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The group stood before Nezu’s desk, none quite sure how to present themselves (save for the ever assertive Katsuki Bakugou). There was an awkward presence in the air, and no one spoke as if they expected someone else to. Looking around, Izuku scanned everybody’s expressions. Some looked determined, some annoyed, some confused, but one person stood out to him: All Might. His expression was hard to read as if he was purposefully hiding it. Izuku couldn’t blame him, though. He was the top Hero in Japan for longer than Izuku—or even someone like Aizawa-sensei—has been alive; it would’ve been imperative for him to learn to control what people see considering how public he was and still is. Izuku heard Nezu sigh, so he decided to put those thoughts away for the moment and turn to him.
“So,” he started. “Please, tell me how this all happened.”
All Might cleared his throat. “Well, you see…”
Voices erupted and overlapped each other, smothering the room in chaos. Izuku couldn’t keep track of who was saying what, and it seemed like everyone was trying to speak over each other. Nezu took a deep breath and rubbed his eyes. He opened his mouth and said something, but it was drowned out by the noise. He seemed to be messing with something on his desk, and a second later a robot appeared out of the wall and sprayed everyone with smoke. The coughing seemed to shut everyone up.
“Please, one at a time,” Nezu said.
“Sorry,” All Might said. “As I was saying, I was helping Young Midoriya train when…er, um, something happened, and now it seems the past users of One for All are…here.”
Nezu scanned the room as Izuku did before. “Hmm, that is quite the predicament. What should we do about it?”
“I don’t know,” All Might said. “Nothing like this has ever happened before.”
“Well, whatever we do, we can’t let Aizawa know about this,” Kacchan said.
“Huh?” Izuku asked. “Why?”
“Why?” Kacchan imitated him. “Cause he’ll definitely see right through whatever lie we come up with, and then once he does, he’ll hunt us down, and he’ll strangle you to death.” Izuku said nothing as he stared at Kacchan dumbfounded. “Betcha didn’t think of that, nerd?”
“W-well, we’ll just have to keep this a secret from Aizawa-sensei then, right?” Izuku said.
Keeping right in line with the joke that is Izuku’s life, the door opened and in came Aizawa.
“Sorry to bother you, principal, but have you seen-” He stopped in his tracks when he saw the small crowd. He mumbled out an apology as he fumbled for the doorknob. “I apologize, I didn’t know you were busy.” Izuku let out a relieved breath when he walked out and closed the door.
“That was close,” he muttered.
Suddenly, the door flew open again. “What are Midoriya and Bakugou doing in here?” he asked.
Dammit!
“Aizawa!” All Might exclaimed.
“I’ve been looking for them—and you—everywhere. Care to explain?”
“Um, these are my friends,” All Might said, gesturing to the past users. “I was just introducing them to Young Midoriya and Young Bakugou.”
“Why wasn’t I informed first? I’ve been looking for them for over an hour,” Aizawa asked, irritated. “Iida is currently on a power-high looking for them as well. I’m expecting you to de-escalate that situation.”
“You could’ve just called me,” All Might huffed.
“I did,” Aizawa replied, somehow more irritated than before. “Your phone is in the staff room. You also keep getting texts and calls from someone. It’s very annoying.”
“Oh? Did you see from who?” All Might asked.
“Some person named Dave,” Aizawa said.
All Might’s eyes instantly widened. “Dave?” he exclaimed.
“Wait, the guy that you canoodled with in college?” Izuku asked.
“Who the hell says ‘canoodled?’ “ Kacchan asked.
“Me. Cope,” Izuku deadpanned. Kacchan glared at him, and Izuku glared back.
“I see that you’re upset right now, Aizawa, but I assure you we have a perfectly good explanation for what’s going on right now,” Nezu said.
“We do?” Izuku and All Might asked at the same time.
“Oh my god, we’re hopeless,” the Kacchan look-a-like of the past users said.
“Yes. We’ve invited some of All Might’s dearest colleagues to U.A. to help out with the training of our students. It was such a sudden visit that they came during Midoriya and Bakugou’s personal training, so that’s why they’re here. Please forgive our failure to inform you of such matters.”
Aizawa’s shoulders relaxed slightly, but he still seemed partially on edge. “That’s still a strange story,” he said. “Why have such a sudden visit that you don’t even have enough time to inform any of the staff? I know I’m not the only one out of the loop considering how much Mic likes to overshare.”
“I am ashamed to admit how messy and unorganized our planning was. It was a hassle to get them all together at the moment. It’s a shame that such a great institution such as U.A. would make such foolish mistakes, but what’s done is done, and I hope that this experience doesn’t soil your impressions of these great heroes.”
Izuku smiled. Nezu was great at speeches, and he hoped that he was able to thaw Aizawa’s cold and dead heart enough to make him believe such a dumbass lie.
“I apologize for making such a fuss about it,” Aizawa said. This is a good sign. “While I’m here, you might as well introduce me to your friends, right, All Might?”
“Goddammit, can’t you just leave?” Izuku snapped. All eyes were on him, and he could feel his life flash before his eyes. “Okay, so, if anything happens to me, you’ll have to face my mother, and I don’t think even you can do that, so I’m sorry, please don’t strangle me.”
Fortunately, Aizawa seemed to ignore Izuku completely. Hell yeah, plot armor! He raised an eyebrow at a sweaty All Might. “I know their names! I totally do!”
“I believe you. What are they?”
“They’ll tell you! Why introduce them when they’re here to do it themselves!” All Might said, gesturing vaguely around him. “Go ahead. Help me out here before I shit myself.”
It didn’t take long before a voice spoke up and said. “My name is Nana Shimura. It’s nice to meet you.”
Slowly, the tension in the room began to ease, and so did the tension in Izuku’s body. “The name’s Daigoro Banjo.”
“I’m En.”
“Yoichi.”
“I am Hikage Shinomori.”
Finally, the room stared at the last two expectantly. Izuku was dying to know their names, though they seemed a little reluctant themselves. The Kacchan look-a-like spoke up and said, “Call me Second and him Third.”
“Okay, whoa, wait, what the fuck?” Yoichi asked. “What are you doing? Are you trying to be edgy or something?”
This seemed to trigger something in Second, and his body convulsed in offense. “What? Numbers are our thing! We’ve decided that we want to go by our numbers. We aren’t being edgy.”
“Sounds pretty edgy to me,” En said, shrugging.
“Just leave it, they’ve always been like this. There’s no fighting it,” Shinomori said.
Now Third was the one offended. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Shinomori’s head shot forward and it took less than an instant for him to be facing Second and Third. He said nothing, but gave him a look that said “what the hell?”
“Okay, you’ve met them, goodbye,” All Might said as he quickly approached Aizawa.
“What an…interesting group,” Aizawa said. “Midoriya, Bakugou, you’re coming too.”
“Aww,” Izuku whined.
“Now,” Aizawa added, quirk activated. Izuku’s back straightened and he nodded. He followed alongside Kacchan as they walked toward the door.
“Sorry for the trouble, Sensei,” Izuku said. Aizawa grunted in response. “Normally I wouldn’t want to put you through such a confusing situation, but things kinda got out of hand. They showed up so suddenly so we had to stop our training right away and come here. It was really important, I mean, he’s Kacchan’s brother,” Izuku said, pointing to Second. There was a moment of crushing silence before he registered what he just said. Why the fuck did I just say that?
“What the fuck, no he isn't,” Kacchan said.
“I am not,” Second said.
Aizawa sighed. “Bakugou doesn’t have any brothers.”
“Sure he does!” Izuku said, digging his own grave, for some reason. “He faked his death.”
Aizawa raised an eyebrow. “I think I’d know if Bakugou had a dead brother.”
Izuku could already feel the sweat coming on hard. “Well, he destroyed all evidence that he existed, so you wouldn’t know about him, but I knew Kacchan our whole lives, so I remember him.” Silence. “He had to do that so he could take down a dangerous villain. If he didn’t, the villain would go after his family, but the villain is gone, so it’s all good, haha…” He just knew his face was red and covered with sweat at this point.
Aizawa sighed in disappointment. “None of that is true.”
“You’re right. I’m lying,” Izuku said. “You know, when I was a kid, I used to be a compulsive liar. I would lie about absolutely everything. I used to tell the other kids that All Might was my dad. Yeah.” Saying this, he felt very aware of All Might’s stare, but he refused to look back at him. “But, it soon became too much for my mother. She was absolutely heartbroken seeing her only son lie so much, so I decided one day that I was going to stop cold-turkey. No more compulsive lies, I said. I told her, with as much grandeur that a seven year old could muster up, that there will be no more lies in our household. As the man of the house, there can’t be any lies, only truths. After my father left, I said that we need sincerity, and we need trust. Since that moment, I have not told a single lie, except for right now.”
For a few seconds, the room was silent, and Aizawa just stared at him before he spoke up again. “I think it will be very funny to see Iida rip into you about disappearing for more than an hour. Let’s go.”
Well, fuck you too. I thought my speech was spectacular.
As the door closed behind the trio, Izuku heard Third ask, “Really? Him?”
All Might’s response was, “I’m going to kill you.”