Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

His choice of a successor was a heat of the moment thing, even if he had actual arguments for it. Yagi Toshinori is conscious enough to realize that. He had been technically en route to meet Mirio Togata (whom Nedzu suggested to be a good candidate for being his successor), only to run into this kid. 

This kid who asked him if he can be a hero as a quirkless boy. 

Frankly speaking, Yagi knew that the answer he gave him was slightly hypocritical. Yagi too was, at one point, a quirkless kid with a desire for heroics. The difference is that he was a quirkless and well-trained (if not rather buffy, even before One for All) kid with a desire for heroics.

The green-haired child in front of him was obviously timid, and obviously not trained at all in any form of quirkless combat (Yagi at least was kinda competent in boxing when he was his age, and he could easily recognize the way martial arts training made people walk). Not to mention being small. And the lack of visible muscles. This changed the situation notably, at least in Yagi’s opinion.

This kid wasn’t exactly prime hero material, especially not someone who was planning to go up a route this hard while looking to be someone like the Symbol of Peace (the question the kid asked was about being a hero like him, after all, and not a hero in general). 

Sure, there might have been a brilliant mind underneath that exterior, although it was something hard to judge after a five minute meeting. But there were better places to apply a brilliant mind. Something that Melissa proved. So Yagi Toshinori offered the kid a reasonable alternative for the application of his wits and a desire to help, such as police (oh, Tsukauchi would like a kid this willing to help others). Or support engineering. 

There was also the part where he felt that an adult (and an idol to many young people) shouldn’t just tell impressionable young kids that yeah, risking their lives excessively is a completely fine idea! Not without their parents around to nod or shake their heads in order to make All Might realize what their opinion on the issue was. 

Especially not when he was the Symbol of Peace, whose ideal image as a hero was a cornerstone of the (relatively) peaceful era. All Might maintaining his good reputation was a public service, and he preferred to achieve that by not making major blunders, rather than having the head of Might Tower’s PR department go around and metaphorically murder people. 

Not to mention how easy it was to go from disliking All Might to disliking the current society and then turning into a villain. He was a pillar keeping society afloat, and he was already painfully aware that he is irreplaceable. His search for a successor was probably at least partially motivated by wanting to retire. Because let’s be real, he is TOO irreplaceable for it to be healthy for society as a whole.

Sure, the kid was dejected. Sure, he had his dream crushed by his idol. Sure, Yagi was going to one day realize how close to a lethal mistake he was that evening.  But at that time, All Might was certain that his answer was correct and logical.

(the biggest irony of the situation is that the mistake might have been more lethal to All Might and society than to the green-haired kid left alone by their idol on a rooftop, but that’s a story from a world that never came to be)

Then again, he had no idea just how bad the kid was bullied for quirklessness; if he knew then he would certainly NOT leave on the rooftop after crushing his lifelong dream. 

All Might was aware of just how much of an accidental personality cult he developed around himself and he made NOT trying to alter society in any way a self-imposed goal. That way lies the slippery slope, and Yagi knows that. So he focuses on saving people and charity actions, without digging deep into the social dynamics of the modern era (there are enough people dealing with that as it is). So he doesn’t know just how often quirkless kids hear people telling them to kill themselves.

Then he discovers that the Sludge Villain escaped him, and rushes to the scene when he was just seen. Already well aware that his quirk is done for the day, but it’s his screw-up, and he has to fix it no matter what! Before someone dies. 

And someone almost dies. While All Might, painfully aware of his helplessness (and just slightly pissed off at the heroes on the scene), has to watch. But the green-haired kid from earlier leaps to the rescue, and while he lacks power to achieve anything save for buying the victim a few startled breaths, something in Yagi Toshinori snaps. And he pushes through his limit (lowering it in the process) and saves the day. 

It was at this moment that Yagi understood that he just met his successor. Goddamn his small-build, Yagi isn’t going to retire tomorrow, and this is something that they can work on. He is going to make this kid into a hero because he just proved to have more courage when someone is in danger than several pro-heroes, end of story. All Might at least had the excuse of not knowing that he could squeeze out more from his quirk before it happened. 

Of course, the kid immediately vanished on him while he was distracted by the press. Not before some heroes berate him for risking his life excessively. Honestly, if not for the cameras and his quirk being super-spent, All Might would probably punch some of them in the face for that alone. They should be taking notes rather than berate the kid for that! 

Who cares if their quirks weren’t suitable, there was a kid on the verge of dying in front of them and they didn’t even try to distract their villain! Death Arms tried to PUNCH the sludge instead of trying to yank the kid out of it, for God’s sake. It took the green haired kid like five seconds to figure out that the villain’s weak spot is his eyes (something that Yagi figured out as well, but it’s not like someone would listen to a random skeleton man), what the hell are they teaching the heroes nowadays?! 

It took some tracking skills - All Might learned a lot of unexpected skills in the United States, you don’t become a Number One Hero just by punching villains in the face - but eventually he finds him. The shock on the kid's face (Izuku, Midoriya Izuku, All Might asks about that finally because he should probably know something like that before offering the kid his quirk) changes into the overflowing happiness when All Might changes his answer. 

Then it goes back to shock, when he mentions giving the kid his quirk. Then comes the rambling. Then comes more shock and tears of happiness. A lot of those. This reminds All Might of someone from his past, and he smiles just a bit more than he wanted. 

Well, enthusiasm is good. All Might can work with that. But he also has standards. And the kid in front of him has a LOT of work ahead of him.

He tells Izuku that before Yagi starts teaching him, they have to explain the whole deal to his parents. First, because Yagi refuses to be taken for some creep who is teaching their kid something weird behind their back (let’s be real, his skeleton form does make him look like that bone-manipulating villain he once fought). Second, they should probably get a heads-up about their son suddenly ‘late-blooming’ a powerful quirk.

Plus there is always a risk of injuries during the training. It’s best to explain the risk ahead instead of being stared down by a parent whose children was wounded during a training they didn’t even know was happening.

The kid promptly replies that his father died a few years ago, but his mom is there and she will certainly agree. He offers to lead his idol home with even more enthusiasm. He just looks slightly startled by the idea of Yagi seeing his room, which was brought up during an unconscious muttering. All Might thinks that he knows what caused it.

He saw Sir Nighteye’s office. He knows how far some people take the All Might’s personality cult part. He can survive seeing a shrine to himself, he just needs to do his best to live up to the hype while simultaneously making the kid understand that no, he is still a human being. He makes mistakes. 

He just made amends for one particularly horrible, after all. 

Izuku leads him to a two story house that looks relatively well-off. That alone is good, the kid’s family is neither too rich (some of the rich people are a bit too… demanding), nor too poor (he doesn’t want the eventual rise to greatness of this kid to go to his head; they have enough corrupted people in the industry as it is). 

He also looks happy to have Yagi talk with his mother, so the family sounds supportive enough. That’s a bonus point too. Having people to support you is crucial, whether they are other heroes or your family members.

Izuku opens up the door and shouts that he’s back home. Three seconds later a woman runs into the anteroom, clearly worried. She has the same (admittedly, beautiful) shade of green hair as Izuku, seems to be approaching her forties and...

Recognition runs All Might over like a speeding train runs over a small passenger car that happened to be standing at the wrong place at the wrong time. Just with less broken bones. But blood is still there, since he coughs up a mouthful. 

He KNEW that the hair colour and the crying was familiar. Despite so many years passing, he KNEW.

“Izuku, I was so worried with that villain attack going on near us, where have you... “ She notices the man behind her son, wiping the blood from his mouth while staring at her in shock. “Uhm, excuse me, but who are…” 

“...Misaki?!” All Might finally manages to speak. Even Izuku realizes that something’s wrong. The woman (it’s Misaki, there is no doubt, he would recognize her everywhere, even after so much time) looks at Yagi with shock on her face.

“How do you know that nam…” She freezes, and there is a flash of recognition on her face as well. “Wait, Yoshio?! What happened to you, why do you look so… thin?” 

“Yoshio?” Izuku decides to chirp in, taking the advantage of the fact that both his mother and All Might were thoroughly stunned. “All Might’s real name is Yoshio?” 

“All Might?” Misaki is stunned by this remark even more than she already was, her beautiful green eyes shifting towards her son. “What do you mean by that, Izuku?” He opens his mouth to say something but Yagi is just slightly faster.

“Izuku, I’ll explain everything to her.” All Might says. “If it’s possible, could you… let me talk with your mother in private?” Izuku looks to his mom, who nods. He clearly wants to hear what it will be about, but he vacates the room. 

A few minutes later All Might and Misaki are in the living room, sitting on the couches on the opposing sides of a coffee table. The doors are closed, and Izuku is nowhere to be seen. If All Might’s understanding of him is anywhere correct, he is probably fidgeting uncontrollably, looking forward to hearing his mother’s answer. 

“Alright.” Misaki says. “Yoshio, you can start by explaining to me what the hell are you doing here and why does my son think you are All Might?” She is in her confident mood. Reasonably emotional. This should make the situation easy on the waterworks. Then again, she can get kinda scary when not prone to crying, and Yagi is just slightly intimidated by his memories of her.

“I… might have not been fully honest with you back then.” Yagi braces himself for the talk. “Yoshio isn’t my real name. I had… a very nasty enemy back then, and I was hiding who I really was so that he wouldn’t find you. My real name is Yagi Toshinori, and while I might not look the part right now due to an injury, I am All Might.” He buffs his muscles with his quirk, just enough for his own body to start resembling his heroic self. He lets it go without putting any strength into it, to avoid coughing out blood again. 

“Oh.” She is shocked. Probably unsurprising, considering that her old lover just told her that he was the Number One Hero all along. Just… it’s a somewhat different shock than he expected? “That explains everything. I was trying to find you after… you know what, but I couldn’t find anyone by that name who looked even remotely like you.” 

“Well, I tried to find you too.” All Might replies. “With similar results.” Something that he regrets to this day. 

She is just slightly startled by it. Is she happy that he didn’t just vanish on her but was actually trying to find her? 

“That… that’s probably because my real name isn’t Misaki, either.” She replies. “I’m Inko. Midoriya Inko. I was hiding who I was for…a similar reason, really.” 

She was certainly no hero, he was certain about that much. He would have found out about a hero with her quirk. Unless she was hiding for some completely unrelated reasons (like some abusive past acquaintance), that only left one option. She had to be a villain. It was impossible. All Might knew that she could be intimidating and kinda scary at times, but she was normally such a sweet, wonderful woman and…

His mind makes the connections. 

“Oh. My. God.” He says in English and blinks a few times, it’s a miracle he didn’t cough out his lungs at the realization. “Your quirk isn’t similar to Mischief. You ARE Mischief.” The woman that certainly doesn’t look like a famous (but believed to be dead) S-Rank thief nods faintly. Yagi’s mind travels back to that memorable evening after his birthday party. “... you weren’t cosplaying as Mischief back then.” 

Her face goes as red as her hair is green. Her hands cover it quickly. Yagi’s mind catches up to what he just said and what it meant and ends up coughing up a lot of blood. 

(Nana Shimura laughs like a madwoman deep within his quirk, because this is certainly the most hilarious thing she has seen in a long time, despite Yagi being the center of many hilarious events.

Yoichi Shigaraki and Daigoro Banjo, her closest friends among the past Holders, quickly whip out some imaginary (but still tasty) popcorn. They all know that this is going to be a good one. Oh, if only they knew how much.)

It had lasted less than a year, and was something like sixteen years ago, but… Yagi was still looking back to those years as some of the happiest in his life. He just barely returned to Japan from America, and started fighting his war against All for One. He knew that he shouldn’t get distracted by anything, but when he ran into Misaki/Inko and their eyes met… that was the last thing that he had on his mind.

Wait. Sixteen years ago. Just how old was Izuku? 

“Izuku.” Yagi’s mind refuses to process the idea. It’s impossible, right? It’s just not possible, right? “Is he…”  The words ‘my son’ just refuse to go through his throat. But she understood what he meant. 

“Yes.” She replies. “I… found out that I was pregnant soon after we got separated.” She pauses for a second, while Yagi is struggling to breathe. “I like to think that he got my looks but your personality.”  

He had a child. He had a son. He found the chosen successor for his quirk in the kid that inspired him with his bravery and heroic spirit and IT WAS HIS OWN SON. And he had him with Mischief, the supervillain that he had an idol crush on (according to Gran Torino, Yagi dared to disagree) for years. 

It was a lot to digest. Way more than he expected to find out when he asked Izuku to let him meet his mother. 

“He… he mentioned that his father died a few years ago.” Yagi manages to push the words out. It’s not that he doesn’t believe her, somehow - despite her just professing to be a villain - he does. He just… he isn’t sure if he can think straight now.

“I… married someone three years after we’d lost contact with each other.” She says. “We had a… disagreement a few years ago, and I took the children and left him. I didn’t exactly like his approach to my children, and I really thought that he would straighten himself up, but he ended up dying before that happened.” She adds, and Yagi notices the plural. Children. There were more. He opens his mouth to ask, but she continues. “I’m… you’ll probably not like finding out who he was.” 

Yagi Toshinori isn’t sure if there is something that can ruin his mood right now. He got a successor, he met Misaki again, he discovered that he had A SON. He all but gave up the idea of having children. He was too old for trying to have one, and… frankly, all the women he met during the last fourteen years had one fatal flaw. They weren’t Misaki.

“Who was it?” He says. She uses her quirk to open a drawer and then pulls something from it towards her. A picture. She hands it to him, without saying the word, but there are just so many emotions on her face that he doesn’t know how to interpret them. 

It’s a picture from a Herocon. There is a much younger Izuku in the middle, waving a prize for winning a hero trivia quiz, with a proud smile on his face. To his right is Inko, smiling towards the camera while making a thumbs up gesture. To Izuku’s other side is a white haired man in a suit, with an expression of just slight discomfort on his face and… 

Yagi Toshinori almost vomits his lungs out when he realizes that he is looking at All for One wearing a really atrocious fake moustache. 

(“Oh. My. God.” Nana says in his quirk, her words not reaching him. “His old lover married ALL FOR ONE!?” This is literally the least probable thing in the entire world, maybe after All for One surviving the fight and dedicating himself fully to charity work. That could at least be explained by brain damage. 

“Wait, she said childREN, right?” Yoichi, the One for All’s first holder, adds from his place. Popcorn lies forgotten next to him. “Does that mean… I have a nephew or a niece?!” 

Lariat just groans. This is going to be a bigger mess than he thought. Why do those two blokes not realize that Yagi Toshinori just picked someone who grew up right next to All for One as his successor?!) 

“You… married… All for One.” Yagi manages to say, thankfully (or not) he was an expert in not vomiting/coughing blood at anything important and thus the photograph was spared from recoloring. “And you… you had a child with him?!” 

“Two, actually.” Inko’s face is once again covered with hands. The words come out slightly mumbled. “I then adopted another child, and… ugh.” Hands are off, and she inhales deeply. “They are all really sweet kids. We had a rule about not bringing work home, and I officially retired from villainy. The… disagreement we had was mostly about him trying to have one of my children join his... business. They also didn’t inherit his quirk, if that’s what worries you.” The last words felt just slightly bitter. 

“No, it doesn’t.” Yagi decides to man up a bit. “Sorry, it was just… a bit surprising. A lot to digest… and I don’t even have a stomach at this point.” She looks at him like she wasn’t sure if that was supposed to be a joke or not. “You… don’t hold it against me that I…” 

“No.” Inko shakes her head. “I offered him to retire with me during our argument, but he wanted to remain the emperor of the underworld. I told him that sooner or later someone would kill him, and I said that I wasn’t going to hold it against whoever did that. Because All for One… because Hisashi made a decision. And while he was charming and a good husband and father, I… didn’t exactly like how he… earned money.” 

She probably still held it against All Might, Yagi decides. But now she knows who All Might was… and she probably figured out what was the cause of his current looks. The fathers of the majority of her children almost killed each other, because they were archenemies all along. 

“Now… unless you are going to arrest me… tell me, why are you here?” Inko steels herself and asks. “Why were you with Izuku? I haven't seen him this happy in a long time.” 

“I… saved his life from a villain.” Yagi replies and her eyes widen. “He ended up asking if a quirkless kid like him can become a hero like me. I… said no. I know firsthand how dangerous this job is, so I suggested becoming a police officer or going for a career in support engineering.” There is something complicated on her face, like she isn’t sure if she agrees with him or not. “But a while later I saw him trying to save another kid that was being attacked by a villain, even despite the fact that the heroes present on the scene lacked the courage to do it themselves. So I saved them both and…” He inhales deeply. This is something to be said quickly and without giving anyone time to interrupt. “...and I changed my answer. And I offered him my quirk.” 

She knows what One for All is. He expected it after hearing the part when she married All for One. He doesn’t need to explain it to her. 

He can see tears welling up, the hand covering her mouth and Inko inhaling deeply. He expected a lot of things, but not this sheer gratitude and happiness on her face. Then there is a shadow on her face that he isn’t sure how to interpret. 

“You… you didn’t change your mind?” She asks, and Yagi fervently shakes his head. Yes, he learned a lot of shocking things about Izuku’s family, but...

“You were always more of a vigilante than an actual villain.” He replies promptly. “And All for One… Well, if Izuku grew up as his son and yet is still a child with such a heroic heart, then… that’s just one more reason to choose him. I just need your permission.” 

And a lot of training. Yagi will have to ask Shuzenji to tailor his old training schedule with Nana for a kid with much less strength to start with. It will be a struggle to make it in time. 

“Oh, Izuku…” She is almost crying at this point. Yagi is… very close to just leaping over the coffee table to try to cheer her up. “He… is a quirkless kid who wants to be a hero from all his heart. Everyone always ridiculed him, and I… I wasn’t sure how to help him. I was afraid of giving him a false hope, but I was also afraid of what would happen if his hopes died out entirely. I… please. Please help him.”

The waterworks start. He got to see a lot of those back in the day, most of them happy. Those tears are happy as well. This time he does leap over the coffee table (he isn’t THAT weak) and he hugs her. She hugs him back. It worked to calm her, back then. 

It works now, too. Just not as fast as it used to. Or perhaps these tears had more weight behind them than those in the past?

He almost doesn’t want to break this hug. But he has to. He doesn’t return to his seat, however. This couch is… big enough for the two of them. He is holding her hands, like he used to do so often back then. 

“I’ll do my best, Inko.” He vows. “I can see a lot of work ahead of us, but… he’ll become a splending hero. A hero like me. It’s easier to build muscles than a moral spine. I’ll help him with that, but… “ He falters a bit. “What are we going to tell him? Does he… does he know that he had a different father?”

The real question is ‘oh my god are we going to tell him that I’m his father’ because All Might wants it very, very much, but… Inko knows Izuku better. She knows how he would react. What if it was too much for the kid? He is already worshipping All Might apparently, what if…

“Yes, but…” She takes a deep breath. “I told him a different name, I… suspected that you might have been a hero or a policeman, and Izuku is ... kinda scary when he really puts his back into something. He could have actually found you, and then Hisashi might have… reacted badly.” So All for One didn’t know. He didn’t know that he was a stepfather to the son of his archenemy all along. Yagi decides to ignore the scary part for now. “He knows that I loved you deeply and that we lost sight of each other after that town was destroyed. He thinks that you died back then, like… like I did for all that time. But, he should know. Right now. He… needs a father. They all do. Money isn’t a problem, and I have some friends to help me out, but dealing with four kids at once is… straining.” She breathes in and then lets out the final bomb. “Especially as all of them save for Izuku have Class-Six quirks.” 

(“They. What?” Yoichi is the first to speak. Three Class-Six quirks? Quirks to violate the logic of quirks (and by extension, of the world)? Like One for All and All for One? And her fourth kid was just offered one more Class-Six quirk for her to have to deal with?

“Poor woman.” Nana announces with just a bit of a mischievous smirk. “And poor All Might, because I know what he is going to do right now. Godspeed, Toshinori!” Lariat and En (who just woke up and was always a major nerd) wave a banner with CATCH THEM ALL, ALL MIGHT written on it behind her, with colours suspiciously similar to pokeballs.) 

“They… oh.” Yagi spends like four seconds contemplating this before coming to a decision. “I...I’ll help however I can. I… I don’t have much experience with being a father, but I’m going to do my best. For them all, if you let me.” 

Her relief is palpable, and her happiness warms his heart. Getting four children (including one that’s biologically his) certainly wasn’t part of his plan for today, but well. There we go. 

He has a faint understanding that he just agreed to something much harder than defeating villains. Maybe save for All for One. Then again, the worst supervillain in history somehow was a father, so certainly Yagi Toshinori can be as well, right? 

(He is yet to realize who the ‘friends’ helping her are, but that’s a story for another day. Specifically the one when he visits Inko to see the Hero Killer - the man who makes the living of ending careers of unworthy heroes by beating them up and releasing the evidence for their crimes… and an S-Rank villain - freeloading on her couch and watching the newest documentary about All Might’s career together with Izuku.)

Suddenly she freezes and looks at the nearest set of doors. She puts her finger on her lips, silencing him, before using her quirk to open the door in question. The result of them suddenly opening is a small avalanche of children entering the room and collectively falling on the floor. Before disentangling and trying to stand there while pretending that nothing happened. 

“Asa.” Inko says loudly. “What did I tell you about eavesdropping on people's conversation?” 

The only boy in the group - looking like 10-11 years old, and clearly inheriting both All for One’s white hair and red eyes (which makes him look like much younger Yoichi Shigaraki, although this is something that only the Holders are aware of, All Might has MUCH worse comparison on his mind) - perks up, looking like a prisoner awaiting execution but wanting to die without humiliating himself. He is wearing a set of Miruko-themed pajamas. 

“To… not whisper to each other while doing so, because it betrays your position!” Asa promptly replies. Inko chokes on air, All Might coughs out blood (he lost a lot of it this evening) and the heroes in his head are rolling on the floor with laughter. 

“No, the other thing.” Inko replies, while eyeing All Might, perhaps just slightly worried about his reaction.  

“To not do that.” Asa replies before looking down. “Uhm… sorry, mom, we were just kinda… curious. Izu-nichan was so happy but didn’t tell us what it was about, said we had to wait for you two to finish, and we…” 

A girl is partially hiding behind him. Probably the adopted child, since no one in the room has pale blue hair. Plus, no one else has a horn on their forehead. She is wearing All Might-themed pajamas. She appears to be five or six years old. 

She says nothing, she is just staring at Yagi. He has a feeling that he should feel somewhat… worried by it, since it’s quite an intense stare, but she just doesn’t feel threatening. If anything, she looks... cute? And friendly?

“How much did you hear?” Inko asks. If they heard too much, if they found out about their father and that they were just looking at his (well, justified) killer…

“From the ‘I’ll do my best, Inko’.” Asa replies promptly. So they didn’t hear the most accusing parts, that’s…

“You’re Izunichan’s father.” Another little girl says, this time with a white hair (but with some strands of green among them) styled into pigtails. Her eyes are two-coloured as well. Not heterochromatic, just through some unexpected quirk-related mutation both her eyes are half red and half green. She is maybe seven or eight years old, and looks… somewhat threatening, actually? Her glare is a bit creepy. She is also the only child in the room to not wear any hero-style pajamas. Just some normal, although pitch-black ones. “And a hero.”

“Err, yes.” All Might replies. “Do you like heroes?” He is kinda unsure how to proceed, so he can as well try to ask something simple. Right? 

“Yes. Especially Endeavor.” The girl replies. “He burns people to death.” There is fire, bones and blood in her stare right now. This is her father’s stare, no doubt about it. It looks both extremely out of place and utterly terrifying on a young girl. 

Awkward silence lasts for a few seconds, both in the room and in One for All. 

“Aiko, please.” Inko sounds tired. “We talked about not making that joke in front of people. It spooks them. And it’s not even true.” All Might is something like fifty percent sure that Aiko didn’t mean it. But then she pulls the Gang Orca plushie that she kept behind her back and hugs it. 

“I like Gang Orca.” Aiko says. All Might stops being this tense. Kugo Sakamata is a fine hero, and a good idol to have. “He is from a gang, right?” 

(To the surprise of absolutely none of the heroes in One for All that got to see their first meeting in detail, Inko Midoriya and Yagi Toshinori get married a month later.)

Chapter Text

Takoba Municipal Beach Park was a name that was at best fifty percent correct. It was Takoba and Municipal, yes. But the beach was there only occasionally, and it was at this point anything but a park.

It was, frankly speaking, an illegal dumping site. Add some waste brought by the sea, and suddenly nobody was visiting it. Unless it was done to dump some more junk at what was once a popular dating spot. 

Hitoshi Shinsou liked it that way. Because for as long as it was an illegal dumping site, they could live there without heroes or the police noticing them. Sure, it wasn't a good life. They were going to have to look for an alternative when it got closer to winter. But for now, they had a place to call their own. 

Even if it was a closed space between two ruined fridges, with a tarpaulin for a roof. And the entrance door. 

Even if they were slowly dying from unresolved medical needs, that he really had no idea how to address. He could somewhat deal with his own by stealing from the pharmacies, but it was only delaying things. He needed particular drugs to feel better, everything else was just him almost overdosing on sleeping pills regularly to, like, not die of that freaky form of insomnia he had. 

They were around for something like two months (with three more until it was going to get too cold to survive, then again they were probably not going to survive that long either way so who cares, right?) when the most impossible thing started happening. 

Someone started to dismantle their home. 

Not their sleeping place itself, thank whatever god is looking over outcasts like them. But the Takoba Municipal Beach Park began to be cleared by someone. Not even by some professional group of cleaners. But by a young kid (probably their age) who was cleaning it one piece of junk at a time with a guy looking like a skeleton that the kid referred to as ‘dad’. 

Though the latter was mostly operating a truck. And sometimes shouting some words of encouragement and praise. And sometimes coughing out a lot of blood.

It was odd. 

It was infuriating, really. 

After he returned from his bi-weekly grocery run (okay, theft, but he was on the last legs, alright? it’s not like a fifteen year old runaway without documents can actually hope to earn money), he saw the duo finish with a segment of the beach. There was a fierce high-five between them, and then the parent left on a truck, looking to do… well, whatever with the junk. Shinsou didn’t care. 

The kid, oddly enough, remained and seemed to be taking a brief break. Ten minutes in, Hitoshi decided that it was less of a break and more of a low-intensity period of work, since the kid was gathering small parts of junk near the place where the truck normally parked. 

It was the right time to figure out what to do with the intruder. 

He approached him. 

“Who are you?” Hitoshi asked, startling the other kid. It was the simplest thing to do, provoking a reaction. He wasn’t going to activate his quirk right now, the last thing he wanted is the kid connecting him to a string of thefts in the area. People finding out that they can’t control their body were a common thing in Musutafu, even if most of the stolen things were food. 

“Oh!” The kids exclaimed in surprise. He actually jumped back (that was fast) but he landed rather flexibly. “S...sorry, I didn’t notice you. What did you say?” Someone was deep in thoughts, it seemed.  

“I asked who are you.” Hitoshi said. The basic prerequisites for his quirk activation were already done, if they came to blows, he could just freeze the kid and flee. In a different direction, obviously. He wasn’t going to betray where they were living.

“I’m Izuku Midoriya!” The kid replied with just a hint of an irritating enthusiasm. “And you?” 

“Aoi Miyake.” He replies, because obviously he isn’t dumb enough to tell the kid his real name. “What are you doing here?”

“Oh, I’m cleaning the beach with my dad.” The kid positively beams when the word ‘dad’ is mentioned, and Hitoshi is just slightly more angered. “I’m training for the UA entrance exam, and we’ve decided that doing some community service together will be good training.” 

Great, Hitoshi decides. His lifelong dream of proving people claiming that he is a villain wrong by becoming a hero dies a year before he has a chance to realize it, and then he ends up living on a junkyard that’s slowly cleaned by a kid with some flashy quirk that will probably get to become a hero. And it’s probably just to wave some community service around on the exam for bonus points..

Way to rub salt in the wounds, life.

“And you?” Izuku asks back, while looking at Hitoshi curiously. No actual hostility, oddly enough. Despite Hitoshi looking a bit like a tramp. His clothes had seen better times. 

“Nothing interesting. I live nearby.” He replies and doesn’t add that nearby should be taken quite more literally than Izuku thinks. Or that he is, technically, a small-time villain. Not important enough to get noticed, as it will probably last until his inevitable death in a few months. 

Which, somehow, is still preferable to landing back in his foster family. 

“Uhm, please don’t mention me doing this to anyone!” Izuku clasps his hands and is fidgeting just a little bit. “We’re trying to make it anonymously. Dad and Uncle Chizome are very particular about heroes working to help others not for popularity, and… I don’t do well with groups of people.” He scratches his head a bit. “I would prefer to do that without an audience.” 

Okay, at least he isn’t evicting them and making them die on the streets for a popularity stunt. 

WOW WHAT A RELIEF THAT IS.

“I won’t.” Hitoshi sniggers just a bit. “You keep doing that.” He wants to say something exactly opposite to that, but it’s not like he has an alternative. 

“Alright! Thank you!” Izuku completely ignores the negativity in Hitoshi’s voice and takes his words for true encouragement. 

He is way too positive in Hitoshi Shinsou’s opinion. 

She looks… not that bad when he returns to their home. But he knows that this is temporary. But he isn’t leaving her like that, even if it will be the last thing that he does in his life. He wants to be a hero to someone at least once in his life.

***

Midoriya felt like a dumb kid, but he proved that he was anything but dumb few days later. Hitoshi thought that he fooled Izuku with his ‘oh I’m just a local concerned citizen’ play, but no. There was more to the kid than that. 

He was observing him at work a few times (always afraid that Izuku was going to find their little hideout this time), but he wasn’t the only one doing the observation. He realized it when at the end of the workday, Izuku suddenly turned towards Hitoshi’s observation spot, waved towards him (he was like a hundred meters away from him and well hidden, damn it!), and pointed to something on the ground.

Hitoshi waited until the truck departed to check what it was about. He found a thermos filled with food (actually WARM food). 

Izuku knew that he was homeless. Hitoshi considered just fleeing from the beach and looking for a new place to stay, but she had one of her bad days and that made travelling impossible. They ate the food instead. It was delicious. He left the emptied (and cleaned up) thermos on the cleaned part of the beach soon before the kid arrived to continue his training.

***

Neither side seemed to be willing to acknowledge the existence of the food donation bit. Izuku Midoriya was leaving the food at the end of his work, and then picked up the thermos after arriving at the beach.

He wasn’t doing anything else than that. Hitoshi was kinda relieved. The amount of food delivered was narrowly enough for the two of them (did Izuku know? or was he just so generous for a single person), so while it wasn’t super comfortable, Hitoshi could cut down on the grocery thefts. 

The weird thing is that nothing else happened. 

Izuku Midoriya didn’t try to find them, didn’t try to strike up a conversation. He was just leaving the food there. All while slowly but surely evicting them from the sad excuse of a house they had. 

He wasn’t always arriving with his father. From time to time he was instead with a scary looking man without a nose, who was referred to as ‘Chizome-san’ or ‘Uncle Akaguro’. A few more times Izuku was instead accompanied by a brown-haired and slightly weird acting man referred to as ‘Sako-san’ or ‘Uncle Atsuhiro’.

Izuku had a lot of uncles, evidently. Each and every one of them looked completely different. Were they from different sides of his family? Then again, skeleton-man wasn’t similar to either of them.

Eventually, it was Hitoshi who decided to start the conversation. And he had once again emerged from the junkyard to confront Izuku Midoriya, while his current caretaker was absent. 

“Thank you for the food.” Hitoshi said and Izuku, once again, was startled. Odd, if someone were to ask him. Especially for someone this observant. 

“Oh, no problem!” Izuku replies with a kind smile. “You looked pretty hungry back then, and I saw you watching me for a few days so I asked my mom to prepare something for you. She is already cooking for me, my three siblings, my dad and whatever uncle or aunt drops by for dinner, so one or two more portions aren’t that much.”

“That’s one large family you have.” Hitoshi comments and Izuku shrugs. “What do you want from me? You have an agenda in all that.” 

“H...huh?” This somehow startles Izuku again. He actually stares at Hitoshi while blinking rapidly. “No, I told you that heroes do good deeds wanting nothing in return. You looked hungry and I think you are homeless, so I decided to help.” 

Is this kid really THIS pure? Hitoshi doubts it. The thing is, he would normally throw that option through the nearest window right at the start. But with Izuku, he only doubts it. It’s still on the table. He is surprised at himself. 

“You should sleep more, though.” Izuku adds, and Hitoshi does his best not to snarl. “The bags under your eyes are kinda… large.” 

“I know.” Hitoshi deadpans. What is he supposed to say? ‘Well, I have that weird neurological disease that kinda makes me unable to fall asleep without using a lot of sleeping pills and it’s going to kill me sooner or later either through accidental sleeping pills overdose or through staying awake for too long’? 

Way to bring child services on your head. And then, bam, back to the foster family. Probably THAT foster family. 

“Hayes-Wilczak Syndrome?” Izuku asks and Hitoshi almost trips despite standing straight. 

“What?” He manages to speak. How does this kid… this kid that he is literally meeting face-to-face for the second time in his life… know what the disease that’s killing him is?! Isn’t it rare? Extremely rare? 

“You clearly have no mutant quirk, and you don’t seem to have any signs of mutations associated with the majority of physical transformative and emitter quirks.” Izuku promptly replies. “This indicates either quirklessness, some really weak quirk or something strong, but subtle. You carry obvious signs of some really bad insomnia, and I don’t think that it’s because you are homeless. So my theory is… you have a mental quirk, but it grew up wrong. Your brain is constantly receiving meaningless input from your quirk, so it stays active and you can’t fall asleep. So, Hayes-Wilczak Syndrome.” 

He finishes his lecture, and only now realizes that Hitoshi is looking at him like he just saw a ghost. Or a teacher that cares. He panicks. 

“Sorry! I didn’t mean to pry!” Izuku says, while hiding behind his hands as if he expected Hitoshi to attack him. “I’m just really interested in quirks and mental quirks are super awesome. Mom and dad say that I have a knack for their analysis, but… I’m not sure if they are right.” He looks kinda conflicted over it. 

“No, you… probably have a knack for it.” Hitoshi decided to admit. “You are really something else. I had to visit three different specialists before one of them figured out what it was, and you just took one look at me and made a correct diagnosis.” 

“Thank you! Uhm, can I ask… what’s your quirk?” Izuku asks. 

There is just so much innocent curiosity in Izuku’s face that somehow, just somehow, Hitoshi is compelled to answer. He knows it's borderline suicidal, considering his whole villain in hiding status, but… 

“It’s called Brainwashing.” Hitoshi replies. “When I speak to someone and they speak back, I can issue an order to them and they will be compelled to follow it.” He braces for inevitable revulsion, but instead IZUKU. FUCKING. BEAMS. Like someone just told him that Christmas came early. 

“That’s an awesome quirk!” Hitoshi stares, feeling his jaw drop. There is not even a hint of being weirded out on his face. “Have you ever considered becoming a hero? You could de-escalate a hostage situation just by talking to the villain! You should work on the naming, though. Brainwashing sounds kinda grim.” 

Hitoshi stares. Izuku grows increasingly uncomfortable and starts to fidget slightly. Hitoshi keeps staring for a few more seconds before his brain manages to compute what he just heard.

“Where?” Hitoshi finally asks. “Where were you my whole life?” Izuku looks a bit like a rabbit caught in the headlights, he is freaked out and has no idea what it is about. “Everyone kept telling me that I have a villainous quirk. For years. Now I’m homeless, I live in a junkyard and that’s where and when I meet the first person to ever say that my quirk is great.”

“Errr…” Izuku clearly doesn’t know how to answer that announcement. “I… was probably too busy being tossed around my school for quirklessness to be able to tell you that.” He tries to smile but it falls flat in front of Hitoshi’s stare. He isn’t buying self-deprecation jokes, at least not from a kid who is this goddamn pure. 

“You’re quirkless and you are trying to get to the UA?” Hitoshi says finally. “I mean, I’m totally going to cheer for you, if only for what you just told me, but… it’s kinda… impossible?” He heard of the robots. What was he going to do, even if he got there? Brainwash them? UA was never an option for him. 

“Apparently I’m a late bloomer.” Izuku replies, looking away and scratching his head nervously. “Some form of strength amplification quirk, but it doesn’t activate due to some built-in security measure. I’m most likely too weak to bear it, and my body keeps it offline to make me, uhm, not damage myself. I’m working to pass the threshold before the exam, so that it actually works.” 

He was still ‘tossed around his school’ for quirklessness before that. Hitoshi heard of cases of supposedly quirkless people suddenly late-blooming powerful quirks. While, typically, wanting only to see the world burn at this point. Some of the worst villains were born that way.

Considering that they were talking about a powerful strength-amplification quirk on a kid that just guessed Hitoshi’s quirk-related diseases and managed to narrow down his quirk to a mental one by SEEING THE BAGS UNDER HIS EYES (like, once, unless he figured it on the spot today), it was probably good that Midoriya didn’t seem to hate society. 

Good for society, that is. Brains and brawn were a terrible combination to face. 

“That sounds kinda cool.” Hitorshi replies. “What’s your opinion about quirks that make you drink human blood?” Hitoshi decides to ask and studies the reaction. Surely, there has to be a limit to how accepting this kid is, right?

“Like uncle Chizome’s quirk?” Izuku asks back and Hitoshi realizes that there is probably no limit to speak off. “I mean, it’s just a quirk-dictated alteration to dietary needs, yes? You just have to register it officially and then you are eligible to receive blood from the nearest blood bank. It’s nothing weird.”

Too pure. Just… too pure. 

Hitoshi is blinded by Izuku at this point. He doesn’t know how to deal with being blinded. 

“I… see.” He says. If his calculations are correct, one of his uncles should be here soon. He doesn’t feel comfortable around adults. “I’ll be going.” 

“Drop by next time!” Izuku waves at him and returns to cleaning the beach. 

***

The day after that, he came out to collect the usual food donation only to find a much larger thermos filled with food, a packet of Hayes-Wilczak Syndrome medications and a blood bag. All placed on the sand right before Izuku left. 

Hitoshi Shinsou hadn't cried in a long while. And he never in his life cried happy tears. Both things changed on that evening. He did that for a second time when he saw the colours returning to her face.

***

Hitoshi came out to hang with Izuku a few more times. Always when his uncles and dad weren’t there. They never mentioned the things that Izuku was leaving on the beach. It was just random, meaningless smalltalk. 

It was after a week had passed since THAT day when Hitoshi began to understand what Izuku was doing. He was luring Hitoshi in. Not in any malicious way. All he had to do was to just… call the heroes. Or villains. Or whoever else he knew. And Hitoshi would be out of the picture. 

He was seeing Hitoshi as an abandoned kitten, who clearly didn’t trust people that tried to take them to a vet. So he was trying to build his trust. Trust to… do what exactly? Was he waiting for Hitoshi to actually ASK for help? 

What help could he actually offer to a small-time villain? They were going to end in juvie, and that was the best case scenario. Returning to whatever family they had left was way worse of an option. 

Sure, he cut down his thefts to the minimum. Midoriya was providing him with everything that they needed to survive, at least before the winter came. But there were still things they occasionally had to get from somewhere, and it’s not like he had any money to spare, right?

He felt kinda guilty about it. He considered asking Midoriya to provide him with just a few more things, or perhaps… actually asking him what he TRULY wanted from Hitoshi (in other words, what help can he offer), but then, of course, things happened. 

He stole himself a new pair of boots (because the old ones practically broke on him) and that’s when he ran into a hero. Nightshade. He heard about him from someone who had a really bad meeting with him (namely, his one and only companion) and Hitoshi knew why exactly he couldn't get caught. 

So he ran. He was quite fast, and Nightshade was never the fastest of heroes. Things got a bit worse when he was joined by Redwing. Hitoshi had no idea why those two heroes were in Shizuoka, much less Musutafu, but he had no time to think about it. 

He eventually managed to lose them, before circling around back to Takoba. It’s the time for Izuku to be working there, but Hitoshi ignores it. Instead he dives straight for his little home. 

“Himiko!” He says while pretty much jumping inside. She was sleeping, curled up in the corner. But she jerked up from her sleep at his voice. “We’re going, now!” 

“W...what? What’s happening?” She started to receive sensible dosages of blood recently, and she started to act… more sanely, had some of her strength back but still looked pale. And her resistance to UV light was still practically zero. 

“Nightshade is here.” Her face pales even more . “I lost him, but if he is in this ward, he will find us sooner or later. We need to leave, NOW.” 

She is weak, but not weak enough to be unable to move. She grabs her backpack (they are always, technically, ready to escape at a moment’s notice, it just wasn’t an option when she was so blood starved), and he grabs his. 

He leaves first, just to see Nightshade, Red Wing, and Thunderbolt, the FUCKING NUMBER THREE HERO, standing in front of them. 

“Well, your ability to run is decent enough.” Nightshade says with a smile that’s just a tiny bit sadistic. Hitoshi knows they are dead. Nightshade had almost beaten Himiko to death for having a villainous quirk right after she escaped from her home. If Hitoshi wasn’t around to brainwash the hero, he would have just murdered her. Red Wing is apparently a friend of his and Thunderbolt… “But you’ve run for long enough, little villains.” 

Yeah. With Thunderbolt’s speed, they can’t hope to escape. Himiko clings to his back, and he would really want to save her, but this time? No, this time they are done for. 

“To have to call me for two kids, hmph.” Thunderbolt shakes his head. “Well, have your fun. You still owe me. A lot.”

Then the beating starts. 

***

“What. Are. You. Doing.” Hitoshi hears a familiar voice saying. A familiar voice that he never heard - never even imagine - to carry so much sheer fury. 

He can barely lift himself from the ground, and that’s mostly because Nightshade stopped casually beating him around with a riot baton. It was still a better option than having him beat Himiko (Red Wing was mostly watching and Thunderbolt was playing on his phone, and Nightshade could only beat a single person at once), all things considered. So he persevered. Most of his teeth did as well. 

Himiko crawled into the corner again, holding her head, the sunlight burning her, the girl left to be the dessert. Hitoshi wasn’t even disappointed over her not even trying to help him, really. He remembered how long she was plagued by nightmares about Nightshade after they got away last time. She was facing her worst fear, and it was strange to expect a different reaction. She was still whimpering each time Hitoshi felt another blow on himself. 

But he still manages to lift his head enough to see Izuku Midoriya stand a few meters away from the scene. With his uncle Atsuhiro standing right behind him, with an expression of sheer, livid fury on his face. 

“Oh, great.” Red Wing sighs. “Witnesses.” 

“Well, you’ve done fucked up, friends.” Thunderbolt announces and hides his phone. “Now we’ll…” 

“I asked you.” Izuku stares at Nightshade. No, he doesn’t stare. He glares. With so much hostility and raw anger that despite not being a target of it, Hitoshi still feels his heart stop for a second. Nightshade actually takes a step back under the glare. “What are you doing?” 

“Teaching some villains a lesson before arresting them officially, of course.” Thunderbolt replies calmly. “We are…” 

“Are you so blind that you can’t even see that I’m speaking to Nightshade?” Izuku Midoriya says. Hitoshi can see Thunderbolt go slackjawed. A fourteen year old kid just casually ignored him. More than that, it sassed him and treated him as unworthy of mention, despite him being the Number Three Hero. 

A kid that had absolutely no signs of his standard jittering left in him. Just absolute fury. With a small hint of personal hatred. 

“Kid, I don’t know who the hell are you, but…” Thunderbolt makes a few steps towards the kid. It’s an intimidation thing, really. His superspeed quirk allows him to cross a kilometer distance in a second or two if there are no obstructions. He is just trying to make the kid stop talking. 

“I’m Izuku Midoriya.” Izuku replies, finally facing Thunderbolt. His face is one of pure fury. Then he takes a step forward… and Thunderbolt stops his advance. “Son of Yagi Toshinori, personal assistant of All Might, the Number One Hero. The child who has All Might visit his family for dinner a few times a week. The child that has just recorded you playing on your phone while another hero is beating two defenseless children. The child that made sure that the recording from his bodycam is being sent real time to his father, who will no doubt send it to All Might and Principal Nedzu. The child who has just murdered your career and is looking forward to you landing in jail, you fake.” The last word is practically coated in venom. Then Izuku turns his head from Thunderbolt (who, somehow, MADE A STEP BACK during the monologue) and looks back at the thoroughly frozen Nighshade. “Now, I’ll ask again. What. Are. You. Doing?” 

“You son of a …” Thunderbolt clearly doesn’t buy it. And is furious at being intimidated. He lunges at a kid, his hand clenched into a fist, not using his superspeed quirk but… then he disappears. He just vanishes without a trace.

“Well, that was an enjoyable spectacle. Until you attacked my wonderful assistant.” Atsuhiro announces and Hitoshi realizes that despite noticing him at the beginning, he somehow failed to notice him still being there the whole time. Did Midoriya drag so much attention to himself that he somehow… “Now time for the encore, my dear little fake heroes!” 

Hitoshi ends up seeing Atsuhiro ramming Red Wing’s head into a broken fridge (and then the hero suddenly disappearing). Right before he deftly dodges Nightshade’s baton (which seems to hit him, but no, it’s just his jacket, because Atsuhiro crouched and left it hanging above him in the air, somehow) and makes him vanish as well by tapping him lightly on his knee. 

Himiko and Hitoshi stare at the people in front of them. Hitoshi has so many questions. Starting from ‘Izuku knows All Might personally?!” and going all the way to ‘did his uncle just DEFEAT THE NUMBER THREE HERO and two other heroes like it was no big deal?!’. 

“Uncle Atsuhiro.” Izuku gulps nervously, and he is clearly back to his normal, anxious self. “When I told you to follow me, I kinda… like… expected you to offer me vocal support. On the body-cam bluff. Not, technically, kidnap the Number Three Hero.” 

“Well…” Atsuhiro scratches the side of his head. “... Plus Ultra?” 

Even Hitoshi thinks that the kick to the ankle was well-earned. 

Chapter Text

Eraserhead is having a blast. Well, in his own terms. The best part of marrying Ms. Joke is that she knows when he is reaching the end of his patience and is ready to step in in order to deflect the attention from him. 

So he is currently in the same room as Present Mic and Midnight (everyone is wearing their casual clothes, this is late evening and they aren’t working right now), but somehow, just somehow, Emi has taken the attention of his friends off him and he is just existing there. In the background.

He filters the noise of the conversation out of his head, sets up a self-imposed mental command to wake up when he hears his name or his hero name (or if something explodes), and is doing his best to fall asleep with his eyes open. 

But then he gets a phone call. And he hates those. He pulls out a phone and sees that it’s one of the newest contacts he has on it. 

All Might, the probably-in-a-few-months fellow teacher is phoning him. He is in the area, and Nedzu gave them each other’s phone numbers (plus some general introduction) in case All Might needed some investigative help or Eraserhead needed some brawn. They didn’t thus far, and so All Might was happily punching out villains in the area of the UA, with only some passing meetings while he was preparing to take up the job. 

What happened now?

“Who is it, Aizawa?” Emi leans closer towards him, probably curious at who could be phoning such a cryptid as Eraserhead. Literally 90% of possible callers were in that very room (which happened to be the home of Eraserhead), drinking just slightly and… doing whatever people were doing when they were together. 

Eraserhead stopped caring about that ever since he hit his daily human interaction limit. 

“All Might is calling me.” He replies and Emi makes an OMG ALL MIGHT face that makes Aizawa look just so incredibly tired.

“Turn on the speaker!” Emi says quickly. “I want to hear him!” Eraserhead groans and he sees Nemuri and Hizashi going silent and eyeing him curiously as well. 

Alright. Here goes nothing. 

“What is it, All Might?” Eraserhead does his best to not sound inviting at all. It’s his time off, he could be taking a nap! Then again, he could be taking a nap at any point of the day. Which is why he dislikes being called by people. 

“Aizawa, would you like to adopt a child?” All Might asks and Emi somehow does a spit take because she took just the right time to drink her beer. Eraserhead is staring at the phone like it grew horns, and said that it’s a demon that wants to join Eraserhead’s class to learn how to be a proper sadist. 

“Sorry, that was a strange thing to ask.” All Might corrects himself before Eraserhead says words that he would (or wouldn’t) regret. “Could you do me a favour? I need the Recovery Girl with everything she needs to do a field medical check-up and an obduction, two or three liters of human blood of whatever blood type and probably some medicines for Hayes-Wilczak Syndrome. In front of the UA in… an hour. Just without Nedzu knowing.” 

“All M… Yagi.” Eraserhead takes a deep breath. “What have you done?” 

“It’s… quite hard to explain, mmm....” All Might replies and he sounds almost apologetic. “But it might include an accidental kidnapping of the Number Three Hero.” Eraserhead can feel himself going slackjawed. Present Mic stares at him from the other side of the table. Midnight looks like she just instantly went sober and was deeply regretting it. 

“Well, good for you that I think that Thunderbolt is a dick.” Eraserhead replies finally. “Can I come with Ms. Joke, Present Mic and Midnight?” He may as well make this evening actually memorable.

***

The Recovery Girl was less than happy as she was about to go home. But Eraserhead managed to get to her in time. Besides, they shared the opinion on Thunderbolt (although his involvement was something that she learned only after they left the UA, since the resident Rat God of Evil could overhear them on it). 

Twenty minutes later a car arrived, driven by Detective Tsukauchi. Who, frankly speaking, looked like a soldier that had just emerged from the trenches after three years of gruelling and mentally taxing total war. 

“Do I even want to ask?” Eraserhead says while he is loading into the car and taking over the front seat. 

“No.” Tsukauchi replies, while staring blankly into space in front of him. They both ignore the fact that the car (it’s not a big one) ran out of seats and absolutely no one wanted to be left out on whatever was happening, leading to Recovery Girl landing herself on Ms. Joke’s lap. Shuzenji was the smallest of them all, after all. “But you will find out soon enough.” 

His driving is way more recklessly suicidal than Aizawa remembers. It’s like he wants to die, really.

***

They stop in front of a rather unassuming residence in an even more unassuming (if not straight boring) ward in Shizuoka. Eraserhead doesn’t remember ever being near it, really. And he has no idea who might be living here. 

Recovery Girl picks up her tools from the trunk, Midnight is tasked with carrying the bloodbags and the medicines, Present Mic is handed a stack of documents by Tsukauchi, and then they are all led by the detective towards the door. 

The detective knocks, and after a few seconds it opens. Just enough to let them see All Might in his hero form (but civilian clothes) standing behind them, maybe a bit too large for them. But at least not noticeable by the neighbours. 

“You are here!” He shouts and Eraserhead can feel his ears hurt. “Please, come in!” 

They do so. They find themselves in an anteroom with All Might and an unfamiliar green haired woman approaching her forties. 

“I’m sorry for calling you out on such short notice!” All Might thunders. His ability to keep the volume down diminishes even further in his hero form. “Please, let me introduce the owner of this residence. Her name is Inko Midoriya.” She does a dignified curtsy. “She happens to be my wife.” All Might looks like he is really proud about it. 

“Wait, you have a wife?!” Midnight asks first. Of course that’s what picks her interest. “I mean… everyone thinks that you are… uhm… alone?” It’s almost hilarious to see how thoroughly NOT lewd she is off work. Especially the baggy clothes makes her look weird once you actually realize who she is. 

“We’ve decided to keep that part a secret.” Inko replies. “My husband has a lot of enemies, and besides, I don’t exactly enjoy the attention of the press.” Eraserhead’s opinion on All Might actually rises after this. He managed to hide being married from the vultures? Despite his common… bumbling behaviour? And being the most popular person in the country? Hats off. “Now, however, we got into a bit of a crisis that we decided that we can’t deal with on our own.” 

“It includes Thunderbolt, yes?” Eraserhead asks and Inko nods. “What exactly happened?”

“I think it’s something to talk about in the living room.” Inko replies. “Just… before we enter, you need to know something. This is a bit more people to find out than I thought, really.” All Might shrugs with an apologetic look on his face. “But… one of the reasons for the secrecy of our marriage is that I’m actually a retired supervillain.” 

Eraserhead - and not only he - has a brief WHAT moment, but she doesn’t let them vocalize it. 

“As a result, we’ve made a decision that neither of us do any work in our home or anywhere near it.” She continues. “It’s a bit of a neutral zone for us and our acquaintances, and we expect you to respect that.” 

“Okay, that’s just… something.” Eraserhead replies and groans. “What sort of villains are we talking about?” There is obviously someone in the house right now, even if you exclude All Might’s wife. 

She doesn’t have time to answer.

“Inko, my dear! Those cookies you made for the guests are absolutely deeeelightful!” They all hear a voice coming from the deeper part of the house. Right before they all get to see Mr. Compress, one of the most wanted men in the country and a double S-rank villain in his signature villain outfit, enters the anteroom like it is completely normal. “Oops. Am I interrupting something?”

“If you came in thirty seconds earlier, before I explained the neutral zone thing, I’d interrupt your heartbeat.” Inko deadpans in the resulting silence. All Might looks just slightly intimidated. Mr. Compress lets out a panicked squeal and vanishes from the room. Eraserhead looks at Detective Tsukauchi, who, once again, looks traumatized. 

“I was his best man.” Is the entire answer for the unspoken question that he gets.

***

Three minutes later Eraserhead has to admit that the cookies truly are delightful. The only real negative is that he can see Mr. Compress sitting on the chair in the same room as Eraserhead without, apparently, the possibility for Aizawa to arrest him. 

And he isn’t touching the part where he can clearly see the Hero Killer as well. The man who beat up and ruined the careers of a two-digit number of heroes is in this room, clad in All Might’s merch clothes (including a really atrocious T-Shirt and even worse glasses), and standing next to not just the unconscious Thunderbolt, but also two other heroes that he doesn’t recognize. Drinking what looks like a strawberry smoothie from an All Might-themed cup. 

He can feel his sanity slowly cracking and he realizes that if something isn’t done, he will end up looking like Tsukauchi. Just how many unspeakable horrors did the poor detective see? Does Eraserhead even want to imagine the wedding? Especially after the off-handed mention that Compress organized it?

“So, can we please start the explanations?” Eraserhead wants to go home. And he is doing his best to ignore how thoroughly entertained Emi clearly is. Mic is mostly shocked, and Midnight is… Eraserhead has no idea what she is. Recovery Girl in the meantime is an enigma wrapped in secrecy and covered in a camouflage of mystery. 

“I believe there is someone else we’ll need to ask for those.” Inko announces. They are all sitting around a coffee table. “Izuku! Please come in.” 

Few seconds later a kid (just slightly younger than the recruitment age for the UA, with messy green hair and freckles) runs into the room. His eyes quickly scan everyone sitting around the table and then…

“Omigosh!” The kid is absolutely beaming at them. “Eraserhead, Present Mic, Midnight, Ms. Joke and Recovery Girl!” Eraserhead stares at him, how did he instantly recognize them all?! No, All Might had to tell him who was coming, right? Kid’s eyes took that moment to dart towards All Might. “Dad, can I… can I ask them for autographs? I know it’s not the time, but...”

“We’ll talk about it once we deal with the… situation.” All Might replies, but not before exchanging glances with Inko and his wife nodding slightly. “Now, could you please tell our guests what exactly happened?”

“Oh, ok!” Izuku straightens up, takes two or three deep breaths and starts talking. “For a while now I was cleaning the Takoba beach from junk as a part of the training for the UA entrance exam. With my dad, and sometimes my uncles.” Does Eraserhead want to ask who those uncles are? Probably not. It’s bad enough that he just learned who is going to be his next problem child. “I at some point noticed that there was a child my age living in the junkyard. He was obviously a runaway, and a small-time villain but it really wasn’t their fault, so I decided to try to help them, and…” 

Eraserhead raises his hand to interrupt the stream of words. 

“They were a villain?” He asks, and the kid loses maybe half a second to start answering that.

“Err, yes.” He replies. “I suspected it so, I browsed the Hero Network data under my dad’s supervision and I found a string of small robberies in the area done by someone similar looking, with some form of mind-control quirk. But it was never money, just stuff like food or medicines. I wanted to see if this is more of a necessity than anything to them, and the food thefts clearly ended after I began to leave food on the beach after training.” 

“I see, please continue.” Eraserhead replies, hiding the fact that he was just kind of impressed. A fourteen year old kid identifying a villain (even if small-time) like that? Not bad. Not bad at all. 

“I decided to get to know him better without calling the heroes or child services to figure out what or who he is hiding from.“ Izuku continues. “I… uhm… kind of figured out that it would be best if he actually asked to get helped? I think that it was going quite well, and I learned a lot of things and I think that he started to trust me, but then today happened. I was cleaning the beach with my uncle… uhm, Compress, acting as a truck driver.” 

Eraserhead is really not digging into the part where the son of the Symbol of Peace has one of the top supervillains act as their nanny. Who the hell is Midoriya Inko?! Judging from the occasional glances that Midnight is giving her, Eraserhead isn’t the only one who wonders.

“That’s when I saw the kid running back into the junkyard.” Izuku continues. “Right after that I saw Nightshade, Red Wing and Thunderbolt enter it after them.” The Number Three Hero and two other heroes following a small-time thief? That’s… that’s going to be pretty bad, isn’t it? “I got worried, so I asked Mr. Compress to follow me and we went after them.” 

Eraserhead can only hope that Mr. Compress wasn’t in his villain outfit because his assessment of Izuku (Midoriya? Yagi?)’s intelligence would drop significantly. 

“When I arrived, I saw Nightshade trying to beat that child and another one his age to death with a riot baton, while Red Wing was watching and Thunderbolt was playing on his phone.” Izuku says, and Eraserhead would have choked on air, but years of being an underground hero taught him how to deal with things both messed up and unexpected. Thunderbolt, the Number Three Hero, was doing WHAT? While someone was beating a kid to death over some small-time theft? “I tried to make them stop doing that by bluffing that I was recording the whole thing and it was streaming to my dad, who is All Might’s personal assistant, and I think it was going quite alright, but Thunderbolt tried to attack me, and… my uncle, technically, ended up kidnapping him and the other two heroes.” Izuku concludes his tale. There are a few long seconds of silence that clearly makes him uncomfortable and he decides to stop it by adding something. “We’ve… also brought those children here and patched their wounds, but they are not in  good shape, so dad decided to involve the Recovery Girl.”

“I’ll leave you to deal with Thunderbolt.” Recovery Girl announces. Despite three heroes lying unconscious on the floor, she has other things to do. Considering what they just heard, they should be happy that she didn’t try to kick any of them. “I’m going to take a look at those children. Where can I find them?” Soon she, Inko, and a lot of blood bags disappear from the room. 

“Alright, so let me get this straight.” Eraserhead decides to take one for the team, since Mic, Emi and Midnight were just so unbelievably useless. “You, the son of the Number One Hero, were training on the beach, with one of the most prolific supervillains in the country acting as your nanny. You decided to save some runaway kid living on said beach, which led to you seeing three heroes, including the Number Three Hero, commit a blatant case of heroic brutality if not a downright murder attempt on two children. So you proceeded to intimidate them, and when it didn’t work, you… kidnapped them?” 

Izuku looks down, but he honestly feels more shy due to standing in front of the people than in remorse for what he did. Then he nods. 

Definitely a problem child. 

“And why didn’t you tell anyone about the fact that you identified a villain responsible for a string of thefts?” Eraserhead asks and he can see Tsukauchi nod a bit. 

“Well, I… did?” Izuku replies, scratching his head a bit. Is it some sort of a nervous tick? The movements are a bit odd. “I told my parents. Dad wanted to call child services, but after I pointed out what I learned, he decided to let me try to help.” 

The heroes in the room stare at All Might, who is just a bit startled by it. 

“L...let him talk before accusing me!” He promptly shouts, and Izuku jumps up a bit. He feels… rather jumpy, in general. 

“Errr, I found out that the kid I was seeing on the junkyard had a mental quirk from the police records.” Izuku says quickly. “I knew that he looked like he hadn't slept in a few days, so I figured out that he has Hayes-Wilczak Syndrome, and…” Eraserhead once again raises his hand. 

“Quick explanation for those who don’t know.” Aizawa says. “So, most of us. What is that Syndrome?” The Recovery Girl looked at him really strangely when he told her to bring the medicine for it. And he had never heard about it.

“Uhm, err, it’s a rare quirk disorder when one’s mental quirk refuses to fully shut down, and keeps the brain's activity up at all times.” Izuku promptly stammers. “It makes you unable to sleep unless you eat up a lot of sleeping pills. There are dedicated medicines, but the disease is rare, so they are hard to get. Not something you can steal from a pharmacy. So I decided that if the kid from the junkyard was living there despite knowing he has the Syndrome, there was a high chance that he was hiding from someone. Most likely his own family. And considered it important enough to, err, risk his own life. I… wanted to find out before making dad phone the child services. If his family was abusive to him, I didn’t want to be the one to make him return to it.” 

That was a rather thoughtful approach. Kinda unlike All Might, really? Izuku Midoriya spent weeks if not months trying to figure out how to help a kid that he met on the street, despite knowing that he was a villain. And then jumped in front of the Number Three Hero to save said villain (who clearly didn’t deserve to be beaten up for what he did). 

Eraserhead nods with approval. Just a bit. Not strongly enough for anyone to notice. He isn’t going to play favourites, even if there is a chance that the child in front of him wouldn’t pass the entrance exam and thus wouldn’t be a problem to him. He does glance towards Tsukauchi though. 

“I can confirm that everything he said was true.” Tsukauchi promptly replies. “Which means that we are now going to have to deal with the fallout.” He sighs. “We can’t exactly make it public that Izuku is All Might’s son, nor the fact that Thunderbolt was done in by Mr. Compress accompanying Izuku, and I’m ninety-nine percent sure that he recognized the quirk or will at least be suspicious of it.” 

“So, what do you propose?” All Might asks promptly. 

“I can find a way to jail Nightshade and Red Wing.” The detective replies. “They have no substantial backing, but unless we have an actual, honest-to-god recording of Thunderbolt standing there while a kid is beaten to death, the Hero Public Safety Commission WILL rescue him. Worst of all, if I try to involve all three at once, Nightshade and Red Wing might get rescued by association.” He takes a few sips of the coffee and continues. “My suggestion is to have those two jailed, and let Thunderbolt go… after some proper corrective talk from All Might. Probably some ‘you will retire or I will find you and teach you what the word pain means’ thing?” 

“Oh, I think I can work something out.” All Might smiles in a way that Eraserhead had never seen. It’s… intimidating, really. And slightly scary. “But we still need to figure out what to do with the children. We brought you here mostly for that.” ‘You’ as in Eraserhead and the other heroes, obviously. Tsukauchi’s usefulness clearly ended, and Recovery Girl was doing something else. “Izuku might have an idea to present to you.” He motions his son to start, with a beaming look of paternal pride on his face. 

“Yes!” Izuku straightens up a bit. “Err, basically, I knew his quirk for a while, and I learned what hers is like… today, and they are really, really cool and I think that they would make for awesome underground heroes! And they are young enough to try to apply to a hero school! He even mentioned that he wanted to do that, before… err, bad things happened to him. They just need someone to give them a chance, and… address their medical issues, and…” He looks at All Might for help, since he is clearly not seeing what he hoped to see on their faces. 

“I agreed to involve Present Mic and Midnight because, frankly speaking, we might need some more teachers in that.” All Might finally says. “Izuku has an interesting idea on how to deal with it, and I think that I’m on board with it, but realizing it might require some additional leverage in front of Nedzu.” 

***

They are still debating the proposal (mostly working out the details, because everyone in the room is on board, just with varying degrees of doubt) when Shuzenji returns to the room with Inko Midoriya tailing her. 

Shuzenji shows not a trace of it on her face, but Eraserhead had known her for years. Recovery Girl is out for blood, and it’s not for the transfusion. Midoriya Inko looks calmer, but something in her green eyes make Eraserhead’s blood go cold. 

“Aizawa. Tsukauchi.” She announces. “I want you to do your absolute utmost to send Nightshade to jail for as long as possible. And then do the same with every member of those kids ‘families’ that you can find.” She lands herself on the armchair. 

“That bad?” Tsukauchi replies with a question. 

“Worse.” Recovery Girl replies promptly. “He has three broken fingers, two broken ribs and a concussion. She has second degree burns on a lot of skin. And that’s just the most recent damage. I’ll need to break and set her bones again properly, because she had her arms broken by someone, apparently Nightshade during an earlier meeting, and she clearly received no medical attention after that so they healed wrongly.” Eraserhead can hear her fingers tapping on the table. “They are both malnourished, and that’s NOT recent. They didn’t eat even nearly enough for years. There are also the medical issues to consider - if Izuku Midoriya didn’t decide to try to help them, neither of them would have survived the winter.” There is a faint sound of her tongue clicking. “And considering what I managed to get out of them, they both knew about that but considered it a better option than returning to wherever they escaped from.” 

“Well, shit.” Eraserhead says. “Looks like it’s time to ruin someone’s life.” Emi nods furiously. Mic adds a (way too loud) YEAAAH, that Midnight promptly joins. “I think we’re also in agreement about what we do about those kids, yes?” 

Emi elbows him. Discreetly. It still hurts. 

“Let’s adopt them, Shou.” She says, and he stares at her like he just met her. 

“We haven’t even seen them yet, Emi.” Eraserhead manages to reply, while Inko, Izuku, All Might, detective Tsukauchi and Recovery Girl are staring at them weirdly. 

“That’s great! Think about it, no bias concerning their looks. Or quirks.” She replies with a bright smile. Way too bright. 

All Might clears his throat. Eraserhead decides to, once again, take one for the team. He is used to how useless Mic and Midnight are in moments like these. 

“Honesty for honesty.” He tells All Might with a blank face. “We got married a few months ago.” Tsukauchi’s look of pity is just sad. Aizawa turns to face Emi. ”My answer is no. We aren’t adopting them. I’m not budging on that.” 

(He unconditionally surrenders to her twenty minutes later.)

***

They are about to leave the building (with those kids clearly shocked by the gentle treatment and a promise that they will not be returned to whoever they escaped from), when they see someone else. Or, to be exact, Emi does. There is a six or seven year old girl with white/green hair, wearing a set of black pajamas, staring at the guests from the doorframe. With a Gang Orca plushie in her hands.

It’s almost after midnight, so it’s a bit late for her to not be in bed.

“Oh, hello there!” Emi coos just a bit, because that girl (despite her slightly intimidating glare) is just super cute. “My name is Emi. What’s yours?” The attention in the room shifts to them.

“Aiko.” She replies promptly. Emi decides that it’s a cute name. It means love child, after all! Then the girl puts her hands up and shows her six fingers (while almost letting her plushie fall to the floor.

“Oh, so you are six years old.” Emi replies with her brightest smile. 

“No.” Aiko shakes her head. “I committed six murders.”

The silence in the room is total. Save for the sound of All Might coughing out a lot of blood. Inko goes pale in horror. 

“Your birthday ends your previous year of life.” Aiko announces, completely unshaken by the silence. “When my seven-year-old self was born, my six-years-old self died. I killed it to grow stronger and take its belongings for myself. That’s murder. And robbery. And probably identity theft.” Then she yawns. “I’m sleepy. Goodnight!” And she walks out of the room. 

“What. The. Hell.” They all hear Present Mic’s terrified whisper. 

***

Three days after the event, Thunderbolt suddenly announces his retirement in the media. He cites undefined medical problems, and says that he needs to focus on his civilian life. He uses his money to buy a small and generally unassuming countryside cottage. Where he promptly retires, after selling all of his belongings that didn’t fit inside. And donating most of the money to the charity groups focusing on helping victims of quirkism. 

Eraserhead didn’t get to see whatever ‘corrective talk’ All Might gave him. So he grew curious. What had that much effect on the corrupt hero? What broke him so utterly, that despite being a gloryhound with a nice backing in the Hero Commission, he just RETIRED? Completely, thoroughly and irreversibly. 

So, against himself, he phones All Might. He picks it up after a few signals. 

“Aizawa?” All Might sounds almost cheerful. “What do you want?”

“I just wanted to ask what you told Thunderbolt.” Eraserhead replies. “You clearly terrified him, and I want to know how. For reference, let’s say.” 

“Oh, you know.” All Might replies, sounding a bit surprised by the question. “I learned a lot of things in the United States. A hero needs to learn many skills, not just stick to one skillset, right?” Oh, Eraserhead knows that very well. “I’m skilled in tracking, trapping, survival, sewing, fishing, CIA enhanced interrogation techniques, cooking…” 

CIA what? 

“I might have mentioned to Thunderbolt one of the things from the list.” All Might adds. “I might have also mentioned how furious I am at him attacking my de facto nephew. And that Star and Stripe, the United States Number One hero, owes me a favour. Oh, and also the part where it’s really easy to just vanish mysteriously when you managed to irritate the Number One Hero AND the CIA. And that Star and Stripe is a drinking buddy of its current director.” All Might chuckles into the phone. “Well, is there anything else you want to know, Aizawa?” 

***

Twenty years earlier, in America. 

"So..." A trainee asks. "Can I, like, give that training mannequin a white wig and paint his eyes red? For... reasons." 

Seven hours later.

"Do I want to know..." The higher up visiting the training center asks. "...why is that trainee accusing the mannequin of killing someone named Nana while waterboarding and beating him up?" 

"Probably not." The instructor replies. "But I like his enthusiasm and creativity." 

Chapter Text

Two months after the Thunderbolt’s retirement, All Might found himself entering Nedzu’s office. With, as always, the feeling of being deeply unsettled, probably in danger, and most certainly not wanting to be there. 

Nedzu was tolerable for as long as he kept to less than two teas per hour. He was dangerous between that and four teas. Anything above that, and, well, if he was angry at you at this point, it was wise to consider suicide and spare yourself the pain. Principal Nedzu was legendarily vindictive, sadistic and cruel. 

How exactly he managed to remain a principal of the most reputable hero school was anyone’s guess. The rat was either too smart to be caught on anything, or he already managed to terrify everyone notable in the country beyond the point where they were willing to risk his wrath. 

All hail our secret rodent overlords, to quote what Tsukauchi once said after he got a bit too drunk. Okay, not said. Chanted. On the street. Somehow, just somehow, Nedzu knew and sent him a ‘thank you for your support’ message to the detective's private number. 

“All Might!” Rodent was sitting there, in his signature sneakers (were he and Izuku buying their shoes in the same shop?) and with a chamomile tea in front of him. “What a pleasure to see you today! What brings you to my office?”

Calm down, All Might tells himself. Inko is way scarier. He remembers her reaction when she finally discovered that her husband left her son on a rooftop after crushing his dreams. Frankly speaking, fighting All for One again didn’t feel as scary after that scolding. 

“I was chosen as a representative of the school faculty.” All Might replies and puts some papers on the desk in front of Nedzu. “Despite not technically being a part of it yet. I was told to bring you these proposals in their stead.” 

There are two of them now. Only because Eraserhead decided to jump on the bandwagon and announced that he will give his support if he gets to put forward a proposal of his own. Aizawa was just kinda like that. 

Nedzu quickly skims through the first file. 

“Ah, changes to the entrance exam.” Nedzu nods. “I can see Eraserhead’s hand in it, though the reference links, bibliography, et cetera are certainly not his. However, I have my own reasons for using the robots. The sad part of Mankind is its overreliance on image, and the image of heroism is, more or less fortunately, based on you. At least in Japan. So direct firepower. With how the HPSC tailors the public opinion, I need to tailor the graduates of the UA properly in order to not be outdone in terms of public image. As otherwise we’ll no longer be a number one hero school. This is why there is a backdoor in the form of the school festival - it allows people with less flashy quirks to show their skills to the world, and prove that they are the equals of the Hero Course students.”

“Please, do not tell me straight to my face that my position as the Symbol of Peace is why many non-flashy yet still useful quirk-bearers are denied their chance to realize their dreams.” All Might sighs painfully. “What about the argumentation for the changes in that proposal?” He is quite curious about it. After all, Izuku wrote it. 

Okay. Asa helped. Inko helped. All Might helped. Even Mr. Compress and Stain (who had some serious beef with hero schools that All Might decided to not dig into) helped. Eraserhead helped as well, of course. But most of it was still Izuku’s work. 

“Well, I admit that it does raise some valid concerns that weren’t brought up before.” Nedzu nods again and caresses his fur for a bit. His equivalent of making a thoughtful face. “It is true that the option to switch courses isn’t advertised enough, resulting in many prospective kids not applying to General Course after failing the Hero Course exam. It is also true that in order to make things more honest and give the General Course kids a chance, they should be offered at least a possibility of attending self-defense, quirk training and additional physical training classes. Since without that, even the relatively brief time between the start of the year and the first school festival is enough to widen the gap between hero course and general course. The idea of organizing a special exam for the potential transfer students is also interesting.” 

All Might didn’t expect that. 

“Really?” He asks. He is still in his skeleton form, so his brow lifting is rather noticeable. He always talks louder when in hero form, and from his experience, that doesn’t sit well with Nedzu. “I expected you to disagree with it.” 

“The idea is interesting.” Nedzu says again. “It is true that some students might simply have bad luck during their first school festival, and that such a failure can easily breed malice. The idea of allowing the homeroom teachers of Gen Ed courses to pick particularly prospective students and for the school to organize them a closed exam a few months after the school festival is interesting. Whoever wrote this paper certainly took notice of my reasons for the robots on the entrance exam, as he even states that passing the exam doesn’t have to mean transfering courses, but it should mean being cleared to attend at least the foundational heroics lessons alongside the hero courses, in order to not widen the gap and prepare for another attempt at course transfer. I believe Eraserhead struggled a lot with making up for the lost year of heroics, since he managed to earn the transfer during his second school festival.” 

Nedzu goes silent and continues stroking his fur while lightly kicking his short legs in the air. Deep thinking, this time, really deep. 

“Robots will stay during the entrance exam.” Nedzu finally comes to a decision. “I agree that their regular presence during the school festival is an overkill, especially the zero-pointers, however neutered is their programming. I also believe that the rest of the proposal does raise some valid points. Points valid enough to justify testing the offered solutions in real life. I’ll advocate for that during the school board meeting.” 

Considering the fact that when Nedzu said ‘jump’, the school board didn’t even ask how high (instead it jumped as high as possible while wiggling their metaphorical tails in happiness caused by being able to please their rodent overlord), this meant that the proposal was accepted.

“The appetizer is behind us, now time for the main dish.” Nedzu says, while putting the first file away. The second one is clearly a thicker stack of papers. It was Izuku’s magnum opus that he spent every remaining free minute during the last two months on. While getting any help he could. Including many, many hours of technically illegal access to the hero network (under his father’s supervision, but still). 

“Oh dear.” Nedzu says quietly midway through the file. “Oh. Dear.” He adds a few more pages in. His speed of reading is inhuman. He is just taking a brief look at the page and continues on. Second per page? But unlike normal human speed readers, he has enough brain power to read and understand every single sentence, correct all typos, and cross-reference with previously possessed knowledge… while simultaneously plotting the downfall of Mankind or something. All during that single second.

“That’s… an extremely interesting and bold proposal.” Nedzu says after putting the file away. His whiskers are trembling slightly. Is it excitement? “I also enjoy the personal touch. Especially the point in the list of arguments that only states that, and I quote, ‘The Hero Commission President will be royally pissed off, and that’s frankly a reason to do it on its own’.” 

The feud between Nedzu and the president was… probably the second most intense feud in the history of Japan after the one between All Might and All for One, really. And Yagi Toshinori isn’t sure if it wouldn’t get just as intense if the two were allowed to publically murder each other without losing their hard-earned positions. 

All Might is still going to have a serious talk with Izuku about sneaking swear words in official papers past his parental proofreading brigade. 

“Frankly, it’s a high risk high reward proposal, especially in light of the presented list of candidates.” Nedzu adds. “We’ll need to ramp up security, notify the PR department in advance, and probably expand the campus with one or two additional buildings. Not to mention fact-checking the data, screening the candidates on our own… Hound Dog is going to go bald from overwork. Then again, he clearly signed the proposal, so he is ready for it. Or expects to get some helpers.”  

He goes silent for a few long seconds. Even the whisker shivers calm down. All Might isn’t going to interrupt him right now. It wouldn’t be safe.

“Time to spill the beans, All Might.” Nedzu finally speaks. “Who put this forward? I can see the signatures of Eraserhead, Present Mic, Midnight, Cementoss, Power Loader, Hound Dog and… pretty much the entire faculty save for Lunch Rush and Thirteen, which is reasonable enough due to their minimal involvement in the execution of this proposal. Even Vlad King is on-board. But the idea certainly came from none of them. So who was it?” 

“My successor.” All Might replies promptly. Nedzu is taken aback for maybe two or three seconds. All Might forgot to mention earlier that he has chosen someone. 

“Certainly not Mirio Togata.” Nedzu replies, it’s probably just him thinking aloud. “He is smart and driven enough to put up such a paper, but this sort of an idea just isn’t his style. You picked someone else, but… who could it be?” He is staring at All Might for a few more seconds. “Certainly none of the UA students. Some recent graduate? An older hero?”

“You’ll meet him in a few months.” All Might replies. “When he will attend the UA entrance exam.” 

All Might isn’t sadistic enough to time that revelation with Nedzu’s regular tea sips. It’s probably an expensive tea, and he doesn’t want to get hunted by the members of Inko’s tea parties. He can (probably) survive Mr. Compress’s rage, but Gentle Criminal and La Brava would hunt him to the ends of the world. 

Nedzu still sounds for a second like he choked on air. All Might expects him to spit out a fur ball for a second, but no. The chimera isn’t feline enough.

“A fourteen year old child wrote this?” Nedzu raises the file with his hand, while staring at All Might like he just met him and wasn’t sure what to feel about the Symbol of Peace sitting in his office like it was no big deal. 

“Well, he had help.” All Might shrugs. “He is working real hard to prepare himself for the entrance exams, so he had maybe an hour or two per day to work on it. Took him almost two months to get it done. Then again, knowing where to find competent help is a useful skill on its own, isn’t it? And I assure you that the others merely offered their input. He wrote, fact checked and prepared the bibliography and the footnotes on his own.” 

“That’s true, yes, indeed.” Nedzu is lost somewhere in his own world. That All Might feels comfortable NOT visiting. “What did he do to make you notice him and decide on making him your successor?”

“Despite being quirkless, he managed to properly analyze the villain’s weakness in a heartbeat and did more damage to him by throwing his backpack than several pro-heroes on the scene managed to do with their quirks.” All Might replies promptly, and with paternal pride that it’s only slightly tainted by guilt of knowing what sort of absolutely stupid thing he told the kid earlier. “All because the villain was about to strangle his school bully, of all people, to death. Meeting his mother and discovering that not only is she my old acquaintance but also that I just offered my quirk to my own son was a cherry on top.” 

“Your s…” Nedzu blinks a few times. “Oh, that certainly had to be shocking. Discovering that he was your son after making the proposal certainly clears the suspicion of nepotism.” He thinks for two more seconds. “We’ll have to make some adaptations to not make you his teacher, provided that he passes the exam… then again, if we follow those proposals, expanding the foundation heroics classes with another teacher would have…” Nedzu’s eyes trail off for a while. “You know, I might be willing to agree to the second proposal as well, if…” 

“The answer is yes.” All Might interrupts Nedzu. 

“Excuse me?” Nedzu blinks a few times. “But you don’t even know what I wanted to say.” And All Might knows agreeing before Nedzu says what you are agreeing to is generally considered to be suicidal. But this time he knows what it is about. 

“I don’t.” All Might replies. “But my son, after listening to some inside stories about you from Eraserhead, decided that there is a high chance that you will be interested in giving him some personal lessons if he passes the entrance exam. So he prepared accordingly.” All Might pulled a scrap of paper out of his pocket. On it was one more benefit of the second proposal acceptance, written with the same formatting and probably explaining the oddly large open space at the end of that page in the proposal. “Here. Terms and conditions of those lessons. Written by my son, proofread and accepted by his mother and me.” 

Nedzu only glances at the paper before laughing in his most maniacal, disturbing way. The tea gets spilled en masse, and All Might immediately realizes that somewhere out there, Gentle Criminal is probably crying. 

“Oh I love your son already!” Nedzu finally says. All Might sees way too many teeth in front of him. “I’m agreeing to the terms and conditions wholeheartedly, and the second proposal will also be accepted! It will require some changes, since I do happen to have access to some information sources that your son clearly doesn’t… but the general idea is solid and sound. I can see the benefits if we manage to pull it off.” 

“At least make him overthrow a FOREIGN government as a graduation exam, alright?” All Might clicks his tongue in his irritation. Then he remembers about the bullying thing he mentioned earlier and he decided that now is a good time. Nedzu is clearly happy, and he agreed to the deal, so he won’t try to twist around it by making this a part of it. “By the way, I have a question about your secretive covert wars of organizational destruction.” 

“Yes?” Nedzu, the rat/bear that once dismantled a criminal syndicate in twenty-three minutes without leaving the teacher’s lounge because he felt bored during a faculty meeting, asks back. Obviously curious. 

“Do you take requests?” All Might deadpans. There is a sadistic grin on the rat’s face, almost matched by the one that breaks out on the face of the Number One Hero. Teachers from the Aldera High School are woken by nightmares that night. Oh if only they knew. 

***

“The true hero has convictions.” Stain, the Hero Killer, announces in the dead silence of the room. “They know when they have to risk their lives for the greater good. For others. They have convictions, and they are ready to stand by them even if it costs them their lives. Death, after all…” 

“Stain, I’m begging you.” Mr. Compress interrupts the Hero Killer. “Stop being a drama queen, we’re just playing Uno and you are supposed to pick the card. Don’t blow this out of proportion every damn time.” He sounds relatable to Eraserhead. Because he sounds like he is having a migraine. 

Stain - the man who has destroyed the careers of forty-seven corrupt heroes by unleashing the evidence of their corruption (La Brava and Gentle Criminal were extremely useful in obtaining that) right after beating them up in the alleyways, thus proving both their physical and moral weakness - snarls and picks the card. 

“Can I borrow a knife?” Aiko Midoriya asks. Eraserhead, honestly, almost falls off his chair because he didn’t notice her being there. She just somehow popped up right next to the table taken by two supervillains and a hero that was chosen by All Might to look over the kids that evening. 

Because he and Inko are apparently out on a date. 

Eraserhead calls bullshit, but at least it’s a calm evening. Asa is napping on the couch (he even gave Eraserhead his wallet back) and Izuku is typing something on a laptop in the corner. All while Present Mic is with Aiko and Eri in another room. 

He wanted to ‘fight through the trauma’ or something. 

“Interrogation, combat or… problem-solving?” Stain asks back, without even looking at her. 

“Problem-solving.” Aiko replies. “Present Mic is too loud.” Eraserhead can relate. Just not to needing a knife to solve that problem. Especially not when it’s the kid that wants to do it, and especially (times two) when it’s THAT kid. 

Aiko Midoriya is giving him the creeps. Worst of all, she stated that she wants to become a hero. Like her ‘beloved oniichan’. Eraserhead is going to retire right before she becomes old enough to apply to UA. There literally isn’t enough coffee in the world to make him consider being Aiko Midoriya’s homeroom teacher. 

He can deal with problem children, yes. But demon children are outside of his area of expertise. 

Worst of all, All Might is absolutely enamored with her. Almost as much as he is with Eri. Does he even have working eyes?!

“Sure.” Stain pulls a small but surprisingly nasty looking knife from a pocket and tries to give it to a seven year old girl, but Eraserhead grabs his hand with his capture scarf.

“Are you insane?!” Aizawa says while glaring at the Hero Killer from across the table. “You do not give knives to children, ESPECIALLY when they ask.” 

“Well, you heard the man.” Stain says with a shrug and pulls his hand back. This time he looks at Aiko. “You need to do it the old way, girl.”

“Psychological violence, then.” Aiko nods, her face filled with an expression indicating that she just came to a decision about something. Then she lunges under the table. Eraserhead bends himself to look under it as well, but… all he is seeing is three pairs of legs belonging to the two villains and a hero. 

“What the hell?” He asks, his head returning to the surface of the table. “A warp quirk?” 

“I have absolutely no clue.” Mr. Compress replies. “And, frankly, I don’t want to know. Her parents and siblings know what her quirk is, let’s trust them that it’s nothing dangerous and keep living in peace.” 

“The less you know, the shorter the interrogation.” Stain ads absentmindedly while staring at his cards. The game isn’t progressing in his favour. 

Five minutes later, a thoroughly terrified Hizashi comes running through the living room, screaming something akin to “I CAN’T I CAN’T I CAN’T’, repeated continuously like a madness mantra. He flees through the front door, without even taking his leather jacket.

Aiko and Eri step from the room he just fled. Eri looks saddened and goes after Present Mic (who is most likely right outside of home, panting heavily and trying to man up, but Mr. Compress still darts off after Eri just in case), probably to hug him and tell him that everything will be alright. 

“What happened?” Stain asks Aiko. 

“I drew him.” The girl replies promptly. Then she shows them the drawing. 

It’s just a tombstone, with a PAST MIC written on it. 

“He didn’t like it.” Aiko, somehow, sounds genuinely surprised by it. 

***

“OH MY GOODNESS!” All Might positively beams. “I thought that it was going to take you ten months, but you’ve done it in seven!”

The beach is clear. Seven months of hard work paid off. Takoba Municipal Beach Park is, once again, a park. And there is a beach. 

Izuku is tired, but happy. He is also way stronger than he was at the beginning. 

“I’d have shown you the photo of yourself that we did at the beginning…” All Might says, eyeing Izuku curiously. “But you actually changed less than I thought you would? I mean, you are clearly stronger, we tested that, but you are still kinda… small?” 

“Oh, uhm, that’s normal on mom’s side, I think?” Izuku replies. He did get some muscles, yeah, just less than he thought. He kinda hoped to get bigger, too. Was there still a chance of some last, final growth spurt? “They are all stronger than they look. She mentioned that a few times.” 

“Well, I can certainly attest that she is surprisingly strong.” All Might replies. She was always more… flexible and agile than strong, but he still remembers that bar brawl. Misaki (okay, Inko) anesthetizing seven bar brawlers with a creative use of a coffee table that she swung around like a weapon was truly an inspiring moment to watch. “The point is, I believe that we’ve come past the minimal physical requirements for One for All inheritance.” 

“So, we’re going to do it?” Izuku asks. He is clearly excited, because of course he is clearly excited. 

All Might calculates things. No, let’s not be that risky. He isn’t one hundred percent sure if the One for All is based on natural strength or on the size of the muscles. He isn’t having his son explode on him, right? He only just barely met him! 

“Let’s not be too hasty.” He can see his mood drop a bit, and he curses himself a bit. “Izuku, this is a dangerous thing. We still have three months until the entrance exam. I’ll figure out some additional training for the next two months, and then you’ll get the quirk.” 

He should also invite Gran Torino to try to teach his child the basics. He learned a lot of things in the United States, but dealing with intricate details of a quirk as unique as his own wasn’t among them. 

They don’t exactly have a manual at hand, thanks to a certain someone that’s technically the stepfather of the kid in front of him (All Might still didn’t figure out what to think about this, really). It’s hard to maintain a line of inheritance of information when there is a semi-omnipotent lunatic pursuing you constantly with an intent for murder. 

Gran Torino is old. He saw the entire history of two different One for All holders. If someone has a clue on how to deal with it, it’s probably him. Then again, considering how wide Inko's contacts in the underworld were, All Might wouldn’t be surprised if she could find out more than them both combined. 

All for One kept his family mostly separated from the business, but Inko was still Mischief. She knew a lot of people. A lot of villains. Mostly the current old guard, but still. If there was someone who could find All for One’s old stash of knowledge about One for All, it was probably her. But knowing All for One, he kept information about One for All in his head.

Explaining to Gran Torino that Yagi Toshinori is now a stepfather to All for One’s children was going to be an… experience. 

All Might shivers slightly. Inko will save him, right?

“One month should be enough to get some reasonable basics in when it comes to handling your quirk before your exam.” All Might continues. He doesn’t add that it was probably going to be the BASICS. Less ‘be a mini-me!’ and more ‘be able to punch a robot in the face so that it breaks more than your arms do’. 

 Izuku still sulks a bit. 

“Kid, you do realize that the worst case scenario of you inheriting the quirk is too early is your limbs coming off?” All Might decides to drive the nail home. He doesn’t add that what would follow would be All Might’s death at the hands of Inko Midoriya and probably a revenge rampage that would go down in history. 

“I know, I know.” Izuku looks down. “I’m just… kinda impatient?”

“I get it, son.” He puts his hand on his son’s shoulder and gives him a smile. Not one of All Might’s, but one of Yagi Toshinori’s. The private ones. “I felt the same when I was waiting for Nana to give me this quirk. Be patient for a while more, alright?” 

Eri, Aiko, Asa and Inko are there, waiting for them with a picnic on the verge of the beach. To celebrate what Izuku managed to do.

(“So, is he going to make it?” Nana asks. “Because I’m not going to survive seeing Yagi’s son exploding into pieces in front of me.” 

“We all won’t survive this, Nana.” Lariat reminds her. “We’ll explode with him, you know?”

“We won’t.” Yoichi replies. “He is strong enough, though he will have to deal with a high risk of damaging his limbs if he goes all out. He’ll have to keep training to suppress the level of power used rather than the other way around. Getting some additional foundational training before inheriting us is a good idea.” 

“And since he is young enough AND we’ve finally gathered enough power…” En decides to add. “...we’ll finally get to the true form of One for All. We should be able to communicate with him. Give him our quirks.” 

“Well, not like he has anyone to really use those against.” Lariat comments. “We kinda geared it all up for an epic final confrontation, only for All Might to just cave All for One’s face in and call it a day. Without One for All reaching the final form.” He sighs. “Unless Aiko Midoriya decides to become a villain, because frankly speaking I don’t get how she is doing ninety percent of what she is doing if her quirk is what Inko and Izuku claim it to be. She is seriously freaking me out.” 

“Why?” Aiko asks from her position right next to Yoichi Shigaraki, staring at Lariat with one of her signature glares. 

“Well, she is kinda… WAIT WHAT THE F…” Lariat manages to - in the span of a few seconds - go through a sensible reply through the shocked scream to a barely avoided swear word in front of a minor. He still jumps back with enough speed to actually fall over an imaginary couch. 

Nana realizes two seconds later that Yoichi Shigaraki was so freaked out by the sudden appearance of his niece that he actually jumped at her and she somehow grabbed him unconsciously. So she was princess carrying the First Holder, and she wasn’t sure if he noticed that. 

“You are weird.” Aiko comments. “Funny, but weird.” She doesn’t specify who she is referring to. “I came to check if your music wouldn’t hurt Izu-nichan, but it seems that things will be alright. You could change a few notes to fit him better, though. Are you sure that he needs so much strength?” She tilts her head, her eyes drilling through Yoichi. Then she vanishes. 

“What in the fuck?” Lariat is still half-hiding behind the couch, but it doesn’t stop him from voicing their thoughts. 

Aiko is calmly eating the food in the real world, just in front of Yagi Toshinori. It’s as if nothing has happened.

Chapter Text

Aiko Midoriya’s unexpected appearance within One for All was the reason for the bustling activity among the dead heroes. It was shocking enough that even some of the heroes who withdrew themselves from the state of consciousness after All for One’s death popped back up. 

There were 27 dead heroes in One for All, but only a few most recent ones (so Nana and Lariat, with even En only popping in and out at random) and the indomitable Yoichi Shigaraki were actively around. The rest weren’t there. They were - more or less - aware of what was happening, but they didn’t interact. It was like a dream to them. 

Well, they weren’t there normally. The daughter of All for One just randomly popping up inside of One for All, with nobody knowing how she did it, was a bit of a game-changer. Yoichi spent a few days trying to calm everyone down (he was less a human being and more One for All’s living control panel at this point, really) by pointing out that it wasn’t an attempt on stealing One for All. 

When things calmed down (and Nana managed to return to her routine of warming her heart by seeing just how incredibly happy Toshinori was with his new family) they still watched Aiko attentively. 

Especially Yoichi. And it wasn’t just his deep-seated desire to have his own family live in peace and without being tainted with evil, but something else. Asa’s apparent cleptomania was kinda worrying (then again, he always returned things, and it could be something he inherited from his mother more than his father), but Aiko was… 

Aiko was Aiko. 

They were busy commenting on one more family dinner when Yoichi suddenly straightened himself up.

“Aiko, I’d like to talk with you.” He says, taking the Lodge of Mockers (unofficial name, blame Lariat for it) on the couch off-guard.  

“Errr, I don’t think that it works like this.” Nana replies. En (she is one day going to call him Best Jeanist Senior and see how he reacts) nods. Lariat still looks slightly traumatized by the stunt she pulled three weeks ago. 

“It does.” Aiko announces. Lariat squeals. The girl that is probably stalking him in his nightmares is just standing there, in front of their couch. Doing nothing, but intimidatingly. They can still see the other Aiko eating her food with her family, but it’s clear that she is suddenly much more… absentminded. Probably due to her consciousness being within One for All. “What do you want to talk about?” 

Nana is just slightly weirded out. Less by Aiko and more by how disgustingly happy the look on Yoichi’s face suddenly was. C’mon, she might be your niece but she is also a scary demon child that has already traumatized at least two heroes for life, and one of them was technically dead when it happened!

“Well, I’m your uncle.” Yoichi stands from the couch and approaches their collective nightmare made manifest. “I thought I’d like to get to know my niece better.” He kneels in front of her, levelling himself with Aiko. 

“Oh, ok.” She looks surprised by this. 

Then they both vanish. Yoichi took her to talk in private, using one of his totally-not-bullshit-reality-warping-powers that he could use within One for All due to, technically, being their landlord. He also probably sped the time inside wherever they were to make the meeting last for longer. 

The meal outside ended, and close to twenty minutes passed before Yoichi and Aiko returned. Nana manages to not choke when she sees them. 

Aiko is nibbling on some candies (the brand probably long extinct and from Yoichi’s times) while piggybacking the First Holder. Yoichi, the two-centuries-old half-human-half-quirk-half-myth, is walking towards them with an expression of stupid happiness on his face. And she braided his hair. 

Oh, and they are wearing matching T-Shirts. With an ‘Awesome Quirk Club’ emblazoned on the front. 

Nana is worried. En is worried as well. Lariat mumbles something like ‘we lost him', which is probably a good summary of what evidently happened. 

“We had a talk.” Yoichi announces while letting Aiko hop off him. “I know what her quirk is, and how she is doing all those things, but I made a pinky promise to not tell anyone. I’ve also conclusively determined that she isn’t a threat to anyone who isn’t a meanie to her family. Also, she is the most adorable and precious person I’ve ever met.” She pulls his hand a bit. “Yes, Aiko, I know that Izuku is the most precious person in the world while Eri is the most adorable one. But I didn’t get to meet them in person.” 

“Oh. Alright.” Aiko says with a nod. “That makes sense.” She looks at the image seen through Yagi’s eyes. “I should go.” 

“Well, come whenever you want to spend some time with your uncle.” Yoichi beams at the demon child. Then he runs his fingers through her hair and Nana almost hides behind their couch. Like Lariat already did. Aiko seems pleased by it. 

“Alright, Uncle Yoichi! Bye-bye.” Aiko announces with some actual facial expressions of something resembling happiness and then she disappears. 

“Children are adorable.” Yoichi announces to the thoroughly shocked audience. “And precious.” 

Nana starts to wonder if you can brainwash a ghost. 

***

“Alright!” Yagi Toshinori announces. “I believe it is time for you to receive One for All” 

Izuku Midoriya, despite his rather respectful degree of body control and being a gifted gymnast (Inko was teaching him whatever she could if only to make him avoid bullies easier), manages to trip over and lands his face on the pavement. 

Yagi Toshinori decides that a trip to the grocery store wasn’t a good moment to announce such a life-changing revelation. Even if it was just an announcement that they were going to do it soon (he isn’t transferring One for All in front of a grocery store, for God’s sake, he has some sense of decorum left).

Nana Shimura and Inko Midoriya wholeheartedly agree.

***

Gran Torino is tired, his joints and bones hurt (should bones hurt?), and his taiyaki is his only relief from the constant existential pain that is getting old. 

Also, he apparently shrunk by another centimeter last year. Is this going to continue? Is he going to eventually shrink to negative height if he manages to survive for long enough? Is Yagi Toshinori ever going to stop being a source of comic relief for his old mentor? 

Yes, no, no. Probably. Gran Torino isn’t sure of any of those answers, maybe aside from the last one.  

Gran Torino is about to head to his evening patrol when his phone starts ringing. The old hero sighs and decides to check who it is. Hopefully, someone is trying to sell him something, because he loves driving those people nuts. 

Toshinori. It’s Toshinori. For the first time in years, he gets a call from his old student. From the Symbol of Peace. Normally he only heard about his antics from their mutual acquaintances (and, sometimes, saw them on the TV). What happened?

He picks up, of course. 

“Yagi, how wonderful to hear from you.” Gran Torino says. “So, who died?” 

“Err, no one?” He hears Yagi’s voice and he knows, just knows that the man is sweating and shaking in his boots. His training wasn’t even THAT hard. Yagi is just a drama queen. 

“Then you are going to die for not contacting me for so long and now doing so just to talk about some frivolities!” Sorahiko Torino shouts into the phone and can hear someone dropping something heavy on the other side. Alright, the first hit is in, Gran Torino is looking for more. 

“N…not frivolities, sensei!” Yagi quickly corrects himself, thinking that he found a way out of it. Oh, the foolishness.

“So you only contact me, your old sensei, about some important things, hmm?” Torino digs his fangs deeper. “I should have expected, you think that sending me birthday postcards and reminding me of my old age is enough? Who are you even to me now, to phone me like this?!”

“NO SENSEI I PROMISE THAT IT’S IMPORTANT AND SORRY FOR NOT INVITING YOU EARLIER!” Toshinori is probably standing on attention next to the phone, sweating profusely and shaking so fast that there are probably afterimages of it. Good. Gran Torino is temporarily satisfied. 

“Alright.” He says. “What is it about?” 

“I… found myself a successor.” All Might says and Gran Torino is taken aback. Sure, he expected that considering the wounds that All Might suffered, but to hear about him making the decision is… “I already transferred One for All to him. But he is having some small problems with controlling it.” 

“Define small problems?” Gran Torino replies with a question. ‘Small problems’ with One for All are an oxymoron. With a quirk that powerful all control problems are major. 

“He is physically weaker than I was during the transfer.” Yagi replies. “Using one hundred percent broke his arm. And both legs.”

That was odd. Gran expected All Might to find one more musclebrain to transfer the quirk to. Like the kid that was following Sir Nighteye everywhere (although he had some brains to back the brawn, then again, so did All Might). Who the hell is the newest Holder of the One for All? 

En wasn’t a musclebrain. And while Nana met him only briefly (while he was dying, to be exact) before the transfer, Gran Torino investigated that Holder to the best of their ability. He found no signs of actual bone-shattering, even soon after En got One for All from Daigoro Banjo.  

“It was always instinctive for me, but One for All seems to misbehave ever since I transferred it to him.” Yagi continues. “His sister has a quirk that lets her... know things about other quirks. She claims that One for All changed during that transfer, but it told her that everything is in order and that it just achieved its ‘final form’. But it refuses to elaborate on it. Apparently, it doesn’t want to spoil the surprise.” 

Gran Torino has a lot of questions right now. 

“But in the meantime, I need someone to teach Izuku how to use the minimal amount of power possible.” Yagi continues, and Gran Torino finally learns the name of his new student slash torture victim. “And I, uhm…” 

“And your approach to One for All was always about squeezing out more power, rather than less.” Gran Torino finishes for Yagi. “Yeah, yeah, I get it. I’ll do it.” He can hear the sound of a relieved exhale from the other side of the phone. Time for the interrogation. 

“Who is the next Holder?” Gran Torino asks. “I would have heard about a hero breaking almost all limbs during a battle. So, a hero student?” There is a strange sound coming over and he immediately detects weakness. Yagi is hiding something, and he just stumbled upon it.

“Not… exactly a hero student.” Yagi replies. “He is going to apply to the UA’s Heroics Course in a month.” 

Gran Torino takes a deep breath. Sure, Yagi’s inheritance of the quirk happened at a similar age, but… it’s still rather… odd. There are many experienced and tested heroes out there. Giving such a powerful quirk to a teenager isn’t without dangers. 

In Gran Torino’s idea, every teenager is one hormonal swing away from villainy and you can’t change his mind. 

“What made you choose him?” Sorahiko asks. He is an outsider, not one of the Holders. He knows that. He isn’t going to try to dictate whom Yagi should choose. But he is still emotionally invested in One for All’s long-term wellbeing. 

He doesn’t want to imagine having to deal with a One for All carrying villain. Thus far it wasn’t a problem due to All for One being after them, no one had the time or possibility to turn villain. But now? Who’s left to oppose such a person if they went bad?

“I witnessed a villain attack, while already having reached my limit for the day.” All Might replies. “A sludge villain was suffocating a teenager in the middle of the street, with several heroes including some of the Top 100 trying to pretty much stare him down. ‘Incompatible quirks’, my ass.” All Might says and Gran Torino can’t help but agree with his student. “That kid would have died if a quirkless fourteen-years old child didn’t rush in, and didn’t deal more damage to the villain by throwing his backpack at the weak spot that only he managed to identify, rather than all the heroes present at the scene.” 

Okay. That’s certainly a positive review in Gran Torino’s books. The kid can think quickly, analyze enemies for weaknesses (in a timeframe reasonable enough for it to be usable on the battlefield), and is already ready to risk his life for others.  Yagi’s choice might not have been as bad as he was afraid of. 

“Only later I learned that the villain’s victim was Izuku’s chief bully in school.” Yagi continues. “Although it apparently didn’t matter to him, because by the time his brain caught up with what he was doing, he was already rushing in.” 

“Now that sounds familiar.” Gran Torino replies. That’s a bit similar scenario to the one that made him notice Yagi. And then, through Sorahiko as an intermediary, to Yagi meeting Nana. “Are you sure you didn’t find your long lost child?” Gran Torino decides to return to teasing his old student.

He expects sudden sounds of Yagi being startled. Instead, he gets a few long seconds of silence. 

“It’s quite a… coincidence, but.....” All Might finally says. “He is my long lost child. Though I found out after offering the quirk to him, when I met and instantly recognized his mother.”

His taunt misfired. All Might doesn’t sound intimidated at all. Is Gran Torino getting old? 

“Misaki?” Gran Torino knows All Might enough to know that there was really only a single woman in his life (though Gran Torino knows her only from All Might’s description since he was quite secretive about her). And the timetable fits if Yagi’s words about the age of his successor are to be trusted. “You found her?!”

“I was just as surprised as you are, sensei.” All Might says. “I almost coughed my lungs out when I entered Izuku’s house and saw her! We… We got married a few months ago. But we kept the list of people aware of it to the absolute minimum, due to certain… err... circumstances.”

Were the circumstances All Might being too afraid of his teacher? Did Sorahiko’s regular Yagi teasing sessions finally backfire? If he teased him less intensively, would he get more opportunities to do that?

“Well, who would have expected that?” Gran Torino chuckles and prepares another teasing session. He isn’t giving up. Being a hero is about not giving up, after all! “Does Misaki know that you were already taken? It was one-sided, yes, but Mischief already stole your heart.” 

He doesn’t expect another few long seconds of silence. Which seems to be Yagi for ‘omg should I tell him that’. 

“I MIGHT have discovered that Misaki Kawamura was a false identity.” All Might eventually says. “Of, errr… Mischief.” 

“Twenty years.” Gran Torino says bitterly. “I had fun teasing you about your idol crush on a ten years younger supervillain jumping through the rooftops in a tight cat-themed bodysuit for twenty years. Now I suddenly discover that you MARRIED her and you have a kid. Let the old man have his fun, dammit!”

“S...sorry-sensei!” All Might quickly replies, and it’s completely useless when it comes to helping Gran Torino’s mood. Again. For the second time, he tries to tease or otherwise taunt Yagi, and somehow it doesn’t work. This has never happened during their joint history.

“So, he also has a sister.” Gran Torino decides to go for it again. He is going to get it done finally. “Also yours, or did someone else catch the elusive cat while you were away? Considering that it took All Might of all people to achieve it, I can’t think of many people who could do it. Maybe save for All for One. Was it him?” 

The last thing Gran Torino expected after this was another prolonged silence. One more ‘omg should I tell him that’ moment. 

Sorahiko Torino pinches the bridge of his nose. 

“Yagi, you didn’t.” He doesn’t even sound accusative. He just states it. His brain fails to compute the implications of the silence. 

“She left him over his problems with respecting the ‘no villainy at home’ rule. Apparently, he wanted to make one of their children into his heir.” All Might replies. “Now they all want to become heroes when they grow up, probably due to Izuku’s influence on them. Also, neither Asa nor Aiko inherited his quirk.” 

“So first All for One was a stepfather to your son, and now you are a stepfather to his son and daughter.” Gran Torino sighs. Three times. Yagi resisted his taunts three times. He is going to get one in, no matter what. “Talk about revenge and twists of fate. Also, the family meetings have to be odd. How many supervillains show up to your Sunday dinner, hmm?”

Silence. Oh for fuck’s sake. 

“Typically either Mr. Compress, or Stain, or sometimes both.” All Might states flatly. Something in his voice makes it obvious that he knows. He knows he is winning. For the first time in their long relationship, HE IS WINNING their talk. He is still too intimidated to just state this, but he is ENJOYING it. “They aren’t that bad once you get to know them. The house and everywhere near it is a neutral zone, officially, so we are yet to start fighting or something.”

“If your kid grew up with All for One and is so good at analyzing weaknesses, how come Nedzu didn’t snatch him already, hmm?” One last attempt. It will work this time. He can tease him from this approach, threatening All Might with the rodent overlord. Just one good hit in and the rest will roll down properly, and…

Silence. 

Gran Torino curses All Might and his entire ancestral line. 

“Nedzu has a soft spot for fourteen year old kids that pen not one but two propositions for reforming the UA that get accepted by its rodent overlord.” All Might says dryly. “But he went hysterical when he mentioned private lessons and I immediately handed him terms and conditions for those because Izuku expected him to suggest that.”

Gran Torino lost. It wasn’t even a fight. It was a one-sided massacre. Sorahiko Torino begins to consider retiring, because if he cannot tease All Might properly, then he is too old for this. 

“One for All in some unspecified ‘final form’.” Gran Torino says finally. “Personal contacts with some of the decent supervillains. Private lessons with Nedzu. Toshinori, you have created a monster.” 

“Yes, and I’m unbelievably proud of him.” All Might promptly replies. Gran Torino can practically taste the paternal pride in the air. “Also add the fact that Mischief taught him how to keep a low profile when needed and how to evade hits and generally be agile. And the fact that he has three younger siblings with Class-Six quirks.”

Gran Torino groans. 

“Alright, send me the address.” He adds after a few seconds. “I’ll teach your little monster some tricks. I’m also looking forward to meeting the thief that stole All Might’s heart. And…” He makes a smile that’s just a little sadistic. “Please don’t tell Atsuhiro I’m coming.” 

“Ats… you know him?” All Might was, finally, taken aback. Just a bit. 

“I was the closest thing his father had to a nemesis.” Gran Torino chuckles. “I might have caught him a few times, but I always let him go. He was stealing from villains and criminals, even if some of them were also respected citizens. And he was fun to pursue because he was one of the few people up there that I could meaningfully chase. He was a challenge. I’m going to test if his son’s as good of a sport as he was.” 

He starts laughing. It’s sadistic laughter. All Might ends the call halfway through it. 

***

“I… I’m kinda afraid.” Izuku says, and Yagi Toshinori is taken aback by that just a bit. Sure, he is used to Izuku showing signs of fear: he is just a normal kid. Sometimes he is afraid of things. Just rarely. 

What he didn’t expect was to hear it right after he parked his car in a parking lot close to the UA. On the day of the exam. Especially from his son, who was enthusiastic the whole ride. 

“Want to talk about it?” Yagi asks. They still have thirty minutes before the exam starts. Figuring out how to deal with Izuku getting cold feet sounds like a good usage of that time. 

“Well, it’s just…” Izuku takes a deep breath. “Sure, I got my quirk and I absolutely love it. But I can’t exactly use it freely, because it requires a lot of concentration to get the power down to two percent, so… what if I fail the exam?” 

Ah yes. Yagi managed to almost forget how fidgety and anxious Izuku sometimes goes. Not as bad as Asa does, but it’s still rather bad. Occasionally. 

He heard of what happened when Izuku met with Thunderbolt. He knows that his son can be downright scary when he needs to save someone. That his anxiety dies down when that happens because it has to. But for most of the time, Izuku has … issues.

Alright, Yagi. What would Nana do? Besides smiling. His smile in this form looks a bit creepy.

“Izuku.” Yagi sighs. He can’t exactly tell him about rescue points, but he knows his son enough to be pretty much certain that he would get in on those alone. If anything, he is kinda preparing himself for an emergency counselling session after Izuku forgets about the robots and just keeps saving other students for the duration of the exam and then freaks out that he didn’t earn enough points. It’s a very clear possibility. “Do you trust my instincts and experience as a hero?” 

“Yes!” Izuku promptly replies. The fact that his long lost father was his idol certainly helped bridge the gap between them. Especially as Yagi and Inko told Izuku that his father simply didn’t know about his existence earlier. 

Izuku quickly realized that if Yagi Toshinori knew that he had a son, he would keep looking for him for all those years. His father loved him strongly enough. 

“Then let me tell you that the only question I have right now is whether you’ll get the top score on the exam, or not. Not whether you pass or not.” Yagi announces and gives his son a thumbs-up gesture. “Go get 'em, Izuku.” 

“Yes, but…” Izuku feels odd trying to argue against his father (and his life-long idol) trying to tell him that he would do ok. “I’m still scared. Both of not passing and of… I mean, I don’t have good experiences with schools, and…” 

“Izuku, being afraid is normal.” Yagi replies. “You remember my debut video? Do you think that I wasn’t constantly afraid back then? Of being too slow to save someone? Of something exploding in my face? I’d survive that, but being wounded right there… how many people would die then, because the only hero on the scene would be incapacitated due to some dumb mistake?” 

“But… you were smiling. Laughing, even.” Izuku asks back, clearly surprised. If not shocked. Well, his idol just redefined the event that made him become his idol. It was understandable.

“Not because I was happy or because I wasn’t afraid.” Yagi replies. “It’s because I had dozens of terrified people in front of me, and I had to calm them down. And nothing calms people down than seeing the hero that smiles and tells them that everything will be alright.” 

One thing that Endeavor could have finally figured out. Then again, All Might can scarcely even imagine Endeavor smiling. It’s probably the type of smile that makes old ladies faint in terror. 

“And about the school... “ Yagi moves over to another subject. “... Aldera High School was an exemption to the rule. You are going to go to the school for people who can easily become a downfall or at least a major detriment to society. I assure you that even if they will find something lacking in you, the teachers will not tolerate it. Bullying in a hero school like the UA? No way.” Yagi smiles at his son. “Besides, you are going to know Japan’s most terrifying school principal in person soon. If anything, bullies should be afraid of you, not the other way around.” 

“But Aldera…” Izuku is, once again, trying to argue against his father. This will not stand. 

“Izuku.” Yagi says with as much confidence as he can summon without Inko backing him up. “Aldera High School is done for. I had a talk with Principal Nedzu about their methods of grooming heroes, and he was personally displeased with what sort of villain breeding abomination that school is. He decided to wait until the end of the school year, but I can assure you that this was the last semester in the history of this school. He gathered enough evidence to close the school and send half of the faculty to jail.” 

“W…what?” Izuku blinks a few times. “Are you serious?” 

“Yes.” All Might tried his best, but he failed to restrain himself. He runs his hand through the messy hair of his son while giving him one of his best smiles. “So now go and prove that they were wrong when they told you that you can’t be a hero. Just like you proved me.”

He considers this pep talk to be a success. Maybe even too much. Frankly, considering the look on Izuku’s face, he feels kinda bad for the robots. 

Chapter Text

Uraraka Ochaco’s first meeting with Izuku Midoriya was clearly rather underwhelming. And, frankly, a bit of a mess-up on her side. She saw a visibly determined boy with green hair walk towards the entrance of the UA, clearly with the intent to join the same exam as she was joining. 

Then, when being almost next to her, he tripped. She decided in a split second to help him with her quirk (tripping right before the exam like that is kinda a bad omen, right?) but before she managed to touch him, he expertly bent his body and changed the soon-to-happen meeting with the pavement into a forward roll. 

“Oof, damn it.” She heard him say. “Way to start the ex…” He turned his head back, probably to see what he had tripped over, only to see Uraraka, still with her hand extended towards his earlier position. “... uhm… h...hi?” He was a bit startled by her. It was… kinda cute? 

“Oh, hi!” Uraraka straightens her position up. “Sorry, I saw you falling, and I thought that it’s bad luck to fall like that before the exam, so I tried to catch you with my quirk, but… uhm… that was an awesome forward roll.” 

She didn’t want him to think that she had something to do with him tripping. There were probably some meanies out there trying to sabotage other people to make their chance for passing higher, right? 

“Oh, thank you!” The boy exclaims enthusiastically. “I’m Izuku Midoriya!” He extends his hand, so she cooperates and shakes it. 

“Uraraka Ochaco.” She introduces herself. “Good luck with the exam!” 

“You too!” He replies and Uraraka decides that being in one class with him would be pretty nice. He feels friendly, that’s for sure. 

***

Uraraka is doing quite well, or at least so she thinks. The robots are quite intimidating, but they aren’t particularly fast. She sticks to the weaker ones, waits until they are facing someone else, then she taps them with her quirks, sends them flying… and then sees them crash into the ground when the gravity returns. 

She realizes she is far beneath some of the other examinees. By the time she got her twentieth point she saw the stern kid with engines in his legs shout that he just got his fortieth point. She saw the green-haired from before crush two Two-Pointers in three seconds, both with a single punch. He didn’t shout his score, but she was certain that he was way higher than she was.

She scores twenty-eight points before the ground starts to tremble under her. Then everything shakes and she finds herself on the ground, with her body battered, and her mind confused. 

What just happened? Why is everyone fleeing from her? What is that shadow that was just cast over her? 

She turns her head only to see… oh my God. 

It’s the zero-pointer, she saw their shape on the print-out, but there was no scale on them. She thought that they were going to be the same size as the three-pointers, maybe a bit bigger. But not THAT big. 

She can’t move. It’s both the injuries (she doesn’t even know what hit her, but she still feels bad) and the dread. 

“Uraraka!” She hears a shout, and sees the green-haired boy run towards her. He is the only one. Everyone else is still fleeing. 

He won’t make it, Uraraka realizes. She can see the Zero-Pointer raising its hand (it's massive, why did they make it so massive?!), Izuku is still far away, and she… 

Somehow, he makes it. It’s like a blur of colours with some greenish electric discharges that passes by her in a heartbeat and pulls her away from certain death. It stops thirty meters away, with Uraraka still dizzy. 

“Can you walk?” Izuku asks. His eyes are on the zero-pointed, whose head is turning to face them again. 

“No, I… I think my leg is broken.” Uraraka knows that Recovery Girl is on standby nearby, but what sort of ridiculous realism level for the ENTRANCE EXAM is this? Is the school principal powerful enough to not be afraid of the lawsuits?!

“Alright.” Izuku doesn’t feel particularly terrified of facing the zero-pointer again. “It’s between us and the exit, and I can’t fend off the lesser robots while carrying you. So… I guess I’m doing this the hard way. Mom’s going to kill me.” He bends his legs, before jumping.

With enough strength to crack the concrete beneath him. 

What? 

Two seconds later she hears the explosion. She looks towards its source to see the Zero-Pointer’s dying moments. Its face is caved in… no, it practically explodes. Did Izuku just… 

Then she sees him. Falling down, with his limbs flailing around, clearly broken. With nothing to stop his fall. And if he hits the ground from so high…

Uraraka makes herself weightless and grabs some nearby junk. She still has one healthy leg, and she isn’t letting him die!

She narrowly makes it in time and cushions his fall with her quirk. Then she loses consciousness out of quirk exhaustion, nausea, and her wounds. She finds out a week later that if not for her last minute save of a fellow examinee and the rescue points it gave her, she would have failed the practical exam. 

***

Probably the oddest part of Izuku’s attempt to get into the UA was watching the recording of All Might… together with All Might. Or at least, Yagi thinks so. Inko and the rest of their kids are with them on the couch, facing the screen. 

Izuku doesn’t know that Mr. Compress, Ms. Compress, Stain, Gentle Criminal and La Brava (so a majority of their villainous acquaintances) are in the house. Together with Gran Torino, who at this point has all but vocally acknowledged being a grandfather to Yagi’s children.

Eri did that. Yagi knows it. Her cuteness and adorableness are nuclear weapon’s grade. She tamed the old monster in thirty seconds after meeting him. He tried being traditionally overbearing and stern, with a scowl on his face, but she just ran towards him, and asked if everything was alright because he looked sad (while wearing her favourite All Might onesie because she would have preferably worn it 24/7, especially since she discovered that All Might is her new dad). 

When he was trying to puzzle up an answer (or feint being senile), she gave him one of her lethal smiles, pumped her fist in the air and exclaimed “You can smile now! Why? For I am here!” 

Gran Torino was K.O. at that moment. Ever since then the biggest problem they had with him was the old hero sneaking in candied apples for Eri during his every visit, despite Inko setting limits for candy consumption in her house. 

“Izuku Midoriya!” The screen-Might announces and All Might decides that he kinda hates the way his voice sounds in a recording. “I AM HERE… with your test results!” 

“I can’t believe you are using this catchphrase like that.” Inko comments from his side, while shaking her head disapprovingly and Yagi chuckles a bit. She has no idea in how many ways he plans to twist that catchphrase during his teaching career. 

Izuku doesn’t even notice her words. He is staring at the screen-Might as if his life depended on it. That’s quite a focus, Yagi decides. Thankfully the TV doesn’t catch fire. 

“First is the Written Exam!” Screen-Might in that (slightly) stupid suit announces. “It’s my pleasure to announce that you scored 97 points out of 100 on that one! The highest score this year, ex acqueo with one more student.” 

“Damn it, I knew that I did something wrong.” Izuku mumbles to himself. Asa, Yagi and Inko roll their eyes as if on cue. They know that the written exam for the UA admission is ridiculously hard. 

The first fifty points are reasonably easy to acquire, and if you score anything beneath that in the exam as a whole, you’re automatically out. Then you get forty points that are really hard to get and differentiate good students from extremely good ones. The last ten are practically university-level knowledge. If anything, it’s a miracle that there were two people with 97 points. Yagi remembers that for the past three years in a row nobody got beyond 90 points. 

“Then, the Practical Exam.” Screen-Might continues. “First are the combat points. You have destroyed seventeen One-Pointers, thirteen Two-Pointers and five Three-Pointers. This adds  up to 58 points. But… that’s not all! Eyes on the screen, Young Midoriya!”

Suddenly they all see a girl with brown hair, fidgeting visibly in front of a man they recognize as Present Mic. 

“Uhm, excuse me.” The girl asks. “Do you know the boy with curly green hair and freckles? He, uhm, he was the one to destroy the Zero-Pointer.” 

“Yes, I know who you are talking about.” Present Mic replies promptly. Of course he does, he regularly visits his parents (although only once Aiko promised to stop messing with him in exchange for him not being so loud) to brainstorm the ideas for his next radio session with Mr. Compress. Those two just absolutely hit it off and enjoyed exchanging new ideas on how to be in the center of the stage known as life. “What about him?”  

“Would it be possible to share some of my points with him?” Uraraka asks, and Yagi can tell that Izuku is shocked by it. “I… I mean… I know that he got more points than me, but… he saved my life from the Zero-Pointer, he even broke his legs and his arm to stop it, and…” She takes a deep breath. “If he ran away like the others, he could probably score some more points along the way, and I … it just doesn’t sit well with me.” 

“Sorry missy, but you can’t share your points.” Present Mic says while patting her head. “But you won’t have to.” The recording ends. It’s back to the screen-Might. 

“What sort of hero school would only test how destructive their future students can be?” Screen-Might announces. “Do you think that we would let you walk away without rewarding your decision to save another participant? Perish the thought!” 

The screen-Might smiles widely. 

“The judge decided to award you sixty Rescue Points!” Screen-Might says, while giving them all a thumbs-up gesture. “That brings us to a total of 118 points. Not only is it enough to pass, but I’m honoured to inform you that it’s also this year’s highest score! Young Midoriya!” He smiles while extending his hand towards the camera. “UA is now your Hero Academia!” 

Izuku cries. Inko cries too. Their waterworks are, as always, inspirational. Asa hugs his brother, joining in with his happy tears as well. Eri joins the human pile of hugs seconds later, while Aiko just stands on the couch next to them and scarcely pats her brother’s head. Yagi’s heart is warm and he manages to not cry with them, but he still hugs whoever his arms can reach.

Few minutes later the villains and Gran Torino roll into the room with a large cake. Mr. Compress starts producing the decorations and drinks literally out of his sleeve. Then they all celebrate. 

***

Uraraka managed to only just arrive at her new class and she already knew that her new classmates were going to be tough to deal with. She literally just entered the classroom, and she already ran into trouble. Not her own, but... 

“You can’t just randomly announce that you dislike someone!” The rocket-legged boy from the exam announces, waving his hands in front of him strangely. “Don’t you think that it is disrespectful to your future classmate?!” 

“WELL, THAT’S JUST TRUTH!” Tall kid with short, black hair shouts (or just speaks very loudly?), in front of a clearly disinterested kid with two-coloured hair and a large burn on his face. Who is just sitting in his seat, like nothing was happening “A HERO SHOULDN’T LIE, AND SO NEITHER WILL I!” 

“This doesn’t change anything!” The rocket kid states back. “Besides, you are clearly startling the new arrivals with your shouts and negativeness!” 

The black haired kid turns his head and sees Uraraka standing in the entrance, clearly taken aback by the volume. 

“I APOLOGIZE!” He shouts again, and lowers his head so much that he actually hits the floor with a loud BAM. When he raises it up, it’s clear that he bumped it enough for some blood to come out. And there is certainly a bruise. “I’M SIMPLY EXTREMELY ENTHUSIASTIC OVER MY ADMISSION TO THE UA! MY NAME IS INASA YOARASHI!”

“Oh, uhm, hi!” Uraraka replies. “I’m Uraraka Ochaco, and…” 

“And I’m Tenya Iida!” The rocket boy announces. “I was just trying to explain to Yoarashi-san that declaring his antipathy to another student right off the bat isn’t a healthy way of starting his history as a UA student.” 

“I BELIEVE THAT A HERO SHOULD BE PASSIONATE AND HOT-BLOODED!” Inasa keeps shout-speaking at them all. “WHICH IS WHY I HAVE A PROBLEM WITH TODOROKI OVER HIS BEHAVIOUR DURING THE RECOMMENDED STUDENTS EXAM. I HAVE ALREADY ANNOUNCED WHAT I FEEL ABOUT HIM, SOMETHING I FAILED TO DO BACK THEN.” 

“That’s not…” Iida is about to say something when Uraraka hears the door opening behind her again. 

She recognizes the freckles and the messy green hair immediately. Especially as she already saw that clearly startled face after he tripped before the exam.

“Midoriya!” She says loudly. “We’re in one class!” She knew that if she got in, then so did he. It wasn’t even something to be happy about. Being in one class, however…

“Uraraka, you got in!” He jumps up just a bit (his honest reactions are, kinda, adorable, Uraraka has to admit). 

“If you’re looking for new friends, do it elsewhere.” They both hear, and it’s at this point that Uraraka notices the… human caterpillar lying on the floor behind Izuku, slurping a jelly pouch.  Izuku actually jumps forward in surprise, landing gracefully right next to Uraraka. 

The caterpillar raises up from the floor and enters the room. 

“To your seats, quickly!” Izuku whispers, before lunging towards his own. Uraraka decides to listen to the boy that saved her life. And, thankfully, so do Iida and Inasa. 

“It took you eight seconds to quiet down.” The man that emerged from the caterpillar announces. He looks… washed up? A bit like a bum. Especially the messy beard that looks less like an actual beard and more like him just forgetting to shave it. “Life is short, and wasting time is illogical.” He makes his way towards the teacher’s desk. 

“I am Aizawa Shouta.” He announces. “And I’m going to be your homeroom teacher. Now take your PE suits and follow me. We’re going to have a Quirk Apprehension Test.” 

“What about the opening ceremony? And meeting the guidance couns...” Uraraka decides to ask. She kinda looked forward to it, and…

“We don’t have time for the frilly niceties.” The teacher promptly shuts her down. “The clock’s ticking.” 

Does she want to know why Izuku reacted to their teacher’s arrival by sudden panic and leap towards his desk? 

***

Uraraka discovers the reason for that when the pink-skinned girl makes the mistake of calling the Quirk Apprehension Test ‘fun’. Aizawa-sensei immediately starts looking like a psychopathic killer from some horror movie, and announces to them that he is going to expel the one who comes in last. 

The competition is fierce. Uraraka does her best, but her athletics are so-so and her quirk is useful only in some competitions. Izuku Midoriya, Inasa Yoarashi, Yaorozu Momo and Todoroki Shoto appear to be the leading members of the class, with Tenya Iida following them due to his achievements in speed-oriented tests (but he is clearly lacking in the strength tests).

“Oh yeah, the whole expulsion thing was a lie. It was a logical ruse to bring the best out of you.” Aizawa-sensei announces once the last test ends. Prompting a class-wide WHAT? 

“Oh c’mon guys.” Momo says while rolling her eyes in the background. “Of course it was a ruse, don’t tell me you fell for it. He wouldn’t expel someone on the first day.” 

“Uhmm…”  Izuku decides to speak. “Actually, he expelled his entire class on the first day last year.” The teacher sighs in the background, probably irritated by the fact that Izuku (if he was saying the truth) just called him out on the ‘logical ruse’. 

“Wait, he did?” Momo now stares at Izuku, blinking a few times in obvious shock. Izuku nods back. 

“They had no potential for heroics.” Aizawa-sensei says dryly. “They weren’t treating it seriously, even after I threatened them with expulsion. They acted like the heroics were a game, instead of a vocation that threatens your life on a daily basis.” He sighs loudly. “Your curriculum sheets are back in the classroom. Give them a once-over.” Then he just leaves them, still shocked. 

“How did you know that, dude?” The yellow haired kid asks towards Izuku. He isn’t the only one who is curious, as the entire class is looking at Izuku. “I don’t even know who he is!” He isn’t the only person in the crowd who doesn’t know that. In fact, everyone but Izuku seems completely lost. 

“Errr…” Izuku isn’t doing his best with being in the center of attention. “My dad works for the UA’s accounting department. He told me a lot of things about the school, and… I met some of the teachers before I got admitted. Including Aizawa-sensei.”

“WHO IS HE, ACTUALLY?” Inasa shout-speaks. “HE DOESN’T LOOK LIKE A HERO. MORE LIKE A TERMINAL INSOMNIAC.” Uraraka agrees. If she saw Aizawa-sensei in a dark alleyway, she would probably think that he was a villain planning to murder her. That or he was a beggar gathering money for… coffee, maybe?

“He’s Eraserhead!” Izuku beams and Uraraka is ninety percent certain that she just met a case of a hero fan. “The Erasure Hero. He can deactivate every emitter and transformation quirk within his line of sight. He’s one of the most successful underground heroes in the country.”

“Underground heroes?” This time it’s the small kid with bubbles for hair. The one that’s the most relieved of them all because he got the lowest score on the apprehension test. 

“It means heroes that don’t get media coverage.” Momo decided to clean up her earlier mess-up by proving that she does know things. “Either because they like working in private, or because their quirks can be negated easily if someone knows how they work. Sometimes also because their quirks are perceived as ‘villainous’ by the public.” 

“Eraserhead is actually something of a Number One Underground Hero in the country!” Izuku adds. “They might be avoiding media coverage, but they are well-organized on their own. Not enough to have an official ranking, but Eraserhead is pretty much the closest thing they have to a celebrity, alongside Ms. Joke.” 

Uraraka likes that hero name, and wonders what sort of quirk makes you call yourself like that. 

“I’m still kinda worried about him being our homeroom teacher-ribbit.” The frog mutant girl says with a rather cute addition at the end. Uraraka does her best to not laugh and somehow wins the fight. 

“Just put in an effort, and it will be alright.” Izuku replies quickly. “He didn’t test our abilities, because those can be improved easily. He was testing if we were going to give it our best rather than half-ass it. He is an extremely strict teacher with dozens of expulsions under his belt, but his students that made it to the graduation have the lowest work casualty rate and the highest closed case rates per homeroom teacher in the country!” He smiles cheerfully. 

“SO HE THROWS OUT PEOPLE WHO AREN’T PASSIONATE ABOUT HEROISM?” Inasa shout-speaks with a wide smile. “I HAD MY DOUBTS EARLIER, BUT I THINK I LIKE HIM NOW!” 

“And I think that we should proceed to the classroom immediately!” Iida adds with a series of hand gestures. “What if it’s his next test?” 

The field vacates almost immediately. 

***

It wasn’t another test, but they all realize that it might have been one. The rest of the school day passed relatively normally. They were meeting their teachers for the first time, so most of it was introductions. 

Uraraka leaves the school together with Izuku and, surprisingly enough, Iida - he is strict, and quite… passionate, but also rather friendly. Once you give him the chance. 

The school has barely started, but Uraraka Ochaco is already making friends!

***

The next day they get their first Foundational Heroics lesson. When All Might of all people steps into the class, there is a riot. Uraraka isn’t surprised. It died down almost immediately, because Aizawa-sensei stepped in right behind him. 

All Might announces (with Aizawa just standing there intimidatingly; he is really good at it) that they are going to step right into the thick of it, and they are going to have proper battle training. Uraraka would have preferred rescue training, since battle sounds kinda confrontational, but… well. 

They get their gear (to a lot of happy squeals which makes Aizawa-sensei roll his eyes at them) and then they move out. 

Izuku’s costume is kinda cool, Uraraka decides. It’s a black jumpsuit with something of a cat ears and a visor. It makes him look a bit like male Mischief who isn’t hiding who they are (so besides the visors, the rest is visible). Uraraka’s is a bit… puffy. She doesn’t like the small kid’s eyes being on her so much. 

“... it will be an indoor battle trial!” All Might announces. Aizawa-sensei still didn't say a thing, instead he was just standing there. Still intimidatingly. “I know that you’ve mostly seen the larger fights with villains happening outside, but statistically speaking the majority of this job is done indoors. You’ll be separated into  ‘villain’ and ‘hero’ groups, for  two-on-two team battles!”

“Realize just one thing.” Aizawa finally speaks. “We have  Recovery Girl on  standby, but there are damages she can’t heal. Anyone who uses  clearly lethal force on another WILL be immediately expelled. Heroes are supposed to arrest villains, and the majority of the villains actually avoid killing heroes, since it brings way too much attention to them. Instead they prefer to achieve their goals or escape the heroes.” 

All Might is briefly overwhelmed by questions, including Uraraka’s inquiry on whether there’ll be a threat of expulsion to motivate them on this. All Might clearly didn’t hear her question, but she swears that she saw Aizawa-sensei snigger just a bit. 

Creepy. 

Then All Might tells them that the training will be about defending the fake nuclear bomb (for the villains) and either trying to secure it (by touching it) or arresting all villains (for heroes). There is also going to be a lottery to pick who is going to fight against who. 

Iida is surprised by it. Izuku is a bit startled by Iida’s reaction and explains from the side that team-ups sometimes force unfamiliar hero agencies to cooperate at a moment’s notice, and this training is probably supposed to simulate this. Because if there’d suddenly be a nuclear bomb out there, sending someone to stop villains from having it would be done in a hurry. 

All Might actually looks faintly… surprised by Izuku’s explanation? But he clearly jumps on the bandwagon and confirms that answer. Did he actually think about it this way before the training, or did Izuku inspire him to make that answer?

Two minutes later Uraraka discovers that she is a part of Team A… with Izuku Midoriya! Well, this is something she will certainly look forward to. He reacts funny when startled, but is also super-powerful! It will be a breeze, right?

All Might announces the opposing team. Tenya Iida and Inasa Yoarashi. Uraraka suddenly (and painfully) remembers that her robot points were low. Tenya had more than twice her combat points, and Inasa is apparently a recommended student. 

So he is strong. 

At least they are the heroes. And Izuku is on her team, right? And he had the highest score from the non-recommended students. That means something, yes?

They are given five minutes to memorize the building plan. Izuku’s face of utmost concentration when he is staring at the paper is actually pretty cute. 

“This is going to be tough.” She can hear him mumble and suddenly her enthusiasm and optimist shrink. 

“W...what do you mean, Midoriya?” She should figure out some cute nickname for him. If only to see him startled when she uses it for the first time. 

“Iida witnessed both our quirks in their full force.” Izuku replies. “We know his, but we know almost nothing about what Inasa has. Other than the fact that it’s very powerful and it's about manipulating air. And we can’t exactly rely on the map, because knowing the school they could as well put in one or two wrong bits, just to teach us about expecting the unexpected.” 

That sounds like a very Aizawa-sensei thing to do, Uraraka decides. And it’s one more thing that somehow didn’t cross her mind. 

“I… kinda hoped that you would know Yoarashi’s quirk.” She replies. “You seem to know a lot of things.” 

“Well... “ He scratches his cheek a bit. “I could have gone for a recommended exam myself, but I really want to… errr, earn my hero license. I don’t want to use underhanded methods. I have Eraserhead visit my family for dinner like once a week or two, but I didn’t know that he was going to be homeroom teacher until I saw him enter our classroom.” 

“That’s… admirable.” She says, and he blushes a little. “Still, not exactly helpful to us.” 

That’s when they hear the announcement that the battle has started. 

***

We all know that it's like this and you can't change my mind. 

Chapter Text

Izuku put forward a simple (if rushed) plan. He suspected that the villain team was probably going to split. Inasa was too hot-blooded to stay in one place, while Tenya was too focused on the objective to not stay to guard the bomb. 

So, the hero team was going to stay together. They would continue looking for the bomb (after all, Inasa might have as well missed them entirely, leaving them to deal with Tenya alone), but if Inasa found them, Izuku would engage him while Uraraka would continue to look for the bomb. 

She would, preferably, not attack Tenya. Instead she would wait for the resolution of the fight between Inasa and Izuku. If Izuku would make it clear that he isn’t going to make it, she would do her best to win the fight on her own. 

All Might decides that it’s a solid tactic. Fighting Inasa alongside Uraraka is an alternative, but what if they did it… only for Inasa to stall them long enough that they would fail to find the bomb before running out of time?

He and Eraserhead are observing the battle through the monitors, together with the rest of the 1-A. Eraserhead’s opinion on the events is unreadable. Some of the kids are clearly looking forward to some action. 

They get it when Inasa runs into the heroes on the third floor of the building. The gust of wind he generates is strong enough to tear paint off the wall. Izuku notices the attack in time to push Uraraka into the side-corridor, before he is sent flying by the air current. He manages to stop himself by using One for All to ram his fingers into the floor, but it’s clear that he is immobilized.

“YOU KNOW, I’M LOOKING FORWARD TO SEEING YOUR SKILLS!” Inasa speaks while slowly walking down the corridor towards Izuku. Intimidating slow-walk is one of the skills he certainly mastered, All Might decides. “YOU TOOK THE FIRST PLACE IN THE NORMAL EXAM, WHILE I TOOK THE FIRST ONE IN THE RECOMMENDED STUDENT EXAM! LET’S SEE WHO IS STRONGER!” 

“Wow, that’s a strong wind.” Denki says. 

“That’s a fraction of what Yoarashi can do, young Kaminari.” All Might comments. “If he went full out, he could generate a tornado capable of tearing the building down completely!” Some of the kids look at him, with surprise and maybe a bit of fear. 

The hero himself looks forward to seeing how Izuku deals with this obstacle. Because Inasa will certainly be one of the highest ranked heroes in the future, unless something tragically unforeseeable happens. 

Izuku takes a look behind him, as Inasa gets closer and the air current grows in intensity. Yagi Toshinori has maybe a second or two to shout a mental ‘IZUKU NO’ before his son lets himself go and is thrown back by the raging tornado of air through the window at the end of the corridor. 

He trained with Inko how to move around for a few years. He managed to position his body perfectly for the meeting with the window. It’s already busted open by the air, now he flies through what’s left, somehow grabbing the window’s frame mid-flight and stopping himself. 

Then he just starts scaling the outside wall. Inasa seems to be actually taken aback by this development, but after a second or two of staring, he uses his winds to propel himself forward. By the time he gets past the window, Izuku has already sneaked into the building through another set of windows. 

“Wow, that was super agile!” Ashido Mina comments. “Did you all see this? Was it his quirk?” 

“Had to be, right?” It’s Denki this time. He is clearly taken aback by the mobility as well. 

“No, it wasn’t his quirk.” All Might decides to clarify. “He did use his quirk to anchor himself to the floor, but the rest of it was just physical training.” 

“That’s awesome!” Mina is clearly agitated by it. “Do you think he will teach me if I ask? I want to move like that.”

“Midoriya, I found the bomb.” It’s Uraraka. “Iida is there, but he is… uhm…”

“What is he doing?” Izuku promptly replies. He is still running away from Inasa, who is relentlessly pursuing him through the building. Despite that, he doesn’t sound fatigued or out of breath. 

“Doing a really atrocious but earnest villain monologue.” Uraraka replies. All Might is surprised that Iida is STILL doing it. There is a reason why he silenced Iida’s comms. There are limits to cheesiness. And that’s mister “FEAR NOT FOR I AM HERE’ speaking. “But he prepared for me and cleaned the whole room, I have nothing to use my quirk on!” 

“Which room?” Izuku asks, while deftly dodging another powerful gust of wind by propelling himself off the wall and jumping into the side-corridor. 

“The middle one of the fifth floor! Ah damn it, he spotted me!” They can see it. Iida isn’t attacking her yet, but he is clearly taking tips from Inasa’s school of intimidating slow-walk. He is also saying something, but his comms are still off (they are recorded by the system to be reviewed later, but… too much cheese). 

“Keep him occupied.” Izuku says back. “I’ll try to get there, but I don’t think that I can shake Inasa off.” 

“I expected him to stutter.” Momo comments. “But he sounds rather focused.” She is observing everything rather closely and attentively. 

He isn’t the only one to notice how much Izuku changes when he is serious, isn’t he? He remembers his old dentist, back during his UA times. He was normally a very old man with his hands shaking a bit, but when he saw an open mouth in front of him and had to do something with it, his shaking vanished instantly. 

A bit of an odd comparison, but All Might saw a lot of similarities between his old nemesis and his son. 

Momo Yaoyorozu might have gotten in through the recommended student exam. But the written exam was shared between that exam and the normal one. She is probably curious about the boy who managed to score an equal number of points in the written exam as she did. 

Uraraka tries her best to lunge for the bomb, but Iida moves too fast and the bomb slips away from her grasp. Ingenium’s brother is clearly trying to buy time, doing his best to not expose the bomb by going after his opponent. Wise. 

Inasa is slowly shortening the distance between him and Izuku. Izuku doesn’t have enough of a grasp on his quirk to try to fight the living whirlwind - if he goes all out, he might actually kill someone. And if not, then his two or three percent Full Cowl isn’t enough to even approach Inasa. 

“JUST STOP RUNNING AWAY!” Inasa shouts. “WHERE IS YOUR PASSION! COME AND FIGHT ME!” He doesn’t add ‘coward’ at the end, but it’s clearly implied. 

“Uraraka, plan B.” Izuku says through his comms. Finally, he sounds slightly winded. But only slightly. “I’m going to blow up the floor of your room. Get ready to use your quirk and go for the bomb.” 

“You wh…” Uraraka tries to say, but then she figures out what he meant, and grabs the nearest support pillar. 

All Might has only now realized that Izuku is in the room beneath the one with the bomb. Did he purposely get there while avoiding Inasa? 

Izuku stops. Inasa grins, looking forward to having an actual fight. He doesn’t expect Izuku to suddenly yell PLUS ULTRA SMASH - and jump up, ramming his fist into the ceiling with enough strength to make it partially explode. 

Uraraka steals the weight from the pillar and uses it like a baseball bat, propelling the debris towards Iida in an improvised super move. While he is distracted, she bolts towards the bomb and manages to latch onto it, winning the match. 

“Sorry, Yoarashi-san.” Izuku says (they can still hear them through the comms, despite the match being called). “I really wanted to fight you, but doing it like this gave us the biggest chance of victory. I didn’t want Uraraka to lose simply because I wanted a fight.” 

Inasa, to All Might’s notable surprise, laughs loudly. 

“YOU BEAT US FAIR AND SQUARE!” He says with an additional laugh. “WE’RE HAVING A REMATCH NEXT TIME, AND I’M GOING TO WIN IT. ALSO YOUR SUPER MOVE NAME’S AWESOME!” 

They actually give each other a fierce handshake and start walking towards the control room, merrily talking about the events of the battle. A room above them, Uraraka does the same with slightly saddened Iida, although it’s much less vocal due to Iida moping a bit.

“This is so manly!” Kirishima shouts in the background and All Might agrees. 

***

“So, whose performance was the best during this exercise?” All Might asks loudly. Normally he would just state it, and then let the kids figure out the reasons. But this time his son is among the group, and he doesn’t want to risk suspicions of favouritism. Eraserhead can help him when it comes to punishments, but he isn’t going to say anything positive about a student’s performance. Just. No. Way. “Young Uraraka?” 

“Uhm, that would be Midoriya.” She replies, and All Might wonders if he is looking at his future daughter-in-law. Because, frankly, she spends a lot of time with his son and they seem super friendly with each other. Almost right off the bat. Which is especially shocking because Yagi Toshinori didn’t expect Izuku to start gathering friends so fast. “He made a plan that worked, and managed to keep Yoarashi occupied while moving to the right spot to shatter the floor under the room with the bomb.”

Izuku is blushing furiously. Someone isn’t used to hearing nice things about himself from girls his age. All Might finds this adorable and regrets not having a camera on hand. Inko would love that picture. 

“Young Yoarashi?” He moves over to the tall whirlwind kid that seems to have taken the page from All Might’s school of loud speaking and then took it up to eleven. 

“THAT WOULD BE MIDORIYA!” Inasa, despite losing the fight, beams at him with an enthusiastic (and slightly maniacal) grin. “I MESSED UP BY NOT LISTENING TO IIDA’S PLAN AND GOING OFF SOLO. IZUKU EXPLOITED THIS BY LEADING ME AROUND UNTIL HE WAS IN THE RIGHT POSITION TO ASSIST HIS TEAMMATE IN CAPTURING THE WEAPON, WHILE ALL I COULD DO WAS STARE AT HIM.” 

Well, at least losing doesn’t make him mope. All Might remembers that one classmate of his who was super enthusiastic but went all down to being super depressed when something didn’t go his way. He ended up dropping the school because of failing a hero provisional license exam and that was, frankly, rather pathetic. Instead of going that way, Inasa is probably already thinking how to be better next time. 

This kid is going to be a frightening hero in a few years. 

“I see. Young Iida?” All Might moves over. 

“Well, I didn’t see the fight between Midoriya-san and Yoarashi-san.” Tenya says. “But if it’s true that Midoriya-san planned the encounter that way and held Yoarashi-san at bay for the whole time, that’s certainly enough to consider his performance as the best one.” 

“Young Midoriya?” His son is, at this point, clearly distraught with praise. All Might’s experience with kids is very limited, frankly speaking. He is doing his best, but at least partially relies on what Inko tells him. 

Only in moments like this he realizes how correct she was in her assessment that their son has self-esteem issues. He is so unused to praise, that he doesn’t know how to deal with it. Yagi is doing his best to alleviate this problem (although his best is praising when praise is due AND involving Hound Dog), but they are still far away from getting there. 

The only question that the Number One Hero has in his head is who his son will choose as the best one in that fight. Because he certainly isn’t going to take the praise and accept it as something he earned. 

“Th...that would be Iida, sensei.” As All Might expected. But it still catches the other three (especially Tenya) off-guard. Together with most of the people in the room. “He created the correct plan for combat that I’d struggle to counter, which didn’t work only because Inasa decided to fight on his own. He took correct precautions against Uraraka’s quirk, and stuck to defending the bomb. He managed to keep Uraraka at bay, and was only taken off-guard by an attack from a completely unexpected direction, which only occurred because Yoarashi failed to keep me pinned down. Sorry for that.” 

Inasa, magnanimous in defeat, gives him a thumbs-up gesture and a bright smile. All Might really likes that kid. He’ll be a great and incredibly popular hero if he keeps acting like this. 

“I in the meantime failed to shake Yoarashi off, and I was forced to use a last-resort tactic.” Izuku continues. “I had no idea where exactly the bomb was, so there was a risk that I would destroy it. Destroying, uhm, a nuclear bomb isn’t a good idea, I think? Worst of all, there was a chance that I would wound Uraraka, despite warning her in advance. But I was forced to risk it, because Iida kept her pinned down, and Yoarashi was gaining on me and I couldn’t shake him off to join Uraraka. It was a desperate tactic.”

All Might curses All for One for teaching his son to be so smart. Public self-deprecation sessions shouldn’t be so well argumented and hard to dismantle. He ends up looking at Eraserhead for help. 

“Both assessments are correct.” Eraserhead decides to save him. “Both Iida and Midoriya crafted rational plans for the fight and acted their parts accordingly. The difference between them is, in the end, that Uraraka played her role in Midoriya’s plan, while Yoarashi ignored Iida’s.” 

All Might isn’t even surprised when Inasa headbutts the floor while apologizing to his teammate for making them lose. 

Momo still looks at Izuku strangely. She is either unused to having her intellectual equals around, or Uraraka isn’t going to be the only girl pursuing All Might’s son in the future. Or both. 

***

A few days have passed since the battle trial, and the press found out about All Might picking up a teaching career. It was, frankly, a fairly boring time. Nothing shocking happened, that’s for sure. 

Okay, save for Uraraka discovering that Izuku has some undefined private lessons with Principal Nedzu himself. She heard the tales. They all heard the tales. She actually found out by chance, since she ran into him walking towards the Principal’s office and he kinda blurted it out without thinking. 

She promised to not tell anyone. But she was still impressed. 

Then the fateful day came.

“Today’s homeroom lesson will be a bit special.” Aizawa-sensei announces. The class in front of him shivers with dread. “Two things on the list. First one is choosing the class president and TWO vice-presidents.” Someone shouts ‘finally something normal’ and Aizawa sighs painfully. “Since our time is precious, and I know how things tend to go, you’ll be voting for the president. Who will then choose whoever he or she wants for the vice-presidents. You have fifteen minutes.” 

Izuku Midoriya’s face goes adorably vacant in shock when he gets four votes and gets elected as the class president. If Uraraka’s suspicions are correct, he voted for himself (like two thirds of the class), but also got votes from Uraraka, and most likely Iida and Yoarashi. 

Yaomomo (as she wanted to be called) is in second place, with two votes. The rest, as already stated, voted for themselves. She looks personally saddened by it, though not as much as Tenya who was absolutely super-fierce about getting elected only to get z e r o votes. 

“Great. You’re done with that.” Aizawa-sensei yawns. “Choose your vice-presidents.” 

Izuku clearly doesn’t handle standing in front of the class well. But he does his best, and manages to straighten up properly. 

“Th… that would be Yaoyorozu-san and Iida-san.” He says (just slightly officially and formally and she finds that cute) and Uraraka nods to herself. She expected as much. Momo and Tenya, clearly, didn’t. “Yaoyorozu-san is the only person other than me to receive more than one vote, which means that there is someone in the class who believes that she has what it takes. Iida, in the meantime, uhm…” He glances at Aizawa-sensei, who groans slightly. “... well, having someone around who actually remembers the rules and guidelines might be useful, even if we, uhm, end up ignoring them.” He tries to smile, just enough to prove that it was a joke. 

There are some chuckles throughout the class. Tenya is still too taken aback by being chosen to actually complain about the joke. 

“Great. Now back to your seat.” Aizawa-sensei says and Izuku quickly flees. “This is going to be a bit of a shock to you, but Principal Nedzu decided to introduce something completely new to the Heroics Course this year.” 

Uraraka’s eyes might have been glued to Izuku just a bit, and because of that she notices him slightly perking up in his seat. It isn’t about Nedzu, she figured Izuku out enough to know that. Does he know what it’s about?

“The television tends to offer the public an oversimplified image of villains and vigilantes.” Aizawa says. His face is, as almost always, dead. “This is something that we tend to introduce our students to at a slightly older age. Many villains are also victims, and it is the opinion of Principal Nedzu that the system doesn’t give many of them the second chance that they deserve.” 

Waitwaitwait, Uraraka thinks to herself. Judging from the stares she is seeing on her classmate’s faces, she isn’t the only one to start arriving at the same conclusions. She glances at Izuku… and he, as the only one of them all, looks OVERJOYED. 

“As a result, Principal Nedzu decided to create a special addition to the Hero Course.” Aizawa continues. “He has personally chosen eight villains, vigilantes or otherwise… problematic individuals with sufficiently powerful quirks, that he decided to be redeemable. They are all of the same age as you. Unlike you, they all live in a separate building on the UA grounds and aren’t allowed to leave the school grounds unless attended by one of the teachers. These limitations are going to continue until they are either expelled or successfully graduate from the Hero Course, thus proving to us all that they were successfully rehabilitated. If they prove to us that this idea has potential, the school will probably officially open an entire, class-sized Villain Rehabilitation Course.” 

Villains? They are going to be attending the Hero Course with actual VILLAINS? Sure, probably small-time, due to the whole ‘redeemable’ part and being their age, but… 

“The reason why each class will have two vice-presidents is because you are all supposed to be part of the test drive of the new rehabilitation program.” Aizawa-sensei continues. “The class president will be tasked with making sure that the new additions to the class are neither victims nor perpetrators of bullying or any other type of discrimination, and that they feel genuinely welcomed. He and the vice-presidents are also expected to make sure that the new arrivals are more influenced by you than the other way around. Report any suspicious behaviour and negative influences they have on you.” He sighs. “Any questions?” 

Yaomomo is the first one to raise her hand. Most of the class is still stunned by the announcement and clearly can’t form cohesive sentences. 

“What sort of villains are these new students going to be?” She asks formally. “I mostly refer to the crimes they committed.”

“All that you need to know is that Principal Nedzu and the UA’s legal department are in agreement that there are major attenuating circumstances that justify their admission.” Aizawa replies calmly. “The crimes themselves range from bullying, illegal quirk usage and suicide-baiting to first degree murders.” There is an audible ‘gulp’ throughout the class. “However, to avoid stigmas, we have opted to keep their crimes hidden. If the students decide to reveal them, it’s fine. In the meantime, only the faculty and the class presidents will be made aware. The class presidents are, however, forbidden from sharing this knowledge without the rehab students' agreement. As a result, if any of the other students notices something odd in the behaviour of our new problem children, report it to either the faculty or talk it over with your new class president.”

Izuku, clearly, knew about it already. This makes no sense. He was just voted in, right? Yet he clearly was aware of what was going to happen. Uraraka is going to get to the bottom of this, no doubt about it. 

“Well, no other questions, at least for now.” Aizawa-sensei yawns. “If you have any, take them to your class president. Just wait until tomorrow, so he gets the answers to them. And now, let me introduce to you, the four Rehab Course students assigned to your class.” 

He doesn’t even make any louder sound, but whoever was in the corridor next to the class heard him well enough. The door opens and four kids in UA uniforms walk in. 

First is a really gaunt boy with messy, light-blue hair. The skin on his face looks really, really dry (odd thing to notice at first, but…), and he is wearing an expression of complete indifference. After him is a petite girl with pale skin, ashen blonde hair styled into two really messy buns, and a face that looks quite enthusiastic. Then another boy with messy hair, but this time indigo in colour (he also looks like he missed a nap or two from his schedule), who seems to fight the first boy for the position of the most outwardly disinterested boy in the room. And then, finally, another boy with spiky ash blond hair, and an expression of barely restrained rage. 

It grows slightly more when he and Izuku lock eyes for a few seconds. It’s odd. Do they know each other?

“Going in the order of entering…” Aizawa announces. “Tenko Shimura, Himiko Toga, Hitoshi Shinsou and Bakugou Katsuki.” Their teacher sighs painfully. “Have fun.” 

***

“I think that Izuku knew what was going to happen beforehand.” Uraraka announces during the lunch break. She is at one table with Tenya Iida, Inasa Yoarashi and Tsuyu Asui (whom she recently began to befriend - which is nice, because she certainly needs some FEMALE friends). 

“Really?” Tenya appears to be intrigued by the idea. “How exactly? I am aware of his connections with the school staff, but it’s still a notable lapse in security if a student knows something like this. Especially as I came to believe that the UA did its best to hide the Rehab program from the world.” He goes silent for a second. “I checked the internet on the way here, and absolutely no media reported something like that being prepared.” 

“Is it that surprising-ribbit?” Tsuyu asks. “I believe that the media won’t take it face-down. The Principal of the UA letting hero course students intermingling with teenage villains and so on. The press will be out for blood.” 

“THE PRESS IS STUPID!” Inasa says and immediately heads are turning towards them. There is a reason why Inasa tends to not say a lot during lunch. He acknowledges the need of others to eat in peace, but his voice is always over the top. So instead of making his voice less loud, he simply says as little as he can. 

Odd. Then again, which one of their classmates isn’t odd?

“Can’t fight you there-kero.” Tsuyu says with a nod. “The press is the worst. Then again, it’s the UA. And it will most likely be presented as a test of the program, with an option to roll the changes back if it fails. But I’m slightly worried about being associated with villains, though.”

Oh, yeah. Complex mutant quirks stigma. Uraraka can understand that much. It’s now two stigmas for the price of one to her.

“Can they even do that legally?” Uraraka is mostly confused about this. “Shouldn’t that be run through a court or something? Can you keep something like it hidden?”

“They do, yes.” Tenya says, while fixing his glasses. “This is relatively easy to achieve, although it requires some time and effort. People do not realize that hero agencies can theoretically take in vigilantes and small-time villains for rehabilitation purposes. My brother’s agency has a few former vigilantes as sidekicks, actually. This doesn’t happen very often, but there are a few agencies that specialize in this. They can transfer such wards to other agencies if they decide them to be better suited to their needs. If my suspicions are correct, Principal Nedzu ran the candidates through such agencies, before having them immediately transfer their wards to his agency. The rest, namely connecting their rehabilitation program with the Hero Course, is theoretically in his right as the principal.”

“Your brother’s agency?” Uraraka asks, and Tenya immediately beams.

“Yes! I don’t exactly like it when it’s brought to attention, but my brother is a pro-hero.” He says. For the first time in, like, ever, Uraraka sees a genuine smile on his face. “His hero name is Ingenium.” 

“You don’t like it-kero?” Tsuyu’s head tilts a bit. “But you look happy to be able to mention it.” 

“That’s true.” Tenya nods. “I’m extremely proud of my brother and I’m looking forward to working alongside him. However, I wish to earn my position with my own merit. Abusing my connections would give me an unfair advantage over students who didn’t get born in a family like my own. This is the reason why I refused my brother’s offer to receive his recommendation and attend the recommendation exam.” 

Inasa pauses stuffing himself with food and gives Tenya a thumbs up gesture before returning to the feast. Uraraka kinda expected him to react like that. Competing fair and square and having a goal to strive for sounds like a very Inasa thing to do. 

“Midoriya told me the same thing before our fight.” Uraraka adds. “That he doesn’t want to use his connections, and instead wants to earn everything fair and square. “Tenya beams just a bit. Inasa does the thumbs-up gesture again. “I’m still going to dig into it, though.” Uraraka decides to return to the initial subject. “I was observing Midoriya when Aizawa-sensei announced the Rehab program. Everyone was shocked, but he looked like Christmas came early. And I’m something like ninety-nine percent sure that he and at the very least Bakugou know each other.” 

“So while everyone was watching Aizawa-sensei, you were focused on studying a boy’s face-ribbit.” Tsuyu asks, her finger on her lips. “How bold.” 

Uraraka starts stuttering (because it’s certainly not what Tsuyu implies! She is just concerned about it as his friend!). But that’s when they both see Izuku approaching and… he has company. Two rehab students, actually. Huh. 

Chapter Text

“Oh, we’ve made it in time!” Izuku is clearly reassured by that. “Sorry about being late, I was introducing our new classmates to how things work in our school.” It occupied his attention enough for him to almost miss lunch.

Uraraka decides that Izuku, despite his initial problems with it, has really taken the class presidency thing to heart. Maybe even a bit too much? What if he starts wearing glasses and looking spooky-smart like in some anime about a semi-omnipotent school council?

Perish the thought! He is cute and adorable the way he is. 

Izuku takes the empty seat near Uraraka. The boy from the Rehab Course sits next to him, while the girl (who clearly pouts a bit at the place next to Izuku being taken, Uraraka notices this!) instead sits next to a slightly uncomfortable Tsuyu. 

“Man, you told me that Lunch Rush’s cooking is good, but this is beyond good.” The Rehab boy (Hitoshi Shinsou, if Uraraka remembers it correctly) says towards Izuku a few seconds later. “Shame that Tenko is hiding somewhere instead of being here.”

“Oh, you know him.” Izuku shrugs. “He’ll hopefully start coming out of the shell at some point. I’m more worried about Bakugou, he has… quite an explosive temper.” Hitoshi snorts slightly at this. 

“Explosive temper, yeah, that’s an almost good one.” He adds, while glancing at Izuku over his food. “You can say that he’ll be having a blast in this school.” Izuku and the girl (Himiko something?) chuckle. 

Uraraka exchanges the ‘see, I told you so’ glances with Tenya and Tsuyu. Inasa seems to have finished his meal and is now busy observing the newcomers with a stare that seems to contain curiosity so intensive that it almost comes out as hostility. 

“So, you knew each other earlier?” Uraraka decides to take one for the team. That or, to say it simply, the curiosity is eating her. She doesn’t expect the silence, and the Rehab course students turning their faces towards an increasingly red Izuku. 

“You didn’t tell them about us?!” Himiko reaches a completely new level of pouting previously unheard of. “Zuku, I’m hurt.” 

“Sorry, it just… kinda didn’t come up?” Izuku scratches his cheek. ‘I mean, we have known each other for like a week, and…” 

“... and you didn’t tell them in detail of the most epic thing you’ve ever done?” Hitoshi says, before reading the answer on his face. Then he adapts a particularly vicious grin. “Alright then, my dear fellow Hero Course students, let me tell you a tale of Izuku Midoriya’s most heroic moment…” 

More heroic than what he pulled on the Entrance Exam? No way, right?

“Toshi, no.” Izuku tries to save himself. 

“Toshi, yes.” Hitoshi takes no prisoners. “That little green bean of yours that you elected as a class president came upon two runaway kids fleeing from their abusive families and on the verge of dying from unresolved medical issues. So he did what every kid his age would do…” 

“... and adopted us!” Himiko announces with a bright smile. That stops a second later as she is suddenly confused about something. “I mean, kinda? I don’t really member that part, I was mostly unconscious while Toshi was scavenging for food.” 

“Well, he just started treating us like a pair of abandoned kittens.” Hitoshi continues, ignoring the interjection. “Leaving us food and so on, just to make us trust him so he could unexpectedly adopt us.” Izuku is completely red at this point. He can’t even eat anything anymore, because he is too busy hiding his face in his hands. “Food and, well, the medications that actually prolonged our remaining lifespan from ‘two-to-three months of pain’ to ‘actually a whole lot’. He was about to succeed with adoption when he came upon a few corrupted heroes busy beating us to death.” 

“The WHAT?” Tenya says, clearly distraught by the very idea of a hero being corrupted. Or beating kids to death. 

“Yeah, runaways, villainous quirks, no one giving a shit and all that.” Hitoshi shrugs. How absolutely neutral he is about it actually freezes Uraraka a bit. “We were living in a junkyard, not like anyone would notice that we were gone. And if they did, they would just say that some random villain killed us. But the point is, we’re about to die when that little menace pops up with his uncle. And starts giving out the world’s most intimidating monologue to them.” 

“It wasn’t THAT intimidating!” Izuku is trying to save himself from attention, but it’s futile at this point. 

“Zuku, you made three pro heroes take a step back in fear by glaring at them and telling them how you are going to destroy their careers and put them in jail for what they were doing to us.” Himiko interjects. “It was the most beautiful and scary thing I ever saw, and stop pretending otherwise.” Izuku actually whimpers a bit and seems to shrink in his seat. 

Uraraka is enjoying the spectacle. But she also thinks that Izuku should get a bit more confident, this doesn’t look very healthy in the long-term. 

“And he followed up on it.” Hitoshi adds with a chuckle. “His uncle beat them up and arrested them, and then they woke up in front of a police officer and absolutely livid All Might. Flanked by half of the UA faculty. Careers over, and they ended up in jail.” 

“Then comes the best part.” Himiko adds with a chuckle. 

“Don’t tell them that!” Izuku once again tries to stop them. It’s futile. 

“Yes, we both know that you are allergic to being praised in public.” Hitoshi rolls his eyes a bit. “But this is our heroic backstory, and we are sharing it with people. The point is, I might have mentioned to him once that I wanted to become a hero before I ran away from home.”

“And, frankly, telling him any variant of ‘I want to be a hero’ is like a berserk button or something.” Himiko adds and Hitoshi nods, while giving her a knowing (and just slightly tired) look. “Don’t do that if it’s the government that’s stopping you, or Zuku will overthrow it for you.” 

“I was technically a villain due to using my quirk to steal food and medications for myself and Himiko, so Izuku did the most sane thing after giving up.” Hitoshi continues. “He penned a thirty-five page long proposal for an establishment of the Villain Rehabilitation Course at the UA, got almost every single faculty member to sign it, and then had All Might, the Symbol of Peace himself, deliver it to the world's most scary rodent. Because reforming a decades’ old Number One Hero School is the way a fourteen year old kid reacts to his friend wanting to be a hero but not being able to, right?”

“Wait, it was YOUR idea?!” Uraraka says towards Izuku and somehow her friend shrinks even more in his seat. She knew that Izuku somehow caught Nedzu’s attention, but… reforming the UA? And not to mention actually saving two kids from corrupt heroes, even BEFORE he was admitted to it? 

“HOLY SHIT!” Inasa wakes up. “THAT’S AWESOME!” Tenya actually nods in agreement. He is probably happy that whoever was ruining the image of heroics got jailed. Besides, while Uraraka can’t say that she reads his mind, she suspects that he is still conflicted over the villain rehabilitation part… but actually more than he was earlier. Since now he is probably considering that at least two of the candidates sound like they deserve a second chance. 

“Yeah, he is an absolutely adorable little kitten.” Himiko decides to add. “Unless he has to save someone. Then, suddenly, he is a lion.” Uraraka remembers watching Izuku risk his life (and limbs) to blow up a Zero-Pointer and save her. And compares him before the exam (the fall and forward roll) and him in school with that image.

“Yes, this is a very accurate description.” Uraraka says and somehow, just SOMEHOW Izuku manages to shrink even further.

“Saved you, too?” Himiko asks, with curiosity filling her slightly feline eyes. 

“From a fifty meter tall murder-robot during the entrance exam.” Uraraka replies. “All I heard was just a small boom when he jumped off the ground, then another, much louder boom when he punched the robot into pieces. And then he almost died, falling from that height with his shattered limbs, but I managed to catch him with my quirk.” 

“Awww…” Himiko is actually kinda saddened by her tale. “I’m yet to pay him back for saving my life. But, regardless of that…” She puts forward her fist and Uraraka decides to fist-bump it over the table. 

“Ehhh, looks like you’re pretty cool people.” Hitoshi decides to add. He looks over at them a bit strangely. “I kinda figured you’d be treating us like, well, villains, but it doesn’t feel that bad.” 

“Principal Nedzu says that you can be rehabilitated and have attenuating circumstances, so I’m giving you a chance.” Tenya decides to say. Though he still feels rather conflicted about it. “He is the principal of my school, so I’m willing to believe in his words. At least until he gives me a reason not to.”

“I’m a bit more sceptical about it, ribbit.” Tsuyu, as stated, is blunt. “I don’t have anything against you personally, but in a few hours I moved from being a complex mutant hero trainee to a complex mutant hero trainee who will have to deal with the stigma of being trained alongside villains. So while I’m hoping that you succeed, I’m not blind to how you… complicated my situation. Ribbit.” 

“Well, it could be worse.” Himiko replies immediately. If she is hurt by Tsuyu’s words, she isn’t showing it. “I’m a complex mutant villain who is trying to become a hero, despite having to regularly drink human blood and having a blood-related villainous quirk. Try to beat that.” 

Uraraka is actually taken aback by this. Tsuyu was taken aback by this even more. 

“You’re a complex mutant-ribbit?” The frog-girl blinks a few times. Uraraka didn’t expect that either. 

She knows that complex mutants are a thing. They are technically classified as a subclass of quirks, but no one is really sure if they really are one. Good examples were Tsuyu, Hound Dog, Gang Orca and Miruko. Unlike non-complex mutants (like Tenya), they have an entire assortment of traits and were, de facto, closer to being a subspecies of humans. 

Also they were always inherited by their children. So if Miruko had children, they would all be rabbit-people. That alone left behind a stigma, but then there was also the part when those quirks were sometimes… problematic. Tsuyu, for example, had poisonous mucus. Hound Dog, apparently, began to growl uncontrollably when angry. And some could go downright animalistic in behaviour. 

The biggest part, frankly, was that having catgirls in anime and thinking they were cute didn’t mean that having them in real life would provoke identical reactions. Tsuyu was actually looking quite odd (something Uraraka was slowly getting used to). And Himiko’s vaguely feline eyes were downright unnerving. 

The uncanny valley was a problem. Unless you were really lucky to hit the point either human enough (like Miruko) or way too inhuman (like Gang Orca) for it to hit you in the face. Tsuyu was way too close to being in the middle of it for her life to be comfortable. 

The fact that sometimes they got a thematically-matching emitter or transformative quirk wasn’t much of a help. 

Himiko opened her mouth and pointed towards her rather pronounced fangs. 

“I’m apparently a vampire mutant.” She says. “I’m faster and stronger than I look, but I’m entirely dependent on drinking blood regularly. Also sunlight makes me burn through my blood supply, and if I run out of it, I start to get horrible sunburns. Oh, and I can smell blood from a long distance and I can tell you a lot about the person who lost it.” Himiko pauses for a second and sighs painfully. “Also my quirk is blood-related and it’s mostly about impersonating others, so I’m like one or two points away from scoring a victimhood bingo.” 

She is clearly dejected. She returns to being cheerful after Tsuyu silently raises her hand and they do a fistbump. 

Awww. 

They are about to continue their outing when suddenly the siren blares. 

“SECURITY BREACH, LEVEL THREE!” The booming voice adds. “STUDENTS, PLEASE PROMPTLY EVACUATE!”

Panic erupts everywhere around them. Tenya shouts towards some older class students about what's level three, only to hear a shout back that someone has infiltrated the school and that this never happened before. 

People react too quickly to the emergency. Worst of all, way too many students were in the cafeteria at the same time, so their rush towards the same exit blocked the corridor completely. Everyone’s pushing, and people are going to get crushed by this. 

They are near the end of it, so they aren’t in direct danger (unless the infiltrator goes after them), and Lunch Rush is nowhere to be seen, but… 

“It’s just the press!” Tenya shouts. He is the closest of the mall to the window. “Calm down, everyone!” No one is hearing him. 

“Uraraka, use your quirk on Iida and Yoarashi!” Izuku (no longer shrunk) suddenly orders, while pointing towards the overcrowded door. She is startled for like a second. She sees something like a faint understanding on Tenya’s face, like he had the same idea but it came a second too late. “Iida…”

“I get it!” Tenya shouts back and grabs a slightly surprised Inasa. Then he exposes his calves. “Yoarashi, the target is the wall above the exit sign!” Uraraka still feels out of place, since she has no idea what it is about, but Inasa’s face clearly lights with understanding. 

Tenya propels them over the crowd. Uraraka feels gusts of wind as Inasa is clearly helping him stabilize the flight in order to not hit anyone. They both land right where they intended to. And Uraraka finally understands the plan when she sees Inasa inhaling deeply. 

“CALM DOWN!!!” He shouts (this time it’s certainly his equivalent of a shout) and Uraraka is left briefly wondering if he isn’t Present Mic’s relative. Because wow, that’s an impressive volume. Enough to be instantly audible by everyone, despite the deafening noise of the corridor. “IT’S JUST THE PRESS, LOOK THROUGH THE WINDOW!!!” 

Ten minutes later, they discovered that they managed to stop the panic before anyone was seriously hurt. But a few students still ended up having to visit Recovery Girl. 

***

“This is odd.” Power Loader announces during the brief faculty meeting following the incident. It’s mostly an informal one. They are just sitting in the teacher’s lounge, with Nedzu suspiciously absent (because it’s the time for his private lesson with Midoriya, and he wouldn’t miss those, plus he will just watch the recording of the meeting through a camera). 

“What is?” Eraserhead wants to go home. The press is, as always, bad business. And that was BEFORE it figured out about the Rehab Course, because this is a mess for another day. It’s going to have a field day when it discovers that Nedzu allowed villains to study alongside the future heroes. 

“Well, I investigated the incident from the technical side.” Majima replies. “We know that the press infiltrated the school grounds. But I have no idea how they did that.” 

“What?” It was Vlad King who decided to voice their surprise. “We have a security system second to the Tartarus Prison, and we don’t know that?” In Eraserhead’s opinion, even the National Diet had security less stringent than the UA. Shiketsu High was probably in fourth place. 

“That’s the point, Vlad.” Power Loader replies, while scratching his head slightly. “The security system surrounding one of the school gates vanished for close to a minute. There is no feed, and no data. As if someone either jammed it perfectly, or… dunno, dismantled it instantly only to rebuild it after the press stormed in? The gate is back in its place, and nothing changed with it. It’s odd.” 

“So, a villain did that.” Eraserhead says with a painful sigh. “Someone either powerful or suicidal enough to threaten Nedzu’s stronghold.” He can only hope that there will be no follow-up to that. It could as well be some random kid or a man-child with a deathwish who did this for kicks. 

***

Two days after the cafeteria incident (during which Uraraka was, once again, impressed by how quickly Izuku and, to a slightly lesser degree, Tenya reacted), they received an announcement that the newest Foundational Heroics class would be rather different.

Those two days were pretty awkward, if Uraraka was to be honest. The Rehab Course was mostly to blame. 

Bakugou Katsuki was giving everyone death glares (especially Izuku) and to say that he had an abrasive personality would be an understatement. He didn’t speak out a lot, but he was clearly bottling down a lot of anger. And the few times he did speak, he was borderline aggressive. 

Tenko Shimura was almost absent. As in, he was there in the lessons, but he felt clearly disinterested. He spoke almost never, when he did it was ninety percent gamer slang, and he vanished right after the class ended. Someone actually decided to raise that point with Izuku (with Tenya as an intermediary), but Izuku said that the school gave the rehab course students localizers and they knew where he was. He just preferred to stick to himself. 

Hitoshi and Himiko in the meantime were a source of somewhat more conflicted emotions. They were hanging around Izuku’s group (so with Uraraka, Inasa, Tenya and Tsuyu), and while kinda odd, they seemed to be ok. The rest of the class was slowly opening up to them over it (although the obvious familiarity of those two with Izuku gave the latter some odd stares), but it was going to take waaay more time to get anywhere. 

Then she heard that today they were going to have r e s c u e training. Uraraka was absolutely, absolutely overjoyed. She was going to love this day, wasn’t she? Too bad that All Might wasn’t going to be there (until the second half of the lesson, that is), for some reason. 

***

“Hey, Midoriya.” Tsuyu decides to speak on the way to their rescue training site. “I always speak what’s on my mind. And right now it’s the part where your quirk reminds me of All Might’s.” 

“Eh?” Izuku, who sits right next to her, is absolutely startled by those words. “Ehhh? I mean, errr, I’m kinda honoured by the comparison, but...” 

“Wait up, Asui.” It’s Kirishima, the MANLY kid with spiky hair. “All Might doesn’t have those electric discharges when he moves. And doesn’t hurt him so much. So it’s just a similar enhancer quirk. Frankly, I’m kinda jealous of those.” 

“Eh? You are?” Izuku is simultaneously startled and enthusiastic. Uraraka doesn’t have to waste time figuring out why the latter half is there. After all, the Q-word is in the air. The former is probably because being jealous of someone implies a form of praise, and Izuku clearly has problems dealing with those.

“Well, they are versatile.” Kirishima replies. “You can do a lot of things in a flashy way with your quirk. My ‘Hardening’ just makes me harder, so I can survive getting hit but I can’t exactly lift super heavy things or punch someone out super strongly!” 

“Don’t worry.” Uraraka can hear Hitoshi whisper. He does so theatrically. So everyone in the bus can hear it. “Girls will love your quirk.” 

Uraraka almost chokes at that quip. She isn’t the only one. Kirishima is practically red (more than he was a second ago) and Mina looks like she is about to fall off her seat in laughter. Momo looks rather disgusted with the joke (Uraraka hears something like a faint ‘how vulgar’ coming from her), but in an oddly restrained manner. It’s as if she found it funny too but decided to maintain her high class air. 

“TALKING ABOUT QUIRKS.” Inasa says from his seat. “I AM YET TO FIND OUT WHAT QUIRKS OUR NEW CLASSMATES HAVE. AND I’M LOOKING FORWARD TO FINDING OUT.” 

“He has a point.” Momo adds. “We are going to have joint training in a little while. We can’t exactly be held in the dark. Class-president?” 

Izuku is called out. He clearly doesn’t enjoy being called out. 

“Well, I think it’s their decision to share it?” He ends up saying. “I know that at least some of them aren’t exactly comfortable with their quirks yet, and might be afraid of the backlash so they prefer to get you to know them beforehand and…” Hitoshi sighs. 

“It’ll be fine. They’ll have to know sooner or later.” He interjects, and Izuku looks at him strangely for a second or two. Then he nods. “My quirk is called Brainwash. I can issue an order to anyone who verbally responds to my words, and it will be followed to the letter in a trance-like state. But I can’t issue self-destructive orders, I can’t tell you to do something that requires higher brain functions—so I can’t alter your emotions and thoughts to, for example, make you like me, and I can’t tell you to tell me your secrets. Plus you will know if I used my quirk on you.” 

It’s kinda spooky, Uraraka decides. Although the list of exclusions and limitations does alleviate her worries, at least mostly. Inasa could probably force you to do something by using precise gusts of winds to control your movements if he was close enough. Then (while the class is mulling it over still) she gets an idea. At least partially due to her memories of the mess in the cafeteria corridor. 

“Ehhhh, that's a pretty useful quirk for rescue heroics, I think?” Hitoshi stares at her in a way that makes her slightly uncomfortable. The class seems to do the same thing. She is startled by that a bit. “I mean, people are often panicked when in danger and can be hard to handle. I actually know a lifeguard that almost drowned because a man he was trying to pull from water clung to him too strongly. With your quirk, you could just have people follow your orders while bringing them away from danger.” 

“After a whole life of being told that I’m a villain in the making, hearing that I can be a hero is… great, really.” Hitoshi says after a second or two of silence. “You’re the second person to react to my description of Brainwash by mentioning its application in heroics after Izuku, though he mentioned dealing with hostage situations. I can’t overstate how unbelievably grateful I am right now.” 

“And I also told you to change the quirk name.” Izuku mumbles from his seat. “Brainwash sounds like you can brainwash people to do your bidding. Name it Mental Order or Hypnosis or something like that, and you’ll stop having to deal with the wrong associations.” Hitoshi glares at him. 

“I can understand people reacting with fear to mind controlling quirks.” Tenya decides to comment on what they heard finally. Hitoshi freezes a bit. “Though I don’t exactly understand them reacting that way after hearing of the limitations that you mentioned. What’s the difference between you telling someone to move somewhere, and someone with a strength quirk just dragging the person in question there?” 

“Well, don’t ask me.” Hitoshi sighs, visibly relieved. “Ask my foster parents. They seem to know that well enough, considering their brilliant idea to make me wear a muzzle at home. And their recurrent threats about cutting out my tongue.”  

“That’s… horrible!” Momo is the first one to regain the ability to speak.  

“Could be worse!” Himiko interjects with a slightly weird smile. “My father tried to tear my fangs off for being ‘a freak mutant’! Without them I’d kinda die of starvation, so I guess it counts as him trying to kill me.” 

This time the silence is painfully long. How do you exactly react to an announcement like that? Especially done while smiling. 

“But it’s alright, because I have new parents right now, and they are nice.” Himiko seems to have taken notice of the awkwardness. Or perhaps it was something that Izuku gestured at her to do. “I even have friends now! And my quirk is called Blood Transformation. It lets me impersonate anyone whose blood I drank, with duration depending on how much blood I took. I can copy their looks, their clothes, their voice, sometimes even their quirks! Like Toshi, I can’t exactly expect to be popular with it, so I plan to go for the underground heroics.” 

“Well, I can certainly see it being useful in infiltrations.” Surprisingly enough, it’s Hagakure. The invisible girl. She kept a low profile and, well, is invisible so they didn’t notice her being close-by. “What defines whether you can or not copy a quirk?”

“Actually, I dunno.” Himiko seems startled by the question. “I think I need to understand how the quirk works beforehand. And some just don’t work. Mutant ones work always, transformative ones almost always, emitters… vary. Especially mental quirks tend to not work. And without some experience in the matter, I can’t use them to the same degree as the original users, so, like, don’t expect me to perform someone’s super move right off the bat.”  

“AND THE REST OF YOU?” Inasa decides that they learned enough about Himiko. 

Bakugou snarls from his seat.

“Explosion.” He replies. That’s all they get from him. 

“Hey, sunshine.” Hitoshi decides to intervene. “He asked about your quirk, not your personality.” 

“What did you just say to me, you bas…” Bakugou looks like he is about to leap off his seat, but suddenly he freezes. And just sits there, staring blankly in space. 

“ Remain seated and quiet until we arrive. ” Hitoshi says, and something in his voice makes him sound… differently. Uraraka (and not just Uraraka) realizes that he just used his quirk on Bakugou. 

Izuku clears his throat. 

“Toshi, using your quirk is a no-no. Even on him.” Their class-president says. “I get it that he was about to call you names, but still.” 

“Well, then wake him up.” Hitoshi shrugs. “Just a light bump and… done.” 

“Ehh, I’ll let him stay like that, it’s just one or two minutes.” Izuku decides. “He needs to calm down a bit. His quirk is called Explosion, and it makes him sweat nitroglycerine. Unfortunately, as Hitoshi pointed out, he has a bit of an… explosive temper. Also… Tenko?” 

Tenko shakes his head and returns to playing on his phone. 

“Well, that concludes the introductions.” Izuku says. 

Chapter Text

“Oh, it’s an honour to finally be able to meet you, Ms. Midoriya!” Nedzu announces as All Might and Inko enter his office. 

“Likewise, Principal Nedzu.” She gives him a faint smile. “I heard a lot of good things about your taste in tea, and I’m looking forward to finding out what brands you serve to your guests.” 

All Might, whose taste in drinks was always tilted towards coca-cola and other carbonated drinks, decides to not take part in THAT talk. It’s bad enough that he is missing a lesson, just because Nedzu had a brain aneurysm and scheduled the private lesson review meeting at such an hour. 

Nedzu absolutely beams at the discovery that Midoriya Inko has a rather exquisite taste in teas. Oh, if only he met Gentle Criminal. That man can recite and review (from memory) almost every type of tea known to Mankind, and All Might is somewhat shocked that he did that while still having time to be a villain. 

Eventually they all sat down, only Yagi without a cup of some rather high-class tea. 

“So, Nedzu…” All Might still wants to make it for the second half of the lesson (using One for All remnants to sprint there feels wasteful, but it’s his son they are talking about! Nana would understand), and decides to not waste any more time. “... what’s your opinion on Izuku after the first two private lessons?” 

“Oh, he’s absolutely wonderful!” Nedzu exclaims and Inko smiles a bit. Hearing a teacher (the principal, even) actually praising Izuku is probably somewhat a cathartic moment to her. “An unpolished diamond when it comes to strategy and planning in general. I can assure you that by the time he graduates, he’ll be playing in the same league as me and Sir Nighteye.” 

All Might more or less expected that. He knew that Izuku had a brilliant mind. Although hearing the confirmation from someone who was probably a top brain in the country certainly helps his confidence in that. 

“I assume that you already more or less analyzed my son’s strengths and weaknesses.” Inko says. “And this meeting is about that.” 

“Correct!” Nedzu says. “Every mastermind of this level has their own specializations. For example, I’m unmatched when it comes to analyzing copious amounts of data. My quirk allows me to search through thousands of pages of text in a matter of seconds, analyzing it down to the handwriting style. However, my understanding of social cues and human actions and psychology outside of what I have cold, hard data for is… lacking. There is a reason why I’m leaving the majority of interactions with the students to the faculty members.” 

“Sir Nighteye, in the meantime, excels in investigations.” All Might adds. “He works slower than Nedzu, because he lacks the High Spec ability for analysis, but his understanding of people is much better. He is much better at guesswork and figuring out the motives of people. This is why he is better at investigative work than Nedzu - because the principal has problems with operating without data to base his theories on, while Sir excels in data gathering.” 

Inko looks at him a bit strangely, so he shrugs. 

“I talked with him about it once, back before we had a fallout.” All Might explains. “This is why having them in my team allowed us to corner All for One. Sir Nighteye excelled in gathering data, while Nedzu was a master of analyzing it and figuring out the truth behind it.” 

“What a coincidence that you mention All for One…” Nedzu starts. 

***

Thirteen finished her short speech about the dangers of quirks. For the first time in history, Izuku Midoriya was the second most enthusiastic person in front of a hero (Uraraka has clearly met her idol and it was just painful to watch). 

Eraserhead sighed. Two seconds later, he realized that something was wrong. He looked towards the main square of the USJ right in time to see a small circle of black mist emerge in the middle of it… and then grow rapidly, with figures stepping out of it. 

Villains. Lots of villains. Dozens of them. And even if they are small-fries, this doesn’t look particularly good. 

“Oh, is that part of the training?” Kirishima is among the first ones to spot the new arrivals. 

“No, those are real villains.” Eraserhead says while putting his goggles on. He ignores the shocked gasps. 

“Eraserhead, Thirteen and… Present Mic?” The man built from the black mist (a warp quirk user, no doubt, he was the one to bring them here) announces. Despite the distance, he is clearly audible. “How odd. We came here expecting to meet the Symbol of Peace. He should be here according to the teacher’s curriculum we procured two days ago.” 

“Plans change.” The black-haired man wearing a black dress shirt, black dress pants, and a gas mask covering his mouth and nose announces. There is some sort of voice amplification feature built into it. “We’ll slaughter the kids instead. Maybe that will make him show up.” 

He sounds utterly disinterested. He just stated his willingness to kill twenty-four children like Eraserhead would state his willingness to take a nap. 

No alerts. Yaoyorozu is inquiring about that in the back, but Thirteen clearly has no idea why they didn’t go off. The comms are jammed. The attackers came prepared. 

“You can’t fight them!” Izuku shouts and leaps off his position towards him and Present Mic. 

“We have to.” Eraserhead promptly replies. Present Mic is looking down the stairs with a look of determination on his face. 

“No, you don’t understand, it’s...” Izuku says, and Eraserhead immediately realizes that he is speaking with the kid that has private lessons with Nedzu (even if only two thus far) and knows several supervillains personally. If he says it like that, then he must have a reason. And probably has better intel on many fields than Eraserhead does.

“Talk to me.” Eraserhead postpones his attack for a few more seconds and interrupts Izuku. 

“The villain with a gas mask is called Overhaul.” Izuku speaks quickly. He is almost in his rare mumbling mode, but somehow he managed to stay understandable. “We need All Might or the entire faculty save for him to take him down. And if it’s the latter, we’ll probably fail to do it without casualties.” 

This sounds bad. Eraserhead never heard of him and he will have LOTS of questions to ask Izuku after this fight is over. If they all survive. He isn’t the only one with questions, judging from the fact that some of the other students are close enough to hear their conversation. 

“Quirk?” 

“Matter-reassembly on touch.” Izuku replies in a hurry. “Instakill if he touches you. Can heal himself and others. He will destroy or reform your scarf if you let him touch it too, and he can alter monomaterial surfaces around him to pretty much do what Cementoss-sensei can.” 

Eraserhead suddenly realizes that if he didn’t stop to listen to what Midoriya had to say, he would be already dead. Oh, great. He is going to have to give the problem child extra credit for that, isn’t he? 

“Weaknesses?” He needs to buy time, because the first villains are already scaling the stairs. 

“Mysophobia.” Izuku quickly replies. “If you take his mask off or throw some dirt or blood on his exposed skin, he should freak out for a moment.” 

Not much, but he can work with that. 

“Thirteen, get the students out of here!” Eraserhead shouts. “If Midoriya says something, listen to him. He is Nedzu’s student!” 

He leaps forward. Present Mic times his first attack perfectly, blasting the small-fries around right before Eraserhead gets to them. The fight starts. 

***

“... because Izuku’s particular specialty resembles All for One the most.” Nedzu says. “I’d risk saying that it’s practically speaking his carbon copy, just without the evil.” 

All Might does his best to appear surprised. He isn’t explaining to Nedzu the part where All for One was Izuku’s stepfather for most of his life. Inko doesn’t want people to know, either. Especially the heroes. Gran Torino knowing is everything she is ready to agree to on that field.

“If I were to summarize this specialty in the smallest amount of words…” Nedzu continues. “It’d be ‘creative problem-solving’. Or, perhaps, ‘creative application of tools’. All for One’s entire empire was tailored alongside his particular brand of genius, which is the main reason why it remained strong for so long.” 

“I feel like he created more problems than he solved.” All Might decides to point out. Inko gives him a tired look. 

“Yes, undoubtedly!” Nedzu chuckles a bit. “However his empire always lacked any sort of organized structure. It was quite literally All for One and his inner court, surrounded by numerous semi-independent organizations that he held indebted or terrified enough to follow his wishes. When he wanted something done, he looked through his list of contacts for those with the necessary skill sets and quirks and assembled a proper operation plan. Izuku, perhaps unconsciously, is already doing something very similar.” 

“I believe that I’d notice my son assembling an empire of crime.” Inko comments. “So I’ll take that as a hyperbole. Or a metaphor.” This pulls out another brief chuckle from Nedzu. 

“Oh, there are no crimes involved, I assure you, Ms. Midoriya.” The principal says. “Are you perhaps aware of the incident that occured in the school cafeteria two days ago?” 

“I am.” Yagi says. Inko is clearly surprised by it. “There was a panic following a security alert caused by the media breaking in. A few students were lightly wounded due to everyone trying to leave the building through the same door at the same time.” 

“Yes, but are you aware that the incident was solved by your son?” This time Yagi joins the surprised group. Izuku hadn’t mentioned it. Then again… it was something positive about him, and he was problematic on that field.  “When the alarm sounded, he was in the cafeteria together with his friends. Namely, Uraraka Ochaco, Inasa Yoarashi, Tenya Iida, Tsuyu Asui, Hitoshi Shinsou and Himiko Toga. They didn’t join the ongoing chaos next to the exit, and instead were a bit behind it.”

Nedzu drinks some of his tea. He is clearly overjoyed to narrate this event, despite some of the students being wounded. Then again, they already made changes to the security and there were going to be some evacuation drills in order to prevent the panic from occuring again.

Inko drinks some of her tea. She is clearly overjoyed to hear about Izuku having friends. Especially when the list is this long. It takes most of her self-control not to start crying out of sheer happiness in front of Nedzu. That and, well, she prefers not to cry over tea. 

A matter of aesthetics, really. It makes tea parties rather awkward. 

“I believe that Tenya spotted the press through the window, and informed the others.” Nedzu continues. “Izuku almost immediately conjured a plan to calm the crowd. He had Uraraka make Inasa and Tenya weightless. Then he had Tenya propel the two of them towards the exit doors over the crowd, with Inasa using his quirk to stabilize their flight. Inasa could go there on his own, but considering the situation, him using his quirk excessively might have only amplified the panic. Once they got to their destination, Inasa used his rather… overbearing voice to draw the attention of the students that were now facing him, and explained to them that it’s just the press, not an attack.” 

“Ah.” All Might still marvels at the quick thinking when Inko makes the face of sudden understanding. “Application of tools, was it?” Nedzu smiles at her. 

“Precisely!” The rodent announces. Thankfully, he realizes that All Might is still kinda lost, and decides to help him. “Your son analyzes everyone he meets, noting down their quirks, abilities, personality, strengths, weaknesses and so on. When he encounters a problem, he immediately looks through the list of available ‘tools’ and finds the best way of solving the problem with what he has on hand. The cafeteria incident is a great example - he realized that the panic had to be calmed down, so he analyzed the quirks and abilities of his friends and devised a plan to deal with the problem. We had a talk about it already, and he actually had two plans prepared. If Inasa failed to calm the crowd, Izuku would have Himiko Toga shapeshift into Eraserhead in order to use the teacher’s authority to diffuse the situation. This was his plan B, due to Aizawa’s generally low profile. If she could impersonate Present Mic, with his much louder voice and greater ability to influence the crowd, he would make it his plan A.” 

Nedzu pauses for a few seconds, letting All Might come to an understanding with what he just said. 

“Frankly speaking…” the rodent then adds. “I’m looking forward to Izuku Midoriya leading hero agency team-ups against larger villainous organizations. Creating plans on how to maximize the strengths of his assets and how to exploit the identified weakness of his enemies to the maximum.” He chuckles. “Oh, this will be beautiful to watch. It’ll be like having All for One acting as a strategist and tactician for the heroes.” 

All Might looks back to the moment on the rooftop and wonders what might have been if he hadn’t changed his answer. What if Izuku started pulling people like Hitoshi and Himiko out  of their problems, only to offer them something else than heroics. Something significantly more… villainous. He doesn’t like the images that his mind conjures. 

***

“I’m afraid that I can’t allow this.” The cloud of black mist says to the students who were just about to get to the exit door. How did he get there so fast?! Uraraka saw him down there like a second or two ago! 

They all take a step back, even Thirteen. This messy blackness with lines for eyes is… intimidating. 

“We are the Paranormal Liberation Front.” The cloud announces. “I apologize for interrupting your lessons, but we have come here to meet and… extinguish the Symbol of Peace. As for why I’m here, in front of you, it’s because…” 

“Thirteen-sensei, don’t!” Izuku suddenly shouts, startling the teacher that was just about to use her quirk on the villain. “Yoarashi, blast him sideways!” 

Inasa doesn’t wait to think about it. He doesn’t ask questions. He remembers how Izuku outplayed him during the combat training, he remembers Izuku figuring out how to calm the raging crowd before him. He probably decides that there is a plan, just that he is yet to figure it out and it’s obviously time sensitive. Besides, Aizawa-sensei told Thirteen to listen to him, right?

So he does what Izuku told him to. 

The gust of wind is powerful. Several of the students are almost pulled by it, but their stronger classmates react in time. The cloudman curses while he is pushed sideways, his body reforming closer to a humanoid form a few meters away, still clearly struggling against the wind. 

Thirteen takes the moment to run past it and open the exit door. Students lunge towards it. They heard what Izuku told Eraserhead about the head villain and they realize that this isn’t the time to be heroes. 

“YOU. WILL. NOT!” The mistman shouts and spreads his blackness again, pushing Inasa’s wind back. They will not make it, they don’t have time for it, maybe at least some of the students… 

“Thirteen, don’t fight him, don’t use your quirk, just run away!” Izuku shouts. “IIda, alert the school!” Uraraka hears. She is among those who made it to the door in time. 

***

Tsuyu Asui is fast in water. Sure, she is a frog, and they might not be the best in open water like this, but she is also human enough to compensate. She is fast enough to beat back the shark villain that was about to assault Midoriya, and pull him and Mineta out of the water. 

She throws Midoriya (and Mineta too) to the ship that they emerged next to, and then scales the ship’s side herself. 

“Well, aren’t we in a pickle.” Tsuyu says, eyeing the waters surrounding the ship. There are some villains down there. 

“Yeah, quite so.” Izuku says. He is already thinking about something. Tsuyu has so many questions about what happened earlier, but this is clearly not the time. 

“But we just have to wait for All Might to arrive, right?!” Mineta pops up. “Once he does, he’ll just go like… pow! and bam! And it’s over, right?” 

“No, I don’t think it will be that easy.” Midoriya replies. “They thought that they would meet him here, together with Aizawa-sensei and Thirteen-sensei. Overhaul is a perfect counter to Aizawa-sensei, while that black mist villain is a perfect counter to Thirteen. I also saw some big, black… thing with an exposed brain standing right next to Overhaul. I think that whatever it is, the attackers think that it’s a counter to All Might.”  

“Is that why you told Thirteen to run?” Tsuyu asks. She doesn’t know how that black mist villain is a counter to her, but…

“Yes.” Izuku replies. “Thirteen will die the second she uses her quirk on that black mist villain.” Mineta is thoroughly panicking next to them. Tsuyu prefers to ignore him. “Okay, we need to start moving.” 

“Might be hard considering the part where we are surrounded by villains.” Tsuyu points out and Mineta freezes. “What’s your plan?”

She is curious about Izuku Midoriya. More than she is willing to let people know. Despite the arguments to the contrary, his quirk still resembles All Might’s to her. He risked facing other heroes to save a complex mutant and a kid with quote unquote villainous quirk. That alone is saying a lot about him. 

“As much as I hate to admit it…” Izuku says, facing her. “Students might be the key to winning this fight.” 

Oh. Tsuyu understands it now. Bold, she has to admit. But it makes sense. 

“They sent me to the water zone.” She says, and he confirms her suspicions with a fervent nod. 

“What?” Mineta fails to get it. 

“They prepared perfect counters for the teachers.” Izuku replies patiently. “But they tossed the frog mutant into a flood zone, instead of the avalanche or conflagration zone. They either don’t know the quirks of the students or they didn’t consider us a threat. And considering the fact that Tsuyu easily outmaneuvered and beat up that shark-villain to save us, they are mostly cannon fodder that even we can fight against. We just need to figure out how to use our quirks to get out of this, and we’ll be alright. We might even be able to help the teachers.” 

“Are you kidding me?!” Mineta almost shouts. “Didn’t you see my quirk during the battle trial? It’s useless! Completely useless!” 

She sees some odd flinch on Midoriya’s face. She isn’t sure what to think about it. 

“Mineta, there is no such thing as a completely useless quirk!” Izuku shouts back. “And certainly not among the people who got to the UA and passed Aizawa’s quirk test! I already have a plan, and you’re the key part of it so stop shouting and help me out!” 

Oh?

“You… you do? And I what?” Mineta is shocked, almost to the point of crying. 

The villains get impatient. One of them uses his quirk to damage the ship, which starts sinking slowly. 

Three minutes later the three hero students are leaving the flood zone, leaving behind an entire ball of villains glued together with Mineta’s balls. Tsuyu is incredibly impressed. 

***

The second fight that ends is the one between Todoroki Shoto and a crowd of villains within the Landslide Zone. It isn’t even a fight, really. Shoto freezes everyone and then has them spill the beans about their plan, before unfreezing them. He doesn’t want them to die. 

The cold in their body steals their willingness to fight. Shouto heads towards the central area, just like Midoriya and his group does.

*** 

In the Mountain Zone. Kaminari, Momo, Kyoka and Himiko are engaged by a crowd of villains. Himiko feels like a fifth wheel in the fight: Kaminari stuns people with a touch. Kyoka blasts them with her own heartbeat. Momo conjures things from thin air. What can Himiko do? 

She is fast and agile, but ultimately not very trained in combat. She doesn’t even carry any weapon and they are a bit too hard-pressed for her to ask Momo to make something for her. 

It turns out that she can do quite a lot, once she has someone who knows how to apply her particular skill set next to her. After Kaminari short-circuits while stunning everyone in the vicinity, and they deal with the one villain that tried to take him prisoner (Himiko running towards Kaminari right after the blast to check if he was alright saved them from a hostage situation), Momo has an idea. She tells Himiko to shapeshift into the electric villain, while she produces fake handcuffs. 

Their entire group passed by the villain reinforcements unmolested, Himiko explaining to the villains that they are urgently needed as hostages in the central square. 

***

Kirishima didn’t know what to think about the Rehab Course folks. He can understand trying to make your life into something better. He has a history with that. Sure, he wanted to change out of being weak and indecisive - this isn’t the same as committing whatever crimes they did commit. 

He landed in the Ruins Zone with Tenko and Bakugou and almost immediately understood one thing. That he certainly prefers those two to be heroes, or at least civilians. Because what he witnesses isn’t a fight. It’s a methodical, one-sided massacre that he barely gets to participate in. 

Tenko moves silently but freakishly fast. He doesn’t even use his quirk, whatever it is. He appears out of nowhere but right next to thoroughly shocked enemies and then either rams their heads into the wall or does something similarly nasty. 

Bakugou does all the shouts and taunts. Half of them are directed at some undefined ‘stupid nerd Deku’, which is kinda odd, but Kirishima isn’t going to ask. 

Kirishima expected something else when he heard about sweating nitroglycerine. Instead he discovers that he landed in the Ruins Zone with a living explosion that can explode whatever and whenever it wants. 

That’s kinda awesome. Perhaps manly too, but he is waiting with that assessment until he finds out what made Bakugou into a supposed villain. 

When the Ruins Zone runs out of villains, they proceed towards the exit. 

***

Eraserhead eliminated most of the villains in the central area. By that time he is acutely aware of two things. First is the fact that they aren’t going to make it. Two, is that they only got that far because All Might’s absence meant that Present Mic was there… and because Eraserhead stopped to listen to Izuku Midoriya’s intel. 

Eraserhead keeps Overhaul’s quirk locked in at all times. Present Mic knows him well enough, they fought alongside each other many times. Each time someone is about to attack Eraserhead from the back or side, he gets hit by a highly concentrated soundwave. 

The few villains that tried to go after the Voice Hero are interrupted by Inasa Yoarashi. Who, by some freak (and happy) coincidence is still there. On the stairs behind Eraserhead, right next to Present Mic. 

Eraserhead has to blink from time to time. Overhaul tried to use that by putting his hands on the ground and waiting for him to blink, probably in order to reassemble the floor underneath him. He is a bit behind his villains, but Aizawa Shouta has a counter to that. He shouts to Mic right before blinking, and each time that happens, Hizashi hits Overhaul with one of his blastwaves.

Not strong enough to damage him, but strong enough to push him back a bit, forcing him to stop touching the ground with his hands. Enough to give Aizawa time to blink. 

“Well, damn.” Overhaul decides to speak finally. “Someone sold me out, huh? You clearly know how my disease works.” 

Eraserhead uses his capture scarf to throw one villain into another. He is slightly winded, but that’s not exactly the problem right now. The real problem is Overhaul and that big, muscular something next to him that doesn’t even flinch when Erasure hits it. 

Also what the hell was that part about the disease?

Overhaul leaps forward. He is fast. Probably as fast as Eraserhead, if not slightly more. But Eraserhead is prepared. When Overhaul gets close enough, the hero throws a handful of fresh blood and dust that he gathered on his hand earlier. 

The villain no longer carries a mask. Present Mic’s sonic blasts shattered its glass visor, so he threw it off. He didn’t seem to like that at all. 

Midoriya’s intel is spot on. Overhaul freaks out and shouts something, trying to clear the mess from his face despite being right in front of the enemy. The capture scarf is waiting for it, wrapping itself around the villain’s body. If Aizawa manages to wrap him up in a way that keeps his arms immobile while hands can’t twist enough to touch the scarf, he’ll… 

“NOUMU!” Overhaul shouts. And Aizawa sees red. 

***

Nedzu apologizes for interrupting their talk about the future of their wonderful son and picks up a phone. 

Hound Dog. 

Iida WHAT?

“Villains are attacking the USJ.” Nedzu says, and All Might tenses. “Don’t forget the phone, I’ll send you what we know en route. Go!” 

All Might jumps through his window with enough strength to send Nedzu (and his coffee table) flying. Inko moves fast enough to catch him with her quirk. 

Chapter Text

Once Nedzu knows that the jamming is there, he manages to fight through it with little effort. The school was prepared. It’s just the automatic measures that were somewhat dealt with by whoever was bold enough to attack the UA. 

As the faculty hurries to the USJ, Nedzu analyzes the available data (and he isn’t touching the part where Inko Midoriya’s quirk oddly resembles the one of Mischief, it’s not important now).

He can detect Thirteen and a handful of students fleeing from the building. Unlike Tenya, they were still within the jamming range, but out of the direct threat. Nedzu isn’t sure why a hero is fleeing with only some of the students. 

No student was killed or heavily injured. He knows that much. He detects the life signature of the person who can tell him more, and sees no hostiles near it. So he makes a phone call. 

“Principal Nedzu!” He hears from the other side. Izuku Midoriya sounds relieved. “Did Iida make it?” Because of course it was his plan to have Tenya rush for help. Should Nedzu even be surprised?

“Yes, he did. Izuku, talk to me.” Nedzu says, and he can see Inko being visibly relieved. Her son is alive. Whether he’ll stay like this until his father’s arrival remains to be seen. 

“No less than seventy villains. Arrived through a warp quirk.” Izuku replies. “Their leader is Overhaul. Ask my mom who that is. Only three villains seem to be dangerous, the rest are losing to the students despite numerical advantage. It’s Overhaul himself, the warp quirk user resembling a black mist and some big, black thing with an exposed brain.” 

Nedzu moves the phone aside for a second. This is the first time he ever heard the name Overhaul and he intends to amend this immediately. 

“Please, write down everything you know about a villain known as Overhaul, Ms. Midoriya.” She freezes lightly at the mention, and Nedzu has a lot of questions but not enough time to ask them. He returns to the phone. “Go on.” 

“They knew the original schedule for the day.” Izuku continues. “Every major villain was picked to be a counter to one of the teachers. Overhaul to Eraserhead, Black Mist to Thirteen and whatever that black thing is… to All Might. Black Mist stated that they are here to kill him.” 

Oh, great. That’s the height of audacity, even when you have a powerful warp quirk at your disposal. 

“Principal Nedzu, the threat is real.” Izuku says and Nedzu freezes because he really doesn’t want to hear those words. “Overhaul is practically a triple S villain in the making, and I had Thirteen flee because considering the match-up, she would die the second she used her quirk in front of the black mist villain. I have no idea what they prepared to face the Symbol of Peace, but it’s certainly something dangerous.” 

Nedzu shifts the image on the screen to the one showing the central square. Just in time to see the ‘big, black thing with an exposed brain’ smash Eraserhead face-first into the concrete floor. 

The only way to leave the USJ was through the central square. He can see a lot of students making their way towards it.

This isn’t going to be good. 

Then Inko Midoriya shows him the summary about the Overhaul’s abilities and Nedzu amends his opinion. ‘Not good’ is an understatement. 

***

“You know, Eraserhead, that I somewhat like your disease?” Overhaul says, while the noumu (whatever that is) is keeping the hero pinned to the floor. “You just have to look at someone to alleviate their symptoms. This is a really handy power to have.” 

Eraserhead activates his quirk and looks at the hand of the noumu. Its strength doesn’t falter. It’s not a quirk? Is it a mutation quirk? This sheer physical power is damn close to All Might’s. 

“Overhaul.” The black mist villain returns to them. 

“Kurogiri.” Overhaul replies. “Is Thirteen dead?” 

“No.” Eraserhead feels relieved. Noumu being right above him stops Present Mic from attacking, but at the very least Thirteen is still alive. “She managed to escape together with close to half of the students.” 

Escape? A hero did, despite there still being students around? What exactly did Midoriya tell her to do? 

“I scattered the rest around the building.” Kurogiri continues. “But I fear that the enemy reinforcements will arrive soon.”

“This is actually beneficial to the Paranormal Liberation Front’s goals, Kurogiri.” Overhaul replies after a second or two of silence. “If All Might is anywhere on the school grounds, he will most likely appear first. This gives us a window of opportunity to excise him before other teachers arrive. We’re staying until then. In the meantime…” Eraserhead hears a faint chuckle. “Let’s end the life of one irritating radio host, shall we?” 

No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. 

He hears an explosion. And then (and for the first time in his life, Eraserhead is ecstatic to hear it), the loud shout. 

Fear not, for I am here. 

All Might has arrived.

Noumu slams his head into the pavement once again a second later, and everything goes black. 

***

Inasa Yoarashi would have a blast with the whole ‘fighting real villains’ thing if not for the fact that, to be frank, the enemy is winning the battle badly. And this means that he might lose classmates. 

This is bad. He likes his classmates.

Worst of all, he might have just lost his teacher. Right after he decided that despite looking like he was half-dead, Aizawa Shouta was a capital H Hero. Because jumping into a crowd of something like fifty villains with nothing but a scarf and a quirk that’s honestly kinda weak on its own is the peak of awesomeness and passion for heroism.

He finally understands why Izuku said that Aizawa is pretty much a Number One Hero for the underground heroes. He also knows (he read about it on the internet after finding out that underground heroes exist) that many limelight heroes look down on their less publicized cousins. 

After that day in the USJ, Inasa Yoarashi knows that he will never do such a thing. Because underground heroes - the men and women who ignore the press and popularity to focus on saving people - are absolutely, capital letters even in his mind, FUCKING AWESOME. 

Then All Might comes. A bit too late for Inasa to have a chance to witness the Number One Limelight and Number One Underground heroes teaming up, but quick enough to fly past Inasa and Present Mic, pull Eraserhead from under that Noumu thing, take down the few remaining thugs, and deliver Aizawa-sensei’s unconscious body to Inasa’s English teacher. 

Aizawa-sensei needs medical help. Inasa wants to witness the battle, but he needs to help carry him to safety. He just hopes that the cameras are recording the battle and he gets to see it. 

***

All Might realizes that Izuku’s message (relayed to him by Nedzu) was spot on. It isn’t going to be pretty. 

Because the Noumu refuses to sustain any damages from All Might’s punches. The only positive part of the situation is that his hits carry enough air pressure that Overhaul cannot approach him. Because if All Might had to deal with a death touch quirk AND whatever that groaning monstrosity in front of him is, it would be worse than bad. 

“Personally speaking, Noumu disgusts me.” Overhaul announces. “It’s a diseased wretch that I’d have euthanized without a second of doubt. But it’s quite useful against a disease vector like you, All Might. It carries a Shock Absorption quirk, alongside its already inhumanly powerful physique.” He chuckles menacingly. “Come on, All Might. Show me how you deal with something like that. Be a hero.” 

All Might does just that. And he does a backdrop slam, with enough strength to make it look like an explosion. 

He realizes immediately that it was a mistake when he feels Noumu’s fingers drill into his sides, including the wounded one. At least the One for All-enhanced muscles stop it before it reaches the damages underneath them.

“Right according to the plan, All Might.” Overhaul sighs. “You totally forgot that we still have Kurogiri, the living warpgate, right? And it seems that you really are weakening.” 

All Might struggles, but the Noumu’s sheer strength is simply tremendous. Close to his own. In any other position he could try to push through and would probably succeed, but his backdrop slam left him hanging in a way that makes him unable to exert his full strength. 

Noumu begins to pull him towards the warpgate. 

“Cleaning my insides up will be a touch displeasing.” All Might hears an unfamiliar voice. It has to be Kurogiri. “But I’ll endure it if it means ending the Symbol of Peace.” 

“Noumu was supposed to restrain you, letting Kurogiri sever you in half.” Overhaul continues gloating. “It’s a nice thing when your plans go just right, isn’t it?”

All Might, the Symbol of Peace, gets a last minute save by his own students. Izuku’s group, Endeavor’s son, and the hardening boy alongside Tenko and Izuku’s old bully arrive at almost the same time. 

Shoto freezes Noumu. Bakugou’s blast pushes the black mist away, letting Tenko grab whatever solid part of it there was and slam it into the pavement, all but one finger on it. He is no longer wearing gloves. 

“Great job!” Izuku shouts. “Even you, Bakugou!” 

“DON’T TELL ME WHAT TO DO, SHITTY NERD!” Bakugou shouts back and All Might realizes that his son had to time their arrival and plan it. “I PLANNED TO DO THIS ON MY OWN!” 

Of course Izuku did that. Nedzu told him to not engage unless Noumu turns out to be a threat to All Might. So he gathered whoever was coming to the central square (using now working comms) and reacted when he saw that All Might was threatened.

Yagi Toshinori’s already overflowing pride overflows even more. Noumu’s grip is weakened and he manages to escape it. 

“Well, that’s what you get for hiring third rate goons.” Overhaul says dryly. “They can’t even stall a bunch of kids. The Council will be overjoyed to hear about it. I guess I picked the wrong time to say that the plan goes just right, didn’t I, Kurogiri?” The warpgate mumbles something. “Oh well. Noumu, free Kurogiri.” 

Despite half of its body frozen solid, the Noumu stands. The ice breaks, practically severing its body in half. Which then promptly begins to regrow in seconds. 

“What the?!” Izuku is shocked. “It’s not Shock Absorption?!” All Might actually has the same question. 

“Well, as I said, Noumu disgusts me.” Overhaul, despite everything that happened, isn’t moved by facing so many enemies on his own. “Even a single disease is bad enough, but he… he has several. Including Shock Absorption and Hyper Regeneration. An artificial human being carrying multiple quirks, a premier achievement of the Paranormal Liberation Front’s scientific department.” 

Multiple quirks? Oh fuck no. Not this shit again.

Nana’s grandson almost dies. All Might takes the blow in the last second after pushing Tenko away. There is enough punch left in the Noumu to send him back. Kurogiri is free again and retreats behind Overhaul.

“To not hesitate to kill a child.” All Might is livid. “Have you no shame?!” 

“Shame?” Overhaul chuckles. “Do you know what shame is? It’s the reaction you have when you realize that what you are doing isn’t perceived as ‘normal’. But guess what?” He throws his arms around. “I REJECT NORMAL. This is what the name of our organization indicates. We fight to end the hero society, to end the world as you know it. Some of us just want to murder freely, others want to reign over those with weaker quirks and I…” He pauses for a second. “I want to heal the world from the diseases known as quirks, heroes, and villains. What makes you think that there is anything that I’d shy away from doing to achieve it? All Might?”  

Overhaul is mad. There is no doubt about it. 

“Bold words for someone who is just in to get some kicks out of murdering people.” All Might replies and Overhaul freezes for a second. Someone is hurt by the accusation. “Young Midoriya, get everyone out of here. Now.” 

“What, but…” It’s Kirishima, really rearing for some action. 

“We need to listen to him.” Izuku—oh how he loves his son—doesn’t waste any time with it. “He can’t go all out if it means that we can be wounded by it. We need to give him some space, now!” To All Might’s relief, the kids listen to him. Although Bakugou, unsurprisingly, seems to hate it.

“Noumu, kill All Might.” Overhaul reacts immediately. “I’ll slaughter the kids!” He lunges towards Izuku and his friends. 

All Might freezes his movement with one, singular glare. The pure manifestation of his strength and authority as a Symbol of Peace. Then, before he can try attacking the students again, All Might begins to exchange blows with the Noumu. 

There are far too many air pressure changes for Overhaul or anyone else to intervene. This is now between the All Might and the being that was made to be his equal. 

“Didn’t you hear it?!” Overhaul shouts. “It has Shock Absorption!” 

“Should have told me that it was Shock Nullification, villain!” All Might sniggers. Izuku might have been taught by All for One, but whose genes did he get? Did Overhaul take All Might for a dumb brute? “Absorption quirks always have limits.” 

And he promptly makes the Noumu reach it. It takes him almost two hundred blows in a span of several seconds. 

The villains should have staged some emergencies earlier to weaken him. If they truly knew that he is getting weaker, as Overhaul stated. Instead, his meeting with Nedzu just made him arrive at the scene almost untouched. So, he sent the Noumu through the ceiling, while still having strength to spare. 

By the time looks at Overhaul again, he and Kurogiri are gone from his sights. Seconds later, the rest of the faculty arrives.

***

“I believe that some explanations are in order.” Nedzu announces to the room filled with Yagi Toshinori and his family members. 

Okay, it’s just Inko and Izuku, but still. 

They are in the principal’s office, which is just slightly damaged by All Might’s… enthusiastic exit. Unfortunately, Nedzu doesn’t seem to care about it, and instead his question was directed at something a bit more problematic. 

“I’m not even going to ask why you married Mischief, All Might.” Nedzu adds, and Yagi is briefly surprised. How did Nedzu figure that out? Then again, it was Nedzu. “I’ll just assume that it was out of love, which is one of the human things that I struggle to compute, and leave it at that. What I really want to know is why a previously unknown supervillain just attacked my school… only for me to discover that my own student knew more about him than I did.” 

The sad part is that Yagi doesn’t know the answer to that either. 

“Toshi, do you remember how I mentioned that I adopted Eri after she was rescued from a villain?” Inko replies and Yagi suddenly understands. “That villain was Overhaul. I simply didn’t think that it was important, because I thought that he was dead.” 

“So All Might didn’t know either, I see.” Nedzu sighs. He is on his third tea in twenty minutes, and it’s NOT a good sign. “Can you please go through it chronologically?” 

“Two years ago Izuku was on a sightseeing trip with his uncles.” Inko decides to go through it. “He was going through some hero museums, only for a little girl in a clear state of distress to suddenly run into him after leaping out of some alleyway. Soon after that Overhaul popped up, claiming to be her father.” Inko sighs. “Izuku, of course, didn’t buy it. And went into his little Hero Mode.” 

“Please don’t tell me that Izuku faced Overhaul.” Yagi can feel the coming headache. If half of the things he heard about his quirk are correct, Overhaul is at least a double S-Rank villain that would require more than one Top Hero cooperating to safely take down. Eraserhead holding him off for so long without anyone dying was achievable only due to several lucky coincidences (such as Present Mic being there, and the two heroes being extremely well trained in fighting alongside each other) and the specifics of his quirk. 

“Well, not as much faced, as successfully evaded.” Inko corrects him. Izuku looks down, probably wondering if he was in trouble. “Overhaul managed to track him back to where he was staying during the trip, and sent an assault party to retrieve Eri. It failed, because we had some… uncles and aunts present. Considering the situation to be troublesome, they might have launched a bit of a counterraid, which ended with Overhaul’s base of operations collapsing on him.” She sighs. “We did assume that he was buried there, but evidently he wasn’t.”  

“Once again, I’m going to ignore something.” Nedzu says after a few seconds. “This time it will be obvious vigilantism. And probably some murders. Still, All Might, you are straining my patience.” All Might doesn’t comment on it. He is Nedzu’s most valued figure in his little war against the HPSC. The rat isn’t losing him, even if he has to break the law a bit. He has enough connections in the police and among the journalists to smooth things out even if that was discovered. “What exactly was Overhaul doing?”

“Attempting to create a drug that can render people permanently quirkless.” Inko replies. “Since he considers quirks to be a form of disease. All he managed to achieve was a drug that damages people’s quirk, making them not work for a few days. He apparently almost managed to create the prototype of the quirk-destroying drug, but then we happened.” 

“Anything else?” Nedzu asks. He is probably going to drink another cup of tea after hearing about a quirk-destroying drug being an even theoretical possibility. This is something with a potential to overthrow the current society if it’s mass produced. 

And if it’s possible to be produced, it probably will be. Somewhere,.somewhen, somehow. 

“I’ll write you a full report. About where and when it happened. And what sort of organization he was leading.” Inko states. “I can reassure you, however, that neither quirk-suppressing nor quirk-destroying drugs are a possibility currently.”

“Why?” Nedzu asks. 

“Because he was producing them from Eri’s blood.” Inko replies and Yagi freezes. Why was he never told?! “And he isn’t getting her back.” 

The look on her face reminds Yagi that his wife is a supervillain. A former one and not particularly bloody, but… 

“Well…” Nedzu says after a few seconds. “I’d have probably looked into a way to arrest you, but I have a soft spot for victims of mad science.” Plus he really doesn’t want to ruin All Might’s reputation. 

Toshinori is going to have a serious talk with Inko about keeping secrets after this is over. 

***

1-A Chatroom

ClassPresident: @Everyone 

ClassPresident: I just left the Principal's office. Official announcement: everyone got out safely. The only one injured (save for me breaking a finger) is Aizawa-sensei, but he will make full recovery. 47 F-Rank and 32 E-Rank villains were apprehended. The ringleaders escaped, except for the Noumu which has been secured (but it’s yet to be ranked). 

GravityGirl: YES! I was so worried about you all! 

TurboMan: This is incredibly reassuring! I’d like to attribute this to our skills, but considering the circumstances, this is more likely to be due to the enemy underestimating us. And focusing their attention on the teachers. 

CreativeSpirit: I agree with my fellow class vice president. The enemy clearly underestimated us, and we’ve managed to turn that to our favour. 

Riot: Y E A H!!!

ClassPresident: I’d also like to say that whoever is feeling like they have problems getting over what happened (think nightmares, fears etc.) is welcome to schedule the appointment with Hound Dog. 

GaleForce: eraserhead is alright? awesome

Froggy: I still can’t get used to him not using capital letters at all in the chat. 

GaleForce: ???

GaleForce: also who ended up fighting in the usj in the end

GaleForce: not want to discredit those who fled (those were teacher’s orders) but I want to know with whom can I share the combat experience to do better the next time

ClassPresident: Well, I landed with Asui and Mineta in the Flood Zone. I also know that Todoroki was in the Landslide Zone (which he cleaned up on his own), but he isn’t even in the chat. 

GaleForce: tsk

CreativeSpirit: I was with Denki, Jirou and Toga in the Mountain Zone. We defeated the villains next to where we landed, then I had Toga impersonate one of them and had the rest pretend that we were captives heading to the central zone. 

ClassPresident: Ohhh, a good plan!

CreativeSpirit: Yes, I admit that I was initially disturbed by the ramifications of her quirk, but now I can fully see the potential benefits of it. Aesthetics do not matter when lives are at stake. 

Vampire: Yay! Tell me when you want to play with handcuffs next time, I’m in!

CreativeSpirit: … 

Mindhack: I’ll just say that she is a bit of an escape artist and probably meant it literally. 

Mindhack: Himichan, leave innuendoes to me. 

Vampire: OK!

Vampire: Wait, innuendoes?

Riot: Well, I landed in the Ruins Zone with Bakugou and Shimura, and frankly, wow.

Riot: I didn’t get to fight for real, because they crushed every villain between our landing point and the central zone. 

Riot: M A N L Y!

BoomBoom: Spiky Hair understands

Mindhack: I landed with Tokoyami in the Downpour Zone. It was kinda nasty, but we’ve managed. 

ClassPresident: So, Yuga, Ashido, Iida, Uraraka, Ojiro, Koda, Sato, Shoji, Sero and Hagakure managed to get out with Thirteen, right? 

GravityGirl: Yes. 

GravityGirl: Why did you tell Thirteen to flee and not use her quirk? She was (and still is) absolutely devastated by leaving people behind, but Eraserhead told her to listen to you, so… I kinda feel bad about it? she’s my idol. 

GravityGirl: I’m actually with her now. So I’d like to tell her something?

ClassPresident: Because the attackers prepared a perfect counter to every teacher that they thought would be there. Even All Might struggled against his. 

ClassPresident: If Thirteen used her quirk in front of Kurogiri (the blackmist villain), she would die (or be incapacitated with heavy wounds) without achieving anything. And while Eraserhead had a chance with Overhaul due to Present Mic being there, Thirteen was absolutely outmatched. 

GravityGirl: Huh? 

ClassPresident: If I figured out Kurogiri’s quirk mechanisms properly, his mist doubles as a warp quirk medium. The attackers expected Thirteen to try to pull his mist in to restrain him. If she did that, Kurogiri would have used the mist that was being swallowed by her black holes to open the warpgate connecting them to the space right next to her. 

ClassPresident: Her own black holes would have killed her. And probably some of us if we were close to her at the time. 

GravityGirl: OH

CreativeSpirit: And you figured it out by seeing Kurogiri for like… several seconds? 

ClassPresident: I started analyzing quirks when I was four years old, so… uhm… I have experience? 

ClassPresident: It was logical considering the fact that enemies knew the teachers, that Kurogiri headed out to engage Thirteen on his own, and the specifics of her quirk (that I know about because it’s awesome and she is a great hero!) plus what I figured out after seeing Kurogiri warp in the villains. 

CreativeSpirit: Well, it does sound like something to bring Nedzu’s attention to you. 

ClassPresident: Well, yeah?

Mindhack: Except it wasn’t that. 

CreativeSpirit: You knew? 

Mindhack: I WAS THE REASON FOR IT.

ClassPresident: Toshi, no

ClassPresident: stop

Mindhack: I’m going to beat your ridiculous fear of being praised out of you before we graduate, Izuku. 

ClassPresident: STOP!!!

Mindhack: ALSO CHANGE THAT STUPID NICKNAME BACK TO SMALLMIGHT

ClassPresident: NO

GaleForce: to paraphrase tenko shimura you are losing your reputation points as class president by the minute

GaleForce: heh

ClassPresident: Ugh. 

ClassPresident: Okay, so let’s just focus on getting through this, alright? It was nasty, but we survived, and we just got some actual, early experience about what it means to face villains. 

Mindhack: The only reason why I’m not immediately posting the whole story behind you becoming Nedzu’s favourite is because half of us are absent, probably due to being hugged by shocked parents and/or watching cat memes on the internet to deescalate stress. And I want everyone to hear it. 

ZapZap: bold words for my fellow memelord

ZapZap: also I LIVED

ZapZap: and I can think again

LeadSinger: I literally didn’t notice the difference. 

ZapZap: :(

Chapter Text

Despite it being absolutely impossible (and illogical, to quote someone), Eraserhead does show up to the class the next day. He looks like a mummy, but stalwartly deflects worries of the students (especially Izuku, Hitoshi and Himiko) by claiming that wasting time is illogical and he is perfectly fine, or at least fine enough to work. 

Uraraka is almost certain that she heard Himiko mumble something close to ‘mom is going to kill him’, but she certainly heard something wrong, right?

What follows is an announcement that despite the attack, the school festival will still happen. Uraraka is super pumped-up! This is the occasion that she was waiting for, a chance to show her skills to people. The starting point of her hero career! 

“Two more things.” Aizawa-sensei says. Despite the bandages on his face, he is more or less audible. “First: whoever is planning to become an underground hero and doesn’t want to show their quirks to the world is free to opt out of the festival. Second: Midoriya, as the person who got the top score on the entrance exam, you are supposed to make a speech at the start of the festival.”

Oh. Well, that’s not good at all. Izuku almost slumps off the chair. 

“If you are going to overthrow a government with your speech, at least do this to a foreign one.” Aizawa adds dryly. “Dismissed.” 

Izuku stays quiet and shocked until the lunch break. Then he suddenly mumbles something like ‘Wait, overthrow a government?” before his face lights up and he bolts off somewhere. Shouting to his friends that he’ll catch up with them after the break is over. 

His friends exchange some rather worried glances. This can’t be anything good, right?

***

“What do you think Midoriya is talking about with All Might?” Uraraka asks Tenya two days later. All Might just borderline kidnapped their friend for the duration of the lunch break, after offering him to eat some rice with him (Uraraka found this almost girlish behaviour incredibly amusing). 

“I have no idea.” Tenya replies, while doing some weird hand-gestures and almost hitting Shouto who was just passing by with his lunch tray. “However, as Asui pointed out, their quirks carry some similarities. Mayhaps he is personally interested in Izuku due to that?” 

“Hmmm, maybe?” Uraraka isn’t convinced. She doesn’t notice the stare that Shoto gives them. 

***

Momo Yaoyorozu is deeply conflicted about her class president. His manners are unrefined, his tendency to slump down chairs when someone tells him that he did something good (not to mention, the shrinking routine that goes alongside that) is worrying, and he apparently knew some if not all of the Rehab Course students ahead of time. 

At least the last part makes sense, ever since Shinsou told them all through the chat (to Midoriya’s constant complaints) that he was the person who persuaded Principal Nedzu to create the Rehabilitation Course in order to let the two kids he saved become heroes. 

The problem is that Momo Yaoyorozu has been educated into brilliancy. And she met many smart people from her own social strata (and way more people that were, frankly speaking, way higher than they should be, but such is life), and seeing someone who evidently didn’t have the same support as her but was her equal (at least in the written exam) is… 

Humbling? Humiliating? Odd? Momo is yet to figure that out herself, really. The discovery that Nedzu decided to give Midoriya private lessons (while Momo wasn’t even mentioned as a possible student of his) only made things more complicated. Because it added jealousy to the mix. 

She realized the stupidity of it almost immediately. She is conscious enough about herself to figure out things like that. Sure, she had two good plans - using Kaminari to cast a wide-scale stun while the rest was hidden under an insulation sheet, and having Himiko impersonate one of the villains for safe passage. Principal Nedzu, the police and the faculty actually congratulated her for it. 

But Midoriya, in the meantime, knew the head villain, saved Thirteen’s life and let half of the class escape by dissecting the abilities of one of the strongest villains (that he saw for like twenty seconds beforehand), conjured a plan to escape the Flood Zone, and then apparently helped All Might escape from the pinch. 

Jealousy is pointless. Wanting to get better to match someone is certainly not pointless. She would also rather enjoy getting to actually know Izuku Midoriya, but she had no idea how to even start with that. He was way too… different. Especially the part where any degree of praise directed at him resulted in Izuku trying to immediately deflect it to others or downplay his own achievements was baffling. And confusing.

Momo and Izuku were pretty much creatures from two completely different planets. Who had serious problems trying to translate each other’s language.

It didn’t mean that they couldn’t work together, when needed. Momo was still slightly distraught by not becoming the class president - considering her certainly non-skittish presence, she still felt that she would be better in that role, although she would without a doubt listen to Midoriya’s advice - but she was a vice-president, and that was almost the same. 

“Midoriya.” She approached him right after the class ended. He was about to leave the classroom with Uraraka and Tenya. “I need to talk with you about official matters.” 

“O..oh?” He is slightly startled for a second after hearing her talk to him out of the blue. Yeah, one of the things that she finds odd in him. “W...well, I’ll see you later.” He says to his friends who nod and leave them. “What is it about, Yaoyorozu-san?” 

“You don’t need to be this official.” She replies. “I’m your vice-president, call me Yaomomo.” He is clearly distraught by the very idea. She sighs internally. It’s not going to be easy, isn’t it? “It’s about Mineta.” 

His face falls flat. 

“What did he do?” He asks. 

“He was irritating before the USJ.” She replies. “But after it, he… well, he isn’t touchy, but he is… staring a bit too much. Kyoka Jirou is almost certain that he was trying to sneak into the girl's changing room but he bolted away when he realized that he was about to get caught.” The sound of his little feet was rather recognizable. But Jirou didn’t make a recording, so she had no evidence to get him expelled. 

“Great, I guess it’s time to have that talk.” Izuku says, mostly to himself. “Ok, Yao…Yaommomo.” He almost manages to say it correctly. “I’ll deal with him.” 

“Am I allowed to be present when it happens?” She asks, and he is clearly uncomfortable with the idea. “I’m not going to say anything, I’m just interested in seeing how you are going to deal with the issue.” 

Part of her wants to see Mineta expelled at this point. A big one. He is a shame to the UA, and if he keeps acting like this after graduation, it’s only going to get worse. She has no idea why Aizawa-sensei let him survive the Quirk Apprehension Test. 

“Alright.” Izuku Midoriya looks slightly dejected. 

***

They catch Minoru Mineta, the scourge of the class 1-A girls, right after the class ends. Izuku tells him that they need to have a serious talk about his behaviour, and Mineta tries to wiggle around. Midoriya asks him if he would prefer to have that talk with Aizawa-sensei, which immediately silences all opposition. 

They take over an unused classroom. Izuku and Minoru sit on the opposite sides of a single school table, while Momo chooses to sit behind (and slightly to the left) of the class president. 

“So, uhm… what is it about?” Mineta is clearly uncomfortable. Momo is wondering how Izuku is going to handle it. She has some ideas (most of them based on pointing out how Mineta’s action can get him expelled), but…

“Mineta.” Izuku says. “Why did you apply to the UA?” Momo had that approach within her list of ideas. Going through the motives and comparing what he is doing right now to them makes sense. 

“I…” Mineta is clearly uncomfortable with the subject. “I mean, I… heroes are… heroes are all cool and strong, yes? So I wanted to be like them.”

Frankly speaking, she didn’t suspect any greater motivation than that. She should probably be happy that his explanation wasn’t ‘to be popular among the girls’. 

“But… after USJ I… kinda figured that I was wrong.” Mineta decides to add, while looking down. “Becoming a hero doesn’t make you cool. It’s the cool people that become heroes. And I, uhm…” 

“And you think that you don’t belong to that group.” Izuku says, and Mineta nods faintly. “I happen to have an uncle that likes to say that people show their true faces when they think that they’ll die. I believe that you showed me yours aboard that ship in the USJ, and I’m… actually worried for you, Mineta.”

The talk has officially left Momo Yaoyorozu’s expectations. And it barely started! Izuku was worried about Mineta? What exactly happened on that ship? And who was Izuku's uncle to have such a saying attributed to them? 

“We were surrounded by villains, but instead of trying to come up with a plan to fight or escape, you immediately proceeded to belittle your own quirk. And you were shocked out of your words when I said that it’s going to help us win.” Izuku takes a deep breath. “Mineta, did someone ever tell you that you might be suffering from depression?” 

What? 

“D...depression?” Mineta blinks a few times. “I mean, I’m sometimes sad, but…” 

“No.” Izuku shakes his head. “Depression not as ‘oh this rainy session is so depressing and sad’ but as an actual disease. Have you ever heard of diabetes?” Mineta nods faintly. “Well, clinical depression is something similar, but instead of having problems with hormone regulating sugar, you have problems with the hormone that tells your brain that you are happy. Unreasonably low self-esteem is a symptom.” 

“Then I don’t have it.” Mineta lashes out suddenly, startling Momo completely. “I mean, look at me! I’m baby-sized! Everyone looks down on me, and they ARE RIGHT! And my quirk?! It just made me a laughingstock, especially when I said that I want to go to UA! How’s that unreasonable?!” 

“Mineta…” Izuku tries to interject (Momo is too stunned by the scene she is witnessing to say anything, seriously where is this all coming from) but Mineta continues. 

“I bet it’s nice to be able to lecture me like that.” He is glaring at Izuku. “Cool quirk, principal’s attention, girls all over you, All Might’s scurrying around you like you are his favourite, I bet you had tons of friends in the Junior High School, huh?” 

“Mineta.” She doesn’t see his face from her position, but whatever expression Izuku makes, it makes Minoru not interrupt him. “I was a late bloomer. My quirk didn’t manifest until a month before the UA entrance exam. How do you think kids reacted when I, the quirkless kid, said that I want to become a hero?” 

Izuku was what? 

“You… what?” Mineta is just taken aback as Momo is. 

“My only quote unquote friend told me to take the swan dive off the roof and pray for a quirk in my next life.” Izuku continues. Momo briefly wonders if he realizes just how incredibly bitter he sounds. It’s… unlike him, to say the least. “And I, due to some incredibly dumb reasoning, pretended that everything was alright in front of my parents for years, instead of asking for help. So I’m not lecturing you because I feel that I’m better than you, Mineta. I’m trying to help you. Because you clearly have issues, and your main way of coping with them is going to get you expelled sooner than later. Or at the very least it’s going to make you a pariah within the class. And I don’t want to lose a member of my classroom that way, especially if I get to hear a while later that you killed yourself over it. Got it?” 

“Y...yes.” Mineta takes a deep breath. He seems to be even more confused than Momo, and that’s an achievement if she ever witnessed one.  “If… that’s true, then… w...what am I s...supposed to do?” 

“I’m not a trained professional, and we’ll need some of them to deal with it.” Izuku says. “Or to even confirm it, that would be the start. I’ll have a talk about you with Hound Dog and Recovery Girl. The latter will probably run some tests on you to exclude other eventualities, before referring you to a specialist. Hound Dog will in the meantime help you find healthier ways of coping.” 

“Heroes… go to psychologists?” Mineta looks like he isn’t sure what to think or talk about at this point. 

“Well, I plan to become one and I do visit Hound Dog regularly, so… yes?” Izuku replies, while scratching his head a bit. “I mean, heroes risk their lives and sometimes arrive too late to save people. Their training doesn’t make them immune to PTSD and so on. It’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

“Oh.” Mineta looks down again. Momo realizes that he is on the verge of crying. “No one has ever... I mean, th… thank you?” 

“You don’t have to. I’m your class president, right? Your well-being is sort of my job.” Izuku replies. “If you need to talk, I’m all ears.” 

Mineta scurries off. Momo is still stunned when Izuku stands up to walk away from the room (Mineta is already going through the door). Then he notices Momo being there and actually jumps back, startled. 

“Did you… forget that I was here?” Momo asks and Izuku awkwardly nods. “You’re really the strangest person I ever met.” 

“E...ehhh?!” Izuku lets out. 

“Not in a bad way, though.” Momo stands up from her seat. “You just made me realize that I simply wrote off Mineta as a pervert and if I was the class-president, I’d probably have him expelled. So there is a possibility that I would kill him due to my own misjudgment.” She sighs. “I had my doubts about you, but if the elections happened tomorrow, I’d vote for you.”

There is a lesson to be learned in this. About not hurrying with judgments too much. Even if someone looks like they are doing their best to be as disgusting as possible.

Izuku Midoriya is obviously struggling with receiving the praise. She is almost certain that she knows why he is visiting Hound Dog. But she isn’t going to pry, for as long as he DOES receive professional help. And, honestly, she isn’t in a mood to jump into assumptions after what she just witnessed. 

“How did you know?” She asks, because frankly, she is still taken aback by what she saw. 

“Uhm, well I mentioned having problems in my old school, and…” In Momo’s opinion, the word ‘problems’ is an understatement of a century. “... I, well, kinda retreated to the internet. I spent a lot of time on forums for the quirkless or other victims of discrimination. So complex mutants and villainous quirk bearers, mostly. After a while, you… learn things like that. And start noticing symptoms.” 

Momo suddenly recalls her own treatment of the Rehab Course students. And how she was distraught by Himiko’s quirk. How she acted on the chat as if Himiko needed to somehow prove to people that she was useful to be accepted.

Her teachers taught her a lot. About science, history, mathematics, literature and so on. But what she just witnessed was somehow never mentioned. And Momo found herself woefully unprepared to deal with it. 

Something she’ll need to change. Thankfully, she is a hard-worker. 

***

Class President Support Brigade Chatroom

SmallMight: Uhm

SmallMight: so

SmallMight: I know that you are busy preparing for the school festival

SmallMight: but

GaleForce: ???

GravityGirl: C’mon just say it

GravityGirl: We don’t bite

Vampire: I do!

GravityGirl: ( -_-)

Vampire: sorry ochaco-chan, didn’t figure out that this was a metaphor

GravityGirl: *pats head* it’s ok

Vampire: :D

Vampire: *purrs*

SmallMight: basically my mom says that she wants to meet her son’s friends because someone Nedzu told her about me and my friends ‘solving’ (that was mostly you really) that cafeteria incident

SmallMight: and I didn’t have a lot of friends in my past school so, uhm, yeah

SmallMight: any of you want to drop by? just for a while

SmallMight: we would watch a film, eat something, errr, I’m not sure really, I don’t have a lot of experience with that?

GravityGirl: yes 

SmallMight: Ehhh? 

GravityGirl: Just tell me when and where.

Vampire: Well, me and Toshi are out because, well, house arrest. On school grounds. 

Mindhack: yeah, but we already visited your home and your mom knows us, so we can wait to meet her again ;) 

GaleForce: as much as i would love to meet your family, i’m absolutely dedicated to crushing the school festival right now, i’m alright if it’s after the festival though!

TurboMan: The same as the GaleForce, I’m dedicated to showing my mettle to the world and making sure that my brother isn’t disgraced with my performance. So while I’m looking forward to spending time with you after the festival, right now is a bit of a problematic moment.

Froggy: I’m alright with going. I heard you have younger siblings, and I have experience with those. Looking forward to deepening it. 

Mindhack: oh boy, this is going to be hilarious and I’m really looking forward to hearing what happened.

Froggy: ?

Mindhack: One word. Aiko. 

Mindhack: You will understand. 

Froggy: ???

SmallMight: What are you on about, Toshi, she is lovely! My parents absolutely cherish her, and so do I.

Mindhack: I have no idea why her family members fail to perceive what an eldritch horror she is, but whatever. I heard the tales and I’m not looking forward to meeting the seven years old girl that stalks Aizawa-sensei’s nightmares. 

Froggy: Eldritch horror?

GravityGirl: Stalks Aizawa-sensei’s nightmares?

SmallMight: Toshi is overexaggerating.

Mindhack: I am not. But you’ll learn for yourself. 

GravityGirl: So it’s me and Tsuyu. @SmallMight where and when

SmallMight: Ehhh?

Mindhack: give him a second to figure it out, he probably expected you all to say no

***

Hitoshi knew Izuku well, despite the two mostly interacting through the internet (at least before the Rehab Course started officially). He was clearly fidgeting and clasping his hands uncontrollably while welcoming them to his house. 

He was, honestly, kinda adorable. Uraraka knows that it’s due to him terminally lacking confidence in himself (while being confident in everyone around him), and that it’s generally a bad thing, but seeing him like that DOES kinda recharge her batteries. 

They barely managed to make it to the anteroom when Uraraka is suddenly attacked. Okay, it’s more of a surprise hug than attack. When she looks down, she sees a pair of really large, red eyes (and a small horn on the forehead) looking at her from under an All Might-themed onesie’s hoodie. 

“G...good morning!” The little girl (omigosh she is so cute) says before breaking the hug and repeating the routine on a slightly surprised (people tend to react weirdly to her appearance, not hug them right out of the blue) Tsuyu. “Good morning!” 

“Good morning, ribbit.” Tsuyu replies and the girl beams at her. 

“Eri, what are you doing?” Izuku decides to ask and Uraraka learns the name of the girl that part of her wants to kidnap and bring home. 

“Mom says that when you have guests, you need to make them feel welcome.” Eri replies. “Hugs make me feel welcome. So I’m hugging the guests.”

This logic is incredibly adorable. And cute. 

Izuku tries to find a way to reply to it (probably some variant of ‘yes, but you have to ask them first’), but that’s when Eri hugs him and tells him ‘good morning, Izunichan!’. 

It’s not even morning. It’s afternoon, they finished their school for today. Izuku doesn’t look like he is in the mood to point this out. Or to continue his earlier attempts at explaining the social cues to his sister. 

***

The second member of the Izuku’s family that they meet is Asa, Izuku’s younger brother. He looks like a smaller Izuku with messy - like Izuku - but white hair. He is wearing some casual but clearly Miruko-themed clothes. 

He is also, somehow, more skittish than his older brother. Uraraka didn’t think that it was possible, really. He can barely look into the guest’s eyes before redirecting his own eyes to the floor. 

Eri is following them. When they run into Asa, Uraraka can see the gears in her head turning. Eventually they arrive at their destination, and Eri suddenly hugs her second brother and tells him good morning. When inquired about it, she says that she didn’t want to make him feel bad by being excluded from the hugs only because he was already present in the house.

Uraraka lets out a faint ‘awwww’ and Tsuyu looks like she just joined the Kidnap Eri Because She Is Too Cute team. 

Asa looks startled by it, but is probably used to Eri being Eri, so he just hugs her back and pats her head. She lets him go after a few seconds, and then smiles at them all like she is super happy because she did her job well. 

They are about to leave the room when Izuku freezes suddenly. 

“Asa, what did mom tell you about stealing things?” Izuku asks, and Uraraka freezes as well. What brought this up? Asa suddenly stands at attention. 

“To always provide a sufficient distraction, and have an escape plan on the ready!” He recites and Uraraka barely restrains her laughter. The look on Izuku’s face is hilarious. Tsuyu looks more worried than anything. 

“No, the other thing she told you.” Izuku decides to continue the subject. 

“To… uhm… Rabbit is confused…” Asa says, mostly to himself. Suddenly, his face is lit with understanding. “To not do this, or at least give everything back!” 

“Yes.” Izuku replies with a stern face that’s just sooo unlike him but Uraraka still likes it. “So give them their wallets back, because we aren’t repeating what happened when you stole Present Mic’s house keys and forgot to give them back before he left.” 

What? Uraraka realizes only now that she didn’t even notice when her wallet vanished from her pocket. When did Asa...

“Sorry for him.” Izuku says while Asa (still not looking at them, but at the floor) gives them their belongings back. “He has… a bit of a kleptomaniac streak. He gives everything back, but… uhm. Yeah.” 

Uraraka is slightly weirded out. But doesn’t have the time necessary to say anything, because that’s when she hears another voice cut in. 

“Onichan brought friends.” Another little girl says. Uraraka didn’t even notice her arrival and… what the hell?! “Good.” 

“Aiko, there you are!” Izuku says with a smile on his face, making the guests realize that they finally met the dreaded Aiko. And, well, she had quite an entrance. 

“Hello there.” Tsuyu says before deciding to take one for the team. “Uhm, why are you standing on the ceiling-ribbit?” Uraraka has the same question, but Izuku and Asa act like it’s normal. Only Eri looks sad, probably by not being able to hug her sister, due to her being out of range. 

“Because the floor is too crowded.” Aiko states flatly. “And you should cut Izu-nichan’s hair. It’s so messy because it’s full of secrets.” Uraraka is trying to find a way to answer that, but she finds none. “I like frogs.” Aiko adds, looking at Tsuyu. 

“That’s great-ribbit.” Tsuyu decides (with suicidal overconfidence, Uraraka just knows it) to strike some sort of conversation. “What do you like about them?” 

“Many of them are poisonous.” Aiko replies and Uraraka does a dry version of a spit-take. Tsuyu is similarly taken aback. Aiko’s head suddenly turns to face on the walls. She is looking at something, and Uraraka is almost certain that it’s something behind the wall. “My cartoon is starting. I’ll be going. Have fun.” 

Then she walks through the wall. Eri shouts something about the cartoon starting and follows her sister (but uses the floor AND the door). 

Uraraka and Tsuyu exchange slightly worried glances. Hitoshi might have been more correct about Aiko Midoriya being an eldritch horror than they thought. 

Chapter Text

Izuku’s mom is super-nice, Uraraka decides. She looks genuinely happy to have them, and her food is delicious. 

They don’t meet his dad (he is at work), but they do learn something about the complicated family situation of the Midoriyas’. Namely the part where the villain attack separated his parents before his dad found out that Miss Inko was pregnant. Only for her to eventually marry someone else, and have two children, only to adopt one more after Izuku’s stepdad died. 

And then, through some complete coincidence, she and Izuku’s dad ran into each other and they married a month later. Uraraka thinks that it’s super romantic. And she also thinks that Izuku’s dad is a hero for immediately taking over (and cherishing with all his heart) not only Izuku but his siblings too. 

And that’s despite the wounds (from the villain attack that separated Izuku’s parents) that made him look like a skeleton (Izuku showed them the pictures). Wow. Even the UAs accountants are pretty cool, right? 

They are about to relocate to the living room when a man with short, brown hair suddenly enters the room. 

“Inko, my dear, did I make it in time for the din… Oh.” He notices the surplus kids in front of him. “Little Izuku brought some friends? Wonderful!” 

“Uncle Atsuhiro.” Izuku waves towards him a bit. Despite the man being his uncle, he is kinda… cold? No, he certainly likes the man, but looks more like he didn’t want to see him right now, Uraraka decides. “He is a former coworker of my mom. He tends to freeload in our home from time to time.” 

“Freeload as in ‘leech off my cooking.” Miss Inko specifies, and Atsuhiro grabs his chest, as if the accusations gave him a heart attack. “You could have just learned how to do it on your own, you know?” 

“Everyone has their specialty or specialties.” Atsuhiro promptly replies. “I prefer to help myself to one of yours instead of trying to branch off myself. Besides, you like having me around! Don’t say that you don’t!” Inko rolls her eyes, she looks exasperated by the words. “So, as it was already said, I’m Atsuhiro Sako, a master magician and performer!” With a swift motion he produces an actual living rabbit out of his sleeve (wow! no, actually, wow) and then makes him vanish. “And you?”

They introduce themselves as Izuku’s friends from class. 

“Oh, so many little heroes!” Atsuhiro beams at them. “Just become heroes like that one green bean over there, alright? He does set the bar a bit high, but meanie heroes are no good.“ He gives them a thumbs-up and turns towards Inko. “So, about the dinner…” 

Meanie heroes bad, good heroes good. Master magician. Made something vanish and reappear (was it really a magic trick and not a quirk?) Over the top personality. Coworker of Izuku’s mom, who - according to Asa’s slip-up - taught him how to steal things. Also, didn’t Hitoshi mention that an uncle of Izuku beat up several heroes that were about to kill him and Himiko?

No way, right? 

“... Mr. Compress?!” Uraraka says (she didn’t really want to, the word just comes out of her mouth on her own), and she realizes she is right immediately because absolutely everyone in the room (save for Tsuyu, really) freezes. 

Atsuhiro moves his head just enough to look her into eyes and Uraraka realizes that she - a hero trainee - just ousted out a civilian identity (probably, this could be a fake name) of a double S villain. And his connections to an UA hero course student. In front of him. 

She freaks out. A bit. 

“I’m your biggest fan!” Her mouth decides to act on its own. This time Izuku and Tsuyu look at her like she just backstabbed someone while laughing maniacally and she realizes that her mouth dug her own grave deeper. “Wait, I can explain!” 

“Well, you should have started from that!” Somehow, just somehow, Atsuhiro Sako is suddenly wearing his signature villain outfit. He changed in like a split second, is that part of his quirk?! “If it’s for the fan, then…” He is suddenly hit in the head with a rolled newspaper by Izuku’s mom, almost strong enough for his mask to fall off. But he grabs it at the last moment. “What the…” 

“No changing clothes, even so quickly, in front of Izuku and his friends.” Inko announces. “You just changed your clothes in front of two underage girls, even if they didn’t have time to see anything, you still deserve a newspaper smash.” Somehow the last two words sound like the name of an All Might’s attack. At least to Uraraka. 

“I made sure there was nothing to see, stop embarrassing me in front of my fan!” Mr. Compress yells back at her. Then he turns towards Uraraka. “Please, tell me, which one of my performances is your favourite?” 

“Mie Prefecture, two years ago!” Uraraka is absolutely excited to meet him, even if Tsuyu and Izuku will end up telling her some harsh words. After all, she technically didn’t do anything illegal, right? Maybe except for not reporting but… “You exposed the corruption of the local heroes who caused excessive collateral damage in their fights in order to get a share of the reconstruction fees from the few friendly construction companies.” 

“I remember that!” Mr. Compress hits his palm with his fist. What happened to his walking stick is anyone’s guess. “Oh, it was awesome! I stole all their money and exposed their deeds to the world! I think the companies all went bankrupt and the heroes were arrested, yes?” Uraraka nods fervently. 

“They do! But my parents’ construction company wasn’t involved in the scheme.” Uraraka replies. “They were really struggling to go by, and we had to count every yen. I can’t count how many times I skipped meals just to make things a bit easier for them! But then you came around, their competition mostly went bankrupt, and suddenly they began to earn more money, and I’ve never seen them as happy! They’d never be able to pay the UA’s tuition if not for what you did!”  

“Oh this is brilliant!” Mr. Compress almost jumps up in joy. “So you are going to become a proper hero thanks to me? I’m honored! You didn’t even get a provisional license yet, but you already got a fan, Miss Uraraka!” Okay, so Uraraka might have squealed in joy at that, but no one can blame her, right? “Autograph?” 

“Yes, please!” She says (she is going to show it to her parents and they'll be super happy!). 

“I have questions, Izuku.” Tsuyu says in the background, while tipping her finger on her mouth. 

“My dad is not only working on the UA, but is also All Might’s personal assistant. Or, was.” Izuku replies. He looks burned out. He doesn’t even respond to her sudden usage of his first name. “He fell in love with my mom and had me without knowing about her… job. By the time they met again, she was already retired, but she still has her contacts. And since they fell in love at first sight again and married soon after, they agreed to… errr... keep their work away from home. So, basically speaking, heroes don’t go after villains and vice versa in this building, or anywhere nearby. Though both sides are still trying to fish for useful info.” 

“The school knows?” Tsuyu asks him while Uraraka’s mind is in clouds above because she is getting MR. COMPRESS SIGNATURE in her notebook and this is beyond wonderful!

“Well, Nedzu doesn’t, but most of the faculty does.” Izuku promptly replies. Uraraka notices that he looks kinda burned out. “Two days ago I came upon Mr. Compress and Present Mic planning the next Put Your Hands Up radio program in my living room. It’s been a… struggle.” He sighs. “The only villains around are those like Mr. Compress, so not exactly murderers and so on. Frankly, he is more of a hero-targeting vigilante, but expect him to argue otherwise.”

“I see.” Tsuyu nods a bit. “My condolences.” 

“At least someone understands me.” Izuku deadpans with an expression resembling Aizawa-sensei. 

***

1-A Chatroom

GravityGirl: Me and @Froggy visited the @Class-President house and I wish to officially announce that his family is awesome!

ClassPresident: Nooo, don’t speak of it in public >_<

CreativeSpirit: Oh?

Riot: Ohh?

AcidParty: TELL ME ALL THE CUTE DETAILS

LeadSinger: Sigh. 

Mindhack: Ignore the cute details, what did Aiko do?

AcidParty: Aiko?

Mindhack: Seven year old sister of Izuku Midoriya which might or might not be an eldritch horror from another universe pretending to be a human being in order to infiltrate our society for some nefarious purposes.

Froggy: Eldritch-horror is too strong of a word. She is a bit… odd, but not that bad. She actually fell asleep on me while I was watching cartoons with her and the Class President’s other sister. They were both cute.

Mindhack: So she is in her psychological warfare mode only around adults that aren't’ from her family? Because I heard a lot of tales about her exploits. Aizawa-sensei visited Midoriya’s few times together with Present Mic and Aiko actually managed to freak them both out.

Mindhack: I met them a few times before the school during our Rehab preparations and they kinda narrated a few tales to me. Especially Mic. 

TurboMan: I find calling a seven years old child an ‘eldritch horror’ something highly questionable.

Mindhack: Because you are yet to meet her. 

ZapZap: TELL US!

ZapZap: I need to know more about the girl that scares Aizawa-sensei!

SugarRush: I agree.

BlackDarkness: Yes.

ClassPresident: PLEASE NO

Mindhack: Present Mic was apparently too loud once, so she tried to borrow a knife from one of Izuku’s uncles. To ‘solve a problem’. When Eraserhead put a stop to that, she announced that it’s time for psychological violence. So she drew Present Mic and showed him the drawing. It was just a tombstone with ‘Past Mic’ written on it. 

AcidParty: OH MY GOD

SugarRush: Oh.

ZapZap: xDDDDDDD

Mindhack: Another time she had guests (a room full of heroes and policemen, it was a day when me and Himiko were saved by Izuku) so she introduced herself by name and showed six fingers. The nearest hero asked if she is six years old, to which she replied that no, she commited six murders. 

CreativeSpirit: What?

LeadSinger: O-O

ZapZap: xDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

Mindhack: Then (in total silence) she explained that when you have a birthday, you end the existence of your last year’s self, only to grow stronger and take their belongings. So it’s murder, robbery and identity theft. Then she just left the room (still stunned silent, including a slackjawed All Might), because it was getting late and she had to go to sleep. 

BlackDarkness: I can feel a kindred spirit of darkness in your sister, @ClassPresident.

ClassPresident: *cries*

ZapZap: OMG no seriously this girl is gold

LeadSinger: Actually, yes. 

AcidParty: lol xD

Mindhack: Also apparently when All Might asked her who her favourite hero is (she wants to become one, probably due to being around Izuku too much), she said that it’s Endeavor. Because he burns people to death. When her mom chastised her for joking, she pulled out a Gang Orca plushie and said that it’s Gang Orca. Because he is from the gang.

BlackDarkness: @ClassPresident Your sister has officially became my muse when it comes to crafting the antagonists for my DnD campaign. Thank you.

ClassPresident: Tokoyami no

Froggy: Well, she did make quite an entrance this time.

Mindhack: Tell me! I need to expand my list of scary Aiko stories. 

Froggy: She popped up out of nowhere, standing on the ceiling, upside down. When I asked her why she was there, she said that it’s because the floor was too crowded. Then she said that we should cut Izuku’s hair because it’s messy due to being full of secrets. Then she mentioned that she likes frogs while looking at me (only to clarify that it’s because many of them are poisonous). 

Froggy: Then she remembered that her cartoon was starting, so she exited the room.

Froggy: By walking through the wall.

Mindhack: Ah yes, classic Aiko Midoriya.

CreativeSpirit: … What sort of quirk lets you stand upside down and walk through the walls?

ClassPresident: I’m sorry but this is kinda classified for the moment. The family knows (and it’s super awesome), but it’s pretty much like having a high level recovery quirk. People knowing make you a potential target.

ClassPresident: It’s not that I don’t trust you, it’s just that my parents explicitly told me not to tell anyone. The only unrelated person that knows is All Might. And he is really looking forward to having her attend the UA.

CreativeSpirit: Oh, I understand it then. Very well.

Mindhack: I already met a complex mutant of the vampire type. Is your sister a complex mutant of eldritch horror type?

ClassPresident: No.

Mindhack: The investigation continues.

ZapZap: Once the exam time comes, do you think that you can somehow bring your sister to school? We need someone to scare Aizawa-sensei like he is scaring us.

ClassPresident: Please do not use my sister as a psychological weapon.

Mindhack: You could start by making her NOT be a living psychological weapon.

LeadSinger: We just need a picture of her, Yaomomo and Mina can pull together their skills to craft disguises. We’ll have all the girls in the class come to the exam looking like older Aiko’s.

AcidParty: YES! I LOVE THIS IDEA ALREADY!

AcidParty: Also, another sister? 

Froggy: Yes, but we can’t mention her name.

CreativeSpirit: Why?

ClassPresident: Because she was adopted. And by adopted I mean saved from a villain and adopted. And said villain is still out there. So my parents forbid mentioning her name anywhere. SORRY.

CreativeSpirit: I’m beginning to understand the correctness of the ‘hair full of secrets’ comment.

ClassPresident: Sorry :(

Mindhack: Don’t worry, we understand it. It’s like being in a witness protection program for her, no? You just have to keep her secret.

Mindhack: Although… Uraraka and Asui?

ClassPresident: She kinda rushed out to meet them and we only had the realization about secrecy a moment too late. Oops? 

GravityGirl: Yeah, so we’re calling her Miki in public. And she is SUPER ADORABLE!!!

AcidParty: TELL ME MORE

GravityGirl: OKAY BUT DON’T BLAME ME FOR DYING DUE TO SUGAR OVERDOSE

GravityGirl: Six years old. She came out of nowhere (wearing an All Might onesie) when we entered the home and hugged me and Tsuyu, telling us ‘good morning’ with a bright smile on her face (it was afternoon, but…). 

GravityGirl: She said that her mom told her that guests should feel welcome, and hugs make her feel welcome so she came to hug us. 

AcidParty: Awwww!

GravityGirl: Yes, and then she started hugging the people already present in the house, because otherwise they might have felt bad about being excluded from the hugs. 

AcidParty: OMIGOSH THIS IS TOO PRECIOUS

Vampire: <3 <3 <3

Tentacle: Yes. Heartwarming to the extreme. 

GravityGirl: YES I KNOW!!!

GravityGirl: And she apparently has a strong healing quirk (like Recovery Girl) and she wants to be a hero and save people like Izuku saved her, and to make everyone’s pain go away so that they can smile like she (and All Might) do. 

GravityGirl: Merely remembering her smile makes my heart warm. 

AcidParty: oh no too sweet too sweet *dies*

Tentacle: Cute beyond measures. 

CreativeSpirit: Wait, Izuku saved her? Another person?

Mindhack: Actually, yeah, I’m curious myself, because this never kinda came up?

Vampire: Zuku saving people, ehhh, what else is new?

Mindhack: Right xD

CreativeSpirit: @ClassPresident ??? 

ClassPresident: OKAY SO I WAS JUST WALKING DOWN THE STREET BETWEEN HERO MUSEUMS TWO YEARS AGO AND THEN A GIRL RUN INTO ME OUT OF AN ALLEYWAY AND ASKED ME TO SAVE HER, THEN THAT GUY CAME OUT AFTER HER AND SAID THAT HE IS HER FATHER AND SHE IS KINDA UNRULY BUT I DIDN’T BUY IT AND WE RUN AWAY FROM HIM TOGETHER, THEN IT TURNED OUT THAT I WAS RIGHT BECAUSE HE WAS A KIDNAPPER.

ClassPresident: That’s all there is to the story. 

ClassPresident: Mom just took a look at her and decided that we’re adopting her, because she was an orphan. 

Riot: Saving a little girl from a kidnapper while being, what, fourteen years old?

Riot: SUPER MANLY!!!

AcidParty: YES!!!

AcidParty: Our Class President is awesome!

ClassPresident: Stop blowing this out of proportion >_< 

ClassPresident: She saved herself, really, since she already got away from him on her own. 

Mindhack: Izuku could fight off every single supervillain at once, on his own, and he would still find this a no big deal. And say that someone else did the job, he was just standing there.

CreativeSpirit: This is actually rather worrying. 

CreativeSpirit: @ClassPresident You remember the corrective talk with Mineta?

CreativeSpirit: You are taking care of yourself, yes?

ClassPresident: Yes, yes I do. Thank you, but you do not need to worry about me.

ClassPresident: I’m just… kinda not used to this. 

ClassPresident: It will be alright.

Froggy: I’ll also mention that Izuku has a younger brother, who is very much like him, but about five times more anxious.

Mindhack: Ah yes, Asa, the Phantom Thief. I heard the tales about him as well.

CreativeSpirit: You can get more anxious?

Froggy: Yes.

CreativeSpirit: This is horrible.

Froggy: Yes.

Froggy: Also he steals things. Like our wallets. Or Present Mic’s house keys. Eraserhead’s school entry card. All Might’s phone.  But he gives them back, even without being prompted.  I think it’s kinda a game for him? 

GravityGirl: And he apparently cheats at cards reaaaal hard. He knows a lot of street magician tricks, and it probably contributes. He is kinda odd, but actually somewhat nice? Friendly, he just finds it pretty hard to interact with people. 

GravityGirl: So yeah, Izuku has a super cool family!

***

The School Festival comes. To Eraserhead’s undying surprise, absolutely no part of the school manages to mysteriously explode (except for that one Support Course lab, it exploded several times, but everyone is used to it now) or suffer a villain attack or something like that. He is (somehow, he still doesn't know how that happened) talked into being a co-host with Present Mic and this is the worst thing that has ever happened in his life. 

Emi and their two adopted kids are going to have a blast. Hitoshi and Himiko opted out of the Festival, so they were all probably watching the soon-to-be humiliation of their adoptive father on the TV, lying comfortably on the couch with popcorn (and a single blood bag) in hand. Emi got them out of the school for a day (with herself as a supervisor), and Eraserhead knows that it was to have a laugh at his expense.

He actually considered sending Aiko Midoriya after Present Mic for that, but somehow he is certain that her mother wouldn’t agree with Eraserhead using her daughter as a psychological terror weapon. Despite Aiko clearly being a psychological terror weapon of some extradimensional nightmares. 

He also considered sending Aiko Midoriya after Mr. Compress, because he is something like 80% sure that the supervillain was the origin of the idea. The whole ‘extrovert and an introvert performing together’ shtick sounds like his deal with his sister, and he probably suggested it to Present Mic. 

Some things changed, though. He was patiently observing his biggest Problem Child, but he failed to realize why Izuku was spending so much time with some kids from the General Course. He was plotting something, and it was probably nefarious, but what? 

Mineta was also diagnosed with depression (which, apparently, happened because of Izuku, because of course it happened because of Izuku) and started going to therapy for that AND his… personality flaws. Yoarashi, Todoroki and Midoriya have also declared rivalry against each other on the festival, although Todoroki’s face made him look like he just agreed to a suicide pact rather than rivalry. And Izuku looked deeply conflicted over the idea, for some reason.

And the Yaoyorozu heiress was doing… frankly, Eraserhead had no idea what she was doing, but he did run into her reading some book about the history of quirk discrimination and she was looking like a traumatized veteran after few years of trench warfare. Eraserhead is almost certain that Izuku was involved somehow. 

Worst of all, the press caught the wind of Rehab Course’s existence. It was painful to watch, really. Especially the official statement of the Hero Commission that was pretty much ‘rehabilitation is awesome BUT NOT LIKE THAT SO HOW CAN YOU MAKE THEM HEROES YOU CRAZY MADMEN’ in nicer words.

The eyes of Japan were on the School Festival even more than normally. Eraserhead could only pray to whatever deity was looking over his life to make sure that Bakugou doesn’t do something stupid in front of the cameras. 

Midnight announces that it’s time for the student representative to make a speech. Midoriya (at least it’s not Bakugou, the very idea of him speaking in front of the public fills Aizawa’s heart with horror) makes his way to the podium. 

Eraserhead is suddenly overcome with dread. He knows, he just knows that making Izuku make a public speech is somehow worse than Bakugou having one. But it’s too late to swoop in, grab his Problem Child with his scarf and carry him out of the stadium, isn’t it?

“U...uhm… hello?” Izuku says. He is clearly afraid of having to talk to the crowd in front of him (and the majority of Japan behind the cameras). “I know that it’s a tradition that this speech is made by the Hero Course student with the highest score on the entrance exam, but… this one time I’ve decided to make a change to that. So I’m giving the floor to Ayako Nakahara, the highest scoring General Course student!” 

Oh no.

Then Izuku takes a few steps away from the podium, letting a girl from 1-C class take his place. She opens her mouth and starts speaking into the microphone. 

Ayako Nakahara spends fifteen minutes dumping on the public bias against the bearers of less flashy quirks, pointing out how public venerates the heroes with quirks that carry the highest risk of collateral damage (she explicitly mentions burning things a few times, and while she doesn’t mention Endeavor by name… it’s rather obvious who she is dumping on). 

She also openly states that the bias is at least partially caused by the on-going policy of the Hero Commission to favour the heroes that the public finds more inspirational, namely those with flashy quirks. 

If that wasn’t enough, that’s merely an abbreviated version of the entire manifest (which also includes detailed stats, for example a comparison between collateral damage and arrest success rate of some overhyped and some underhyped heroes, with the hype or its lack being caused by perceived flashiness of the quirk) that’s available on an internet page. 

Page that apparently includes advertisements, the money from which will go to a charity dedicated to children from groups that are discriminated against based on quirks or lack of those, and an ability to directly offer monetary support to organizations fighting against quirkism.

The entire speech was clearly planned in detail, and well-trained. With just enough well-timed jokes to keep the public’s attention occupied. Ayako is good (Eraserhead sees her as a potentially very good hero, and he knows her from the special training for Gen Ed that Izuku got approved) but not THAT good. 

This was probably a joint effort of General Education kids, probably with some help of the Management Course. And he is 99% sure that the director of that orchestra is a certain green-haired kid that is slowly becoming the worst problem child that Aizawa ever had to deal with. 

“I told him not to overthrow the Japanese government with his speech.” Aizawa mumbles to himself. Present Mic (who is Ayako’s homeroom teacher and ABSOLUTELY BEAMS at the spectacle, just like Midnight does, there is a reason why she let Ayako continue until she finished talking) hears it. 

Midoriya and Nakahara bid themselves goodbye and return to their classes (large parts of which are clearly stunned by what just happened). Yaoyorozu is trying to be subtle, but Eraserhead notices the exchange of a thumbs-up gesture between her and Midoriya. So, she was in on this as well. 

“Well, did you tell him not to have someone else overthrow the Japanese government with their speech in his stead?” Mic asks and Aizawa decides that this mess is on him as well. He forgot that he was dealing with Nedzu’s student. He should have told Midoriya to show him what he had prepared before the festival. 

This festival is going to be a pain in the ass.

***

“Mmmm, but I wanted to hear onichan speak to everyone.” Eri pouts. With her entire family, she has a comfortable place at the tribune dedicated to family members of the students. Not all, of course, this is something that only the top students get. A bit of an additional incentive. 

Yagi’s eyes meet Inko’s over their children’s heads. They had no idea what their oldest son was planning, but they both realized that he just made the HPSC his personal enemy. Not like he cared about it, most likely. He wanted to help people who needed help, and that was all that was probably on his head.

At least, he wasn’t going to be anywhere high on the HPSC president’s shitlist. He was a blip on the radar when compared to the likes of Nedzu, All Might or Eraserhead. But what if someone decided to nip him in the bud before he could become a serious problem? And what if someone from the HPSC learns about him being Nedzu’s student and/or that he penned the Rehab Course idea?

“Onichan had to let her talk in his stead to save someone.” Aiko replies promptly. Eri makes a thoughtful face. Then she beams.

“That makes sense!” Eri decides. “Izu-nichan is the best!” The pouting is gone. She is back to her ‘I’m so proud that Izuku is my older brother’ face. She loves All Might (especially since he is now her dad), but Izuku will always be her greatest hero. 

After finally learning details of what she went through (something that Inko withdrew from him earlier because frankly speaking, she thought that Overhaul was dead and wanted to bury the memories and be done with it), Yagi Toshinori isn’t surprised by it.

All Might’s phone vibrates. He picks it up. He got a text message. Oh, of course.

“Nedzu?” Inko knows him well enough to recognize the look on his face. 

“Yes.” Yagi says, while putting his phone back in his pocket. “About a hundred laughing emojis.” 

Chapter Text

The first round of the school festival was, of course, the obstacle race. The first obstacle was the narrow gate which - despite the fierce attempts of the General Education Course students to stop it - was scaled the fastest by the Hero Course Students. 

It wasn’t even a fight, really. The strong quirks did offer the distinct advantage, even despite the Izuku-issued reforms letting the General Education students bring support items with them. How could a simple wall stop Yoarashi from simply flying over it? 

Midoriya, similarly, half-jumped and half-climbed it, while Katsuki flew over it with his explosions. Todoroki simply froze the ground (and some feet) and slid through, taking advantage of the people around him being immobilized to slide forward. 

Eraserhead was calmly observing the events, ignoring the Present Mic commentary. Then he noticed something. And chuckled menacingly. 

“What happened, mummy-man?” Present Mic asked, with the stadium (unfortunately) hearing him. So he has to reply to this.

“Looks like the General Education Course decided to work together.” Eraserhead says, against himself. On the screen he sees two Gen Ed coursers tripping Nirengeki Shoda of 1-B class and immediately restraining him on the ground, while using a support item to bind his legs and arms. Another one, with a quirk to make his body act like a mirror, is casually repelling Aoyama’s Navel Laser while getting close to melee. With what looks like a riot baton. “To crush as many Hero Course students as possible.” 

It’s Ayako Nakahara’s plan, isn’t it? It just sounds like something she would do, really. Especially with how many Hero Course students find their powerful quirks countered with some support items and ‘weak’ quirks. 

Having a quirk allowing you to detect at a distance and roughly understand the workings of a quirk of others is a wonderful thing for a tactician. The reason why Eraserhead is going to make her a hero, even if she is far from being a fighter (yet).

The all-out brawl at the beginning ends up with seven Hero Course students taken out of the fight. With 1-A losing Hagakure, Aoyama and Koda (while 1-B loses Shoda, Kaibara, Kamakiri, Bondo, Rin and, almost, Shiozaki and Komori). Eraserhead is winning with Vlad King by one point. 

***

The second real obstacle is the Robo Inferno (reformed). There are no Zero-Pointers this year, since that was clearly going too far. Instead, all that the students encounter are One-Pointers mark 2. Modified by the Power Loader to better fit the new school festival system. 

They are slower and there is a clear shut-down button in front of them that has to be touched to get them deactivated for twenty seconds. They are also programmed to respond to the quirks that would normally not work on robots - so, for example, if Midnight was a student and she unleashed her cloud of sleeping gas, they would ‘pretend’ to fall asleep. 

To take the changes into account and keep everything balanced, they are also supposed to not be destroyed. After all, they are pretending to be villains, and this is a hero school. Breaking a villain into pieces is hardly a go-to method of dealing with them. Arresting them, in the meantime…

Once again, the powerhouses simply ignore the obstacle. Midoriya actually uses some of the robots as stepping stones to leap past them. Katsuki flies over them with his explosions. Yoarashi flies over them without explosions. Todoroki slides between them after freezing half of them in place. 

Eraserhead is about to feel happy with the majority of this year’s powerhouses being in his team, when Mieko Eto - the Rehab Course student of class 1-B - starts warping her classmates to the other side of the Robo Inferno. 

Well, shit. Vlad King is going to be insufferable about this stunt, isn’t he?

Present Mic has his own share of laughs about several more Hero Course students falling to the Gen Eds, who act less like competitors and more like a pursuing army. Whoever gets sandwiched between the rampaging robots and them is down for the count. 

Sero is taken down by a kid whose quirks let him freeze objects in place for something like two seconds, rendering his attempt to immobilize him with a tape a fatal mistake. The 1-B class warp is slow, resulting in Kodai and Fukidashi having to pull a rearguard action that actually ends up with them being defeated by a crowd of students. 

Four to Six. 

If you excluded the six Rehab Course students participating, the Gen Ed Course has taken down one in four hero students participating. Ayako certainly decided to add further arguments to her manifesto. 

***

The third hurdle is the Fall. The gaping abyss (with an incredible amount of well-covered security measures) with numerous ropes above it. Supposed to test the mobility of the students. 

Honestly speaking, Eraserhead has no idea why the school bothers to test that. Once again, Yoarashi just flies over it - he barely touched the ground ever since the start of the race (and seems to be shouting something about how incredibly passionate this race is). Katsuki does the same, but with explosions and angry shouts. Todoroki slides through the ropes after freezing them and making them slightly wider. 

Midoriya doesn’t even seem to use this quirk, instead he is pretty much running through the ropes like he was born doing this. Even Present Mic is taken aback by the sense of balance and the agility, and ends up asking his co-commentator if Midoriya is doing that with a quirk. 

Eraserhead can hear gasps on the audience when they hear that no, Midoriya is just this agile. Frankly speaking, Aizawa wonders who trained him himself. Was it Inko Midoriya? Who exactly was she, if the answer was yes?

Asui, Iida and some steampunk looking girl from the Support Course pick up the pace as well. The rest seems to be struggling slightly. Even the warp quirk user, who is trying to puzzle up another warp, but is clearly winded by the first one. Worst of all, the 1-A (who, in general, is proceeding forward faster) has caught up with the 1-B class by the time the Fall started. 

Then the pursuit group from the Gen Ed Course appears. With lots of Hero Course kids still on the ropes. Eraserhead is happy that his face is covered because no one sees his grin when they start pulling out airsoft guns and begin to snipe the Hero Course students down into the Fall - and thus, disqualification. 

Ayako Nakahara, you beautiful monster.

The Fall isn’t a fight as much as it’s a massacre of the Hero Course. 1-A loses Kaminari, Sato, Kirishima, Shoji and Mineta. 1-B loses Awase, Kuroiro, Komori, Tsunotori and Tetsutetsu. 25% casualties among the non-Rehab Hero Course students raise to 50%.

The good news is that the sniping routine makes the Gen Ed Course students spend so much time before trying to cross the Fall that the remaining Hero Coursers safely disengage. Then again, they eliminated so many of the Heroes that whatever the next stage of the tournament will be, a lot of Gen Eds will get to participate. 

“WHAT AN UNEXPECTED OUTCOME!” Present Mic yells into the microphone. “HERO COURSES WERE SLAUGHTERED BY OUR GENERAL EDUCATION KIDS! WAY TO SHOW THEM YOUR WORTH, LITTLE LISTENERS! Any commentary on this, mummyman?!” He suddenly turns his head to Aizawa, who would have preferred to be kept out of this. 

Ugh. 

“The General Education Course decided to work together to prove to us that even a weak quirk can achieve a lot with good training, a decent plan and some support items.” Eraserhead decides to speak his mind. “Sure, none of them can expect to one day fight supervillains solo, but neither I nor them seem to have a problem with understanding that with good teamwork they can make for good heroes. And they are doing their best to show that truth to the world.” 

There is loud cheering in the stadium. Everyone loves a good underdog story, don’t they?

Compared to the Fall, the Minefield is practically a cakewalk with next to nothing interesting happening. Save for the really heated fight for the first place. And Midoriya doing some crazy gymnastic routine between the mines, that Aizawa would attribute to him trying to show-off if it wasn’t, well, Midoriya. 

***

“And now, the Obstacle Race results!” Midnight announces, and the image on the screen changes. 

1. Inasa Yoarashi (Hero Course [A])
2. Shoto Todoroki (Hero Course [A]
3. Bakugou Katsuki (Rehab Course [A])
4. Izuku Midoriya (Hero Course [A])
5. Ibara Shiozaki (Hero Course [B])
6. Juzo Honnenuki (Hero Course [B])
7. Tenko Shimura (Rehab Course [A])
8. Tenya Iida (Hero Course [A])
9. Miyuki Tagawa (Rehab Course [B])
10. Mieko Eto (Rehab Course [B])
11. Yoshihiro Maki (Rehab Course [B])
12. Tokoyami Fumikage (Hero Course [A])
13. Ojiro Mashirao (Hero Course [A])
14. Tsuyu Asui (Hero Course [A])
15. Uraraka Ochako (Hero Course [A])
16. Momo Yaoyorozu (Hero Course [A])
17. Kyoka Jirou (Hero Course [A])
18. Ashido Mina (Hero Course [A])
19. Itsuka Kendo (Hero Course [B])
20. Jurota Shishido (Hero Course [B])
21. Neito Monoma (Hero Course [B])
22. Amaya Uyemura (Rehab Course [B])
23. Mei Hatsume (Support Course)
24. Setsuna Tokage (Hero Course [B])
25. Kosei Tsuburaba (Hero Course [B])
26. Reiko Yanagi (Hero Course [B])

The remaining sixteen slots are all taken by General Education students. Including Ayako Nakahara at place thirty-first. The second stage of the school festival is going to be the Human Cavalry Battle. 

Inasa absolutely beams at the announcement that he is now worth ten million points and shouts to everyone to come at him at their leisure. All Might is the absolute opposite of surprised at that development. 

He is slightly more surprised when the teams start being formed and Tsuyu Asui approaches Inasa. Together with, apparently, Tenko? 

Why is Yagi Toshinori getting worried?

In the end Tenko Shimura, Tsuyu Asui and Inasa Yoarashi form a single team, and Yagi has absolutely no idea how it’s supposed to work. Especially as they are clearly giving the team’s headband to Shimura. 

In the meantime his son picks Uraraka, the Support Course girl (after hearing the tales, All Might expected her to go for the highest scoring person, why did she pick Izuku?) and Tokoyami. Todoroki picks Tenya, Momo and Kyoka. Bakugou ends up in a team with Ojiro, Ashido and one Rehab Course from Class B (namely, Amaya Uyemura).

1-A has quite an odd line-up, then again, it was thoroughly massacred during the first round, so any line-up will (by definition) be an odd one. The kids are scraping the barrel. 

The battle starts. All Might coughs out a mouthful of blood when Inasa immediately takes off, Tenko piggybacking him and Tsuyu practically hanging off his back. Inasa seems to be shouting something alongside ‘CATCH ME IF YOU CAN’. 

Then he realizes that Tenko is mostly hiding behind Inasa (at a distance from the ground that makes him hard to accurately target), while Tsuyu is using her tongue to either deflect the attackers trying to take off after them or try to steal headbands in the passing. Letting Inasa focus on the flying bit. 

Whose idea it was?!

***

Few minutes in, it becomes obvious that things aren’t going alongside the plan - it doesn’t even matter whom you consider, literally no one’s plan works as intended. Maybe save for Inasa, who is still laughing at people and taunting them from above. 

1-B was clearly planning to focus on dismantling class 1-A (Eraserhead is 99% sure that it was that Monoma kid who planned it, he heard about him enough). Unfortunately for the 1-B, it was slaughtered during the first round. So it has the same problem with improvised team-ups. 

Worst of all, the General Ed Course students were still there. And were still out for hero blood. Ayako had the exact same plan as Monoma did - namely, ‘have our class cooperate in order to take down our enemies together’. But she didn’t expect the 1-B to do the same.

While 1-A lacked a similar decision, they had some of the real powerhouses on the field. All of that resulted in a chaotic melee-a-trois between the Gen Ed, the 1-B class and whatever 1-A team happened to be nearby. 

With the former two occasionally cooperating to mess-up the 1-A, as Bakugou discovered when Team Nakahara and Team Monoma teamed-up on the fly to steal his headband. They immediately came to blows over it - it changed hands three times, before returning to a clearly livid Bakugou after the other Rehab Courser in his group grew tired of it, told his teammates to hold their breath and discharged enough poisonous gas from his body to make Monoma team sluggish for a crucial few seconds. 

Ayako Nakahara and her team take a bite, too, stealing remaining Monoma’s headbands before fleeing from clearly enraged Monoma. Who seems to be personally offended by being taken down by a Gen Ed coursers instead of his fated archenemies of Class A. 

In the very same time, Todoroki seemed to have given up on everything save for one single thing - getting Midoriya’s headband. The battle was incredibly fierce, but both sides were clearly smart enough to not be surprised by anyone else trying to take a bite at them. 

Finally the last seconds of the fight come. Todoroki decides to take a plunge, using Tenya’s super move to give his team a sudden power-up in speed. 

They almost manage to grab the headband of clearly surprised Midoriya, when suddenly his team is enveloped in a thick smokescreen. This is enough to throw the attackers off-guard, and Todoroki’s team fails to grab the headband. 

***

“Oh, what was that?” Inko asks, clearly surprised by the development. “One of that support girl tools?” 

“I… don’t know, actually?” Yagi replies. He can see his son’s team emerging from the smokescreen, and they clearly look dumbfounded by what just happened. They can see Mei Hatsume shaking her head, clearly an answer to some question that was asked while still in the smokescreen. 

“Uncle Yoichi is being a dummy.” Aiko suddenly interjects. “He did it.” Her parents look at her in surprise. Yagi thinks that he knows all of his children’s uncles and aunties at this point, and he never heard of Yoichi before. 

“Who is uncle Yoichi?” Inko asks, and Yagi understands that he isn’t the only one surprised by Aiko’s words. 

“A dummy.” Aiko replies, clearly disinterested. “He is giving me candies and I like him, but he is still a big dummy. You can’t see him, because he is invisible. We normally hang out when you aren’t at home.”

The eyes of Yagi and Inko meet over their kids and for a short time, the stadium around them doesn’t exist. What on Earth did they miss?! Is some creep stalking their children when they aren’t there?! 

“Where is uncle Yoichi now?” Yagi decides to be the interrogator in this. 

“He is living in Izunichan’s quirk, just as he lived in yours.” Aiko replies and Yagi blinks a few times in a surprised realization. “He says that he is my father’s brother. He looks similar to the pictures that mom showed me, just younger and smaller. Like older Asa-nichan, actually.” She sighs. “And now Auntie Nana and Uncle En are shouting at him. Dummies. All of them.” 

Yagi almost chokes on blood when he figures out that he mistook the legendary First Holder of the One for All for a potential child molester. Then he almost does it again when he realizes that Nana is living in One for All. And then he does it one more time because he realizes that En’s quirk was Smokescreen and he suddenly understands what is the ‘One for All’s Final Form’. 

He might really need a blood transfusion before the festival ends. 

***

“WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!” Nana shouts at the First Holder in the deepest recesses of One for All. En is right behind her, and Lariat not far behind him. 

“I mean, he was about to lose!” Yoichi tries to defend himself. “Then he would fall out of the competition and then Aiko would be sad!” 

“You’re an idiot.” En announces with the face of Eraserhead. “You do realize that if Izuku finds out that he won thanks to outside… well, inside help, he is going to be a pain-in-the-ass about it? He literally gave the Gen Eds the idea for the Hero Course Crush just to give them a sensible fighting chance and a shot at becoming heroes, and then told Nakahara to go after his class too because anything else wouldn’t be fair! How do you think he is going to react to a ghost living in his quirk helping him win despite not being a registered part of the competition? Meaning that nobody could be prepared for him in any way?” 

“Err…” Yoichi starts thinking. And he doesn’t like the results. 

“Aiko is going to kill us all.” Lariat mumbles in the background. On the other side of the stadium, a young girl tilts her head a bit, thinks about something for a few seconds, and then faintly nods to herself.

***

Midnight announces the results of the Human Cavalry Battle event. 

1st. Place: Team Shimura [Inasa Yoarashi, Tenko Shimura, Tsuyu Asui]

2nd. Place: Team Todoroki [Todoroki Shouto, Tenya Iida, Momo Yaoyorozu, Kyoka Jirou]

3rd. Place: Team Midoriya [Izuku Midoriya, Uraraka Ochaco, Mei Hatsume, Fumikage Tokoyami]

4th. Place: Team Katsuki [Bakugou Katsuki, Ashido Mina, Ojiro Mashirao, Amaya Uyemura]

5th Place: Team Monoma [Neito Monoma, Miyuki Tagawa, Ibara Shiozaki, Yoshihiro Maki]

Eraserhead has no idea why Nedzu made a last minute change to let the first five teams (instead of first four) go through to the third round. It will make quarterfinals (and so on) rather awkward in numeration. 

There are 19 participants left in the game, so the team leader of the team that placed sixth - namely, Ayako Nakahara, because of course that’s her) gets added to the roster. Eraserhead is 99% certain that Nedzu made a last-minute change to the participants number to let Nakahara show her mettle as well. 

Gen Eds lost the second round. But, frankly speaking, they managed to take most of the 1-B with them. Honnenuki was a recommended student, but he still was done in. Eto, the warp quirk user, becomes the first Rehab Course student to be defeated. Kendo, Shishido, Tokage, Tsuburaba and Yanagi are out too. 

Vlad King is probably simultaneously fuming and hoping for Monoma to save the honor of his class. Because otherwise, he is going to end up losing the bet and will owe Eraserhead a lot of coffee. 

Midnight announces the match-ups of the first round (before announcing that it’s time for a break to let the participants catch some breath). 

1. Izuku Midoriya vs. Amaya Uyemura
2. Todoroki Shouto vs. Kyoka Jirou
3. Ibara Shiozaki vs. Ashido Mina
4. Inasa Yoarashi vs. Ojiro Mashirao
5. Tenko Shimura vs. Momo Yaoyorozu
6. Tenya Iida vs. Mei Hatsume
7. Fumikage Tokoyami vs. Ayako Nakahara
8. Uraraka Ochaco vs. Bakugou Katsuki
9. Tsuyu Asui vs. Yoshihiro Maki
10. Neito Monoma vs. Miyuki Tagawa

***

“I’m kinda surprised about the tactic you used, Inasa.” Uraraka asks as the 1-A students are exiting the stadium. “I expected you to go after everyone to gather all the headbands for yourself.” 

Kyoka Jirou expected the same, really. 

“THAT WAS MY ORIGINAL PLAN, YES!” Inasa replies. “BUT LOSING TO MIDORIYA IN THE BATTLE TRIAL MADE ME REALIZE THAT THERE IS MORE THAN ONE WAY OF WINNING! I FOCUSED ON MAKING MY TEAM WIN THE BATTLE SAFELY. I’M GOING TO GO ALL OUT IN THE NEXT STAGE TO MAKE UP FOR IT!” 

Ojirou shivers a bit. He, like Kyoka, clearly realizes what being paired with the class powerhouses (both of them clearly pumped up) means for them. Still, they are going to do their best. 

“Speaking about Midoriya… did someone see him?” Tenya asks. “I expected him to accompany us.” 

“I think Todoroki took him for some talk.” Uraraka replies. “He looked super serious about it. It’s probably about their fight.” 

Is it about the fire? Or the smokescreen? It was quite an odd moment. Todoroki looked like he saw a ghost after the fire spark happened. Midoriya looked similarly shocked about the sudden smoke burst. 

Kyoka is aware that she enjoys spying on people with her quirk. She also realizes that, technically, this might have been on the verge of villainy, especially when she did that before becoming a hero trainee. But she really, really enjoys that.

She isn’t using the knowledge she obtained that way for anything. She isn’t exactly a gossiping sort. The secrets she learns are safe with her, and she considers obtaining them to be a sort of a quirk training. 

With a side dish of vigilantism. She might have put forward a few anonymous tips about the small crime plans that she overheard in the past. And she did tell one of her teachers that one of her classmates was mumbling to themselves things indicating that they are planning a suicide. 

It was resolved safely - with some proper mental help, and the teacher did agree to not mention to anyone how he learned of the problem. She did technically agree not to do that anymore, but...

Kyoka likes learning things. Sometimes it’s kinda funny. 

So when she hears about Midoriya and Todoroki having a secret talk, she decides to listen to them. Maybe it’s a love confession, maybe she will learn about something useful for her soon-to-be fight with Todoroki? Who knows.

So she connects her ears with the wall. And singles out the right voices. 

“... made me break my vow.” Todoroki is saying. “No one else nearby felt it. But I did. Might be because I witnessed All Might fighting the Noumu with his full power in front of me.” 

What? What is this about? 

“So… uhm… what is it about?” Izuku repeats her thoughts verbatim. “What are you trying to say?”

“That what I felt from you was something similar.” Todoroki replies. “Are you All Might’s secret love child?” 

Oh my God. Kyoka imagines him stating that with a deadpan face to equal his deadpan voice and holy shit, this is hilarious. What made Endeavor’s son appear to such a hilarious conclusion?!

All Might is the most popular person in the country. How could he possibly hope to hide something like that from his fans? She knows how crazy they can be, after all her father is one of them. Hell, she is one of them, just less than her dad! 

And then there is a part where Midoriya clearly doesn’t resemble All Might at all. 

She braces herself for some hilarious (and startled) rebuke from Midoriya.

“Yes.” Izuku replies and Kyoka freezes, because she can feel his heartbeat from here and there is no hesitation in it. No dishonesty. “Yes, I am.” 

What? Kyoka is staring down the corridor she is in, trying to figure out what she was just hearing. There was something wrong with her ears or something like that, yes? Probably from the strain of using her quirk during the...

“... I expected you to deny it.” Todoroki promptly states. 

“My mom prefers to keep the press away from her and her home.” Izuku replies. “Besides, if villains found out that All Might is secretly married, they might have tried to go after his family. And I… I want to achieve everything by my own hands. I’m going to tell the world that I’m his son the day I graduate and become a hero officially.” There is a second or two pause after that. “I’m not going to lie to my classmates when they ask me about it, but… please don’t tell anyone.” 

“I won’t.” Todoroki replies and Jirou seconds him. “But that means that I have to defeat you even more.” 

“Why?” Midoriya asks and Kyoka braces herself because she suspects that this talk is going to get downhill from this point. 

(oh if only she knew)

Chapter Text

“You must know about my father.” Todoroki says. “He's the Number Two Hero. For something like twenty years now.” 

Kyoka wonders if Todoroki realizes what sort of idiocy it is to tell that to Number One Hero Fanboy. Everyone in their class is a hero fanboy to some degree or another, but Izuku Midoriya certainly takes the cake.

“He has been working and training with all his might for years now.” Todoroki continues. “Yet whatever he does, he fails to match All Might. The Number One Hero seat is both at his hands reach… and on another planet. So due to him not being able to take it, he devised a plan.” 

“Did he…” Izuku says, and Kyoka can feel his heartbeat raging. “Did the Number Two Hero engaged in QUIRK MARRIAGE?” 

What? What is that even? 

“Oh.” Todoroki is taken aback by what Midoriya just said. “How did you know?”

“His quirk’s only weakness is overheating.” Midoriya replies. “Temperature management is a common problem for fire and ice quirk users. You have your ice, but you also used fire in our fight. So this sounds like he had a child with a powerful ice quirk bearer in order to produce a child who could use his flames but with an ice quirk component to prevent the overheating issue.” 

Kyoka realizes now what the quirk marriage is. And she realizes that she is going to throw out every piece of Endeavor merchandise she has in her room. Sure, it’s only an addition to All Might’s, but… 

“Yes.” Todoroki replies and pauses for a few seconds. “The scar on my face is because my mother dumped boiling water on the side that resembled him. I made a vow that I’m going to become the Number One Hero without using his flames.” 

Kyoka has another realization. The one that she should have stopped listening to the conversation after finding out who Midoriya’s father is. But it’s too late for it now, right?

“Todoroki, I’ll be honest with you.” Midoriya says and Kyoka almost doesn’t recognize the voice. “You and your father are absolute dumbasses, and he is a criminal dumbass to top it.” 

“What?” Todoroki is taken aback and for the first time in this talk, she can actually hear it in his voice. 

“Did any of you ever ask yourself why All Might is the Number One Hero?” Izuku says. Confidently. The one word that Kyoka never expected to describe him with. 

“He is the strongest hero.” Todoroki replies. She can hear Izuku Midoriya snigger derisively (!!!) at this. 

“And how is the public supposed to know about it?” Midoriya replies. “Did All Might ever fight Endeavor to the death? Gang Orca could easily fight Crust on equal terms, so why is Crust the Number 8 Hero while Gang Orca is Number Thirteen? And why is Eraserhead unranked, despite him probably being able to, with a good plan, fight against Endeavor? Can you answer me that question?” 

“That’s…” Todoroki tries to reply, but audibly swallows his words. 

“That’s because the ranking you all care about is mostly about popularity, Todoroki.” Midoriya replies. “Not STRENGTH. Strength merely makes you more likely to stop high profile villains and save a lot of people, making you more likely to be popular. But in the end what really matters is how many people like your costume aesthetics and manners. So let me enlighten you, Todoroki. My father is the Number One Hero not because he is the strongest hero. But because unlike Endeavor, he saves people with a reassuring smile on his face rather than derisive scowl. He is doing this because the first thing his mentor taught him was that a hero should smile, no matter how grim the situation is, because a true hero protects not only human lives but also their hearts. So please, Todoroki, look at yourself in the mirror and tell me, do you make that cut?” 

“How’s that…” Todoroki is clearly shaken. 

“I’ll tell you the answer to that.” Izuku doesn’t stop the verbal beating at that. “You don’t. Did you even bother listening to what sort of problem Yoarashi has with you? Because I think that you ignored him. Just like you ignore your classmates. To the point where you aren’t even part of our group chat.” 

“No.” Todoroki states. “I didn’t listen to him.” Something in his heartbeat is… odd. Kyoka thinks that it’s just a deep confusion. He clearly didn’t expect the scolding. 

“Then I’ll fix that problem for you.” Izuku replies. “It’s because he hates Endeavor for being an obnoxious and derisive parody of a hero. And after you completely ignored him during the recommended student exams while he was just trying to be friendly with you, he came to believe that you are nothing more than a smaller version of your father.” 

Frankly speaking, Kyoka realizes, Izuku could as well punch Todoroki in the face. The reaction would be pretty similar. Considering what was happening with Todoroki’s heartbeat, Midoriya should be happy that he wasn’t just straight frozen to death.

“And he is right, Todoroki.” Izuku continues. “You are repeating the same mistakes that make Endeavor into a forever number two. All you are doing is trying to get stronger, while completely ignoring the part where an unlikeable asshole will never become a Number One Hero. Unless literally everyone else competing for the seat dies.” Three long seconds of silence. “Please, answer me this one question. Why did you want to become a hero?” 

“I… I didn’t exactly have a choice in that matter.” Todoroki replies after a few more seconds of silence. “I think that I do want to be a hero. But I don’t know why.” 

“I see.” Izuku states. Kyoka expected him to rant about it, but she gets none of it. “Well, I wanted to help others. Nothing more nothing less. So sorry, but if your plan for this meeting was to start an official rivalry with me over the Number One Hero seat, then you can shove it. Because I don’t care about the hero rankings. I never did. And neither does my father.” 

Kyoka finds herself blinking a few times. All Might, the Number One Hero, doesn’t care about the ranking? But… Everyone cares about it, right? 

“All Might… All Might doesn’t care about it?” Todoroki, clearly stupefied, replies with a question. 

“Do you know why he was almost late to this year’s Hero Billboard Chart?” Izuku replies. “Because he overslept. And he overslept because he stayed up until 3am the day earlier, ranting with uncle Akaguro about how the ranking is stupid because true heroism is about saving people not about popularity and rankings. He is only attending because his status as the Symbol of Peace and the pillar of our society makes it his duty. And he would have probably stayed up longer, if mom didn’t get angry at him and didn’t drag him to bed after throwing my uncle out.” 

He stays silent for two or three seconds. Todoroki stays completely and utterly silent, but his emotions are racing. 

“So I’m sorry to say it, Todoroki, but your father ruined your life due to a rivalry that exists only in his head.” Izuku adds finally. “And I’m not letting you repeat that mistake with me. So I’m going to say it again - I’m not your rival. Consider not repeating the other mistakes I mentioned to you, too.” 

Then he leaves, with still stunned Todoroki left behind. 

***

“MATCH NUMBER ONE!!!” Present Mic yells through the microphone. “The boy who showed us all some impressive moves during the Obstacle Race… Izuku Midoriya of the Hero Course! Versus…” He pauses for maybe half a second. “Living weapon of mass destruction… Amaya Uyemura of the Rehabilitation Course!” 

“Did he say… a living weapon of mass destruction?” Inko asks, clearly worried. Yagi decides to reassure her. Because while he does realize that Amaya’s destructive potential is rather unmatched, the school took the necessary precautions.  

“Present Mic likes to exaggerate.” He says. “Don’t worry about it. It will be alright.” 

The kid that enters the ring from the opposite side to Izuku is an unassuming blonde that would have probably done much better in the Hero Course training if he put in some effort to improve himself physically. He is wearing a partial gas mask that leaves his eyes uncovered. 

Present Mic quickly narrates the rules of the fight, while mentioning that the stadium is safeguarded against Amaya’s quirk, so he is free to go all out. 

“Ready?” Present Mic says. “START!” 

Within three seconds Amaya disappears behind the cloud of smoke that covers the entire arena. The cameras switch to thermovision that lets them see what’s happening on the ring. And what happens is Amaya dodging Izuku’s blow. 

“I believe that some explanations are due!” Present Mic announces. “Can our resident mummy man enlighten us?” 

“Uyemura’s quirk allows him to generate and control poison gas.” Eraserhead promptly replies. “It’s not poisonous enough to kill, unless in extremely high dosages or if someone is exposed to it for long, and we do have an antidote at hand. But it can still weaken, paralyze or knock unconscious those who breathe it.” 

Amaya dodges another charge. He starts moving almost instantly after Izuku, so how does he… 

“He can also sense movement within the gas cloud he controls.” Eraserhead continues. “Which thus far is enough to avoid his opponent.” 

“Does he…” Inko doesn’t finish saying it, but Yagi knows what she meant.

“Izuku will win.” He adds with a sigh. “This is Young Uyemura’s chance to show Japan that it truly prefers him as a hero rather than a villain. So Izuku is putting up a spectacle.” Or so he thinks. There is a simple way of dealing with this, but his son is clearly not using it, and… 

“That’s rather dangerous!” Present Mic says with an excited voice. “But not exactly the reason for calling him the ‘living weapon of mass destruction’, right?!” 

“True.” Eraserhead replies, while the fight continues. “The reason for this is because the largest poison cloud he generated and controlled thus far was two dot five kilometres wide.” 

That does draw some noises from the audience. If Yagi knows how heroes think, most of those in the stadium are now thinking who exactly would Amaya grow into if he was allowed to do whatever he was doing being drawn to the Rehabilitation Course. 

And how hard it would be to deal with him. 

Eventually, Izuku decides that enough is enough. He uses 100% of One for All on his finger, enough to break it but also enough to generate an air current strong enough to push the cloud back and expose Amaya. He doesn’t give him enough time to hide himself again, and closes the distance. 

Amaya tries to produce more gas, but Izuku has him grabbed. He is soon dragged out of the ring. 

“MIDORIYA IZUKU WINS!” Present Mic shouts. Eri jumps up from her seat in joy, while Aiko claps slowly. And somehow, menacingly. 

***

The second fight is between Todoroki Shoto and Kyoka Jirou. And, frankly, it’s not a fight. Kyoka has enough time to try blasting him with her amplified heartbeat before she (and half of Midnight who happened to stand too close) is frozen. 

With Kyoka immobilized, Midnight calls the match. 

***

Ibara Shiozaki fights against Mina Ashido. Unlike the previous fight, this time it’s actually worth the word fight being used. The acid works against her vines, and Mina is maneuverable enough to not get caught instantly (or semi-instantly). 

In the end, it’s mostly an endurance fight. Or, so Mina thinks. She doesn’t expect to be suddenly attacked by the vines emerging from under her feet, and she is thrown outside of the ring before she can react to that. 

***

The fight between Inasa and Ojiro is another non-fight during the tournament. Frankly speaking, Ojiro does quite well for the rather horrific match-up. Though it’s mostly just him trying to hold against a hurricane. 

There is nothing for his tail to grab, and Inasa seems to have decided on showing the world his might. Ojiro is, eventually, thrown out of bounds. Inasa is announced as the winner. 

***

“Creative spirit of the Hero Course and one of the precious few students that got to join the UA through the recommendation, Momo Yaoyorozu!” Present Mic announces. “Versus… The grim reaper of the Rehabilitation Course… Tenko Shimura!” 

Momo can agree that Tenko looks rather grim. She has no idea how he persuades Inasa to pair up, but he did get through the Cavalry Battle rather easily. Worst of all, he managed to do that without betraying what his quirk is. 

Now she can see him taking off his gloves. She did notice that he kept wearing those, but she thought that it was something like Shoji’s mask. An aesthetic choice, but if not… what would Midoriya think right now?

Touch-based quirk. Most likely a five finger point contact, like Uraraka, because clearly his gloves were artist ones. So they didn’t include every finger. And he seemed to do his best not to clench his hands. Something destructive, something that would destroy or do something similar to the glove if all fingers touched it at once.

She has to restrain him from a distance. She heard from Kirishima that he was ‘extremely fast’ during the USJ attack, and if he truly has a five finger point contact quirk, then she can’t let him touch her. 

When Present Mic announces the start of the fight, she opens it by casting a large net towards Tenko, while creating a shield and a polearm to keep him at bay. 

The net doesn’t even buy her a second, because the second that Tenko touched it, it rapidly began to disintegrate. 

Three seconds later the same thing happens to her weapon, rendering her advantage of range moot. She tries to jump back, but she is way too outmatched in terms of speed and doesn’t have the time (nor a state of mind) to summon something more complicated. 

He disintegrates her shield. She has maybe a second to react (she doesn’t, not enough time to act) before his hand is put on her face, with all but one finger touching it.

Midnight announces Tenko Shimura’s victory. 

To say that this outcome doesn’t satisfy Momo is an understatement of a century.  

***

The less is said about the ‘fight’ between Tenya and Mei, the better. It’s a downright humiliation for the former, even if he eventually wins the fight. But mostly because the living terror of the Support Course decides that she advertised her genius enough and steps out of bounds. 

Uraraka, despite the feeling of looming doom over her head, decides to go cheer Tenya up together with Izuku and Inasa. It makes her marginally less nervous for the time being.

***

Frankly speaking, Tokoyami’s quirk is probably right after the few of the class powerhouses in terms of strength. It is versatile and powerful, capable of making decisions on its own without having to consult the user. 

Unless it’s matched with an ingenious Gen Ed student who entered the fight with several flashbang grenades. And some very powerful handheld flashlight. Plus a baton. Intimidatingly long one. 

The grenades and the flashlight keep the Dark Shadow on a minimal power level long enough for Ayako Nakahara to force Tokoyami Fumikage to surrender. To a loud cheering of the Gen Ed students on the nearest tribune. 

***

“The living explosion with behavioural problems from the Rehabilitation Course, Bakugou Katsuki!” Present Mic announces. “Versus… the girl from the Hero Course who defies gravity on a daily basis, Uraraka Ochaco!” 

“You’re the one that makes things float, Angelface?” Bakugou asks before the fight starts. “The one that’s hanging around Deku all the time?” Deku? Does he mean Izuku? “If you're gonna withdraw, do it now. Otherwise it will hurt. A lot.” 

She steels her face. She isn’t going to withdraw. She is going to give it her all. 

Present Mic announces the start of the fight, and she leaps forward. If she can get him under her quirk… 

Bakugou doesn’t bother evading. She did listen to Izuku’s tips on strategy (she wants to achieve as much as she can on her own, but she saw her idol listen to his tactic and survive only because of that, that changed her perspective) so she knew that he would open up with a big right swing.

This blows her back, despite her attempts to avoid it. The smoke raised by it should do as a decoy, she leaves her jersey there (leaving parts of clothing as a distraction totally isn’t something she picked up from Mr. Compress!). 

He falls for it, and she almost touches his back. But then another explosion sends her back. 

She repeats the approach several times. She doesn’t have any other tactic, even Izuku clearly stated that the chances of her victory are minimal. That getting him under his quirk (even by accident) is the only real hope she has, but with his almost ridiculous reflexes it’s not going to be easy. 

Some heroes from the audience start loudly complaining about Bakugou toying with her. Yeah, he is a bit of an easy target for that, being a Rehab Course student at all. She is furious, but too busy to shout at them to shut up. She is still standing, damnit! 

“Whoever is complaining, do us all a favour and give up your hero license.” Aizawa-sensei’s voice cuts the complaints down. “He doesn’t blow her off the field with a large attack, because if she dodged it, he would be left vulnerable. He isn’t toying with her, he is on guard.” 

Yes. Uraraka, despite being badly bruised in way too many places, smirks. Besides, her plan B is ready. 

“Thank you for treating me seriously.” She says loudly, Bakugou staring at her with hostility on his face. Then she cancels her quirk. 

Meteos start falling down. The audience gasps. Uraraka leaps forward, this is her last attempt, her own meteors might hit her, but at the very least he will have to focus on deflecting those and if she gets close enough…

Bakugou Katsuki blows the meteor storm with a massive explosion that leaves the stadium silent. The air pressure of the explosions actually throws her back. 

She tries to, regardless of everything, attack him again. But her body fails her and Midnight-sensei calls the match.

***

“Are there any chances of you withdrawing?” The Rehab Course student she was paired with asks. Tsuyu is surprised. This is pretty bold, and blunt, even for her standards. 

“No.” She replies. “I have things to prove to people.” 

“I see.” He says back. 

“The frog girl from the Hero Course, Tsuyu Asui!” Present Mic announces. “Versus… the mysterious strongman from the Rehabilitation Course, Yoshihiro Maki!” 

Something like two seconds after the start of the fight is announced (and Tsuyu is still waiting for him to move, if only to figure out what his quirk might be about) he raises his hands and announces that he is withdrawing from the tournament. 

She blinks a few times while Midnight approaches him and asks him something away from microphones. Once he replies (she has no idea what it is about), Midnight accepts his withdrawal. 

She’s going to ask Midoriya what it was about after the tournament.

***

“And the final fight of the first round!” Present Mic is clearly overjoyed by the role he is performing. “The indomitable yet scheming tactician of the Hero Course, Neito Monoma! Versus… the toxic girl of the Rehabilitation Course, Miyuki Tagawa!” 

Miyuki is a two-coloured girl. Blue and pink hair, blue and pink eyes. The skin has natural pigment, but that’s how far normalcy goes. She is also wearing a gas mask similar to the one that the gas user had. 

Unfortunately to her, Neito knows her quirk. Unfortunately for Neito, there are limits to what he can do. He softens the ground under her with Honnenuki’s quirk, preventing her from just approaching and knocking him out with her breath. But she has enough time to take her mask off and start shouting at him. 

Every part of Miyuki Tagawa is toxic. Including her words. 

The audience gets to see a match consisting of a sinking girl shouting at the increasingly confused boy (who is also hallucinating and might be just a little bit drunk), trying to knock him out with her voice before she sinks too deep. 

Neito narrowly wins that fight. 

***

Midoriya Izuku leaves the still slightly sulking Uraraka Ochaco, only to have the distinct bad luck of running into Endeavor. 

“Oh, so there you a…” Endeavor starts talking, but he isn’t giving enough time. 

“I don’t care.” Izuku promptly replies. Endeavor stares at him in surprise. “You are probably here to tell me some variant of ‘your power is similar to All Might’s, give my chosen tool a good fight and become a good part of my plan to realize my own failed dreams by forcing them onto someone else.” Endeavor blinks two times, as if he was trying to comprehend what was happening. “As I said, don’t care. And I’m too busy trying to figure out if it’s a better idea to throw the match or completely and utterly humiliate your son. So you can as well not waste your time.” 

Izuku is in a bad mood. This doesn’t happen often, but at least according to his mom (and those of his uncles and aunties that knew him), he resembles his father when that happens. Well, his stepfather. He is certainly not very All Might-ish now. 

Then again, he isn’t particularly interested in smiling at Endeavor. Having that mood right now instead of sometimes later might have been a good thing. 

There are way too many people in his life that he doesn’t want to show that face to. 

“Try the latter.” Endeavor is thoroughly unimpressed. “We’ll see how well it will go.” 

Izuku wanted to just walk past the man, but Endeavor is clearly not letting him. 

“Are you provoking your son that way, too?” Izuku asks with a calm face, looking upward at the giant of a man in front of him. Endeavor sniggers. “Is that why Touya went out in flames?” 

Endeavor’s eyes open wide, and the fury lits on his face. 

“I don’t know what you are trying to imply, kid.” Endeavor really looks like he is wondering if he can get away with punching the ‘kid’ in front of him. “But you should stop.” 

“And you should change your hero name.” Izuku replies. “Tryhard means almost the same thing, but fits you way better. If you don’t use simple words, the people who think you are a good hero might not get them.” 

“Are you trying to make me hit you?” Endeavor, despite fuming with rage, still has control over himself. “You think it’s going to change anything?” 

“Dunno.” Izuku replies after a few seconds of cold stare. “It changed a lot for Thunderbolt, wouldn’t you say?” Endeavor’s eyes widen. “I’d like to go to the waiting room, and you are blocking my way. Could you please let me go?” 

Endeavor steps sideways, letting Izuku walk past him in silence. But Izuku decides to add one more thing. 

“Oh, and as class president of class 1-A I’ll be personally offended if Todoroki Shoto shows up to class with any degree of physical damage.” He says, in an almost absentminded tone. “Very offended.” 

“And what will happen if you'll be offended?” Endeavor adds in a slightly mocking tone. 

“Who knows.” Izuku replies. “But blue flames are quite beautiful.” He says nothing more and disappears at the end of the corridor. 

Endeavor doesn’t realize that there was a third person in the room until the end of the festival, when he realizes that someone stole his phone and wallet. 

Chapter Text

Mr. Compress is watching the school festival in his little gang’s unofficial hideout. He is officially a fan of Miss Uraraka and he finds her fierceness in combat - and the oh so familiar creative use of clothing - truly admirable. It is a shame that she didn’t get further than that, but she still has so much room to grow, especially if Izuku helps her… 

Suddenly, his phone starts to ring. He recognizes the number, so he picks it up. 

“Asa, my precious boy!” He says. “How can I help you?” 

“Uhm… Uncle Sako, I have a… errr. I need your help.” Oh he certainly does, especially with the anxiety that’s a serious issue of Asa in Mr. Compress opinion. It’s kind of adorable, but also very, very bad for the kid.  

“I’m here for you, Asa!” Mr. Compress announces with a wide smile. He loves the kid. He has a soft spot for every person that’s THIS gifted with thievery and sleight of cards. The fact that he is Inko’s son is an icing on the cake. If only his dad wasn’t the scariest person Mr. Compress ever knew… and his step dad is only slightly less intimidating. “What seems to be the problem?”

Did Aiko steal his organic carrots again? Mr. Compress isn’t stealing them back, he isn’t suicidal. 

“I… might have stolen Endeavor’s credit card.” Asa replies and Mr. Compress inhales deeply. Did he just… “And wallet. And phone. And car keys. And house keys. And business cards. And a hero license. And…” 

“Asa, wait for me!” Mr. Compress replies a bit more forcefully than he wanted and he can hear Asa gulp in shock. “I need some more context for this.” 

“I w...was following Izuku around!” Asa almost yells. He took the order to explain a bit too… orderly. “But he was talking with Endeavor and Endeavor was being a meanie to him so the Rabbit was fierce! And brave! Like Miruko! So I took things from him, but, uhm… I don’t know what to do now.” He ends, clearly waiting for help. 

It is at this moment that Mr. Compress realizes that despite all his love for Izuku and Eri (and Aiko too, just… slightly less and preferably from a safe distance), Asa is and forever will be his most favourite member of the Midoriya family. After Inko. Okay, he might have actually reached her level now. 

Because knowing what sort of sneaky thief Asa is when he wants to, Mr. Compress knows that absolutely no one, including Izuku and Endeavor, noticed that something happened. Quirk-wise Asa was probably Mr. Compress equal if not more, at this point. His quirk was truly a thing to behold. 

“Asa. You beautiful, beautiful child.” Mr. Compress says with all the love he can find in his heart. “I’ll have a friendly warp quirk user pick them up from you, just send me your GPS coordinates through an SMS, alright? And then phone me again and explain what exactly you heard Endeavor saying.” His warper can only take non-living things, but… he is practically made for moments like this.

Oh this will be a glorious day to Mr. Compress and the entirety of Japan.

***

“The agile kid with an atomic punch from the Heroics Course, Midoriya Izuku!” Present Mic announces. “Versus… the boy who has given Midnight the cold shoulder, Todoroki Shoto from the Hero Course!”

“Are you going to use your fire?” Izuku asks Shoto before the fight starts. Young Todoroki flinches a bit. 

“No.” He answers. He is clearly avoiding eye contact with Izuku. 

“Unfortunate.” Izuku replies after a second. “For you. Because if you wanted to use your fire, I’d throw the match. But since you’re still an absolute dumbass, I’m going to do it the hard way.” 

Todoroki’s eyes widen briefly. Then the match starts and he instantly attempts to freeze Izuku. 

The attack is repelled with a blast that breaks one of Izuku’s fingers, and instantly breaks the soon-to-be glacier. Instead of waiting for another attack, Izuku leaps sideways, to the edge of the stadium. Todoroki unleashes another glacier, but this time Izuku dodges it by stopping himself randomly. 

Todoroki predicted his movement when targeting his blast. He didn’t predict the random cessation of it. 

“And that’s one blast of ice that I didn’t need to counter with my finger.” Izuku says with a mocking tone. “You’re doing a splendid job, Todoroki!” 

“I might not be very involved in the way our class works.” Shoto replies, before he makes Izuku lose another finger to block another ice blast. “But I don’t remember you acting like that.” 

“I’m just particularly angry right now.” Izuku replies, running to the other side. Shoto thinks that he is simply trying to make him waste another shot, but then he suddenly leaps towards the ice user, forcing him to expend a shot. Creating another pointless wall of ice that might be slightly limiting Izuku’s range of motions… but isn’t doing much to help Shoto win the endurance contest. “Someone told me some rather nasty things about someone else, and I didn’t believe them. Today I realized that they were right all along. But it’s way too late. Add me hearing way too many explosions for a single day…” 

Another ice blast and another finger. 

“... and you get me having a bad day.” Izuku says, completely ignoring the fact that some of his fingers are broken. “So excuse me for this, but I’m going to beat you up until you stop half-assing the tournament and being a dumbass in general. And then I’m going to beat you some more, and defeat you before you even get to the semi-finals. Way to piss off Endeavor, don’t you think?” 

Shoto tries to freeze him again, but he uses another finger. This is just a slugging match at this point. Whoever tries to get close, gets interrupted with a blast strong enough to damage whatever remains of the ring. 

“Didn’t you listen to me at all?” Todoroki is growing angry. “I’m not going to use his fire…” 

“Did you even bother to look at Uraraka’s fight?!” Izuku stares at him with a thoroughly intimidating furious glare on his face. “She fought to the bitter end, despite being outmatched. Ojiro did the same. The tail kid, in case you didn’t bother to remember his name. And what about Jirou?!” 

Another blast. Another finger. 

“And all that you are doing is half-assing it.” Izuku is clearly furious. “Life handed you a wonderful quirk that every quirkless person in the world would have killed for, and you are crippling yourself by using only one half of it out of what? Daddy issues?!” Todoroki can feel the frost slowly overtaking him. He can’t keep doing that for long. But, hopefully, neither can Midoriya. “Use your father’s credit card to fund research into quirk transfers and give your quirk to someone else because you don’t deserve it! Neither your ice nor your flames!” 

“Did my father pay you to do this?!” Todoroki actually shouts back. “To try to make me use his flame?” His classmates on the tribune have no idea what the shouting is about (too much ambient noise to hear anything), but they realize that this isn’t something normal. For the first time ever they see Todoroki being emotional, and it’s clear that he is furious. 

“You know who my father is and you still think that yours could pay me to do something?” Izuku says with a nervous (and pained) chuckle. “No, sorry, you’re right. There is something that he could persuade me to do for him. Namely, prepare his own funeral. I’d do it even without getting paid. As a community service.” 

Another blow, another finger. 

“What are you going to do when you’ll be a pro hero and you’ll be the only thing standing between some children and a villain that just happens to be immune to cold?” Izuku shouts at him again. “What are you going to do, Todoroki? Are you going to explain to some grief-stricken parents that you didn’t save their child because you had a grudge towards your dad? Is that how much your desire to become a hero is worth?!” 

“You have no idea what he did to my family!” Shoto shouts back and makes another blast. He doesn’t care if Midnight hears what they are talking about. “I’M NOT GOING TO USE HIS QUIRK!” 

Another blast, and another counterblow. Midoriya is panting heavily, bleeding all over. Todoroki is almost frozen. Midnight seems to be talking with Cementoss about something with a worried face, probably thinking about ending the match. 

“IT’S NOT HIS QUIRK YOU FUCKING DUMBASS!!!” Izuku shouts at him. “IT’S YOURS! BOTH SIDES OF IT!” 

Todoroki freezes. Izuku doesn’t take advantage of that. Instead he is facing him with a face that’s… just sad. No longer angry. Just sad. 

“You heard what I told you about not trying to become a hero alone.” Izuku says, his tone of voice almost solemn. “About how everyone but you is giving their best and how you are a disgrace to them by half-assing it. It’s not too late for you to stand with them. You just need to ask yourself a question.” He pauses for a second before smiling faintly. “If you truly want to be a hero… then do you want to be a hero like your father? Or like All Might?” 

For a few seconds there is silence on the field. Then comes the fire.

***

Endeavor’s happiness at his son using his flame is short-lived. No one noticed that Midoriya kept breaking the fingers of his left hand - just twice or, in one case, thrice. Despite all the pain, he remembered Mr. Compress teaching him some simple tricks on how to focus the attention of people away from certain things. 

His right hand was untouched. The strength of a hundred percent One for All channeled through it - together with Todoroki’s large scale explosion - shattered the wall that Cementoss tried to erect between them. And then it triumphed against the explosion. 

There was also the part where he was using Full Cowl to keep his feet grounded against the impact. 

When the smoke cleared, Todoroki was out of bounds, his back resting on the ice he conjured unconsciously to stop himself from being flung at the wall of the stadium. He was awake, and frankly enough, not much hurt.

Midoriya was barely standing. But he was barely standing on the field. 

Midnight announced his victory. Then came the paramedics.

***

“You’re not going to say ‘out of my way’?” Endeavor asks. Because of course he is there. Waiting for him when he left the Recovery Girl office after a brief check-up. 

Shoto Todoroki stares at his father in silence. 

“Your control of your flames is still lacking.” Endeavor continues. “You lost your fight because of that. Though I’m willing to overlook this because you finally used them. You’ve finally become the perfect upgrade for me. You’ve stopped with your whining. Come to my agency for your internships, I’ll...”

“I won’t.” Shoto replies. “I didn’t use my flames for you.” He is tired. He lost. But he thinks that it gave him more than a victory would. 

“What?” Endeavor is clearly taken aback. 

“He told me… he told me that you are never going to become a Number One Hero not because you are weaker than All Might… but because all you have for people are scowls and angry looks.” Shoto says and he can see something nasty on his father’s face. Oh, the irony. “While he is actually making them feel safe. Because he is a hero for them, not for the ranking.”

“Shoto…” Endeavor tries to say, but Shoto doesn’t let him. 

“He told me that everyone but I are giving it their best, while I’m just half-assing it.” Shoto continues. “He asked me if I want to become a hero alone… or if I want to stand with the others. He asked me… if I wanted to become a hero like you or like All Might.” Shouto’s eyes meet his father’s. “And I choose All Might.” 

Seeing his father’s face at that very moment was worth losing the match. That much Shoto is certain about. 

***

The fight between Ibara Shiozaki and Inasa Yoarashi is surprisingly close to being an endless one. Ibara’s vines keep her anchored to the floor, rendering the majority of the Inasa’s winds utterly useless. Inasa, in the meantime, can simply float outside of her effective range. 

To the surprise of absolutely everyone, Ibara manages to grab Inasa by an ankle (taking advantage of him getting a bit too… passionate with the fight) and toss him out of bounds. Or, to be exact, rams him into the ground (as merely tossing him would just end with him returning to his floating routine). 

Inasa proves that he considers every defeat an occasion to learn more things (or perhaps he is just happy that he lasted for at least as long as Todoroki Shoto did), and he (loudly) congratulates Ibara on winning against him. Prompting Midnight to let out a comment about how she loves passionate youth. 

***

Tenko Shimura is fast. Tenya recognizes it. He has no idea if it’s born from training or if it’s some odd part of his quirk. There are WEIRD quirks out there, Tenya knows that much, and he knew that even before Midoriya treated his friends to a few of his rambling sessions about the super interesting quirks he just heard about. So it might be this.

But, while he was extremely fast and Tenko touching you with four fingers triggered an automatic loss (Present Mic explained it after Yaoyorozu’s defeat, there was a sort of support item in play here), Tenya was still faster. 

He engaged him with a Recipro Boost right off the bat, and managed to suppress him for long enough to drag him out of bounds. Tenko mumbled something about ‘the damn speed builds’ and left. 

 ***

Ayako Nakahara was a brilliant girl with a quirk that allowed her to detect the quirks and their general power level at a distance (she had no idea why Izuku Midoriya was walking around with a Class-Six quirk absolutely identical to All Might’s, or why did she saw several similar quirk signatures on the audience, and she wasn’t going to ask), plus some things about them if she saw them up close. 

But she still had no start to Bakugou Katsuki. The explosions were something simple yet hard to counter with tools she was allowed to take into the field. Sure, she could bring a riot shield. But how was that going to stop him from detonating his sweat in front of it, generating enough of an impact to probably break the hand behind it?

It was a bad match-up. And she knew that. So she immediately announced that she is withdrawing. 

Bakugou genuinely looked like he was about to murder her for it. But with Midnight there, he had no occasion to do it.

***

Tsuyu Asui might have as well be Neito Monoma’s natural predator. She is faster and stronger than he is, she has an ability for ranged attacks, and he can’t copy her quirk. Unfortunately, the rule for the copycat quirks in tournaments like this is that they are allowed to bring some quirks to the battle.

Neito Monoma chose Miyuki Tagawa. Who could as well be Tsuyu Asui’s natural predator. She discovers that when she grabs Neito with her tongue only for him to touch it with his hands. 

His skin irritated and burned her tongue. When she lets him out, he runs towards her, shouting at her (and thus making the vocal component of his quirk kick her sense of balance off). 

She tries to jump away, but she fails. And he gets close enough to breathe into her face. His breath right now is pretty much a sleeping gas. She falls unconscious and Midnight calls the match.

***

Since Izuku Midoriya was still in surgery, and the number of contestants for this round was uneven, the referees decide that he is sitting this one round out. The next fight is between Ibara Shiozaki and Tenya Iida. 

While Ibara Shiozaki’s quirk did wonders against Inasa Yoarashi, she can do little against Tenya’s rapid attacks from the side. He doesn’t have to force the attack through her vines, he just needs to approach them from the side. 

Unlike Inasa, doing so doesn’t force him to get close enough to get grabbed. Or, to be exact, it forces him to get even closer, but for a much shorter period of time. 

Ibara Shiozaki is soon out of bounds, and Tenya Iida proceeds to the next round. 

***

“You know, you’re kinda pissing me off.” Neito Monoma announces. Bakugou glares at him from the other side of the field. “You still act like you are oh so much better than me, despite being from a Rehab Course.” 

“Shut up.” Bakugou isn’t buying it. Oh, well. 

“The boy with the explosive temper… Bakugou Katsuki from the Rehabilitation Course!” Present Mic announces. “Versus… the scheming tactician and class 1-Bs last hope, Neito Monoma of the Hero Course!” 

“So what did you do to get into the Rehab Course, Ba-ku-gou?” Neito decides to keep digging. “Indulge my curiosity!”

“I taught someone where their place is.” Bakugou replies, with venom dripping off his tongue. “Apparently someone else had a problem with that.” 

Well, that should be enough. He certainly does sound like he doesn’t regret whatever he did, and it was certainly something pretty bad, right?

Gear Two.  

Neito Monoma doesn’t understand how Maki can NOT love using their quirk. The feeling of power that floods him is simply… addictive. 

The look on Bakugou’s face when Neito isn’t even wounded after taking his explosion to face (okay, it hurts a lot, and he isn’t doing that again, but he isn’t in any notable way wounded, and he is still standing as if nothing happened) is almost addictive as well. 

“Maki didn’t get to show his quirk.” Neito smiles. “So I’m doing it for him. Power, speed and endurance amplification proportional to how much I think I’m morally superior to my opponent.” He chuckles. “And considering that I naturally think that I’m morally superior to you class 1-A rabble, even without you doing some mean things and not feeling even a bit regretful… it’s kinda an overkill, you know?” 

It’s still a rather close fight. By the time it ends, Monoma is barely standing. But Bakugou, clearly beaten up (and torn between being furious and emotionally vacant) is out of bounds. 

***

The 1vs1vs1 fight between the three remaining contestants is called off, because the Recovery Girl announces that Izuku Midoriya cannot participate due to medical issues. According to the judges, he takes the official third place. 

The last fight of the tournament is between Tenya Iida and Neito Monoma. Tenya Iida looks through the list of class 1-B participants earlier and decides that the most logical quirk for Monoma to copy is Honnenuki’s softening, in order to limit Tenya’s mobility. 

Neito didn’t pick the most logical one. Tenya realizes it when he gets close and tries to kick Monoma, only for his leg to meet a solid steel. He doesn’t end up breaking a leg, but he does sprains an ankle. 

He then discovers that Neito did pick the most logical quirk. It’s just that he could copy two quirks at once, but purposefully kept that part hidden until now. To use it at the right moment. 

With a sprained ankle, Tenya has no ability to escape the softening of the ground beneath him in time. And with his engines submerged, he can barely fight back. Especially not against Neito Monoma with Tetsutetsu’s quirk. 

The fight is over, and so are Eraserhead’s hopes for free coffee from Vlad King for a while. The worst part is that his class would have crushed the 1-B remnants in almost every alternative configuration of fights. Instead, half of 1-A heavy hitters pretty much knocked each other out. And Midoriya got to the podium de facto by technicality. Mostly by the virtue of how devastating his last attack was. 

Hell, Eraserhead is certain that if Izuku could fight, he would beat Neito Monoma in the finals. Easily. What rotten luck. 

The award ceremony comes next, and the fact that two of three medalists were from his class just isn’t enough to improve his mood.

***

Endeavor notices that he was robbed by the time he (still absolutely livid) returns to his car. Once he finally gets back into contact with his agency, he starts being bombarded by news that only makes his mood worse.

1. Someone with access to his credit card and phone ordered ten thousand All Might’s posters to his agency’s address, specifying that the delivery must be as fast as possible. The company in question did its best (it was the Number Two Hero who hired them, after all, and they had some useful quirks) and during the last one and a half hour has actually managed to deliver it.
2. Someone has also ordered fifty tonnes of organic carrots to either his house or hero agency (from several companies at once). This was accompanied with a message that could be summed up by ‘if you’ll eat a lot of carrots, you’ll grow big and strong like All Might!’. 
3. Said someone has also bought a billboard visible from his office and had it replaced with a large banner claiming that Endeavor can never be as cool with All Might. Worst of all, someone has actually replaced the billboard (and nobody was sure who, since it happened in a matter of minutes) and rolling the changes back might take a few days. At least. Even if someone manages to prove that the cash was technically stolen. So he was going to be temporarily forced to see this abomination from his office window.

And if that wasn’t enough, someone has used Endeavor’s phone to contact an on-going - and very popular - talk show about heroes. Endeavor sometimes phoned it for various reasons, and he was a relatively common ‘sight’. So they pitched him in without asking questions.

The result was Mr. Compress pretending to be a drunk Endeavor phoning Burnin (and mistaking the numbers) from the UA, and going on a long rant on how despite all that he is doing, All Might still doesn’t notice how much Endeavor is in love with him. 

Mr. Compress managed to temporarily persuade a big part of Japan that Endeavor’s signature scowl is born of his sexual frustration towards All Might. And that Endeavor is a bottom, to add insult to injury. The dirty talk accompanying all of that was… inspirational, according to people that heard it. Especially the particularly kinky parts. 

While Mr. Compress eventually stepped forward a few days later and announced that it was all just a prank of his, there were still people who thought that he merely took the advantage of the situation to call it his own master plan. Or that Endeavor paid him to take the blame. And that the Number Two Hero’s words from the talk show were genuine. 

Besides, Mr. Compress just admitted to stealing Endeavor’s wallet and phone, and in a way that made the hero not even notice it until more than an hour has passed. That alone was a blow to reputation. 

Endeavor was fuming for days. Even after his things were returned to him. Minus the business cards, because Mr. Compress signed those and sold them through the internet (save for the ones he gave to Uraraka Ochaco and Asa Midoriya, and the one he kept framed in his hideout), forwarding the earnings to a charity organization helping the victims of fires. 

Needless to say, the day of the UA school festival was one of the worst in Endeavor’s life. 

***

Asa Midoriya was happy about Rabbit standing up for his brother until his family heard about the organic carrots prank. Then they immediately realized what happened and his brother gave him a solid scolding about stunts like this (while totally awesome) carrying a possibility of him not becoming a hero in the future. 

Mr. Compress was happy about what he did to Endeavor (who turned out to be a bigger trash bag than he thought) until Inko Midoriya figured out that Asa was involved. Then Inko had him kneel on frozen peas while she was busy delivering him world’s most intense scolding, occasionally highlighted with some well-timed hits with rolled newspaper. 

Tenya was happy about getting so far (even if sad about losing to Neito) until he got a phone call that his brother was attacked by the Hero Killer in Hosu. And that there was a high risk that he would never regain the ability to walk.

Izuku Midoriya was happy about getting so far (even if sad about not winning) until he got an sms from the Hero Killer who was thoroughly freaking out about hearing about what happened to Ingenium. Because he was pretty certain that he wasn’t even in Hosu at the time.

Overhaul was, frankly, pissed off about life in general, especially as he couldn’t shake the feeling that the green-haired kid from the festival was somehow similar to the kid that cost him the Shie Hasseikai. But only until the Council meeting, which outlined the next step of the Paranormal Liberation Front’s grand strategy. Which was going to happen in Hosu.

Chapter Text

“Oh, this year’s school festival was simply incredible.” Nedzu says over a cup of his finest tea. “Wouldn’t you agree?” 

“If I didn’t have to comment on it, it would be… nice.” Eraserhead comments scarcely. Present Mic chuckles from the seat next to him. 

They are all in the teacher’s lounge. Every single teacher of the UA (not staff members though, save for Nedzu himself). It’s not a formal meeting, though considering the fact that the Principal has left his hidey-hole, it might as well be one. 

“It was incredibly… different.” All Might decides to say. He went through some life-changing revelations and can only hope that Inko will not murder Izuku for risking his life so recklessly. Because, frankly speaking, he earned a serious scolding. What the hell happened on that field with Endeavor’s son? “I assume that you already have some things to announce due to that, and you’re here to tell us about it.” 

Nedzu beams. 

“Yes, that’s correct!” Nedzu drinks some of his tea before returning to them. “The first thing that we certainly have to address is the truly wonderful Hero Crush event organized by our General Education Course students. If I had any idea that they would go to such delicious lengths if allowed to take any tools they want into the field, I’d have allowed it years ago!” 

Eraserhead and Vlad King shiver in their seats at once. Their classes were humiliated and it still stings. Especially as neither of them considered the Gen Ed Course to be anything but a foil to make their students shine a bit more. 

“Considering the public reaction to Nakahara’s manifest and their performance in the festival… I believe that it’s time to go Plus Ultra.” Nedzu continues. “Not all of the General Education students managed to show us enough of their skills and many have substandard grades, but with some reshuffling of students between class C and D I believe that we’ll gather enough prospective heroes to justify converting class C to the Hero Course. If the remaining Gen Ed coursers improve their grades, they’ll be eligible for transfer as well, so the class D is looking forward to be converted into a Heroics Course one as well.” 

All Might decides that someone is being a very happy rat. Almost irritatingly so. Present Mic - who just happens to be the 1-C homeroom teacher - beams at the words spoken in front of him. 

Eraserhead looks like he is about to drop dead. Probably because he realizes that the General Education Course’ Hero Crush event will probably become an annual thing. Sure, the hero students will be prepared for it next time, but… this will only make every casualty sting more. 

“Sounds good enough.” All Might decides to speak his mind. “Those kids certainly earned their seat among the heroes and… let’s be real. Denying them that place after the manifest and after they crushed more than half of the hero course students would just make us look like assholes.” He pauses for a second before adding. “Besides, this would make the HPSC’ president happy, and that’s a reason not to do this on its own.” 

Nedzu laughs. In only a slightly menacing way. He recognizes the words, even if they are slightly inverted.

“Fair.” Vlad King caves in. He seemed like the only person who still had issues with that idea, and his surrender officially makes the suggestion pass. 

“Great!” Nedzu chirps in. “And now there is another wonderful thing that has to be spoken about. Did you notice how many geniuses we have among our first class students?” 

What is it about, All Might wonders. He isn’t the only one to think such thoughts.

“Geniuses?” Oddly enough it’s Snipe that asks it. 

“Well, not all of you knew about this, but Izuku Midoriya happens to be a private student of mine.” As far as All Might knew about it, the only people in on this secret were All Might himself, Nedzu, Eraserhead and Present Mic and Thirteen, though the last two found out accidentally during the USJ attack. So Vlad King, Ectoplasm, Midnight, Cementoss and Power Loader are surprised by the announcement. 

“Really?” Ectoplasm is surprised by it. “What brought that?”

“Do you remember Eraserhead’s proposal for the Rehabilitation Course and the changes to the Entrance Exam and the treatment of the General Education Course?” Nedzu asks, which elicits a handful of nods. “Well, while Aizawa was a source of the idea for the latter, both proposals were actually written down by Izuku Midoriya. Who was also the source of the idea for the former.” 

“Well, that explains the interest.” Midnight agrees. She doesn’t visit the Midoriyas very often, and her knowledge about the family is mostly second-hand. So she missed some things. She knew about him writing down the proposals, just not about Midoriya being Nedzu’s student.

“Yes, and during the USJ attack he dissected Kurogiri’s quirk in time to save Thirteen’s life.” Nedzu continues. “He also kept the warper pinned down long enough for half of his class to get to safety. If that wasn’t enough he crafted a plan that resulted with every single villain in his Zone being easily incapacitated, and then probably saved All Might’s life.” Nedzu chuckles a bit. “He was also the source of the idea for Ayako Nakahara’s manifest and, if my hunch is correct, the original proponent of the Hero Crush.” 

“He what?” Eraserhead is clearly taken aback by something on this list. And All Might is almost certain that it was the last few words. 

“I believe that he wanted to give the General Education Course a chance to become heroes.” Nedzu replies promptly. “So while he didn’t provide the Gen Eds with inside data about the Hero Course quirks, he almost certainly gave Ayako the original idea to make themselves stand out with teamwork. Since he certainly was the person who asked me to lift the limitations on support equipment and inter-student combat during the obstacle course during one of our private lessons.” 

He doesn’t add the fact that Ayako, considering the way her quirk worked, didn’t exactly need an inside source to make plans. She just had to take a good look at the hero classes and note down her findings. 

Eraserhead mumbles something akin to ‘damn problem child will be the end of me’ and All Might only barely stops himself from laughing. 

“The point is…” Nedzu decides to get to it, finally. ”Izuku Midoriya has the potential to play in the same league as me or Sir Nighteye in a few years. But after the USJ and the School Festival I’ve come to believe that while he has no equal in that field among the students, there are several students that come pretty close to him. And with some specialized guidance can become expert tacticians and strategists.” 

“Let me guess.” All Might decides to cut in. “Ayako Nakahara and Neito Monoma.” 

“Precisely!” Nedzu chirps. “She proved to be an excellent and quick-thinking tactician who has used their relatively inferior tools to a maximum efficiency, taking full advantage of the obstacles that she couldn’t know about previously. And while her class lost the Human Cavalry Battle, they still managed to take down the majority of the remaining members of the 1-B class through some very good teamwork. And she was only a few points beneath Monoma when the bell rang. This is a talent worth working with!” 

“And Monoma?” Vlad King asks. While a bit scary looking, he has a heart of gold for his own students. All Might knows him well enough at this point. 

“He made several good plans along the way.” Nedzu replies. “The first one was about throwing the Obstacle Course in order to make the 1-A focus on itself during the second stage of the tournament, so that 1-B could cooperate against it and dismantle the warring teams one by one. It didn’t work due to Ayako’s little rampage, but it was a factor that Neito couldn’t know about beforehand. What really brought my attention to him is the fact that he kept everyone fooled about his quirk copying limit until the very final round, while always arriving in the ring armed in a quirk that was his best available counter to his enemy. And while I can’t be certain, the camera footage of him that I looked through makes me believe that he was one of the few people in the stadium that realized that Uraraka Ochaco was preparing her meteor storm before it began to fall. This proves his situational awareness, deep understanding of quirks and ability to weave a good deception.” 

Vlad King nods scarcely. His student was praised. This makes him happy. Although he isn’t exactly showing it. It’s just the type of a person he is. 

“There is also one more candidate I have in mind.” Nedzu continues. “Momo Yaoyorozu of class 1-A. She didn’t show us much during the School Festival, probably due to Tenko Shimura’s quirk being her natural counter, yes. However she excelled during the USJ attack. Her quirk allows her to produce tools she needs for a plan instantly or semi-instantly, and she used that together with a quirk of her teammate to completely fool the villains.” 

“Oh?” Power Loader’s head is tilted a bit, a sign of his interest. “It is the first time I hear about it. What happened?” 

“She produced three sets of fake handcuffs, and had a student with an impersonator quirk copy the appearance and voice of one of the defeated villains.” Nedzu replies with pride. “Then they simply walked through the villain's reinforcements, pretending to be captives led to the main square to be used by the villain’ leaders as hostages. They couldn’t run like that, which is the only reason why they didn’t make it for the main battle, but it was an example of good thinking and correct application of available assets and her ability to produce things at will.” 

“I agree.” Power Loader nods. He isn’t the only one. 

“As a result, I’m thinking about expanding my private lessons.” Nedzu announces with the odd thing that passes for a smile in his world. “Having a few of our future masterminds interact with each other on a weekly basis and grow up as heroes together might give us a lot of long-term benefits.” 

All Might doesn’t mention the part where Yoshihiro Maki’s younger brother (due for UA entrance exam - although he would rather join it as a part of the Rehab Course - in two years) had a Class-Five intelligence quirk to equal Nedzu. And the part where two years after him, Asa Midoriya would qualify for the entrance exam. Asa Midoriya that, while crippled by anxiety, had a brain to equal his older brother. And extremely powerful and versatile quirk that was a perfect fit for a tactician. 

Nedzu was in for some really happy years. And villains in Japan should really start looking for another job or emigrate. 

***

Izuku Midoriya’s Official Fanclub

LeadSinger: Invites are a go.

User GravityGirl joins the chat!

User CreativeSpirit joins the chat!

User Froggy joins the chat!

User Vampire joins the chat! 

GravityGirl: ???

CreativeSpirit: I second those question marks.

Vampire: Zuku has a fanclub, yay!

Froggy: Why am I here?

LeadSinger: OKAY SO

LeadSinger: I might have accidentally

LeadSinger: ACCIDENTALLY

LeadSinger: overheard something about Izuku Midoriya 

LeadSinger: Something that made me realize that our class president is absolutely in need of a proper fanclub. 

LeadSinger: So I’m laying the groundwork for it. 

LeadSinger: To be ahead of other people. So I’ll be able to officially and reliably call myself his #1 fan in the future. At least chronologically.

CreativeSpirit: … are you still listening in on people’s conversations, Kyoka?

LeadSinger: Not at all. And when I do, I’m not telling people’s secrets to anyone unless they are super criminal. 

LeadSinger: This is also why I’m not going to tell anyone what I overheard (sorry but Midoriya literally said that he doesn’t want anyone to know about it, and I respect that, despite it being so awesome that I want to shout about it to everyone). But just trust me when I say that it was absolutely, absolutely awesome. 

LeadSinger: Slightly confusing and probably suicidal (especially the part when he met Endeavor) but awesome.

GravityGirl: Izuku met Endeavor? What?

Vampire: Oh no, not this again. 

Vampire: Did he find out that a powerful hero is doing meanie things secretly so he decided to confront them with suicidal overconfidence, only to freak out right after?

LeadSinger: Yes. And the Izuku Midoriya’s Official Fanclub rule #1 is that we throw all Endeavor merchandise to the trash bin when we join it. It belongs there.

LeadSinger: Burn it or something, idc, just don’t display it anywhere.

Vampire: Zuku, you wonderful dummy. His mom is going to kill him when she finds out >_<

CreativeSpirit: Okay, slow down, Kyoka. Because you make no sense to me right now.

CreativeSpirit: I assume it involves the part where our class president almost crippled his left hand during the fight with Todoroki Shoto, which seemed to be like 80% composed of them shouting something that we couldn’t hear from the audience?

LeadSinger: Errr, yes.

CreativeSpirit: You overheard that too, didn’t you?

LeadSinger: Err, maybe.

CreativeSpirit: Kyoka, talk to me.

LeadSinger: I don’t want to! I don’t like sharing what I overheard without people in question knowing and agreeing to it. 

CreativeSpirit: I’m this class vice-president. And I’m growing increasingly worried with what Izuku Midoriya is doing (despite being deeply impressed by him as both a person and a class president). Both with his unreasonably low self-esteem and apparent callousness towards breaking his own body with his quirk. 

CreativeSpirit: So you are going to tell me whatever you can. Right now. 

LeadSinger: … shit. You might have a point.

GravityGirl: Yes!

Froggy: Just rename the chat to Izuku Midoriya Support Club, it sounds more fitting.

Froggy: He feels like he is in need of a lot of support, really. 

LeadSinger: Okay, so the reason why Shoto is withdrawn so much is because Endeavor is an abusive piece of shit that’s treating him like a tool to finally realize his obsession for the Number One Hero seat. Abusive to the point of apparently engaging in a quirk marriage to produce an heir with desirable quirk. 

CreativeSpirit: Oh my God. 

CreativeSpirit: Endeavor did WHAT? 

LeadSinger: I told you the rule #1. Endeavor merchandise goes to trash.

GravityGirl: This is horrible!

Froggy: Yes. Extremely. At least I have no merchandise to throw out. 

GravityGirl: Neither do I. It’s mostly Thirteen and All Might and… some others. 

LeadSinger: And Shoto wasn’t using his flames because they reminded him of Endeavor. So he wanted to become a Number One Hero by using only his mother’s ice. Izuku basically reacted to the revelation by going berserk on Shoto and calling him a dumbass and his father a criminal dumbass.

Vampire: Zuku, you wonderful dummy. Why are you like this (-_- )

Vampire: I mean, he is way too perfect for this dummy world

Vampire: So I’m like seriously wondering how he came to be

GravityGirl: Yeah, I have the same question, really xD

LeadSinger: He told him that the reason why Endeavor is a forever Number Two is because the rankings are at least partially (if not mostly) based on popularity and All Might is winning because he is saving people with a reassuring smile that makes them feel safe rather than furious scowl that makes them be afraid that they’ll end up becoming a collateral damage. 

LeadSinger: And that Shoto is basically growing into a copy of his father. Resulting in Inasa hating him because he sees Endeavor in him. Because Shoto is ignoring everyone around him and giving them cold stares, while only focusing on growing stronger. 

LeadSinger: The fight was mostly Izuku taunting Shoto into using his flames. By pointing out that everyone is giving it his best (he mentioned me, Uraraka and Ojiro by name in that), and that all Shoto is doing is half-assing it out of daddy issues. He asked him what he was going to tell parents of some child that he failed to save because the villain in front of him happened to be immune to cold. 

LeadSinger: Then he told him that he can still stand beside his classmates. Instead of alone. He just has to ask himself what sort of hero he wants to become. One like Endeavor or one like All Might. Few seconds later Todoroki changed into a living firestorm, so I guess that works as an answer. 

CreativeSpirit: And he also confronted Endeavor about it?

LeadSinger: More like Endeavor tried to taunt him into becoming a good stepping stone for his ‘masterpiece’ due to having a quirk similar to All Might. So Izuku went berserk on his ass and might have told him to his face to change his hero name to ‘Tryhard’ so that the people dumb enough to think that he is a good hero understand what he is about. 

CreativeSpirit: Oh my God. 

Vampire: Zuku! <3 but also D: 

Froggy: I literally can’t tell if Izuku is more brave or suicidal. 

CreativeSpirit: And that’s why I’m worried about him, Froggy. 

Vampire: I’m in the worried team as well. I still think that he is awesome, though.

LeadSinger: Well I do think that it was awesome as well. I can’t tell you the one bit that Izuku said that he wants to keep secret, but I think it makes it significantly less suicidal. 

GravityGirl: Is it about All Might being pretty much his uncle? Because I know that his dad is All Might’s Personal Assistant. 

LeadSinger: Kind of. He also spoke in a way that implied that he ended Thunderbolt’s career (which was a part of an indirect threat to Endeavor in case Shoto came to school with signs of physical abuse), but I’m kinda not sure if it wasn’t a bluff?

Vampire: Don’t call Izuku’s bluffs. 

LeadSinger: Why?

Vampire: Just don’t do it. 

LeadSinger: ???

Vampire: Not telling. Can’t. 

GravityGirl: … oh. 

LeadSinger: ?

GravityGirl: If it’s true then Vampire can’t talk about this, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Thunderbolt was connected to the heroes that were trying to kill her and Mindhack. He feels a bit too high to get jailed, but if All Might got some serious dirt on him through his adopted nephew… 

GravityGirl: And I think that the chronology kinda fits.

CreativeSpirit: Oh.

CreativeSpirit: Well if he ended the corrupted Number Three Hero career then he can only go up from there, I guess.

CreativeSpirit: @LeadSinger Listen, I have to talk with Aizawa-sensei about this. 

LeadSinger: He will find out that I’m listening in to others conversations!

CreativeSpirit: Yes and knowing him he will ask you to share incriminating details. Or tell you that he doesn’t care about that. But he has to know that Shoto is being abused at home and that Izuku just taunted the Number Two Hero to his face. 

CreativeSpirit: He is our homeroom teacher. And Shoto certainly needs further psychological counseling. One that doesn’t consist of his class president shouting at him during the match to stop being a dumbass. Despite it being well-earned and, apparently, a breakthrough for him.

LeadSinger: Well, damn. 

CreativeSpirit: We’re going to have that talk with him tomorrow at school. No buts. 

LeadSinger: Alright, alright. Shit, you’re right. 

LeadSinger: Izuku fanclub is staying?

CreativeSpirit: Ehhh…

GravityGirl: Yes!

Vampire: Yes!

Vampire: I mean, he is objectively speaking super cool and super adorable and brave and powerful and wants to help everyone so he is super heroic etc.

Vampire: So a fanclub is a must. 

GravityGirl: Yes!

Vampire: Also gravity-chan has a crush on him and she needs a place to vent this.

GravityGirl: What?! I don’t have a crush on him!

Vampire: Right. I’m very convinced. 

Froggy: I do not consider myself his fangirl, but I do admit that his continuous positive treatment of complex mutants and other victims of discrimination are big plus signs for him. Plus his sisters are adorable.

Froggy: I’m not adverse to the idea.

LeadSinger: 3,5 votes in, yaomomo

CreativeSpirit: Well I can’t outvote that, I guess. Just let’s not be creepy or troublesome for anyone, alright? And let’s do our best to support him, because he is clearly in need of that. 

Vampire: Can we invite Toshi? He is clearly a fan. 

LeadSinger: I guess so. And I’m like 95% sure that after today, Todoroki Shoto will become another fanboy candidate. I’m kinda looking forward to him trying to interact with people, actually.

GravityGirl: Like, Inasa?

LeadSinger: oh no.

***

Todoroki Shoto: Midoriya. 

SmallMight: Ehh? Your name as a nickname? 

Todoroki Shoto: Is that a problem?

SmallMight: … uhm. We’ll talk about this in a while. What happened?

Todoroki Shoto: We didn’t see each other after the festival. 

SmallMight: Well, my parents took me home earlier for some serious scolding about what I did to my hand. 

Todoroki Shoto: I see.

Todoroki Shoto: I have a question.

SmallMight: Yes?

Todoroki Shoto: Can we be friends? 

SmallMight: uhm

SmallMight: Sure? 

SmallMight: Though… Do you know exactly what that entails? 

Todoroki Shoto: I’m not sure. I’d like to find out. 

Todoroki Shoto: I never had a friend. 

SmallMight: Well. We’ll work on that, too.

SmallMight: Took my words about not being a hero alone to heart?

Todoroki Shoto: Plus Ultra?

SmallMight: Hah. 

SmallMight: We’ll work on your social skills. 

SmallMight: You should probably start with apologizing to Inasa for the way you treated him during the recommendation exam. I don’t like the face he is doing when you are mentioned. It makes him look like, excuse me for the comparison, Endeavor. 

Todoroki Shoto: How do you apologize to people?

SmallMight: Oh dear. 

***

Froggy: I have a question. 

SmallMight: Yes, Tsuyu?

Froggy: I don’t understand what happened during my ‘fight’ with Yoshihiro Maki. I believe you know a lot about the Rehab Course students, and I decided to contact you through the internet to find the answer. 

SmallMight: Oh. 

SmallMight: It’s a bit complicated.

Froggy: Like a lot of things. 

SmallMight: No, it’s just that I can’t exactly tell you a lot about him without betraying things that he prefers to keep hidden. 

SmallMight: I’m not exactly in a position to tell anyone what 1-A Rehab Coursers did to qualify for the Rehab Course. It’s the same for the 1-B. 

Froggy: You should know me enough by now to be acutely aware that I’m not going to tell anyone. I just want to know why I got past the first round of the tournament. It’s been bugging me. 

Froggy: He looked sad. Way too sad for someone who was dropping out from the tournament. There was something more to that.

SmallMight: Ugh. 

SmallMight: He might have personal connections to some high-ranking members of the Creature Rejection Clan. 

Froggy: And you got him to join the Rehab Course?

SmallMight: I got him to join the Rehab Course because he and his younger brother fled home and became vigilantes targeting hate groups. Especially the Creature Rejection Clan. 

SmallMight: He refused to fight you not because he looked down on you, but because I don’t think he can force himself to raise his hand against a complex mutant that isn’t a villain. Way too much guilt.

SmallMight: You’d have also crushed him completely, because his quirk’s strength depends on how much he sees himself as morally superior to whoever is in front of him, and… frankly speaking, he would be fighting you quirkless. 

Froggy: Is he Purity’s son? 

SmallMight: What?

Froggy: I’m not stupid. 

Froggy: Her quirk amplifies the strength of people that she identifies with. His quirk amplifies his strength on the basis of how he identifies himself. Sounds like a mutation. If not a son then a nephew? Younger cousin? 

SmallMight: Now you sound like Todoroki.

Froggy: ?

SmallMight: He came to me earlier, inspired by your comment before the USJ about my quirk being similar to All Might and asked me if I am his son. 

Froggy: Huh. 

Froggy: So, in a hypothetical scenario (since oddly enough I didn’t hear any direct rebuttal) where he is Purity’s son… Why did you recommend him to the Rehabilitation Course?

SmallMight: Because while you can argue if there are people who do not deserve a second chance, I believe that everyone deserves the first one. And since no one was willing to give him one, I decided to do it. 

SmallMight: Because the son of the CRC’ leader can’t just announce who he is to the world and expect it to accept him. And it’s not like villains ‘since birth’ like him have any skills when it comes to not being villains. Nor valid documents. At least until Nedzu got those for him. 

Froggy: Hitoshi and Himiko are right about you.

SmallMight: Ehhh???

Froggy: Any variant of ‘I want to become a hero’ is a berserk button for you. And I look towards the moment when someone will tell that to you, but follow up on it with ‘but the government isn’t letting me’. With both apprehension and yearning. 

SmallMight: Uhm, Tsuyu, you are telling me weird things.

Froggy: I do. Now excuse me, but I need to change a half vote for something into a full vote for something.

SmallMight: ???

Froggy: I’ll tell you if you honestly tell me what was your answer to Shoto’s question. 

SmallMight: Isn’t it obvious? 

Froggy: I see. Well, I’ll be going now. 

***

Eraserhead wants to have a single day of peace. Of absolutely nothing happening. Of not having to worry about his problem child. And about his children (the idea is still kinda odd to him, even if not the bad type of odd). Instead, he gets this. 

“Yaoyorozu.” He says with a dead face. “Could you repeat what you just told me?” 

“One of the students in my class overheard Todoroki Shoto and Izuku Midoriya talking.” She replies. Her face makes it obvious that she isn’t comfortable about it either. “According to what she heard, Endeavor is abusive towards his family. And engaged in a quirk marriage in order to produce his… upgraded version.” She looks disgusted. Eraserhead wonders if there is the same look on his face, because that’s certainly what he feels about it. “And Midoriya ended up confronting Endeavor about this.” 

Eraserhead stares at her for a few seconds, emotionally vacant. One day. There wasn’t even supposed to be a serious class today, just the announcement about the internships. And that there are three free days for the students to cool down after the festival. They even pushed the choice of the hero name for after the break. 

And then, this. 

“Tell me everything.” Eraserhead decides that he is going to deal with it. Somehow. He is a teacher, after all. “Right from the start.” 

She actually brought a sealed transcript of everything that the person in question overheard. That she apparently didn’t read due to some privacy issues. Someone’s going Plus Ultra. 

Chapter Text

“So, Aizawa… what is it about?” All Might asks his son’s homeroom teacher with just a slight worry in his voice. Because honestly, he was just invited by him to Nedzu’s office and that alone is… pretty unusual. 

“Did your son tell you why he went so far in his fight against Todoroki?” Eraserhead replies with a question. Nedzu is observing them from the other side of the coffee table. 

All Might’s worry reaches a new level. 

“No, he didn’t.“ He decides to be honest. “He is claiming that he had no better plan than this. I know he is… well, perhaps not lying, I don’t think that he does that to us. At least not straight to face. He is either omitting the truth or making us deliberately misunderstand something.” 

This is, in general, rather worrying. Then again, Izuku is a teenager. Whose head probably operates on a slightly different frequency than everyone else. Nedzu is juggling truths and lies left and right, and it’s not like he is actively malicious despite that. 

Maybe save for the bits when the HPSC president is involved. Then there is a lot of malice. 

“Someone… I suspect Kyoka Jirou, but I have no proof… has overhead some rather worrying things.” Eraserhead says. “She talked with Yaoyorozu about it, and Yaoyorozu went directly to me. With transcripts, because Plus Ultra or something.” He sighs. “They explain the strange fight between Todoroki and Midoriya, but are also… Well, to say that they are worrying is an understatement. Frankly speaking, this is a bit beyond my paygrade, really. So I’m bringing this to you.” 

He put two identical few pages long folders before Nedzu and All Might. 

All Might took his, but he decided to gauge how bad it is before taking a look. Nedzu simply riffled through the pages, before freezing for a few long seconds. Then he went to brew tea. 

A lot of tea. 

Not good.

The first ‘recorded’ talk occurred between Todoroki Shoto and Izuku. Apparently after the Human Cavalry Battle ended. 

All Might is shocked when Todoroki straightforwardly asks Izuku if he is All Might’s son. The achievement of guessing it on such a basis as, pretty much, instinct is… but then the talk goes off the script he had in his head. Because Izuku admits the truth. 

He knows about his son’s plan to walk in his father’s footsteps but without relying on Yagi’s help too much. He respects Izuku for that. He suspects that this is why he befriended Tenya so fast - they both are descendants of fine heroes who decided to not participate in the recommended student exam simply to prove to the world that they can do it with their own strength. 

But then he hears the part about Endeavor engaging in a QUIRK MARRIAGE to get Shoto to become a Number One Hero in his stead. And All Might realizes why Eraserhead looks so… broken. 

The verbal beating that Todoroki receives from Izuku afterwards is nothing short of inspirational. All Might is actually proud of his son. Or, to be more exact, he is proud of his own image that his son has. 

Izuku isn’t blindly worshiping him like he used to before they actually met. He has arguments now. Values they share, things that All Might did and opinions he carries. And considering what he learned from Inko, Izuku agreed with All Might on most of said values and opinions even before they met. 

He truly inherited his mother’s looks and his father’s personality. And he finally sees Yagi Toshinori behind All Might’s face. 

All Might finished reading the first talk. Then he moves to the second one. The one between… oh no. Izuku met Endeavor. 

The talk leaves All Might shocked and confused. He is shocked because he just found that Izuku taunted the Number Two Hero to the face, to the point of calling out his dead eldest son. But he is confused because he, quite literally, doesn’t recognize his son. 

Izuku is derisive and aggressive. He heard from Compress that Izuku went vocally berserk on the heroes beating Himiko and Hitoshi, but this… this is more than All Might imagines. A lot more.

The only really Izuku part of this talk is him threatening someone to keep them from hurting someone else. But even then, All Might doesn’t understand the blue flame part. 

“Todoroki Touya’s flames were blue.” Nedzu, of course, knows where All Might is in the text. And helpfully answers. “At least on the day he died.” 

All Might moves over to the third transcript. This time it’s Todoroki Shoto and Izuku, happening during their fight.

He takes note of an odd part of Izuku’s explanation for being angry. The part that seems to indicate that someone else told Izuku earlier about Endeavor’s abuse, but Izuku didn’t believe in it (frankly, All Might can still barely believe it himself). 

The rest is classic Izuku, really. Only now does All Might realize that his son almost crippled his left hand because that was the only way (in his twisted if beautiful mind) to save someone. Namely Shoto Todoroki. From himself. 

Everyone came prepared to witness a fight. Instead they witnessed an emergency psychological counseling that just happened to coincide with a fight. Emergency counseling that, considering the fourth transcript (of a short exchange between Shoto and his father), somehow worked. 

Izuku just earned his father another fan, it seems. One more person that Yagi can’t fail. 

“There is…” All Might says, while putting the file away. “... a lot to unpack here.” Eraserhead gives him a brief ‘what a brilliant understatement’ face. 

“To say the least, yes.” Nedzu is already starting to drink the tea. How he avoided being burned by it is one of his many mysteries. And he even speaks as if nothing was happening. “Let’s start with the most worrying part. Namely, Todoroki Shoto’s home situation.” 

“Can we do anything about that, really?” All Might asks bitterly. Nedzu sighs. 

“Not without proof. And a transcript of a talk that wasn’t caught on any recording device barely counts as ammunition against the Number Two Hero.” Nedzu honestly replies. “Worst of all, I can see the HPSC’ dirty little fingers in this. I wouldn’t be surprised if they did their best to inflame Endeavor’s ridiculous obsession in order to have him or his son overtake you as the Number One Hero. We all know that would be a powerful blow to my position.”

“What about Shoto and his siblings?” Eraserhead asks, but frankly speaking, he knows the answer. 

“We can’t be sure that they will be willing to testify.” Nedzu replies. “Shoto had All Might next to him, the only hero stronger and more influential than his father. While in the school that’s pretty much my fortress, and he must know that I’m the HPSC personal enemy. With an ability to match it in power. Yet he told no one.” He sighs. “Well, no one save for Izuku. And it’s not like Izuku told anyone about this, didn’t he?” 

Probably to not aggravate Shoto’s home situation. Yagi knows that his son is smart enough to arrive at the same conclusion as Nedzu just did. 

“So what can we do?” Aizawa asks. Nedzu thinks about it for a few seconds. 

“Frankly speaking, I don’t think that we can do a lot in these circumstances.” Nedzu eventually replies. “Save for making Todoroki visit Hound Dog regularly to help him deal better with the situation… and for us looking for some tangible evidence of the abuse. I’ll rewrite the transcript to cut out the parts indicating that Izuku Midoriya is All Might’s son and I’ll explain the… political ramifications of the issue to our guidance counselor. Calling the police right off the bat or trying to bite Endeavor’s throat out would be a bit too rash.” 

All Might nods. This is a mistake, something that he learns much later. If not for Nedzu’s edits, Hound Dog might have read the part where Izuku states that a true hero smiles even in grim times. This would have made him notice the warning signs earlier, and spare people a lot of pain. 

Miscommunication kills. Or at least makes people suffer. 

“The second worrying bit is about Izuku Midoriya.” Nedzu says, while Eraserhead nods faintly. “Yagi, do you have any idea where he might have learned earlier about Endeavor’s misconduct?” 

“Well…” All Might is, frankly, a bit lost himself. “He and his mother mentioned that when he was bullied in school, he mostly evacuated to the internet. He was quite active on various forums for discrimination victims, I think he is even an administrator of one. He might have run into someone who knew about Endeavor’s family there.” 

“Bullied?” Eraserhead’s eyes are suddenly on All Might. Who realizes that Aizawa might not have been in on that one thing. “Discrimination victims?” 

“Err…” All Might kinda shrinks in his seat. It’s not easy when you are already deflated like he is, but… “He was a late bloomer. He awoke my quirk only a month before the Entrance Exam. So he had a bit of a rough time at school.”

“And you didn’t do anything about that?!” Eraserhead is increasingly angry and Yagi realizes that he also didn’t know about the part where Yagi became a part of Izuku’s life a bit late. 

Well, shit. Time for some emergency explanations. 

***

Emergency Group Chat for World Domination

GravityGirl: Izuku!

SmallMight: Ehhh?

GravityGirl: Me and Momo have a question for you.

CreativeSpirit: Yes.

SmallMight: Okay?

GravityGirl: You’re awesome when it comes to quirk analysis, yes?

SmallMight: Err, not exactly awesome, I’m just… kinda competent?

CreativeSpirit: Ugh. 

CreativeSpirit: Not digging into your criminal underselling of your abilities right now. 

GravityGirl: Yes.

GravityGirl: Tell us how to get stronger!

SmallMight: Err?

CreativeSpirit: Me and GravityGirl had that idea that if you are so good in using weaknesses of enemy quirks against them (vide Kurogiri), then you might also have some good ideas about how to make our quirks stronger.

GravityGirl: And after losing fights in the school festival we are super hyped to get stronger! 

SmallMight: Please no, one Inasa is bad enough.

GravityGirl: XD

SmallMight: Uhm, so I think I have an idea or two, but I’m like, not sure how practical they are?

GravityGirl: TELL US

CreativeSpirit: Enlighten us. 

SmallMight: Ok, so… Yaomomo, can we meet in school tomorrow? I know that classes are off (for two more days), but this is something that we have to do (and talk about) in person. 

CreativeSpirit: Not a problem for me. 

SmallMight: Great, and Uraraka…

SmallMight: Who are you planning to intern with?

GravityGirl: Still thinking about it, most likely some rescue hero! 

SmallMight: Can I suggest an alternative?

GravityGirl: I literally wrote to you asking about your ideas to get better, so… yeah? 

GravityGirl: Go for it!

SmallMight: That would be the Battle Hero: Gunhead. 

GravityGirl: Eh? Why?

SmallMight: Because majority of rescue hero casualties come from them arriving to places that were attacked by the villains only to discover that some of them are still around. And the majority of them know very little about actual combat.

SmallMight: Gunhead is an expert martial artist (whose martial art is focused on non-lethal takedowns through holds and throws) who is also famous for also being an expert teacher when it comes to that.

SmallMight: Considering your quirk, he can make you much stronger in a fight during the two weeks of the internships. 

GravityGirl: My quirk?

SmallMight: Uraraka. Throws. Those are based on relative weight at least partially, and you can literally make your opponent weightless. 

SmallMight: You could - theoretically - perform an overhead throw on All Might and then slam him face-first into the pavement (theoretically, he is too fast and strong to let you approach him, but if you somehow surprised him…). 

GravityGirl: Oh

GravityGirl: OH

GravityGirl: Now that I think about it, I had him on the list of heroes who offered me to intern with them! 

SmallMight: He probably had the same idea. 

GravityGirl: I’m going to him then! Thank you, Izuku! 

SmallMight: No problem! You should also consider watching Tenko’s training and perhaps get some insight about combat use of five finger point quirks that way!

CreativeSpirit: If your idea for her improvement was this good, I’m looking forward to seeing what you have for me. 

SmallMight: You’ll love it. 

***

Momo shows up in the school, only for Izuku to pop up and promptly hurry her towards the part of the school belonging to the Support Course. 

They ignore the clearly exasperated Power Loader (who is also eyeing Izuku suspiciously, it’s as if he knew that something bad was going to happen but had no proof so he couldn’t intervene to stop it) and head towards the part of the compound from which she can hear loud machine sounds and…

...was that a small explosion?

“Mei!” Izuku shouts while walking through the entrance confidently. 

“Izuku!” Yaoyorozu realizes who they are about to meet. Mei Hatsume has a… reputation, especially after the School Festival. She walks into her personal lab right in time to see the girl in question (wearing a plain black tank top and workshop overalls) leap towards Izuku and hug him. “My muse! My inspiration! My partner in crime! What brings you here? Are we going to make a baby?”

Momo almost chokes on air. MAKE A BABY?! What sort of den of iniquity did Izuku lead her to?!

“Mei, context!” Izuku shouts before turning towards Momo. “She calls her inventions ‘babies’, Yaomomo!” Momo is visibly relieved. Mei looks like she didn’t listen to the exchange or didn’t care about it. “Mei, I came to introduce your new best friend to you.” 

“Oh?” Mei turns her head to measure Momo. “Why is she going to be my best friend?” 

“Did you see her quirk during the festival?” Izuku asks and Mei thinks about it for a few seconds.

“Some sort of item summoning, yes?” Mei looks curious, but in an oddly restrained manner. At least, restrained for her. 

“Nope.” Izuku grins. “Momo Yaoyorozu can create everything that she understands the structure of, from the molecular level up, for as long as she has enough fat to power up the process. This means that she is…” 

“... a living material printer.” Momo doesn’t like the almost hungry glare that Mei is giving her. “And as a result, she should be able…”

“... to create things too precise for normal tools to achieve, for as long as she knows and understands the blueprint.” Izuku says and Momo is increasingly worried by the duo in front of him practically speaking as a single entity. “She wants to get stronger as a hero, so I decided that if she learns from you, she should be able to create things more complicated than shields and polearms or cannons, and instead…” 

“...missile launchers…” Mei. “...better cannons…” Izuku. “...flamethrowers…” Mei. “...gas weaponry…” Izuku. “...power generators…” Mei. “... stun batons… “Izuku. “...refined uranium…” Mei. 

The list goes on.

Momo Yaoyorozu is terrified. But also intrigued. 

***

UA Staff Chatroom

PowerLoader: We are all going to die and it’s Eraserhead’s fault.

Eraserhead: What?

Eraserhead: Wait.

Eraserhead: What did Midoriya do this time?

AllMight: Why do you automatically assume that it’s his fault?!

Eraserhead: Because whatever it is, he is certainly involved in it.

PowerLoader: Well, Eraserhead is correct. 

AllMight: … What did he do?

PowerLoader: He introduced Mei Hatsume, the mad scientist and engineer to end all mad scientists and engineers (imagine David Shield but completely unhinged and ignoring OSHA as a rule, with a lab that explodes like twice a week) to Momo Yaoyorozu, the living material printer that can create pretty much everything for as long as she understands the blueprint properly. 

Eraserhead: Oh shit.

AllMight: Surely it can’t be that bad?

Midnight: Yep, I mean, what can they do? They are just students, right?

Midnight: And Momo is a refined lady from the elite, she is not going to do anything really weird, right?

PowerLoader: They are working together for four hours and I already had to add synthesizing refined uranium to the list of things that are forbidden to UA students. Because Hatsume wanted to create a miniaturized nuclear reactor. I was too afraid to ask what it was supposed to power.

Principal: ...

PowerLoader: And when I came upon them and asked what they were doing, I got the answer ‘we’re making a cute baby’. From Yaoyorozu and Hatsume. In unison. While Izuku Midoriya was chuckling maniacally in the background.

Midnight: Oh no.

Eraserhead: We’re all going to die.

PowerLoader: @Principal TRIPLE MY HAZARD PAY DAMMIT OR I’M LEAVING THE FACULTY RIGHT NOW!!!

Eraserhead: objectively speaking everyone who is teaching Midoriya and his class should receive a hazard pay

Eraserhead: I demand mine to be doubled due to being their homeroom teacher

***

Izuku Midoriya’s Official Support/Fanclub

GravityGirl: And Momo should be back with whatever result of Izuku’s idea was soon! 

GravityGirl: Or, like, six hours ago? I’m actually kinda worried?

Mindhack: Izuku’s idea was probably just so good.

CreativeSpirit: YES.

LeadSinger: Momo?

CreativeSpirit: I HAVE SEEN THE TRUTH OF THE UNIVERSE!

CreativeSpirit: I have been enlightened. 

CreativeSpirit: And I have made a baby. 

LeadSinger: What?!

CreativeSpirit: In the meantime… invite. 

User MadScientist joins the chat!

Mindhack: Oh no.

LeadSinger: Oh shit

GravityGirl: (O-O )

MadScientist: MOMO!

CreativeSpirit: MEI!

MadScientist: Is this the place where we show our deepest respect to Izuku Midoriya, my muse and inspiration?

CreativeSpirit: Yes!

MadScientist: YES!

GravityGirl: wait, muse and inspiration?

GravityGirl: How did the two of you know each other before the UA? I know you did from what I saw during the Human Cavalry Battle, but...

MadScientist: oh we have a mutual friend on the I-Island that got us to meet, we’ve been throwing ideas back and forth together for a few months now

MadScientist: Izuku has such a beautiful mind

MadScientist: We’re making so many babies

Froggy: Uhm?

CreativeSpirit: Mei, CONTEXT!

***

SmallMight: Well, your apologies to Inasa seem to be well-received. This is progress.

Thermostat: Yes.

Thermostat: What now?

SmallMight: Right now we have to figure out how to make you meaningfully interact with other people. Because I don’t think you have a lot of things to talk with people about aside from training and school, yes?

SmallMight: Is there anything else that you can imagine having a talk with someone about?

Thermostat: Well, I can theorize about heroes.

SmallMight: Theorize? Can you show me an example?

***

SmallMight: KAMINARI!!!

ZapZap: What is it dude

SmallMight: I have a business proposal for you.

ZapZap: ???

SmallMight: I need to make a youtube channel, and I come to believe that you might be the best choice for that. 

ZapZap: Huh?

ZapZap: I mean, my brother has one and it’s kinda popular, so I know the theory and I kinda wanted to become a youtuber at some point (heroics better, though mixing the two is always an idea)

ZapZap: but what sort of channel and what brought this?

SmallMight: Discovery that the Heroics Course has two absolutely, absolutely incredible conspiracy theorists and we absolutely need the world to see them ramble about the heroes and villains. 

SmallMight: Amaya Uyemuri of class 1-B apparently tried to persuade Monoma and the rest of his classmates that All Might is just Endeavor and Thunderbolt wearing a metaphorical trench coat because they couldn’t agree on who was going to be the Number One Hero so they decided to become one together.

SmallMight: he even brought detailed calculations of their weight and speed on the basis of their quirks to justify it. It’s like a blackboard of numbers and charts. They all add up.

ZapZap: LOL

SmallMight: And Todoroki Shoto… no, I’m just going to show you the screenshots because even trying to sum it up in my mind makes me laugh my ass of the seat

ZapZap: Shoto?!

ZapZap: OH MY GOD

ZapZap: WHAT IS THIS

ZapZap: THE WORLD MUST KNOW

SmallMight: I KNOW, RIGHT?!

SmallMight: I’m trying to rehabilitate Shoto back into society and I think that this might be the key to give him something to socialize about. 

ZapZap: I’M IN, DUDE

ZapZap: THIS IS AN ABSOLUTE GOLDMINE

ZapZap: You bought me like a pack of jellos. 

ZapZap: I’m getting technical preparations done rn with my brother’s help, you get them to agree to all of that!

SmallMight: Get Jirou to work on the soundtrack xD 

ZapZap: YES!

***

SmallMight: Don’t do it.

TurboMan: ???

SmallMight: Don’t intern in Hosu. 

TurboMan: Why? Manual is a perfectly logical choice for an internship. 

SmallMight: Don’t insult my intelligence, Tenya. 

SmallMight: You got second place in the school festival. Ingenium is your older brother.

SmallMight: You got thousands of offers, most of them from heroes on a much higher place in the ranking or more oriented towards your quirk. 

SmallMight: You’re planning to go on a solo revenge crusade against the Hero Killer, aren’t you?

TurboMan: No, I’m not. That would be illegal and most likely suicidal considering my level of skills. Truly, it’s only logical to leave him to the pros.

SmallMight: Then pick another offer for internships. 

SmallMight: Another offer not from Hosu. 

TurboMan: I want to go with Manual. 

SmallMight: Really forcing my hand, aren’t you?

SmallMight: Hero Killer didn’t attack your brother.

TurboMan: What?

SmallMight: I can’t tell you anything, but you know about my connections with All Might and Nedzu. 

SmallMight: Someone is trying to frame the Hero Killer into an attempted murder of an outstanding hero to make his messages against hero corruption lose their edge. Let me guess, your brother didn’t see the attacker? But it ‘fit the pattern’ and the weapon used was similar? 

TurboMan: This… might be the case. 

TurboMan: But the authorities stated that it was the Hero Killer that maimed my brother. And I trust them.

TurboMan: I’m going to Hosu. 

SmallMight: Very well. Then I’m going to use the final argument.

SmallMight: Tenya. If I promise to fix your brother’s spine, will you drop Hosu?

TurboMan: What?

TurboMan: His spine is damaged beyond recovery. 

SmallMight: My sister has a powerful recovery quirk. Probably the most powerful in the world (which is why she is kept hidden from the people, and why she was kidnapped in the first place).

SmallMight: She can heal your brother. And I’ll smuggle her into your brother’s hospital to heal him - if you go to the internship of my choosing and stay there obediently until the end. Rather than going to Hosu.

SmallMight: Call it an instinct or a hunch, but Hosu stinks. I don’t want any of my classmates to be anywhere close to it. 

TurboMan: If you are lying, I’m going to change your life into a nightmare. 

SmallMight: Spooky, Tenya. But I’m not lying. 

TurboMan: Hypothetically, what would be your choice of an internship?

Chapter Text

“So, did you and Bakugou know each other earlier?” Uraraka decided to ask during the lunch break. She realized that it might not have been her best idea when she saw the look he gave her. 

‘Startled’ didn’t even begin to describe it. 

“W… why?” Izuku replies. “What brought this?” Uraraka is only slightly freaked out by the intensity of shock on his face, Izuku genuinely looks like Asa when someone not from his family is looking at him. 

“I mean, he keeps calling you Deku.” She decides to go through with it and finally be done with. “It sounds pretty cute.” 

She didn’t know that he could freak out more than this, but somehow, he did. This is very worrying. Like, more than he was in general. 

“Ccccute?” He manages to utter, and Uraraka is kinda lost. Sure, it does sound like ‘worthless’ a bit, but it’s not this, right?

“Yeah, it sounds a bit like ‘Dekiru’.” She replies. “It gives me that ‘you can do it’ vibes.” 

She broke him. She realizes it instantly. It’s as if he doesn’t know how to react to what she just said so he just went vacant. 

After like ten seconds of increasingly awkward silence he finally manages to make a reaction. 

“Oh.” It’s all she gets out of him before he returns to eating his lunch. 

This was… odd exchange. 

***

1-A Chatroom

ZapZap: @ClassPresident IS IT TIME???

ClassPresident: Yes, Principal Nedzu approved the initiative. 

ClassPresident: And in his own chimeric ways has almost laughed himself off the chair. 

ZapZap: I AM NOT SURPRISED DUDE xD

SugarRush: What?

ClassPresident: I’ve been trying to make Shoto socialize. 

ClassPresident: Nat20, really.

BlackDarkness: I detect a fellow nerd.

ClassPresident: Depends. Favourite faction in Wh40k? 

BlackDarkness: Space Marines.

ClassPresident: Really?

ClassPresident: Raven Guard? 

BlackDarkness: Yes. Although I also like Blood Ravens. 

ClassPresident: Favourite DnD class?

BlackDarkness: Warlock, obviously. But only from 11th edition onwards. 

ClassPresident: Yeah, my bad.

ClassPresident: I approve of you as a fellow nerd.

BlackDarkness: Good.

ZapZap: ???

ClassPresident: Sorry Kaminari!

ClassPresident Alright, time to storm the castle

ClassPresident: @Everyone

ClassPresident: KAMINARI FIRE IT UP

ZapZap: Y E S   D U D E

LeadSinger: What is this ping?!

GravityGirl: Why is this ping?

SugarRush: When is this ping? 

CreativeSpirit: What?

The stream starts. Following a brief intro (that introduces this as a first installment of a Heroic Conspiracy series of a UA-Guesswork channel), members of the 1-A class are introduced to Kaminari Denki and Amaya Uyemura. And his blackboard. 

GravityGirl: Did I just spend ten minutes listening to 1-B kid trying to persuade Denki that All Might is Thunderbolt and Endeavor wearing a trenchcoat?

CreativeSpirit: The math adds up superficially, but it doesn’t include certain factors (like the lack of ability to move freely by people wearing such an outfit).

LeadSinger: And he brought an entire blackboard of calculations to support this? Why is he not putting the same effort in class?! 

CreativeSpirit: Maybe he does?  

BlackDarkness: I find this mad banquet of darkness oddly entertaining. 

ClassPresident: Wait for it

ZapZap: YES

The segment ends. Kaminari invites another guest. Several hero students throughout Japan do a spittake or almost choke on something (or just stare in silence) when they see that it’s Todoroki Shoto, the emotionless son of the Number Two Hero. 

Kaminari ends up asking Shoto about his opinion on the Amaya’s theory. Shoto stares at him for like three seconds before deadpanning that neither Thunderbolt nor Endeavor can smile like All Might does, so it makes much more sense for All Might to be Endeavor and Hawks wearing a trenchcoat, with the latter responsible for the facial expressions. 

GravityGirl: OH MY GOD

GravityGirl: I LITERALLY CAN’T TELL IF HE IS SERIOUS ABOUT IT OR NOT

ClassPresident: I KNOW RIGHT?

CreativeSpirit: Endeavor is going to kill someone. 

ClassPresident: Hopefully himself. Now wait for the second part xD

The class 1-A gets to see the second segment proper. They witness Shoto spending seven minutes narrating his theory (with a lot of photographs as evidence) that Inasa Yoarashi is All Might’s secret lovechild. 

They are both large, they are both loud (Shoto actually made a comparison about the average decibels of their voice), and Inasa has an air-based quirk. Which makes sense for it being a mutation of All Might’s, since All Might uses a lot of air pressure attacks. And his strongest attacks can apparently change the weather by blowing away the clouds. 

Shoto actually points out that if Captain Celebrity (the American Number Two Hero) can obtain super strength through applying telekinesis on himself, then perhaps All Might achieved the same with aerokinesis. Resulting in Inasa receiving a mutated version of this quirk. Which is also very powerful (which makes sense considering his father). 

All of that is said with a decisive tone, and with a face of cold determination. That seems at least slightly deranged in intensity when Kaminari goes too far with pointing out flaws in logic (that are quickly counter-argumented by Shoto). 

GravityGirl: I’m dying

GravityGirl: Is he serious or not

GravityGirl: I have to know

Froggy: @GaleForce is there something about your family that we don’t know

GaleForce: what

GaleForce: what

GaleForce: what

Froggy: Someone explain to him how do you write capital letters or I’ll do it. 

Mindhack: So GaleForce is kinda an adopted cousin of the Class President now? I mean, his dad is pretty much a brother to All Might in all but name, being his personal assistant and friend for years. 

Vampire: Awesome!

Riot: Yes, that would be super manly!

AcidParty: Sorry, I just watched this and I’m rolling on the floor, I’ll be back in a few minutes.

SugarRush: Yes xD

Tentacle: Is this Shoto’s face when he is enjoying himself or when he wants to obliterate someone with facts and logic? 

Tentacle: or both?

GravityGirl: Both

ClassPresident: Probably both

ClassPresident: Ask soon-to-be celebrity yourself because… 

User Thermostat joins the chat!

Thermostat: Hello.

GravityGirl: Pffffft

CreativeSpirit: Thermostat, really?

Thermostat: It fits, yes? 

ClassPresident: Yes, Shoto, it does.

ClassPresident: Shoto is having problems socializing, but he wants to change that and befriend people. He doesn’t have a lot of hobbies so we decided to capitalize on one to give something to talk about with people. 

Thermostat: I like making theories.

ClassPresident: As a ClassPresident I announce that we as a class are officially adopting him as our cherished friend and we’re going to do our best to make him feel welcome :D

GravityGirl: Yes!

LeadSinger: Yes! 

Thermostat: Yes!

Thermostat: Did I make the mistake by joining this sequence?

ClassPresident: No, you didn’t.

CreativeSpirit: You like uphill battles, don’t you?

***

Eventually, All Might decided to test if Eraserhead is right about his son being involved in everything odd happening in or near UA. So instead of trying to get answers from other teachers, he simply phones his son. 

“Izuku, I have a question.” Yagi says into the phone. Is Eraserhead right about this? “Why is everyone asking me weird questions about Inasa Yoarashi today? And about Hawks, Thunderbolt and Endeavor? All while smirking weirdly. What have you done this time?”

There are several long seconds of silence through the phone. All Might realizes that Aizawa was correct. He just isn’t sure about what exactly. 

“... I might have given an idea to Denki, Uyemura and Todoroki about making a conspiracy theory youtube channel together.” Izuku says finally. “Their first episode went viral, probably because of Shoto being in it. It includes the theories that you are Endeavor and either Thunderbolt or Hawks wearing a trenchcoat, and that Inasa is your secret lovechild.” 

Yagi remains silent for a few seconds, while pinching the bridge of his nose. Did Inko and Gran Torino already see it? Why was he the last one to find out? What is he supposed to do right now? He can’t give his son a house arrest until the heat death of the universe, right? 

“Send me the link.” He can as well find out what it is all about. 

He ends up falling off the chair in laughter midway through the episode. 

***

Gran Torino sighs painfully when he sees the interns (why plural this year, whyyyy) approaching his hero agency slash home slash elderly home through the security cameras. He knows that meeting Eri made him go soft (she is too adorable to keep a scary face around, she immediately decides that he is sad and she does her best to cheer him up and he simply can’t win against it), because that’s the only reason why he might have agreed to it. 

He is also going to kill Yagi Toshinori. So many years of tortur… educating him, and somehow his teaching career is… this. ‘When you have a problem, throw it at Gran Torino’ isn’t a long term teaching policy. 

Gran Torino had a long phone call with his grand… Izuku about it. Sorahiko knows what to expect. He knows that this one time he is going to mostly give up his standard introduction. No messing-up around. Not enough time to make them realize things on their own, unfortunately. 

“That doesn’t look like a hero agency.” The voice is calm and emotionless. Just as expected from someone with so many family issues that Sorahiko doesn’t even know where to begin. 

Frankly, he just wants to kick Endeavor in the face. 

Gran Torino doesn’t enjoy hearing about his home being dissed like that, but despite the age he has superb hearing. They aren’t even in the building, but he still hears them. 

“I have numerous questions about whatever officials stamped their approval of this building’s construction and continuous usage!” Oh yeah, the official and serious one. The second place in the tournament. So many mistakes and flaws that it’s almost hilarious that he got this far. 

“Oh, trust me, it’s fine!” Izuku, his greenhaired grands… damn it, Sorahiko, stop that, announces. “Just meet the hero inside and you’ll get it. No judging the book by the cover and all that.” 

“It’s just a fucking waste of time.” Oh, the angry one. Gran Torino is absolutely looking forward to having one-on-one training sessions with Bakugou Katsuki. This is going to be fabulous. And painful, but only to one person. 

Even Yagi Toshinori didn’t see Sorahiko Torino genuinely angry at a student. Knowing what Bakugou Katsuki did to Izuku Midoriya is certainly enough to make him achieve that state. 

***

Izuku beams when he sees Gran and that alone makes the old hero realize just how old he got. He was supposed to be scary! Instead, all he gets is… this. Pathetic. 

Todoroki Shoto is emotionless, but appears to be vaguely interested. He is also clearly sticking right next to Izuku, which probably shouldn’t be surprising - if what Izuku mentioned is correct, he is literally the first friend that Shoto ever had in his life. 

The saddest part is that he managed to beat the ‘longest time without a friend’ record of Izuku Midoriya by, what? Two months plus maybe the first 3-4 years of life before he was discovered to be quirkless and Bakugou turned out to be a dick? Sad. 

Tenya Iida is clearly underwhelmed by the very casual insides of the building. Considering how prim and proper Tenya Iida is, this is probably to be expected. One of the things he’ll have to fix during the two weeks of internships. He’ll start by making the kid realize that the old hero in front of him is actually skillful. 

There is a simple way of achieving that. 

Taunting Bakugou is really easy, especially as he seems like he already taunted himself. He is clearly looking down on Gran Torino. Did Izuku even mention to him that he is looking at one of the two mentors that All Might had? Probably not. 

It’s probably high time for Izuku to be at least a bit of a sadist towards his old bully. It’s therapeutic, really. Gran Torino still looks back to the moment when he managed to dropkick All for One in the face. Sure, he almost died two seconds later, but he still thinks that it’s sad that no one was recording that moment. 

Bakugou quickly agrees to the bet. If he gets to hit Gran Torino, Sorahiko will get him an internship with All Might’s former mentor. The smirk on Izuku’s face is truly reassuring, because he knows that whatever happens, Bakugou loses. 

Bakugou does just that. 

It’s not even a fight. 

Gran Torino has a certain degree of respect towards Bakugou Katsuki. He has skills, there is no doubt about it, it’s his personality that’s trash. He is strong and has a reaction time that Gran didn’t get to witness in a kid his age ever since he met Nana’s grandson for the first time. But, frankly speaking, this is at least an order of magnitude below what Gran Torino has in store. 

The old hero has combat experience, Izuku’s dissection of Bakugou’s combat style and a lot of recordings of his fights. What’s more, while his reaction speed might be slightly below Bakugou’s (and his strength is way lower, and probably so is endurance), his actual speed of movement is far beyond the kid’s in front of him.

Gran Torino beats him up. Slowly. Steadily. With a speed so fast that he is acutely aware that Tenya’s estimations of him are skyrocketing - the kid practically stares in shock, his eyes failing to follow Gran Torino’s movements. 

Bakugou is on all fours in front of Gran Torino, who is clearly feeling pretty cathartic at the moment. 

“That settles it up, I believe?” Gran Torino asks and gets a lot of begrudging respect back. “Don’t feel bad about it. You get your side of the deal fulfilled too. Because, you see, I was the All Might’s mentor.” He gets a shocked stare. “Oh yes. I was his homeroom teacher in the UA as well. During our spars I beat him up so much that he ended up vomiting a few times. He knows that I have results, but that I’m also way more harsh than Eraserhead could ever be.” 

He looks away from Bakugou at only slightly intimidated Tenya and still largely unreadable Shoto. Plus, of course his beaming adopted grandson (he has mostly given up on pretending otherwise at this point, besides this makes Eri his adopted granddaughter and that puts everything in the world in the right place).  

“All Might send you to me, because that’s his way of dealing with problem children.” He continues. “I have two weeks to beat you all into shape while also giving you some practical experience. This internship will be hell. By the time it’s over, you, like All Might, will react with terrified shivering at the mention of my name. But I can promise you one thing in exchange. Results.”  

He is going to start with Todoroki Shoto. 

***

He lets the remaining kids settle up in their rooms, while he himself takes the young Todoroki to the nearby training gym. It’s a bit of a special place, designed for various problem children with powerful quirks. 

Among other things, it’s fireproof. And Gran Torino might have, taking advantage of UA’s funds, rented it for the next two weeks. He is going to need it. Or, to be exact, Todoroki Shoto will need it. 

He stands in front of the kid in a completely empty room and decides to start the talk. 

“Your control of ice is reasonable enough.” Gran Torino starts. “So we’re going to focus on helping you learn how to control your flames.” He doesn’t touch the reason for why those need work. This is something that he is leaving for the school and Izuku to handle. “Anything to add about it? Or a question to ask?”

“I’m not sure how much of a help this is going to be.” Todoroki promptly replies. “I expected Izuku to find me some fire hero to intern with.” 

While Izuku probably didn’t want to let him off his sight for two weeks. Especially not right after such a character development. Izuku was a smart kid. Not on every field (he would have ditched Bakugou and Aldera High School years earlier if he was), but when it comes to helping others, he is unmatched. 

“Kid, quirks don’t work like that.” Gran Torino promptly replies. “Interning under a fire hero would just make your teacher be someone who knows how to deal with fire hazard during training. There are no two identical quirks unless you had a good genetic roll and you have a parent-offspring relation, and unless Endeavor has an ice side that he hides from the world, you didn’t.”

“But my flame is like his?” It actually sounds like a question. And it’s not ‘my flame is his’ but ‘like his’. This is certainly progress. 

“Let me entertain a guess.” Gran Torino replies. “You were taught ice control from either your mother or someone from her side of the family.” Shoto nods. “But for some reason, you had to change things on your own as their explanations tended to not work as intended when put to practice. Yes?” 

Shoto stares into space for a few seconds. Then he nods.

“Why?” At least he doesn’t waste time on frivolities.

“Because you don’t have the same quirk as they do, simple as that.” Gran Torino replies. “I met a few cases of dual quirks during my career as a hero and a teacher, and they are never identical to what their parents have. You fire side influences the output of your ice, and vice versa. How can you exactly perform Prominence Burn when it’s about concentrating flames from your entire body for a single attack… and only half of your body has flames?” 

Todoroki Shoto thinks it over quite fast. And arrives at the right conclusion. Without Gran Torino having to beat it into him. 

“So considering the dual nature of my quirk, trying to directly copy Endeavor’s super moves would be actually harmful to me.” Gran Torino isn’t sure about it but the kid feels faintly happy about it. Also it’s less ‘actually harmful’ and more like ‘you can reach like 70-80% of your full potential that way, kid’, but it’s not time to describe things like that. “So I’ll need to experiment on my own to learn how to properly use my flames.” 

“Precisely, kid.” Gran Torino replies. “Learning how to control your flames isn’t that hard. It’s not in any way different than what you did to control your ice. Mental image, willpower, repetitive training, squeezing the freed energy into correct shape, and so on. But the only person who truly knows how your quirk works on the inside is yourself. So you are going to spend most of your internship letting your flames flow and trying to apply the controlling factors I mentioned. For today, focus on merely letting those flames burst out, without accidentally hurting someone who just happens to stand too close to your flame side. Learn how to control the initial ignition first. Tomorrow me, you and Izuku will spend a few hours brainstorming ideas for attacks and other applications of your fire. Then you’ll move to practice.” 

He doesn’t add that if they want to have some serious progress, Todoroki will have to do his best to adapt to pretty much 16h workday for the next two weeks. There are no slackers in Gran Torino’s internships, and he will kick anyone who complains in the face. 

He lets Todoroki think he is safe for the day. 

*** 

The second kid he borrows for a talk is Tenya Iida. Mostly because dealing with Bakugou is going to be a dessert that he’ll deeply enjoy, and Izuku… well, Izuku is no fun since he seems to be mostly aware of what he is doing. He spent quite a while training with Gran Torino, after all.

Tenya is pretty much standing at attention in front of him, and Gran Torino does his best to avoid the ridiculous hand motions. 

“Your problem, kid…” Gran Torino braces for an argument. “... is your brother.” He is going in raw, sue him about it. 

“What?!” Tenya is shocked. “Ingenium is a wonderful hero with a perfect work history and great achievements, how can you…” 

“That’s the problem, fool!” Gran Torino shouts and hits Tenya’s leg with his walking stick. The kid actually jumps back a bit. “You have the same issue that Izuku had when I first met him. He had so much admiration for All Might that he practically based his entire idea for applying his quirk on him. Always full power, always punches. Agile speedster trying to base his fighting style on a musclebound juggernaut went about as well as you can expect.” All the broken bones… ugh. “And that’s your problem. You admire Ingenium so much that you are trying to be identical to him, despite the obvious differences between you.” 

“I dare to disagree!” Tenya refuses to yield. “My attacks have been explicitly tailored to take my leg thrusters into account. That’s why I converted from punches to kicks.” Well, nice for him, Gran Torino thinks. He is like 10% less of a pain in the ass than Izuku on this field. 

“Well, so let me go a different way.” Gran Torino gives him a bit of a sadistic grin. “Why did you lose against Monoma?”  

“He surprised me with his hardening quirk.” Tenya replies promptly. “It damaged my ankle and limited my mobility, resulting in…” Gran Torino hears enough. 

“And do you know what was the easy way of NOT getting surprised by a hardening quirk?” Gran Torino says, and Tenya promptly shuts up. He is clearly trying to figure out something, but he fails. “Well, have you ever heard about our lord and saviour, THE RANGED ATTACKS?” 

“The ranged…” Tenya blinks a few times. “I can’t do ranged attacks! My quirk simply makes me move faster, that’s not exactly…” 

“No, kid.” Gran Torino interrupts him quickly. “You can do ranged attacks, but you don’t. Because Ingenium doesn’t use them. And you never bothered to ask yourself how you could use your legs slightly differently. Especially as it requires thinking outside the box a little.”

He throws a small ball in front of him, raises his legs (and stabilizes himself with his walking stick placed behind his back). Then he fires his leg thrusters at the ball, sending it flying with enough strength to make a small dent in the wall. 

Tenya stares at it in surprise. 

“Why do you think All Might has his Air Force attack, despite being so powerful that he can just punch everything in the face and call it a day?” Gran Torino asks, bringing Tenya’s attention back to him. “Now it’s powerful enough to use it for crowd control, but the original reason was to gauge the enemy's strength and quirk nature before leaping into melee. Just a single burst of it, and if the enemy didn’t even notice it, then he was clearly a major threat. And probably with a strengthening quirk. You could have used your legs to chip a small part of the concrete floor of the arena and then kick it at Monoma. If it was going too fast for him to dodge, it would force him to reveal his hardening quirk to you before it broke your ankle. But Ingenium doesn’t do ranged attacks, as hands are less suitable for it and he has sidekicks for those, so neither did you. Am I correct?” 

Izuku’s opinion on Tenya was that he was pretty much like Nedzu, just to a lesser degree. Smart, yes. But mentally stubborn and conservative. Changing Nedzu’s opinion on something required some truly overwhelming amount of evidence, but once he did it, he adapted to the changed situation with lightning speed. Tenya immediately proves Torino’s grandson correct. 

“You are right.” Tenya nods. “Your analysis is sound, but none of it passed by mind during the fight. This is certainly something to work on.” 

“And that's not all.” Gran Torino replies. “We won’t have enough time to work through them all during the internships, so you’ll have to show your initiative afterwards. But there are two more major flaws in your fighting style that require urgent fixing or you are going to be killed by the first A-Rank villain that you run into. Point one, what the hell are your hands for?” 

“Err?” Tenya is clearly shocked by the sudden change of subject. “My engines are in my legs, my arms are…” 

He gets the walking stick in the arm and once again jumps back a bit. 

“Those are two perfectly fine limbs, kid.” Gran Torino announces. “Two perfectly fine limbs that, in case you didn’t notice, get more or less the same velocity as your whole body. While being way less flashy, because trust me, when your enemy has a rocket engine in his legs you tend to not focus on what his hands are doing. Sure, they aren’t as reinforced as your legs, so you’ll need to get creative with them. But… do you have the tiniest goddamn idea how easy it is for you to make the enemy focus on your legs in preparation for a kick, only for you to hit them in the head with a stun baton? Or just punch them in the face?” Tenya’s eyes widen. “And all you are using them for is to balance your body or grab things. You should be fucking ashamed.” 

Tenya Iida already looks like his world did a hundred-eighty and he isn’t sure how to deal with it. But Gran Torino is not done with delivering the news, so he follows up with the third flaw. 

“The third flaw is that you have the flexibility of an overdried wood log.” Gran Torino announces. “Your attacks have trajectories that a five years old kid could predict. Any death touch quirk user like Overhaul will take you down instantly by simply predicting your move and touching you while you attack them. Hell, any fighter that can tank an attack of yours will probably take you down in a counter easily. Hero Killer beat me up by tanking my attacks and figuring out my attack pattern until he managed to effortlessly grab me by the leg mid flight and restrain me. How much easier do you think it is to take down a speedster whose only attack trajectory is a straight line?” 

“You fought the Hero Killer?” Tenya is clearly shocked. 

“Run into him accidentally.” Gran Torino deflects the question. The one thing he took from that is to never make fun of Yagi Toshinori in front of Akaguro Chizome. The duel was short and frankly rather humiliating to the old hero. Inko Midoriya and Mr. Compress were vaguely amused by that. “You’re going to have to ask Izuku about some gymnast training tips and try to include the expanded moveset to your attack on your own once you stop being so stiff. For now, we are going to start talking about the way your training here will work.” 

“Before that, I.. have a question.” Tenya stares at Gran Torino a bit more intensively than he expected. “Do you think that the Hero Killer attacked my brother?” 

Chapter Text

How do you exactly answer a question like this? Tenya Iida just asked Gran Torino if the Hero Killer - an infamous S-Rank villain - maimed his brother for life. Gran Torino knows that he didn’t, but what sort of arguments does he have? ‘Well, we were playing poker in Midoriya’s house about the time the attack occurred, so it couldn’t be him’? Way to go, Gran Torino. Way to go to jail. 

“No, I don’t think that he did it.” Gran Torino replies. For a moment he will refrain from shouting at young Iida. 

“Why?” Tenya answers with a question. He is certainly way less serious than normally… but in no way relaxed. There is something deeply worrying in his eyes, something that makes Gran Torino wonder how Izuku exactly persuaded Tenya away from going to Hosu. “Team Idaten is a hero agency run by a single family, I know that he looks down on groups like this for changing the heroics into a hereditary occupation, and…” 

Gran Torino interrupts him by raising his hand. 

“Yes, he does.” Gran Torino replies. “But Ingenium regains points elsewhere. Because while Stain looks down on heroics being treated as a job, he absolutely hates the very concept of someone willing to become a hero being denied a chance for that due to being born with a wrong quirk. The only thing that matters for him is one wanting to risk his life to save others and actually being ready to do it when the right time comes. And you know your brother’s approach to quirkism.” 

Tenya does, of course. Close to half of the seventy sidekicks of Team Idaten are heroes with ‘villainous quirks’ or complex mutants. There are even recurrent gossips that one or two are quirkless who figured out how to pretend to have a quirk well enough. Ingenium actually made the headlines a few years ago, when some journalists discovered that a recently hired Idaten sidekick was a complex mutant that Ingenium talked off the rooftop a few years earlier and promised them that he would help them become a hero. 

“Frankly speaking, I would be less surprised by Stain rescuing your brother than I was by the announcement that he attacked him.” Gran Torino concludes. “The only scenario in which I can imagine Stain wounding Ingenium was if your brother somehow cornered him and forced his hand. But while I respect your brother for his hard work and anti-discriminatory policies, he simply isn’t someone who could do that to Stain. The Hero Killer could probably keep standing after All Might’s punch, Ingenium simply doesn’t compare.”

He could. Gran Torino heard the tale. Every non-strength augmenter that could still stand after getting a 100% Detroit Smash to the chest was a monster that Gran Torino wanted to have nothing to do with (unfortunately it was AFTER Torino was humiliated, so he didn’t see any warning signs when he accepted the duel request). 

And Stain didn’t just stand after it - he high-fived Mr. Compress and announced that they won the bet with All Might and will get free beer for the next week. Although he was shaky for a while. And it was rather obvious that the second or third punch would take him down.

Inko almost killed them all over the dumb shit they were doing behind her house while she wasn’t there to stop them. Gran Torino wishes he was there to witness the scolding. Then again, acting all dumb with your brothers-in-law was kinda a tradition for married men, now wasn’t it? 

Seeing Toshinori finally enjoying life was… Well, let’s be real. Yagi Toshinori earned it. 

“I see.” Tenya looks away, clearly conflicted about something. Gran Torino wonders. 

***

Dealing with Izuku is the least problematic part of the day. By now Izuku knows where and how he wants things to proceed when it comes to his quirk. He could go elsewhere for his internships to gather some proper connections, but he is trying to keep an eye on Iida and Shoto, and that made him go to Gran Torino as well. 

Besides, Izuku internalized Gran Torino’s belief that there is not a single thing in the universe that makes training your fundamentals a bad idea. 

Then Izuku runs him through the revelation that the One for All final form will have him awaken the quirks of its former users most likely, and that he already used (somehow, probably accidentally) En’s Smokescreen. And that if Aiko’s words are to be trusted, he has ghosts of former users living in his quirk. Including Nana. 

Gran Torino joins Eraserhead and All Might in their common belief that Izuku Midoriya is a problem child. 

***

Dealing with Bakugou is going to be a problem. But a good one. Gran Torino has actually requested for him to be sent to his agency for the internships (the Rehab Coursers don’t have a choice when it comes to them, at least not yet). 

The problem with Bakugou is that Gran Torino doesn’t have much to change in his combat tactics. Oh, there are problems to correct. For example, Sorahiko Torino has absolutely no idea why the kid has thoroughly ignored the existence of his legs when it comes to propulsion - legs as a rule are more resistant than arms, so he could easily make powerful straight line thrusts from his legs, while using his arms for more precise maneuvers. 

His sweat is nitroglycerine. All of it. How hard is it to get some support item that redirects his sweat from his legs to his soles for large-scale detonations? 

The real problem is going to be correcting his personality. Because, frankly speaking, Gran Torino sees practically nothing redeemable in it. And while he knows that Hound Dog is working by the clock to change, he also realizes that it won’t work with Bakugou. 

Because Bakugou is so absolutely full of shit that it can’t be changed. His warped mindset is going to absolutely refuse all those minor changes that constitute a successful therapy. So Gran Torino is going to do his own thing. 

He just needs a proper pretext. A good moment to make what’s coming not feel out of place, to not make it look like anything other than a genuine outburst. 

***

1-A Classroom Chat

ZapZap: How are you doing in your internships, folks?

LeadSinger: I’m dying, Death Arms is making me run around way too much

LeadSinger: But I helped deal with a hostage situation so I guess I’m doing alright? 

ZapZap: Sounds super cool!

LeadSinger: It was mostly just me locating and counting the hostages though

ZapZap: Still supercool!

CreativeSpirit: Uwabami was a mistake.

Grapevine: And so was Mt. Lady. 

ZapZap: Do I want to ask?

CreativeSpirit: Uwabami is pretty much treating me and the 1-B class president as modelling assistants.

CreativeSpirit: Zero heroics, well, almost.

Grapevine: And Mt. Lady is treating me as someone to clean her agency up because she is a lazy bum and wants to save money on professional cleaners. 

Grapevine: I can’t believe I thought that she was sexy. 

Grapevine: She is the opposite of sexy.

Grapevine: And, even worse, I’m not learning anything over here aside from common household skills!

ZapZap: That’s worse than lack of sexiness, dude?
Grapevine: Yes.

ZapZap: I’m seeing some progress in you and this is pretty great, Mineta. 

Grapevine: Yes.

Grapevine: It’s called character development and it rolls back when I have a bad day but I’m supposed to be having less of those down the line so it’s good.

Grapevine: I actually feel pretty damn motivated for most of the time and that’s awesome!

Grapevine: unlike my internship

Grapevine: Crap, more work. gtg

ZapZap: KEEP FIGHTING DUDE

ZapZap: Anyone else here? 

LeadSinger: Aren’t you, like, busy yourself?

ZapZap: Nah, it’s alright

ZapZap: High Voltage is pretty chill dude, I did my daily quote of patrols and training so I’m free to be on the internet

ZapZap: Does anyone know how Shoto and Izuku are doing in their internships?

ZapZap: My channel’s inspiration and co-worker are, like, super important to me

GravityGirl: Curious myself

Vampire: Because of i-zu-ku?

GravityGirl: What, no

GravityGirl: Himichan stop

Vampire: There is no one who can stop me from shipping you, Ochaco-chan.

GravityGirl: STOP

Vampire: Talking about ships, Froggy’s out of range, because she is at sea with Selkie :/ 

Vampire: My critical lack of my mutant friend makes me look for other people to play with

Vampire: all rehab course students are staying at the dorms instead of interning, save for bakugou :/

Vampire: boooooring

Vampire: So, Izuku :3 

Vampire: @ClassPresident

ClassPresident: Ehhh, stop bothering Uraraka, Himichan

Vampire: no.

GravityGirl: yes!

Mindhack: maybe?

ZapZap: lol

ZapZap: *highfive*

Mindhack: *highfive*

GravityGirl: *pouts*

ClassPresident: As for our internship, it’s been… uhm… entertaining three days. 

GravityGirl: Entertaining? 

GravityGirl: I literally never heard about the hero that you went to intern with, you know?

GravityGirl: I expected you to choose someone from the Top Ten, not to drag Shoto and Tenya to some weird old man who was told to keep an eye on Katsuki as well. 

Mindhack: Wait, you are interning with BAKUGOU KATSUKI? 

ClassPresident: There is a reason he is exluded from this convo for now, you know.

ClassPresident: It’s all a part of my plan. 

ClassPresident: If Gran Torino doesn’t make him behave, no one will. 

CreativeSpirit: Who is he even? I did check him (like I checked all the heroes that accepted students from 1-A), but he has next to no presence and only a mediocre work record. 

ClassPresident: Official work records aren’t always trustworthy.

Mindhack: Underground hero?

ClassPresident: No, more like the villains he went after during his prime has been expunged from all records (and not by the Japanese government, more like the United Nations as a whole) for some reason and anyone involved (including All Might) refuses to say a word about it. 

ClassPresident: Also he is All Might’s former mentor. And the closest thing that the Symbol of Peace has to a father figure, although expect him to deny it fervently. 

ZapZap: Holy shit that sounds super cool!

Riot: AND MANLY!!! 

CreativeSpirit: Oh great, more secrets.

GravityGirl: ^

ClassPresident: He is 73 years old but with a good match-up he could probably fight against most of the current Top Ten heroes. I think that only Endeavor and Mirko would beat him up in 1vs1 with relative ease. He taunted Katsuki into a duel on arrival by promising him a much more glamorous internship if he managed to land a blow on him, only to effortlessly pummel him into the ground with Katsuki failing to even touch him. 

Riot: Holy. Shit. 

Riot: I saw Katsuki fighting for real, that grandpa is even faster?!

ClassPresident: Way faster xD Tenya failed to follow him up with his eyes and we all know that the speedster types generally have fast reaction time and so on.

ClassPresident: His stamina is so-so due to age, but on short distances he is basically the fastest hero after Thunderbolt retired. And unlike him, he can use the ceiling and walls as a floor and pretty much fly to some degree. 

ClassPresident: Katsuki agreeing to a duel with him in literally his living room has been a… bad decision. 

TurboMan: I agree. It was just a blurred ball bouncing off the walls, way too fast for me to follow, hitting Katsuki from a different side every two to three seconds. 

ClassPresident: Tenya! Training over?

TurboMan: Yes. I’m heading back to eat, then I go to sleep. 

TurboMan: I have questions about the legality of 16h long workday, but thus far I manage. 

CreativeSpirit: 16h?!

ZapZap: OMG HOW ARE YOU SURVIVING THIS?!

GravityGirl: D:

ClassPresident: When it comes to strictness, Gran Torino is basically Aizawa-sensei, but squared. And then the result squared again. 

ClassPresident: I know about him because well, my dad is All Might’s PA. I also know that. All Might still shivers when Gran Torino is mentioned and I saw him stand at attention with fear on his face because he was phoning him. 

GravityGirl: Alright, I’m scared.

GravityGirl: What sort of a person he is as a whole?

TurboMan: Imagine very old Mineta, but with speed quirk, sadism instead of indecency, and probably rabies. 

ClassPresident: ... 

ClassPresident: I mean, you aren't wrong. 

GravityGirl: … oh

ClassPresident: Just add a very odd sense of humour that he isn’t showing this time because we have too many things to do in too short of a time. So he has no time to mess around with us. 

TurboMan: Odd sense of humour?

ClassPresident: When I met him for the first time (a month before the entrance exam, because I had serious problems with controlling my quirk), I entered the agency to see him lying motionless on the floor in a pool of red liquid and something looking like intestines.

ClassPresident: Turned out that it was a ketchup and some sausages, because he was carrying his groceries when he fell (no, he didn’t, he was just messing up with me). Then he pretended to not recognize me and feigned senility only to dropkick me through the window when I tried to phone my dad that Gran Torino isn’t in his right mind and scolded me for falling for such a dumb feint. 

ZapZap: …

LeadSinger: This is insane. 

LeadSinger: Like, really.

CreativeSpirit: I think I agree, can’t you just… like… leave?

TurboMan: Even if I could, I’d still stay with him on the internship.

CreativeSpirit: What?

GravityGirl: Why?

TurboMan: I question his sanity and professionalism, but not his teaching and combat skills. 

TurboMan: My training started with him taking me for a face-to-face talk and dissecting my entire combat style while pointing out three glaring weaknesses that, frankly speaking, I have no understanding of how I managed to miss earlier. Including one that cost me the victory in the School Festival. 

TurboMan: I also agree with him that they would sooner or later cost me my life if I had the misfortune of running into some stronger villain. 

TurboMan: The training is one from hell, and I agree with Gran Torino when he said that none of us will ever want to repeat it and we will probably shiver at the mention of his name, but I also admit that he was right when he said that the only thing that he can promise in return is results.

TurboMan: I am improving. Leaps and bounds. 

ZapZap: … so, basically, he is giving you a shounen protagonist hell training montage?

TurboMan: Eh?

ClassPresident: The answer is yes. 

ZapZap: Oh, that makes perfect sense then. 

GravityGirl: What? Why?

ClassPresident: If we all don’t return to school with at least 2-3 new super moves, I’m going to be thoroughly shocked and will probably agree to being a field-tester of Yaomomo and Mei’s new inventions. 

ClassPresident: Or at least, Tenya and Shoto will. I’m here more like a teaching assistant (though I work on something as well). The only question is Katsuki. 

TurboMan: You and Gran Torino clearly have some sort of plan in motion for him, aren’t you?

ClassPresident: It’s mostly Gran Torino. I’m just waiting to see what he is going to do to fix his personality.

Uraraka smiles at her phone. She didn’t really have the time to talk to anyone about her own internship (which is going pretty great, and she is improving by a lot, no doubts about it), but that’s alright. Izuku, like she does, is pretty much having an external training session, and she really looks forward to showing him how much she impr…

“Ohhh, I know that look.” She hears Gunhead's voice (she is just having a short break in his agency, so he is still around) and this makes her return back to consciousness. With just a bit of startleness to boot. “Someone’s in love.” He is sitting cross-legged in front of her, his head resting on his hands. 

She has no idea how to react to a muscular man with a gun-quirk occasionally speaking like a young girl. It’s odd. It makes her laugh a bit, and he is no creep, he is an exemplary hero, just… 

And then, there is the subject. 

“I’m not in love with him!” She quickly replies and shudders internally because why is everyone claiming otherwise?! 

“Him, huh.” Gunhead sounds vaguely amused. “So, he is just a friend to you, right?” She nods furiously. “Okay, so do you have another male friend your age?” She does. Tenya. Inasa too, kinda. Hitoshi, probably. “So are you in for a little thought exercise?” 

She probably isn’t. But it’s also probably not a question. 

“So, pick one of your other friends.” He says and she chooses Tenya. “Now imagine that you are getting married.”

“What?!” She stares at the hero in front of her in shock. “Wait, what?”

“It’s just a thought exercise, Uraraka!” Gunhead announces with a brief laugh audible through his helmet. “C’mon, indulge me! Just imagine the scene for a few seconds and take note of your emotions.” It’s mostly just thinking that it’s super weird. Tenya is a nice guy, but… “Alright, now replace him with the boy that you supposedly aren’t in love with.” 

She. And Izuku. Getting married. 

She hides her face in her hands because the blushing is just way too strong, and she can’t even look at anyone in this state, and…

"Uraraka, you are floating.” Gunhead announces, sounding vaguely amused. She realizes that she is right, and she quickly returns to the floor. “Now, please tell me why are you reacting so differently to those two boys, if they are both just friends to you?” 

She mulls it over for like ten seconds before she approaches the only logical conclusion. 

“Ohmigosh.” Her fingers are on her face again, though eyes are excluded from the cover. “I AM in love with him!”

Gunhead snorts. 

“It’s called a first love, and we were all there at one point on another, Uraraka.” The hero is clearly enjoying it. “The question is, what are you planning to do with this?” 

What is she planning to do? She is still startled by the revelation that she was in love with a boy (something that, apparently, everyone managed to figure out before she did), so her mental faculties might not be working as intended, but… 

“Uhm, I think that…” She looks down. “... I want to be a hero, and that’s really time and attention consuming, and…” 

“Uraraka.” Gunhead interrupts her and she looks back at him again. “Being a hero is time and attention consuming as well, especially if you’re aiming at the top. Are you going to wait to find a boyfriend until you retire?” Well, now that he put it that way, that was… “Do you think that he is someone who would be angry at you for dedicating most of your time to training and learning things in the name of becoming a splendid hero? Or would he understand and support it?”

Uraraka remembers all the cases of Izuku going berserk at someone for trying to stop someone else from becoming a hero. How far he went to help Himiko and Hitoshi become heroes. How hard he is trying to help everyone else in the class. 

“He would understand, I think.” She replies, just slightly unsure about it. Izuku is probably the only person in the world where such an option is certainly on the table, just… he is kinda worrying at times, and that adds a degree of doubt when it comes to predicting him.

“Then why do you think that having someone to lean on during hard times and someone to help you when you’re in trouble would be a detriment to your quest to become a hero?” Gunhead asks, and Uraraka isn’t sure what to answer. “You’d have to do the same, of course. But that’s how relationships work. Two way streets.” 

She knows that much, and she certainly knows that Izuku needs someone to lean on a bit, just… 

“Do… Do you think that I should confess?” She decided to ask. It’s quite odd to ask a pro hero that she is interning with such a question, but…

“That’s something for you to decide.” He replies with a shrug. “Still one and a half weeks until you see each other. And you certainly know a person or two that you might ask for their input. You can probably figure out what I think about it, though.”  He stands up. “I have some experience when it comes to relationship counseling like that, I guess.” 

“Really?” She has no idea why, it’s a bit … “How?” 

“Six younger sisters, Uraraka.” Gunhead replies, and while he is wearing a mask, she is almost certain that his eyes are a bit dead at the moment. “Six younger sisters that I had to take care of after our parents died. And now I’m married and I have three daughters and no sons, because of course I do.” 

Oh. That explains a lot. 

***

Bakugou finally makes a mistake on the fifth day of the internship. He is training a new super move that Gran Torino manipulated him into making (it’s called AP Shot and it’s a part of their lord and saviour the Ranged Attacks because Miruko is literally the only high ranked melee fighting hero without at least one and Gran Torino still has no idea how that happened). 

He makes the mistake of cursing Deku under his nose for putting him up to this. So Gran Torino promptly breaks said nose and sends Bakugou backwards with the impact. 

“What the fuck?!” Bakugou is holding his nose with one hand, giving Gran Torino a death glare. After seeing All for One’s death glare, the old hero barely notices that one. “What do you think you’re doing, you senile old fart?” 

“I don’t care what filthy words you are using to describe me or your other classmates.” Gran Torino announces. “But if I hear you badmouthing Izuku Midoriya again, I’m going to break a bone. And if you keep doing it, it’s going to get worse.” 

“Fuck you.” Bakugou is just as abrasive right now as he probably can. And on the verge, because Gran Torino was using every trick in his repertoire to keep him on edge for days. Subtle jabs, the right stares, slight alteration to his bed that make him sleep bad… and more. “And fuck Deku.” 

Gran Torino didn’t use his full speed during their introductory brawl. This time he does. Three seconds later Bakugou’s right hand was broken below the elbow. He has enough pain tolerance to not just scream, but he is holding his arm and looking at Gran Torino with a combination of shock, anger and horror. 

“Gentle Criminal.” Gran Torino says, once again standing in front of Bakugou. “Split. Stain. Purity. Disassembler. Inferno. Strategist. Necromancer. Lady Nagant. Knuckleduster. Deathmonger. Crawler and Pop Step. Do you know what is the one thing they all have in common?” Bakugou doesn’t answer. “At some point in their lives, all of those people wanted to become heroes. Some managed to get into the hero school. Some were pro heroes for years. But today, the best of them are wanted vigilantes, while the worst are mass-murdering maniacs that average villains do not want to associate with.” 

He smirks at Bakugou, but only a blind man would take that for a sign of him being happy. For all his faults, Bakugou isn’t blind. 

“So please, do you think that the UA will let you finish this semester and continue learning how to fight from the best heroes out there if you’ll be the same disgusting piece of shit that you were when it started?” Gran Torino continues and Bakugou flinches visibly. “Do you think that they’ll enjoy a new Deathmonger growing among our midst? Do you think that I enjoy teaching you a technique that you’ll probably use to brutalize some actual heroes and who knows how many civilians?”

“As if I would ever become some loser villain!” Bakugou barks back. “I’m going to become…” 

“Loser villain?” Gran Torino interrupts him, and despite his fury, Bakugou feels cornered enough to not continue his rant. “Is that how you see this? The only reason why you want to become a hero instead of a villain… is because the latter are weak? Because they are losing?” Gran Torino laughs. “Because if that’s how you see this, then you are dumber than I thought. 

“Heroes always win!” Bakugou shouts back. “They…” 

“Dumb. Retard. Idiot. Deku.” Gran Torino says in a mocking tone. “That’s what you are, Bakugou. I’m old enough to remember the times before All Might. The times when villains had heroes in the corner. The times when heroes didn’t care about their place in the ranking because they couldn’t be sure that they’d survive until the next ranking announcement. Please tell me, what side would you be on if you were born back then? If moving your birthday by thirty years suddenly changes you into a psychopathic killer that needs to be brought down by All Might, then what sort of ‘hero’ are you? Because I can’t imagine the same thing changing a lot in Izuku’s case.” 

Izuku would still be either a hero or a vigilante back then, even if he were to remain quirkless. Gran Torino fails to imagine another scenario. But he realizes that it was a possibility. Everyone has a breaking point. Even Izuku, and it’s a miracle that the kid didn’t reach it. 

“I’m better than him!” Bakugou, once again barks back. “He is and always was a weakling. I don’t care what time I’d be born in, I’d still be a hero!” 

Oh yes, cracking that peculiar abusive marriage of inferiority and superiority complex is going to be fun. In the meantime, Gran Torino cracks some ribs and sends Bakugou to the floor. He doesn’t even rise from it, instead he curls into the corner, clearly terrified. 

Well, he shouldn’t have insulted Izuku again. Gran Torino told him that it’s forbidden. In a way, the old hero is just teaching Bakugou about such a thing as self-preservation instinct. 

“Weakling?” Gran Torino chuckles. Finally he can look down on Bakugou in more ways than one. “Is that all that you can think about? Please tell me, is there any other form of grading a person in your rotten brain than personal STRENGTH? Not even their ability to fight as a part of a team, because teamwork is probably for the losers, huh? Just their own personal strength.” Bakugou remains silent, but the glare intensifies. “Because if so, then let me enlighten you. Despite knowing All Might for most of his life, he isn’t the strongest person I get to meet. Because that one is a villain. A villain so horrible that his name, deeds, quirk and even his very existence were erased from history.”

He is going to tell the kid in front of him a thing or two that he theoretically isn’t allowed to know. No one will believe him. He is just a Rehab Course student with behavioural problems and history of bullying. Who will believe him that some unknown old hero shared secrets of All Might with him? 

“You’re lying!” Bakugou manages to speak. Hopefully he is smart enough to not badmouth Izuku again. “All Might would have never...” 

“That’s the point, kid.” Gran Torino leans over him. “All Might would have never fallen to a villain. This is a convenient lie that was changed into the cornerstone of the peaceful era we’re living in. But I saw your idol kneeling in a pool of his own blood in front of a triumphant villain, barely cognizant after a blow to the head that would have leveled a skyscraper, and with his innards sticking out of the wound that cost him his stomach and one of his lungs. He only survived and won because of two things. The first one was the villain’s arrogance, that made him be so certain of his personal strength that he didn’t bother to have anyone with him when he battled the Symbol of Peace. The second one was three heroes, all All Might’s trusted allies and companions, that threw themselves at the villain, knowing that they are going to die but maybe, just maybe they will buy All Might enough time to recover. And we did, though the other two died and I’ll suffer from chronic pain in half of my body until my death.” He thrusts his walking stick into Bakugou’s face, and pushes it up, just enough to make sure that their eyes meet. “So please, tell me Bakugou, whom do you think you resemble more? The Symbol of Peace or the Symbol of Evil?” 

Chapter Text

Bakugou is paralyzed, shocked, and has a face that makes it obvious that he has no idea what to think. He has been thrown so much out of his little comfort zone, his little fortress of established facts that he is grasping at straws. 

Gran Torino wants it like that. He is going to shatter whatever worldview Bakugou Katsuki had and then let him and Hound Dog and probably Izuku Midoriya pick up whatever worthwhile bits they’ll find in the wreckage and assemble something actually worth existing. 

He is far from being done with it. He isn’t one for half-measures. Bakugou Katsuki is already on the verge of being expelled from the Rehab Course, because the only part where he shows genuine improvement are his combat skills. Personality is, as established, still trash. The only reason why isn’t trying to go after Izuku again is his self-preservation instinct, not morality or common fucking decency. 

He isn’t letting a kid with this much combat ability and room to grow become a villain. And as it stands, it’s a matter of weeks or months now. He’ll be kicked out of the UA, then he will go to juvie and either escape it or wait until the end of it. Then it will be vigilantism. And he can’t hope for established and decent vigilante groups of the Vigilante Alliance to pick up someone this unstable and trashy to join them. 

Sooner or later he will go too far. And sooner or later he will end up being a villain. It’s just a matter of time. Unless Gran Torino puts an end to it right now. 

There is a reason why All Might wanted Gran Torino to take Bakugou. It’s literally the last, desperate attempt of the UA to get him to walk down the route of heroism. Everything else clearly failed. 

“I’ll let this question stew a bit before we’ll find an answer to it.” Gran Torino takes a step back. Bakugou looks actually almost frightened by this sudden change of pace. “Let’s talk about Izuku Midoriya.”

There is a flinch on Bakugou’s face at the mention of the name. It’s… subdued, somehow. By fear? By some actual confusion? Maybe by the beginnings of self-doubt? Gran Torino has no emotion reading quirk, so he’ll need to find out more the hard way. 

“Or, even better, let’s talk about Sir Nighteye.” Gran Torino surprises Bakugou again. “Do you know who that is?” Bakugou nods, still clearly shaken. “Well, that helps things. You see, he was a much younger hero, barely done with his license when All Might returned from the USA. He didn’t have a strong combat ability, merely a quirk that was not only troublesome to use but also that he didn’t like using to its full potential for personal reasons. But he had something else. He had brains.” Gran Torino says, his finger tapping on the side of his head.

Bakugou is listening intently. This is good. Unless he is, inside of his head, still in denial over absolutely everything. 

“He might have been a sidekick to All Might, but it was him who was combing through the evidence, figuring out the villain's plans and telling All Might where to appear to save people.” Gran Torino continues his lecture. “He spent almost a decade pretty much living in Might Tower, together with Nedzu trying to finally corner the villain I mentioned earlier. After it happened he might have had a falling out with All Might, but he is still an avid fan of the Number One Hero, like he always was.” Gran Torino leans over Bakugou again, and the kid visibly shrinks. “So please, Bakugou, enlighten me. If you truly want to be like All Might, then why does your Sir Nighteye freaks out when he is surprised by sounds resembling your quirk?” 

Izuku was doing well enough when the explosion happened while he expected it, and preferably when he saw it go off. Unexpected and out-of-sight blasts were… problematic, to say the least. And one of the things that Izuku was working on with Hound Dog. 

Bakugou’s face goes practically vacant. Despite everything, Gran Torino realizes that the kid in front of him isn’t stupid. He is like a decent sports car that is so covered by bird’s shit that not only it’s hard to see that it’s actually a car, but also everything inside of it is half-jammed by the stuff. So his brain is working. But it has… quirks. And needs some urgent and thorough cleaning.

It’s trying to comprehend what he just heard. It’s trying to make some sense, despite Gran Torino thoroughly pulverizing the pillars supporting his warped worldview one by one. And oh, he was far from being done with the kid. There was going to be no pillar left by the end of this day. Because for as long as there is at least one left, Bakugou will keep resisting. 

“He…” Bakugou manages to reply. “He wasn’t a fan of me!” Oh, so it’s going that way. How peculiar. “He was always looking down on me, and…” Gran Torino decides that he heard enough. He raises his hand, as if he was about to smack Bakugou, and the kid freezes with an expression of fear on his face. 

“Really?” Gran Torino looks down on him with barely contained disgust. “Is that how you explain it to yourself? Newsflash, you little shit. Izuku Midoriya has self-esteem issues the size of the UA budget. He freaks out and doesn’t know how to react when someone not from his family praises him because you and your fucking extras taught him that any praise he gets is either a mockery, or a part of some set-up to make him suffer some more, or something that will make you bully him more to put him in his place. In what world is he capable of looking down on anyone, Bakugou?” He actually slaps Bakugou in the face. Not even because it’s part of the plan, but because he fucking wants to. And then he yells at him, from up close. “HE LOOKED UP TO YOU, YOU BASTARD! FOR YEARS! NO MATTER WHAT YOU DID TO HIM, ALL HE EVER WANTED WAS TO BE YOUR FRIEND AND BECOME A HERO WITH YOU, YOU SON OF A BITCH!” 

He slaps him in the face again. Frankly speaking, he isn’t sure if Bakugou even noticed it. But it sure as hell felt cathartic to Gran Torino. 

The one and only thing that Gran Torino and All for One ever agreed on was that Bakugou Katsuki was a little shit. Bakugou had no idea that he was only alive because Midoriya Inko understood her son enough to realize that killing his ‘friend’ would only make him feel more miserable. And so, she kept telling All for One to shove his opinion about Bakugou where the sun didn’t shine. 

Gran Torino feels sad about it, honestly. Bakugou is disgusting. The fact that the adults around him failed him is no excuse, merely an extenuating circumstance. What sort of warped up personality produces a person who blabbers about becoming the best hero while using his quirk to burn his former friend for quirklessness? 

Bakugou was probably bullying someone after school while Izuku - the quirkless, friendless, powerless boy - was in his house, on the computer, trying to persuade victims like him that the world wasn’t hopeless, and that things could be better. 

There is no better contrast between them than the fact that two weeks before the sludge villain incident - before Bakugou told Izuku to take a swan dive off the roof - Izuku had his happiest day in his life. Because someone he knew from the internet (some ‘villainous quirk’ user) sent him a letter thanking him for talking him out of suicide, because his life got better. Izuku actually framed the letter and cried in happiness for most of the day, because the author of the letter said that Izuku was his hero.

“And guess what, Bakugou Katsuki.” Gran Torino decides to go for the coup de main. At this point it feels like he is kicking a corpse, and that’s something that he leaves for sick fucks like All for One. “Despite everything you ever did to him, he still fought tooth and nail to include you in the Rehab Course. Just to give you one last shot at becoming a hero.” 

“He… he did what?” Bakugou’s mind seems to be barely capable of processing what he just heard. 

“There were supposed to be only three people per class.” Gran Torino informs him. “You and Miyuki Tagawa were included at the last minute, because Izuku heard about Nedzu and All Might ending the Aldera High School right around the entrance exam.” Bakugou’s eyes widened a bit, probably at the realization that All Might - his idol, the man he wanted to be like - was responsible for all of that. “The one you weren’t allowed to attend, because they already knew what sort of a piece of shit you were. So you went to Shiketsu, and pretty much got in, but then the Aldera scandal broke out and you were blacklisted from it. And from pretty much every hero school in the world. So Izuku has literally begged Nedzu and All Might to add one more person per class, including you. And guess what, I have absolutely no idea why, because all I’m seeing in you is a bully who thinks that his strength makes him the center of the world and reacts with aggression when someone doesn’t act like he wants them to.”

He takes out his phone and sends a message. Bakugou watches him in shocked silence from his place on the floor. 

“The 1-B warp quirk user will open up a warpgate connecting this room to the UA in a few minutes.” Gran Torino announces. “Crawl into it, and have Recovery Girl patch you up. Go and think about what I had said. You have three days. If there is any part of you that actually wants to help others, that can actually feel remorse and guilt about what you did, come back and continue your training. And actually work with Hound Dog instead of being an asshole avoiding all serious questions. If not, then start packing your things. You’ll be officially expelled at the end of the internships.” 

He walks out of the room, not bothering to look at Bakugou again. He knows that he isn’t going to see him again.

***

To Gran Torino’s surprise, Bakugou Katsuki proves him wrong and returns to his hero agency through a warpgate three days later. He is quiet. He avoids eye contact with everyone. He doesn’t speak in an even remotely as abrasive way as he used to. But he seems to be working twice as hard. 

He is also deeply terrified of Gran Torino. But that’s understandable. In fact, that was sort of the point. Sorahiko Torino can tolerate a single failure in his life (namely, his grandson), but he’ll rather die that have another private student that isn’t terrified of him.

Then he overhears a brief exchange during dinner. He is on one end of the room, and somehow the kids present think that this will make him not hear them. All he needs to do is to pretend that he is busy with his taiyaki. 

“You… you never looked down on me, didn’t you?” It’s Bakugou. This is the most subdued Bakugou Katsuki that Gran Torino ever saw or heard about, and that alone is shocking. He is eating, not even looking in Izuku’s direction. 

Izuku is briefly surprised by this. Startled, even. Oddly enough, he is the one who seems to be the most at loss with how Bakugou is acting now. Despite being the one who at least partially schemed the whole thing. 

“No.” Izuku replies eventually. “I looked up to you. You were confident, strong, brave, everything that I wasn’t.” He stays silent for a second or two before adding. “I stopped on the day of the sludge villain incident. When I threw that backpack and let you breathe for a moment, even despite you telling me to kill myself earlier, and you still berated me for it.”

“Looks like I’m truly the world’s best.” Bakugou says, looking down to the meal in front of him. “In fucking things up beyond recovery.”

If Gran Torino was walking when he heard it, he would probably trip over something and squash his nose in. This was literally the last thing he expected to hear from Bakugou. Like, ever. Even despite his attempt at shock treatment, he expected it to fail or, in the best case scenario, succeed way less. 

“Why did you even bother recommending me to the Rehab Course?” Bakugou asks, and, frankly speaking, Gran Torino is curious about it as well. 

“I think that I just wanted to know if Kacchan is still there.” Izuku replies after a few seconds. Gran Torino remembers that this is the childhood nickname that Bakugou got from Izuku. “Or if Bakugou Katsuki really killed him.”  

That sounds like something relatively plausible, maybe a bit odd considering how intensively Izuku was asking Nedzu for it but… then again, if he saw it as himself trying to ‘save’ Kacchan from Katsuki… it was the kid that broke his hand almost beyond recovery to give his classmate a psychological counseling session, after all. 

“I might know shit about you.” Bakugou decides to reply after a few more seconds of awkward silence. “But I know when you are trying to lie. And it’s one of those moments.” 

What? 

The silence continues while both the kids are eating (Tenya and Shoto are elsewhere). Gran Torino almost leaves when he hears the words coming. 

“Are you… going to apologize?” It’s Izuku. The food is almost done, but the talk, somehow, isn’t. 

“No.” Bakugou replies, and Gran Torino is once again taken by surprise. Izuku seems to be taken as well. “Because you would either not accept it, or accept it… which is something that I wouldn’t accept.” Izuku blinks a few times, finally looking at Bakugou, though the explosive kid seems to be still looking at his food. “I’m going to fulfill my part of that promise and become a hero. And then I’m going to apologize to you with my hero license in my hands.” 

Gran Torino should be positively surprised and shocked. Because somehow, SOMEHOW, Izuku noticed something actually redeemable under layers of layers of shit that managed to fool even a veteran such as him. But he isn’t. 

He is instead negatively surprised and shocked, because there is a look on Izuku’s face that he never saw, nor even imagined it to exist. And certainly didn’t expect it to surface at the moment like this. 

It’s a look of crushing guilt and sudden, overbearing horror. Something that he cannot understand the source of. Especially in a moment like this. A moment that should be the crowning moment of life thus far, an achievement long overdue. 

It vanishes before Bakugou manages to notice it. And then comes the awkward silence that lasts until the meal ends. 

What the fuck did Gran Torino just witnessed?

***

Izuku Midoriya Support/Fanclub

GravityGirl: Uhm. 

GravityGirl: I have a problem.

Vampire: Did you finally realize that you are in love with Izuku Midoriya (at least partially due to my constant shipping attempts), only to hit the wall of ‘omg am I supposed to confess to him or not’ with your face?

GravityGirl: Errr, actually yes.

Vampire: OMG REALLY?!

GravityGirl: YES DAMMIT 

GravityGirl: Himichan stop reading me like that you just broke every plan I had for that talk in my head

Vampire: sorry ochachan

Mindhack: FUCK

MIndhack: YES

Mindhack: You’re ok, Izuku needs a decent girl in his life, you have my blessing, go for him. 

GravityGirl: …

Mindhack: I mean, having some nasty woman take advantage of him and then me committing a murder on her would have made me becoming a hero a tad bit harder, you know. 

GravityGirl: …

CreativeSpirit: Let’s just pretend that Mindhack didn’t write that last message, alright?

Vampire: I absolutely agree with Toshi, although I have just one question to ochachan

GravityGirl: ?

Vampire: If you marry Zuku can I be his official mistress?

GravityGirl: what

GravityGirl: marry

GravityGirl: mistress

GravityGirl: what

Vampire: She is so cute when startled even through the internet <3 <3 <3 

CreativeSpirit: Himiko, please.

Vampire: SORRY

Vampire: I mean, Zuku is perfect

Vampire: and I’m totally confessing to him sooner or later if he says no to Uraraka

Vampire: But I’m not going to mess ochachan’s lovelife if he says yes, we’re all friends right?

Vampire: besides I want to be an underground hero and marrying soon-to-be Number One Hero (we all know that this will be the result of Izuku becoming a hero) would make staying underground a tad hard to achieve, you know?

CreativeSpirit: Fair.

CreativeSpirit: It’s like All Might trying to hide a family from all the fans out for trivia about him. 

CreativeSpirit: Is that even possible?

LeadSinger: Ehhh

LeadSinger: Aside from that, we have two votes for confession and zero votes against it. 

MadScientist: Confess!

MadScientist: I already confessed to him today and it’s alright!

CreativeSpirit: What

LeadSinger: Yes, what?

GravityGirl: D:

CreativeSpirit: Wait a second

CreativeSpirit: What did you actually confess to?

MadScientist: He asked me through the internet if I’m storing high yield explosives in my lab right next to the exposed wirings and some high temperature things, and I confessed that I do. He sounded angry about it, though. Said something about serious talk when he gets back from his internship.

MadScientist: Weird.

CreativeSpirit: Yeah, I knew it was something like 

CreativeSpirit: WAIT YOU STORE WHAT WHERE?

MadScientist: I mean, it’s alright for as long as they don’t explode, right?

CreativeSpirit: Oh my God Mei I’m on my way to the support course lab, we’re having a talk about basic OSHA compliance. Right now. 

CreativeSpirit: I support the confession, by the way, because Izuku should be made aware that someone looks at him like that for confidence building AND because when he says yes, then he will have someone to rely on emotionally. 

CreativeSpirit: Now I go

GravityGirl: go go go go go go go

LeadSinger: Yeah, I’m voting yes for similar reasons. And don’t waste too much time or I might do it first, huhuhuh

GravityGirl: What?! Noooo

LeadSinger: That basically means that everyone save for mostly absent Froggy thinks that you should do it, @GravityGirl, because there is a green bean out there in need of some love and probably emotional support.

Vampire: I phoned Froggy! The quality was trash and there is no internet over there, but she basically said to go for it!

LeadSinger: Well, you heard her.

LeadSinger: Do it!

Vampire: Do it ochachan!

Mindhack: Do it!

GravityGirl: Can I get a second opinion on it from someone else?

Vampire: no

***

The destruction of the Shie Hasseikai has taught Overhaul a lot of things. Clawing your way out of the ruin of your dream that you were buried alive under does that to people. One of them is that the age of yakuza is truly over, and that the real problem is the disease of quirks that has to be purged out of the world.

The second was that he can’t rely on thugs to get the job done. It’s what destroyed the Shie Hasseikai. Save for Chrono and Mimic, everything he really had were just thugs. That were promptly done in when Mr. Compress, Ms. Compress, the Hero Killer, Gentle Criminal and, oddly enough, long dead Mischief began to tear through the Shie Hasseikai. 

So when Overhaul began to prepare for round two, he found some choice allies. And cannonfodder of a much better quality. 

The storehouse is large. It once belonged to some major shipping company that has only recently cleared it out. It’s about to be sold for someone else, then again, the Paranormal Liberation Front only needs it for this one night. To amass their task force for another operation. 

Overhaul looks through the assembled army and can’t help but feel proud. The two years since he lost the Shie Hasseikai changed a lot. He gathered the firepower that he didn’t have back then. He learned more about his own quirk than he thought was possible. 

Now he is standing in that storeroom and sees twenty noumus, each of them a gene engineered abomination capable of tearing through heroes like butter (although he still hates them as diseased wretches that shouldn’t exist). He sees fifty elite soldiers of the Quirkless Liberation Front, almost all of them a rare example of truly healthy individuals in this day and age, each of them trained and equipped like soldiers of the special forces of the developed nations from the pre-quirk times. They even have some vehicles. 

Chief of all, he sees Eclipse. The leader of the Quirkless Liberation Front (the naming overlap is pissing them both off, really, then again she has de facto joined the PLF it’s just that the world is yet to know). Wearing her full-body bodysuit and a gasmask. 

There is also Kurogiri. The faithful warp quirk user that will be instrumental to their success tonight. And, of course, Chrono. Overhaul’s assistant and second-in-command. He lost his right hand during the Shie Hasseikai downfall (to the Hero Killer, of course - he actually managed to use his quirk on him, but it didn’t help any of them when Mischief bulldozed through him and nearby yakuza thugs and saved Stain), but he got a prosthetic replacement. 

Overhaul looks at the clock. One hour until the first stage of the Battle of Hosu starts. Eclipse will start her little motivational speech in half an hour. 

***

“Heads-up, kids.” Gran Torino announces over the meal. They are all (well, save for Izuku Midoriya, who just loves spending time with his grandpa) deeply terrified to a varied degree. Because their teacher just announced that they are done with the training for the day ahead of schedule, and that’s terrifying. What might he be planning this time? “It’s time for some actual work experience. In short, we’re going out to do some villain clean-up.”

Shoto remains unreadable, but feels vaguely pleased. Bakugou for a few seconds looks genuinely pumped-up, only for his mood to swing down (probably after he realizes that they’re going with Gran Torino). Tenya feels simultaneously satisfied and horrified by whatever Gran Torino’s definition of a field training is. 

“We’re going to Tokyo in thirty minutes.” Gran Torino adds. They are going to use shinkansen because warp quirks are for special occasions AND Gran Torino likes trains. Sue him about it. “So deck yourself in your hero costumes and get ready to move.” 

Oh, this is going to be fun. An endurance-testing fun. After all, they are already on their legs for most of the day. Why waste the night? That’s when the villains are most active, and this just means a lot of fun. Sure, they might go over the 16h workday established for the internships, but it will just make it more fun. 

***

Only when they arrive at the train station does Izuku Midoriya realize that they are going to be passing by Hosu. 

He doesn’t want his friends to be anywhere near this city, then again it’s not like something might potentially happen during the brief time window when they’ll be passing by the city in a bullet train. Something that would make them in any way, shape or form involved in anything shady. Right? 

Izuku is more worried about Endeavor trying to use the attack on Ingenium to recoup some of the lost popularity. Because this means that Uncle Stain and Endeavor are now in the same city, and the latter is hunting the former.

And while Izuku hates Endeavor, he realizes that this fight will be rather short. And Izuku would lose an uncle. Then again, it’s not like anyone can persuade Stain to drop a hunt. After all, Akaguro Chizome has cOnViCtIoNs. 

***

Akaguro Chizome laughs menacingly when Native realizes that he isn’t alone in the alleyway. The face that the fakes do when they see him and realize that the time of reckoning came is, as always, delicious. 

“Ko Hasegawa.” Stain announces. He doesn’t use hero names, not of the fakes. They need to prove that they are worthy of them. “You have been judged. And found wanting.” 

Native takes a step back, in horror. 

Stain points towards the pendrive that he is carrying on a necklace. It’s in the middle of the Hero Killer’s chest. 

“This little thing contains the proof for your malfeasances.” Hero Killer announces. “And leaking intel to the villains. You already proved to me that you are a fake hero. But perhaps, there are some genuine convictions in you that have motivated your fakeness?” He chuckles. “Destroy the pendrive, and I’ll let you go. Call for backup or lose, and I’ll kill you as a hero. Show me your worth, you fake.” Then he draws his katana. 

For all his skill as a hero, Native has no chance of winning. It’s not a fight. It’s just adding insult to injury. 

***

Izuku feels that something is going to hit the fan the closer they get to Hosu. He is, honestly, not surprised when the train does an emergency stop. Though the moment when noumu (what the hell, there are more of those things out there?!) practically rams a hero through the wall of the train is a surprise.

Gran Torino sprints to action, and kicks the noumu off the incapacitated hero and out of the train. 

“Izuku!” He shouts at his grandson. “You and the rest have my permission to engage in combat, but do that only if absolutely necessary!” He leaps off the train, pursuing the not yet defeated noumu. 

He trusts his grandson’s smarts. Unfortunately. Because while he has smarts, he also has a tendency to circumnavigate expectations and restraints when not under a constant overwatch. And this is something that Gran Torino didn’t think about in a hurry, thus unleashing Izuku Midoriya and his three classmates upon the city on fire. 

***

Endeavor intercepts the attack and blasts it into pieces before it has the time to tear through the passersby who happened to be on the same street as the Number Two Hero and some of his sidekicks. 

“Endeavor.” He hears the familiar voice and looks up. There is a black circular surface floating in the air above the street (that’s now rapidly clearing up, because the passersby realize that there is going to be a very nasty hero vs villain fight happening soon). On it is a woman in a black bodysuit. 

He recognizes her. They already fought twice, and if there is a villain that Endeavor considers to be his nemesis, it’s her. 

“Eclipse.” Endeavor replies, the temperature of his flames rising as his rage does. “Did you come to announce your surrender, or to die at my hands?” Villains like her pretty much have a ‘take alive if it’s convenient’ rule in place. She is too dangerous for a hero to half-ass the fight. 

“No, I came to kill you.” She says and the battle starts.

Chapter Text

The first phase of the Paranormal Liberation Front’s plan for the day includes chaos being sown everywhere throughout the city. The primary instruments of that are the noumus, the mindless (yet powerful) beasts that are teleported throughout the city and told to kill everything that moves. 

And so they do. With enthusiasm. All of that while Eclipse is busy giving Endeavor the fight of his life, the hero and villain battling it out on the rooftops and in the air above the city. The scale of the attack draws the heroes towards the main battlefields throughout the city, making them vulnerable for phase two of the plan. 

The headquarters of the Hosu Police are attacked ten minutes after the initial attack started. Kurogiri warps two tanks, a self-propelled missile launcher and the QLF soldiers in front of it. Tanks (they were built recently, but the design predates quirks by almost a century, it’s just the ancient T-72 tank) began to fire on the building, while the missile launchers covered the entire front of the building with high explosive (and incendiary) missiles. 

The casualties of the bombardment are in two digits. Worst of all, the remaining policemen are shocked and disorganized. The QLF strike force proceeds into the building, meeting only minimal resistance. 

The calls for heroes to help remain unanswered, because the PLF hackers and the electronic warfare department just killed the Hero Network and the civilian communication channels through the city. Everyone is fighting on their own. 

***

Izuku makes a smart decision about waiting and defending the currently grounded train from another potential attack (and to apply the first aid on the downed hero that got punched into it). They spend maybe ten minutes doing so (and still hoping that the train would just start moving and leave the danger zone) when Tenya suddenly hears Izuku saying something. 

“Oh shit.” Izuku swearing is a rare thing. So rare that Tenya looks at his friends and sees him staring at the burning city in front of them. On his face is shock and horror in equal measures. 

“What happened?” Shoto is the one to ask first, oddly enough. At the horizon, they see another explosion of fire. It’s night, so they don’t see Eclipse using her quirk. They know she is there - the Hero Network let out an alert about her being spotted in the area before it went offline. They inferred that she is fighting Endeavor, because you need a supervillain to keep the Flame Hero occupied in combat for so long. 

“I know what the Paranormal Liberation Front is planning.” Izuku says, and Tenya is surprised. Then again, it’s Izuku they are talking about, and he proved himself to be incredibly smart. “They are going to kill Endeavor.” 

What?

“Are you certain of this?” Tenya says, completely ignoring the complicated expression on Shoto’s face. Bakugou is now listening intently as well. 

“Y...yes.” Izuku is startled a bit, and looks back at Tenya. “Eclipse’s quirk is about manipulating surfaces. But she is fighting an aerial battle against Endeavor, despite it meaning that she has less surfaces to manipulate around her, while Endeavor can still go all out. But this also means that it’s a running battle, and… she is drawing him into an ambush site.” 

Tenya suddenly feels his blood going cold. 

“And since the Hero Network is down and the noumu’s are occupying everyone’s attention, the other heroes won’t even know about it.” He says slowly, and Izuku nods. Their expressions of horror are matching right now. 

They have the advantage of having a vantage point over the city, but with heroes all fighting on the streets… they are the only ones. And they can’t even contact anyone about it. 

“Shoto…” Izuku says, facing their emotionless classmate all of a sudden. Tenya doesn’t know what it is about, but his class president and Endeavor’s son clearly do. There are three seconds of eye contact between them before the answer comes. 

“All Might… All Might would have saved him.” Shoto says quietly. “Despite everything.” The look on Izuku’s face is that of faint pride. 

Does he mean that…

“We can’t!” Tenya shouts. He is way out of his comfort zone, but he knows that one thing. “We are just students and it’s Eclipse! The double S rank villain! Gran Torino told us that we are supposed to stay put, and…” 

“He didn’t.” Bakugou snarls from the side. “That fucker told us to not fight unless necessary. And being the only people who can save someone counts as pretty fucking necessary to me, Four Eyes.” 

Bakugou, to Tenya’s surprise, has a point. To Tenya’s even bigger surprise, he actually finds himself agreeing with the explosive kid. This is a stretch of logic and law, but…

Gran Torino was a demanding teacher. But also one that enjoyed doing more than one thing at a time. Training Tenya physically wasn’t enough. He also decided to train Tenya’s mind. Mostly by narrating to him all the situations during his career when innocent people would have died if heroes tried to act by the book. 

Tenya still wants to play by the book. But while he isn’t going to admit that in the open, Gran Torino managed to beat something into his mind during those days. Namely the understanding that sometimes, just sometimes - in some extremely rare circumstances - one has to act differently than the book states. 

Tenya Iida simply didn’t expect the first of such situations to come so quickly. 

“Very well.” He says and Izuku beams at him. “Just try to make us NOT fight a supervillain while doing so.” He can only hope. But he knows that the chances for it are minimal.

Izuku pulls out his phone and starts doing something on it. 

“Get ready to run faster than you ever did.” Izuku ads and Tenya is left to wonder what his green-haired friend is plotting to do. Whatever it is, it’ll probably be awe-inspiring, and maybe just a little bit scary. 

Bakugou growls. His face is one that’s in equal measures excited and bloodthirsty. 

***

Stain is about to leave the alleyway (Native is still cursing him from the back, not like he cares) when he gets a message on his phone. 

It’s on the Villain Network. The secretive communication channel of the villains. One that, apparently, wasn’t jammed when whatever shit that was going on in the city started. Or at least wasn’t jammed entirely (it seems to work regionally, at least, though not globally). He recognizes the username. 

SmallMight: Uncle, are you in Hosu?

PurgeTheFakes: Yes. Do you know what’s happening?

SmallMight: PLF is attacking the city. Not the point rn.

SmallMight: How fast can you exit the PLF jamming range?

What is his nephew planning this time? Stain is trying to be the scary uncle, but frankly speaking, Izuku is growing into the second All Might. And being an uncle (even if an adopted one) of such true hero material is simply a pleasure to Akaguro Chizome. He finds being scary to him hard. 

PurgeTheFakes: Depends on said range. But I can move pretty fast. 

PurgeTheFakes: What do you need me to do?

SmallMight: I need you to get somewhere where phones are still working, and then deliver some messages from me. 

Hero Killer reads the messages, feeling his eyes widen. Izuku wants Nedzu to… huh. 

Izuku, you crazy son of a… well, he isn’t finishing these words, because Inko would probably somehow find out. Despite it being said in his mind. That woman was scary, but in a good way. 

***

Strike Team Hierophant succeeds in its mission after twenty-seven minutes of combat against the remaining defenders of the local police headquarters. The QLF soldiers reach the main data storage areas, letting a late bloomer with a technopath quirk start copying everything inside. 

And more. Because the QLF got deep enough into the local police headquarters to actually connect to the deepest layers of the police and hero networks. It required them to partially restore the hero comms for three precious minutes, but it was worth it. 

Within those three minutes, their technopath (boosted with Overhaul’s special trigger) has managed to penetrate the electronic defenses and copy the majority of the police data. The names of informants within the villain world and their reports. The status of the ongoing investigations. Safehouses and the location of people under witness protection programs. Not to mention the personal data of policemen and heroes throughout the country. 

Strike Team Hierophant shuts the hero comms in Hosu again and begins its retreat from the building. The local policemen are too busy being dead or dying to try to stop them. Heroes are still fighting elsewhere, unaware of the police coming under attack. 

***

Endeavor realizes that he was led into a trap when Eclipse lands in the middle of some abandoned park in one of the worst districts of Hosu. She is clearly beaten up, partially burned and tired - the Flame Hero was winning the fight by far, no doubt. But the real problem is something else. 

Noumus. Lots of them. 

Endeavor doesn’t care. He is confident in his strength. This is a battle that was practically made for him. Numerous enemies in a relatively small area - and enemies that he doesn’t have to bother trying to take alive. So he goes all out. 

Noumus burn. One by one. Eclipse is trying to assist them, but she is at best at ⅓ of her normal strength at this point. Endeavor might be slightly overheated, but he can still use his full strength for a while. 

“Was that your plan, Eclipse?” Endeavor asks when the last of the noumus dies. “Draw me here and use your little pets to swarm me?” He sniggers mockingly. “Pathetic.” 

“No, Enji.” She replies, and his hero's instincts scream at him that something is wrong. She is way too calm, way too… satisfied, and... “They were to keep you occupied while Overhaul is releasing the gas.” 

There are sudden explosions throughout the park. Endeavor doesn’t waste time to figure out what sort of gas she was talking about - he propels himself from the ground with his quirk, trying to flee to a safe distance, and…

And that’s when his quirk stops working and his flames are extinguished. Endeavor falls down to the ground. The impact is painful, and he can feel his arm breaking. Arm and probably some ribs. It wasn’t a graceful landing by any stretch. 

He rises from the ground, just in time to see Overhaul approach them. 

“Unfortunately, I still don’t have enough of the quirk-suppressing gas to take down an entire city at once.” The second supervillain announces. “But it’s enough for this one little battle. Your quirk will return to you in… a week, maybe?” He laughs slightly behind his gasmask. “But, of course, you won’t be alive by then.” He turns his head towards Eclipse. “He is yours.” 

“With pleasure.” Eclipse says and chops off Endeavor’s right arm with her quirk. The cut is clean, and Endeavor isn’t going to dignify her with sounds of pain. He is going to die, but at least he will die standing. “Oh, no screams? Now that’s kinda sad. You’re going to bleed out quickly, so how about at least entertain me a bit before that?” 

He isn’t. He feels… faint. He can see the blood gushing out of the wound. How long is he going to stay standing? With so much blood loss, it’s probably a minute or two, right? At best. Not like there is any point in trying to staunch the bleeding. 

“Hey, Overhaul!” A voice shouts at them from the side. Enji turns his head and he recognizes Izuku Midoriya (what is he doing here?!) walking towards them through the field of burned noumus. “I hope I’m not interrupting anything?” 

What?

“You.” Overhaul says, squinting his eyes. “The hero trainee from the USJ. You keep being a pain in the ass to me. Eclipse, kill him. You’re better at ranged combat.” She moves her finger a bit and several circular surfaces appear out of nowhere above her head. 

“I have just one question for you, Overhaul!” Izuku stops walking towards them, maybe thirty meters away the two supervillains and dying hero. Eclipse pauses her attack, probably out of confusion more than anything. “Do you think that your clan’s boss felt it when his life support failed?” 

The silence lasts for a heartbeat before Overhaul shouts something intelligible and leaps towards the student. Eclipse shouts at him to stop, but he clearly doesn’t seem to listen to her. Izuku jumps backward with enough strength to send a nearby noumu’s remains flying. Overhaul is pursuing him. 

“AP SHOT!” Endeavor hears a shout from the direction opposite to where Izuku is running away. And so does Eclipse. She manages to move the surfaces she conjured to attack Izuku to block the attack, but it penetrates half of them before dissipating. There is another hero student from the festival, this time the rehab one with explosive quirk. He is standing twenty meters away from them, little explosions blasting around his hands. “Come at me, bitch! I’m looking forward to blasting you into pieces!” 

“Is suicidal overconfidence a common trend of all heroes nowadays?” Eclipse, despite the wounds and burns, chuckles. “Fine, I’ll entertain you, kid. All the way down to hell.” She throws her surfaces at him, but he uses his explosions to dodge them sideways. She is clearly sluggish, with exhaustion and wounds slowly weakening her. But she feels confident when facing a first year hero trainee. 

It’s at this point that Endeavor can feel coldness in his wound. Not the normal type of cold. The bleeding is stopped by an icecap. Seconds later Shoto (it’s his son, what is he doing here?!) walks past Endeavor. 

Eclipse manages to propel herself sideways fast enough to avoid the massive ice glacier. 

“This is going to be a 2 on 1 battle.” Shoto announces. Eclipse glares at him with hatred. She recognizes Endeavor’s son. And is probably looking forward to killing him in front of the Flame Hero. 

***

Overhaul is so overtaken by rage that he is barely coherent. It’s that kid! That damnable kid that cost him everything! The kid that took Eri away from him and that then somehow got several supervillains to raid the Shie Hasseikai’ base. The same kid that killed the old boss and had Overhaul spend two days buried under the rubble! 

He throws caution and sanity to the wind. There is only murder. And the kid is doing his best to avoid that outcome. 

He is fast. That much Overhaul has to admit. He is fast, but not fast enough. Overhaul is steadily gaining on him (he doesn’t bother using ranged attacks, he has to stop to do that and that would be just a waste of fucking ti… 

Overhaul fails to notice the attack in time. He would totally do it in his normal mind, but with rage overtaking him so much, it’s simply not an option. A heavy chunk of something hits him in the side, with enough strength to push him sideways and slam him into the wall of a building. 

Actually, through the wall. The building feels on the verge of collapse. Whoever built it should be fucking ashamed of themselves. 

Overhaul resets the damages and steps out through the hole in the wall. He sees another fucking kid hero, this time in a silver armor. 

Two seconds later the kid kicks another shard of concrete wall at him but this time Overhaul evades it. He leaps towards the nuisance (he’ll deal with the greenhaired shitstain a second later), only to get hit by something from the side. Again. 

It’s that Izuku bastard. It was a rock throw. Those kids are throwing and kicking rocks at him, but with enough strength due to their quirks to deal some actual damage. He might get knocked out cold if one of them manages to hit him in the head. 

Overhaul realizes that it’s going to be a pain in the ass when he tries to hit the silver armor kid by reassembling the floor under him, only for the kid to power up some idiotic rocket engines in his legs and evade it sideways.

Izuku of course uses this moment to almost hit him in the head with a brick. 

They know his quirk, and they are going to keep their distance, while showering him with projectiles. All while being fast enough to dodge the attacks. And with enough teamwork to keep tag teaming him.

Overhaul realizes that he might have just fallen into a trap himself.

***

Endeavor’s son unleashes six more ice glaciers (that she promptly shatters with her quirk) before she manages to grab the explosive kid during a failed close combat attempt. She holds him in front of her, with one of her small surfaces floating menacingly right next to his neck. 

“Alright, kid.” She laughs at the faces of Endeavor and his son. The former is terrified, the latter emotionless yet fierce, a really amusing combination. “If you don’t…” 

“I’m going to blow both of you away with my strongest attack in ten seconds.” Young Todoroki announces with a facial expression of a corpse and Eclipse finds herself blink a few times under her mask. What the hell is that kid trying to pull? 

“Show it to me, then.” She laughs again. “I’m going to call your bluff, kid. There is no way that you, a son of Number Two Hero, would use lethal force on a hostage! Especially your classmate!” So, she waits for him to prepare the attack, because why not? 

“Flashfreeze Heatwave.” He says. And the world around Eclipse explodes. The explosive kid slips from her grip when something practically pulverizes her gas mask (it was exposed, but the kid had to be done in by that, yes? he was in front of her). 

She is deafened and partially blinded by the explosion. Her skin hurts, her bones hurt, everything hurts. She is confused and probably concussed by the impact. 

But still intelligent and experienced enough to realize that it wasn’t a fire nor ice attack. It was the same thing he used during the school festival. An explosion created by rapid change of air temperature. And the kid that she was holding as a hostage had an explosive quirk. This meant a high degree of resistance to… 

She was about to use her surfaces to slice everything around her to bits when an explosion-powered uppercut punch into her jaw sent her unconscious. 

***

“It’s time!” Izuku shouts, while Tenya and Overhaul are still shocked by the explosion that they just heard going off in the distance. “We’re pulling back!” 

Tenya puts his entire strength into his engines. Overhaul keeps throwing curses after them and is right on their tail. If Izuku failed to coordinate everything correctly (or if Eclipse was still in working conditions), they were all going to die.

 ***

“I understand that, Aizawa-sensei.” Mieko Eto announces. “But I received Principal Nedzu’s order to open the warp gate to that particular set of coordinates, and at that particular time.”

Eraserhead is confused. Nedzu’s message was rather scarce. He was to appear at the dorms of the rehab course students (which wasn’t hard, because he just happened to be visiting his children when that happened), and then… assist. 

In something.

Nedzu didn’t specify what, and when he saw Mieko assembling a long-distance warpgate (it was a time consuming thing to her), he tried to point out that it’s technically illegal. Only to hear this. 

The Recovery Girl was also there. In the living room. Together with the remaining rehab students (minus Bakugou) and a lot of tools. After receiving similarly scarce message to come. Or, to be exact, she got the message, while the kids assembled because something interesting was happening. 

“And… done!” Mieto shouts, and a large part of one of the living room’s walls suddenly opens up to… somewhere else.

It opens up to a battlefield. Eraserhead would have used his quirk on Mieko if he didn’t recognize some of the people in front of him. 

Endeavor stumbles through the warpgate, the stump of his arm held by an icecap, and his missing arm held in his other hand. He has just enough strength left to make a few more steps and then collapses onto the floor, Recovery Girl rushing over to him. 

Bakugou (Eraserhead barely recognizes him, he is just one large wound and bruise at this point) is dragging someone unconscious (or dead) towards the portal. Shoto is standing next to him, only to unleash one of his glaciers at something unseen from the dorms. The glacier is shattered two seconds later, but Shoto immediately ignites his flame side, calmly says ‘Suppressing Fire’ (must be a name for his new technique) and begins to shower someone or something with thousands of minuscule fire bullets. 

Then Tenya shows up, fleeing from the direction that Shoto was attacking. He lands near Bakugou, grabs the body (person?) he was dragging and helps him to get to the portal faster. They manage to get through it seconds before Izuku pops up in the background (because of course he is involved in whatever mess this is), arriving from the same direction as Tenya did earlier. He avoids an attack that makes spikes emerge from earth, before leaping towards the portal. 

He grabs Shoto and flies through the portal, hitting one of the couches and overturning it in the process. He was shouting something like ‘CLOSE THE PORTAL’ (probably) so Mieko promptly did just that. 

What the actual fuck?

***

UA Staff Chatroom

Eraserhead: @Everyone  

Eraserhead: I announce a Midoriya Moment. Code Red.

Eraserhead: I need All Might, detective Tsukauchi with an emergency task force of the local police, and someone from our legal and PR departments on the UA grounds asap. 

AllMight: What?

Principal: ???

PresentMic: Waking us all up is a mean thing to do, shouta!

AllMight: Isn’t Izuku on an internship? 

Eraserhead: Not anymore. In case you didn’t notice, there is an on-going PLF attack on Hosu, and somehow he and his friends were involved in it. 

AllMight: Are they alright!? 

Eraserhead: You’re being worried about the wrong people.

Eraserhead: They stumbled through Mieko Eto’s warpgate into the Rehab Course dorms with half-dead Endeavor and unconscious Eclipse that they apparently defeated and apprehended while tag-teaming her and Overhaul. 

AllMight: They what?

Eraserhead: Izuku Midoriya, Tenya Iida, Bakugou Katsuki and Todoroki Shoto have just defeated and apprehended the SS-Rank villain and the elusive leader of the Quirkless Liberation Front. Known as Eclipse. 

Eraserhead: While saving Endeavor from an ambush that was bad enough to have him walk through the warpgate with his severed arm in his other hand. And promptly pass out from blood loss and shock.

Principal: Oh dear oh dear oh dear oh dear

Eraserhead: The cut is clean and Eto warped him to the nearest hospital after Recovery Girl stabilized him, so they should be able to reattach the arm, in case someone was curious. 

Eraserhead: Eclipse is in Recovery Girl’s office, sedated, restrained and guarded by me (plus still unconscious, and frankly half-dead), but I’d really feel better with All Might around in case she woke up. 

AllMight: ON MY WAY

AllMight: Izuku’s mother is going to kill him.

Eraserhead: There is a queue for that and she isn’t first in line. 

Eraserhead: @Principal You knew?

Principal: Only about the warp for emergency medevac from Hosu, which I permitted. So Mieko Eto is safe from accusations of vigilantism. The rest is a more complicated matter. Then again, knowing Midoriya, he probably creatively redefined received orders rather than acted against them. Especially with Tenya Iida being around. 

Principal: We’ll learn more soon. Also I’m phoning the people from the list. 

Principal: Mieko Eto is probably freaking out, yes?

Eraserhead: She was while I was leaving the rehab course with Bakugou (he needed medical help too, but nothing life threatening) and Eclipse. Midoriya stayed with her to calm her down. Why?

Principal: Because she decided to become a hero in order to one day catch her villainous parent and end their reign of terror. To stop herself from living in fear that she will be one day ousted as their child to become a social pariah as a result. Or that said parent will one day remember about her existence and come pick her up or do something nefarious to her.

Principal: You are currently in the same room as her villainous parent.

Eraserhead: … oh well that’s just great. 

Eraserhead: Hazard pay, Nedzu.

Principal: I think that this is actually a reasonable proposal after the recent… events.

Eraserhead: Also can we just give Midoriya and his class an early hero license exam and boot them out of the school? 

Eraserhead: We aren’t going to survive three years with them. 

Principal: … 

Principal: I believe it might be the time to make first year classes attempt provisional license exam, because frankly speaking, this year’s crop of prospective heroes is just downright ridiculously competent.

PowerLoader: Accent on ridiculous. 

Chapter Text

Gran Torino is having a really bad day. He helped eliminate or restrain several noumus, brought a lot of people to safety, but when he returned to the train (still downed, the hell are those idiots doing) he discovered that his interns were gone. 

By now, the attack on Hosu was over. The casualties have been high, and he just now heard that the police headquarters were attacked by the QLF, but the attack was repelled. Still, his interns were missing and that was a bad thing considering just how much mayhem Midoriya was capable of. 

He was about to try to phone his grandson when All Might suddenly phoned him. 

Well, that can’t mean anything good, right? 

He accepts the call. 

“Gran Torino.” He hears All Might’s voice. It’s more tired than anything else. “What orders did you give to Izuku, exactly?” 

What?

“I told him that I authorize them for combat, if it’s absolutely necessary.” Gran Torino replies, clearly taken off-guard. How is All Might even aware that they were in Hosu? Unless… oh no.

“You had one job, sensei.” All Might is now even more tired. “Just one job. Eraserhead told you to never let them out of your sight, at least for as long as there is any way to creatively redefine your orders. So why did you do it?” 

Oh no no no no no no. No one died, that much is certain, as All Might would be acting… much more differently. So Midoriya had to do something crazy. 

“What happened?” Gran Torino asks. Please let it not be something super crazy. Please.

“Izuku’s definition of ‘absolutely necessary’ apparently includes traveling through half of the city while it’s under large scale villain attack, interrupting an almost successful assasination attempt on Endeavor, and engaging two double S rank villains in combat. Before apprehending one and escaping the other.” All Might says and Gran Torino feels himself going slackjawed. “Your interns defeated and arrested Eclipse, sensei.” 

“I’m going to kill your son, Yagi.” Gran Torino says after a good ten seconds of silence. 

“There is a queue for that, and you aren’t the first one in line.” All Might replies. The recording of his voice would probably make paint dry instantly. “Aizawa seems to be selling the tickets. We’re going to need your statement to figure out how to deal with this mess from the legal side.” He sighs and the phone call ends. 

Gran Torino yells at the clouds, freaking out some passersby. 

***

The situation is a bit of a nightmare, really. Kids are naturally hyped - frankly speaking, Yagi isn’t surprised, they fought against two extremely dangerous villains and won, this is a genuine reason to be excited and proud of themselves. He is a bit surprised, in the meantime, by how Bakugou seems to be NOT abrasive towards the rest and actually admits that Eclipse was done in by the team, instead of claiming that he did it. 

But the real problem is making sure that the kids don’t get an accusation of vigilantism slapped in their face. Gran Torino’s orders were very creatively redefined, and that’s a plus, just not a very big one. The worst part is that they can probably sink Gran Torino as well if the press goes after them. 

Sure, most people would probably side with whoever did Eclipse in, but… developing this degree of bad press early on in their careers would be bad. Almost as much as developing this much of a good press. Way to turn into gloryhounds. 

He is looking for an alternative. Though it might be a bit problematic, as it will force him to have a meeting with Endeavor. The man that he now personally hates. And who just went out of surgery. 

Frankly speaking, despite being the Number One Hero, he doesn’t expect Endeavor to be interested in meeting him. Not in the light of his most recent humiliation (having to be rescued by a few hero students is humiliating to a Number Two Hero, even if he was on the verge of defeating Eclipse earlier). But, somehow, Endeavor is alright with the meeting. 

He is lying on the bed, resting. His arm is already back in its place, with some powerful healing quirks (including the Recovery Girl) used to speed up the process. He was probably forbidden from overusing it for a while and required some rehabilitation to return it to its full ability. 

Plus, for now, he is resting. Still under observation and clearly exhausted. The fact that he is able to have a talk is a testament to his strength of will and body. 

“Endeavor.” All Might says and his signature smile vanishes from his face. There is no one but Endeavor in the room, and the Number One Hero isn’t in a mood to smile for that man.

“All Might.” Endeavor replies. The tone of the voice actually gives All Might a pause. It sounds… defeated, for the lack of a better word. Not what he expected to ever hear from Enji Todoroki. “What do you want from me?” 

“We’re trying to puzzle out a response to the… events in Hosu.” All Might replies. He isn’t even touching the part where the police were only now realizing what happened to its information network. This was going to be a nightmare. Everywhere throughout Japan the protected witnesses were evacuated in a hurry and informants told to run. Whatever was going to happen next, the police were blinded. For months if not years. “We’re trying to…”

“What do the kids want?” Endeavor asks, his eyes still on the ceiling. All Might is briefly taken aback by this. 

“I believe they want at least some recognition for this.” All Might replies. “They did achieve something great, even if you weakened Eclipse so much earlier. However…” 

“However, you are afraid of the legal side of their deed.” Endeavor replies in a voice that’s almost emotionless. He acts like Shoto, All Might realizes. And that’s odd. “And of the potential revenge spree of the QLF towards them and their families.” 

That was something that had to be taken into account too, yes. All Might didn’t want to think about it, but… pro heroes had their families generally better protected. Not by much, but… 

“That’d be correct.” All Might replies. Frankly, he is confused by this talk. Too confused to actually be angry at Endeavor, because the man looks like someone who broke. And that’s what makes absolutely no sense. 

“When they arrived, I believed that the quirk-suppressing attack influenced my opponents as well. “ Endeavor announces, no, recites and All Might’s eyes widen. “Seeing hero trainees with active quirks arrive, I ordered them to engage the supervillains, thinking that they are almost harmless. However Eclipse knocked me out with her quirk before I could finish relaying my orders, namely the part when they were only supposed to secure an escape route for myself and the, rather than have an all-out brawl. And before I could change the orders, after finding out that the gas didn’t influence Eclipse and Overhaul. As a result, the students' battle against the supervillains was a result of my tactical miscalculation, and was perfectly legal for students.” 

All Might finds himself blinking a few times and briefly having problems with keeping up his hero form because that’s literally the last thing he expected to hear. Especially as its’ a load of bullshit. Helpful for students (and certainly not for Endeavor’s career), but… 

“As for the latter concern.” Endeavor continues. “Explain the risks to them. If they want, keep their names out of the press. Make it sound like I caught Eclipse, with only some help from some UA hero trainees. Once they graduate, I’ll voluntarily step forward and announce the truth, while claiming that it was done to let them study in peace without being afraid of villains targeting them for revenge.” 

There is a long silence after this. All Might can hear the clock ticking in the background. Some quiet beeps from the machinery making sure that Endeavor is feeling alright. 

“What happened to you?” He decides to ask finally. 

“The sports festival did.” Endeavor replies, his eyes on the ceiling. “On one day the image I took twenty years to build was ruined together with my hopes of ever catching up to you… and my son told me that he wants to be a hero like you, not me. Took me days to process it, but I finally realized that the latter hurt me more than the former.” He remains silent for a few long seconds before continuing. “I should have kept pursuing you myself instead of pulling my family into this.”

“So, you know?” All Might asks, still surprised by the development. 

“That you know about my family and my lifetime obsession?” Endeavor asks. “I figured out that Shoto told Izuku, and considering how you are clearly furious at me for something, it’s not easy to add two to two.” He pauses for a second. “Or is it about Izuku Midoriya being your son? I pursued you for my whole life, I can recognize an identical quirk. He even acts like you, just smarter and scarier. His mother must be one hell of a woman.” 

All Might is torn between the desires to yell a denial, point out that genes do not define everything, and admit that Endeavor is spot on. And that’s just the second half of his words, because the first one makes All Might consider way more things. And be even more conflicted. 

“I’ve spent my entire life pursuing a goal that I could never achieve.” Endeavor says quietly, still facing the ceiling. “I destroyed my own family. And now it turns out that if my son achieves my goal, it will be because he decided to follow your footsteps. Not mine. Meaning that I can no longer become the Number One Hero, even by proxy. Meaning that my whole life and career was a failure.” 

Two more seconds of silence, before Endeavor continues. 

“And now Shoto saved my life together with his friends. Despite me being a Number Two Hero. From villains that he shouldn’t have to face while being so young. While all I could do was watch. So I’m not just a failure as a father as already established, but also as a hero.” All Might is about to say something, but then Endeavor decides to add something. “I think that I’m going to retire.” 

“You… what?” Endeavor retiring is a prospect about as likely as Izuku turning to villainy. All Might’s mind just refuses to process. 

“Do you think that I can keep doing this after what it made me do to my family?” Endeavor asks and All Might finds it hard to answer that question. “I wasn’t like you. I didn’t do heroics for heroics. They were a tool to achieve my goal. And now I have no goal, and I don’t think that I deserve the tools. So what else do I have left?” 

All Might is a veteran hero. He has an instinct that sometimes made him act against what Sir Nighteye, Nedzu and Gran Torino considered logical. More often than not, he was proven right. And right now, his instinct tells him to do something stupid. 

He walks up to Endeavor's bed. He is a giant towering over him, and for the first time during this talk, the Flame Hero looks at him. Their eyes meet. And then All Might deflates. 

“Wh… what?” Endeavor stares at him with an expression of shock and horror on his face. He probably considers the option that he is facing an impostor. Not the oddest reaction to the revelation, all things considered. 

All Might pulls up his shirt, just enough to expose the wound. Eliciting a faint gasp of shock. 

“A villain attack. Six years ago.” Yagi says calmly. “He tore my stomach and lung out. My quirk is breaking up on me ever since. I can only maintain my strength for something close to two hours a day. In a year top I’ll be de facto quirkless. My time as a hero is coming to an end. And you are old enough to remember the times before Japan got peaceful. The times before I came to be.” 

“There’ll be chaos.” Endeavor is intelligent, despite all his faults. He understands immediately. “Your son. You’re training him into your successor.” 

“No.” All Might shakes his head. “All I’m doing is helping him become a hero like me. He wanted that even before we met and before we discovered that we were related. It was his own decision. One that makes me proud of him.”  Salting the wound is a bad thing to do. But this is the truth. And All Might refuses to lie when something this important is at stake. It always comes to bite you in the ass further down the line. 

He looks at Endeavor. His face, unlike the one he shows to the world as All Might, is sad and pained. He is doing his best to not make the world see it, but it’s not like wounds of this magnitude ever stop hurting. 

“You say you’re missing a goal.” All Might says. “So I’ll give you one. You ruined everything? Well, you survived Hosu. You can still fix what you broke. Both as a father and as a hero. So take your strength of will and determination and use it for something actually fucking constructive for once.” To hear the Symbol of Peace use words like that… Endeavor looks mortified by it. “Bring your wife out of the mental hospital or at least apologize on your knees for what you did. Try to actually not be a dick to your kids. More than that, go plus ultra on that and actually become a hero to them like you should have been as their father. And for heroics?” 

He leans over the Flame Hero and actually jabs his chest with his boney index finger. 

“My career will be over in a year.” All Might says, Endeavor remains quiet and shocked. “Then you’ll be the Number One Hero. And like I do, you’ll have to make the entire country feel safe. Not worried about collateral damage, not conflicted about your goddamn scary facial expression. SAFE. In the wake of a tide of chaos and villainy.” He takes a step back, his eyes still locked on Endeavor. “You wanted to unseat me as a Number One Hero? Well, prove to me that you deserve that title. Or at the very least hold the fort until my son grows strong enough. How’s that for a redemption story, Endeavor? How’s that for a goal to pursue?”

He leaves the room, leaving the speechless Endeavor behind. Three days later he receives a text message from the Number Two Hero. It’s just a single word. ‘Yes’. But All Might understands that his instincts were spot on once again. 

***

Izuku, Bakugou, Tenya and Shoto have a long (and private) talk about the offer. In the end, they come to an agreement. They are alright with Endeavor taking the heat for what happened, in exchange for him genuinely admitting who captured Eclipse (they all did, Endeavor included, and the kids are willing to admit that part) once they graduate. 

They also demand to not have to hide the truth from their classmates.

Frankly speaking, All Might and the rest of the faculty are slightly conflicted by that last part. Sure, the hero trainees aren't a very talkative group - the Denki’s conspiracy theory channel is going to have its every installment reviewed by Nedzu himself to ensure that nothing secret is accidentally revealed, and that was the students’ idea. Sure, the kids deserve some actual recognition, even if just from their peers. But it’s still a security threat.

What makes the motion pass is the fact that Overhaul (and thus the PLF) already knows the truth. PLF is slowly shaping up to be the worst threat to the heroics world, and who else is going to take the words of some UA students over the Number Two Hero? 

***

1-A Class Chatroom

ClassPresident: I regret to inform you that our internships with Gran Torino have been terminated indefinitely.

GravityGirl: Did he die of old age? 

Vampire: Was he arrested for being a meanie?

ClassPresident: @Vampire You already know the reason, so stop pretending

Vampire: My quirk is about impersonating others, how am I supposed to stop pretending?!

CreativeSpirit: This is fair.

ClassPresident: Ugh.

ClassPresident: Basically speaking, through a series of complete coincidences and some creative redefinition of orders (or that’s how Nedzu and All Might called it) we’ve ended up being involved in the Hosu attack. 

CreativeSpirit: … please define involved.

GravityGirl: Is everyone alright?!

ClassPresident: Yes, the only one wounded was Bakugou and that was because Shoto used his explosion super move from his fight with me at the sport festival (Flashfreeze Heatwave if someone was curious) on him, but it’s alright because it was all part of the plan!

GravityGirl: WHAT

Riot: What sort of plan makes you do that?! 

AcidParty: ^ 

BoomBoom: The fucking best one

Riot: What

BoomBoom: It was awesome, and it worked. 

BoomBoom: All I have to say on the matter.

BoomBoom: Icyhot has my respect because hitting me with that attack without hesitation was awesome. 

GravityGirl: What happened to him?!

ClassPresident: Gran Torino did. 

Riot: Okay, this is officially MANLY. 

BoomBoom: FUCK YEAH SPIKYHAIR

ClassPresident: Basically speaking we had to improvise because Eclipse grabbed Bakugou hostage, and since he was much more immune to explosions than she was, Thermostat threw his thermal nuke at them. 

CreativeSpirit: Eclipse?! As in, the SS- Rank villain?!

BoomBoom: It wasn’t improvisation for fuck’s sake

BoomBoom: you literally told me to get close to that bitch and then for the icy-hot to blast us both to let me punch her lights out while she was distracted

BoomBoom: it was your plan and not a fucking improvisation, nerd

GravityGirl: Wait, you ATTACKED Eclipse?

BoomBoom: Attacked? I punched that bitch out cold and dragged her into the warpgate with Four Eyes! 

CreativeSpirit: You WHAT?

ClassPresident: Yes, basically, we ended up arresting Eclipse but we’ve given the laurels to Endeavor because he weakened her to like 30-40% of her strength before we got around, and we don’t want people to go after us for revenge while we are still studying.

ClassPresident: Endeavor will announce the truth about our involvement once we graduate

CreativeSpirit: So let me reiterate

CreativeSpirit: You attacked an SS-Rank villain that could engage half of our faculty at once and win

CreativeSpirit: She took one of you hostage

CreativeSpirit: So YOUR ANSWER TO THAT WAS TO BLEW UP THE HOSTAGE?

BoomBoom: Fuck yeah

ClassPresident: Okay so this DOES sound a bit bad when you put it like this, but it was all a calculated risk!

BoomBoom: @Thermostat do it fucking again if someone takes me hostage, I can take it

Thermostat: Very well.

GravityGirl: What sort of risk calculation makes you engage an SS-Rank villain in combat as a first year hero trainee?!

TurboMan: I’d like to specify that we engaged two SS-Rank villains in combat, since Overhaul was also present at the scene. Me and Midoriya kept him occupied, while Todoroki and Bakugou defeated Eclipse. 

GravityGirl: YOU DID WHAT?!

GravityGirl: Why, like, WHY

ZapZap: D: 

GaleForce: this is capital letters awesome

Froggy: Just learn how to write them already, Yoarashi. 

Thermostat: They were going to kill my father. And we were the only people who could stop that.

Vampire: Ah yes, Zuku saving people. Nothing new.

Mindhack: ^

CreativeSpirit: I’m now going to have a serious talk with you, Midoriya, about risking your life incessantly. 

ClassPresident: I begin to regret certain decisions. 

BoomBoom: Welcome to the fucking club

***

Izuku Midoriya Support/Fanclub

GravityGirl: Oh. My. God.

GravityGirl: He did it again.

Vampire: Yes, he did.

Mindhack: We all freaked out when they started popping up from Mieko’s warpgate into our living room, right after half-dead Endeavor who was holding his severed arm in his other hand and bleeding on our carpet

Mindhack: Even Aizawa-sensei looked like he wanted to jump from the window or something out of pure exasperation

Mindhack: One hell of an evening

Vampire: Yup! 

GravityGirl: Why is Izuku Midoriya like this

Vampire: I want to know myself

Mindhack: Yep

Vampire: Wait, like this, as in heroic, chaotic, cute or hot?

GravityGirl: himichan pls

Vampire: too bold?

GravityGirl: With the last word, a bit.

Vampire: It’s objective truth though. 

LeadSinger: @GravityGirl do you agree or disagree with that statement

GravityGirl: PLEASE DON’T TEASE ME LIKE THAT

GravityGirl: You’re all meanies

GravityGirl: I meant both heroic and chaotic

Mindhack: He is like All Might, but with moral alignment changed from lawful good to chaotic good, somewhere near the border with neutral good

GravityGirl: More gamespeak?

Mindhack: I lived for half a year with Tenko Shimura, what did you expect?

GravityGirl: Fair. 

Vampire: Also I’m inviting another person!

WarpedPerception enters the chat!

WarpedPerception: Izuku Midoriya has a fanclub?! YAY! 

WarpedPerception: Do you have T-Shirts or something?

Vampire: We unfortunately don’t, but this might change.

WarpedPerception: Oh ok! Looking forward to that!

GravityGirl: Okay who that?

WarpedPerception: Mieko Eto of class 1-B! 

WarpedPerception: Izuku just made me realize my life goal like ten years ahead of my estimations and he is officially the coolest person I ever met. 

GravityGirl: Oh.

CreativeSpirit: Life goal?

WarpedPerception: Putting Eclipse behind bars! We have a family history, so to speak. 

WarpedPerception: I hoped to be the one to jail her because she avoided that for like twenty years or more now, so I tried to become a hero and suddenly bam, I opened the warpgate and thus helped her be jailed while in the first year of the hero school!

WarpedPerception: I freaked out super hard when I recognized her!

WarpedPerception: Midoriya actually stayed with me and helped me calm down, that was awesome and super nice of him! 

CreativeSpirit: Yeah, that sounds like a solid reason to become a fan of someone, yes.

CreativeSpirit: Welcome aboard!

LeadSinger: Wait, oh my god, this is brilliant

CreativeSpirit: What is?

LeadSinger: WarpedPerception is right, what do all major heroes have that Izuku doesn’t?

CreativeSpirit: ???

GravityGirl: ???

LeadSinger: MERCHANDISE.

CreativeSpirit: What

LeadSinger: we can start designing his merchandise like years before everyone else, think about this! 

LeadSinger: And Yaomomo can make prototypes of things pretty much for the cost of a good meal.

LeadSinger: We can strike gold further down the line

MadScientist: I can totally make an automatic assembly line for things, very efficient and so on

LeadSinger: YES! There is money to be earned in this. Money plus it would (once he gets a bit more known, but just not yet the Top 15 Hero known) probably help make him more popular and so on.

LeadSinger: For now we could just focus on testing what comes to mind, but… wait, I have an idea

LeadSinger: @CreativeSpirit How about designing some sort of cards (numbered, of course, in the order of joining) for the members of the fanclub? Think of it like press legitimacies, and so on.

GravityGirl: This is quite odd and you’re strangely pumped up

LeadSinger: Uraraka, quick question. How much do you think such a unique collectible will be worth in 30 years, when, for example, Izuku Midoriya will be a Top One Hero? How much will people pay for something that was issued in a single number, and to one of his classmates who will also probably be one of the top heroes? 

LeadSinger: And we can have Yaomomo secretly produce two copies per member, so that we can theoretically sell it but still have it just without making people know. We just all have to keep the second copy a secret.

GravityGirl: @CreativeSpirit DO IT IMMEDIATELY 

LeadSinger: DO IT YAOMOMO

Froggy: Did someone say, MONEY?

CreativeSpirit: I’m officially worried.

CreativeSpirit: Also before we move onto this for real, I have another candidate for the fanclub.

Thermostat has joined the chat! 

Thermostat: Oh. What’s this?

Mindhack: Any attempt to turn that into an OwO joke will be met with summary execution.

Thermostat: What?

Mindhack: Not important.

Mindhack: Welcome to the fanclub of Izuku Midoriya.

Thermostat: Fanclub?

Mindhack: Basically speaking, we all think that he is a great person, and we want to support him but also talk about his newest exploits, but without him knowing, because he has some serious problems with people praising him. 

Mindhack: So knowing about this channel would make him feel weird.

Thermostat: I understand.

Thermostat: And I believe this to be a good place for me to be in.

Mindhack: The Izuku’s Hidden Army grows stronger.

CreativeSpirit: Stop making us sound like a cult. 

Mindhack: You mean that you aren’t worshipping him as a deity?! 

Mindhack: I’m fairly certain that at least one of his siblings is an eldritch nightmare, so it makes perfect sense for Izuku Midoriya to be a chaotic good deity of mayhem, heroics and social anxiety. 

GravityGirl: Could you stop acting like Aiko Midoriya is an monster

Mindhack: I’m the only one whom she didn’t brainwash

Mindhack: Probably due to my quirk

CreativeSpirit: I have no words.

LeadSinger: Also, MERCHANDISE YAOMOMO?

Chapter Text

Izuku Midoriya Support/Fanclub

LeadSinger: Can we all spend a moment to, just… like… meditate on how scary Gran Torino has to be?

Vampire: ???

LeadSinger: I mean, didn’t you see Bakugou doing a personality one-eighty on us after spending a bit more than a week with him? 

CreativeSpirit: Not exactly one-eighty.

LeadSinger: ?

CreativeSpirit: He is still abrasive, rude and swears like a sailor. He just limited that to people not from his class. And not his teachers.

CreativeSpirit: And I’m observant enough to see how often he is close to snapping at one of us, but he visibly swallows the words instead of letting them out. 

CreativeSpirit: It’s less character reformation and more him using all that crazy willpower and determination of his to strive for some changes in himself.

CreativeSpirit: He only started walking down this road. 

CreativeSpirit: It somehow feels like Gran Torino got on his ambitious side and dared him to change himself, so he is now fighting that war to prove to him that he can do it. 

CreativeSpirit: Anger him enough and he will still yell at you.

Mindhack: Yeah, he is also unloading his anger at training mannequins and sheet

Mindhack: And sandbags.

Mindhack: He destroys one like every other day since Hosu.

LeadSinger: This still means that he was absolutely terrified by Gran Torino

LeadSinger: We talk about a boy whose reaction to getting a small nuke to the face was ‘fucking do it again!’, guys.

Thermostat: Gran Torino was intimidating.

LeadSinger: Do I want to know the details?

Thermostat: Probably not. 

Vampire: I do!

Thermostat: My training was mostly composed of ejecting and controlling my flames with only minimal usage of my ice side. I could use it when he wasn’t there. If he was, he was standing there with a garden hose and dosing me in freezing-cold water. 

Thermostat: For 16h a day. 

CreativeSpirit: How on earth you didn’t get sick after so many temperature jumps?

Thermostat: I caught a cold. It’s not a reason enough for a sick leave, according to Gran Torino. He would let me take it only if I had pneumonia. Then I could ask for a day off. One day off. 

CreativeSpirit: …

LeadSinger: Okay, isn’t that borderline student abuse?

Thermostat: I mean, it was only about as bad as my normal training regimen, but I actually learned more.

CreativeSpirit: Oh my God

CreativeSpirit: Let’s not dig into that right now.

LeadSinger: Todoroki, you’re getting a group hug tomorrow in school.

Thermostat: Will Izuku be included in this?

LeadSinger: Yes.

Thermostat: Alright. 

LeadSinger: (-_- ) 

LeadSinger: I’m getting suspicious about something.

CreativeSpirit: Please no, don’t even bring this up.

CreativeSpirit: I’m not sure that he is at the stage of learning how to be a human being where he can differentiate that from friendship. Let him emotionally develop in peace. 

Thermostat: ?

CreativeSpirit: Nothing, keep learning how to socialize, we’re all here for you!

Thermostat: Not for Izuku?

CreativeSpirit: That was… you misread my words.

Thermostat: I’m sorry. 

CreativeSpirit: You don’t have to.

Vampire: Back to the Real Subject.

Vampire: Ochachan!

GravityGirl: Oh no.

Vampire: Confession time!

GravityGirl: I’m too scared! What if he hates me?!

Mindhack: That’s patently impossible unless you are a particularly heinous and irredeemable villain. 

Mindhack: It’s like, I don’t know, a villain fighting All Might one on one and winning? Just impossible. 

Vampire: If you give me some of your blood I’ll do it for you!

GravityGirl: Himichan no

GravityGirl: You know that he can somehow tell that it’s you at a glance

Vampire: And I’m super curious how he’s doing it, ochachan >_< 

Froggy: Body language, no doubt. You copy the appearance and voice but not all mannerisms. When he knows someone well enough, he can tell that they aren’t walking in the ‘right’ way. 

Froggy: You should be able to sneak up on him while pretending to be someone he doesn’t know, but you’ll have to work on hiding your own body language or he’ll tell that’s you regardless.

Vampire: Froggy-chan, thank you!

Froggy: You’re welcome. 

Mindhack: Froggy-chan? Where is my cute nickname, eh?

Vampire: Toshi is Toshi >_< 

Mindhack: Fair enough.

MIndhack: Also @GravityGirl Confess or I’ll make you.

GravityGirl: Your quirk can’t make me talk!

Mindhack: Yes but I happen to just got those cool artificial vocal cords that allow me to mimic the voice of other people, so I’ll just have you stand there quietly and speak for yourself.

Mindhack: And I’m going to do that in a HUMILIATING way. And record the whole thing.

Mindhack: Unless you go and do it yourself.

GravityGirl: This is blackmail!

Mindhack: I prefer the term ‘Plus Ultra Persuasion’.

LeadSinger: Pffft

WarpedPerception: Okay I’m positively in love with that line. 

LeadSinger: @CreativeSpirit do a T-shirt with the ‘Blackmail? I prefer the term Plus Ultra Persuasion.’ writing over it in Hitoshi’s size.

WarpedPerception: I want one too! 

LeadSinger: I lowkey want to see Aizawa-sensei’s face when he sees you wearing it after school. 

GravityGirl: Pffff

LeadSinger: Also confess, Uravity, or I’m going to start prattling about all your s e c r e t s.

GravityGirl: What secrets? 

LeadSinger: I know what you did yesterday during the lunchbreak.

GravityGirl: OMG

GravityGirl: I’M GOING TO CONFESS TODAY FOLKS

Mindhack: WAIT I WANT TO KNOW WHAT SHE DID

LeadSinger: Then I would no longer have plus ultra persuasion material and she wouldn’t confess.

Mindhack: Fair. Then don’t tell me.

***

Urarako Ochaco had absolutely zero experience in matters of love. What she did know is that trying to make it too… weird would just freak them both out (especially Izuku, because he was… well, Izuku). So it has to be something absolutely simple. 

And private.

Especially private. 

So she took advantage of them sitting together during the lunch break and asked Izuku to wait for her after school, because she has something to talk with him about and she would prefer it to be private. 

She ignored the knowing looks from Tsuyu, Himiko and Hitoshi. She ignored the smirk on Kyoka’s face one table away (and how she elbowed Momo to whisper something to her). She ignored everything because she is going to confess to a boy today damnit and nothing is going to stop her! 

She was in her warlike mood and that was probably the only reason why it would work. Why it could work. Damn it. 

(also she is never again watching newest Mr. Compress video on her phone in private while cooing about how cool he is because clearly Kyoka is a goshdarn stalker who knows more about things happening in school than Nedzu with his microphones and cameras)

The remaining classes are a bit of a haze. When they end, her classmates vacate the room (the ones who know give her some thumb ups and reassuring looks) and she remains alone in the class.

Well, alone with him.

He looks at her over a few abandoned seats, clearly worried. About her. Because of course he is worried about her. He is probably thinking that something happened to her and she needs his help because of course he does. This is one of the most admirable and precious traits of the already admirable and precious boy that she has a crush on the size of Mt. Everest. 

She finds herself floating a bit. He is now even more startled, even after she returns to the floor. 

“Uhm, Izuku?” She is going there, she has to. She has her warlike spirit, her ironclad determination and the willpower honed during hours of combat training with Gunhead! She can do it! “How was your day?”

Damn it, Uraraka. 

“Uhm, it was quite nice?” Izuku is clearly lost by how utterly pointless thing she started with, but he plays along. Does he think that it’s some sort of introductory moment to something? Or that she is trying to communicate with him in a code to make Nedzu not notice it? And...

Oh god, is Kyoka listening to this?! Uraraka is going to jump through the window if she does, if her absolutely atrocious attempts at first confession (hopefully the last, like, in a good way!) are known to someone other than tight-lipped Izuku, her social life will be over! 

“We had some nice lessons and I had a talk with Mineta during one of the breaks.” Izuku continues, unaware of how internally messed up she is. “I think he is doing much better, the meds are clearly working and he is putting in an effort with Hound Dog to fix his, uhm, personality flaws. Or at least soften them up a bit. So I don’t think that he will be expelled, and…” 

“I like you.” She stammers out, immediately going red. 

… this is pretty great, because I was really worried about his reaction to the…” Izuku stops answering her accidental question, and she can almost see the gears turning in his head for a few seconds. Finally they arrive at their destination. 

“I like you too, Uraraka!” He replies and she briefly goes to a cloud nine. “I didn’t have many friends before going to UA, almost none at all if you exclude Hitoshi and Himiko but those were pretty much internet acquaintances while preparing for the Rehab Course, and Bakugou was being Bakugou, so…” 

He starts mumbling and Uraraka realizes that the dummy train arrived at the wrong destination and now she has to fix the railway chaos like some sort of… train conductor? Damn it, how do you call the people who are above them and oversee all the trai…

Uraraka, stop. 

“Uhm, not like that, Izuku.” She is trying to contain the red, but she fails and she can feel her face slowly turning into a strawberry. He pauses his increasingly mumbling narration of his really sad life prior to UA, and looks at her strangely. So she promptly freaks out. “I mean, I like you as a friend, yes, you are a great friend!” She quickly stammers out. “Just, uhm, not only that?”

C’mon, take a hint, don’t make her use any love-related words or she will float out of the room through the window and enter a geostationary orbit.

“So, like… friends but also rivals?” WHY IS THE FIRST THING THAT COMES TO HIS MIND?! She absolutely freaks out internally because he is so innocent that it almost hurts but part of her suspects that he just never imagined himself being confessed to and that actually hurts. 

“No, not like that, it's just … uhm…” She doesn’t know how to react to what’s happening, he is clearly not taking a hint and it’s just… 

Himiko Toga comes to the rescue. She almost kicks the door of the class open (Uraraka has never been as startled in her life before) and then walks inside. 

“THIS IS A LOVE CONFESSION, YOU SUPER-DUMMY BROCCOLI-COLOURED MENACE TO SOCIETY!!!” She yells and Izuku goes slackjawed. “You guys are the absolute worst and I can’t believe I stayed behind just to hear this sad excuse of a romantic moment. This isn’t some two-bit romance manga when you need like five hundred pages of adorable shenanigans for someone to say the L-word, dammit!”  

“Wha…” Now Izuku is trying to say something but she isn’t letting him. 

“Now give her a proper answer or I swear to every supernatural entity out there that I’m going to go full murder vampire on you!” She shouts at Izuku, before baring her teeth at him and hissing loudly. Then she looks at Uraraka. Her expression of anger changes to a reassuring smile. “Good luck, Ochachan!” 

Then she leaves the room.

Izuku Midoriya promptly faints. 

***

Uraraka gets her confession answered in the Recovery Girl’s office where Izuku was moved to give him time to return to the world of the living. Of course, it’s not an instantaneous process. First of all, he has to wake up (and she is waiting for this on the edge of her seat). Then (with Recovery Girl out of the earshot), she still has to drill through the wall. With her head. 

Izuku Midoriya is complicated. 

And is blushing super hard while still resting on the bed. 

Then again, she is blushing super hard while sitting on the chair next to it. The silence is extremely awkward. Eventually it’s Izuku that breaks it. 

“Sorry, I just… I don’t know how to process what just happened.” He says, doing his utmost best not to look at her direction. “What you s...said.” The stuttery moment is kinda adorable. Sad, when you consider the probable reason for it, but also adorable. This just makes her want to hug him. “I’m…” 

Uraraka at this point has a pretty reasonable degree of understanding of Izuku Midoriya’s character. Being part of his fanclub did wonders, although in all honesty she gave more to it than she got. 

“Is it… uhm… because you don’t know why a girl would be interested in you?” She asks, trying to not look at him while also trying to see his reaction. It seems to her that she hit the nail on the head which is awesome, because the other possible reason is about sexual orientation and the option A) is much more optimistic to her long term plans for him. 

“M… maybe a b...bit.” He goes even more red, somehow. He is also hiding his face behind his hands and this is very adorable. The chances of eye-contact are absolutely minimal, especially as Uraraka is hiding behind hers as well. 

“Then you… you shouldn’t.” Uraraka manages to reignite her fighting spirit a bit because dammit, she has to. Especially when it’s something like that. “You are brave. You are kind. You are smart. You are hard-working. You are… uhm… cute.” KEEP FIGHTING URARAKA!!! And don’t mention the hot part by accident. “You… like, after the USJ… you saved Thirteen’s life and helped me get out of it, so… you kinda make me feel safe? And that whatever happens to us, whatever villains would be in front of us, we can win? You also have that drive for heroics that’s super-inspiring to me, and you gave me very good advice on how to be a better hero, and... “ 

She takes a few deep breaths. She is speaking her mind, she can do it! It’s all going great! Right? It’s hard to say because she finds herself absolutely unable to read anything from the steamed broccoli in front of her. 

“And I guess that I want to support you like you support me?” She adds. “And become great heroes together?” Is it exactly a manipulation if you know that something is likely to persuade someone but you actually kinda mean it? Because she wants to be a hero with him, but she also knows how much of a berserk button for him those words are. 

“O...oh.” He manages to utter, but it’s quite clear to her that the Izuku.exe process crashed hard. 

“It’s okay to say no though!” Uraraka’s attempt to bulldoze through the remaining resistance crashes hard and she ends up taking a massive step back. At least partially in panic because she doesn’t want him to feel like she is pushing him into this, with how much he doesn’t want to hurt anyone near him he would probably agree just to not make her sad. And she wants love, not this! “I’m not going to be angry with you! It’s alright, I know your… family situation is a bit complicated, and…” She certainly isn’t going to say it loud, Nedzu might be listening in. Or, worse, Kyoka. 

“It’s… a bit more complicated than you think.” He still looks away from her, blushing hard and clearly not being sure what to do with his hands. “I… I mean, I want to accept, but… it’s like… I don’t want to drag you into anything weird, you have enough on your plate as it is…” 

“That’s no reason not to share your plate!” She says a bit too intensively, because the ‘I want to accept’ kinda pumped fuel into her engine. “You are clearly having a lot to deal with, and having a ggggg… friend to help you with that is great!” 

“Uhm, I guess.” Izuku seems to be kinda… reinvigorated? Less freaked out? He probably has things that he wants to share but doesn’t really have anyone to do that among the friends of his age. She and Tsuyu discovered the Mr. Compress part by absolute accident. “Give me a second.” 

He lunges for his backpack, pulls out a notebook, and quickly writes something on the page. Probably to avoid Nedzu. Or Jirou. Does he even know about Jirou? Or did Nedzu wiretapped the Recovery Girl’s office? 

“If… if you are still willing to be my gggg….friend…” He stammers in the identical way as she did and Uraraka finds it adorable. “...after reading that, then I… I’m alright with that? Uhm, no wait, I’m happy with that.” He is clearly struggling and that’s lowkey cute. “If not then… uhm… don’t mention that to anyone, please?” 

He turns the page of the notebook towards her, and she reads the words he wrote. 

My dad = All Might

My mom = Mischief

My stepdad = super evil villain but he’s dead now

My kinda granddad = Gran Torino

My kinda grandma = Recovery Girl

My ‘uncles’ = Mr. Compress, Gentle Criminal, Hero Killer Stain, Eraserhead, Present Mic

My ‘aunties’ = Ms. Compress, Midnight, Ms. Joke, La Brava and Lady Nagant.

Eri’s kidnapper is Overhaul

Also me and my siblings all have Class Six quirks. 

Her mind takes a few seconds to process that. It fails. Crashes. Reboots. Tries it again. Fails again. Finally reboots again and then gets somewhere. 

“Izuku.” He looks startled by it, probably knowing that the answer will soon come. “How are you still sane?” 

“I don’t know…” He replies weakly. 

Uraraka’s parents raised no quitter. She is going to help the boy that became so much of an inspiration to her, no matter what. She says that to him and the look of sheer gratitude and appreciation that she gets makes her heart flutter. 

Uraraka Ochaco, at the tender age of almost 16 years, gets herself a boyfriend. It takes them both about five minutes to figure out that they have no idea how that works.

***

Izuku Midoriya Support/Fanclub

GravityGirl: I DID IT, PEOPLE

GravityGirl: I CONFESSED!!! 

GravityGirl: AND HE SAID THAT HE LIKES ME AS WELL [like, eventually, took us a while to get there]

Mindhack: Y E S. 

LeadSinger: So you are now his ggggg…friend?

GravityGirl: YOU WERE LISTENING TO THIS?!

LeadSinger: Yes I was, but only to be able to assist you.

LeadSinger: Who do you think sent Himiko when it was obvious that it’s getting nowhere?!

GravityGirl: …

Vampire: I was, like, a wingwoman, except with fangs and no wings! So, fangwoman?

GravityGirl: Thank you, Jirou. And thank you, Himichan. But also to quote a certain kid from our class: DIEEEEE!!!

LeadSinger: Don’t turn into Bakugou.

GravityGirl: Don’t make me.

GravityGirl: Also I’m 99% sure that I know what sort of secret thing Kyoka found out about Izuku.

GravityGirl: Because he explained his family situation to me.

LeadSinger: Yes and it’s awesome. 

GravityGirl: Yeah, it puts a lot of things into perspective. 

GravityGirl: Who else knows?

Thermostat: If it’s about one of his parents, then I do. But I believe that he made it clear that he doesn’t know the world to know until the day he graduates and becomes a pro-hero. He doesn’t want to lie to his classmates though, and if you come to directly ask him about it, he will say the truth. He prefers omission to lies. 

CreativeSpirit: I’m incredibly curious but also aware that satisfying this urge would violate his trust in me as his vice-president.

Mindhack: So you are developing immoral urges? Mei’s a bad influence.

CreativeSpirit: What?!

Vampire: Don’t bully Momochan! She is the purest of us all! 

LeadSinger: Yes! 

MadScientist: Yup! She always takes a shower after our newest babymaking sessions.

WarpedPerception: Uhmmm?

CreativeSpirit: MEI, CONTEXT!!!

MadScientist: Providing context delays babymaking, Momo! 

MadScientist: Time is precious! Unless I manage to build the time machine. 

CreativeSpirit: She calls her inventions babies, she is from the support course.

WarpedPerception: OH, yeah, that makes perfect sense. 

GravityGirl: I believe that he is ALMOST ready to admit the truth about it, and I’m going to push him towards that because I understand his desire to keep things silent, but I also believe that Aiko’s comment was spot on.

Froggy: Hair full of secrets?

GravityGirl: Yes and I think that it’s crushing him. 

GravityGirl: Me hearing out the truth and not freaking out made him look at me like… I mean…

GravityGirl: His face was overflowing with appreciation and pure, concentrated happiness.

GravityGirl: I’m going to cherish that memory until my deathbed.

Vampire: <3 

GravityGirl: Also we spend like… an hour brainstorming things, but, uhm

GravityGirl: Any of you knows how romantic relationships work in practice?

GravityGirl: We, uhm, don’t know much about that. 

Vampire: Oh yes, that’s a very ochachan thing to ask about after confessing to a boy. 

Mindhack: Okay, so I guess as an internet nerd who knows a lot of trivia, it’ll be my job to provide you with a shovel talk?

GravityGirl: NO

GravityGirl: NOOOOO

Mindhack: Time for the S-word talk, Uraraka

GravityGirl: STOP

Mindhack: Let me introduce you to… Snuggling.

GravityGirl: I hate you.

Mindhack: C’mon, I can feel the death glare of Momo from her home (wherever it is), I’m not pissing off someone so rich, who also has wonderful lawyers AND ability to produce high-yield explosives from their body. 

Mindhack: I’m not suicidal.

CreativeSpirit: Good.

CreativeSpirit: Also you aren’t even 16 years old, there is absolutely no need to proceed to the actual S-word stuff, because the last thing you want is an accidental baby. And there is always a (minuscule) chance of an accidental baby.

GravityGirl: MOMO PLS

MadScientist: Did someone say BABY?

CreativeSpirit: The other type of baby, Mei.

MadScientist: Awwww.

CreativeSpirit: I’m just being honest with you, Uraraka.

CreativeSpirit: I’m innocent and mostly sheltered, but not THAT innocent and sheltered.

CreativeSpirit: Focus on getting to know him better (and vice versa), watch some films together or find another joint hobby, go on some walks side by side while holding hands and so on. No need to hurry with anything. You have a lot of time in front of you. 

LeadSinger: Are we making a bet on how many months will it take them to kiss without either side freaking out?

GravityGirl: Kyoka please

GravityGirl: I can barely imagine holding hands without blushing furiously and burying my face in the pillow.

Vampire: The pureness… it’s blinding me! 

Vampire: It’s like a sunlight, and it burns >_< 

WarpedPerception: It’s kinda cute ngl

Vampire: Yeah, I know. 

WarpedPerception: Also it really makes you wonder how many pairs will our school life create, huh

WarpedPerception: I ship Momo with Bakugou

LeadSinger: WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTTT

CreativeSpirit: You WHAT?!

WarpedPerception: He is an explosion freak and you can probably create a tactical nuke from your body if you focus hard enough, and despite being so aggressive he is apparently rather smart, at least academically.

WarpedPerception: Tame that explosion, Yaomomo ]:-> 

WarpedPerception: Tame it ]:-> 

MadScientist: Can I join as well? Explosions are super cool! We could blow up so many things together! Bakugou’s explosion-resistance, my genius, and Momo’s money and item printing ability! 

MadScientist: Also whose surname do we take?

LeadSinger: You know you probably broke her? She hasn’t written anything for 15 minutes.

LeadSinger: There is a limit to teasing. 

WarpedPerception: … Plus Ultra? 

CreativeSpirit: Please, stop defiling our school’s motto like that!

LeadSinger: Ignore motto, stop defiling Yaomomo like that!

WarpedPerception: Another ship detected, I can feel my love sense tingling!

LeadSinger: @Mindhack Do you remember that talk about you murdering nasty women?

Mindhack: Yes, but I’ll deny it if police or heroes come asking. 

LeadSinger: I need some tips. 

Vampire: @WarpedPerception RUN

GravityGirl: Oh dear, tomorrow’s school is going to be super awkward.

Chapter Text

In the end, the most awkward part of the next day in school was the part where Uraraka had to address the issue of Izuku getting cold feet on the idea of making their relationship a public affair. Because, apparently, he was deathly afraid of someone targeting Uraraka further down the line over his… familial connections. 

Uraraka, frankly, wasn’t super comfortable with the concept of public displays of affection (she was yet to figure out how to deal with private displays of affection!). But Izuku Midoriya’s tendency to try to keep things secrets was worrying. Especially as it was rather clear that he wanted to tell things to people. 

This duality of secrecy and attempts to share the secrets with people he grew to trust was kinda worrying. Like a few more things in Midoriya’s behaviour. 

The point was, she agreed to not make it a common knowledge. So, nothing public. It makes sense, there was a reason for All Might (she still didn’t figure out why he looked so skinny in the picture) hiding his family life. There is always a threat of someone targeting the relatives of powerful heroes. 

Besides, if Izuku one day becomes a powerful hero (and she does so as well), then… Uraraka can understand wanting to keep something in his life private. She had the same desire. To, like, have some place where she can relax without being worried about the press finding out and bothering her. 

So she understood. She wasn’t exactly happy about it (mostly due to the hair full of secrets bit), but she understood it. Hence, no open announcements, not informing anyone on UA that wasn’t in their class (and, perhaps, class 1-B or just generally understood friends of theirs on UA), but no lying if someone asks. 

She also admitted that she mentioned the confession to a few people. Himiko wasn’t a surprise, Mieko Eto and Momo Yaoyorozu were. In the end Izuku decided that he is alright with this (especially as she didn’t mention the part about him having a fanclub), just… he hopes that they won’t spread the news. 

They aren’t going to. Especially Uraraka. Izuku’s look of pure gratitude and happiness fuels her engine, waters her crops and scratches her in a way she was never before scratched in. In short, her one-sided crush just bloomed into a young love, and it’s already turning her brain into water.

Very, very happy water. 

Uraraka Ochaco regrets nothing. 

Even when Midnight winks at her and makes a comment about ‘young love’ grinding her gears. 

Literally nothing out there can ruin her mood at that point. And they didn’t even have their first date! 

Maybe a week or two and she will figure out how to say the word date aloud without freaking out. 

***

Yagi would have preferred to not have that talk. But Gran Torino urged him to do it, because frankly speaking, the Noumu felt like something out of All for One’s laboratory. All Might was certain that his nemesis was dead, but not all of his former servants were. Overhaul was probably too young to be close to his court, but Eclipse certainly wasn't. She was his former lieutenant, and a close one. 

There was an option that the PLF had more of such people in their ranks. And there was a rather shocking thing that Izuku wasn’t aware of. Something that the PLF could - potentially - use to drive a wedge between him and the world of heroics. 

Namely, the identity of his stepdad. And his relationship with his father. 

Inko agreed that it’s time for Izuku to know. Aiko, Yagi suspected, knew but didn’t care. She knew a lot of unexpected things courtesy of her quirk. But she never really met Hisashi. For as far as Yagi understood her, she considered him to be her dad. Asa, once again, had only rather pale memories of his dad. 

Izuku had the time to at least start bonding with him. Though, for everything that was good in this world, All Might just couldn’t understand why. Maybe save for the quirk obsession, that was one thing they both had in common. 

As a result, Inko and Yagi decided that it’s time to have that talk. Explain the origins of both One for All and All for One AND the complicated family history. 

And oh boy if this wasn’t going to be a clustermess. Yagi decided to be the bearer of the bad news, and to do it in school. That way, if Izuku took the news badly, he would go home to Inko. Who would be the one to console him, and make him swallow the news a bit better. Because Yagi expected a lot of shouting. 

Yes. It was going to work. Probably. 

He even made sure to choose that one room that Nedzu made sure to keep off the constant monitoring. For the private talks. 

He didn’t count on Izuku coming to the meeting looking so… happy? Satisfied? Maybe more like… normal? It’s as if some of the weight was taken off him, and he could finally walk normally. More than that, with a spring in his heels. Huh.

“Something good happened to you, Izuku?” Yagi wasn’t in a hurry to start THAT talk, so he decided to inquire about the unexpected changes that occured to his son first. Because he never saw Izuku so lighthearted (and he hates the fact that he’ll have to ruin his mood soon), and as his dad, he naturally got curious. 

“A girl confessed to me.” His son says, his cheeks reddening slightly and his eyes at anything that wasn’t his father. 

Oh dear, to quote the rodent principal. That explains a lot. Especially the boost of self-confidence. Inko is going to have a field day over that, regardless of what Izuku’s answer was. 

“Your first love confession, huh?” All Might tries not to be smug about it, but he fails. “Well, you started quite early. Get ready for more.” 

“Mmmmore?” Izuku is shocked and ends up slurring a bit. 

“Izuku, when I was on the UA I was, and I quote someone, ‘built like a Greek god’.” All Might replies scarcely. He had to admit that Nana was right in that assessment, even if it made him super embarrassed. “I also had very good grades, I won three school festivals, I was the class president three years in a row, and I was doing my best to help everyone around me without asking for anything in return. How many girls do you think confessed to me during my time at school, hmm?” 

And also some boys, there was a phase when his constant ‘no’ made people think he swings the other way. But he ends up not mentioning it. 

He was way too focused on All for One, and felt that dragging anyone else into his life would just make them into targets for that man. Until he ran into Misaki/Inko, because then caution flew through the window. Together with rational thinking. 

“A… lot?” Izuku asks, clearly marveling - and almost sobbing - at the image.

“To say the least, yes.” Yagi chuckles and lightly slaps his son’s back. They are sitting right next to each other on the couch, which is something that makes such movements easy. “And you are clearly growing into a second me! Just smaller and more flexible. You have your mother’s grace while walking, at least unless you get really startled, and trust me when I’m saying that it’s just additional points for you. You probably have at least a few admirers if not a secret fanclub!”

He knows that there is a secret fanclub. The school offered the students a secure communication network, even outside school. Chat slash school social media. They were secure from being hacked, but not from the faculty. Then again, the faculty only knew what sort of chats were open and who belonged to them, Nedzu wrote an AI that filtered through messages in search of things like potential admissions to being a spy or bullying, showing the faculty excerpts when needed.

This meant that Yagi was acutely aware that there was an Izuku Midoriya Support/Fanclub chatroom and that it was steadily growing in numbers. He was especially happy about the Support part. Izuku needs the support of other people. 

Naturally, Izuku didn’t take the news in a calm way. He didn’t fully freak out, but his head turned into a strawberry. 

“So, what was your answer to the confession?” Yagi decides to keep digging because he is a just slightly concerned parent who begins to realize that he’ll probably have to make the bees and flowers talk and his decades of hero work didn’t prepare him for that.

“I… say that I like her too.” Izuku replies, his face now hidden behind his hands. “I think I have a ggg...ir...girlfriend now.” 

Shovel talk it is. Just, not now. There should be a limit to awkward talks during a single day, and it’s not like there is a serious chance of Izuku progressing too far anytime soon. 

“So who’s the lucky girl?” All Might asks and, frankly speaking, he sees only three options. It’s either Uraraka or Himiko, or (rather unlikely) both of them. Momo Yaoyorozu seems to be oddly fascinated with Izuku, but she is way too prim and proper to confess out of the blue. Kyoka Jirou probably overheard the part that Izuku is All Might’s son and is thus more of a fangirl. And since Izuku said ‘girlfriend’ then Hitoshi is clearly out. 

That doesn’t leave many other options left. Maybe safe for Tsuyu Asui, but for a girl who tends to speak her mind, the 1-A resident frog girl was a surprisingly enigmatic figure. All Might wasn’t going to pretend that he knows what’s going on in her mind.

“U...Ura...Uraraka.” Izuku manages to struggle the words out and All Might’s belief in his investigative skills is strengthened. His deduction was spot on. 

Yagi Toshinori is happy for his son. Uraraka Ochaco is a kind and enthusiastic girl devoted to the idea of becoming a rescue hero and helping others. Certainly not someone to hurt him, and certainly someone to help him when he needs it. 

Not to mention, she is Mr. Compress fangirl (it was hard to make him STOP talking about that, really), and this means that she should be able to adapt to Izuku’s peculiar family situation relatively easily. Which was very important. Izuku needs someone to trust and open to, not someone that he would have to keep secrets from. 

Even if he didn’t get to meet her in school afterwards, the very recording of her wanting to share her points with someone who most likely had more of them than she did (but saved her life and she wanted to repay it) would make All Might support his son’s choice. 

“That’s great, Izuku!” He smiles at him, but he doesn’t even get a glimpse of his face. He is very flexible as established and has curled up into a ball on the couch, his face somewhere between his legs (then further covered by his arms, because of course). He can barely see some hair here and there. “You’re going to have to reintroduce her to your mom, you know.” He hears some sort of mumbling ‘aaah’ from the human bundle next to him. 

“But… that’s for later. For now, there is something else that we need to talk about.” All Might decides to finally take the bullet. He feels bad about ruining his son’s big moment, but… “It’s about the One for All.” 

After a few long seconds, the human bundle starts to unpack. Izuku calmed himself down, mostly. Still flushed, but in a controlled way. It is about a quirk. His quirk. That’s certainly his most favourite subject, especially once they discovered that he will have a few more due to it. 

“Wh… what is it, dad?” Izuku says, before taking a few deep breaths to calm himself down. 

Start from something nice and easy. No need to freak him right from the start. 

“It’s a very old quirk.” All Might says finally. “In fact, it’s almost as old as quirks as a phenomenon. At the very beginning, during the age of chaos caused by the birth of the first superpowers, there were two brothers. The older one was born with possibly the most powerful quirk in the world, while the younger was quirkless. Their personalities were polar opposites as well, for the former was the world’s worst villain while the latter was a true hero at heart. The older brother used his quirk to put the entire world under his thumb. This quirk’s name was All for One, and it allowed its user to take quirks of other people for himself, give them to others or transfer them between people.” 

Yagi can see Izuku going tenser for something like a split second. Nothing changes on his face, but All Might is an observant man. This was an odd reaction, if anything, Yagi expected Izuku to geek over the All for One. 

“At some point he gave a power stockpiling quirk to his younger brother, hoping to make him subservient to his will. Or perhaps out of misplaced kindness? We’ll never know.” All Might continues. “It didn’t work as he intended, however. Because, you see, the younger brother wasn’t quirkless as everyone thought. He had a quirk that was almost entirely useless on its own. A quirk that allowed him to transfer it to someone else, without actually granting any abilities. This changed when it merged with the power stockpiling quirk, creating One for All. Quirk that was then transferred down the line of true heroes, steadily growing stronger and stronger, in hopes that someone will finally be able to realize the dream of their predecessor and will manage to defeat All for One.”

How do you move from this to the announcement that All for One was his stepfather? That it was All Might who killed him? That there is - an extremely, extremely small - chance that he somehow survived, given the noumu’s ability to carry multiple quirks? How? 

He has no time to get to a decision. Because Izuku moves faster. 

“My fath… my stepfather.” He says, while looking at Yagi with those cloudy yet sometimes incredibly intense and focused eyes that he shares with Inko. “He was the older brother, wasn’t he? And it was you who killed him.”

Yagi stares in silence. Somehow he is too taken aback to cough blood. He imagined this talk dozens of times, but not in a single of his visions Izuku figured it out so quickly. 

“How did you know?” All Might asks quietly. 

“Did mom tell you why he left us?” Izuku replies in a similar, quiet tone. None of them know why they are speaking so quietly, they just feel like it’s the right thing to do. 

“He wanted to make one of your siblings into his heir.” That alone is weird to Yagi, because why would that man want an heir? An odd term for his second-in-command? Did an immortal supervillain need someone to inherit things from him? 

“No.” Izuku replies, looking down onto his fingers. “He wanted to make me into his heir.” Yagi’s eyes widened, this was… “He offered me a quirk before mom kicked him out. She… doesn’t know. She thinks that he wanted Asa, not me. I didn’t know about his past, but I had years to think it over after he died. He was very against the heroes in general, but he kept the critique subtle. When we analyzed villain quirks together he often pointed out how they were victims of the hero society and… tried to… make them relatable to me, I guess? So I figured out that he was trying to mold me into a villain. Then you mentioned that story, and… he died six years ago. You received your wounds six years ago. And I don’t think that there are many villains who can wound the Symbol of Peace like that. Aside from All for One.” 

Yagi decides that his earlier deduction about Uraraka was a trifle thing. What Izuku just did was… breathtaking, really. He was a fifteen years old kid. Almost sixteen years old, yes, but… still. 

All for One was a monster. That much can’t and won’t be changed. But Yagi respected him for that one thing. For honing Izuku’s intelligence to a cutting point. It might have been done with nefarious purposes, but it was All for One (well, Hisashi Midoriya) who spent hours with Izuku, doing his best to stimulate his growth. From analyzing quirks together to playing logic games. 

Izuku Midoriya was All for One’s masterpiece. If this continued for a few more years… All Might shudders once more after realizing what his rejection of Izuku’s dream might have brought in different circumstances. 

It might have been an odd thing to be afraid of a child, but… Izuku wasn’t just a simple child. He was a potential mastermind to equal Nedzu and Sir Nighteye, who wasn’t even aware of just how charismatic he was. Not in the meaning of making a good public speech, but in the meaning of being able to influence people’s hearts. 

It was only two (and a half) months from the start of the year, but if there were another class president election today, Izuku Midoriya would have scored a two digit number of votes. All Might wouldn’t be surprised if the second year elections in his class were going to be the first ever case of a Heroics Course class electing a class president by acclamation. 

Even All Might at his school peak scored nine votes. Izuku Midoriya would be one terrifying villain. Even quirkless. Or, perhaps, especially while quirkless. That would give him one hell of a motivation for villainy. 

“I see.” Yagi finally says. “The answer is yes, then. We fought. I won, but at the cost of my stomach, lung, many friends and allies, and almost Gran Torino.“ He takes a deep breath. It’s going to be a ride. “I know that he was a good father to you and your siblings. But to the world, he was a monster. To me, he was a monster. He killed thousands if not millions of people, including my parents, my predecessor and mentor, and Tenko Shimura’s family. Because of that, I can’t say that I’m sorry for what I did.” 

If he said anything other than that, then ghosts of Nana and the remaining former Holders would have come out to kick his ass. Or waited until he was pulled in (whether they were vestiges or actual former Holders was anyone’s guess at this point, really) to kick his ass. 

Most of all, however, All Might genuinely thinks so. Being a (relatively, if you exclude the slight side dish of subtle grooming into villainy) decent father doesn’t clear hundreds of thousands of victims during the last two centuries. 

“I… understand.” Izuku said while nodding slightly. On his face was a look of slight nausea. “I know that he was a villain, and I know that he had to be stopped. I think I… I think I would like it if he was arrested instead, but…” His eyes drift sideways again. “It would make me becoming a hero way harder, wouldn’t it?” 

“More than that, Izuku.” Yagi replies. “If the Commission knew that he was your stepdad… they would find a way to imprison or kill you, Inko and your siblings. The very idea of someone like him potentially raising again…” All Might sighs. “And we all know that you and Aiko can and most likely will become stronger than he was. And Asa will eventually be someone close to his level, at the very least. To them, you’d be a threat.” 

And then they’d disappear. 

“Did you….” Izuku is clearly trying to say something, but struggles with wording it. “The adoption of them, did you…” 

Oh. 

“No, Izuku.” Yagi says confidently. “I didn’t adopt them to act as their watchdog. I adopted them because I love you and your mother and I want to be a part of your family. Which included Asa and Aiko. And by now I love them as if I was their parent by blood. I was never one to blame someone for the sins of their parents.” 

“Oh, I… I see.” Izuku looked conflicted. Vulnerable. For a few seconds. Then he gathered up his metaphorical things and straightened up. “I…. understand. 

Despite all the worries of Yagi Toshinori, Izuku didn’t take the news badly. Finding out just how bad his other father was had to be a shock. But he already suspected that things with him were rather bad, and this has greatly eased the discovery of the truth. 

He entertained the idea of telling him about the death prophecy. That they might not have a lot of time left together. That Izuku becoming a great hero is going to be a necessity for keeping his siblings safe from the HPSC. But he doesn’t want to darken the day. He feels guilty enough for ruining Izuku’s good mood with the news. 

They still have many months left. If not a year or two. And that’s if All Might won’t manage to somehow avoid the result of Sir Nighteye’s augury. 

He also fails to realize something, however. Izuku Midoriya is extremely intelligent, crafty and with a knack for guesswork. But there are limits to what one can figure out at a spot. And sometimes, just sometimes, the answer is simpler. 

All Might, like many other people in Izuku Midoriya’s life, mistook hindsight for foresight. 

***

Four days after Hosu a medical miracle occured. Pro hero Ingenium (recently returned home after his injury) woke up just to discover that he can once again use his legs. He was rushed to the hospital, which failed to find how it happened. Ingenium’s case of spontaneous spinal cord regrowth was going to become a riddle for the ages for the medical community - they knew it was a quirk, but whose? That was a question. 

Ingenium himself was clearly overjoyed. Tenya Iida gave him his hero name back and decided to go with Quicksilver. Tensei received a letter from the Hero Killer a few days later. 

Stain clearly stated that he wasn’t the one to attack Ingenium, that he actually deeply respects him for his anti-discrimination policies, and that due to that he decided to call on a favour he had from someone with an access to a particularly powerful recovery quirk. Resulting in Ingenium’s wounds being healed. He also apologized for having to break into his house to do it. 

Stain has also asked Ingenium to (if he can) kindly clear Stain’s name, because he doesn’t want to be connected with an attack on a true hero that directly contradicts his own stated ideological goals. While Ingenium might have had issues with doing that merely on the basis of the Hero Killer doing him a favour, something changed his approach. 

Said something was a camera recording missed by the police, showing the attack on Ingenium. An attack that was clearly done with some lightning fast and guided projectiles. Something that wasn’t that much of a clue to the identity of the perpetrator, but was clearly not Stain’s modus operandi. 

The attack on the Ingenium - staged to ruin Hero Killer’s reputation and stop his ideological crusade for cleaner heroics - has ended up making Stain even more popular and resulted in him becoming a double S-rank villain. The fallout of the event has also made Tenya Iida join the Izuku Midoriya’s fanclub (even if he wasn’t super active on the chatroom).

Uraraka had no idea what happened, but frankly speaking Tenya’s approach to Izuku after that (and the armor that he was wearing as his hero uniform) made him look like a knight to her. 

A knight serving a particularly anxious king slash class president who really didn’t know how to feel about it. Nor even seemed to fully realize what was going on. Izuku Midoriya’s social skills were in need of serious training.

***

World Domination for Dummies

CreativeSpirit joins the chat!

ISeeYou joins the chat!

SublimeOverlord joins the chat!

SmallMight: Uhm, hello there?

CreativeSpirit: What’s going on, class president?

SublimeOverlord: Why was I invited to a chat so thoroughly inhabited by you, the 1-A rabble? 

ISeeYou: And why was I invited to the chat so thoroughly inhabited by the hero students? 

SmallMight: … they didn’t tell you yet, Ayako?

ISeeYou: They didn’t tell me about what and who is they?

SmallMight: Omg I’m going to turn Nedzu into a carpet.

ISeeYou: ???

SmallMight: Ugh, he was probably waiting for the internships to end first, ugh. 

SmallMight: Probably a matter of days now. 

SmallMight: OKAY LET’S START FROM THE BASICS 

SmallMight: And don’t leave the chat, Neito, or I’m going to turn you into a carpet as well.

SublimeOverlord: Oh spooky

SmallMight: No, seriously

SmallMight: I was officially authorized by Principal Nedzu to invite you all to special classes on advanced planning, strategy, tactics, investigation and data/quirk analysis. With, well, Principal Nedzu.

CreativeSpirit: You are serious?! 

SmallMight: Yes, your handling of the USJ incident seems to have impressed him greatly. Just as the Hero Crush event for Ayako and the Neito’s long con about the number of copied quirks and preparing correct counters to the opponent’s quirks. 

SublimeOverlord: Someone FINALLY gives me the respect I deserve. Great! 

SmallMight: Starting to feel like a protagonist, hmm?

SublimeOverlord: I’m still a side character. But an important side character.

ISeeYou: I get an option to become Nedzu’s disciple and yet I’m still supposed to be a part of the Gen Ed?

SmallMight: Yeah, about that

SmallMight: I think they are still finalizing paperwork for that. And decided to wait until the end of the internships, but then a certain incident happened (it’s a secret so I can’t tell more about it) and the announcement got delayed.

ISeeYou: Announcement? 

SmallMight: There is also the part when Nedzu decided recently to go Plus Ultra on an already Plus Ultra plan, so they probably had to make some last-minute changes to the plan.

ISeeYou: Tell me what the heck are you talking about or I’m going to send The Photo to people from your class.

SmallMight: I’M TELLING YOU JUST GIVE ME A SECOND

CreativeSpirit: The Photo?

ISeeYou: He fell asleep while working with me on the manifest.

ISeeYou: His sleeping face is extremely adorable.

CreativeSpirit: Oh dear.

SmallMight: Stop impersonating Nedzu, you’re yet to meet him Yaomomo xD

SmallMight: @ISeeYou Your achievements during the School Festival (and the manifest too, I guess) inspired the faculty greatly. So… you did it. 

ISeeYou: It’s great. Awesome, really.

ISeeYou: just

ISeeYou: Just me, though?

SmallMight: No, Ayako. 

SmallMight: Half of the faculty pops up on my family’s dinners and I’m Nedzu’s student. So I know a lot of things for certain.

SmallMight: Within a week or two (probably week or less), the school will announce that classes 1-C and 1-D will be officially converted into a Hero Course entirely. Those with subpar grades will be treated as being on probation for the time being, though. 

ISeeYou: Oh my god

ISeeYou: OH MY GOD

SmallMight: You did it, Ayako! :D

ISeeYou: WE did it!

ISeeYou: I’m all for the special lessons, I’m ready and free whenever, now I URGENTLY need to announce something on another chat. 

ISeeYou: brb

SmallMight: Yaomomo? Monoma?

CreativeSpirit: Do you even need to ask?

SublimeOverlord: You need someone to prove the natural superiority of the 1-B class to you, you plebeians! 

SublimeOverlord: Of course I’m in.

SmallMight: Awesome.

Chapter Text

“Hosu has been a victory for the Paranormal Liberation Front.” The faceless silhouette of a man on the screen spoke with a zeal and enthusiasm one would expect from a politician. “The loss of Eclipse will be a blow to our further operations, especially as Endeavor remains operational. However, his reputation took another major hit, and Strike Team Hierophant managed to fulfill the second objective.” 

Great. Overhaul wishes he could just deconstruct that man into a blood splatter. It’s hard to find ideologies less-compatible than those of Overhaul and Re-Destro. He was probably happy that Eclipse was out of the picture. 

Too bad Overhaul needed his money to maintain his own ambitions. It was a marriage of necessity, not of love. They both knew it. There was a reason why Re-Destro kept his face - and true name - hidden. 

“Give us a few more victories like that…” Purity decides to be snarky about it. “And we will lose the war without losing a single battle. There is a limit to how many supervillains we can muster, and you should know it. If we kept losing supervillains without eliminating at least as many high ranked heroes, then…”

“It’s all about All Might.” Another voice. This time it’s Garaki. “If we eliminate him, there’ll be chaos in the country for the PLF to exploit. Especially with Endeavor weakened this much.” 

“How utterly peculiar/irritating.” The robotic voice cut in. “One could think/suspect that you see/perceive us as expendable. Is the PLF about him/All for One or us?” 

Ouch. Mechanist, for all his asocial tendencies, hit the nerve rather perfectly. Overhaul sighed internally while Garaki began his standard screeching routine. 

Making all major supervillains of the country work together was like trying to herd cats. It worked only to a point, and it all depended on what the cats wanted to do right now. For now they mostly agreed to it, but… the operative word was ‘mostly’. 

Overhaul decided to not voice his complaints. With Eclipse out of the picture, the list of his potential allies within the High Council of the Paranormal Liberation Front was rather limited. Liberator was an unpredictable and crazy wildcard, while Mechanist was… 

Kai Chisaki admired his self-achieved quirklessness, but it didn’t change the fact that the Mechanist was utterly insane. When Chisaki thinks that about someone, it means a lot. Then again, none of the people in the Council were fully sure if the Mechanist even counted as a human being at this point. 

Beast and Dictator seemed to have a tactical alliance with Re-Destro, although Overhaul believed that there were no positive feelings involved. Purity was in a metaphorical bed with Garaki, together with Glassmaker.

Technically, with Eclipse gone, it was 3vs3vs3. Practically, the amount of resources that Garaki and Re-Destro brought to the table was downright ridiculous. Overhaul felt like a poor cousin of a wealthy family. 

Even with the Quirkless Liberation Front now working for him, he was far from getting there. Very far. 

There were many more supervillains working with the PLF. Geten, Gigantomachia, Nine, to mention some. It’s just that they really didn’t make the cut for the High Council. This was for those who had something to add when planning a strategy was involved. 

“So, are we planning to make another attempt on All Might’s life?” Glassmaker decided to be the voice of reason in the talk. It was a rather common thing during the Council’ sessions. “Because, sorry, I’m not getting anywhere close to him. You’re not paying me enough to commit suicide for you.” 

Cowardice. Overhaul feels that he has the right to think so after actually facing All Might. Although Glassmaker’s quirk is a really bad match-up with the Number One Hero, so it's probably understandable. 

“Yes.” Garaki.

“No/Refusal.” Mechanist.

Oh great, here we go again. 

Or so Overhaul thinks. Re-Destro decides to move in to salvage the situation before it escalates again.  

“For now, attacking the UA would be… unwise.” He says calmly. “Nedzu has strengthened its defenses massively. Worst of all, the spy that the PLF managed to obtain within the school seems to be… shaking in their resolve to cause the downfall of the heroes as a system. This isn’t the moment to risk a large-scale deployment, as we might end up discovering that we walked into the trap.” 

“Can’t you just blackmail them or something?” Purity seems to be absolutely dedicated to the idea of getting her sons back, enough to make her fully support the Attack UA Again plan. That in Overhaul’s mind was an idiocy. 

“I would… if I could.” Re-Destro admits. “They contacted us, not the other way around. And to this day we’re not sure who they are.” Overhaul wonders who ‘us’ are. The Meta-Liberation Army? The PLF as a whole? Garaki inherited many interesting connections from the Big Boss. It could even be something that Glassmaker, Liberator or Dictator brought to the table with them. “We suspect that they were present on-site during the USJ attack, and seeing our handiwork up close has made them… reconsider their allegiances.” 

Huh. That was interesting. It was one of the students? Why didn’t they stay out of the USJ if they knew that the attack was incoming? How odd. Then again, it was just a suspicion. Not a confirmed thing. 

“So did they defect back to heroes?” Glassmaker asks. 

“For now, they seem to be conflicted about their allegiances.” Re-Destro replies. “We aren’t pushing, because that might have been the proverbial straw to break the camel’s back. Time will tell. But for now, we should focus on something else.” 

They have a lot of things to do. The spoils of the Hosu battle were bountiful. Especially Glassmaker and Liberator were going to profit from them. So many low-ranked gangs and villain crews that their new intel could sway to their side… 

Future looked optimistic. 

***

“Midoriya, I have a question for you.” Iida eventually decided to catch his class president alone right after the classes ended. 

A bit against himself. He is rather conflicted about it. 

“Oh… what is it?” Midoriya replied. It wasn’t hard to notice that he was somewhat out of it ever since the confession day. Understandable. Young love and so on. Izuku managed to maintain his bearings when class president duties were involved, and for as long as that situation remained unchanged, Iida wouldn’t say a single word of protest or complaint. 

Especially after his brother got his legs back. 

But this issue did bring him here, however bad he felt about it. 

“It’s about my brother.” Tenya says and he can see something tensing up on his friend’s face. It was Midoriya, after all. He probably expected that talk to happen. 

“I can’t explain why Stain was involved in the healing of your brother.” Izuku replies quickly. He doesn’t seem hurt by the unspoken accusation. He guessed the subject of the talk correctly. “All I can say is that All Might knows what happened. And that he thinks that it’s alright, and not a problem to anyone involved. Or the law.”

How to answer that? How to react to the fact that his class president might have some form of contact with the Hero Killer? Sure, Stain only ‘killed’ the heroic careers of the people in question, but some of them did survive various degrees of permanent injuries. Fighting was an ugly thing. You could never be sure that someone wouldn’t get hurt a bit more than you intended. 

But… the Symbol of Peace apparently knew the truth as well. Who else was there for Tenya Iida to trust if not All Might? 

If anything, the fact that authorities apparently tried to use his brother’s injuries to ruin the nascent reputation of the Hero Killer as an unstoppable predator preying on heroes committing crimes in secret was way more worrying. 

There was also the question when they still didn’t know who attacked him. Surely, this couldn’t be the HPSC work, right? 

“I see.” Tenya takes a deep breath. “I’ll trust you, Midoriya.” Thus far, his class president gave him no reason to doubt his word. He had secrets, yes. Most of his classmates had secrets. It might have been something dumb (like some well-hidden tattoo that turned out less aesthethic than they thought) or something serious (like whatever the reason was for Todoroki Shoto’s lack of social skills). 

Midoriya simply had more of them than normal. 

“T…thank you!” Izuku seems surprised by his words of support. 

***

The despair came to class 1-A when it turned out that only a week is left until the end-of-term tests. And that their participation in the summer camp depends on their performance during said tests.

“I haven’t studied at all!” Kaminari yelled in abject horror when Izuku finished reminding the class of this. “So many things happened recently that I just…” Probably at least half of them were about his conspiracy theory channel, but no one was cruel enough to point it to their despairing classmate. 

Mina didn’t say a lot, and looked cheerful, but everyone could see the emptiness and existential horror behind that smile. Kaminari Denki wasn’t the only person facing this issue. Those two were at the bottom of the class. 

Mineta snickered at them. They began to shout at him over the abject betrayal of him being in the top ten students in class. 

“Uhm, I think that it would be a good idea for the top students to help tutor those who are at the bottom of the class.” Midoriya was still occupying his central position in the class, even if he was visibly fidgeting at the attention. “I mean, we are all trying to become heroes together, it’s not a competition and helping others is a part of being heroes, so…” 

“Midoriya, my dude!” Denki looked at him as if he just met his god. “I’m in!” Mina nods fervently behind him. 

“Wait, what’s the top ranking exactly?” Jirou asks, her finger playing with one of her earlobes. The midterm exams were a bit behind them now. And some of them took the occasion to promptly forget the exact placement. 

“Yaoyorozu-san took the first place, but with only a single point ahead of Midoriya.” Tenya joined the talk, with some rather odd hand gestures to boot. “I took third place. Yoarashi and Bakugou took fourth place ex aequo.”

“So how do we split?” Mina quickly asks. That’s what interests her the most right now. 

“Well, the Rehab Course can’t leave the school, so…” Izuku says, looking at Bakugou with an unspoken plea in his eyes. Bakugou sighs painfully. 

“I’ll help them, fiiiine.” He looks like agreeing to that was a torture. Hitoshi, Himiko and, surprisingly enough, Tenko raise their hands at once, looking like death row inmates who were just offered a pardon. 

“Alright, that leaves us with Inasa, Tenya, Yaomomo and, errr, me.” Izuku continues, looking slightly reinvigorated by Bakugou’s agreement to help. “Uhm, unless someone from the list can’t help us, I mean, I’ll understand if you are busy or…” He is about to start muttering, but Tenya interrupts him.

“That would have to be done at home, and currently, mine is a bit… unavailable.” He says loudly. “Hero Killer apparently sneaked in with someone in tow, and … that’s enough for my parents to be seriously reworking the security. So I’m afraid that I’ll have to pass.”

“Well, that’s understandable.” Izuku replies. “Inasa?”

“I AM IN!” Yoarashi bellows back. “SURE I WANT TO BEAT IIDA THIS TIME, BUT TEACHING OTHERS MEANS REVIEWING THE MATERIAL AGAIN! SO IT’S BOTH HEROIC AND PRACTICAL!”

“Great!” Izuku beams at him. “Would you mind helping Kirishima, Sero and Ashido? Errr, unless you three don’t want to, I just… think that your personalities will work well together and…” He is trailing off again. Someone’s having one of those days. 

“It’s alright, dude!” Kirishima smiles at him and gives him a thumbs-up gesture. “If you think it’s a good idea, I’m in.” 

Kirishima looks happy with the line-up as well. Probably due to Mina being there. Mina, in the meantime, looks too mortified with her plight to try to change anything.  

“Okay, then the rest…” Izuku regains his bearings and tries to continue doing his presidential duties, but Yaoyorozu raises a hand and interrupts him. 

“I have a proposition.” And it’s an interesting one. 

***

Monoma pops up next to the Izukusquad table during the lunch break. Announcing his presence by ‘accidentally’ elbowing Izuku’s head. Or, trying to. Izuku avoids the hit, and looks up at Neito as if nothing has happened. 

“What’s going on?” Izuku asks. Monoma clicks his tongue with only a bit of irritation at his voice. 

“I have news.” He finally says. “About the practical exams. Kendou heard that it’s going to be fighting the robots. Like during the entrance exam. Apparently that’s how things worked during the past years.” 

Uraraka finds herself blinking at that. Why was he telling them that? Wasn’t he more… confrontative? Or at least competitive? This sounded like something that he could use to get an advantage over the 1-A. 

“Oh.” Izuku seems to be digesting the news. 

“That’s pretty logical, right?” Tenya asks from his seat. Todoroki nods next to him. “It’s a good way of testing how much we improved during this semester.” 

“Logical ruse.” Izuku finally decides (did he even notice what Tenya said?). Monoma agrees with him with a nod. “Even if that was what they originally planned, I’m pretty sure they would ramp it up after the villain attack and the spotlight we got during the school festival.” 

The remaining people at the table (Hitoshi, Himiko, Ochaco, Tsuyu, Tenya, Inasa and Shoto) exchange worried glances. Or, well, most of them. Shoto seems vaguely surprised and only mimicking the movements of others. 

“Sounds like something that Nedzu would do, yes.” Monoma admits. “Besides, I don’t trust ‘information leaks’ like that, not when the arch-rat is around. Precisely the reason why I decided to lower myself enough to come here. Any idea what the actual practical exam is? You have a friend in the support course, did they hear about something? If the school is preparing something special, I’m almost sure they included the support course to kill two birds with one stone.” 

Izuku makes the Face. Uraraka finds it hard to describe, but if it was a cartoon, he would probably have a suddenly lit-up lightbulb floating above his head. 

“Mei mentioned something about the high-density weights she was making for someone.” He quickly replies. “I think we’ll be fighting the teachers… and those weights will be the handicap.” 

“Wait, what?” Hitoshi interjects. He isn’t the only one with a similar reaction.

“Ah, that makes perfect sense.” Monoma nods, completely ignoring Shinsou. “I’ll make preparations. Nedzu will probably tailor the fights to teach us something, we should be able to figure out the arrangements for our classes if we think about it strongly enough. And prepare some countermeasures. You tell Nakahara. Let’s see which class will triumph.” 

“Sure.” Izuku replies and Monoma walks away. 

Uraraka is still horrified by the prospect of fighting the teachers when Tenya decides to speak. 

“Uhm, I believe that not being able to prepare for fights like that is a part of the exam.” He says. “Facing the unexpected and so on. Are you sure that this is a good idea?” 

“It’s Nedzu whom we are talking about.” Izuku replies with a shrug. “He’ll probably give us extra credit for that.” He is probably right about it, if the gossip they all heard about the principal is anything to go by. 

Uraraka is left to wonder what exactly is happening during those mythical special lessons with Nedzu. She isn’t the only one by that table to do that. 

***

Yaoyorozu’s idea for the tutoring session was simple. Why share the students between the two tutors? With Inasa and Bakugou taking a lot of the potential students out of the picture, they could as well go through the material all-together. 

They agreed to make one study session at Yaoyorozu’s house… and one at Midoriya. With doors open to whoever wanted to show up, regardless of their grades. 

Discovering how large Yaoyorozu’s house was (and just how incredibly wealthy she was) was a shocking revelation to Uraraka. But she knew well enough that the second half of the tutoring lessons was going to be way worse. 

Because she has a boyfriend now (not like they did anything boy/girlffriendish ever since the confession day, they really have no idea how to proceed with that but it’s alright), and she is about to meet his family. 

Not like she didn’t meet them before, but… well, it was BEFORE. 

She didn’t even tell her parents yet because she has no idea how to even START that subject! It was horrible. And Momo’s idea only made it worse. Enough to make Uraraka confront her about something. 

***

Izuku Midoriya Support/Fanclub

GravityGirl: I have… only one question.

GravityGirl: Was this all simply because you wanted to see his house?

CreativeSpirit: … maybe.

GravityGirl: …

CreativeSpirit: But I think that I’m not the only one who was interested in that.

LeadSinger: Yes. 

MadScientist: WHY AM I EXCLUDED THOUGH

WarpedPerception: AND ME TOO

CreativeSpirit: Mei, you aren’t from the Hero Course.

MadScientist: That’s discrimination! 

WarpedPerception: Why am I ignored?!

CreativeSpirit: And also because, Mei, you would probably freak out his parents with your shenanigans. 

CreativeSpirit: And I’m not sneaking Eto out of school. 

WarpedPerception: Ehhh, fair. 

MadScientist: Shenanigans?! I just want to know where the father of my babies lives.

CreativeSpirit: … this is precisely my point, Mei.

MadScientist: MOMO, PLEASE

CreativeSpirit: MEI, NO

MadScientist: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

CreativeSpirit: Learn to provide the context when meeting someone for the first time, then we’ll talk.

MadScientist: I haven’t been betrayed like that ever since I asked Shinsou to force a 1h power nap on me and he instead hypnotized me into sleeping for a full eight hours and taking a shower. 

Mindhack: You should have seen the thank you card, the large chocolate bar and a box of coffee that Power Loader gave me for this. 

Mindhack: I regret nothing. 

CreativeSpirit: … 

CreativeSpirit: Will you do it again if I ask you to?

MadScientist: NO

***

“Uhm, mom?” Izuku says, and Inko immediately realizes that the time has come. She and her husband had a bet on how long it would take, and it seemed that she was going to win. “It’s… about the study session.” 

“Yes, Izuku?” She stops working on the food (her house is her pride, she isn’t letting any guests in without making sure that there is enough food, snacks and drinks for them!) “What about it?” 

“Well, uuuhmm…” He is suddenly fidgeting uncontrollably. Yes. It’s certainly that talk. “Do you remember Och… Uraraka?” 

WELL, FINALLY!!! She could scarcely believe it when Toshinori told her that her son actually got himself a girlfriend! Oh, she was looking so much towards having grandchildren… sure, a few years too early for that (she didn’t look towards it enough to think that complicating her son’s life was worth it), but… 

“Yes, what about her?” Oh, she was such a sweet and kind girl. A bit of a ditz, but… well, it’s not like Inko didn’t have a part like that to her. And the way she reacted to Mr. Compress… well, Atsuhiro deep inside really liked heroes. Just, good ones. Having one as his fan… it really made him happy. 

“She… I mean, we… I mean, I… uhm…” He is looking down. He is looking a lot like Asa now. She kind of got used to the fact that he can only motivate himself to stand fast when it’s about helping others, but… well, she is acutely aware that it isn’t healthy. But he is slowly getting there. 

“Izuku, baby, calm down.” She decides to intervene. “Take a deep breath.” 

He does so. He seems to have regained his bearings. At least, to a degree. But enough to continue. 

“Uhm, she… she confessed to me, and… I think that I like her, I just thought that there was no way that she would like me, so I did nothing about it, but when she confessed then I said that I like her too, and..” Aaand he is finally saying the words. “I th… uhm… she is my girlfriend now and…” 

“Oh, Izuku…” She is really happy for him. Last year or something? For Izuku it was like a dream come true. He got himself a father (and it was his idol), a quirk (perhaps multiple), he got admitted to the UA Heroics Course, had friends, and… now this. 

And that’s without counting the fact that if what her husband told her was true (she would bet everything on that), even Bakugou Katsuki had some change of heart recently. So many good things. So many good things that she was afraid would never come for him. 

“And… uhm…” He looks onto his feet, trying his best not to look at her. “... mochi is her favourite food, and… I thought… if you could prepare some of it for her, and… if I could help with that, it… it would be pretty nice and…”

If her other children are going to be this blindingly pure and adorable when it comes to their love life, her heart might not survive that. In the meantime, she starts furiously crying and hugs her son tightly. 

***

In the end, the tutoring group is composed of Uraraka, Hakagure, Jirou, Asui, Todoroki and Tokoyami. 

Jirou, Todoroki and Asui are all in the single digit group. Asui doesn’t even bother to hide the fact that she is doing this to meet Izuku’s sisters, while Jirou does hide the fact that she is there to see All Might’s home. And his family. 

Todoroki is there because Izuku suggested that it’s a good idea for him to socialize a bit. Shoto Todoroki is making small steps towards knowing how to interact with people without extreme awkwardness (or without someone, like Izuku, instructing him in detail on what to do).

At least when it isn’t about fighting. Or training. Or declaring a rivalry with someone. Or… well, that concludes the list. 

Uraraka and Tokoyami were at 13 and 14 place during the midterms exam, meaning that they actually have things to work on. Hakagure in the meantime was in sixteenth place, and frankly, she feels that her life is in danger. Probably correctly so. 

Momo is there as well, but as a teacher. If she has anything to say about the size of the house, she keeps it to herself. But everyone can see her eyes on everything. And that’s even before she enters it. 

Naturally, Inko is at home. So are her remaining children. And, surprisingly enough, her husband (although he was, of course, in his civilian persona). At least her unofficial ‘brothers and sisters’ aren’t there, Atsuhiro becoming suddenly unmasked by a hero trainee was dangerous enough. They don’t want the kids to recognize Stain, for example. 

They made the mistake of underestimating the instincts of the future top heroes once. They won’t make it twice. 

They all come home together from the school. Uraraka is left to wonder what sort of shocking twists their ‘study session’ will have. 

Chapter Text

Kyoka Jirou wasn’t sure what she expected from the house where the family of All Might lived. She had many conflicting expectations, from something humble (he WAS hiding the fact that was married, this sounded like something to keep a low profile on) to something… well, much less humble. And probably very American. 

What she got was somewhere in the middle. Not particularly American, not super humble but also not ostentatious. Something that made it clear that whoever lived inside was well-off, but… well, it wasn’t a mansion. 

There were quick introductions. Jirou almost tripped when Izuku introduced his dad. The gaunt, almost skeleton man. 

Now, Jirou wouldn’t really expect anything nasty from All Might. Him going after a married woman was especially out of the question. It wasn’t until she spent a few seconds analyzing Yagi Toshinori’s hair (its colour and shape oddly resembling All Might’s) when she realized the truth. 

That WAS All Might. What on Earth was his quirk?! Sure, it was one of the world’s largest mysteries, but… she just stumbled upon some more evidence (namely, that it had to have a rather massive transformative component), but it only made things crazier.

On the other hand, she now knew how he managed to keep his marriage hidden. And how he was so good at avoiding the press when he wanted to. She would have never made the connection if she didn’t know that All Might is Izuku’s father. 

(Todoroki, who didn’t know how to be a human being yet but knew the truth, was openly staring at him in shock until Izuku elbowed him and whispered to his ear to stop staring).

The Dreaded Aiko was there, of course. Looking at them with probably the most intensive stare that Jirou ever saw. She felt thoroughly analyzed, judged and… well, she had no idea what the ruling was. 

She thought that nothing stranger would have happened. But then (soon after Tokoyami’s courteous greeting towards his ‘sister-in-darkness’), Dark Shadow decided to show his face and introduce himself to them as well.

“HEYO THE…” It tries to say, but immediately freezes when its eyes lock onto Aiko. She tilts her head slightly and stares at Dark Shadow in an almost eerie silence. 

Izuku looked like he was about to say something (although with a face suggesting that he himself wasn’t sure what it was), when Dark Shadow spoke. 

“You… you can hear it too?” Its voice carries the tone of utter shock and disbelief. It only grows stronger when she nods. “And… change it?” 

Aiko nods again. Dark Shadow’s eyes grow wider. Then it lowers its head, in a gesture that simply has to be a deep bow. Tokoyami is staring at his quirk, slackjawed and in complete shock. Considering how Dark Shadow normally acted, Jirou understands the shock. She has a lot of it herself. 

Aiko gestures at Dark Shadow to come closer. It does that, doing its best to look at the floor rather than at her. When it gets close enough, she pats its head gently. 

“There there.” She says, and Jirou almost trips when she sees an ecstatic smile on Dark Shadow’s equivalent of face. “You’re a good boy.” 

Dark Shadow thanks her for her kind words with a shaking voice and its claws fidgeting nervously.

The club of people deeply concerned about who (or what) the hell Aiko Midoriya was has grown in numbers significantly that day. 

***

Miki (they found out by accident that her real name was Eri twenty minutes later, at which point Izuku surrendered unconditionally and told them to not mention this in public while giving up on trying to hide it from the classmates) was as adorable as Uraraka told them. Maybe more. 

She was also visibly terrified of Tokoyami. Izuku quickly explained that the villain that kidnapped her was wearing a bird’s mask, and she hasn't liked birds ever since. When he told her that Tokoyami was a good bird (said good bird looked a bit weird after that ‘compliment’), Eri decided to trust her brother. 

She was still somewhat uncomfortable with Tokoyami around, but she no longer hid behind her oldest brother. 

Tokoyami looked like he was saddened by missing the welcoming hugs. 

***

The tutoring session was something that neither Inko nor Toshinori wanted (or planned to) intrude upon. It was their son (and Momo Yaoyorozu’s) time to shine, and they both knew that those two kids were well-equipped to deal with it. 

But, they both had at least a single person among the visitors that they wanted to have a nice, long chat with. In private. Unfortunately, it wasn’t about Tsuyu (that would be easy to organize, as she was quickly kidnapped from the study group by Aiko and Eri, a fact that she didn’t seem to be adverse to). 

The first one to achieve their goal was Inko. Uraraka left the room used for the study session, looking for some additional snacks. 

Inko was absolutely waiting for it.

“So, Uraraka Ochaco.” Inko says, the girl in question almost jumps up in the air in surprise. Inko might have been a housewife for years, but Mischief was still there. She could sneak up on someone well enough. “Or should I call you Midoriya Ochaco, hmm?” 

Oh, the sudden blush on her face is adorable. Not teasing her future daughter-in-law? Impossible. She was dreaming of this moment for years now. 

“Err, I mean, it’s… I…” Uraraka stammers out an unconnected string of words, her mind racing to form something resembling an answer. Inko laughs internally at the spectacle. Oh, it’s like seeing a female Izuku. Only with different hair and no freckles. 

Alright, enough of her sinful pleasures. Time to do the thing she really had to do. 

“He asked me to help him make mochi.” Inko announces. Uraraka blinks at her a few times. “For you. Because it’s your favorite dish. I’m telling you this, because knowing him, he’ll be too ashamed to tell you about that.” 

Judging from the look on her face, he didn’t tell her that, but she loved to find out about that. It was so… pure. And heartwarming. And cute. 

Oh, the young love. 

***

Yagi Toshinori wanted to meet two of Izuku’s classmates (in the safety of his house, which he was 99% sure wasn’t wiretapped by Nedzu). For reasons… well, much less singularly happy and optimistic than what his wife was planning to do. 

In all honesty, Yagi Toshinori was much less happy and optimistic than you could guess after seeing his eternally happy and smiling hero persona. It’s probably why his average happiness level improved so much recently. He had a house now, full of people that loved him. People that he was free to not pretend in front of. 

But now, he had two people who knew the truth. Well, Todoroki knew for sure (the stare was rather obvious), and Jirou knew almost certainly. Yagi decided to address that, before something… unexpected would happen. 

It wasn’t hard. Unlike Inko (who waited to pounce on Uraraka on her own), Toshinori decided to play it smart and simply told his son that he wants to talk with those two. So, Izuku being the cunning if benevolent manipulator (at least when anxiety wasn’t eating him up), simply found reasons to send those two to him. 

Without making them realize that it was a set-up. 

Izuku’s over competence was sometimes deeply worrying his father. All for One died when Izuku was nine years old. Nine. Years. Old. If Hisashi Shigaraki was THIS good in sharpening people’s intellects, commanding skills and ability to manipulate others, then Toshinori regrets the fact that he decided to become a villain. 

Instead of an immortal tutor or something like that. He would be crazily popular. Especially among the politicians with the whole ‘teaching their children how to manipulate others’ thing. 

Toshinori sometimes felt like All for One was still alive, living secretly under Izuku’s bed, and coming out when no one was looking to continue Izuku’s education. Of course, it was impossible (the past Holders would have found out, and at least Nana and ‘Uncle Yoichi’ would be royally pissed). But… still. 

Kyoka Jirou showed up as the first one. 

Hard to say what she expected All Might to do in his free time. Was the Number One Hero sitting by the table in his living room with a pair of glasses on his eyes, trying to paint a finer detail on the miniature he recently bought through the internet, on the list? 

Probably not, judging from the odd stare. 

All Might picked up some odd habits and hobbies in the United States. 

“Young Jirou.” All Might says, while putting the brush away and taking his glasses off. 

In all honesty, he considers this to be a small character test. Jirou passess it. She immediately realizes that Izuku’s father referring to her as All Might normally did is… meaningful. 

He knows that she knows. 

“Oh.” She freezes. “Uhm, I…” 

“Young Jirou.” All Might interrupts her. “If my intention was to punish you for overhearing certain things, we would have that talk in school. Instead, I only wish to warn you. Sometimes, especially in places such as the UA, you can accidentally overhear things that you really shouldn’t know. Worst of all, if the fact that you like to overhear things will spread too far, some people might grow interested in what you know. And some of them might not take no for an answer. Do you understand that?”

She didn’t freak out. She was a brave one. In all honesty, All Might came to believe that the UA had an extraordinary degree of luck with this year’s recruitment. It might just be the first year ever to get their hero licenses without losing a single member along the way. And not because the school lowered its level. 

“I… I know.” She says. Probably at least partially taken aback by the fact that she was talking with All Might in his own living room. Developing a personality cult (however useful it was in making the country keep going despite all the chaos of the past years) was a tiring matter. “I’ll not tell anyone.” 

Good. Not like many people would believe her, but… some certainly would. Unfortunately, probably the most devious ones. If his crusade had a downside, it was the fact that the supervillains that survived thus far were the smartest and most driven ones. 

They left nothing to chance. They would at least check if the ‘leak’ was true. And then people would die. 

“Very good.” Toshinori nods. “I’m not going to tell you to not keep listening to other people. I can’t stand next to you 24/7 to make sure you aren’t secretly indulging in your curiosity. Just… be aware that you’re violating people’s privacy. And that sometimes, curiosity kills the cat.” 

There is an audible gulp at that. Might be the American Spirit talking through him, but All Might believes that the best way for someone to stop doing something is to persuade them to stop doing something. So that they will act as their own watchdog. Not just straightforwardly forbid them. 

All Might is about to return to his hobby when Jirou decides to ask a question. 

“Sensei, I…” She pauses for a second, trying to gather up her thoughts. He looks at her questioningly. “I know that asking this after the curiosity kills the cat line might sound a bit bad, but… what happened to you?” 

Well. She might have thought that he was simply a skinny man with a transformative quirk that changed him into a muscle bound giant if not for the blood cough that came out when Aiko did SOMETHING to Dark Shadow. That was a clear sign that something was wrong. 

“A villain did.” All Might replies dryly. “One whose name, quirk and deeds were erased from history at the government’s insistence. If you need to call him somehow in your mind, you can use his title. The Symbol of Evil. One and only villain to ever fight me like an equal. There are nasty people out there, Young Jirou. And it’s best to remember that.” 

How much did she end up reevaluating All Might’s image after seeing how borderline cynical he is in private? Well, she did hear Izuku telling Todoroki about a hero having to smile to reassure people in front of him that everything’s alright. 

And, considering what the kids went through at the USJ, she probably began to realize that the real world is less glamorous than the TV made it. 

***

Todoroki shows up maybe thirty minutes later. Unlike Jirou, he has absolutely no filter. 

“You don’t look like All Might at all.” He announces soon after stepping out of the room where the two aces of 1-A are trying to help their friends pass the exam. At least he is cognizant enough to not ask that question when someone else was in the room. 

“True.” All Might replies. “My quirk changes my appearance when activated. The difference used to be smaller, but I suffered nasty injury in a fight.” He pats his side a bit. “Excuse me for this, Young Todoroki, but I happen to have a question for you. Concerning your… family situation.” 

Todoroki freezes briefly. But if you exclude his complete lack of societal skills, he is a smart and decisive person. He doesn’t waste a lot of time. 

“What do you wish to know?” Todoroki asks. He is still standing there, slightly awkwardly. All Might doesn’t invite him to sit, in a vain hope that Todoroki would figure out that simply doing it (or asking for it himself) is the right thing to do. 

“How is your father doing recently?” Todoroki seems more conflicted and confused than coldbloodedly murderous when Endeavor is mentioned, and that alone sounds like a progress. 

“I… don’t know.” Todoroki replies. And things turn complicated. 

“What do you mean you don’t know?” All Might asks, clearly confused. 

“Ever since Hosu I almost don’t get to see him at home.” Todoroki replies. “He seems to even be sleeping at his office. One time he showed up… well, . I think that Burnin’ and his other sidekicks forced him to leave the office. She phoned us to check if he came home that evening.” 

Oh. Well, that’s not precisely the way Yagi expected Endeavor to proceed with his quest for redemption. It’s not like the Number Two Hero mysteriously became his best friend. Enji Todoroki wasn’t giving him regular updates on things. So he was a bit behind when it came to the progress reports. 

“And when he returned home, how did he…” All Might decides to continue that way. “... acted towards you and your siblings?” 

“He didn’t say a lot.” Shoto replies. “He asked how me and Natsuo were doing at school. And how was Fuyumi’s day. We… didn’t know how to react to that. Natsuo shouted at him and left.” 

Well. It’s not easy to do a hundred eighty in your life. Endeavor, certainly, seems to be struggling at it. All Might decides to help that man a bit. Not like he likes him - Endeavor’s personality was… not very compatible with All Might’s. But he was still a fellow hero, who seemed to have been actually trying to become less of an asshole.

That alone deserved some positive feelings. 

“I see.” All Might was still thinking about how to approach it when Shoto figured something out. 

“You know something.” The emotionless teen said. After a few seconds, he decided to reply. 

“I do.” All Might replies. “We had a… very serious talk after the Hosu. I talked him out of retiring as a hero.” 

Todoroki stares at him, his eyes wide. Certainly not what he expected to hear. Toshinori was equally shocked when Endeavor mentioned retirement in front of him. Neither of them could imagine Endeavor retiring. 

It was unthinkable. 

“Why?” Is the only word that comes out of Shoto’s mouth. 

“I believe that a number of events… including the sport festival and what happened in Hosu… made him realize what sort of horrible father he was.” And that was an understatement. “It’s just that he doesn’t know how to be a good father and… I believe that he feels enough guilt to not know how to interact with you. So he is bunking in his office instead of confronting you.” 

Todoroki keeps staring at him, deeply unsure as to what he should think or feel about it. For as much as he hated it, he and his father shared that one incredibly frustrating personality trait. Outside of work, training and combat, they had the social skills of a bundle of overdried algae. 

For all his charisma, All Might wasn’t the right person to try to amend this. He had an experience of exactly one relationship in his very long life, that seemed to (and that was a mystery to him) go on in a way that could only be described as absolutely and impossibly smooth. 

Honestly, Inko did 95% of the job. He was simply offering words of support. And did what she told him to. She was this ship’s helmswoman. 

“I… don’t know what…” Todoroki freezes for a second. “What am I supposed to do?” 

Good question. Supremely good question. Although if Toshinori understood it correctly, the real question was ‘what would All Might do’. And that… well, that was a question that All Might himself wasn’t sure how to answer. And that was pretty atrocious. 

Would asking himself ‘what would Izuku Midoriya do’ be too much? His son sometimes has extraordinary good ideas for dealing with problems like that, but… All Might doesn’t want to break any bones today. 

“That depends entirely on you, Young Todoroki.” All Might eventually replies. “I’m not telling you to forget what he did to you. But I do believe that he truly realized that it was evil and that he is trying to become a better person. And if there is a lesson to be learned from the Villain Rehab Course idea, then it’s the fact that giving people a second chance is a heroic thing to do. Although… you should still keep an eye on them to make sure that they aren’t wasting it.” 

Todoroki looks at him for a few long seconds, his face completely unreadable. 

“I see.” He finally says. “I’ll think about it.” 

Well, hopefully it was enough.

***

1-A Class Chatroom

Mindhack: So, did we miss anything important by not participating in the tutoring sessions?

ClassPresident: let me translate it

ClassPresident: “what did Aiko do this time”

Mindhack: yes

LeadSinger: at least he is open about it

AcidParty: TELL US ALL THE CUTE AND FUN DETAILS

ClassPresident: ehhhh?

CreativeSpirit: There isn’t much to say. 

CreativeSpirit: Very nice (if, by my standards, small) house.

CreativeSpirit: His mother is a great cook.

CreativeSpirit: His dad… Well, he is pretty… gaunt. And was coughing blood, but apparently it’s normal. 

CreativeSpirit: His sisters, well, that’s a question to Froggy, mostly. 

ClassPresident: I feel like my entire life was just reviewed, but thankfully received a passing grade.

Mindhack: LOL

CreativeSpirit: It wasn’t my intention to be insensitive!

ClassPresident: No, it’s alright! AcidParty asked the question you answered. That’s all. 

ClassPresident: My dad lost his stomach and one of his lungs during a villain attack. As a result, he can’t eat most of the food, so he… yeah, looks kinda… thin. 

BoomBoom: WAIT A SECOND

BoomBoom: Didn’t uncle Hisashi die a few years ago?

ClassPresident: Sigh. Yes, he did. But he was my stepfather (and biological father of my siblings). Then, a year ago, mom accidentally ran into my biological father, Yagi Toshinori, again. So they promptly got married. 

ClassPresident: I say ‘accidentally ran into’, but he actually walked me back home after a villain attack. Then he recognized my mom. Then he discovered that he has a son and he actually walked him home just now. Then I discovered that he was my father. 

ClassPresident: That evening was crazy. And my family’s kinda complicated. 

GravityGirl: Yes. Kinda.

AcidParty: wow

ClassPresident: Apparently a villain attack separated my parents before my mom told my dad that she is pregnant. And they both met while hiding from some villains, so they were using false names, so they failed to find themselves in the aftermath. Until, well, the accident happened.

GravityGirl: …

AcidParty: omigosh I want to see a film based on that!!! romantic and funny

Invisible: YES

BoomBoom: nerd

BoomBoom: you have two quirks

ClassPresident: what?

BoomBoom: THE OTHER ONE IS BEING A VILLAIN MAGNET AND YOU GOT IT FROM BOTH YOUR PARENTS

BoomBoom: ffs

LeadSinger: That actually explains a lot!

TurboMan: Especially Hosu being attacked exactly at the time when we were passing by it on a train. 

ClassPresident: guys pls

BoomBoom: ALSO WAIT A FUCKING SECOND

BoomBooM: Your father walked you home after the Sludge Villain?

ClassPresident: … Yes.

BoomBoom: Oh. Fuck.

***

BoomBoom: NERD

BoomBoom: ALLMIGHT IS YOUR DAD?!

SmallMight: … It makes this nickname unintentionally ironic. But yes. 

BoomBoom: ………………………..

SmallMight: How did you figure it out?

BoomBoom: That crazy ass Gran Torino is like a father to All Might, and pretty much sees you as his grandson.

BoomBoom: It wasn’t that fucking hard to connect the dots, especially with your quirk

BoomBoom: I’m not a fucking idiot (except for, well, you know what). 

BoomBoom: also WHAT THE HELL

SmallMight: It only gets weirder from there. 

SmallMight: Do you want to know who tore his stomach and lung out? 

BoomBoom: ?

SmallMight: The most horrible villain to ever live.

SmallMight: The Symbol of Evil himself.

SmallMight: You know him as Uncle Hisashi. 

BoomBoom: ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME

SmallMight: WHY DO YOU THINK I’M ON THE VERGE OF GOING INSANE

SmallMight: WHY IS MY LIFE SO CRAZY NOWADAYS

SmallMight: AND WHY AM I EVEN TELLING YOU THAT AAAAAAAAAAAA

BoomBoom: OH MY GOD WHAT THE FUCK

SmallMight: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

BoomBoom: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

***

1-A Class Chatroom

LeadSinger: Why do I get the feeling that we’re missing something crazily entertaining

ClassPresident: No idea.

BlackDarkness: I’d like to mention something concerning Aiko Midoriya.

Mindhack: WHAT IS IT

ClassPresident: Ehh, apparently Dark Shadow likes her to a shocking degree

ClassPresident: She headpated it and called it a good boy. It looked ecstatic.

Mindhack: Huh.

BlackDarkness: Not that.

ClassPresident: What?

BlackDarkness: Dark Shadow has built her a small altar in my room and wishes to officially ask your parents through me for their permission to worship her as its goddess and saviour. 

ClassPresident: what

BlackDarkness: Also Dark Shadow needs to know what offerings she prefers. I’d personally like it if it wasn’t anything organic, as I’d like to avoid cleaning blood off my carpet. 

Mindhack: SEE I TOLD YOU I WAS RIGHT

CreativeSpirit: … I have no words to describe this revelation.

Vampire: o_o 

AcidParty: wait, do you think that if I pray to her it’ll help me pass the tomorrow’s exam

ClassPresident: That’s it.

ClassPresident: I’m going to bed.

ClassPresident: I’m not leaving it until the exam day. 

GravityGirl: That’s tomorrow though.

ZapZap: *screams*  

Tentacle: So he rebels but in a way that makes him not lose even a single day of school, very admirable

TurboMan: I agree!

Chapter Text

On the morning of the exam day, Eraserhead entered the classroom only to see a crowd of twenty-four Aiko Midoriyas’ staring at him. Girls wore wigs, designer eye-contacts, and appropriate clothes. Boys were spared from the last bit. Well, at least most of them. Those who weren’t overly buffed went for the full course. 

Izuku Midoriya looked absolutely done with his life. 

Shota Aizawa promptly left the classroom, returned to the teacher’s lounge, screamed loudly and freely (then he screamed again when he received a message from Nedzu telling him that class 1-A just earned few bonus points on the exam for ‘successful psychological warfare’), before returning to the classroom and pretending that nothing has happened. 

Hearing about Present Mic’s reaction did little to improve Eraserhead’s ruined mood. 

***

Theoretical exam finally ended (it was almost hilarious to see Aizawa-sensei doing his best not to look at the class in front of him while he was supposed to see if anyone was cheating). Then, the practical exam came. 

“We’ve decided to change the contents of the practical exam!” Principal Nedzu announced after emerging from Aizawa’s scarf. He was met with twenty-four deadpan stares. “But it turns out that you already figured it out. Yaoyorozu, Midoriya, am I correct to assume that both of you came with your own lists of predicted pairings?” 

They did. Nedzu quickly gave those a read. Then he beamed at them. 

“Correct! Both of you!” Principal said, throwing his little hands around. “That’s another set of extra points for the two of you… although how many, well, that depends on how well you prepared your classmates for this!” 

***

Exam 01: Inasa Yoarashi & Shoto Todoroki vs. All Might

For as much as All Might regreted that fact, letting him be his son’s teacher was already a major stretch, only possible due to his reputation as the Symbol of Peace and the fact that Shota Aizawa was there (together with Nedzu) to spot any signs of favoritism.  

No one was going to let him be his son’s opponent in an exam. That would be going way too far. On the other hand, there was no one but him among the faculty who could be a reasonable opponent to the 1-A heavy-hitters like Yoarashi and Todoroki. 

He wasn’t sure what he expected, but certainly not Yoarashi simply taking off and proceeding towards the exit at a lightning pace. Where did Todoroki even go? 

He could see his son’s hand in that. If there was someone who had an acute interest in noticing One for All’s weak spots, it was certainly Izuku Midoriya. And with both kids being his friends, they were certainly following his plan. But what was the plan? 

All Might lacked aerial mobility. He wasn’t Nana. He threw a chunk of concrete (the size of a car, he wasn’t one for half-measures) at Yoarashi, but he dodged it. Air pressure attack was a very bad match-up against his quirk, as it only slowed him down for a second. 

He decided to jump and grab Yoarashi. He realized that he just fell for Izuku’s trap when he was hit in the side by Todoroki’s new super move - a concentrated ray of fire and heat that actually sent him flying sideways. 

Yoarashi was a bait, with Todoroki following him on the ground, ready to snipe All Might if he tried to engage. Shoto wasn’t strong enough to actually wound All Might, especially at that distance, but it was enough to throw him off course. 

And, as it was already stated, he had almost no ability to change his course mid flight. It was a pain in the ass. And if he went after Todoroki, Yoarashi would have a clear shot for the escape gate. 

Good plan. But he was All Might, goddamnit! 

He used his air pressure attack to change his course after Todoroki sniped him again. Then he elbowed Yoarashi down to the ground. 

Kid responded by unleashing a tornado on All Might. The handicap bracelets actually helped by making him heavier and thus less likely to be taken off the ground. The Symbol of Peace punched Yoarashi through a building (oh shit, was he overdoing it, Shuzenji was going to kill him). 

Then he realized that despite what he expected, Todoroki didn’t take advantage of the situation to snipe him again. All Might realized what was going to happen, right in time to hear Yoarashi bellowing laughter. 

All Might’s attempt to reach the exit gate before Todoroki - with Yoarashi still operational and on his back, with a mobility enough for All Might to be unable to outrun him with his handicap bracelet - was futile from the start.

Yoarashi, it turned out, was two baits wearing a trenchcoat. And All Might fell for both. 

***

Exam 02: Rikido Sato & Eijiro Kirishima vs. Cementoss

Midoriya and Yaoyorozu had correctly foreseen the match-up, and had simple advice for their two classmates. Do not fight, because you cannot win. In their own words, the faculty wanted to test if two close-quarters combatants with clear time limits to their abilities would deal with an enemy that lacked said limits. 

In short, an endurance fight was going to be their doom. Once that became obvious, Kirishima and Sato actually created a plan on their own, one that received enthusiastic support of both of their class Big Brains (they weren’t going to always be there for their classmates, they needed to make them think for themselves a bit!)/. 

Sato didn’t swallow his sugar cubes right at the start. Instead, when Cementoss popped up to engage them in combat, Kirishima began to shatter his attacks, while Sato simply ran away, and began to move towards the exit gate. Forcing Cementoss to cease his attacks and pursue Sato in order to stop him from passing the gate. 

When he caught up, Kirishima immediately proceeded to fight him again, allowing Sato to (once again) disengage and head towards the gate. Cementoss, naturally, broke the battle again to pursue him (and probably prepare his last stand by the exit gate, the only place where he could face them both at once and Sato couldn’t simply run away). 

It was a mistake. He realized this when Sato suddenly turned towards him (now boosted with sugar), engaging him together with Kirishima, but from both sides at once. Forcing him to split his attention to two combatants capable of shattering his attacks at once. Needless to say, they managed to get close enough and promptly capture him. 

***

Exam 03: Kyoka Jirou & Koji Koda vs. Present Mic

The exam was going just as planned, until a massive army of worms and bugs and other crawlies amassed itself into a humanoid form in front of him. Small one. One wearing Aiko Midoriya’ clothes. And then it began to move towards him, gesturing as if it wanted to hug him. 

Present Mic promptly ran through the exit gate himself, screaming in abject horror. Nedzu calmly announced that he is sending the English teacher to Hound Dog after this. The other teachers present there unanimously agreed. 

***

Exam 04: Uraraka Ochaco & Aoyama Yuga vs. Thirteen

It really wasn’t worth being called a fight. Uraraka didn’t even need the help from Midoriya and Yaoyorozu, though she did have them proofread her plan. All she really needed was some combat analysis of Thirteen courtesy of her boyfriend, and that was something that she actually received a few weeks ago. For a completely unrelated situation. 

Step one of the plan - Pretend to struggle. Throw objects at her with her quirk. Have Aoyama shoot her with his naval laser. 

Step two of the plan - After their valiant struggle, get caught up at once by Thirteen quirk. Hold on to something, preferably together. 

Step three of the plan - Let go at once, make Thirteen freak out due to her fear of her own destructive quirk, forcing her to deactivate it. Use the momentum given to you by said quirk before it’s deactivated to close the distance. 

Step four of the plan - Engage her in melee, that she has absolutely no skills in. And promptly capture her.

Step five of the plan - …

Step six of the plan - Profit! And she likes those. 

***

Exam 05: Tenya Iida & Mashirao Ojiro vs. Power Loader

It might have been the faculty’s first victory (or at least not a humiliating defeat). It was a good match-up - Power Loader’s quirk allowed him to change the arena into a death trap, seriously limiting the mobility of his opponents. 

Unfortunately, he failed to take into account the fact that Iida managed to improve his flexibility of movements recently. He managed (although narrowly) to avoid falling into any of the holes, and after a long period of struggling, he managed to get to the exit gate together with Mashirao. 

“Well.” Power Loader said to himself, watching their victorious exit from one of his holes. “Crap.” 

***

Exam 06: Izuku Midoriya & Momo Yaoyorozu vs. Mr. Principal

In all honesty, the biggest variable that they had to face when predicting the match-ups, was themselves. They suspected that they would be either left to face Eraserhead (in order to test how would they fare without their quirks against an enemy that was probably a better tactician than them, at least when it came to planning details in the field and in front of the enemy), or Nedzu. 

In the end, Nedzu simply couldn’t pass such a delicious occasion to use his brain cells. So he decided to go for it himself. Izuku suspected that this would have happened, just as he was pretty sure that Monoma and Nakahara were going to face Nedzu as well. 

In all honesty, it was probably the easier option to counter than Eraserhead. So there was that. 

They separated immediately, forcing Nedzu to separate his attention between two distant targets. Izuku began to rush towards the exit gate (using his quirk to its fullest), while Momo started to prepare. 

Nedzu came in like a wrecking ball. Literally. He actually managed to stall Izuku’s charge by some controlled demolition for a while. Said while lasted until a 152mm artillery shell hit the foundation of his construction crane and it began to collapse. 

Nedzu glided out of it. Or so they thought. Izuku rushed towards it (it was pretty close to his position), hoping to capture the Principal. Then he realized that there was no reason for the rat to fly towards him after the crane was destroyed, so he quickly ran away. 

Correctly so. It was a decoy. The crane was remotely operated, and the Nedzu that flew out of it was a fake. Fitted with explosives. There were more cranes at the field, and when Izuku realized the deception, they all began to move. 

In the end, they ‘won’. Izuku used his quirk to bulldoze through the collapsed buildings (or jump above them) and his agility to scale some of them. All while Momo was bombarding the cranes from afar, doing her best to clear his route or at least derail the on-going disaster dominoes of buildings set up by the principal. 

Nevertheless, it was the closest fight of them all thus far, and Nedzu secretly hoped that the remaining exams were going to be clear student victories. Simply so he could rub his achievement into people. 

***

Exam 07: Fumikage Tokoyami & Tsuyu Asui vs. Ectoplasm

Fumikage had a powerful and dangerous quirk that, however, had a single weak spot. If someone got really close to him… then suddenly Fumikage was forced to practically fight them quirkless. 

Tsuyu was there to assist in that. It was a close fight, with Ectoplasm endless waves of clones forcing them to be on their toes at all times. All according to the faculty’ plan. Although the plan was significantly changed with the increasing despair of being so thoroughly defeated thus far. 

It’s not like they didn’t expect the majority of the students to pass. It’s just that thus far, not even a single one of the students was meaningfully defeated. Not even temporarily. Sero turned out to be a deception. So far, students were crushing the faculty, and that, even with sizable handicaps, was atrocious. 

Ectoplasm wanted to change that. He managed to intern them through the use of his massive clone. Things looked nice, he just had to restrain the raging Dark Shadow (who was pretty busy charging at him while screaming ‘FOR LADY AIKO’ repeatedly, seriously, what the hell). 

Then it suddenly snuck the cuff onto his leg. Cuff that Tsuyu apparently snuck in inside her stomach. He learned later that it was actually one of their plans, not even created by Midoriya and Yaoyorozu, merely greenlighted by them. 

Well. Shit. 

***

Exam 08: Minoru Mineta & Hanta Sero vs. Midnight

“Nemuri.” Eraserhead told her before she left the teacher’s little nest. “I’m not telling you to save our reputation, but… please save our reputation.” The bags under his eyes are significantly more pronounced than they were thirty minutes ago. 

“Oh, don’t worry, Aizawa!” She smiles at him. “It’s Mineta we’re talking about, he’ll probably have other things on his mind than fighting. You know, with me around.” 

She discovered that this statement was patently incorrect five minutes later. She managed to get Sero under her quirk easily enough. Mineta immediately panicked and began to retreat towards the direction from which they arrived. 

She should have figured out that she was walking into the trap, because why else would Mineta leave his balls around during his and Sero’s march towards the exit gate. They improved his mobility enough to let him avoid her… until he suddenly stopped and waved at her with a wide grin. 

One second later she was suddenly attacked from behind by totally-not-unconscious Sero, whose tape bound her tightly. If not for herself falling into a trap like a rookie, she would probably make a pervy joke about that. 

“How?” Was all she managed to say. 

“Well…” Sero scratched his neck while Mineta was making happy noises in the background. His voice sounds odd. Then again, she didn’t get to hear him earlier in the fight. “Your attack is a form of a gas. One of our vice-presidents can create everything that she has a blueprint of. She has a friend in the Support Course that can create a blueprint of a gas mask through her sleep. You really should have checked if I was truly unconscious before passing over me, you know?” He opens his mouth wide only to pull some contraption out of it. 

A short-term mini-gasmask, except not exactly a mask. But enough to keep him from succumbing to her quirk for the crucial minute or two. And with Mineta leaping towards the exit, she had no time to stay next to him longer than that.

Fuck. Aizawa is going to kill her. 

***

Exam 09: Hagakure Tooru & Mezo Shoji vs. Snipe

“Do not worry.” Snipe said to Eraserhead before leaving the faculty room. “I have that in the bag, y’all can chill down.” 

He lost. 

***

Exam 10: Kaminari Denki & Ashido Mina vs. Eraserhead

Eraserhead turned out to be the faculty’s last hope (as the Villain Rehab had their exams organized a bit differently) to save its face. He was supposed to push the two loafers of 1-A to their limits. 

While, naturally, being on the lookout for whatever nasty plan Midoriya and Yaoyorozu prepared for them. 

The plan turned out to include using Mina’s acid to melt things along their way, producing acrid smoke that was seriously impeding his ability to use his quirk. Oh, he did it, of course. He actually managed to capture her. 

Yes, he made sure that his capture scarf was acid-proof. And electric-proof. What he didn’t expect was that Mina could make her acid capable of conducting electricity. 

He looked away from her for a second or two, in order to give Kaminari an intimidating monologue. It was enough to make her cover herself in non-conducting acid, which in turn was covered in conductive acid. Oh, and she also spread it over the capture scarf that he was holding her in. 

Did he mention that the Support Course created a device that allowed Denki to guide his electric discharge to some point, negating his short-range issues? With the only weakness was the fact that he had to throw an object somewhere to have the electricity go there?

Did he also mention that MINA WAS CARRYING ONE OF THEM ON HERSELF? 

Eraserhead was promptly hit by an equivalent of a powerful taser, from a distance that shouldn’t be possible. And with his capture scarf (there were some electronics involved) going haywire and letting her go, she was in perfect position to capture him. 

“PRAISE AIKO!” She shouted, throwing her hands in the air, while Denko was doing some form of awkward dance routine in the background. 

Eraserhead screamed internally. 

***

“Heya there, how did…” Ms. Joke entered the faculty room with a smile on her face. She was temporarily ‘hired’ to help in the exam of one of the Villain Rehab Courses, and she got the occasion to see the inner workings of her school’s fated archenemy! 

(and also see her children, she didn’t since the school festival, videochats aren’t enough!)

Then she realized that she entered a morgue for dead teachers instead of a faculty room. 

There was a large table in the middle of it. She could see Principal Nedzu drinking a tea at the top of it. There were also nine teachers (including All Might), but they were all lying face-down on the table. 

“That bad?” She decided to ask. Eraserhead let out something akin to an ‘uuughhhh’ which made him sound like a hungry zombie. 

“We were crushed.” Nedzu chirps in. “Well, I think I had the closest thing to an actual fight, but the rest… especially Present Mic…” The teacher in question wails quietly into the table. “... well, I think we should really consider making this year's students graduate ahead of schedule. Sure, there was a major handicap, but…” 

“Change three years into two.” Eraserhead finally says. “We have half a year behind us, we can survive that much.” He sounds like he was trying to persuade himself.

Uh-oh. The provisional licensing exam was going to be fun. She should probably whip Ketsubutsu representatives a bit more if they want to survive it. 

***

1-A Classroom Chat

Mindhack: I’d like to announce that all members of the Villain Rehab Course have successfully passed their exams. 

Vampire: Yay!

GravityGirl: :D 

BoomBoom: Good because I’d fucking kill you all if you failed after me tutoring you. 

ClassPresident: Bakugou pls

BoomBoom: YOU DIDN’T HAVE TO TEACH CAT EYES AND CRUSTY FACE ANYTHING

BoomBoom:  YOU DON’T KNOW THE HELL I’VE BEEN THROUGH, NERD

ClassPresident: Okay this is fair

Vampire: HEYYYY!!! :( 

Vampire: That’s rude!

Mindhack: But true.

Vampire: TOSHI ;_;

GravityGirl: Himichan, you passed, that’s the most important thing right now!

Froggy: True. Prove them wrong and get better before the next exams.

Vampire: :D Ochachan, Froggy-chan! I knew I could count on you! :D 

TurboMan: If I may ask, what were your exams like? 

Mindhack: At least part of it was about self-restraint and testing if we’re… well, better people than we used to be. It tended to be rather personal, so… I’d prefer to not go into details.

ClassPresident: Also I came to believe that we had some external judges on that, just to make sure that there are more heroes out there thinking that the Villain Rehab Course students aren’t pure evil. 

BoomBoom: I had to fight Ectoplasm copies without being too aggressive. Fucking bullshit. 

BoomBoom: And they were rather talkative. trying to make me angry

BoomBoom: -CENSORED- 

BoomBoom: WAIT A SECOND WHO SET A CENSORSHIP HERE

BoomBoom: WAS THAT YOU YOU -CENSORED- NERD

BoomBoom: DO YOU THINK THAT THIS IS A -CENSORED- GAME YOU -CENSORED- -CENSORED- ?! -CENSORED- YOU!

ZapZap: LOL

ZapZap: So much about not being too aggressive XD

ClassPresident: Bakugou, stop!

BoomBoom: DON’T TELL ME WHAT TO DO -CENSORED- NERD

GravityGirl: Bakugou Katsuki.

BoomBoom: WHAT THE -CENSORED- DO YOU WANT ANGELFACE

GravityGirl: Would you kindly -censored- your -censored- -censored-? We were supposed to talk about our villain rehab course friends passing their exam in -censored- nice atmosphere but instead you -censored- come here shouting -censored- expletives, thinking that you are -censored- -censored- because you suddenly can’t use expletives in your speech, which by the way is a horrible -censored- thing when you do it out of your -censored- limited vocabulary in front of your friends who clearly didn’t want to deal with this -censored- today and has explicitly -censored- -censored- you to -censored- you -censored- -censored -censored-. -Censored.-

Vampire: *mic drop*

Mindhack: This is beautiful.

BoomBoom: …

ClassPresident: o_o

CreativeSpirit: I’m horrified. 

AcidParty: OMG xDDDDDDD

AcidParty: Angelface has a Demonmouth xDD

GravityGirl: … oh. 

GravityGirl: IGNORE THIS MESSAGE IT WAS THE STRESS FROM THE EXAMS TALKING

Froggy: I mean, her parents have a construction company. She grew around construction workers. It was probably to be expected.

GravityGirl: STOP

GaleForce: absolutely awesome

GravityGirl: GUYS NO

GravityGirl: I’M SORRY

ClassPresident: Uraraka

GravityGirl: …?

ClassPresident: You made Bakugou stop talking by… well, pretty much yelling at him, just in text. 

GravityGirl: Errr, and I’m really sorry for that! ;_; I’ll never do it again, I promise.

ClassPresident: Uhm, no, I just wanted to ask if I can make a picture of this talk and frame it. 

GravityGirl: … 

GravityGirl: please no

ClassPresident: okay, but I’m buying you mochi for that

AcidParty: Oh this is wholesome. and super cute

Vampire: Yes xD 

BoomBoom: I’m going to beat the -censored- out of some training mannequin.