmet. “Alright guys! I like your passion, but can we keep it inside the classroom? I could hear you down the hall and these rooms are practically soundproof!”

Izuku sheepishly nodded, trying to hide his embarrassment by clamoring back to his seat. Pinky, however, seemed fulfilled with a new purpose. She sprung up to her feet, having to bend over to get eye-to-eye with Power Loader.

“Power Loader Sensei! Hatsume Mei, future CEO of Hatsume Corp- future number one support company in Japan! When do we get to go to the lab? I have lots of babies to build!”

Their sensei stumbled back a little, trying to put some distance between them. “Okay, okay Hatsume, it’s only the first day so I need you to pump the brakes a little. Go ahead and find your seat and we can get homeroom started.”

He took a breath and adjusted his helmet before getting situated at the podium. “Alright class, for those of you who might not know, I am pro-hero Power Loader but you can just call me Maijima-sensei. I’ll be your homeroom and lab teacher for your years here at Yuuei. Before we leave for orientation, how about we go around the room and introduce ourselves?

Looking around the class, there weren’t that many students. In fact, only half the available desks were actually occupied. 

Less students to focus on, I guess. 

Pink-Hatsume- shot out of her seat, putting on a big bravado. “Hatsume Mei at your service! My quirk is called Zoom and lets me see up to five kilometers away!”

A shorter, tanner boy in the back with a silvery-blue bowl cut startled before realizing it was his turn. “Oh uh my name is Chikeisei Amaterasu.” He moved his hair to reveal his ears that looked almost like old-timey satellite dishes. “My quirk is Sputnik. I can hear really far away.”

In front of him sat a rather unassuming kid with small black eyes and a yellow crew-cut, the only thing standing out were the black lines around his neck and each joint of his hands. “Hello. My name is Sam Alderson- shoot, I mean Alderson Sam. I am a transfer student from the United States, so please go it easy. My quirk is called Crash Test, I have thick skin that can really take a hit.” He bowed deeply before returning to his seat.

I should let him know I’m fluent in English. Might be nice to have someone to talk to in your native tongue.

Then, possibly the shortest- and most eye-catching- girl Izuku has ever seen (his age anyway) popped up out of her chair. She had deep pink skin and black sclera, a big and full afro of pale yellow with two fuzzy pink antennae poking out, and the biggest eye-catcher of all; pink and yellow patterned wings fluttering behind her. “Hi! My name’s Saturnii Kaede, my pronouns are She/They, and my quirk is called Moth! Though, specifically, I share a lot of characteristics with a Rosy Maple Moth.”

Next was an equally short girl, though she was almost the exact opposite aesthetic-wise. She had pale skin and long black hair that fell around her face, making her icy blue eyes really pop. Her hair almost looked like it was dreaded, but that’s just how thick a single strand was. “My name is Gomuro Samara. My quirk is Rubber… it’s my hair.” And with that she was back in her seat.

“Welp guess it’s my turn then!” The boy stood and Izuku cursed his genes. This kid had to be at least six feet tall, though with relatively normal features; short brown hair, blue eyes, dazzling smile- he almost looked like he could be a movie star! Starting at his elbows, though, his skin slowly got more and more metallic and robotic looking. “Sup guys? The names Marudo Atsushi and multi-tooling is my game!” He gave a thumbs-up and out flipped a tiny hammer from inside his thumb . Izuku had so many questions!

Beside him was another rather unassuming girl with brown eyes and  long brown hair in two low-pigtails with a bunch of bands tied down the length. Izuku vaguely remembers Aunty Mitsuki calling that kind of hairstyle “bubble pigtails” once. There was a smattering of freckles across the bridge of her nose too. “Uhm.. Hi, my name is Takata Fukuhada. I call my quirk Pufferfish cuz my skin puffs up when I make a forceful impact…”

Behind Izuku stood his last classmate. They had bright lilac eyes and short curly hair to match. “Aw c’mon guys, I know it’s early but get some pep in your step! You can call me Kinzoku Mana and I’d really appreciate it if you use They/Them!” They flashed their fingernails, each one of them painted lilac to match their hair. “I like to call my quirk Kitty Claws. My nails are made of a titanium-like metal and they’re always hella sharp so I gotta keep ‘em covered with special claw caps. And yes, before you ask, even my toenails are sharp.” They winked, plopping back into their seat and reclining back, kicking their feet up onto their desk.

Time to gauge how my entire school-year is gonna go…

Finally it was Izuku’s turn. He stood from his seat and faced all of his classmates, a fire burning behind his eyes.

“Hello, my name is Midoriya Izuku, and I’m quirkless.”

Chapter Text

What. The. Fuck?

Katsuki couldn’t believe the crazy shit that’s already happened, and the day’s only just started. First, Glasses reamed his ass about “disrespecting Yuuei property” just because he was getting comfy in his seat. Then, Shitty Hair tried to play peace-keeper while Hitoshi just sat in the corner and laughed. Fucker. 

Their teacher fuckin waddled in the classroom looking like an oversized yellow caterpillar, threw gym clothes at them, and expected them to be out on the training field in fifteen minutes…

In the changing rooms, Grape Fucker found some stupid peephole and tried perving on the girls. One well placed explosion stopped that fucker dead in his tracks. Katsuki coulda sworn the little shit pissed his pants right there, except he didn’t even bother taking a second glance before grabbing Hitoshi and dragging him out to the field.

The Hobo decided to use Katsuki as an example for their Quirk Assessment Test, rightfully so, but when the extras got a little too excited about it all, their sadist sensei decided that whoever placed last would immediately be expelled .

Cut to now, a few events later, and Toshi still hadn’t used his quirk; hadn’t even spoken a single word since they walked into the classroom! Not even when Pink Cheeks came up to him all excited that they were in the same class! Speaking of, she somehow managed to get infinity thanks to her gravity quirk.

“Psst… Toshi. The fuck you slackin’ for?” He hissed, folding his arms over his chest.

Toshi just looked at him incredulously. “Do you not realize who our teacher is?!” He whisper-yelled. “That’s fucking Eraserhead !”

Oh. Right. Toshi’s favorite hero like… ever. 

“So, what? You’re bein’ a little piss-baby cuz yer fanboying?” 

Some short extra with hair entirely too similar to Pink Cheeks’ spawned a giant mushroom, bouncing on it a few times before lobbing the ball. 

Hitoshi shoved his shoulder. “I’m not fanboying, shut up!”

“Then prove you deserve to be here. You’re up, jackass.” He shoved the purple-haired insomniac towards the circle, tapping his foot in agitation. 

***

Hitoshi swallowed hard, staring at the ball like it had personally offended him. “Anything goes, right?”

“Just don’t leave the circle.” Eraser- no… Aizawa-sensei huffed out, almost sounding bored.

“...right.” He smirked a little, catching the thread tying him to Katsuki right before it fizzled out. “Hey Boom Boom Boy!” He whipped around, activating his quirk and watching the tension leave the blonde’s body. “Give this a throw for me.”

Hitoshi would never get used to how robotic Katsuki walked under his influence; he almost gave that Iida kid a run for his money. He kept his focus on his target, though, ignoring the whispers from his classmates and tightening his hold whenever he felt resistance. Once Katsuki was in the circle, he was handed the ball.

“Okay… put as much power as you can into it without hurting yourself. Don’t wanna hear it from Auntie. Or worse: Izuku.” He could feel the resistance fade, Katsuki fully letting the command take over. This time, when Katsuki threw the ball, there was no shout of “Die!”, just a loud ka-BOOM as his sweat exploded the device into the horizon.

*

**

***

710.6 m

***

Hitoshi dropped his control, immediately receiving a smack across the back of the head.

“Jackass. Played right into your plan, didn’t I?” Katsuki smirked, not a single ounce of irritation on his face. In fact, if Hitoshi were a brave man, he’d say the blonde looked… proud.

Instead he shrugged, a grin making its way to his face. “I had a few backup plans just in case. Looks like ‘Zu was right, though. Totally smashed through that mental block.” He flicked the blonde’s forehead, snickering to himself.

Someone cleared their throat behind them, making Hitoshi whip around. “If you boys are done socializing, we have more tests to run.”

“Yo teach! He didn’t even throw the ball himself!”

“Yeah, like, how’s that allowed?”

“I do have to agree. I believe it is unfair that Shinsou-san was allowed to simply have his friend throw for him.”

“Mm.”

Katsuki growled beside him, but before either could do anything, Eraserhead’s signature capture weapon was floating around their teacher’s head, his hair flowing with it. “Enough. Shinsou used his quirk to his advantage. The score stays. Yanagi. You’re next.”

While the ghostly-pale girl took her turn, Hitoshi decided it was time to network. “Hey uh.. Ururaka-San, right?”

The brunette nodded, giving him a big smile almost as bright as their resident sunshine boy. “That’s me! But you can drop the honorific. What’s up, Shinsou-kun?”

He rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. “You can drop mine too. Uh well… the next event is the long jump… and I just wanted to see if you would be alright with helping me out a little? You can totally say no, I understand.”

He received a hearty slap on the shoulder, though it was just with the palm of her hand. “Are you kidding? You saved my life back at that exam, I totally owe you one!”

Hitoshi blinked. Then he blinked again. Sure, getting Katsuki’s help was no problem; they kind of had this overarching ‘you can use your quirk on me whenever and I won’t get mad’ pact going, but to ask someone you’ve barely interacted with? That’s scary. “A-are you sure? I’ll probably have to use my quirk on you for it to count.”

“Of course! I would suck if you got expelled on the first day! What is your quirk anyway?”

He could practically feel the rest of the class lean in, everyone listening intensely. Well… except for Iida since he already experienced said quirk. “It’s uh.. Brainwashing.”

Ururaka grinned wide. “That’s so cool! It would be really useful for, like, hostage situations n’ stuff!”

Hitoshi could see Katsuki relax from his peripheral view, all the tension loosening from his own body as well. “Thanks. I really appreciate that.”

***

…Ow…

Hitoshi landed with a thud onto the packed dirt as Ururaka released her quirk exactly five seconds after activation, just like he ordered. His hold dropped and she rushed over, fretting at his wounds.

“Oh my gosh Shinsou, are you okay?!”

“Yeah, I’m good. Should have done the math. Trajectories… n’ shit… Cleared the box at least…” He groaned, dusting himself off as the next person queued up. “Kami, Kats. How do you fling yourself around like that all the damn time?”

Katsuki just shrugged. “Zuku forced physics on me, now it’s second-nature. And I’m not a weak little bitch.”

Hitoshi couldn’t stop the roll of his eyes, choosing to ignore the jab. “Of course he did, damn gremlin.”

***

Thankfully the rest of the events were on a more equal playing field… well except when the giant with multiple arms nearly crushed the grip-tester, the creep with purple balls for hair and mushroom girl ricocheted off their respective items in a blur during the side-step, and, of course, Glasses knocked the distance run out of the park. 

Otherwise, Hitoshi thinks he did pretty well for himself. He beat Katsuki in the side-step, kept up with most of the class for the distance run, and even placed pretty high in the seated toe-touch - once again beating Katsuki. He had always been quicker and more flexible than the blonde, preferring to slink in the shadows rather than take him head-on in their spars.

“Alright. Time for the results.” Aizawa-sensei drawled, fishing a black disc out of his pocket.

Everyone held their breath, shaking in anticipation as the hologram popped up. 

Hitoshi couldn’t help but look right at 20th, cringing as he heard his inner-Izuku scolding him for thinking so little of himself. 

Hagakure Toru…. Minoru Mineta… Kaminari Denki… woah. 17th! I’m safe, thank Kami. Now where’s Kats? 

He grimaced a little, instinctively taking a step away from the blonde. 

He’s not gonna like third.

He heard more than saw Hagakure sob, obviously distraught at being expelled on literally the first day. A lot of the girls crowded around her, offering their condolences.

“Oh yeah… by the way.” Aizawa spoke up over his shoulder, already halfway to the main campus. “I lied about expelling anyone.”

…

“ Whaaaaaaaa?! ” The entire class screamed in unison. All except for Yaoyorozu, Todoroki, Shoji, and Kodai, that is.

Aizawa grinned- something Hitoshi wished he would never see again. “It was a logical ruse, meant to bring out the best of your capabilities.”

“I thought it was pretty obvious, so I didn’t say anything.” Yaoyorozu muttered, one fist on her hip.

“That would have been real nice to know Yaomomo!” Hagakure screeched, the waving of her sleeves being the only indication that she was flailing her arms around. “I thought my dreams were gonna end today!”

“ Anyway . We’re done here. Syllabus and schedule are on the desk. Take a copy with you. You can stay or go home, I don’t really care. See you all tomorrow.” Aizawa waved at them, making his way back to… wherever teachers go when class is done…

Hitoshi and Katsuki shared a look, seeming to have a silent conversation with each other, before they tore off to the locker rooms - shoving at each other as they raced.

Boom Boom Boi

We got cut loose early, nerd.

Eggplant Insomniac

were gonna roam around the school

Boom Boom Boi

I’m leaving.

Eggplant Insomniac

no he’s not

Boom Boom Boi

Fuck you, I’m outta here.

Eggplant Insomniac

we need to work on his impulse control

（ー△ー；）

well see u when u get out

Chapter Text

“Hello, my name is Midoriya Izuku, and I’m quirkless.”

Izuku sat back down in his seat, folding his hands on his desk.

And 3… 2… 1…

“ Whaaaaat?! ”

Happens every time.

He turned back around, trying not to laugh as most of his class stared at him like gaping fish. One classmate, Kinzoku if he remembers correctly, recovered super quick though.

“Wait okay so like does that mean you’ve got the extra joint in your pinky toe??” Their eyes lit up, along with Saturnii-chan’s.

“Uh yeah. Gotta wear special shoes n’ everything cuz shoes aren’t made with enough room for it anymore.” This was weird, people usually turned on him right away, called him weak, or acted like he had the plague. Not that he ever let it bother him. Quirks were just a part of genetics, not like he could control it.

Hitoshi didn’t act like that, but he was treated like a villain his whole life so… that’s understandable…

He caught a sneer from Hatsume and had to fight the urge to roll his eyes.

There we go, par for the course.

“Man, lucky.” Someone behind him muttered, just barely loud enough to hear.

Izuku whipped his head around, catching the plain-looking Takata-chan like a deer in headlights. “I’m sorry Takata-san, could you repeat that?”

She fidgeted with the ends of a pigtail, avoiding eye-contact. “It-it’s just… you’re lucky you don’t have to deal with the downsides of having a quirk.”

He scoffed, gripping the back of his chair. “I’d argue there’s a lot more disadvantages of not having a quirk in the first place, but please, I’d love to hear your reasoning.” He put on the sweetest fake-smile he could muster, his words dripping with venom he didn’t know he possessed.

Power Loader cleared his throat, snapping all attention back forward. “Guys, let’s reel it back in. I’d like to remind everyone that Yuuei has a zero tolerance policy for bullying and quirkism. In fact, Midoriya here scored highest overall for the entire Support Department. Got nearly a perfect score on the Written Exam too. You’re all here to support the heroes of the future, so you never know who you’ll be working with.”

“Or working for. ” Izuku grumbled, ignoring the pointed look he got from their sensei.

“ As I was saying , we have the entrance ceremony and orientation to get to so let’s get our butts in gear. You do not want to be on the principal’s bad side the first day.”

Where the hell are they?

Head whipping around the auditorium, Izuku was scanning the seats for his friends - or anyone in class 1A, really. None of them had shown up to the ceremony and there was a huge empty spot where their class should be in the auditorium seats but the teachers didn’t even seem to notice their absence.

“-iya? Hello, Earth to Midoriya?”

“Oh shit, sorry Kinzoku-san. What’s up?”

They cringed a little. “Ew, you can drop the honorific. Please . Anyway, you good? You’re whipping your head around so much you’re giving me whiplash.”

“I’ll get back to you on the honorific thing, my mama raised a proper gentleman. ” He smirked as they gagged playfully. “I’ve got some friends that got into the hero course- 1A actually- but I don’t see them here.”

“Oof. 1A? Yeah, they’re probably expelled already.” They grimaced as he whipped around, lilac eyes refusing to meet his. “I’ve got a friend in the business course, second year. Apparently the homeroom teacher for 1A is a hardass and expelled everyone on the first day last year.”

…

…

…

“... I swear to all the deities above, if those fuckers got themselves expelled, I’m going to expel them off this planet.” He growled, watching as their chimera of a principal take to the stage.

Izuku would probably take expulsion over this orientation. 

Their principal, a mouse-dog-bear named Nedzu, sure knew how to talk. And boy did he. He didn’t even know what he was talking about anymore; Izuku tuned out about 15 slides ago. Instead, he and Kinzoku had been passing a mini notebook and pen back and forth.

‘if I can’t use -san, I’ll be forced to come up with a silly nickname.’

‘do your worst, weather boy (ง'̀-'́)ง’

Izuku had to hold back a snort.

‘Kinzosan.’

‘lazy you can do better’

‘we just met today, gimme a break.’ He rapped the pen against his chin. What would Katsuki call them? He normally just picks a physical descriptor and rolls with it… probably cuz he’s face-blind… 

‘how about… Lilac? Like your hair?’

‘•̀.̫ •́✧ this isn’t my real hair color’

‘your eyes’

‘contacts (⌐▨ _ ▨)’

He rolled his eyes, smirking to himself.

‘Poser’

‘you callin me that or is that my nickname?’

‘yes’

‘I resent that. I’m my authentic self 25/8 bitch’

They were grinning massively as Izuku read their last message and suddenly it all clicked. 

‘Cheshire’

Their eyes got wide, their face splitting into an impossibly larger grin. 

‘How’d you guess my future hero name?’

Finally orientation ended and all the classes were dismissed back to their homerooms, giving Izuku time to check his phone. He snorted a little, picturing Hitoshi just walking around campus with a zooted Katsuki on his heels.

Guess they weren’t expelled. Good, I put way too much work into their costumes for them to never see the light of day… or the dark of night in Toshi’s case… of speaking of-

He looked over to the lilac-colored (for now, apparently) classmate he had already started growing attached to, elbowing them in the side to get their attention.

“So, what did you mean ‘your future hero name’? Did you try for the Hero course? I mean just by your quirk alone you’d be great for the underground scene; discreet blades at your fingertips, it’d be hard to combat especially if you strike from people’s blind spots…” Izuku bit his lip, trying to reel in his rambling. 

Kinz- no, bad Izuku - Cheshire just beamed, their lilac curls bouncing as they nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah, I tried for the Hero course but it’s not like Support as a fall-back or anything. I wanna be like Maijima-sensei and be a Support Hero. I’m a huge fan of the Wild Wild Pussycats and I’ve always dreamt of joining their agency, although you made underground heroics sound so cool…”

They clasped their hands behind their neck, humming in thought.

“Oh! Maybe I could start an underground branch for them! By day, they’re just your average Support Engineer, tinkering away at the Wild Wild Pussycats agency. But by night, they’re cleaning the streets while the civilians sleep. They are… The Alley-Cat Hero: Cheshire. ” They chuckled, striking a dramatic pose similar to Pixie-Bob’s.

Izuku rolled his eyes, laughing internally. “Alright Chesh, your drama is blocking the hall.” He ushered them back to their room, grabbing the syllabus on the way to his desk. 

According to his paper, everyone would have to complete and pass a lab safety exam in order to be issued their official coveralls. Without the coveralls, they wouldn’t be allowed to participate in lab time, so it was crucial to pass asap. 

Thanks, Dad, for instilling OSHA practices in me from a young age.

That was somehow simultaneously the easiest and hardest test he’s ever taken. Most of it was common sense but if you didn’t know how to read a safety data sheet, well… you were fucked. Yuuei took their lab safety very seriously , and rightfully so. Who knows what kind of things they’ll have access to now?

Izuku swung his coveralls over his shoulder, grinning wide. Another perk of being in the support course? Once you get your coveralls, you’re no longer required to wear the formal uniform! No more annoying layers and buttons and shoulder pads !

Like at least give us better epaulets!

His phone buzzed, interrupting his mental re-design of the uniforms.

Eggplant Insomniac

Zu if ur done im losing him

“Shit, Kacchan is gonna be pissed .”

Green Bean Make Machine

almost 2 the front gate!

ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ

He made it just in time for Toshi to break his hold and stop the stopwatch on his phone, bending forward at the waist from the vertigo. Katsuki growled, huffing and puffing about having to stay under for so long.

“Thanks for waiting guys! Time check, Tosh?”

The purple-haired boy groaned from his position, one hand wiping the blood from his nose while the other whipped his phone up for Izuku to see.

“Thirty two minutes and sixteen seconds! Sorry you had to hold him for so long, we had to take a test. But look!” He brandished his new favorite outfit. “No more itchy uniform for me, boys! I’m lab safety certified now!”

Katsuki just scowled, still pouting from his ‘mistreatment’, but Izuku could see it in his eyes; he was proud… and jealous. Toshi just ruffled the forest of curls on the shorter boy's head with a smirk.

“So what I’m hearing is you’ll basically be living in those now.” He drawled.

Izuku grinned. “Yep!”

Toshi face-palmed. “I hope you got extra. Kami bless Auntie Inko, she’s gonna need industrial strength detergent…’

Katsuki barked out a laugh. “As if she hasn’t already! There’s not a single stain Aunty hasn’t been able to get out. The chemical warfare she puts Zuku’s clothes through puts my quirk to shame!”

The trio laughed and shoved at each other all the way to the train station. Izuku finally got to hear about his best friends' first day, obviously geeking out when Hitoshi spilled the beans on who exactly was teaching them, and shared his own experiences in his classroom.

All in all, it seemed like a pretty exciting year!

Chapter Text

You’d think having Pro-Heroes as teachers would make classes more exciting, right?

Wrong.

Yeah, sure, they were pros…. But they were also still teachers . 

No matter what they did, they really couldn't make their subjects any more interesting… and a few of them really tried…

“Who can find the mistake in this English sentence?” Present Mic strutted around in front of the class, his hero costume making it very difficult to take him seriously as an educator. “Alriiight! Let’s see some spunk, guys! Put your hands up if you know the answer!”

“So loud..” Hitoshi groaned under his breath, desperately trying to rub the sleep from his eyes. 

A hand shot up towards the middle of the room, the black ponytail swishing below it something something Yaoyorozu Momo, one of the four first-years to get in through recommendations. She had this air of “rich and proper” about her that really had Hitoshi scratching his brain. What made her want to be a hero?

He turned his head to look at the desk next to her, the red and white hair a stark contrast- no- really popping out compared to Yaoyorozu’s shiny black no- ebony locks. Todoroki Shoto. Son of number two hero Endeavor. Talk about a legacy to live up to, though this kid was way more stoic than Hitoshi would have pictured the spawn of literal Hellflame would be. Seems like that perfect split of fire and ice could have affected his temper too. 

Izu’s definitely rubbed off on me. Should focus on English, not analyzing my classmates…. 

Eventually the bell rang for lunch, and everyone piled into the cafeteria to try Lunch Rush’s food. He and Katsuki found a table by a window, enjoying the food in silence. 

“Yo! Bakubro!”

Well that didn’t last long. 

“What do you want, Shitty Hair?”

‘Shitty Hair’, aka Kirishima, didn’t even falter at the nickname. Instead, his grin just got bigger as he ran a hand through his black spikes, setting down his tray and sliding into the other side of the booth.

“Can I join you guys?” A feminine voice chirped in, causing all three of them to look up. Uraraka was beaming at them, though the shuffling of her right shoe let off that she was nervous. 

Hitoshi sighed and waved her to sit, actively ignoring the death glare from a certain Pomeranian. 

“Thanks!” She slid in next to Kirishima, the two of them quickly filling their quiet bubble with noise. There was a shove at his shoulder and turned to meet the crimson daggers that were Katsuki’s eyes

-What the fuck?-

-C’mon, she’s nice. Meathead here didn’t even ask-

“Woah! You guys know sign language? That’s so cool!” Kirishima burst out, snapping the two from their conversation. 

“Yeah, that’s really good for situations where stealth is key! I’ve wanted to learn but my quirk makes it really tricky.” Uraraka blushed and fiddled with her index fingers. 

Hitoshi was speaking before he even realized. “Does your quirk require all five fingers to activate?”

Oh shit… here we go… she knows how my quirk works now so she’s gonna lock up and refuse to talk-

“Yep! I've got these little pads on my fingers that I have to touch to the object before I can remove its gravity!” She held her hand up into Hitoshi’s face, showing off the different texture on the pads of her fingers. 

He blinked a few times and Katsuki scoffed next to him. 

“Ever heard of gloves, Pink Cheeks?”

She huffed, staring him down as the boys all tried to stifle their chuckles. “They float off my hands, jerk. And I have a name! It’s Uraraka Ochaco.”

Hitoshi waved her off. “Ignore him. Getting a nickname is actually better than the alternative. Hey, yknow they’ve got special gloves for artists that only cover like… their pinky, or something. There’s this store in Musutafu called Everyday Support that sells a bunch of stuff to help mitigate quirk drawbacks if you wanted to check it out. Our buddy Izuku took us to quote; 'see what kind of stuff is commercially available that could be incorporated into hero costume designs'. I can give you the address if you want, they have a lot of cool stuff.”

She blinked at him with wide eyes, her mouth hung open slightly as he wrote down the address on his napkin. “Oh! Thanks! I’ll uh.. have to check it out sometime!”

Thanks to Lunch Rush’s quirk, Hitoshi felt more awake and energized than ever before in his life. Which wasn’t a high bar, but was still impressive. As Izuku had gushed to them when talking about the benefits of UA, Lunch Rush’s quirk makes it so anything he cooks is infused with energizing and mild restorative properties, basically re-filling the consumer's mental and physical battery. He’s usually on the scene at major disasters, providing welcoming meals to the front lines and the victims so it really was a treat to have his food every day at Yuuei, especially for those in the Hero course.

Speaking of, with lunch wrapping up, it was time for their next class: Heroics. The class sat with bated breath, waiting to see who they’d be learning this all-important topic from. Hitoshi was secretly hoping Eraserhead would walk back through the door but that was just his inner-fanboy talking. 

Suddenly the door flung open with a ‘SLAM’ and none other than All fucking Might poked his head through. 

“I AM HERE!” He slid to the podium. “Entering the room like a normal person!” 

That’s like… the opposite of normal. 

“Hero basic training! The class that’ll put you lot through the wringer and mold you all into great heroes!” He flexed his way through his monologue, “No time to dally. Today’s activity is…” He pulled a giant card out of nowhere with the word ‘BATTLE’ printed across “BATTLE TRAINING!”

The excitement was palpable in the classroom, some more pumped than others *cough* Katsuki *cough*.

“But first, you’ll need these!!” He pushed a button on a comically-small remote- at least compared to his MASSIVE hands- and twenty briefcases opened up from hidden panels in the wall closest to the door, each numbered according to their seats.

“Change into these and meet back up at Ground Beta!”

Hitoshi waited for the mad-scramble to die down before grabbing case 20 and booking it to the locker rooms.

He was only a little nervous. He didn’t have any idea of what he wanted so he had given Izu full creative freedom with his costume and, of course, the Emerald Gremlin refused to let him look. So color him surprised when he opened the briefcase and already liked what he saw.

He slipped on the skin-tight black shirt, having a little difficulty with the built in armor plating but once it was in place, it fit like a glove. That got tucked into a pair of heavy duty black cargo pants with about four gray pockets on each leg , which then got tucked into a pair of sleek black steel-toed combat boots. Once those were laced up properly, he had to take a second to figure out how the harness was supposed to go. After consulting the instructions, he slipped it around his shoulders, securing it with two buckles at his torso. He then connected the belt portion to his pants, clipping that at his hips followed by what could only be described as garter straps that went around his thighs.

Next was probably the most confusing article of clothing Hitoshi had ever seen in his life. Imagine a black hoodie, but cut out everything except the arms and hood. Now add some armor to the sleeves and two gray straps that crossed over his chest like an ‘X’. The hood was also lined with a weird looking material. When it shifted just right, the fluorescent locker room lights reflected back right into Hitoshi’s eyes, nearly blinding him. 

Looking at himself in the mirror, he felt pretty badass. Especially after tugging on the padded and armored gloves. 

Okay Izu… I see you, you mastermind.

Right when he was about to close the briefcase, a flash of yellow caught his eye and he immediately cursed under his breath. He pulled out a pair of very familiar yellow goggles, except instead of multiple panels, each eyepiece had only one reflective lens. 

“Fuckin’ gremlin asshole.” He grumbled, holding out the goggles as if they personally offended him. Katsuki looked over, taking one look at them with a smug grin.

“Laugh all you want, dumbass. He made us match.” Hitoshi deadpanned, pointing to the large ‘X’ on their torsos and the garter belts they each sported. “I think I pull off the garter belts better, though.” He smirked, watching Katsuki fumble with his grenade-shaped gauntlets. They were smaller than what Katsuki had originally designed all those years ago, Izuku claiming they were an ‘occupational hazard and just straight stupid Kacchan, like seriously’, so instead of taking up his entire forearm, it was scaled down to about the size of a soccerball.

“Yeah right. I look hot as hell.” Katsuki puffed his chest, a shit-eating grin on his face.

Hitoshi rolled his eyes and pulled the goggles to rest around his neck, finding a slip of paper underneath detailing how to work the lights

Lights Izu? Really?

He found the discrete switch, giving it a try to make sure it all worked. Around his hood and outlining his straps were small plastic tubes that emanate a soft purple glow. He pushed it again and it switched to a soft yellow. Again and it changed to white.

“Okay, that’s actually really cool.” He chuckled, turning them back off for now.

Absently he could hear some of the other guys heckling each other over their looks.

“What’s your quirk again?”

“Oh, it’s Hardening!” So that was Kirishima .

“Oh… I thought it was like… time travel or something…” Wait what? “Cuz the gears on your shoulders?”

“Nah dude! Those are like, protective!” Kirishima retorted, trying his best not to sound too put out.

Another kid with spiky black hair wrapped in a blue and white headband snickered. “Dude that belt buckle got you lookin’ like a Team Rocket reject!”

“No way, remember that Spongebob thing? You set it to M for Mini-”

Another voice chimed in, “When it should be W for Wumbo!”

At that Hitoshi peeked around the corner, watching the blonde with a black lightning streak and the black-haired kid with weird elbows high-five each other. He really couldn’t help himself.

“You’re one to talk, Sparky. What, just got back from your Warped Tour performance?” Though when he looked at Kirishima, he was having a hard time finding things to compliment. “Dude… is that… a chest wound? And a hip-cape?”

Kirishima looked down at his chest. “It’s a sash! I think the cape is super manly! Your costume looks hella manly, though! Love the straps dude!”

Katsuki grumbled, motioning for Hitoshi to follow him to the door. “If you extras are done gabbing, we’re gonna be late!” And with that, they were on their way to Ground Beta.

“Look alive young wards! Because from today on… you’re all heroes! And boy do you look great!” All Might boomed, his intimidating presence filling up the mock-street. Hitoshi looked around, his eyes latching onto the… questionable costumes the girls were sporting.

“Sensei! This appears to be the same field used in the entrance exams. Will we once again be performing cityscape maneuvers?!” The tall silver surfer cosplaying as a suit of armor, aka Iida, exclaimed.

Hitoshi rolled his eyes, fiddling with his gloves as All Might went to explain their exercise… while reading off of flashcards .

“Listen up, whelps! Here’s the deal: the villains will be hiding a nuclear weapon in the hideout, and the heroes will have to go in and take care of it! The heroes will have a limited time to either capture the villains or secure the weapon. The villains must either capture the heroes or protect their weapon until time is up. Your battle partners will be decided by pulling lots!”

Team A: Komori Kinoko and Todoroki Shoto

Team B: Ashido Mina and Kamakiri Togaru

Team C: Mineta Minoru and Iida Tenya

Team D: Tokoyami Fumikage and Bakugo Katsuki

Team E: Hagakure Toru and Kirishima Eijiro

Team F: Kaminari Denki and Yanagi Reiko

Team G: Shinsou Hitoshi and Shoji Mezo

Team H: Awase Yosetsu and Uraraka Ochaco

Team I: Kodai Yui and Sero Hanta

Team J: Asui Tsuyu and Yaoyorozu Momo

“And without further delay, our matchups will be…”

Team I vs Team C

Team J vs Team A

Team H vs Team E

Team B vs Team G

Team D vs Team F

Chapter Text

You would think having Pro-Heroes as teachers would make classes more exciting.

Don’t get Izuku wrong, it’s cool seeing so many pros up close and personal, but when Cementoss is droning on about Pre-Quirk literature in his monotone voice, it’s hard to stay awake.

His favorite Core class was definitely English, though. And definitely not because of who the teacher is, no way! He just loves further expanding his knowledge of his second language, is all! And if Present Mic winked at Izuku as he entered the classroom, who's to say?

He definitely totally didn’t fanboy after he found a hand-written note slipped in his textbook about how flattered Mic was that he could inspire Izuku to create such a cool support item! Nope. Not at all! And it definitely didn’t affect the way he maybe let it slip that he was already fluent in English and JSL.

“Woah little rockstar! Save some learning for the rest of us!” Mic teased, shooting off his finger-guns.

Then came his absolute favorite class above all else: Support Lab. Everyone passed their safety exams by their first official day and were itching to get their hands dirty.

They discussed the more “textbook” side of support in their classroom-setting: circuits, limits, design- but the lab? That was free-play baby!

“Before I set you guys loose, there’s one reminder.” Power Loader announced at the door, refusing to even let the kids come into the lab yet. “There is still a grade for this class. Your year-long project that was mentioned in the syllabus. I’ll need your suggestions by the end of the week for approval. Obviously the sooner you get it approved-“ He pointedly made eye-contact with Midoriya and Hatsume, “the sooner you can start on it. Not to say that’s all you have to work on here. The Sports Festival isn’t too far away and Support students are allowed to use any tools they personally make. Plis, we also directly help the hero students with any modifications they might want for their costumes.”

He scanned his students’ faces before taking a deep, centering breath. “That’s all. Have fun but don’t blow anything up.” And with that, he flung the door open, and the sounds of power tools quickly filled the air.

Instead of building right away like Izuku was itching to do, he sat at his workbench and pulled out his blueprint and idea notebooks, flicking through the pages in hopes of finding the perfect year-long project.

The speaker would be fun to refine and perfect, but I doubt it would take a whole year just to do that. Maybe it would be better suited for the School Festival later in the year. I could even ask Present Mic for his input, that’d be really cool!

Cheshire saddled into the chair next to him, poking his cheek and snapping him out of his thoughts. “Ya think Maijima-sensei would approve ‘Get into the Hero Course’ as a year-long project?”

Izuku snickered. “As if it would take you all year to get in. Besides, he probably wouldn’t like the thought of losing you as a student.”

They pouted. “I still want to do both though, just like Power Loader. I could be a hybrid student! It wouldn’t even be the first time something like that happened!”

He nodded. “Yeah, Aizawa Shouta was the first Support student to win the sports festival and was transferred into the Hero Course shortly after. That was actually my friends backup plan if he didn’t make it in, though he would have had to go with General Studies.”

Cheshire nodded thoughtfully. “Hmm… maybe I could just come up with something easy and then focus on winning the Sports Festival!”

Izuku raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, good luck with that. Once Kacchan is put in a competitive setting, he’ll stop at nothing to be number one.”

*~*~*~*

The day came to a close and Izuku found himself sitting under the shade of a large tree on campus, biting his pencil as he looked over his notes again and again. Cheshire had hung around with him for a little bit but needed to leave to catch their train. Two sets of footsteps approached him after a while, their shadows casting his notes into darkness.

When he looked up he was not expecting to see his friends look like they were fresh from the battlefield. Hitoshi had various bandages on his cheek, neck, and hands and walked with a slight limp. Katsuki physically looked unscathed but his hands were twitching in his pockets and his head was cocked to the side with his ear facing the group; both signs that he was using his quirk a lot.

Izuku closed his books with a snap, leaning back against the tree trunk. “So… the hell happened to you two?”

Hitoshi chuckled humorlessly. “All Might happened.”

Izuku raised his eyebrows, wordlessly demanding an explanation as he stood, the three of them making their way off campus.

“Tch. Threw us in a practical simulation. Costumed us up and paired us randomly. Then we had to fight against other pairs to either defend a bomb or capture the villains.” Katsuki rolled his eyes a little. “It went about as good as you think.”

Izuku cringed. “But you guys literally just met, have never interacted with each others quirks in person, or have fought in costume? Make it make sense, I beg of you.”

Hitoshi chuckled. “He had all of his notes on flash cards and was totally unprepared. It was cool to finally get to see my hero costume though.” He ruffled Izuku’s hair. “Once I read through the fifty page manual on how to put it all on.”

“Hey!” Izuku dove out from under Hitoshi’s palm, smacking him away. Curse his tall genes! But he still brightened. “Did everything fit right? Did you like it? Kacchan, how about you? Did the gear work like we planned? Oh! I already have some thoughts on some upgrades for your boots and Toshi I was worried about the padding and armor being too restrictive of your movement-“

“Oi, Earth to nerd!” Katsuki barked. “Our costumes were the best ones there. Everyone else looked like shit compared to us.” He grinned, baring his teeth.

Hitoshi nodded seriously. “Yeah everything fit fine, I’m not used to the armor though so that’ll take some getting used to. Stumbled a bit and got got by the crazy lizard Kamakiri that creates blades on his body, and then Mina dialed up her acid a touch too high and it ate through my gloves.”

Izuku groaned. “I didn’t even think to account for acid damage! That’s such a cool quirk! Did any more of the costume get ruined? I can help you put in the requests.”

“Nah jus’ the gloves. Honestly, I’m almost 90 percent positive the invisible girl was legit only wearing boots and gloves, so I’m glad she didn’t go up against Mina. Actually… most of the girls had some pretty bad costumes. Uraraka complained that hers was a little tighter than she was expecting, Yaoyorozu was at constant risk of nip-slip, and Minas was…”

“Trash.” Kacchan interrupted with a scowl. “The Old Hag would flay me alive if I went out in public looking like that.”

Hitoshi huffed. “He’s not wrong. Most of the class could use a total makeover.”

Izuku hummed a response, nose buried deep in his notebook again. “Pictures?”

“Phones were left in our lockers, jackass. Plus I’m not gonna be like the Grapeist and take pictures without consent.”

Izuku only hummed again, his brain moving a mile a minute as he jotted something down in his notebook.

“We lost him. It’s sucked him in again.” Hitoshi grabbed the back of Izuku’s shirt, maneuvering him through the crowd and helping him avoid obstacles until they got back home, his mind running over all kinds of possibilities.

I should text Cheshy once I get back home… maybe Maijima-sensei will let us work together on a year-long project…

*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*

Shota Aizawa was not impressed with All Might. Period. He was always too flashy, too short-sighted, and that showed perfectly in his first class he ever taught.

Because said hero lacked the forethought to get a teachers license before deciding to come to Yuuei, Shouta now had the extra job of reviewing all of his classes and grading his coworkers skills.

Kids were using excessive force, damaging property and each other and then a good majority were sent to the nurse because he wouldn’t call the match before things could get out of hand. Then the bastard praised them for going “above and beyond”. This is how students get inflated egos, they get sloppy in the field and they die.

Just like-

No. He couldn’t think about him right now or he might actually kill the Number One Hero. Instead, he continued to watch the matches until a flash of yellow caught his eye.

“Hey, that little rockstar is rockin’ your goggles babe. Looks like you got a fan~!” Hizashi pointed to the screen, making him pause.

Shota checked his paperwork, definitely not to try to hide his slight blush of embarrassment. Shinsou Hitoshi. Quirk: Brainwashing. Got in with the most rescue points we’ve seen in a while.

A new email notification popped up on his screen, blocking the current footage and, thankfully, stopping the conversation from going any further as Hizashi went to start another pot of coffee.

“The hell is Majima doing up this late?” Shouta grumbled, opening the message.

_____________________________

Hey Aizawa,

I was gonna wait to talk to you about this until tomorrow, but I had a feeling you’d be up anyway. You seriously need to get more sleep my man.

Anyway, I’m sure you’re aware of the year-long Support Course project. Well… one of my students has a pretty ambitious plan that would involve… basically every single one of your students. To say it simply; he wants to be their go-to support person.

figured I’d throw this idea at you first before approving anything. I’ve attached his proposal and portfolio if you're interested. Apparently the kid already designed two of your students' complete outfits- Bakugo Katsuki and Shinsou Hitoshi- support gear included.

That would explain why their costumes seemed a bit more thought-out and practical…

Take your time, but I also need to give him time to come up with another project if you say no so… lemme know, yea?

Maijima
_____________________________

.
…
……

Shouta groaned, sliding his fingers in his hair and tugging at the roots just slightly. This Midoriya kid was good… really good. He built that speaker device Hizashi had been ranting and raving about out of literal garbage, passed the written exam with the highest score Yuuei had seen so far, and apparently was fluent in English and JSL.

His proposal was thought-through, if a little rushed, and he even accounted for the workload and brought in a classmate for the project. It would take some schedule rearranging but… they could make it work… if the rat approved.

“Gods dammit…”

_____________________________

Reply to [email protected]
CC: [email protected]

I better not regret this.

Chapter Text

Izuku kept refreshing his email while on the train to school that next day, letting out little sighs and tapping his foot. He was a little anxious, sue him. He emailed Maijima-sensei last night –one in the morning– and the only response was for him to get to school early to discuss his proposal. He was hoping for more information, if he was being honest. It didn’t sound like a no… but it also wasn’t a yes either. A heavy weight fell onto his shoulders.

“Oi, Jolly Green Gremlin. The fuck’s wrong with you? Why’d we hafta get to school so early?”

Izuku rolled his eyes at Katsuki, ignoring how the weight of his arm was actually helping ease his nerves a little.. “I told you you didn’t have to come with me, Kacchan. I got an email from Power Loader asking if I could come into school a little early to talk about my project… I’m just worried he doesn’t like my idea. It’s pretty ambitious.” He shoved his phone back into his coveralls, leaning against Katsuki.

Hitoshi rubbed his eyes with a yawn, already halfway done with his coffee. “You know how he gets, Izu. The Three Muskaidiots gotta stick together.” He grinned, clearly pleased with his word-play. “Why don’t you tell us all about this project of yours and then Kacchan and I can tell you how brilliant it is?”

Izuku glared daggers at him. “You know it’s a secret, Toshi. Stop trying to bribe me with an open pass to ramble and praise, it’s not gonna work.” He pushed Katsuki’s arm off himself as they exited the train, trying to put some distance between him and his friends.

Stupid tall friends with stupid long legs and their stupid ability to catch up to me stupid quick.

Suddenly he was sandwiched between his friends in Guard Dog Mode™ and it didn’t take long to see why. Right by the front gates to Yuuei was a swarm of press.

“Can’t believe they’re here again.” Katsuki grumbled, shoving his hands deep in his pockets. “Take a hint, jackasses.”

“... wait… they were here yesterday?” Izuku feels like he would have remembered press shoving microphones in peoples faces and barraging them with questions.

Hitoshi ruffled his hair, though his face quickly donned his ‘neutral to bored’ look the closer they got, obviously trying to ward off any nosy journalists. “You were nose-deep in your books. Plus they’re only really harassing Hero Students cuz of All Might.”

A grin slowly spread across Izuku’s face. “Well why didn’t you tell me yesterday?” He cleared his throat before speaking up just enough to pull the press’ attention, his face contorting to faux worry. “Oh no the press is back! Whatever will All Might-sensei do? He’ll probably have to use the super-secret entrance down at the base of the hill again! Oh he’s such a great teacher, always thinking ahead. The main entrance would be too obvious for the Number One hero to just waltz right in through, don’t you think, guys?”

Slowly, murmurs drifted across the crowd as the trio waltzed right through. A few journalists started dragging their camera-guys back down the hill, desperate to get a shot of All Might using his secret tunnel and like dominoes, the crowd quickly thinned out with only a few very stubborn press remaining. It was enough, though, that the boys and other students filtering their way in could avoid getting harassed so early in the morning.

Suddenly, they heard slow claps coming from above them. Looking up, Izuku brightened, meeting familiar Lilac eyes. “Wow Mido, you really are a terror.” The tanned student swung from the tree branch they were perched on top of, landing in front of the trio. “You better be glad your text woke me up, man, or I wouldn’t have been here on time.” They flicked his forehead, which Izuku swatted away with a smile. They turned to the other boys, sticking out their hand – their claw covers were a fun teal color today. “Kinzoku Mana, though Mido has dubbed me Cheshire. Pronouns They/Them, please. Nice to finally meet ya!”

Hitoshi shook their hand first with a soft smile. “Shinsou Hitoshi. Izu’s pretty possessive about nicknames, so I hope Kinzoku is fine, for now.”

Katsuki huffed, keeping his hands firmly in his pockets. “Bakugo Katsuki.”

Mana grinned, unphased. “C’mon Greenie, the sooner we get this meeting over with, the sooner we can work in the lab!”

*~*~*~*~*

As they opened the door to the Lab, Izuku stopped in his tracks for only a moment. He expected Power Loader, of course, but not Eraserhead, Present Mic, and Principal Nezu! Said chimera was even snuggled into Eraserhead capture scarf!

“Ah, good morning you two! Thank you for coming in so early!” Nezu beamed, crawling out from the binding cloths and making his way to the Support Students. “Come, come. We have many things to discuss.”

Izuku took a breath. “We’re not in trouble, are we? The proposal was totally my idea, I only mentioned Kinzo-San because I figured asking to work on an entire class myself would be a pretty big undertaking and they were willing to help! I-“

With a single eyebrow raise from Eraserhead, he quickly shut his trap. Present Mic chuckled, pushing himself in front of Eraserhead with his hands waving in front of his face. “No ones in trouble, listener! How about we let Power Loader take over and explain some things, yeah?”

He nodded, fidgeting with his coveralls.

Maijima-sensei chuckled. “I know how it looks, Midoriya, but Mic’s right. No one’s in trouble. In fact, I am approving your project proposal.” Izuku had to bite his tongue to contain his excitement. “There’s just some moving parts and stipulations involved.” He glanced over to Kinoku with a smirk. “Kinzoku, I’m also approving your project proposal.”

Izuku whipped his head around. “Wait what? But Cheshy, I thought you wanted to work together!”

They blinked a few times. “Wait but… I mean, it was kind of a joke?” They turned to Power Loader. “I didn’t think you’d take me seriously when I said my project was Operation: Get Into The Hero Class.”

Maijima smiled. “Well, I figured it was… but when I read Midoriya's proposal, I realized this was something you were serious about. So-” he motioned to Eraserhead, who pulled out a tablet, setting it on Izuku’s workstation, “On this laptop are the files for all of Class 1A. Izuku, I’m permitting you to actively work on up to three students at a time. You can design and plan out as much as you want, but you can only have three projects going at once. And yes, I will be keeping an eye on things. I don’t want to overwork you. Kinzoku, after Midoriya has constructed whatever changes he has made, you may join him during Lab to help Class A test everything. That way, his designs get field testing against someone that knows how they work. I’d also like for you to design and build your own costume and gear. Y’know… just in case.” He said with a smirk.

Izuku grinned, bouncing on the balls of his feet and trying very hard not to immediately snatch up the laptop and get to work. Then he paused, making eye contact with Eraserhead, then drifting his gaze to Present Mic. “Okay… so I understand why Eraserhead is here then… but…”

Present Mic chuckled. “Well, I was raving to Principal Nezu about our new group of students and I just couldn’t help but mention one little listener in particular. It’s not often we get a first-year that's already fluent in English and JSL afterall.” He pulled down his glasses to wink. “Usually we add basic JSL at the start of the second semester, so there’s not much I can really teach you, little rockstar.”

“So, I have a little test for you Midoriya-kun. If you can pass it, you will officially test out of English, freeing up your schedule to join Class 1A or work in the lab during your usual English time-slot.” Principal Nezu pulled a stack of papers out of thin air, handing it to Izuku.

“Oh! Okay! I guess there will also be a sign language section?”

“Naturally.”

He grinned, pulling a pen out from his hair. “Alright, let’s do this!” He didn’t notice the glint in Nezu’s eye and how uncomfortable the teachers got, too deep into the test already.

“Aizawa-kun, what does your schedule look like for the end of this week?” The chimera asked innocently, making the usually stoic teacher grimace, already anticipating a huge headache out of this whole ordeal.

Chapter Text

Izuku had just finished skimming 1As files when homeroom officially began. He had the class roster and their quirks down, he just needed to look over their Quirk Assessment results to get a better idea of what he was working with.

Maybe I can ask Eraserhead if the Battle Trials were recorded. That would give me a better idea of their fighting styles…

Maijima-sensei cleared his throat, pulling everyone’s attention from their respective projects. 

“Alrighty, first order of business today: Class Representative. Does anyone not want to be a Rep?” Takata raised her hand timidly. “Alright, Takata, I’ll remove your name from the system. Everyone’s got a tablet on their desk, vote for your choice, then for your Vice and it’ll tally itself up.”

Well obviously I’m voting for Cheshy. And I think Marudo-kun would be a good choice too. He’s friendly with everyone and is really enthusiastic about the support course… although then that means I probably shouldn’t vote for Cheshy since they’re wanting to transfer to the Hero course… Okay I’ll vote for Marudo-kun first… aaand then myself to try and prevent Hatsume from getting it. Done!

VOTING COMPLETE

.

..

.

RESULTS:

CLASS REPRESENTATIVE: MIDORIYA IZUKU

VICE REPRESENTATIVE: MARUDO ATSUSHI

“Midoriya, Marudo, wanna come up front and say a few words?”

Oh, the look on Hatsume’s face was priceless ! She probably wanted class rep as a way to market herself in the future but instead she lost to a “quirkless costumer”. 

Izuku smirked as he stood at the front, making a deep, respectful bow. “Thank you for electing me. I promise to do my best!”

Marudo chuckled, slapping him on the shoulder playfully. “Man, Midoriya, loosen up! We know you’ll do great, and I’ll be there to support ya!” He waggled his eyebrows, a dorky grin on his face.

The whole class groaned as Izuku cackled. “Oh, this is gonna be fun !”

*~~*~~*~~*

Unsurprisingly, most of the Support Class holed away in the Lab during their lunch, sticking with grabbing some snacks from the vending machines or popping into the cafeteria for a quick on-the-go meal. Izuku was muttering away, reading through 1A’s files, as Marudo came up to him. 

“So, Class Rep! Rumor has it you won’t be joining us for English anymore!”

“ So she can create things using the lipids in her body? Looks like she can make a pretty wide variety of things based on her Quirk Assessment results. Wonder how that works with the Law of Conservation of Mass? Hm? Oh, hey Marudo-kun! Yeah, I tested out this morning.” He sighed. “While I’m happy that it frees up my schedule to work on my project, I’m kind of bummed I won’t be in Present Mic’s class anymore.”

Marudo whistled. “Damn, fluent in English and you already got your project proposal approved? I’m impressed man! So whatcha doin? I’m having a hard time narrowing down what I wanna do.”

He shrugged. “Well I probably won’t be much help. The entirety of Class 1A is my project for the year.” He ignored the cacophony of noises that suddenly stopped around him, turning back to his notes.

“I’m sorry… the entire class?!” Marudo choked out.

Izuku beamed. “Yep! Well minus my friends, of course. They let me design their costumes and gear so I’ll mostly just be upgrading things as they improve or tweaking stuff to their liking. According to them, basically the rest of the class are wearing impractical and awful costumes.” He sighed. “I don’t have confirmation but we’re pretty sure the invisible one, Hagakure-chan, is running around naked sans gloves and boots…”

Before his new Vice Rep could say any more, the entire room erupted into chaos.

“ What ?! How did anyone approve that!”

“That’s insane, I thought there were regulations ‘n stuff?”

“W-why wouldn’t she want clothes? Wouldn’t she get cold?”

“That’s what I said!” Izuku threw his hands up in exasperation. “I’m praying it was some kind of oversight. Like, maybe she filled out her forms in a weird way and whoever made her costume assumed she would… I dunno, bring a jumpsuit from home? Or whatever? I just-”

BA-BOOM!

All of a sudden, alarms started going off in the lab as the ventilation-filtration system kicked in and manic laughter filled the room.

“Hatsume!” Izuku groaned. Thankfully his body shielded the school issued tablet from the blast, but now his back was all covered in soot. He let out a deep sigh. “Alright, everyone grab a rag and watch for shrapnel and debris. Let’s get this cleaned up before Maijima-sensei comes back.”

“Alright! You heard our class rep, let’s get to work!” Cheshy shouted, grinning wide as they started gathering debris.

*~~*~~*~~*~~*

“Man, that alarm at lunch was pretty crazy, huh?” Hitoshi groaned. “I think I’ve got bruises all over from everyone trying to shove their way out. Stupid stampede.”

Katsuki scoffed. “Yeah. Those dumbasses. Ponytail girl had to fire a confetti cannon to get everyone’s attention.”

Izuku furrowed his brow. “Wait, I thought the explosions in the labs stayed isolated because of the vent filtration systems? It shouldn’t have sounded an alarm all the way to the cafeteria.”

The other two stopped in their tracks. “Wait… Izu… what are you talking about?”

“... what are you talking about?”

“The fuckin’ press corps managed to break onto campus, jackass! Set off a school-wide intruder alert! How did you not hear it?!” Katsuki scowled, his hands flexing like he was trying to contain his explosions.

Izuku rolled his eyes. “Kacchan… were you actually listening to me? I literally just told you an explosion went off in the lab. It probably happened at the same time and we were kind of focused on cleaning up Hatsume’s mess. She’s lucky she didn’t fuck up the tablet I was given for my damn project.” He paused for a moment. “That and the Lab is in the basement so… we don’t really see much of the outside world.”

Hitoshi pushed Katsuki’s face away, inserting himself in his spot, eyes wide. “So your project got approved?”

He nodded, grinning wide.

“Oi, don’t go changing the subject, Eyebags. And quit fuckin’ shovin’ me!” Katsuki barked, pushing back at Hitoshi.

Hitoshi ignored him, slinking under his arm to pop up on the other side of Izuku. “Now you can finally tell us what it is, right?”

Izuku shook his head, his grin turning shit-eating.

“... Y’know it’s no fun when you know I’m trying to use my quirk.” Hitoshi whined as Katsuki snickered

- I know - Izuku signed, a mischievous glint shining in his eyes.

Hitoshi dropped into his dead-pan stare and flipped Izuku the bird. “Little gremlin.” He muttered under his breath before falling back into conversation with Katsuki, pointedly ignoring his shorter friend the rest of the way home. No matter how much he whined. Not even when he climbed up onto Hitoshi’s shoulders and tried pulling at his hair to puppet him like Ratatouille.

*~~*~~*~~*~~*

School seemed to return back to normal the next day. The press was nowhere to be seen after their little fiasco, thank Kami.

Probably got arrested for trespassing. Serves them right, assholes.

Aizawa strolled into the classroom, immediately pressing the button to reveal their costume cases with a bored expression. “Suit up. We’ll meet in Gym Beta for a special assembly. If your costume didn’t survive Battle Training, wear your gym uniform but still bring your gear. You’ll need it.” And with that, he was strolling back out of the room while everyone awkwardly grabbed their cases.

“Did he say ‘assembly’?”

“That’s what I thought he said, shroom.”

“...Revelry in the dark…”

Hitoshi snickered. Tokoyami never failed to make him laugh with the ridiculous shit he spouted. He grabbed his case, narrowly dodging Katsuki as the blonde went to grab him by the collar.

“Hurry up Eyebags! You take too damn long getting into your costume.” He growled, stomping out the door. “Should talk to the nerd about making that shit easier to put on.”

“It’ll be like… the third time putting this stuff on, Kats. Give me a break!” 

.

..

…

They should have known something was up this morning.

Izuku was in way too good of a mood and any time they tried to pry, he would wave them off with an excuse about how he was making his first big steps for his project today. He had that look in his eye that was hard to decipher between Gremlin Mode™ and Hyperfixation.

They should really start assuming it's the Gremlin trying to escape the confines of Izuku’s body.

All of Class 1A walked into Gym Beta, definitely not expecting to see a short, green-haired student in coveralls standing next to Aizawa-sensei. He was watching them all with an innocent look on his face.

- Oh shit, he’s got his hair tied back. - Katsuki signed.

Hitoshi did a double-take and… yep. Izuku had his shoulder-length unruly hair tied up into a messy bun. - He’s already Stage Two Gremlin. - He replied, feeling like he needed to go pray to whatever God might listen.

Before they could try to escape, Aizawa-sensei cleared his throat. “Right. We have a special guest from the Support Course. I expect you all to treat him with respect. Understood ?” After everyone nodded or shouted their affirmations, he turned to Izuku, already zipping up his yellow sleeping bag with a sigh. “They’re all yours.”

Izuku scanned the class, a bright and cheery smile on his face, though once he made eye contact with Hitoshi and Katsuki it sharpened; almost feral-looking before quickly going back to sweet and innocent. “Hello! Nice to meet you all!” He bowed deeply. “My name is Midoriya Izuku! I’m from Support Class 1H and you guys are gonna be my project for the rest of the year!”

Chapter Text

“My name is Midoriya Izuku from Support Class 1H and you guys are gonna be my project for the rest of the year!”

The cackle that escaped Katsuki’s mouth was involuntary, but it seemed to snap the extras out of their confused silence so he let it ride, putting his whole body into it. He doubled over, clenching his stomach and slapping his knee.

Of course the nerd would figure out how to weasel his way into fixing everyone’s costumes! This is priceless! I think I almost saw an emotion on Icy-Hots face!

Even Hitoshi was snickering, trying to hide his smile by pulling his hood up and physically turning away from the rest of the class.

- Well now we know why he was so excited about testing out of English - Hitoshi’s signs were shaky as he tried to control his laughter

Shit, that’s right. He’s supposed to be in English right about now.

Katsuki wiped a single tear from the corner of his eye. - These fuckers don’t know what’s gonna hit them - He signed back, his grin never leaving his face. 

“Wait what do you mean… we’re gonna be your project ?” Dunce Face asked wearily. 

Oh Kami, Izuku’s face was as horrifying as it was hilarious. 

“Well, just from my first impressions, it looks like you guys could really use some help in the… general… costume department. Support Course students have to pick a project to work on throughout the year and this seemed just challenging enough to keep me busy for the whole year! Plus, this’ll be good practice for the real world .” He shrugged and whipped out a tablet, scrolling on it for a bit before attaching it to something on his forearm. “So, if I could have everyone line up, I will separate you into groups to determine the severity of help you will need from me.” He glanced up, making eye contact with Katsuki, grinning wide. “ Bakugo and Shinsou ? You may sit off to the side.. or spar… or whatever I guess.” He said with a flippant wave of his hand, not even looking at them anymore, fully engrossed with his new playthings.

Oh yeah, this was gonna be good . 

*~~*~~*~~*

Izuku watched as a tall student with very spiky black hair eagerly got into the front of the line. The boy suddenly looked confused and raised his hand. “Hey wait, how come those guys don’t need to line up?”

Izuku hummed, flicking through the profiles. “Kirishima Eijiro, right? Your quirk allows you to harden your skin to a rock-like texture. Good for offense and defense.” His eyes flicked up, scanning over his outfit. What’s with the gear-shaped pauldrons on his shoulders? “Could you demonstrate for me please? And try to hold it for as long as you can.”

He was obviously taken aback. “Uh… yeah sure.” He slammed his fists together, hardening them. Izuku pulled out his durometer, pushing the end of it into his skin.

“ Hmm, 7.53. About the same as hardened steel. Interesting. ” Izuku beamed, tossing the durometer back into his bag that had definitely been there the whole time. “Okay! If you could please go stand on the far red line for me, Kirishima-kun!” When the boy didn’t immediately move, Izuku blinked a few times. “Oh! That’s right! I’m sorry, you asked about Katsuki and Toshi! Well I designed their… everything so there’s not much for me to improve at the moment. They’re at the bottom of my list of concerns.”

He could practically feel Katsuki’s smug grin from behind him and suppressed an eye roll. “But that doesn’t make them immune. There’s always room for improvement.” He turned a sharp glare toward the oversized Pomeranian, preening a bit as he wisely kept any snide remarks to himself.

Kirishima rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly, shifting on his feet. “Wow that’s… so manly dude! Red line, yeah?” He quickly jogged over at Izuku’s affirmation.

Izuku almost had to do a double-take at the next student. She looked a lot like Saturnii-chan; pink skin, black sclera– though she had yellow iris’-- a pink afro instead of Saturnii’s golden yellow, and yellow antennae… horns. Add some wings and they could be related! “Hiya! Ashido Mina, atcha service! Gotta say, big fan of your work already. Bakugo’s gauntlets are so super cool and Shinsou’s hood is sick .”

Oh man, she’s just as loud as her outfit. “So what was your design inspiration? Im getting a lot of… textures.”

She shrugged. “I dunno, I like these colors and thought a cute little jacket would be totes adorbs!”

He nodded. “Riiight… And your quirk lets you make acid right? Can you control the pH?”

She grinned wide, holding out her palm and creating a little puddle. “Yep! I can make it just about anywhere and I can control the viscosity and strength! Still working out the kinks though, obviously.”

Izuku tilted his head to the side, giving her a gentle smile. “I think we’ll have a lot of fun together Ashido-chan, please join Kirishima-kun on the red line.”

“Kay!” She skipped over to him, leaning against his arm with a bright smile. 

Next to her was a shock of yellow, black, and white. Literally. He had lightning bolt designs down the lapels and chest of his jacket. “Lemme guess, Electric Type?”

“Aww man! Not you too! Bakugo already calls me Pikachu. Yeah… I’m Kaminari Denki.” He seemed a little deflated.

“Well the costume isn't bad . Just kind of… basic? What’s your wattage limit?” He was already jotting some things down on the tablet.

“Uh, 1.3 million volts. And I can’t really control it once I release my electricity.”

He nodded, making notes. “Like I said, it’s not bad, I just think we can level it up a little. I’d like to get you some gear to help you with controlling your quirk. Armor too. Yellow Line, please.”

He ignored the murmurs from the class, moving on to his next victim student. He had a similar color combo to Kaminari, though his yellow leaned more orange. He had large pauldrons on his shoulders just like Kirishima, though, based on the placement and shape, these actually looked like they provided some kind of support, rather than aesthetic. The extra bit of orange on the cuff of his sleeves and boots created a sense of uniformity and the helmet was a nice touch too. Head injuries were no joke and he really wished more heroes would consider their personal safety as well.

He didn’t even realize he was circling this poor guy until he heard a throat clear from above him, too wrapped up admiring the craftsmanship.

“Hey uh… you got kinda quiet there, Midoriya-kun. Got me worried.” He chuckled, his voice coming out a little tinny through the mask before he removed it, balancing it on his hip with one arm. “I’m Sero Hanta, by the way.” He flexed his elbow, rubbing the back of his neck. “Tape quirk.”

Slight voice modulator too . Or maybe that’s just because he’s not used to talking with it on, yet.

“Quite the opposite, actually. I’m really impressed by the cohesiveness.” Taking a second glance at the helmet, he lit up. “It even looks like a tape dispenser! That’s very clever. Good way to market yourself, and if you’re planning on doing a lot of swinging, the pads on your shoulders would help give you support as you do. I’d maybe recommend a support item to help, well, support your back and neck to prevent whiplash but otherwise I really have no notes! Green line, please!”

Hitoshi whistled from his spot on the bleachers. “Woo! Go green line!”

Sero ducked, hiding his increasingly red face back behind his helmet as quickly shuffled to the lone line.

Izuku had to crane his neck back as the shadow of the next student washed over him. He was easily over six feet tall with his face hidden behind a mask. His biggest feature, though, were the multiple arms spreading from his shoulders. “Ah! Shoji Mezo, correct? How many times can you duplicate your arms? Does your costume inhibit you in any way? Could I see?” He circled around as Shoji grew various limbs from his current three, some spouting eyes, ears, and even a mouth.

“As long as I can move my arms, I’m okay.” His voice was a lot quieter than he expected, coming from such a mountain of a man.

“I see, I see. Plenty of maneuverability in the pants, nice sturdy boots. Yellow Line please!” He nodded silently, making his way to his assigned group.

“I await your judgment with baited breath, oh merciless executioner.”

Izuku paused, fighting the urge to quote Edgar Allen Poe. “I think this is my own form of mercy. I’m gonna guess you’re Tokoyami Fumikage.”

“Indeed.”

Swiping through on the tablet, he chewed on his lip. “Is Dark Shadow able to come out? I’m curious about their reaction to clothing in general.”

“She prefers She/They pronouns, I appreciate you erring on the side of ambiguity. Dark Shadow, please come out and meet our new acquaintance.”

The staticy shadow emerged from Tokoyami’s torso, taking form in front of Izuku’s face. “Hiya! Oooooh , fluffy hair!”

She circled Izuku’s head before sitting on top. She felt exactly as she looked; staticy. Like when you go to pull blankets out of the dryer and feel the hairs on your arms raise before even touching anything.

“Woah.” He grinned, reaching up and petting her gently. “So she gets stronger under the cloak, right?”

Tokoyami nodded. “She is strongest when shrouded by the ebony darkness. Too dark, though, and I begin to lose control.”

Oh man, Toshi must love hearing this guy talk! He chuckled. “Right. I’d like to update the aesthetic a little, maybe give you some back-up options in case your one single cloak is out of commission. Yellow Line, if you’d please!”

Another giant of a student acted like the bread of the Tokoyami sandwich. His skin was pale green with a mohawk of darker green hair. Most notably, though, were the blade-like pincers erupting from the sides of his mouth. “Kamakiri Togaru. Quirk: Razor Sharp.” Izuku muttered.

He grinned, extending two blades from his forearms. “That’s right!” His costume was very… interesting. Again, not terrible but-

“It’s giving… The Legend of Zorro. But I’m not mad at it. Can you extend your blades from any part of your body?”

Kamakiri extended two more blades from the sides of his legs, slicing open his pants in the process. 

He let out a deep sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Okay so I guess the tattered look kind of works in your favor but we’re gonna have a conversation about… all that… Yellow.” 

Izuku laser focused on the floating gloves as he approached the next student, his face barely able to suppress the rage he felt. “Red.”

“Wh- but-!”

He leveled a stare at where he assumed her face was. “Your costume is literally gloves and boots. You cannot convince me in any way that you are actually wearing a suit right now. Red . Line .”

All of a sudden a hella short purple… balled? kid spouted a nosebleed. God is that a diaper and a cape? You can’t be serious. “Y-you mean she’s-”

He whipped to face him eye-to-eye, letting a predatory grin take over his face. “Finish that sentence, diaper boy. I dare you.”

“It’s-it’s not a diaper!”

“Uh-huh and Eraserhead is blonde. Red Line.” He paused. “Actually… Kats! Toshi! Keep an eye on this one for me, kay? Thaaaaanks. ”

He wanted to cry when he got to the next girl. He could tell immediately upon looking at her that her whole schtick was Mushrooms™. Her red dress with white polka dots flared out at the hips, matching her layered socks. But the piece de resistance was her hat. It straight up looked like a mushroom cap, gills and all. “Please tell me you’re Komori-chan.”

She nodded. “Yep, that’s me, shroom.”

A single tear fell down Izuku’s cheek. “Flawless. There’s a few tweaks we could make to really sell Mushroom™ and get you some gear once I understand how your quirk works better but the Fly Agaric is easily the most recognizable of all mushrooms, this is super smart . Green Line please!”

And then his good mood was quickly crushed. “What. Is. That ?”

“My hero costume.”

“No shit Sherlock, thanks . I mean why is half your body in a cocoon ? Is that supposed to be ice ?”

“...yes.”

Izuku face-palmed. “Red!”

The brown-haired girl also from Hitoshi’s exam video was next. Nice space theme. I think Toshi mentioned she didn’t like how skin-tight her costume was though. “Uraraka Ochako, right?”

“Uh yep! That’s me!” She chuckled bashfully, rubbing the back of her neck.

“It’s not bad… could use some improvements… how’s your stability when floating yourself?”

“Eheh, not the greatest… and if I float too much stuff I get motion sick.”

He typed all that out into the tablet. “Noted. We’ll add some pressure points into the design that help ease nausea along with any other stylistic changes you’d like. Yellow please.”

She fidgeted in her place. “I uh… actually don’t feel the most comfortable in this suit. It’s a little… revealing. I-if there was any way I could maybe get help with mine, I dunno… sooner?”

He smiled gently. “Of course Uraraka-chan. I’ll bump you to the top of my list but I’ll keep you in Yellow.”

She nodded, eagerly making her way to the line with a bit of pep in her step. Next to her was a shorter green-haired girl. “I’m Asui Tsuyu, but you can just call me Tsu, ribbit.”

“Well Tsu, I genuinely love your costume. I assume the cold can slow you down, with your frog quirk. Do you have any plans for a winter design?”

“Yep, already got ideas for a neck warmer.”

“Perfect, we’ll get to that before it starts to get too cold out. Green Line!” He glanced up at the very rigid, robotic-looking student next. “Either you’re related to Ingenium, or you have a similar quirk and are a very avid fan.”

The robot bowed deeply, almost knocking Izuku with his helmet. “My name is Iida Tenya. You would be correct in your conclusion, Ingenium is my older brother. I am also a big fan of his.”

Oh yeah, he’s the stick in the mud Toshi and Kacchan were complaining about. “So I can understand the whole aesthetic, y’know. Shiny and chrome. And I can appreciate having armor, something a lot of people here seem to lack… but… doesn't that get hot? I feel like we can streamline this whole thing and really make it less…. Bulky. Though you do have more of a power-house build as opposed to Ingeniums speedster build…. Hmmmmm.. Yellow.”

Beside him was a tall girl with long black hair piled into a spiky ponytail. “You must be Momo Yaoyorozu, the Class Rep! I have so many questions about your quirk but first: why in Kami’s name is there a bookshelf on your backside?”

She blushed bright red, reaching around to grab at the book. “This is my encyclopedia. In case I forget or don’t know the chemical make-up of items I need.”

Izuku blinked a few times, looking down at his tablet pointedly. “Right… no yeah no I get that. I just don’t see a villain willing to wait for you to find the right page and read up on anything… and don’t get me started on your outfit. Red line, please.”

She dutifully joined the others in the red group with barely a huff or indignation, just accepting her criticisms. No wonder she was Class Rep, she had this air of maturity to her. Izuku had to do a double-take at the next girl. She was shorter with straight black hair and also a red outfit, though she wore a hat-visor-thing with a silver fin on top.

“Okay, this is giving Ultraman and I’m living for it if I’m right.”

She nodded. “Mm.” Then she pulled a small rod from her pocket on her hip, increased its size, tossed it in the air and pressed her fingers together. It returned back to its normal size and she caught it easily. 

“Ah. Kodai Yui. Quirk: Size. Well then the Ultraman motif makes a lot of sense since he could change his own size. There’s even the reference to the Color Timer too! I’d love for you to have more storage options and some armor but, otherwise, it’s a great homage to pre-quirk pop culture! Green Line!” He turned to the last girl in the class. “That must make you Yanagi Reiko.”

The pale girl nodded, her arms up in front of her body like they were floating. Her icy gray hair covered one eye and her costume also gave very ghost-like vibes, her black mask covering her lower face. “My quirk is Poltergeist but you already knew that, right?” 

He nodded and grinned. “Yep! I appreciate the dedication to the aesthetic! I can see a lot of inspiration from the legend of the Yuki-onna. There’s some tweaking I’d like to explore but otherwise this is pretty good! Yellow Line.”

His good mood was once again soured by the last student of Class 1A: Yosetsu Awase. His costume was a big brown baggy bunch of bullshit. “… what am I looking at here, dude?” It was essentially brown coveralls with pockets on his hips for his materials and some armored boots.

“Well-“

“Red.” He cut him off, not even willing to hear his explanation. Izuku rubbed his temples, looking over his lists as the groups talked amongst themselves.

This is gonna be a lot more work than I thought.

Chapter Text

Izuku closed his tablet screen with a sigh, looking at Class 1A with a serious face. “Okay. First off let me just make this very clear: if you have any concerns regarding your costumes, please let me know. If any of you are uncomfortable at any point of this process, let me know. I will not shame you or try to force you into something I designed simply because I think it would be best. This is all about getting you guys into better costumes that you can be comfortable doing your future jobs in. Now, on that same note: if you have any suggestions for support gear, designs– literally anything –please also let me know! This is also the time to experiment with your look before you graduate and you’re sort of ‘locked’ into what you’ve got, so I’m all ears for your suggestions. I will be contacting you all through the school emails so please – for the love of Kami– check your emails .” 

He leveled a pointed stare at the more… troublemaker-looking students. “I will sic Katsuki on anyone that doesn’t respond within 48 hours, I don’t have time to hunt you down myself. That includes weekends.” He suddenly brightened. “Okay, well, Eraserhead-sensei? I just need Yaoyorozu-chan, Hagakure-chan, and Uraraka-chan until the end of the class if I may.”

The yellow sleeping bag grunted, their teacher climbing out of his cocoon. “Just call me Aizawa, kid.” He glared at his class, assessing their sorted groups. “Everyone but Yaoyorozu, Hagakure, and Uraraka, pair up and start Quirkless Sparring. Yes, Iida, one group will have three people. Figure it out.” And with that, he was climbing back into his bag, though Izuku could tell he was still somehow keeping an eye on his students. Impressive.

He grinned as the three girls came up to him, whipping out a notebook. “Okay, so I’d like to schedule to have you guys come into the Lab preferably tomorrow to get your measurements– I’ll talk to Eraserhead-sensei about that – but I’d like to go one-by-one and get more details about you, your quirks, and your design inspiration.” He raised an eyebrow at Hagakure’s general face area. “If there is any.”

“H-hey!” She sputtered, her gloves moving as if she was crossing her arms. “I thought it was smart! I’m meant for stealth!”

He blinked. “Right, so let’s say you were to face off against… I dunno Todoroki-kun? He would freeze the entire area and you would easily get frostbite. If you’re totally invisible with no way to turn it off, no one would be able to find you and you would die .” He crossed his arms. “I’m not being harsh to be mean, it’s a serious safety risk and whoever approved giving you gloves and boots as a costume deserves to have their license revoked. But since I can’t do anything about that… yet… the least I can do is make sure you’re protected.”

He flipped open his notebook, showing some preliminary sketches. “I’m not sure about what kind of aesthetic you were wanting, but I was thinking of incorporating see-through iridescent armor pieces for now, elbow and knee pads and maybe some kind of visor that way when you’re doing team exercises, your teammates can actually see like… where your face is and where you’re looking.” He sighed woefully. “Ideally we’d get you a costume made of your DNA, that way it can go as invisible as you but they don’t even begin to teach us about DNA suits until second year at the earliest… plus I’ve heard it’s expensive and they try not to use it until you’ve finished growing…”

He brightened suddenly, snapping out of it before he could fall down the ‘muttering rabbit-hole’ so to speak. “But that’s okay! That just means I can try my hand at a cloaking technology! Or maybe camouflage!”

The gloves fidgeted in the air. “Well… I do like the idea of iridescent pieces. I guess my aesthetic would be like… Pre-quirk Vaporwave?”

“Oh yeah, I can work with Vaporwave. I’ll have some better sketches for you tomorrow.” He turned to Uraraka. “Alrighty Uraraka-chan, what do you like about your costume?”

She pushed her index fingers together in thought. “I like the colors… and the space theming since my quirk is about gravity. I like that my boots are shock-absorbing too. Um… I like the idea of my helmet but it doesn’t exactly stay on well when I float.”

“Hmmm…” He tapped his pencil against his chin. “And you mentioned you didn’t like how skin-tight it is, right?” She nodded. “Well, I can see the benefits to having a tighter costume purely to help maintain pressure as you float– I assume you also feel the effects of everything you float and that’s why you get nauseous after using your quirk too much. So what if we did a tighter underlayer with some pressure point spots built into the wrist, below your knee and I think there’s some on your stomach and back too… then we could have a less form-fitting top layer for armor. I also like the boots, but I think we can slim them down…” He sketched out some crude ideas, almost unable to stop his hand. “Okay, yeah we can give you a huge upgrade. Really sell the space-age look too.”

Once he finished up his current doodle, he then turned to Yaoyorozu, placing his hands on his hips. “Same question Yaoyorozu-chan. What do you like about your costume?”

The tall girl cleared her throat, suddenly standing much straighter. “Well, I enjoy my color scheme as well. I have excellent access to well– my body as I create things. I feel good wearing this so I really don’t see any issue with my costume.”

Izuku pursed his lips. “Could you make a few things for me? I’d like your favorite thing to make, something you feel you would use in the field often, a large flat item maybe like a shield, and a long-thin item like a sword. Dealer's choice.” He held up a hand before she could start. “All without consulting your book, please.”

He watched as parts of her body sparkled with blue and pink light. She then produced a Matryoshka doll, bow staff, a medieval looking shield, and a matching sword from various parts of her body. “Hmm.. You tend to favor your arms and torso… What would you do in a situation where you have to create a very, very large item? I obviously won’t ask you to do that now.”

She nodded. “Depending on the complexity of the item and the situation at hand I would likely opt to use my back, still allowing myself the freedom to fight if necessary. However, if I am able to, I’d prefer to use my chest.”

Izuku sighed. “Of course… Well, how would you feel about a two-piece suit? Maybe some shorts? I also think a helmet or visor would be a good idea, I could even add some interfacing to it and give you immediate access to any chemical compositions you might need on the fly. I know you could probably create your own armor as you need but like Hagakure, I think elbow and knee pads would be a good idea. Pockets too. Everyone is getting more pockets. You’re literally going to be running around and making things from the lipids in your body, you’re going to need on-the-go snacks.”

Yaoyorozu blinked at the word-vomit but still took it in stride. “I-I would be open to suggestions, I suppose.”

“Great! Again, I’ll have more for you guys whenever we meet up for measurements.” His watch beeped, warning him that class would end in ten minutes. “Well, I’ll let you guys go!” He grinned, skipping over to a sparring Katsuki and Hitoshi to annoy them until the end of the period.

*~~*~~*~~*~~*

The next day the entire school was buzzing about the news. At the end of the previous day, Thirteen-sensei had discovered roughly twenty low-level villains trying to break out of the Unforeseen Simulation Joint along with a lot of property damage inside. The fountain in the central hub was completely cracked and disintegrated along with a large portion of the main stairwell. A few of the goons were also injured, similar cracks appearing on their bodies. Those not rushed to the hospital were taken into custody. Weirdly enough, there were no signs of forced entry, and none of the alarms were triggered. Thirteen was pretty livid, too. Apparently that whole building was like their baby and someone managed to fuck it all up. They wouldn’t be able to do Rescue Training until it was all fixed either.

It was a big fucking mystery, sure, but it was also a huge fucking headache. Katsuki was really getting tired of Raccoon Eyes spouting off the newest theories and rumors from the grape vine. Thankfully he could blow off steam with their next class: gym. Aizawa stalked into the room with a sigh. 

“Yaoyorozu, Hagakure, Uraraka. After you change into your gym uniforms, go to class 1H for your meeting with Midoriya. Everyone else, business as usual.”

Hitoshi chuckled. “Good luck guys. Even we aren’t brave enough to actually go to the lab after all the stories Izuku’s shared.”

Katsuki smirked at their terrified faces. “Yeah, don’t die.”

*~~*~~*~~*~~*

Ochaco wasn’t gonna lie; she was nervous. Her only solace was knowing she wasn’t walking into the unknown alone. Thankfully Yaomomo offered to be the one to knock. 

“I feel it is my duty as Class Representative to be the one to take initiative.”

The second her knuckles rapped against the large door, it flew open.

“Right on time guys! Come on in!” Midoriya beamed, a pencil tucked behind one ear, measuring tape draped across his neck. He didn’t have his hair up in a bun like the previous day, his green curls jumping all over the place as he led them inside. The classroom itself was surprisingly empty; only half the amount of desks as in their homeroom. Two other students in similar coveralls to Midoriya were also present.

One was tan with curly lilac hair, their coveralls tied at the waist and sporting a dark blue tank top, while the other made Ochaco do a double-take. She almost thought Mina had snuck in, only they had a bigger Afro and it was sunshine yellow with fuzzy antennae, paler pink skin and big beautiful wings folded neatly behind their back.

“Heya, I’m Kinzoku Mana. They/Them.” They gave a two-finger salute from their perch on top of their desk.

“My name is Saturnii Kaede. She/They. Nice to meet you.” Her voice was soft, almost shy, as she bowed slightly, her hands folded in front of her. Totally the opposite of Mina-Chan!

The girls did their introductions, not even noticing that Izuku was setting up his own little station at a different desk. “I invited Saturnii-Chan and Cheshy here to help me with your measurements! I figured it would be more comfortable for you guys if I wasn’t getting all up in your personal space. That and Cheshire here is my partner for this project, of sorts, and Saturnii-chan’s main focus in the Support Department is Costuming!”

Aw, that’s actually super thoughtful!

Ochaco chuckled, rubbing the back of her neck. “Oh man I’m not gonna lie, I was pretty nervous. Thanks Midoriya-kun!”

*~~*~~*~~*~~*

Cheshy and Saturnii worked great as a team, making sure they were taking all the right measurements and jotting them down on their provided charts. All without ever calling out any numbers for total privacy. Once they finished measuring a girl, they would usher them to Izuku to go over some of his more detailed sketches.

Uraraka went first.

Izuku had three pages full of ideas. “So, I was thinking we could lean heavy into the space theme and did some research on a bunch of different astronaut suits.” The first page featured the bodysuit. It was long sleeved and full body, featuring a slight turtleneck. The main color was the same dark black-almost-purple of her stripes in her original suit, but had a bunch of random lines in a dark magenta all over the suit.

“So this is where we can imbed the small pressure points to help with nausea and I thought these lines would be cool; they kind of mimic the visualization of gravitational pull.”

“Woah, cool!”

He pointed to the next page, featuring different sets of outer-outfits. “Any thoughts on these options?”

One looked pretty retro; a baby pink outfit with a funky collar, flared out circular skirt, and a fishbowl helmet. Another was very similar to Thirteen’s costume; puffy at the arms and legs and slightly baggy, though still in that baby pink with magenta accents. It also featured a belt similar to her previous design, though it meshed into the design and looked like one of the puffs of the suit. The third featured a crop top version of the old pre-quirk Space X uniforms, except in her color scheme. The pants tucked into knee-high, shock absorbing boots and even offered magenta fingerless gloves.

She pointed to the last one. “I like this one the best! Could we still include a belt like the second one? I also like the helmet of the first design.”

Izuku nodded, flipping over to the third page. “That’s where these come in!” It was all just sketches of different gear and support items. “So I thought the clear bubble helmet would be best to prevent having any blind spots while also protecting your noggin but it could also be cumbersome or claustrophobic so -“ he pointed to an odd-looking neck piece- “this would connect to your shirt with straps under your arms and ideally there would be a foldable clear helmet inside that you can activate when you need it.” 

He then pointed out an earpiece that had a similar design to her current helmet with a small antennae poking out. “Then this would be a communication device! I want to incorporate them into everyone’s costumes but it’ll be super helpful for whenever you’re wearing your helmet.”

Below that was a sketch for a belt with lots of notes scribbled down around it. “The great thing about belts is that they can be easily customized so whatever preferences you have, we can make it work. I’ll include some pouches too.”

Uraraka nodded, clenching her fists in a ‘let’s do this’ pose, and puffing out her cheeks. “Sounds like a plan, Midoriya-kun! I can’t believe you did all this in one night!”

He chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck a little. “What can I say? I’m really passionate about this kind of stuff, once I get started it’s hard for me to stop.”

“Well then I suppose it’s a good thing you opted for such a difficult project.” Yaoyorozu’s amused voice chimed out above them. She was finished with her measurements, waiting patiently behind Uraraka and stealing curious looks at Izuku’s papers.

“Oh! You all done Yaomomo?” Uraraka started to get up, but was waved down by the taller girl.

“I can wait until you and Midoriya-kun are done. I just couldn’t contain my curiosity.” She ducked her head, hiding her pink cheeks. 

Izuku decided to save her from the embarrassment. “No worries, Yaoyorozu-Chan. We were just finishing up! Unless there was anything else you wanted to change Uraraka-Chan?”

The brunette shook her head, grinning wide. “Nope! Although… you’re friends with Bakugo, right?” He nodded. “Why doesn’t he call anyone by their actual names? Like no matter how many times I’ve told him my name, he always calls me Pink Cheeks!”

Yaoyorozu nodded, a finger on her chin. “Yes, he often calls me Ponytail.”

“Yeah and I’m Invisibitch! Like, how rude!” Hagakure called out. She must have been flapping her arms around because the measuring tapes around her were flinging around all over the place. 

Izuku snickered. “Katsuki’s weird about names. I mean he still calls Toshi ‘Eyebags’ sometimes, and we’re all best friends.” He rolled his eyes fondly. “It’s never anything personal. I think he secretly does it as a way to try and make friends, so I wouldn’t take it too personally. He can be a little emotionally constipated sometimes.” He grinned. “ Buuut if you guys don’t like your nicknames, or if he’s giving you crap and you don’t wanna put up with him, I give you full permission to use my nickname for him… Kacchan .”

Uraraka sputtered. “Oh man, you sure he won’t blow us up if we call him that?”

Izuku shook his head, his shit eating grin widening. “Nah, if anything it’ll make him really confused and give you an opening to run.” His face suddenly returned to normal. “Anyway! Yaoyorozu-Chan, please have a seat!”

They continued their meetings, Yaoyorozu and Hagakure both being a bit more particular about their looks but eventually they had a consensus with a few minutes to spare before their next class. Cheshy and Saturnii-Chan even joined in, giving little pointers to make the final costumes more fashionable.

“I can’t wait to see my finished costume, Mido-kun! I’m so excited!!” Hagakure squealed, invisible arms suddenly wrapped around his shoulders for a quick hug. Izuku sputtered a bit, caught off guard by the trippy sensation of feeling her arms but not being able to see them. 

“No problem Hagakure-Chan!” Yeah… he was already itching to start sewing.

Chapter Text

Mana knew exactly what their Hero Costume was going to look like. They’ve always been inspired by the Wild Wild Pussycats so, naturally, their design was heavily influenced. They kept the cropped tank-top idea, but made it lavender with horizontal magenta stripes and some armor plating. They added a lightly-padded bolero shrug– also lavender– and switched out the layered skirt for comfortable, baggy pants. Those would then get tucked into their calf-high, darker purple combat boots with special openings in the front so their claws could actually be used.

Mido had cringed at their original thought to keep their boots fur-lined, like the Pussycats. They could still hear Saturnii’s disappointed voice in their head. “If you’re planning on doing Undercover Heroics, you never know what you might have to crawl through… fur kind of picks everything up.”

Right… Add knee pads and try to find anti-microbial kevlar…

Making the costume was the easy part… relatively. There certainly is a learning curve when it comes to sewing these higher-tech fabrics with high-powered machines. Mana nearly lost a nail during one of their attempts! Their gear, however, that’s where they ran into a bit of a standstill. Sure, making custom boots to allow her nails to come through while still offering protection sounded great in theory, but aside from making those atrocious-looking “foot shoes” where each toe would be separated, they were running low on practical ideas.

Chikeisei came to their station one day after they threw Prototype #4 into the trash. “I-I couldn’t help but hear your frustration…” He offhandedly motioned to his satellite-like ears. “Anything I can maybe help with?”

They looked up and were struck with inspiration. “Actually… yeah! Can you tell me more about your quirk?”

*~~*~~*

One eye-opening conversation later, and Mana had drafted up some sonar-ears. It was a headpiece that looked similar to the Wild Wild Pussycats, but the ears could move in any direction and connected to the earpiece, allowing them to hear further out than normal. Chikeisei was a god when it came to tech. Not only did his quirk, Sputnik, let him hear further away than most people, but he was also weirdly in-tune with anything that had a frequency, pun intended. If anything, enhanced hearing was probably just an added bonus to his actual technomancy quirk but Mana would have to do more tests to prove that theory correct.

Anyway, getting back on topic, Mana had one official piece of gear ready to go and was in the creating groove! They got back to work, creating platform combat boots with holes in the front that could open and close to allow their claws to come out whenever they needed. In the soles themselves were concealed springs, allowing them to take longer strides with less effort and– if they crouched and stored up that kinetic energy– even jump significantly higher than without! All while still passing the Green Bean Safety Seal of Approval!

Speaking of, said Bean Boy was some kind of alien or God, they swear. He already had Yaoyorozu-chan’s costume finished (though hers was probably the easiest– less materials relatively), Hagakure-chan’s most of the way done (just working on perfecting those pretty iridescent plates), and Uraraka-chan’s patterned and ready to sew. All of their gear was in various stages of completion as well. No normal human could actually get all that done in five days, right? Oh, well, just means Mana made the right choice in befriending him!

Mana’s favorite part of all of this though was taking the gear to the girls. Mido would pull them off to the side to go over the specs and teach them how to use it and Mana would slip into whatever spar they got pulled from. It was such a thrill getting to duke it out with 1A, these kids were good and Mana was no slacker. They took boxing lessons at seven and added Muay Thai the second they turned nine, so going up against the up and close fighters was their personal favorite.

Shinsou was fun to spar with. He was very slinky and hard to get a grasp on, then he’d suddenly appear behind you and show just how strong he really was with a few good hits, only to return back to slinking away. It was like a game of cat and mouse, perfect for an Underground hopeful.
Shoji-kun was… terrifying to spar against. His height alone was intimidating but add on to the fact that his one punch could actually equate to who knows how many punches? He definitely made them think on their feet trying to avoid his attacks, but he was also kind enough to back off occasionally and let them take control of the fight.
Ashido-chan was also pretty scary to fight against, not gonna lie. She obviously has some kind of dance background based on the way she moves during their matches. She’s very light on her feet and keeps her momentum going even while dodging attacks, almost like she’s finding a rhythm in the fight. She also talks a lot while she fights, making little quips or asking questions out of the blue to try and throw Mana off their game. Mana takes back their previous statement, actually. Ashido is a lot of fun to spar against.
Kirishima-kun, however, was their best match-up for sparring, and their favorite too. His quirk meant they didn’t have to hold back using their own. They also had pretty similar fighting styles, wanting to get up close and personal right away. He was also super friendly, constantly complimenting them on their improvements and helping them with their form.

—

“Man, you’ve been getting quicker on your feet Kinzoku! You took down Mineta in no time flat!”

They grinned, standing up from pinning Mineta and wiping their hands off on their pant legs. “Thanks Kiri! I’ve been putting in more time on the treadmill, working on my cardio.”

He tossed them a water bottle, grinning wide. “Super manly– ah I didn’t mean it like that-”

They chuckled, snapping him out of his spiral and taking a swig from their bottle. “No worries Kirishima. I know you don’t mean it literally.” They sat down on the edge of the bleachers, watching the rest of the matches that were still going. Their muscles were sore from all the workouts but it was just a physical reminder of how much more they needed to improve to actually join this class.

His whole body relaxed as he plopped into the bleachers next to them. “Thank goodness! Misgendering anyone is totally an unmanly thing to do.” He looked out at his fellow classmates with a bit of sadness behind his eyes.

“Everything good, Kirishima?”

He flinched, rubbing the back of his neck. “Geez, yeah… I just… I feel like I get lost in the crowd of them sometimes, y’know? Bakubro and Kaminari are so flashy with their quirks and it's hard to miss Mina with her energy. Sero and Shoji are super tall… I feel like I won’t be a standout Limelight Hero with what I got going on…” He turned to them, looking almost like a kicked puppy dog.

They flicked his forehead with a scoff. “Bro, just dye your hair. That’s what I do to stand out.” They pointed up to their hair, now black on top and green underneath– yes directly inverse of Midoriya and yes it confused so many people. Maybe Mido’s gremlin ways were rubbing off on them. “Or blend in.” They smirked mischievously.

Looking up at his signature black spikes, Mana thought back to one of their more intense sparring sessions. Quirks were out in full force but they could tell something was different about this match. Kiri was thinking extra hard about his movements and was definitely holding back, almost like he was afraid. Of what Mana wasn’t too sure, but they could have sworn every now and then they saw faint lines of red lightning arching off of his arms when he got close enough. No one else seemed to notice, so they never mentioned it to anyone. Maybe they were just overworking themselves to the point of seeing things but-

“I think you’d look cool with red hair.”

His eyes flashed wide. “Woah… you really think so? Red’s my favorite color so I’ve always kind of wanted to but…” He clenched his fists, getting riled up. “Oh man, that would be super manly and flashy! You’re obviously a pro at this kinda stuff, think you could give me a few pointers?”

They chuckled, whipping out their phone and opening up a new contact. “I’ll do you one better. Put in your number and I’ll help you out in person. My dads got some stuff in his arsenal that’ll get even the blackest of hair pure white with minimal damage. He might even have the perfect red for you too. How ya feel about crimson?”

The grin on Kirishima’s face was totally worth the potential staining that was going to occur in their bathroom.

—

Most of the students seemed to like Mana and were very encouraging in their efforts to try and transfer classes. They would teach them different styles and moves in their fights without holding back on their own, always coming at them with full force, Quirks or not.

One student, however, really confused Mana.

“Hey Midobro, can I take a look at the 1A roster real quick?”

He rolled his eyes with a scoff and a chuckle. “You’re hanging out with Kirishima-kun too much. But yeah, tablets in the drawer. What’s up?”

They pulled it out, flicking to the profile. “Yeah that’s what I thought. Todoroki’s quirk is half-hot-half-cold— which, ew, what a mouthful. But I’ve only ever seen him fully use his ice to attack, never his fire. Most he’ll do is melt the ice after a spar or whatever… with a dual quirk like his, that could be really dangerous.”

That caught Midoriya’s attention, pulling him from Uraraka’s boots. “Y’know, I was wondering why his hideous costume encased like… half his body in ice. He’s got the scar on that side, maybe there’s some trauma? Elemental and dual quirks can be pretty unwieldy and he’s got both.” He pursed his lips. “Yaomomo’s case is almost finished, once I get PL-sensei’s approval, I’ll call in Todoroki and start working on him, maybe I can get some answers from him.”

They sighed, still focused on the tablet, reading the notes that Mido jotted down after reviewing the Battle Trial footage. “Yeah, sounds like a plan.”

*~~*~~*~~*

“Hey Todoroki, can I ask you something? Y’know… seeing as we might be here a while.”

Heterochromatic eyes flitted up to meet lilac. Todoroki was currently melting the ice around Mana after their most recent sparring match. He nodded almost imperceptibly, turning back to his work. Mana took a breath, trying to keep their cool despite literally being on ice.

“Sooo… Why don’t you use your fire side more? It would be really hard for a lot of people to get up close and personal if you used-“

“I refuse to use my left side in a fight.” His hardened voice cut through the air, making Mana flinch back at the sudden intense aura radiating off of Todoroki.

They met his steely gaze, proud of themselves for not backing down. Nevermind that they were still literally frozen in place and didn’t really have a choice. Okay… don’t get distracted by his pretty eyes. “Well that’s stupid.” Shit!

He startled, his eyes widening for a fraction of a second before he collected himself. Mana felt the heat flare up, ice melting faster. “I didn’t ask for your opinion.” He gritted out, turning back to the task at hand.

Oh my Kami, Mana, fix this! He’s just a boy, no need to get stupid around him.

The last of the ice shed off their body and it took all of their willpower to control the shaking. “You didn’t have to. Perks of sparring with a support course student, a lot of us don’t have a filter.”

He huffed, sharply turning and marching away without another word.

“Yeah, nice sparring with you too!” They called out with a pout, replacing their claw caps. Gonna have to talk to Midoriya about his aversion to fire… Kami, he's intense… Maybe I can get some tea from Kiri this weekend when he comes over for his hair dye sesh.

Chapter Text

Izuku could tell Cheshy was nervous about the Sports Festival. Ever since PL-sensei (he hates loves that nickname) announced they had two weeks before the big event, they had been in the Lab just as much if not more than him. Granted, a lot of their fellow classmates had the same idea; churn out as much gear you could so that you could show everything off to the potential investors. Cheshy though, they were preparing for battle.

They made various weapons, general support gear like grappling hooks and smoke bombs, and improved on some designs they’d eventually use for their own Hero Costume. But the thing they spent the most amount of time on? Figuring out how to combat the Hero Courses quirks.

Unfortunately, they only had access to 1A’s files. Even though Hatsume was somehow green-lit to work on stuff for 1B, she didn’t have the same access Izuku did. Hatsume also wasn’t too keen on sharing any details regarding the 1B kids— or more likely— she forgets all about them the second they leave the Lab… Either way, Cheshy is stuck going into this thing half-blind.

“Well I know the main power houses from 1A are definitely gonna be Bakugo, Todoroki, Yaomomo, Iida, Tsu, and Kirishima. Kaminari and Kimori have great long-distance attacks too. Maybe I should install rubber soles into my shoes… my claws thankfully aren’t very conductive, otherwise I’d be screwed trying to use the escrima sticks…”

Izuku chuckled, waving a hand in front of their face. “Cheshyyyy~ You’re picking up my muttering habit again~!” He hummed in a sing-song voice. “Besides, I think you’ve got a really good chance at winning this whole thing. Gear or no gear.”

Cheshy rolled their eyes. “Mido… my sweet Green Bean. Have you actually seen Todoroki’s ice? Yaomomo can create anything , Tsu is a beast when it comes to capturing people, Iida’s speed is unmatchable. These guys are leagues ahead of me, my gear has to be perfect .”

Izuku sighed, looking them straight in the eye. “I know it feels that way, but while they’ve been taking their classes and meeting with me about their costumes, you’ve been watching them. You’ve made stuff to counter almost everyone’s quirks and you’ve put so many hours into the gyms here after school. I believe in you. I need you to start believing in yourself.”

Cheshy took a deep breath, fighting back a grin. “Who are you and what did you do to my friend? Midobro would never be this serious around me.” They let out a sigh before flopping onto the table. “You’re right… I’ve got contingency plans out the wazoo but I just can’t seem to find a weakness in a certain exploding pomeranian.” They let out another, dramatic, sigh. “ If only there was someone who had grown up with the raging puffball and knew of any weaknesses and would be willing to share .”

They met his eyes, trying to make a puppy dog face, but Izuku was already grinning ear-to-ear. “Oh I know exactly what you need.”

*~~*~~*~~*~~*

“ It’s Yuuei’s Sports Festival!! The one time each year our fledgling heroes compete in a ruthless grand battle!! ”

Present Mic’s voice boomed over the crowd, echoing down the hallways as each class waited for their grand entrance.

“ We’ve got the Hero Courses, Class 1A and 1B! Following them are classes C, D, and E of General Studies! Here comes the Support Course classes F, G, and H! And the Business Courses I, J, and K! Give it up for all of Yuuei’s first-year contestants! ”

There was a bigger crowd than Izuku was expecting. He could feel their excitement from the field. “I would have thought the third-years festival would be more popular. They were always my favorite to watch back home.”

Marudo slung an arm over his shoulder. “Don’t tell me you're nervous Midoriya!”

He shook his head with a scoff. “Far from it. I’m more worried about Cheshire.” He looked around Marudo to check on them. They had their goggles perched on the top of their head, gadgets galore strapped across their body. They seemed confident, though, doing a good job of keeping their chin up and shoulders out.

“Ohh yeah, if they do a good enough job here, there’s a chance they can transfer to the Hero course, yeah?”

He nodded. “Yeah. They’ve been training hard.”

A whip cracked out as Midnight took the stage. “Now for the Athlete’s Oath!”

Oh boy.

“From Class 1A, your student representative; Bakugo Katsuki!”

Murmurs erupted from 1A as Katsuki took the stage. He finished first in the Hero Entrance Exam. Makes sense he’d be chosen for the big speech. “Get ready guys.”

“The Athlete’s Oath…” Kacchan drawled, shoving his hands in his pockets. “In the name of all competitors, I pledge that we shall participate in this Festival, respecting and abiding by the rules that govern them, in the true spirit of sportsmanship, for the glory of sport and the honor of our classes…” He smirked, leaning into the microphone. “Just try and keep up, extras.”

All of the classes erupted in outrage– well all except 1A and 1H but for two very different reasons. Most of the student body was booing him, calling him an overconfident jerk, while 1A was just trying to cover their asses. 1H? Oh, they were having the time of their lives, practically busting out the popcorn.

See, 1H had gotten to know all about Kacchan’s antics thanks to Izuku’s stories, so this wasn’t really unexpected to them. That and, besides Cheshire, none of them were really taking these games seriously. They were just a stepping stone to show off their designs– free marketing even!

“Now, without any delay, let’s get the first event started!” A screen behind Midnight flickered to life, scrolling through various options before landing on:

OBSTACLE COURSE RACE

“It’s a race between every student. The course is a four-kilometer lap around the stadium itself! Our school preaches freedom in all things, so as long as you stay on the course, anything is fair game! I don’t want to restrain you, at least not yet .” She smirked.

The giant gate sprung up from the ground, the students gathering in front. Izuku hung out towards the back, catching a shock of purple hair nearby and shaking his head fondly. He just can’t resist giving himself a challenge, can he?

“Racers to your positions!”

The lights faded out one by one and the tension grew within the crowd.

“Begin!” Midnight shouted as the final light went out. All at once, the students swarmed to the small opening. 

“ And we’re off to a racing start! Here in the commentary booth is none other than Eraserhead himself! Say hi to our listeners at home! ”

“...How did I let you talk me into this?”

Izuku snickered at their banter, watching as the students tried to force their way through the gap. This is the first obstacle … He, however, did not move from his spot. Instead he busted out his tablet, watching the big screens from the middle of the field. He wasn’t the only one either, in fact, most of the Business Course was right there with him.

“It will be interesting to see which students show the most potential for stock investments. Do you have any opinions?”

“Todoroki is a safe bet, low risk high reward. Just look at how he cleared the first blockade.”

It was like he said, Todoroki had frozen the entire entry-way, catching a lot of students in the fray. However, that didn’t stop Kacchan! He blasted through the ice, using that momentum to carry him forward. He wasn’t the only one undeterred either; Yaoyorozu, Kirishima– a good chunk of 1A actually managed to dodge the blast.

They must have gotten used to his attacks… He really needs to work on switching it up…

Cheshy slipped through, skating on the ice with their specialized boots, Mineta on their trail. He said something when suddenly he got wrecked by a big robot.

Oh! Those are the same robots as the entrance exam!

“ That’s right folks! Every obstacle course needs obstacles! We’re in for a real treat! A test of strength and cunning: A ROBO INFERNO! ”

The ground trembled as not one, not two, but seven Zero Pointer robots emerged, blocking the path in front of Todoroki. Izuku could feel the air around them get colder as he froze all of them on the spot .

He froze them off balance…

And just like that, they shuddered and collapsed upon themselves, dust kicking up and blocking the camera feeds.

“ That’s Todoroki Shoto from Class 1A, busting through and creating an early lead while sabotaging the others in one fell swoop! This guy’s cold ! ”

While the other students fought against the remaining robots, there was movement from underneath one of the Zero Pointers on the screen. Suddenly, a pop of bright red burst through.

“ 1As Kirishima Eijiro was crushed under the Zero pointer! Good thing his quirk let him tough it out! ”

There was more movement as a guy made entirely of silver also burst through.

“ 1Bs Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu was also flattened! Just adding on to Todoroki’s ruthless strategy! ”

Oh, his quirk must be similar to Kirishima’s! Almost looked like his skin turned into metal. I wonder how heat resistant he is like that– ooh look Kacchan is going over the carnage! Sero and Tokoyami followed him too. Cheshy joined Iida in smashing some of the smaller bots and– WOAH! Yaoyorozu just made a canon to take down the last Zero Pointer!

“ Well, if you thought the first obstacle was easy, let’s see how you feel about the second?! Fall and you’re OUT! If you wanna pass this, you gotta get creative! This is… The Fall !! ”

“So loud…”

Oh man I might join in now just to try crossing that! It looks fun ! … wait, when did she get there?

Hatsume somehow made it to the front of the pack with Cheshy. Izuku could tell just from her stance she was laughing maniacally. He’s never been more thankful that the feed didn’t have audio, though he could practically hear her spouting off about her “babies”. All of a sudden she shot out two wires and jumped , her boots hovering off the surface of the pillars and gliding her up as the wires retracted. Cheshy had something similar but way more compact. They designed sleek grappling hook bracelets, firing them both off and using a similar strategy to Hatsume, but their boots have springs in the heels, giving them a jumping boost while using their upper body strength to launch themself forward.

Come on, close that gap Cheshy.

“ Woo! We got some fancy digs from Hatsume Mei and Kinzoku Mana both from Support Course 1H! To help even the playing field, Support Students are allowed to bring any equipment they made themselves! Got anything to add, Eraser? ”

“...They’re both using similar tech to clear the pit, however Hatsume is utilizing some kind of hover tech in her boots to aid her climbing, while Kinzoku is utilizing spring-powered boots and upper body strength.”

“ Astute observation! Can’t wait to see what other gadgets the little listeners bust out! ”

Off in the corner of the screen, Izuku could just see Hitoshi hanging underneath one of the ropes, carefully making his way across. Kacchan, Todoroki, Iida and Sero had all already crossed, making their way to the last obstacle. 

“ Our leader has made it to the last obstacle, folks! Watch your step, listeners cuz you’re entering a MINE FIELD!! If you look close enough you can see where the little guys are buried, so keep an eye out! By the way, just a little disclaimer: these mines were designed specifically for these games so while they may be loud and flashy, they’re not all that powerful. Just enough to make you wet your pants!! ”

“Get a hold of yourself, Mic.”

The screen was filled with pink explosions as students made their way across, some of them flying off the course.

Interesting. Those in the lead are actually at a disadvantage. You'd have to go slower to avoid getting blown up but either way, you’re at risk of losing your lead. Ohp there goes Kacchan!

The cameras panned to Katsuki as he flew over the mines, mouthing-off something to Todoroki and aiming an explosion towards him.

“ What’s this?! A new challenger takes the lead! And the rest of the pack is catching up quick! ”

They exchanged blows, constantly edging out each other. With every explosion, Todoroki would parry with his ice, slowing each other down. Just like Present Mic said, the other students were catching up quickly. Iida easily ran faster than the mines could go off. Someone with literal vines for hair used them to carry themselves across the field while avoiding the bombs, another student touched his hands to the ground, sinking into it and slipping through it like mud. Yaoyorozu created a long staff out of the palm of her hand, using that to vault herself over the larger clusters of the mines. Even Tsu was having some difficulties, having to slow down to a literal crawl to avoid blowing herself up.

Izuku could smell the burnt caramel coming from the exit tunnel and he just knew Katsuki was getting close.

“ It’s an all-out brawl for first place! Todoroki and Bakugo just won't quit even as they’ve cleared the minefield! They’re neck and neck! Who will emerge victorious?! It’s- ”

The crowd erupted as both Todoroki and Kacchan tumbled out of the tunnel, still attempting to shove the other back.

“ Looks like it’s a photo-finish folks! Keep up that applause while the rest of the racers cross that finish line! We’ll go over the footage, ya dig?!  ”

Chapter Text

One by one, the rest of the students that made it past all the obstacles crossed the finish line. Katsuki had immediately stalked over to Izuku once he and Todoroki were separated, a permanent scowl imprinted on his face. 

“ Kacchan .” Izuku hissed, nudging his side. “Fix your face, you still got cameras on you. Plus, the business students kept talking about your promotability! Since you didn’t just breeze through all the obstacles without much second thought while also potentially, y’know… causing harm to other students… so you got that over Todoroki-kun even if you didn’t manage first place.”

He huffed, glaring down at Izuku for a split second before shoving his hands in his pockets and forcing a neutral face. “...yeah whatever.”

Izuku beamed. “There ya go! We’d hate for Uncle Junichi’s media lessons to go to waste, right?”

“Why’re we talking about my dad?” A monotone voice drawled from behind them, making them whip their heads around.

“Toshi! Hey, you did a pretty good job avoiding the cameras! They really only caught you at the pit.”

He chuckled. “Yeaah.. Kinda hard to avoid them in a big open field like that.” He shrugged as if to say ‘what can you do’. “You and Todoroki really duked it out, huh?” He nodded at the residual frost that still lingered on Katsuki’s arm.

“Tch. Icy-Hot bastard just coasted by like he was lookin’ down on all of us. Someone had to put him in his place.”

“ Alriiiiight! The last of the racers have finished and we have the official results! Take it away Midnight! ” Present Mic’s voice boomed across the stadium as the little helper robots corralled the students back in front of the stage.

Midnight cracked her leather flogger with a lick of her lips and a sway of her hips. “So… it’s finally over. What a wonderful display of the passion of youth~. Now, in the matter of First Place–”

A large screen came to life behind her, showing the moment Katsuki and Todoroki crossed. It zoomed in on Todoroki’s elbow, circling it with a big red mark.

“Todoroki takes it by the cubitus!” The crowd erupted once more while Katsuki silently simmered. “What a thrilling conclusion to the first game~ Let’s take a look at the standings!”

“Only the top forty-two will move on to the next round, but don’t feel too down if you didn’t make the cut. We prepared other opportunities for you to shine~ Now the real fun can begin!” With another whip of her flog, the screen changed to a roulette wheel. “What will it be? The waiting is torture~ Prepare yourselves… for this! ”

CALVARY BATTLE

The screen changed to show an example photo of Present Mic and Thirteen carrying All Might. “You will form teams of two to four members and get into a horse-and-rider formation. The rules are essentially the same as on the playground but with one fun twist~ Each of you have been assigned a point value based on your ranking in the event. They go up in increments of five starting from the bottom. 42nd is worth 5 points, 41st is worth 10… all the way up to the first place contestant who of course will be worth ten million~ !”

Shocked silence swept over the stadium as all eyes turned to Todoroki. Admittedly he was keeping his cool (heh), not even seeming phased at the revelation every participant was making. 

“That’s right~” Midnight hummed, a sadistic look taking over her face. “It’s survival of the fittest with a chance for those at the bottom to overthrow the top!”

This will be interesting for sure. There’s a lot of different routes you could take to try and make it to the next round. Obviously a lot of people are going to be gunning for the ten million band but that could leave a lot of openings for other teams to come up from behind… then once you lose your headband you’re not out for good. Depending on who you team up with it might even be best to lose your points early so you can purely focus on grabbing other headbands…

Izuku whipped out a fresh notebook, clicking his pen excitedly. I can’t wait to see how they team up!

“You’ve got fifteen minutes to form your teams!” Midnight called, a timer counting down as the students all clamored around. 

Immediately Katsuki was swarmed by his classmates, all wanting to be on his team. The commotion could be heard even from the stands. Marudo sighed from his seat next to Izuku. “Man, I can’t believe Kinzoku and Hatsume made it on. They’re the only ones outside of the hero course, can’t help but be pretty proud of them.”

Izuku nodded, jotting down the teams as they formed and filling in the quirks he knew already. “Yeah, I’m really excited to see what Cheshy does this round. They have to make it, they put in too much work.”

“Ohp, looks like Hatsume tried getting on Todoroki’s team. Man , that’s ice-cold. He didn’t even look at her!”

“She only wanted to be on his team because he has the ten million.” A voice spoke up behind them. Chikeisei Amaterasu had his eyes glued to the field, his large satellite-ears twitching forward. “She said he’d be in the spotlight so it would be perfect to show off her babies.” All three of them shuddered. Maybe one day they would become desensitized to the way Hatsume referred to her gear… but today is not that day. “He just said ‘you’re not needed, you’ll only get in the way’ and then went to join those other three. Harsh.”

Someone huffed to Izuku’s side. “Hatsume-chan is eccentric but there’s no need to be rude.” Saturnii Kaede pouted, crossing her arms over her chest, her wings fluttering behind her angrily. “You should leave his costume as-is Midoriya-kun. He doesn’t deserve your help.”

Izuku couldn’t help but chuckle. I guess hanging out with the girls really helped her out of her shell, huh? Before he could say anything, he was interrupted by a blaring buzzer as the timer hit zero.

“Oh good, it’s time to get started~”

“ Looking out at the field and we’ve ended up with twelve teams gearin’ up to go head-to-head! ”

“There’s some interesting student combinations out there.” Eraserhead muttered just loud enough for the microphone to pick up.

“ Come on, come on! Put your hands in the air! It’s time for a thrilling Yuuei Battle Royale! LET ME HEAR YOU SCREAM!! ”

Eraserhead was right; there were some interesting combos, though it looks like class 1A and 1B stuck to their own classmates. Makes sense, they know each other's quirks the best comparatively…

“ Time to get this party started with a good ol’ fashioned countdown! ” Present Mic shouted.

“ Three! Two! One! ”

“Begin!” Midnight whipped her flogger and the teams made a break for Todoroki immediately . Well… most of them, Izuku notes with a smirk.

Looks like Cheshy has other plans. And 1B for that matter.

Izuku was pleased with their team-up. Tokoyami in front with Dark Shadow whipping around, checking their blind spots, Uraraka on one side– most likely using her quirk to negate their gravity, and Toshi on the other with Cheshire as the rider. They didn’t move with the rest of the teams, instead staying in place. Cheshy’s head was on a swivel, watching the teams carefully. Izuku also noticed that Toshi had goggles on the top of his head and he and Uraraka had various devices at their hips.

I see smoke bombs, tape gun, pocket-shield and who knows what else they were able to bring out from the locker room.

Motion from the other side of the field drew his attention as Kacchan was in the air attempting to get Todoroki’s headband. He was blocked with an arc of ice and Sero quickly shot out a line of tape, reeling him back in.

“ Woah, is leaving your horse like that even allowed? ”

“His feet never touched the ground so technically it’s okay!” Midnight gave a big thumbs up and the crowd went nuts.

And there goes 1B . They must have realized how profitable it was to go after the teams purely focused on the ten million. It’s a total free for all!

Cheshy was on the move, their team dodging attacks from Mineta and Tetsutetsu’s teams. Toshi pulled the goggles over his eyes and threw down a smoke bomb right in front of Shoji and Honenuki. Meanwhile, Hagakure’s team was now headbandless and- “No way. No actual fucking way.” She was topless. You could only see her pants . “Hagakure, I swear to Kami…” He grumbled, pinching the bridge of his nose before adding ‘Talk to Hagakure… again ’ to his margins. 

Present Mic called for a score tally and oh man was it an upset. Todoriki’s team was still in first but most of Class 1A lost their points. Even Katsuki .

“Uh oh.” He watched as the blonde one from 1B– Monoma he thinks– swiped Kacchan’s headband while he was focused on Todoroki. “Kami help him.” The aura radiating off Kacchan was one of pure rage and his target quickly changed, abandoning his quest to be number one to instead grab all the headbands from Class 1B .

That gave Cheshy their opening to focus on the number one team instead. They tossed the pocket shield to Tokoyami, calling out something as they all jumped together just in the nick of time. Kaminari let off his indiscriminate shock as Yaoyorozu covered the rest of their team in insulating material. Tokoyami held the small silver disk out in front of him, pushing the back to allow the plates to fan out, creating an octagonal-shaped shield.

It’s made of titanium, just like Cheshy’s claws. It’s not very conductive and makes for a good insulator. Giving Tokoyami the shield was smart. The light from Kaminari’s electricity must weaken Dark Shadow so not only does it prevent him from getting electrocuted, but it can also provide some shade to keep Dark Shadow strong. I was also definitely right about Uraraka using her quirk on the whole team. They jumped together to get up off the ground high enough to avoid- yep there it is.

The stadium got just a bit colder as ice traveled around the nearby teams.

“ What’s this? Todoroki’s taken out a herd of calvary teams with one fierce attack! ”

“He waited until Kaminari immobilized them before freezing them in place. He’s already learned from how many were able to dodge his ice during the Obstacle Course.”

Todoroki swiped their headbands and created a large ice wall behind him, zeroing in on Cheshire. They huffed, grabbing their escrima stick and turning it on. In a blink of an eye, all of a sudden Todoroki was on the other side of Cheshy’s team, their headband now in his hand.

“ Whaaaaaat?! What happened?! That was too fast for the naked eye! ”

Izuku excitedly scribbled in his notebook, never taking his eyes off the field. Kacchan was hanging mid-air, holding on to seemingly nothing and then punched through it to rip off some of the headbands around Monoma’s neck. Sero reeled him back in with his tape and they went right back to advancing on Monoma’s team. Meanwhile, Cheshy’s team whipped around, Uraraka now also brandishing an escrima stick and he could see Toshi’s lips moving. Maybe he was trying to use his quirk but no one on the opposing team reacted; Yaoyorozu quickly creating a piece of tape and taping Kaminari’s mouth.

Both teams circled around each other; Cheshire advancing on Todoroki’s left side again and again. Now that Kaminari and Iida had used their big-moves, they were pretty defenseless; relying only on Yaoyorozu and Todoroki. Every time they lurched forward, Todoroki had to twist awkwardly to use his ice.

Stick with that opening, Cheshy!

“ One minute left! ”

Izuku whipped his head to the opposite end, watching Sero thwip out a piece of tape and securing it to the ground next to Monoma. Ashido held out her hand, shooting a path of acid as Kacchan fired blasts behind them, quickly catching back up to Monoma. With one last explosion, he grabbed the rest of his headbands before they made a sharp turn toward the ice arena.

Cheshy’s team made one last-ditch effort, one final charge at Torodiki’s left side with their escrima while Uraraka aimed for Iida. Like in slow-motion, Izuku watched as Todorokis arm lit up for the briefest of moments, catching the split-haired boy off guard. That gave Cheshy their opening to reach forward with their free hand but instead of going for the million on his forehead, a single uncapped claw glinted in the sunlight as it caught the bands around his neck.

Meanwhile Uraraka and Tokoyami were keeping Iida and Yaoyorozu pre-occupied, meaning Dark Shadow was free to swoop out from underneath and snatch the fallen points in her beak. Toshi shouted something and Cheshy and Uraraka both turned off their escrima and connected the bases so it formed one long bo-staff. Cheshy planted one end into the ground and pushed away from Todoriki’s team just as Katsuki appeared over the wall. 

“What a power-move from Team Kinzoku! They didn’t even bother going for the ten million, instead taking all of Todoroki’s spoils in one fell swoop! It’s officially time to get that count-down started! Ten!”

As the clock ticked down, Kacchan was still mid-air, gunning for Todoroki’s headband with his teammates not too far behind. They were using Ashido’s acid to carve a path through the ice and-

“ Tiiime’s up!! ”

He immediately stopped his explosions, tucking into a roll and ending up lying flat on his back, arms splayed out to either side. Even from his spot in the stands, Izuku could see the twitching muscles.

He over-did it… that dummy.

“ The top four teams will move on to the next round, so let’s see who topped the charts, yeah? In First place, keeping their ten million points, Team Todoroki! Second place, with 1,265 points… Team Bakugo! Close behind in Third place with 1,250 points is Team Tetsutetsu! And with an amazing last-minute comeback; Fourth place goes to Team Kinzoku with 1,100 points!! YEEEAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!! ”