Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Izuku Shimura sat in class, watching the chaos brew around him with a solemn face. He knew that ninety percent of the kids in this room wouldn’t live up to their dreams. While they all wanted to be heroes, most of them didn’t actually have the quirks—or the will, for that matter—to do it . Being a hero was difficult. You had to live with every decision. Every life that was lost because you weren’t good enough was on your head. Izuku knew enough about heroics to say that at least.

Katsuki ‘Kacchan’ Bakugo looked over at him as the middle school class all yelled and hollered in agreement to what the teacher had said, “Izu” Izuku looked over at Kacchan. “Do you want to train again after school or study?”

“Let’s study. I need more notes on thermodynamics if I want to get into UA with you,” Izuku responded. The entrance exam for UA was in just over ten months but Izuku didn’t feel prepared. He needed to ace the exam if he wanted to get into the school of his dreams with Kacchan.

“My house or yours?” Kacchan asked.

“Mine is fine. I won’t be seeing my dad till next week,” Izuku responded.

Kacchan nodded and started taking notes on the lecture that their teacher was continuing. Izuku did the same and tried to concentrate. 

He was one of the few people that actually liked Kacchan. Everyone else saw him as a bully and quirkist, but Izuku looked deeper into his friend’s personality. He spent too much time with Kacchan to give up on him now.

Kacchan was in mourning just like Izuku. The loss hit both Kacchan and Izuku hard even if Kacchan didn’t show it. It was only a few years ago, and Izuku still didn’t know how to move on. Every day without him was an upwards battle with his mind and his heart. His heart wanted to let him curl up in a ball and cry forever, to not let him keep going. While his mind told him to keep going, to fulfil his legacy.

Kacchan wasn’t biassed against some quirks more than anyone else, after what happened bullying was just what he turned to. He wanted to be strong, powerful enough. Powerful enough to have saved him. It didn’t matter that it wasn’t his fault, that he never could have reasonably saved him. Kacchan, just didn’t see that.

In private, he really wasn’t so bad. If anything, Kacchan was the only one that really understood what Izuku was going through. The three of them had been as thick as thieves until what happened.

At least Izuku had a useful quirk. It kept him away from Kacchan’s bullying in public.

He could ‘copy’ other people’s quirks for certain amount of time.

He thought about his abilities in terms of slots. 

Each slot could hold a different quirk. He had thirteen slots at the moment: four permanent ones and nine temporary slots. The four permanent slots were, as the name implied, permanent. He didn’t have a time limit on those slots. The nine temporary slots, however, did have a time limit. He had a 5 minute slot, a 10 minute, a 15 minute, a 20 minute, a 25 minute, a 30 minute., a 1 hour, a 2 hour, and a 3 hour slot.

After school, Izuku nodded to Kacchan. Together, they walked out of the school to Izuku’s house.

When they walked in the door, his mother was cooking in the kitchen. She turned to face them, a kind smile on her face, “Katsuki, you’re here. Will you be staying for dinner?”

Their home felt large with just the two of them. Since his father moved out and his brother died, there were quite a few empty rooms that they hadn’t filled and the walls were lacking in pictures.

Kacchan shrugged, “I suppose so. I’ll text my mother. We're going to study tonight.” 

 “Okay,” his mother responded cheerily.

Kacchan and Izuku went up to his, admittedly bare, bedroom. He didn’t care to have posters of heroes on his walls or really anything. That was more of Kacchan’s thing. But, it did always sort of embarrass him. Kacchan had commented on it a few times when he was visiting when they were little and it always stuck with him, especially compared to the rooms of the other’s in his grade he’d seen. There was a desk and two chairs as well as a few beanbags. With his bed, that was all was in the room.

They both plopped down on the beanbags and Izuku dug a notebook out of his bag. 

“So, thermodynamics? I should probably work on it too,” Kacchan said while quickly tapping at his cell phone.

“Yeah.” Izuku absentmindedly floated two pencils, two clipboards, their textbooks, and a stack of note paper over to them.

Together, they reviewed the basics of thermodynamics before moving into the more complex equations.

The following day, they were at Kacchan’s house in his backyard. Strength training. They didn’t do strength training very often. It was mostly combat. While he warmed up his muscles to start on the makeshift pullup bar they installed, Kacchan lifted the table on the patio and began to bench press it while lying on his back.

Izuku attempted to lift up the table. It was crazy heavy. He couldn’t even budge it. Yet, Kacchan was easily bench pressing it like it was nothing.

He checked under the table for weights.

Nothing.

He tried lifting it again. It didn’t move in the slightest. Izuku looked down at himself. His arms were thin, weak. He could handle the impact from Kacchan’s quirk but he wasn’t actually strong.

Izuku looked at Kacchan bench pressing the table, “How did you get so strong?”

Kacchan set the table down and looked at Izuku, “The kickback on my quirk has been hard on my arms for years,” Bakugo threw a large explosion towards the yard and smirked. “Do you want to borrow my old weights since you couldn’t move the table?”

Izuku looked down, a bit self conscious. “Yeah.”

Kacchan went into the house and came back out a minute later holding an armful of heavy metal weights. 

“Here,” was all Kacchan said as he set them down.

Izuku lifted up the 50 pound weight.

 Izuku grinned internally, though he tried to maintain a straight face externally. He needed to be able to do this. While he could lift far heavier objects with his mother’s quirk than with his hands, the quirk was limited. He could choose the path the object he brought towards him and hold the object in place at any point, but he couldn’t push objects away from him.

The next week, Izuku took a brief break from almost all of his studying and training. For once, his father was in Japan. His father worked in America and spent most of his time overseas. He had started working overseas when Izuku was 10; it was around the same time he had gotten a divorce with Izuku’s mother. The divorce hadn’t really been a surprise, his parents had been fighting for as long as Izuku could remember. In some ways, he was happy his parents separated, it meant that he didn’t have to listen to them fight. Though, Izuku still wished that his father had taken him with him. He had always been close with his father, before he moved away, and it only forced a rift between them when he did.

Earlier that same year, Izuku lost his twin brother. He died when Izuku and Kacchan had gone into a shop without him, as he waited outside for fear of hurting anything with his quirk without his special gloves. A villain fight started just outside of the shop and his brother was caught in the crossfire.  Only an hour or so before his brother’s death, they had been in an argument. It was something stupid, Izuku didn’t even remember what it was about anymore, but it was one of his greatest regrets. 

They had never worked out their differences and he never even got to say goodbye. 

They never even found the body. All Izuku had to remember him, to latch on to, was a gravestone without a body.

His brother’s notebooks were the only thing left so Izuku had kept them going for him. 

Not that he told anyone that. They all thought he just liked analysing quirks. Which he did, but it was mostly for his brother. 

His father had gotten the divorce immediately after. Nowadays, his father would only come to visit once or twice a year. Izuku always met him somewhere in Musutafu, usually a hotel, and stayed with him for a few days.

It had been almost a year since the last time Izuku had seen his father. As always, his father promised that he would try and come more often. It was one that he had never kept. Their time together always felt awkward though, they didn’t really know each other. Too much had happened without each other. But at least they were together again.

The following week his father would fly back out to America, leaving Izuku alone once again.

Kacchan and Izuku fell into a routine over the next ten months. Two days spent training before spending a day studying. 

The days were rapidly speeding by. Weeks and months passed like seconds as Kacchan and Izuku practised to get into UA.

Izuku wanted a full education, including college, and to leave his options open. As long as he made a change, he would be happy.. Kacchan wanted to be a hero. He was certainly dead set on that. 

UA would be Kacchan’s chance to get noticed before going out into the real world. 

It would be Izuku’s chance to show what he was made of.  He would be his own person, not just the grieving boy who lost his other half. With his own future. Of course , he wouldn’t stop thinking of his brother. The years of wishing he was there and the years that he was wouldn’t be so easily forgotten. He wanted to make a difference in the world and live down in history. No matter how he did it. He would make a name for himself. For himself and his twin.

He would just find his own way, no matter what everyone else around him did. He wanted to be more than a random trivia fact about one of the head students at UA. He wanted to be a name that children all over the world knew. It didn’t even have to be his real name. A persona would be even be nice. He would make a change. The only issue was figuring out what that change was.

It only seemed like a few days before it finally came, even though it was months, the test was tomorrow. He felt confident as far as the written portion went but he was still nervous about the practical portion. He had been training for so long but he didn’t know if he would be able to stand up next to people that have had their whole lives to train with one quirk. He had to master multiple if he wanted to stand up next to them. 

Izuku sat at the kitchen table and stared at his food. He took a deep breath. He was eating an early dinner to prepare for the exam early the next morning.

He looked up and into the distance. Izuku tried to imagine what powerful quirks the other students had. Would he be able to compete? Could they control people? Shoot powerful lasers? Explode things with a thought?

“Izuku,” his mother spoke up from across the table. 

Izuku looked at her. 

“Just try your best. You’ll do fine. I’m sure of it,” she said, trying to comfort him.

Izuku sighed and quickly ate his food. He walked through their home to the backyard. 

One last time to practise. Izuku quickly forced out his  wings and cringed. It hurt every time. He didn’t think it would ever not hurt to adjust his own body for another quirk. 

He pulled them back in. 

And forced them back out. 

Izuku did this fifteen times, back and forth, before leaving them out. The white, leathery colour glistened in the setting sun. Izuku picked up every table and chair in the backyard with a thought. He strained to keep them up, as they were quite heavy. Holding them in the air, he swooped around the yard repeatedly on his wings. At the same time Izuku also practised making small white explosions in his palm only for them to be swept away by the wind plummeting against his face.

Izuku did this until the sun set. At that point, he went inside to do one more practice before getting a good night’s sleep. He tucked in his wings but didn’t retract them.

He snuck up to his room and lifted up everything except his bed, which he was sitting on. His mother didn’t really ever approve of him wanting to go to U.A. or practising with his quirk. He supposed, in a way, it was her trying to keep him safe after what happened with his brother. Not that she ever did that well in the first place, she wasn’t exactly the most present of mothers.

Izuku laid down in  his bed and attempted to lift it while holding everything else. The mental strain sort of tickled.

He felt himself getting lifted off of the ground as the bed rose. He could change where everything went on his body and this time he chose the inside of his chest so that the bed would never touch it but it would keep rising.

A soft knock on the door spooked Izuku. An instant headache formed from the sudden ending of his quirk. Every item he was holding fell, clattering against the ground. Izuku’s outstretched wings prevented him from falling to the ground with everything else.

He gently floated down and retracted his wings.

“Are you okay?” The soft voice of his mother came through the door. 

“I’m fine. I just dropped a few things. You can come in,” Izuku said. He didn’t really want her in here, she could get angry with both his messy room and the fact that he was practising.

His mother walked into the bedroom and looked at all of the items that were out of place. 

Izuku’s eyes darted around the room as he fixed the position of all of the fallen objects. Of course they were a little closer to him than before but he couldn’t do much to stop that. He hoped that she just assumed it was messy, not that he was practising.

His mother sat on the edge of his bed. “Izuku, I want you to know that I’m proud of you. I still don’t really approve,” she paused for a second, “but I’m going to leave your life to you. You’re old enough to make your own decisions,” she looked away. “I think he would be proud too. No matter what happens tomorrow. You’ve got this.” 

The ‘he’ she was referring to would be his twin. Izuku didn’t know why his mother always brought up his brother at times like this. It just added a sombre mood to the conversation.

Izuku smiled a bit, a lump forming in his throat, “Thanks mum.” He fought to keep the tears from leaking from his eyes. With his brother gone, it felt like a piece of him had disappeared, never to return.

His mother stood up. “I’ll leave you alone now, just get some rest.”

“Don't worry, I will.”

His mother walked out of the room, gently closing the bedroom door behind her. 

Now alone, Izuku fell back onto his bed. He wished that she had never brought up his brother. Not today. Today was supposed to be happy! He was supposed to be excited. 

Only now, all Izuku could think of was the what if’s. What if his brother had been with him? What if he never died? They got into U.A. together?

Izuku laid down in his bed and tried to fall asleep. He tossed and turned for several hours, but he did fall asleep eventually, his worries slowly falling away as he lost consciousness.

Chapter Text

Izuku woke up and glanced at the clock on his desk. 5:22. 

He sighed in relief that he wasn’t late. He had forgotten to set an alarm. At 7:00 A.M. Izuku wanted to head over to Kacchan’s house to check in with him and carpool, with Auntie Mitsuki driving, to UA to save some gas since they were neighbours. Their written portion of the entrance exam started at 7:30 and they would have until 10:30 to complete it.

Izuku got ready for the day, his clothes having already been set out the day before. He had to make sure that his outfit had wing slits, so Izuku had custom-ordered it weeks ahead of time.

He lifted a few weights, careful not to strain his muscles, stretched, and practised each of the quirks he was holding on to. 

Going downstairs, Izuku quickly ate breakfast with his mother in silence. He looked up and saw his mother sniffling and crying. 

“What’s wrong?” he asked his mother.

“You’re,” she paused. “You’re just all grown up.”

“I grew up when I started training for UA, mum,” Izuku said. He wasn’t trying to be cold, but it was true.

His mother started crying even more fiercely. 

A ding from Izuku’s watch, “Sorry mum, but I need to be going. I’m carpooling with Kacchan to the bullet train that will drop us off at UA.”

“I know. Just,” she paused again. “Good luck today.” his mother said cheerfully with a forced smile on her face.

His mother’smile damped a bit as Izuku pulled a pen towards him from the kitchen counter and put it behind his ear without touching it. 

Izuku walked out the door and went over two houses to Kacchan’s house.

Izuku knocked on the door.

Yelling could be heard from inside, “Yeah, I know mom.”

“Good.” another voice in the house replied.

Footsteps approached the door. The door was pulled open, showing Kacchan, also with a pen behind his ear. 

“Ready to go?” Izuku asked him.

“Yep. My mom is getting the car ready now.”

“Okay.”

Izuku and Kacchan walked to the car and sat in the backseat together.

They faced each other and Izuku quizzed Kacchan, “What is the equation for Newton’s second law of motion?”

Izuku’s hand shook as he gestured as he talked. Meanwhile, Kacchan’s foot tapped repeatedly against the ground.

Kacchan responded readily, “Force equals mass of an object times its acceleration.” 

Izuku nodded.

Kacchan paused a moment, “Who said, ‘Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings.’”

“Salvador Dali”

They did this for a while until the car pulled up to the bullet train station.

Kacchan’s mother, who had been driving the car, got out with them. “You two be careful.”

“We will,” they said in unison.

They took the bullet train to just outside of U.A., where they walked up the steps to the main building.

As they walked, Kacchan yelled behind him, “Extras!”

Several kids near Izuku grimaced and rolled their eyes. 

They all handled their grief differently. This was just his way. Izuku left him alone about it because while he grew distant in random spurts Kacchan understood him and respected his space.

Kacchan ran a little bit to catch up to Izuku. “You know I was referring to everyone but you, right?”

“Yeah,” Izuku responded nonchalantly.

Once they were inside, Izuku followed the directional signs to a large gymnasium filled with hundreds of desks. A closed, thin book sat on each desk in the room and each chair had a name card on the back. They wandered through the rows of desks. 

While Kacchan went down the next row, Izuku thought about the ordering and placement of each desk. 26 rows. A couple hundred chairs in each row. That was it. They were in order of where your last name was placed in the English alphabet. Kacchan would find his seat somewhere in the second row that he was already searching. 

Now feeling confident, Izuku went down the nineteenth row. There it was. His seat was sitting there waiting for him. His name on a sheet on white paper hanging from the back of the chair. 

Izuku sat down at the desk and watched as other kids in the room went row by row, searching for their names. Only a few kids were sitting down already. Most kids that had their names at the start of the English alphabet were sitting. He was the only one in the ‘s’ row sitting yet.

It took almost twenty-five minutes for everyone to find their places. Every single one of 198 regular students that would be admitted to UA had to take the test and countless others tried. There were really 220 students that would be attending the school in his year but twenty-two lucky souls got in on recommendations every year. 

Most weren’t trying out for the hero course though, there was the general course, support course, and the business course also all taking the test. All of the courses except for hero, which has two, had three classes of twenty students.

Before the test started someone stood at the head of the large gym with a microphone, “Welcome everyone. Today you are here to prove your worth as a possible student of U.A. Highschool. Before you lies the exam that will determine your future. The rules are written on the first page, but here is a reminder of the important ones. No looking at other’s papers, no using devices of any kind, no talking, and no sabotaging, interacting, or interfering with other students in any way. Quirk use on the test is not permitted unless you already filled out the optional permit in the registration packet when you entered your submissions. If your permit was approved, there should be a star on the corner of your paper. Good luck everyone. The test starts now!” It was Midnight: the R-rated hero. 

Midnight stepped away from the microphone as Izku flipped open his booklet. He took the pen from behind his ear and started writing the answer to the first problem. The hall was completely silent except for the sound of pens scratching against paper and the occasional flipping of a page. He had to be careful not to mutter here. He had gotten in trouble on more than one occasion for muttering during a test.

Izuku quickly went through the booklet, filling out the multiple choice questions. He had studied hard for this and while he needed to rack his brain for some answers there wasn’t anything he didn’t study for. This wasn’t the part he was worried about. He was really worried about the practical. Eventually he got to the short-essay questions. This would be the hardest part. They were expected to write a minimum paragraph of 10 sentences. Izuku took a deep breath, read the question and sat back in his chair. His mind was racing while formulating an answer. 

Finally settling on a response, Izuku looked up on the clock on the wall. 9:49. He didn’t have very long left to finish the test. 

The essay questions were certainly challenging but they didn’t take that long to complete.

He took a deep breath and looked at the clock on the wall. There were ten minutes left of the test. He leaned back in his chair for a moment to clear his head before looking back over his test for mistakes and filling out his answers sheet.

Midnight came to the stage again, “Five minutes remaining. Hero entrees should leave their booklets at their assigned desk and file into the auditorium where you will have seating arrangements according to your entry number which was sent to you ahead of time. All other students can go home. Your results should arrive sometime around March 5th.” He would only have to wait a week before finding out whether he passed or failed. He supposed that was good, but he hated waiting for these things. He just wanted his pass/fail answer right away so that he could know to take the entrance exams for other schools if he didn’t make it.

Izuku took the small slip of paper that had his number on it out of his pocket. 

He was number 366. Kacchan was 367. 

As Izuku listened to the instructions in the large auditorium, he stretched his arms, shoulders, and neck to prepare for the practical. 

“You’ll have 10 minutes to immobilise as many robots as possible,” the Voice Hero: Present Mic was saying. 

Only ten minutes! He would really have to jam pack as many bot kills in that time then.

Present Mic quickly finished talking and dismissed all entrees to go to their required areas. Izuku wasn’t in the same arena as Kacchan, probably to keep friends from working with each other.

As Izuku hopped on one of the many buses that would take him to the stadium, he noticed that the other students didn’t have their quirks obviously on display. Perhaps, it would be better for him to keep his wings in until the round started.

Izuku hopped off the bus with all of the other hero examinees.

Stretching, Izuku looked at his competition more closely. Most kids were standing around laughing, not even bothering to stretch. Most of them were sure to fail but Izuku wouldn’t. No. He couldn’t fail. If Kacchan was going to pass, so would he.

Izuku found a wide gap in the crowd where he could spread out his wings.

A buzzer suddenly went off. “Battle starts now.”

Izuku burst his wings out of his back and took off, swooping underneath the arch that led into the arena. Izuku flew as far as possible. He wanted to get away from all of the other competitors even if it cost him some time. He found an area that no one had reached yet. 

He looked down and spotted thirty or so bots in the block. 

Izuku swooped down in a fast plummet. He breezed past the bots, not giving them time to lock onto him while he disabled them with large white explosions by getting rid of the heads. 

He could only take out three or four bots with each pass, so Izuku swept back and forth and back and forth for so many minutes. Izuku took a quick break to catch his breath. 

The loudspeaker sounded “Two minutes left.”

Izuku blew up the last two bots in the section and went to the centre of the arena where screams could be heard, echoing.

As he swept through the air he saw a huge bot coming down on all of the people who were gathered in the centre.

A girl with brown hair laid prone on the ground, her leg stuck underneath a large piece of rubble.

Izuku dove out of the air towards her. The bot was quickly approaching and was about to crush her. 

Using his mother’s quirk, Izuku pulled the piece of rubble towards him and threw it to his left.

The bot towered above her. 

He was almost to the girl now. Izuku closed his eyes, certain that he would run into the bot while saving the girl.

The bot slowed slightly. It was just enough that he wouldn't hit it.

He picked her up in his arms and quickly flew away from the bot to avoid being crushed from the still approaching bot. 

Izuku flew far enough away that the girl would no longer be crushed by the bot, “You should really be more careful.”

“I will,” the girl said, smiling wide.

She reminded him of his brother. Not in looks, but in personality. Fearless and smiling.

A loud buzzer sounded and someone spoke over the loudspeakers, “Stop disabling bots and make your way to the exit. Any more points gained will not count.”

Izuku’s palm felt warm and a sudden sharp pain came from his hand. His hand was bleeding, a deep gash running the length of his palm.

He wrinkled his brow slightly. He didn’t remember getting cut.

Izuku walked away from the girl and they all got back on the bus. 

Izuku tore a strip of fabric off of the bottom of his shirt and bound his hand. 

In front of UA’s main building Izuku looked around. He was at a loss among so many kids. He didn’t know how to find Kacchan. 

Izuku stood paralysed. He would just have to wait until more people cleared out and the crowd thinned. He tried to look casual and not at all worried by putting on a calm, nonchalant face while he waited for Kacchan. 

Everyone walked around Izuku as he just stood there. He hoped that he looked more like someone who was calmly waiting for someone. Izuku started looking through the crowd with his eyes to find Kacchan. 

A flash of blonde hair. Kacchan came up to Izuku, “Are you ready to go home?”

“Yeah.”

Chapter Text

The week passed both quickly and slowly. The school days were fast and sweet, mostly filled with Izuku daydreaming of UA. After school though, that was slow. Very slow. 

The wound from his hand also healed slowly, it seemed to be pretty deep but surprisingly, when he tried to clean out the wound he found that there wasn’t anything in it. It was like nothing had caused the wound. 

This wasn’t exactly unusual, though. Sometimes he would find small wounds or bruises on his body that he had no recollection of getting. He wasn’t ever sure where they came from but some of them healed crazily fast.

Once the school day ended, Izuku had nothing to do. He was miles ahead in his classes and had no homework. Even his combat training with Kacchan wasn’t fun. Neither Izuku or Kacchan could even try while anxiously waiting for their results.

With nothing to do, Izuku spent his time sitting in his room lifting weights. He lifted them both with his arms, which were now fairly strong and fit from the last few years, and with his mind to keep it sharp.

He pulled his wings in and out. He lifted small objects. He made tiny enough explosions that they wouldn’t hurt anything. He browsed the internet for good quirks. Ultimately though, he did nothing. 

The only progress that came out of that whole week was one decision. He would follow any and all news on the number three hero, Hawks, very carefully. Izuku had always admired and wanted his quirk but Hawks never stayed in the same place long enough to actually copy his quirk. Izuku just needed to know where he was and he could do it. Fierce Wings seemed so useful. 

 Izuku opened his cell phone. It was March 5th. The letter would come today. He dialled Kacchan.

The phone rang twice before he picked up with his video on, “What’s up?” He was wearing a black tee shirt and his hair was puffier than usual.

“The letter ought to come today.” 

“Yeah. But why'd you call me?”

“I wanted to be on a call with you when we open the letters since the mail will come in a few minutes.” 

“How many?”

Izuku checked his watch, “3 and a half.”

“Let’s hang up and call again after then,” Kacchan suggested.

“Okay.”

Izuku swiped on his phone to hang up. He rushed downstairs to wait for the mail.

Izuku sat on the couch, staring out the window.  A mail truck pulled up to their mailbox and slipped a thin letter inside.

As soon as the mail truck pulled away, he ran out of the small apartment.

Izuku grabbed the letter and ran up to his bedroom. 

His mother stared at him on his way up. If anything, she was more worried and stressed about waiting for the results than he was. 

Well, what he displayed externally. Izuku tried to maintain a nonchalant attitude all the time. He didn’t want to run around showing all of his emotions all over the place. He had a persona to maintain after all. It would, in some ways, ruin him if he showed more emotion than what he typically deemed acceptable. Kacchan, for sure, might leave.  He couldn’t trust himself if he lost Kacchan.

Internally, he got stressed out in social situations with lots of people. He didn’t care what the majority of them thought about him, but some of these people would be his classmates (if he made it in) and he didn’t want to make a fool of himself in front of them.

He got a letter opener out of his drawer and carefully opened the letter. He didn’t want to ruin it if it was an acceptance letter. If it was a fail he would probably burn it, though.

Izuku carefully slid the letter out of the envelope. A metal disk came out with the letter and plopped onto the desk in front of him. 

“Congrats kid. You made it into the hero course. It’ll only get harder from here,” A figure in the hologram said. He was dressed in all black and looked sleepy. “I’m Shota Aizawa and I’ll be your homeroom teacher.”

Izuku gasped and a small grin formed on his face. It was one of the few smiles he would make after his brother’s death. An eternal sadness haunted him, deterring him from forming any more close relationships because they would always just break.

His mother ignored him most days, his father rarely visited the country, and his brother was gone. They all disappeared so quickly. Kacchan was the only thing in his life that had stayed constant. He was a presence that was always there to hold Izuku in his worst and hang out with him at his best. Izuku clung onto Kacchan. Of everything, Kacchan was a life preserver floating in the roaring ocean of his life. When Izuku started to down in his regret Kacchan always pulled him back up towards the surface.

On the hologram’s screen a black box pulled up with names and numbers, Aizawa pointed to the box, “In first place in the exams, with a 96 percent on the written test and 91 total points earned during the practical exam, 56 villain points and 35 rescue points, is Izuku Shimura. Second is Katsuki Bakugo with 77 villain points. Eijiro Kirishima with 74 points is in third. Fourth is Ibara Shiozaki with 68 points. Fifth is Itsuka Kendo with 65 points. Sixth is Tenya Ida with 61 points. Seventh is Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu with 59 points. Eighth is Fumikage Tokoyami with 57 points. Ninth is Yosetsu Awase with 56 points. Tenth is Neito Monoma with 53 points.”

“Since you placed first in the hero entrance exam and got in the very top few for the general test, you are the leader of your grade of students. I will evaluate on what that means after school on your first day. The school year starts on Sunday, April 11th. See you then.”

The hologram disappeared. 

Izuku opened his phone and put on a video with Kacchan. He picked up instantly. 

“We made it.” Kacchan looked like he was about to cry. It was his dream to make it into UA. 

“Yeah,” Izuku smiled a little bit broader. He couldn’t help it, Kacchan was just so happy that Izuku could feel it through the phone.

“I guess I’ll see you at school then.” Kacchan hung up.

Izuku pulled out the sheet of paper from the envelope and read it. It said basically the same thing as the video. There was also a keycard card with his class, “1-A” , name “Izuku Shimura” , his seat number in the class “No. 20” , Date of Birth “7/15” , (keycard credits go to Kōhei Horikoshi) and his quirk “Copycat”.  

 The next two months passed uneventfully. Together, they finished up their school year and had a few weeks of solid training during their spring break.

Izuku opened up another slot from all of his spare time during school. His classes really didn’t have anything to teach him from all of his studying to get into U.A. He had a good memory. He was able to seamlessly recall all of his hero notes in his head. As long as he wrote it down at some point, he could usually recall it later.

Finally, it was time. Izuku sat in his bedroom looking over his notes. “Hero Statistics, Weaknesses, and Strengths No. 13” was on the cover. The notebook was full minus two pages. The first one and the last one. 

Izuku wrote an intro to the year in the first page, “ Dear future me, This year was pretty hectic with preparing for UA but I still managed to get some good notes in. I hope they will be of service to you. I’ll keep this one short, but just remember how hard you worked to get into UA. Simply, it is the best school in Japan and it will provide you with many opportunities in the future, regardless of what route you choose to take. Sincerely, Past Izuku. ”

He flipped to the back, “ Future me, I hope that by the time you are reading this you know what you want to do with your future. We’ve always wanted to make a change in this world of heroes and villains, regardless of what change that is. We will make a change and go down in history. A name that will always be remembered. It’s always been hard to decide on something since I’ve never really had any motivation. Well, that changes today. I’ve decided that I will finish UA at the top of my class. I will be the best at the school, regardless of whether or not I become a hero. That way I can finally show that I can really make it in the real world and be more than competition for Kacchan. In case you don’t remember who Kacchan is, his real name is Katsuki Bakugo. I suppose it all depends on the motivations that I try so hard to find. Anyways, I hope UA was good to you. Remember where we came from. The middle class neighbourhood. The local gangs and bullies. Use that as strength to continue. Izuku, out. ”

He gently pulled the picture of his twin and him out of the front of the notebook and closed it. 

He pulled out another composition notebook from his drawer and scrawled, “Hero Statistics, Weaknesses, and Strengths No. 14” on the cover. Underneath that he wrote, “UA year 1” .

He gently re-taped the picture of him and his brother into the front cover. It was one of the only remnants of his brother he had besides his notebooks. The picture was one of the last photos they had of Izuku and his twin. He had died just hours after the photo was taken. In the picture, they stood side by side with Kacchan, inseparable and nearly identical. The three of them had been so close that sometimes they had thought of dying their hair and living at each other’s houses. Besides eye colour, they thought their parents wouldn’t notice. They might as well have been three copies of the same person. 

He intended to fill the notebook with statistics on the other kids in his class, including how useful their quirks could be.

Each time he wanted another slot for permanent quirks it was more difficult than the last time. Not to mention that he only could unlock one every time there was a significant mental change in his life. To open up slots, Izuku meditated. As he quieted his own loud, noisy thoughts he could slowly push the walls of his mind to allow for another slot.

It was a calming experience but took many hours to even get anything done. Izuku found that he often didn’t have time to expand his slots in the middle of daily life.

He laid down in his bed and stared at the ceiling. His head was full of thoughts. 

Would he even be able to compete with the others? No, he would. He was the top of his class. He must have done better than them at least. 

What would they think of him? Actually, he didn’t care. He would do his best, be the best, and friends could come after.

He sucked in a deep breath and calmed his mind.

Izuku fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.

Chapter Text

A loud blaring came from the alarm clock on his desk. 

Izuku groggily pushed the button down with telekinesis. The alarm, as always, came slightly closer to the edge of the desk.

Izuku got out of bed and got dressed for the day. His school uniform had come in the mail a few days earlier.

He put the outfit on and called Kacchan.

He picked up after the third ring. 

“What's up?”

“How do you tie a tie?”

Kacchan rolled his eyes, “Just skip it. I looked online. The tie isn’t mandatory.”

Izuku shrugged, “I’ll be over in 20.”

He hung up. Izuku looked in his mirror. The tie dangled hopelessly around his neck.

He ran down the stairs. “Mum, can you get this for me?”

His mother walked over to him and quickly tied the tie. It was so fast that Izuku couldn't keep track of her movements. He would have to ask later.

Tenko would have done it for him. He always seemed to know how to do that stuff. He was always the cooler twin, but he was very kind to Izuku. He loved Izuku with everything he had and treated him like his best friend rather than a pesky sibling. 

Izuku quickly ate breakfast and ran over to Kacchan’s house.

As he came over, he noticed Kacchan standing outside. 

Izuku waved.

Kacchan slipped in the car without saying anything and Izuku joined him.

Kacchan wasn’t wearing his tie and his outfit seemed ruffled like he got ready in a hurry. Then again, he was always in a hurry. 

As the car pulled away, Izuku stared out the window. The world flew by. So much has changed yet so much is the same. They carpooled as always. The same usual silence for days when they didn’t have anything to say to one another. Yet they were also stepping into a new world. A new school. New classmates. New possibilities.

On the bullet train, Kacchan faced Izuku, “Don’t embarrass me. Okay?”

Izuku rolled his eyes, “Like I would embarrass you. If anything, you’ll embarrass me.” 

Kacchan shrugged. He obviously wanted to make an impression on his classmates and didn’t want to be seen as the one that is friends with the strange kid.

When they got off the train, Izuku noticed many other students were milling around. They were all wearing the same uniform that he and Kacchan were also wearing. As Izuku looked around the crowd, he noticed that most kids didn’t have their quirks on wide display and the ones that did seemed to be mutant types so they couldn’t really help it. 

Inside the school, Izuku and Kacchan found their way to class 1-A. 

They were there early and almost no one was in the class yet. A boy with a very stiff looking outfit, a pair of glasses, and dark blue hair was already in his seat.

Four rows of 5. His seat was all the way in the back corner. Kacchan sat in front of him. 

As the kids filed into the room, Izuku analysed their quirks. Some of them had their quirks on wide display, like the boy that had a bunch of limbs that looked like wings, while others seemed to be more conservative like a boy with plain yellow hair with a black streak. Perhaps an electric type?

The bell rang, signalling the start of class. A few kids were still milling around the classroom, the boy with blue hair spoke up, gesticulating wildly as he talked, “Everyone sit down!”

No one listened to him, though a few students were already sitting.

A dishevelled man in a wide cloak with tired eyes and uncombed hair came into the classroom, dragging a yellow sleeping bag behind him. He looked to be the same teacher that had been in the entrance exam letter. 

“I’m Shota Aizawa, for those of you who weren’t paying attention, I’m your homeroom teacher. Your normal classes will start tomorrow. Today, I will be giving you a quirk apprehension test. The person with the lowest score will be immediately expelled.”

The class stiffened collectively. No one wanted to be expelled on their first day, especially not when they didn’t even get to their normal classes yet.

“In the test you will be able to use your quirks on a variety of normal physical education tests. There will be eight tests. These include: distance run, seated toe-touch, sit ups, ball throw, repeated side steps, standing long jump, grip strength, and a fifty metre dash. Don’t any of you dare to try anything to mess with other students. My quirk can erase yours and I will use it during your tests if you misbehave.”

The class sighed as a group in relief but remained tense due to the second half of his proclamation. They didn’t have to do combat for a grade on their first day of school.

The teacher pulled a clipboard off of the blackboard. 

“I’m going to take roll call,” he paused. “Aoyama Yuga,”

“I’m here,” a boy in the front of the class said with pure wonder in his voice. 

The teacher was making it easy for Izuku today. Having them do an activity as a group would give them an idea of strengths and weaknesses. Izuku still had a slot to fill.

As the teacher took the roll call, Izuku pulled out his notebook and made a page for each person in the class. It included their name, seat number, personality which he left blank for now, and blank space for sketches of them later on.

On the opposite page he left room for their quirk, weaknesses, advantages, how they fought, and their preferred environment to fight in. It was a good thing he was in the back of the room, if he had been in the front and someone saw what he was working on they would probably think he was creepy. 

Maybe he was, but he needed to do this to keep track of them. It wouldn’t do him any good to fight with them and not know anything about them. Not to mention fighting against them, He also dedicated some room for Mr. Aizawa. 

Most of the class chattered lightly, not paying attention until their name was called.

When the roll call was completed, Mr. Aizawa led everyone outside. First, though, he let them change into gym uniforms.

“Okay, I’ll be going in order of seat number. Hold nothing back.” He held out a ball in one hand. “Throw this as far as you can.”

They all lined up to throw the ball. The first few were nothing remarkable in Izuku’s eyes. He could certainly do better and they didn’t seem to be using their quirks to their fullest potential.

A few of them made it up to 400 metres, namely Jiro, Ojiro, Tokoyami, Shoji, and Sato.

He took a few mental notes on their quirks, trying to remember what he could to fill in later. He couldn’t fill out their full uses yet but he could at least see how some of them worked. Ojiro’s quirk seemed fairly obvious and not much to it so he filled it in almost all the way, in his mental notebook. Just a tail seemed pretty plain and not that useful, so he hoped that Ojiro had other tricks up his sleeve to compliment.

Monoma was up next, a lighter version of Tokoyami’s quirk, a shadow of sorts: possibly sentient, came out of him and threw the ball. 362.8 metres.

Kacchan. He used his explosion to blow the ball far away. 792.3 metres. 

The entire class, minus Izuku, gasped in shock at the pure power.

Izuku stepped up to the ring. He internally re-copied and activated Kacchan’s quirk. If the person was nearby, it was always better to copy again before using it. It helped keep the strength a constant factor.

He used the quirk, dyed white, to blast the ball as far as he could. 792.3 metres. He had expected that. When he copied someone’s quirk it had the same strength as when the owner of the quirk had last used it. He could improve it on his own, though.

He was the last person to go. 

Mr. Aizawa brought them to a different section of the large training yard. “50-metre dash.”

Iida, the blue guy from earlier, was up in the first match.

The buzzer sounded. 

He dashed forward, quickly surpassing all of the other contestants. He was fast. 3.05 seconds. 

As Izuku watched the two other rounds before him, he noticed that most of the entries weren’t exactly in shape. They were usually pretty slow and many didn’t use their quirks. It was a wonder that they even passed the entrance exam to begin with. Perhaps they simply had a good battle sense?

But it was completely possible they had strong offensive quirks that were good for robots, not necessarily good control of them. Though, he could tell some certainly did train their bodies with their quirks, particularly those who didn’t have super strong quirks.

 The students that had been on the top ten board, six of which were in his class, did significantly better than everyone else. However, two students that weren’t on the board, presumably the recommendation students, also did well. Yaoyorozu and Todoroki, neither was particularly surprising. Todoroki, being the son of the number two hero, most likely got training from Endeavour and Yaoyorozu, who he remembered from when he was little, going to business galas with his father, also got training.

Izuku stepped up to the lineup. Next to him, Monoma tripped and knocked into Kacchan. They both fell to the ground.

“Watch it, extra!” Kacchan said to Monoma. 

Izuku reached down and offered a hand to help both of them up.

Monoma reached up and took Izuku’s hand, with slight hesitation, as Izuku pulled him up.

Kacchan did the same but without hesitation.

They all lined up and got into a pose. Kacchan was standing with both of his hands to his sides, upright but looking like he was about Naruto run at any moment. Monoma mimicked Kacchan in pose.

He stood with his arms to his sides, ready to propel himself forward. He stood in a pose similar to Monoma and Kacchan, but stood up straighter so that he could get as much air space as possible.

The air pistol sounded, letting off a puff of smoke.

Wings quickly erupted from his back, sparing no time. He pushed himself forward with explosions, quickly getting to the end. 

He got 3.1 seconds.

 Kacchan got 4.12. Monoma getting 5.12. Monoma had done the same thing as Kacchan but simply a moment later. The quirk Monoma used was the exact same as Kacchan. Did he also have a copy quirk? 

Izuku tucked in his wings and they shrunk into his back. A bit of pain pinched his back. 

“Standing long jump.” 

Many kids cleared the sandbox, namely, Kacchan, Monoma, Asui, Aoyama, Tokoyami, Todoroki, and Yaoyorozu. The rest all landed inside the box. 

When it wasn Izuku’s turn, he got ready to sprint. 

He ran forward and jumped. His wings sprung out mid-air catching him and keeping from falling. He flinched slightly from the sudden pain although he was expecting it. He casually flew to the other side of the sandbox. 

Mr. Aizawa came up to the still hovering Izuku. “How long can you do that for?”

“I haven’t ever made it to the point where I could no longer fly. I just prefer to keep them in when I’m not using them.”

Mr. Aizawa nodded and scribbled something down on his clipboard. 

Izuku touched down on the ground and pulled in his wings, flinching slightly as they retracted.

Mr. Aizawa wrinkled his brow but didn’t say anything before walking away.

The rest of the tests were nothing special. 

Izuku got average scores for all of them except the distance run since he could quickly just fly the whole way. His wings took much longer to tire than his legs so it was easier to fly around than walk around. 

When everything was done, Aizawa Sensei led the class inside. “Do whatever as long as you keep it down.”

He sat down at his desk and cross referenced his clipboard with a computer screen.

Izuku walked over to Monoma’s desk, where he was sitting. He held his notebook in his hand, close to his chest, ready to take notes, just like how his brother used to. 

It was kind of calming to hold his notebook, it always reminded Izuku of Tenko. His brother always wanted to stand out, make a change, and he passed on many of those qualities to Izuku before his death. Now, Izuku wanted to uphold his legacy.  But, Izuku wasn’t anything special and he knew it.

He might have been only ten when Tenko died, but Izuku missed him fiercely. He ended up having to live half of his life without his other half, his brother. He felt incomplete without Tenko by his side. They had been there for eachother every waking moment.

 Sometimes, Izuku still felt his tie to his brother, a string that pulled him slowly towards him. Yet, Izuku never followed it, it always disappeared as soon as Izuku realised that the tie was there. It was often though, that Izuku would find while wandering around on a walk that he had been following the tether to his twin. To be honest, he didn’t know where the tether would take him.

Perhaps to his brother’s body? Or his murderer? Or maybe the tie was a sign he was still alive. Because they never found the body, Izuku always had a small hope that his twin was alive. Out there somewhere.

“Do you have a copying quirk?” he asked Monoma bluntly.

“Yeah. How did you?” Monoma trailed off slightly, just barely flinching.

“You used several different quirks that have zero correlation to each other. If you wanted to keep it a secret I would have recommended sticking to one or two quirks rather than using whoever got the best score.” 

Izuku looked down for a moment to scribble a few notes about Monoma’s quirk in his notebook. 

He also took notes on his personality, from how he flinched, he was trying to keep his quirk a secret, most likely to get the upper hand in a fight. His trailing off could mark him as insecure. The fact that Monoma hesitated before taking Izuku’s hand could mean that he either doesn’t trust people or doesn’t get help very often. Monoma most likely didn’t really try to keep it hidden, rather just not telling people unless he needed to.

He took the personality notes in invisible ink so that he would seem like less of a stalker if his notebook was looked at. He’d already had a few run-ins with people thinking he was a villain due to his notes. His teacher, Kacchan when they were little, and a few of Kacchan’s friends all freaked out when they saw it. Sometimes, even his brother had been freaked out. Izuku just always wrote the more in depth notes. While his brother merely skimmed over uses and possibilities, Izuku would spend hours on a singular page. He especially focused on personality since he could take advantage of that in combat and would help him make and choose his friends.

It was easier to just keep it hidden.

“That would be rather pointless, wouldn’t it? Most of these idiots won’t figure it out anyways. But you, you’re special. Another copier perhaps? You’ll keep it to yourself, I expect?”

“Yes.” Izuku replied.

“To which question?”

Izuku just smiled and finished taking his notes, snapping his notebook shut. 

“I’m Shimura Izuku,” he said. 

“Monoma Neito.”

Izuku went back to his seat, avoiding any more unnecessary conversation past their introductions. He pulled out the secondary miniature notebook he carried with him and started sketching another one of his ideas for his hero costume. He was quite specific when requesting it but there were a few details he wasn’t sure how they would go. He thought he was decent at drawing. He regularly drew heroes in their costumes for his notebook so he could recognize them on site easier.

Mr. Aizawa was writing on the blackboard now, his back facing the class. Izuku stopped drawing and stared off into space as Aizawa wrote.

“These are the final scores. Minoru Mineta, leave this class. You don’t have what it takes to be a hero. You can petition to be moved to the General Studies class but not with me. Take it up to Principal Nezu if you would like.” Aizawa pointed to the door.

Mineta glanced around the classroom in confusion for a moment before grabbing his backpack and leaving the classroom. He seemed upset but Izuku didn’t really care. They weren’t in the same class anymore, so he didn’t need to care.

Izuku looked at the blackboard and scribbled down the scores on a fresh page. It would give him a general idea of what each kid in the class could do. 

1st place: Momo Yaoyorozu. 

2nd place: Izuku Shimura. 

3rd place: Shoto Todoroki. 

4th place: Katsuki Bakugou. 

5th place: Neito Monoma. 

6th place: Tenya Ida. 

7th Place: Fumikage Tokoyami. 

8th place: Mezo Shoji. 

9th place: Mashirao Ojiro. 

10th place: Eijiro Kirishima. 

11th place: Mina Ashido. 

12th place: Koji Kota. 

13th place: Rikido Sato. 

14th place: Tsuyu Asui. 

15th place: Yuga Aoyama. 

16th place: Hanta Sero. 

17th place: Denki Kaminari. 

18th place: Kyoka Jiro. 

19th place: Toru Hagakure.  

20th place: Minoru Mineta.

Izuku struck through Mineta’s name since he would no longer be in the class. Keeping it there was simply a good reminder that they could be expelled. Mr. Aizawa was ruthless in expelling someone on the first day of school, and frankly Izuku liked it. He would have to fight for his place in this class just as he would have to in the real world after high school.

“That’s it for the day. The rest of you can go home. I expect you to be here bright and early tomorrow morning. I will not give you an easy first week like how middle school is. See you tomorrow.”

Izuku gently put his notebooks back into his backpack and walked over to Kacchan’s desk.

“Head home without me. I’m gonna stay after for a bit. I’ll walk home,” he told Kacchan.

Chapter Text

Izuku waited till the rest of the class filed out of the classroom and approached Aizawa-Sensei’s desk. “You wanted to see me, sir?”

“Yes. Since you did the best in the entrance exam and did very well in the written portion, you are the leader of class 1, this includes every department. If you don’t follow and complete the role to an adequate extent, as well as following the rules of the school, you will be removed. Follow me,”

Aizawa-Sensei walked out of the classroom, leaving his sleeping bag behind.

Aizawa-Sensei led Izuku to the fifth floor of the building. “This area is reserved for teachers and the heads. You can do as you like up here.” Aizawa-Sensei stopped in front of one of the doors. “This is the student lounge. Only you, the head of the second years, and the third year’s big three are allowed in here. Your keycard will let you up onto this floor and into any room up here. Consider it your personal space. Even Principal Nedzu won’t enter without permission. The other heads will fill you in. Head on in when you’re ready.”

Aizawa-Sensei walked away. Izuku watched him leave and take the elevator downstairs.

Izuku took a deep breath and swiped his keycard from his pocket in front of the door lock. The door clicked and Izuku opened it. Four teens sat on two of the couches facing each other with a coffee table in the middle. 

They looked up from his conversation when he opened the door, “Hi! You’re the first year, right?”  A girl with long blueish purple hair and eyes of the same colour asked.

“Umm, yeah,” Izuku said nervously.

“Oh not another Amajiki,”  another girl with short blonde hair in a pixie-cut and an eyepatch covering her right eye exclaimed. She seemed really cool and tough, not just a year or two ahead of him.

“Hey!” A boy with dark purple hair said, sounding offended. He shrunk back into the couch.

The girl with short blonde hair punched the boy with dark purple hair lightly on the arm.

“Cut it out you guys,” the fourth boy at the table said. He had yellow hair, gelled up in a curve at the front of his face. He turned to Izuku, “Sorry about them. I’m Mirio Togata. This is Amajiki Tamaki,” he said, pointing to the boy with purple hair. “This is Nejire Hado.” Mirio pointed at the girl with long bluish purple hair. “We’re the big three. And this is Hayami Ito. She’s the head of the second years,” he pointed at the girl with an eyepatch. 

“I’m Izuku Shimura.”

Togata wrinkled his brow slightly when Izuku said ‘Shimura’ but Izuku didn’t think much of it. It used to be his father’s last name before the divorce so it would make sense if he heard it before. Now his father was just Hisashi Midoriya.

“Hello, Izuku.” Hado said. “Don’t bother using last names here, we’re all friends. If your class is your family, think of us as your cool older siblings.”

“Okay, Nejire. So, Aizawa-Sensei said you guys would explain what I’m actually supposed to do.”

“Right, yes.” Mirio said. “So, basically at the sports festival you’ll have to talk to your grade in front of everybody, but we use the same speech every year so don’t worry about it. Other than that, we basically just help each other study and train after school since we’re almost always in the hero course. You are, right?”

“Yeah. I’m in 1-A.”

“Great, so we usually just meet up around 7:00 PM each day here. The hero course ends a few hours before that but most teachers hold extra training after school. The rest of the school has to leave by seven but we have special permission to stay as late as we’d like. The teachers don’t really care what we do as long as we stay ahead in class and our grades don’t slip. As third years, we often have a bunch of extra time during the day so don’t be surprised if we come to take you out of class or so to two days a week or so to do some extra training or head to the beach or something similar,” Nejire picked up where Mirio left off like they’d practised this.

Izuku nodded.

“You also have to go to any of the teacher’s meetings, since we have a spot on the board, representing the students. Kids will also occasionally come to you for help with homework and training and advice after the sports festival when the rest of the rest of the school finds out who you are,” Nejire continued. “Otherwise, that’s about it. It’s basically just a bunch of extra permissions without much extra work. Oh, and bring a spare outfit to school, preferably something classy for press interviews and something to wear in combat if your hero costume gets wrecked. Most kids just wear their gym uniforms for combat when their hero costumes get wrecked, but it looks dumb and no one will say anything anyways.”

“Since it’s the first day, we were gonna leave soon. Extra training won’t start till tomorrow since they still need to set up the training grounds,” Hayami said.

“We’ve got to leave if we don’t want to miss our train,” Amajiki said meekly, obviously self conscious and nervous.

Hayami checked her watch. “You’re right.” She stood up in unison with the big three.

“See you guys tomorrow then,” Izuku said and walked out of the room.

Back in his room, Izuku glanced through his window to see if Kacchan was there. 

He wasn’t.

Izuku knew they wouldn’t be meeting up to train tonight. They both had better things to do. But, it still disappointed him just slightly not to see his friend.

They both needed to mentally prepare for what would come with Aizawa-Sensei. He wouldn’t go easy on them and knowing that they could be expelled just like that was a little terrifying. One mess up and they could be out the door.

Izuku ate a late lunch alone at home. His mother took a job in accounting after his parents got a divorce so it wasn’t surprising she wasn’t home.

Then, he went up to his room once again to meditate. He rarely found the time to do it and he certainly had better things to work on but he felt like he was close. Close to something.

He closed his eyes and relaxed into his mindscape, allowing his mental avatar of himself to form inside.

Izuku pushed at the edge of his consciousness with his mental avatar, forcing the walls to expand. The wall barely moved. 

He took a few deep breaths and tried again. He shoved his shoulder into the wall, trying to make it move. 

It still barely moved. He shoved harder. A cracking sound.

It startled Izuku and he fell out of his mindscape. It didn’t seem like it came from the outside world, which was good. He had a chance. If the sound was what Izuku thought it was, he was close.

Izuku went back into his mindscape and felt around the walls.

There was a thin crack in one of the walls of his boxed in mind. Izuku pushed on the crack gently and it spread, spider webbing across the wall but not breaking.

Izuku threw his whole weight into the wall.

It clicked like glass hitting tile for a moment.

An explosion of black shards of glass filled the mindscape. However, none of them cut Izuku; they all went around him.

The sound of glass shattering forced Izuku to cover his ears and shut his eyes in the mindscape. The sound didn’t last long, but it still left a faint ringing in his ears.

When the ringing ended and Izuku re-opened his eyes, he saw that all of the walls had been shattered. The box was larger now, a new set of glass walls formed a bit farther into the mind. Unfortunately, the glass wasn’t transparent. It was more like obsidian in colour.

Izuku felt his slots stretch and shift to accommodate for another slot. Another permanent slot. Now he had two slots to fill.

Izuku pulled himself out of the mindscape and laid back on his bed. Beads of sweat ran down his forehead and his breathing was heavy. He shouldn’t have been in there for that long.

He glanced at the clock and scrunched up his brow. He had been in the mindscape for almost two hours. It was why he almost never went into his mindscape. Without something external to pull him out, he could easily spend days in there messing around and it would only feel like maybe an hour at the longest.

Deciding to skip dinner, Izuku stretched out and laid down in bed. Being in the mindscape took a lot out of him and he was beginning to get tired.

Chapter Text

Private messages between BabyBunny#1 and BabyBunny#2

Last message -- 5 years ago

BabyBunny#1: “Mom and Dad are fighting again, don’t come home from Auntie and Uncle’s . I’m coming over in a sec.”

BabyBunny#2: “Kk. See you in a sec :)”

Izuku scrolled up further in his old messages with Tenko, just like every night. 

BabyBunny#2: “Kacchan is back from vacation tomorrow.”

BabyBunny#1: “I know… you’ve been talking about it all day, Izu.”

BabyBunny#2: “I’m just excited!”

BabyBunny#1: “I know you are… just calm down, would you? I don’t want Mom and Dad to fight again…”

BabyBunny#2: “Sorry, Ten-nii. I’ll see you when I get back from school. How are you feeling?”

BabyBunny#1: “Better, just chilling now.”

BabyBunny#2: “Good :). See you in a bit.”

He scrolled up to the top.

BabyBunny#2: “This is Izu.”

BabyBunny#1: “Hi!!!”

Chapter Text

The next day, Izuku got to class early. Before he went to the classroom, he stopped by his gym locker to drop off an extra suit to have for formal wear and some jeans and tee-shirts for when his hero costume got wrecked so bad he couldn’t wear it. Because of what he requested for his hero costume, though, he’d probably just wear the suit as his hero costume if it got wrecked.

Izuku walked into class and sat down.

As the rest of his classmates filed into the room and sat down, he took more notes about their personalities and quirks.

Mr. Aizawa walked into the classroom, wearing his yellow sleeping bag. It seemed really practical. It had legs, but not arms so maybe not the best for teaching. Seemed comfortable, though. Maybe Izuku would have to get one for himself.

“Today you’ll have your normal classes in the morning then after lunch, you’ll have hero training for the rest of the day with me and occasionally other pro-heroes. You’ll start maths class, taught by Ectoplasm. Followed by history with Midnight. After that you’ll have literature with Cementoss. Which will conclude with English with Present Mic. For now, you need to pick your class president and vice president.” Aizawa toppled over onto the floor, still wearing his yellow sleeping bag and promptly fell asleep.

“I’ll do it!” over half of the class yelled and raised their hands. The kids who noticeably didn’t speak were Tokoyami, Todoroki, Monoma, and Izuku. Izuku just didn’t like talking in loud settings, it wasn’t like he didn’t want it.

“Stop!” someone yelled over the rest of the class. Izuku turned his head to see who it was. It was Ida. “We should take a vote, it’s only fair.”

Any of the kids who had started to talk, quieted down, allowing Ida to speak.

“Let’s all just put our votes on the podium when we make them on a sheet of paper.”

The classroom mumbled a little bit but didn’t protest.

Everyone wrote down a vote on a scrap of paper and put it up on the podium. 

Ida quickly counted the votes and wrote on the blackboard everyone who had gotten a vote.

He then tallied who got the most.

Izuku watched his name on the board in shock. One tally. Another tally. One more. One more.

He got four votes. Sure, he voted for himself but he didn’t think anyone else would actually vote for him. He wasn’t really fit to lead a class. He didn’t love public speaking, Izuku thought he would barely be able to manage speaking in front of the world for the sports festival, much less his class every day. 

Yaoyorozu had two votes, making her the vice president. Everyone else just had one.

“Shimura, you’re the class president. Yaoyorozu, you’re the vice president,” Ida announced.

Izuku stood up and walked to the podium, Yaoyorozu stood next to him.

“To be honest, I don’t really think I’m fit for this position, but I’ll give it my best. We can always take a revote if it doesn’t work out. So, I guess I should say something about myself. I like analysing quirks and enjoy listening to music and drawing when I’m not training. If anyone needs help with your quirk, I would be happy to help you try and find a new way or more efficient way to use it. Yaoyorozu, would you like to say something?”

He didn’t really feel like helping his classmates since they were competition, but it would give him a chance to look at their quirks in more detail.

“Sure.” Yaoyorozu moved up to the podium as Izuku scooched over to give her some room. “I enjoy reading and studying in my freetime and also know how to use a variety of weapons like spears and grenades if anyone wants help with that kind of stuff.”

A few kids in the class nodded. Cementoss poked his head through the doorway. He was tall with a large cream-colored overcoat. “Can I start?” he asked Aizawa, who was half awake in his sleeping bag.

“Yes. Of course. I’ll take my leave.” Aizawa got up and walked out of the classroom as Cementoss walked in. 

“Hello, everyone. As Eraserhead just stated, I’ll be teaching your maths classes. Don’t expect anything easy in this classroom from me. I’ve taught this subject for many years now and I know every trick in the book you will use to try and get out of my class. They won’t work. If anything, you will ruin yourself by missing any essential time in my class. I will not reteach any lessons. If you aren’t paying attention, you’d better hope your classmates are because throughout your highschool career you will have to rely on them the way you would any team professionally,” Cementoss paused. 

Izuku started writing down everything important Cementoss said. He wanted to take good notes. The better his notes were, the easier they stuck in his mind, and the better he did in the long run.

 “You might think of your classmates as your competition, which they are in a way, but they are all your family for this time and afterwards. I still go on missions with the people I met during high school. You will only be hurting yourself in the long run if you dismiss everyone else. Anyways, here’s a pre-test to fill out throughout the remainder of class, turn it in when you finish.”

Cementoss walked down the aisles and passed out a short, two page, pre-test.

The test was fairly easy by Izuku’s standards. While it did cover some very advanced topics, he had already studied these topics in years past so they weren’t too worrisome.

The rest of the classes were similar, minus the lecture. Izuku did find, though, that he should really brush up on his english. It was starting to dip and while he felt many of the words tickle the edge of his consciousness he couldn’t for the life of him remember their meanings.

Honestly though, Izuku was a little bit ticked off by Midnight. There was zero need with her quirk to have such a revealing outfit. A form fitting one, yes, for her quirk, but it could have been much more modest while still obtaining the same goal. A lot of female hero costumes these days all had this problem. It had been a while since Izuku last saw a female hero’s costume that didn’t look that same level of revealing or more so. He had seen old examples of hero costumes, they were clean and to the point. Many would wear simple reinforced suits or pants and a tee-shirt.

The bell for lunch rang. “You can leave for lunch,” Present Mic shouted over the bell as it rang.

The classroom stood up in near unison.

Izuku didn’t care to try and organise them. It was just lunch, after all. What was the worst that could happen?

The class streamed out of the room and down to the mess hall where they mixed with the other kids from their grade. 

Izuku walked next to Kacchan as they went, intending to sit next to him. 

Izuku spotted the flowing blue hair of Nejire over the crowd. She broke through the crowd and walked next to him. “Want to join us for lunch today, we’ll be in the lounge?” she asked him.

“Sure, I’ll meet you there,” Izuku responded. He turned to Kacchan. “I’m gonna eat lunch elsewhere. I’ll see you later.”

Izuku walked a little bit faster to get near the front of the crowd. He didn’t want to be in the back of the lunch line.

To his surprise, he was actually near the front. Izuku scanned his keycard for lunch and the man behind the counter gave him an already fully loaded tray from beneath the counter. “Heads get teacher food,” was all the man said. 

“Thank you,” Izuku said cheerfully and walked away from the line to go upstairs.

At the exit of the cafeteria Cementoss stopped him. “Where are you going?”

“Head student lounge.”

Cementoss nodded. “Can I see your keycard?”

Izuku held his lunch in one hand and pulled up the keycard from around his neck to show Cementoss.

“Very well. Make sure to bring your tray back down when you’re done.”

Izuku continued walking and took the elevator up to the 5th floor. 

Izuku swiped his keycard at the door and entered the lounge. 

Nejire and Amajiki were already sitting down, eating lunch. 

“Hey,” Izuku said when he entered.

“Hi,” Nejire responded, looking up from her food.

Izuku sat down next to Amajiki, across from Nejire. “Are Mirio and Hayami coming?”

“No. Mirio’s with All Might and Hayami is catching up with some of her friends from her first year.”

Izuku nodded. It wasn’t really his place to question why All Might was eating lunch with Mirio but it did make him wonder. They looked fairly similar. Perhaps Mirio was All Might’s secret love child? If he was allowed to know, he’d find out eventually. The big three were all close friends and would also be Izuku’s friends given time.

“So, how are you guys doing today?”

“Fine. The third year teachers are boring, though. How ‘bout you?” Nejire responded.

“I’m fine,” Amajiki mumbled quietly, he didn’t seem to want to talk much but he had very loud friends. Then again, Izuku wasn’t exactly the loudest either.

“Fine. Not much has happened yet.” 

An alarm blared from somewhere on campus. 

Amajiki clamped his hands over his ears. Izuku passed Amajiki a pillow from the couch next to him silently as Nejire spoke over the alarm. “Someone’s bypassed campus security. The teachers will be busy. We need to go downstairs and get the other students to remain calm. Leave your lunch here.” Nerjire seemed oddly calm. Was this something that happened often?

“Okay.” Izuku stood up with Amajiki and Nejire, Amajiki’s hands still clamped over his ears.

They took the elevator downstairs and emerged into a large crowd of students pushing towards the exit. 

“Get their attention. I’ll direct them,” Nejire said to Amajiki and Izuku. 

Izuku backed into the elevator and pushed out his wings. Izuku had already cut slots in his school uniform  and added velcro strips in place so his wings could come out.

 Izuku lifted off of the ground and flew above the crowd. He made an explosion between his two palms, shining a bright light and grabbing everyone’s attention. Amajiki turned his hands into clams and clapped before quickly putting his hands over his ears again. The sound of shell hitting shell echoed across the area, turning all heads to them.

Nejire floated up next to him and he quickly swooped back down so she could talk. “Everyone go back to lunch. If something has happened, we need to stay out of the teacher’s way. A completely different alarm would have gone off if we needed to evacuate,” her voice boomed through the hallway, catching everyone’s attention.

“Why should we listen to you?” someone in the crowd yelled. 

“I am Nejire Hado of the big three. In times of crisis we are the de facto teachers as heads of our year along with the heads of years one and two.”

“She’s right. She was the second year’s head last year,” another student called out.

The crowd started to turn around and go back to lunch. Izuku and Amajiki retreated into the elevator to avoid the crowd. While the alarm still blared, it seemed less frantic and loud now that the school was in order. 

When all the students were back in the cafeteria, Nejire posed an idea, “Do you guys want to eat down here in case something happens?”

“It’s probably a good idea. We were too far away to prevent the start before,” Izuku responded.

Amajiki nodded.

 “I’ll go get our food,” Izuku said.

“Do you need any help?” Amajiki asked.

“No. I’m good. I’ll be right back.”

Amajiki stepped out of the elevator.

Izuku swiped his keycard at the console and said “Level Five.” The alarm stopped blaring. The emergency must be over.

Back in the lounge, Izuku used his mother’s levitation quirk to raise the three trays and hold them close behind him and steady while he went back downstairs. His hair floated upwards slightly, showing that he was using his quirk.

When the elevator door opened, Nejire and Amajiki both glanced at him.

“Since we’re heads it’s fine, but we’re not normally allowed to use our quirks at school except for during training. I mean, nobody’s gonna yell at you since you weren’t hurting anything but it’s not good to show off to everyone else.” 

“Thanks for letting me know, Aizawa skipped over all the first day stuff so he didn’t really touch on any rules.”

“Of course he didn’t,” Nejire sighed. “Aizawa’s a good teacher. Some of the best pro heroes out there were taught by him. But, he’s pretty extreme from what I’ve heard. He regularly drops buildings on his students and make them disable live bombs. He’s an Undercover so he’s had to deal with more of that than anyone, especially with the low numbers of Undercover’s nowadays.”

“He has given off that vibe a little bit. He already expelled someone.” Izuku hoped he could handle it. He could hold up some weight with his mother’s quirk, but no more than a couple hundred pounds.

“Already?” Nejire seemed in shock.

“Yeah. The kid that did the worst on the physical examination got expelled yesterday,” Izuku said nonchalantly. It wasn’t a big deal to him. As long as he did his best he’d be fine.

Nejire shook her head slightly, “Got to say I’m happy I don’t have him. Your home room teacher will follow your class through every year at UA. I’ve still got my first year home room teacher.”

A bell rang, signalling the end of lunch. “I’ll see you guys later tonight.”

Chapter Text

Izuku put away his tray and walked back to class. He was one of the last people to arrive in the class.

“Shimura. See me in the teachers meeting room on floor five after school,” Aizawa said when he walked in the room.

“Okay.” 

“Anyways class, we’re going to start with a discussion about what type of hero you each want to be before moving on to a combat exercise. There are a few different types of heroes. Mainstream Heroes are…” 

Izuku started taking notes in one of his notebooks for class. 

“the heroes you would typically see on TV. These are heroes like All Might or Endeavor. There are also Specialised Heroes who do one specific thing, though you need to learn how to do other things as well. One example is Thirteen: The Rescue Hero. While they specialise in rescue Thirteen still does fight villains. Then, there are Area Specific Heroes who will protect a specific vicinity like one of the many islands off the coast. And then there is the last kind of hero, an Underground Hero. Unlike the other types of heroes, they do not participate in the hero billboard charts and will not get much recognition. These heroes infiltrate villain organisations and generally work underground, hence the name. However they do important work, they are typically the ones to get hostages out of the situation before an attack by Mainstream Heroes and will feed information about the villains to the Mainstream Heroes before the attack. I am an Underground Hero. Hence why none of you have likely ever heard the name Eraserhead. Underground Heroes will also use a variety of different names when dealing with villain organisations, so try not to be stuck on one name. Undercover Heros are a subset of Underground Heroes. While the Undergrounds primarily work at night, they will do far less acting and infiltration compared to the Undercovers. The Undercovers have to be extraordinarily good at acting and most of the time must have a quirk that can change their appearance or a metal or unique quirk that won’t be too obvious. I will pass you all a sheet of paper and you should check what kind of hero you want to be. I will need this back by the end of the week.”

Aizawa walked around and passed out the sheet. It just had a spot for your name and then a multiple choice for type of hero. Izuku stared off into space, lost in thought while Aizawa passed out the papers.

At first, Izuku thought he would be a Mainstream Hero but he wanted to actually make a change in the world. Even All Might, the symbol of peace, only lowered the crime rate by three percent. Realistically, if he wanted to make a major change, really change the world, it would be better if he stopped the major crimes before they were committed. It didn’t matter if the public knew his name or appreciated him. Fear lasted longer than love. The underworld would know his name and fear the day they came into contact with him. 

He could act well enough to fool the villains, right? He’d already been putting on a fake face since Tenko died. Izuku could cry inside all he wanted but the only person that would ever know was Kacchan. Kacchan was the only person that really knew Izuku. He was the only person that understood. Kacchan didn’t really connect with anyone else either. It had always just been them. No one else even noticed. 

His mother had thrown herself into her job and his father was so distant that Kacchan was his real family after his brother’s death. Kacchan’s parents were like his own second set of parents. Even though they weren’t related, he called them Auntie and Uncle. 

They might not understand Izuku but at least they respected his space and even bought him hair dye and a curling iron after his brother’s death when he couldn’t look in the mirror anymore. Not without seeing him. Tenko haunted his reflection in the mirror. It was why he dyed and curled his hair. Otherwise, he looked like a green- eyed version of his father with long hair. When his hair wasn’t curled, it hung down in an uneven bob, framing his face.

Once upon a time, his father had told him a story of two brothers and his escapades in vigilantism. He apparently looked just like his uncle

Aizawa continuing his speech snapped Izuku out of his thoughts. “For your first day or training, I will be assessing your combat abilities in two on two matches. I have matched you up based on your apparent friendships and combat ability. Because of the uneven number of students in the class, the final group will be three students against me. Group one will be Izuku Shimura and Neito Monoma vs Tsuyu Asui and Momo Yaoyorozu...” 

As Aizawa listed off the teams, Izuku fell back into his thoughts.

His brother would’ve enjoyed getting to fight some new opponents. They always worked to train together and Izuku often copied his quirk to help him manage it even though Izuku was the only person his brother wouldn’t hurt on contact. It was one of the greatest regrets Izuku had that he hadn’t copied his brother’s quirk before his brother’s death. Izuku would have gladly dealt with the side effects and issues that came with it just to have a piece of his brother left. Something that wouldn’t constantly remind him, like his appearance but would always be there when he needed it. A bigger reminder than the picture in his notebooks but a smaller reminder than his appearance.

Izuku checked the box for “Undercover Hero'' and filled out the rest of the slip. He would give it to Aizawa later.

Aizawa walked over to the wall across from the door and pulled a handle on it. Nineteen compartments with numbers on them were in order on near racks. 

“These are your hero costumes. Grab your number and follow me to the locker rooms.” 

Izuku got up with the rest of his class, grabbed his case and exited the classroom with the rest of the class. The ground spread out across the hallway. 

Izuku rolled his eyes. “Everyone get into a single line in order according to number. Number one should be at the front,” he spoke up above the class. 

Only a few kids made an effort to get in line. Izuku obviously didn’t have their respect yet.

Aizawa glanced back at him, judging him.

“You all represent the new generation of heroes that will protect the public. If they could see you now, would you be happy?”

The remaining students who were still out of line shuffled into place reluctantly and Aizawa continued walking down the hallway with Izuku holding up the rear.

“Girls in there and boys in the other one,” Aizawa motioned to a door to his left for the girls and another on his right for the boys.

“ Class 1-A,” was written above the two doors.

Izuku walked into the changing room with the rest of the boys. A small nameplate with each of their names was placed above a locker. Izuku noticed that his locker was definitely bigger than the rest of them. It was almost double the size in width compared to everyone else’s lockers. On the inside of each locker hung a mirror. 

Izuku set his case down on the bench behind him and opened it up. 

Inside was a pristine three piece suit. It was plain black with a blood colored tie. Gold accents and thread stood out against the black. The suit had specific slots for his wings and the fabric on his arms and legs were designed to tear away if he needed to use a mutant quirk. Thin white gloves with built in metal knuckles, which were invisible to the eye, to get a jump on enemies. The flair coat was designed to easily be slipped off for flight and the rest of the suit was comfortably tight and aerodynamic. It was all fire proof and explosion proof so that Izuku didn’t need to ruin his clothing when he let off an explosion.

And, Izuku didn’t know how to tie a tie. He really should’ve thought that through before he requested a tie in his uniform.

Izuku glanced at Monoma. He was wearing almost the same thing as Izuku except with a blue tie, a belt with watches on it, and a grey undercoat instead of a black one like in Izuku’s. He already had the tie tied and seemed completely ready.

Izuku put on his whole outfit except the tie and walked over to him. “Can you get this for me?” he asked Monoma.

“Sure.”

Monoma showed Izuku how to do it and he memorised it. Izuku didn’t want to have to ask again and his mother was too fast for him each time. She was always in a rush to get out the door in the mornings and always returned home late.

“Thanks.” Izuku said when he finished.

Most of the group had already cleared out of the room. The only one left being Kacchan struggling with putting on his gauntlets.

Izuku walked over to him and held the gauntlet still while Kacchan slid his arm in. It clicked into place.

“Thanks,” Kacchan said and smiled slightly.

Izuku nodded.

The rest of the class was waiting outside the locker rooms in a spread out mass.

“Is that everyone?” Aizawa asked Izuku.

Izuku did a quick headcount of the class. Nineteen. 

“Yes. This is everyone,” he said to Aizawa. Izuku looked at the class, “Everyone, get back in line.”

The class shuffled back into the line, albeit a bit reluctantly.

Izuku held up the rear of the line and Aizawa continued leading them outside.

Aizawa led them to the school pools. “Everyone will compete at the same time and I will review video footage later to look at each individual group. The goal is to make the other team fall into the water while staying dry yourself. The only other rule is, no purposeful fatal shots. You will have five minutes to talk with your teammate and make a plan, starting now.”

Inside each of the pools that were lined up next to each other, a yellow raft floated. It was roughly two metres by two metres with a two metre gap between the rafts. It obviously favoured anyone with long range attacks.

Izuku walked over to Monoma. “Do you have a plan? I have one but it heavily depends on how your quirk works,” Izuku asked quietly so the other teams couldn’t hear them.

Monoma shook his head. “Not really. I’m not sure how most of the quirks here work without seeing them in action so I’m not sure,” he replied at the same loudness level.

“Okay. How does your quirk work, then?”

“I can copy up to five quirks at a time for five minutes upon touching the person with said quirk.”

Izuku nodded, “I’m also a copy type. I can hold five permanently and a bunch for limited amounts of time. For our plan, I was thinking we could pull them into the water before they can do anything with an attraction quirk I have in store. You could try and copy it, I can’t pull more than a few hundred pounds at a time, so I’d have to go one person at a time. Not to mention we’ll need to fend off any of their attacks aimed towards us. Yaoyorozu seems to have some sort of creation quirk based on the stuff she made during the fitness exam and Asui seems like a frog. When she was talking yesterday I noticed she has a very long tongue, it will probably be her main weapon for combat besides her increased speed and agility from her quirk.”

Izuku figured Aizawa wouldn’t appreciate it if he ended the fight quickly by using Aizawa’s quirk to cancel the quirks of his opponents on the first day, so he didn’t copy it.

He would have to remember to copy it later so he wouldn’t accidentally use it. Besides, he would have to figure out what the quirk trigger was before he could use it anyways.

Monoma seemed slightly surprised, most likely at Izuku’s analysis skills. Luckily no one had tried to look in his notebook yet. “Okay. I don’t have any problems with that. Can you activate the quirk you want me to copy?”

Izuku nodded and activated the quirk, his hair floating up slightly. He used his quirk to take off one of his gloves and offered his hand to Monoma, palm face up invitingly.

Monoma touched the tips of Izuku’s fingers, “What’s the trigger?”

“Visualisation.” Izuku deactivated the quirk, holding his glove in his other hand.

The glove floated upwards out of Izuku’s hand and went towards Monoma. It dropped into his hand. 

“The quirk only works to bring things toward you, but if you play with the logic you can do a lot with it. For example, by tipping my hand upwards it let the glove slide towards me rather than having to go forwards before it can come off. Just as a warning though, you can only lift small objects. Otherwise, you have to picture a specific point on the larger object to pull it forward. Since we’re going to be pulling people, you should focus on the spine and pull from the middle of the back to pull the person forward.”

“Time's up! Everyone go stand in groups of four according to who you’re fighting.”

Monoma handed the glove back to Izuku and Izuku stuck it in his pocket.

They walked next to Yaoyorozu and Asui.

Aizawa pointed at each pool with rafts in quick succession, “Group one.” He pointed at the first pool when they walked in. “The rest are in numerical order. Everyone on, you are not to touch the water getting on. Figure it out.”

Izuku and Monoma stood on one side of the pool. “I’m just gonna fly over. Do you want to copy that one too? I can also pick you up and carry you over if you’re not sure how well you’ll be able to use it.” Izuku whispered 

“Just carry me. I want to copy it, though,” Monoma whispered back.

Izuku put out his wings, getting used to the feel of them going through the premade slits. 

He picked up Monoma, wrapping his arms around Monoma’s waist. He flew Monoma over the gap between the edge of the pool and the rafts. Surprisingly, Monoma wasn’t very heavy. Izuku had lifted much heavier things than Monoma in his own backyard. 

When they landed, Monoma brushed his hand against Izuku’s wings. 

Monoma didn’t let go. “I want to hold off the timer on my quirk until the last second,” he whispered in explanation.

Izuku nodded to Monoma, barely tilting his head.

When everyone was on their platforms, Aizawa counted down, “Three, Two, One, Start!”

At the same time, Monoma and Izuku both pulled both Yaoyorozu and Asui forward. 

The two girls were situated in the middle of their raft. They both looked confused because both Monoma and Izuku were barely moving, just holding hands.

It was difficult to pull something as heavy as a person, Monoma was already grimacing from the strain. Monoma wasn’t used to the strain that comes from the quirk, it took a lot of buildup for Izuku to pull heavy objects without passing out.

Yaoyorozu started creating a board from the middle of her chest. Asui stuck her tongue out and wrapped it around Izuku’s waist. 

Izuku let go of Monoma’s hand, starting his timer and flew into the air, over the water. 

Asui’s tongue wasn’t taught yet, so Izuku flew upwards, above the water.

Asui dangled by her tongue over the water. Her tongue was the only thing keeping her from falling into the water. 

Asui started rolling her tongue upwards, climbing towards Izuku. This wasn’t a good place for her. Frogs aren’t meant to fly.

Izuku didn’t want to hurt her, but Recovery Girl was on campus. 

Izuku aimed both of his palms toward the part of her tongue that was wrapped around his waist and let off a large white explosion. 

While his suit remained intact, Asui’s tongue immediately started bleeding and she let go. There was nothing for her to grab. 

Asui fell straight into the water. 

Now for Yaoyorozu. 

Monoma was already in the water from Yaoyorozu walking over the plank she made and presumably knocking him off. 

Yaoyorozu would be prepared for him to land, but they didn’t know that Izuku had an attraction quirk since Monoma was the only one that looked like he was doing anything. 

Yaoyorozu made a spear and threw it at Izuku. 

Izuku swerved left, the spear missing his wings by mere centimetres. So that’s what she was doing. If she took out his wings, he wouldn’t be able to fly.

Well actually he could, by playing around with his mother’s quirk but she didn’t need to know that.

Izuku concentrated on Yaoyorozu’s spinal area and locked onto her spine. 

He pulled her upwards and towards him. 

Yaoyorozu made another spear but Izuku backed up as she floated towards him. 

When they were at a level stance, Yaoyorozu threw the spear.

Izuku quickly flew upwards, but he was too slow.

The spear hit his leg.

Excruciating pain shot through his leg. 

Izuku dropped Yaoyorozu. Leaving her to fall towards the water.

He stopped flying for a moment as the pain hit him. It hurt a ton but wasn’t too bad.

Izuku picked himself back up and continued flying, blood flowing out of his wound around the spear as it wiggled around in his leg.

He was starting to get a little dizzy. 

Izuku wobbly flew towards the raft and landed. 

Izuku pulled the spear out of his leg and ripped off some of the fabric from his inner sleeve, the stuff that didn’t show, to bandage his wound.

He tied it tightly so that it would staunch the bleeding and looked over at the rest of the class fighting. 

The final match ended a few minutes later. He seemed to be the only injury besides some scrapes and bruises. 

Aizawa directed some of the students near him and glanced at Izuku. His gaze glossed over him before snapping back towards Izuku laying on the raft with blood starting to seep through his temporary bandage.

Izuku could smell the blood in the air.

“Yaoyorozu, please get Recovery Girl.” 

Yaoyorozu ran off in the direction of Recovery Girl’s office in the main building.

“Izuku, can you get off the raft without getting in the water?” Aizawa said once he got close to Izuku’s raft.

“Yeah.”

Izuku lifted in the air, tilting back and forth slightly. 

He dropped in the air slightly, getting very close to the edge of the water. 

Izuku flew back upwards and made it to the edge of the pool.

The rest of his classmates were on the shore, most of them soaking wet.

Izuku propped himself up on his wings on the pavement. 

Aizawa walked over to Izuku and touched the bandage, “I’m going to take this off and replace it, okay?”

Izuku nodded. 

Aizawa cut off a piece of his scarf using a pocket knife.

He took off the bandage Izuku put on and looked at the wound. 

“How are you not unconscious yet?” Aizawa mumbled under his breath as he re-bandaged the wound.

Izuku didn’t respond to that. He just shrugged slightly. He didn’t really have the strength for much else. It was strange, though. He didn’t think he had a particularly high pain tolerance. But, then again, he had never been seriously injured before. He had tough skin from years of practising explosions with Bakugou.

A minute later, Recovery Girl arrived. “You two,” she said, pointing at Ida and Shoji. “Carry him and follow me. He is in no condition to walk.”

Ida and Shoji picked up Izuku gently and carried him to Recovery Girl’s office. 

Izuku would bet it looked pretty strange to non-UA students to see two kids carrying a third boy with a bandaged leg, following an old lady. 

They passed a few students while in the hallway but no one gave them a second glance. Was it really that normal to see an injured student in the hallway?

When they got to Recovery Girl’s office, Recovery Girl said, “Lay him down and get back to class. They’re probably in the locker room by now. I’ll send him back when he’s healed.”

Shoji and Ida left the room. 

Recovery Girl pulled back the curtain on the other bed in the hospital ward. “Good, you’re awake. You can head back to class,” she said to the other patient in the room. Mirio.

“Hi Mirio.”

“Hey.” He looked at Izuku’s leg. “What happened to you?”

“A girl threw a spear at me. I’m lucky she hit my leg, she was aiming for my wings and those are annoying to heal.”

Recovery Girl sighed.

Mirio nodded. “Get used to it. Most of my classmates are covered in scars by now.”

“Mr. Togata,” Recovery Girl said in an annoyed tone.

“Sorry, right. I’ll see you after school, Izuku.” Mirio walked out.

Recovery Girl removed the bandage on Izuku’s leg. “You already removed the object?”

“It was a full spear and was making the wound larger every second it was in.”

“Okay. I’ll clean it out and then heal it.” Recovery Girl walked to the other side of the room to get something.

She poured liquid from a brown bottle onto his leg. It bubbled and she patted away some of the blood with a wet towel. “Do you have a pain tolerance quirk? Most of my patients would have fallen unconscious within a minute of getting an injury like this.”

“No. I can copy other people’s quirks but I don’t have any active that have that kind of effect.”

Recovery Girl scrunched up her brow. “I’ll heal you now. You’ll get a scar from this and will become very tired due to the nature of my quirk.”

Izuku nodded.

Recovery Girl leaned down and kissed Izuku’s knee, just above the wound.

The wound quickly healed before Izuku’s own eyes. Skin and muscle knitted itself back together as the pain diminished.

Izuku immediately felt a wave of exhaustion wash over him.

Izuku looked at his, now healed, leg. A jagged scar, roughly circular, with an inner square from where the spearhead originally punctured.

He leaned back into the cot and momentarily closed his eyes. 

Izuku opened his eyes, blinking slightly. He felt more refreshed.

Recovery Girl looked over at him. “There’s only about fifteen minutes of class left, you can head back. You drifted off there for a bit. Make sure to take off your hero costume first.”

Izuku nodded and got up.

He left Recovery Girl’s office and quickly took off his hero costume in the locker rooms before putting the outfit back into the case and walking back to the classroom, leaving his hero costume in his locker.

When he slipped in the classroom, everyone was just standing around talking. They were having a variety of conversations from music to today’s activities, so it was obvious that there wasn’t a specific topic they were supposed to talk about.

Izuku slipped into the back of the room, into his seat. He took out his analysis notebook and noted down specifics on Monoma, Asui, and Yaoyorozu’s quirks.

A few minutes later the bell rang. “You’re all dismissed. Make sure to get that slip to me by the end of the week.”

Chapter Text

The students that were sitting got up and walked out of the classroom with the rest of the class. Kacchan walked out with Kirishima, Ashido, Kaminari, and Sero. It was a little reassuring that Kacchan had already made some friends. Izuku knew with everything going on and hanging out with the big three they probably wouldn’t get to have a lot of time to hang out.

When everyone left the classroom, Izuku went up to Aizawa’s desk, backpack slung over his shoulder. “Here’s my slip.” Izuku handed Aizawa his hero choice slip.

Aizawa looked at it and tucked it into a drawer.  “So you’re going Undercover. Are you sure, it’s quite difficult to go back and change it?”

“Yes.”

“Very well. If there isn’t another meeting, I’ll see you after school tomorrow. Undergrounds and Undercovers need completely different training than Mainstreams. For sure, we need to get your acting training started. It can take a long time to master the acting part, telling everyone that you have completely different ideals. We need to get to our meeting, though. Since you’re going to be an Undercover I’ll only train you on the basics of being an underground for a few months. After that, you’ll get another Undercover hero as your mentor.”

Izuku was already doing the acting right now even. He didn’t think it’s be that hard. If he kept on the quiet cinnamon roll act he would be just fine. Besides, he was already a good liar from every time that he had to say he was okay. He didn’t need help with his grief, he could manage it fine, he just needed time. Or something. Maybe time would diminish the pain from the gaping hole in his heart. The one that had formed the moment he found out what happened to his brother.

“Right.” While Aizawa started to get out of his sleeping bag, Izuku left the classroom.

Izuku took the elevator up to the fifth floor of the building and found the meeting room. Izuku slipped into the room, Mirio caught his gaze and gestured to the chair on his left.

Izuku walked over and Mirio whispered to him, “That one’s Nejire’s. One more over is Hayami, then it’s yours.”

Izuku moved over two chairs and sat down. A minute later Nejire and Hayami slid into the seats next to him.

When all of the seats were filled, an extremely large albino stoat sitting at the head of the table said, “Welcome to our first meeting of the year, everyone. I hope it will be a productive year training the next generation. As you all know, this morning the press managed to break in through the main gates. This is worrisome because we don’t have any procedures in place to prevent it from happening again. However, it was brought to my attention that the students' heads took charge and kept the student body calm while the teachers dealt with the threat. Thank you, three that did take charge. Teachers and heads, how do you think we should continue going forward?”

“We should speak to the students about what to do. They obviously didn’t know and it caused a panic until the heads could take care of it,” a man in a blood red hero suit who Izuku recognized as Vlad King said.

The stoat-like creature took notes on a large sheet of paper, “Suggestion noted.”

“I could assign my support students to analyse the security system and make possible improvements as an assignment and work on it myself. They used a quirk to get through the doors so we should probably use quirk repellent siding,” a man with a yellow claw helmet and orange hair said. He was Powerloader.

“Feasible,” the stoat responded. Izuku thought he recognized him from somewhere, especially hearing him speak. That’s when he realised who this stoat was. It was Principal Nezu: The Intelligence Hero

“I think we need to get the press off our backs and keep them away from the front gates. Maybe a minor security barrier a little farther out so that we are alerted by them breaking through that before the main gate is attacked,” Aizawa proposed.

Principal Nezu nodded. “I’ll get right on that. Any other suggestions or objections?”

Everyone kept quiet. 

“Okay. Just talk to me for further ideas. I’ll be in my office.”

The stoat walked out of the room.

Hayami whispered to Izuku, “That was principal Nezu. He’s one of the rare mutations where animals get quirks. He was a government experiment for a while so he kind of hates humans but he’s good as far as principals go.”

Izuku nodded and got out of his seat with the rest of the heads. 

Mirio, Nejire, Hayami, and Amajiki went to the lounge and Izuku followed close behind.

They walked in and sat down on the couch. 

Not even a minute later, a knock came on the door. “Can I come in?” The voice was gruff but Izuku felt like he recognized it from somewhere.

“Come on in,” Mirio said.

All Might walked in. “I was gonna help you guys with your training today.”

All Might’s eyes flickered back and forth between all the students.

“Don’t worry. I trust them. They’re the other heads.”

Steam started coming off of All Might’s body and he shrunk into a near skeleton. Nowhere near the buff man he had once been. The two pieces of hair that used to spike upwards fell onto either side of his face.

Izuku, Amajiki, Nejire, and Hayami stared at him, mouths agape. Mirio didn’t seem fazed. Izuku didn’t love All Might compared to some other heroes but this was still a huge shock.

“This is what I look like without using my quirk. Just don’t tell anyone, okay? Also, call me Toshinori like this. I can only use my quirk for a few hours each day, so I took a job here to get out of the spotlight for a while,” the now smaller All Might said.

Izuku, Amajiki, Nejire, and Hayami nodded at him in disbelief.

“Anyways, I was going to train you guys, so let’s go to the beach. Put on your hero costumes first.”

Everyone went downstairs. Izuku waved at the other students and walked in the locker room for the guys in 1-A. As first years, they were the first locker room in the hallway.

Izuku threw his backpack into his locker and put on his hero costume. He had forgotten the sleeve and leg were damaged, he would have to send it back to the support company at the end of the week when he no longer needed it for a few days.

Izuku walked out of the locker room to see the rest of the heads just waiting outside for him.

Mirio was wearing a spandex-like material with the number ‘1,000,000’ across his chest in a box. The rest of his outfit was yellow with small accents of different colours.

 Amajiki was wearing a white and grey cloak with gold accents. It had a purple undershirt covered with many pockets. It also had a hood to cover his dark purple hair and his face. Amajiki seemed like a nervous train wreck based on his interactions so far so it wasn’t surprising that he would try to cover his face. No one wanted to be saved by someone who looked nervous and scared. It would make them unsure if they were in good hands even if Amajiki ended up in the top 100 or was a well known hero.

Nejire was wearing a mainly teal spandex suit not unlike Mirio’s with even darker teal spirals that went around her feet. Gauntlets with yellow gloves wrapped her hands. It was bold and fit well with her huge mane of flowing purple hair. It was so thick and long, Izuku wouldn’t have been surprised if she could hide things in her hair. 

Hayami was wearing a yellow long sleeved shirt and jeans.

“I already totally wrecked my hero costume just from today.” Hayami laughed. “Should’ve had it made from a tougher material.”

Everyone walked to the UA beach, which was near the edge of campus. While they walked, Toshinori posed a question, “Your guy’s names, what type of hero do you guys want to be and what are your quirks?”

Mirio was the first to speak, “Mirio Togata and, well, you already know that my quirk is Permeation that lets me faze through objects. I want to be a Mainstream Hero.”

Nejire followed up, “Nejire Hado. My quirk is Wave Motion that lets me produce glowing waves that I can control to restrain and injure. I’m gonna be a Mainstream Hero.”

Hayami answered the question next, “Hayami Ito. Mine is Flame Control. I can control flames that I produce and other flames that are created. I also have minor control over gravity. I’m gonna be a Mainstream.”

Amajiki said quietly, “Amajiki Tamaki. Mine is Manifest. I can shape my body parts to match that of which I ate that day. I’m gonna be a Mainstream.”

Izuku was very interested in all of their quirks. They seemed very powerful and would be good to copy once he figured out how they worked. Of course, they would take training to use properly but having the original user of the quirk helping him train always helped. Izuku wasn’t particularly interested in All Might’s quirk. While it was powerful, Izuku liked to use medium to long range quirks rather than get up in his enemy's face. It helped him avoid getting directly hit with attacks until he could get a self healing quirk that wouldn’t severely fire him out. It was why he didn’t copy Recovery Girl’s quirk earlier in the day. That, and he wasn’t thinking about it at the time. His mind had been rather preoccupied with getting back to class.

Izuku was the last to reply, “Izuku Shimura. My quirk is called Copycat and I can copy and store people’s quirks. I’m going to be an Undercover.”

The other heads looked surprised. Most likely at his proclamation about being an Undercover. Izuku knew that they were a rarity nowadays. Which, he supposed, was a good thing. It would make the villains less suspicious of him.

Toshinori seemed surprised, “Shimura? Any relation to Nana Shimura?”

How did Toshinori know his grandmother? She’d been a hero but wasn’t very popular. When she was in her prime, they hadn’t even implemented the hero popularity charts yet. And Toshinori grew up in America. Didn’t he?

“Yes. She was my grandmother.”

“I knew her when I was a kid. She was a great inspiration to me before her untimely death. But you’re Undercover? We don’t get many of those nowadays,” Toshinori lamented.

How did Toshinori know his grandmother if he grew up in America? As far as Izuku knew his grandmother never even went to America.

“Yes,” Izuku responded.

They arrived at the UA beach and Izuku saw why Toshinori brought them there. The beach was a large training area with various weights of different sizes.

“I was thinking we could start with weight training and then move onto the water obstacle course. Perhaps a little competition to see who can get through the water obstacle course first,” Toshinori suggested.

A water obstacle course! He would have to make sure not to get his hair wet. He wasn’t really worried earlier in the day since he was confident he wouldn’t fall into the water but this got him worried. He didn’t want to show all these people he just met that he dyed and curled his hair. It would make a bad impression. Besides, if his hair got wet and some of the dye washed out, then his white roots could start showing. He really needed to touch up his dye in the next few days.

Wait but where was the course? Izuku couldn’t see it even though he looked around the area. He really hoped it was just in another section and not entirely underwater.

The heads nodded. They weren’t going to argue with All Might, the symbol of peace.

Izuku immediately walked over to the bench press and started exercising under the hot sun.

One of the many teachers at UA regulated the weather so it was never raining in an area where they didn’t want rain, like the beach where all the metal equipment sat outside.

All Might walked over and spoke to each student as they worked out. 

When All Might got over to Izuku, he asked, “How much can you bench?”

“Around 160 pounds but I’ve been training a lot to get it up.”

“Impressive. It takes some serious training to be able to do that.”

Izuku looked down nervously for a moment before asking, “What was my grandmother like? You said you knew her and my mother always said she didn’t remember her.”

“She was amazing. She was the main reason I became a hero in the first place. She was like a mother to me. No one else really supported me. She always tried to help people and was always right there when something happened, fighting and fierce,” Toshinori stared off into space as he spoke, reminiscing.

Izuku smiled his light, barely present smile. “Thanks.”

Toshinori nodded and walked away, going back to Mirio. He stayed by Mirio for the rest of the time. It was already obvious who All Might favoured over the other students, but Izuku didn’t really care. He would rather work on his own than have someone hovering over him, minus Kacchan.

After an hour or so, Toshinori called them all back over. “Head in the changing rooms over there. I made sure that they were already stocked with swimsuits.” He pointed at a small beach house on the shore.

Izuku and the rest of the heads all changed into school regulated swimsuits since most hero costumes aren’t made for swimming. The boys wore swim shorts while the girls wore a non-revealing one piece swimsuit.

When everyone was done changing, All Might walked with them over to the edge of the beach where a box sat.

“The course is underwater here. Grab some goggles. I’ll tell you when to start.”

This was bad. The whole course was underwater and his dye would surely come out. He could probably pass off his curly hair as just being wet when it went straight but the white roots were bad. Besides, he really didn’t want to tell anyone why he dyed his hair since white was already such an interesting and rare colour.

Izuku went over to the box with the other heads and grabbed a pair of goggles without a nose piece. He was pretty confident he wouldn’t need one and having one would only fog his vision. The other heads were squabbling over three of the pairs with a built in nose piece.

Izuku rolled his eyes and put on his goggles.

Amajiki ended up with a set similar to Izuku’s but in grey. Izuku’s were white. 

When everyone was ready with their goggles all on, All Might called out, “Start!”

Izuku waded out into the water, ignoring the other students.

When he got a few feet in, he took a deep breath and dove in, swimming downwards. Once his body was immersed, he quickly saw the obstacle course. There was a sign that said, “Start here,” over an archway. 

Izuku swam through the archway, pushing his wings out and letting them propel him through the water. 

Izuku saw Amajiki and Nejire up ahead, twisting around the pillars in the narrow hallway that the archway led into. 

Mirio and Hayami were just behind Izuku so Izuku sped up, trying to beat them.

Izuku was starting to feel the strain on his lungs from the lack of air.

Izuku glanced around quickly for an air pocket and spotted a small arrow pointing upwards to an air pocket.

Izuku ducked inside the opening and took a deep breath. He shook his head, calming himself for a moment before ducking back under and continuing twisting around the pillars.

Now refreshed, Izuku continued using his wings to push himself forward. 

He didn’t swim very often, so this was a new challenge for him. Izuku was kind of surprised that Mirio was behind him, as a third yet Izuku expected that he probably had done this many times by now. Or did they not get a lot of practical training and it was mostly just conceptual?

A sudden weighted net dropped onto Izuku. 

Izuku struggled under it and let go of some of his precious air. 

Izuku tried to use Kacchan’s explosion quirk but it didn’t do much underwater.

Izuku saw the water around him start to get green. His dye was washing out. This was bad.

In a split second decision, Izuku used his mother’s quirk in two different points to tear the net apart. 

Izuku really needed a knife in his uniform. It would help a lot in situations like this, especially when he wasn’t able to use one of his quirks. He could ask Yaoyorozu how to use one since she seemed to be the weapons expert of the class. Aizawa also seemed like one that would be able to use one, so he could ask.

Izuku continued swimming after taking a breath in one of the air holes. He should probably stop reminiscing in mid-activity. It was making him lose focus. 

Izuku swam up and down over obstacles and through narrow paths without thinking. There weren’t any more surprises so it was pretty smooth sailing. He had to stop many more times in the course for air, but surprisingly, he never saw anyone else. He wasn’t sure if he fell behind or if the barriers just stopped him from seeing them.

Eventually Izuku came to an open area with a sign that said, “You’re done! Head up to the surface here.”

Izuku swam up and broke the surface, taking in deep breaths in a sigh of relief. He used his wings to fly up and out of the water, albeit with some difficulty getting out of the water.

Izuku could barely see the shoreline from where he was. A buoy pointed him back towards land and Izuku used his wings to quickly speed back towards shore.

The sun had started to set now. Izuku was surprised he had been in the obstacle course so long.

It only took him a minute to get there, he was very fast in the open air where he didn’t need to worry about hitting anyone or anything.

Izuku landed on the beach shore and saw Amajiki and Nejire playing with a beach ball in the water. All Might was sitting in a lawn chair on the beach.

“Hey Izuku, come play with us while we wait for everyone else!” Nejire said when she saw him approach.

All Might nodded at Izuku when Izuku landed in the water next to Nejire, “You’re third. Pretty good for a first year.”

Izuku shrugged, “I don’t swim much so I mostly relied on my wings to get me through.”

“They work underwater?”

“They’re like a bat’s wings. It’s hard to use underwater but not impossible.”

All Might nodded in recognition of Izuku’s statement and Izuku retracted his wings.

Nejire passed the ball to Izuku and they started playing keep away from Amajiki.

While they played, Nejire asked Izuku, “What’s up with your hair? It seems less vibrant and the roots are white. Not to mention straight.”

“I dye and curl my hair due to personal reasons…” Izuku trailed off.

Nejire nodded and pursed her lips slightly like she wished she hadn’t asked. 

A little bit later, Mirio and Hayami came into view, swimming towards them.

“Sorry it took us so long. I had to help Hayami out of the net when neither of her quirks worked on it and she couldn’t get out. So who made it back first?”

Mirio and Hayami made it to the beach.

Nejire spoke up, “Amajiki made it back first. I was back second and Izuku was in third.”

Mirio nodded and All Might said, “That’s it for the day. I’d recommend you all get a good night’s sleep, the first few weeks are always the worst. Leave the swimsuits you used back in your locker on the main campus.”

Everyone went back to the main campus to change before hanging their swimsuits up in their lockers to dry. They made sure to grab their hero costumes from the locker rooms by the beach first.

Then they all went home. Izuku quickly ate the leftovers his mother had left for him in the fridge and went to bed, preparing for an early morning and a busy day.

Chapter Text

The following day at school, his main classes were nothing special. However, he was excited to start his Underground training after school. Izuku knew that he definitely needed to dye his hair again soon from swimming, but his curls covered it for now. He would just have to hope that they wouldn’t be swimming today. It had been almost a month since he last dyed his hair.

At lunch, Nejire approached him once again. “Want to join us again?”

Izuku glanced at Kacchan, who he was walking down the hall with and back to Nejire.

“No. I’ve yet to really meet my other classmates and I want to spend some time with Kacchan. I’ll probably talk to you after school,” Izuku said to Nejire. Izuku looked at Kacchan who seemed a little more happy.

“You didn’t have to do that, nerd,” Kacchan said. 

“Hey, I’m your best friend. I’m not gonna spend all of my waking hours with the others.” Izuku punched Kacchan on his arm. 

Izuku and Kacchan got their food from the mess hall, Izuku still getting a teacher meal from under the table. Izuku didn’t mind but he got a weird look from Kacchan when Lunch Rush handed him his food. 

“Thanks,” Izuku said to Lunch Rush and started to walk to a table to sit down.

Kirishima walked up to him and stood in front of Izuku. “Hi,” Kirishima said.

“Hi.”

Izuku tried to move past him to sit down.

“You’re Shimura right?” Kirishima moved into his way.

“Yes. Now if you don’t mind, I’m trying to sit down.”

Kacchan walked up next to Izuku, “Move out of his way Spiky Hair.”

“Kacchan,” Izuku said 

Kacchan glared at Izuku for a moment before saying, “Kirishima please move out of our way.”

Kirishima moved into the table booth and sat down next to Izuku with a surprised look on his face. Kacchan sat across the table from them. Ashido, Sero and Kaminari sat down around the table with them.

While Kacchan talked to Kaminari, who had sat down next to him, Kirishima whispered to Izuku, “How’d you tame the beast?”

“Kacchan?”

“Bakugo.”

“We grew up together, Kacchan is Bakugo. It’s just his nickname from me. Just earn his respect. Kacchan has had a hard life. He really isn’t that bad. You just have to know how to handle him. Besides, he knows what I would do if he doesn’t listen to me.”

“What would you do?”

“I’m his best friend and…” Izuku trailed off for a moment before saying quietly, “he doesn’t want to be the one to break me.” It felt kind of good to confess that to someone, even if they didn’t understand what he meant. Everyone had been watching him ever since Tenko died like he was going to break at any moment.

“What do you mean?”

“I’d rather not talk about it.” He really didn’t want to. He didn’t want to explain to anyone new. It would just lead to another person watching him. Another person waiting for him to break.

Kirishima nodded. He seemed at least understanding. Kirishima didn’t seem like someone to get into others' business unless they brought it up.

“Just shut up, Dunce Face!” Kacchan said.

Izuku sent him an icy glare. “Play nice Kacchan. What would Tenko think of you right now?”

Izuku wasn’t afraid to take advantage of people’s weaknesses. Both himself and Kacchan were weak when they brought up Tenko.

Kacchan stiffened up. “I’m sorry, Kaminari.”

“Who’s Tenko?” Kaminari asked, obviously obvious.

It was Izuku’s turn to stiffen up this time. He shouldn’t have brought up Tenko. It was only making it worse for himself. Izuku’s normally strong raised head dipped low. He couldn’t let them see him cry. Don’t do this Izuku. Keep your fine face up, he reminded himself. There were only two things that could break his cinnamon roll persona. Kacchan and Tenko. And unfortunately, both got brought up quite often.

Everyone seemed to take a hint and Ashido oohed. “You tamed the beast. I bow to you, great one.”

It was Kacchan’s turn for an icy glare this time. 

That brought some semblance of a smile back to Izuku’s face and he brought his chin back upwards and laughed. It was a beautiful sound and one that Izuku hadn’t heard from his mouth in a long time. It was so rare for Izuku to laugh these days. Tenko was always the funnier one, less serious, and more free spirited of the two of them. Izuku was too serious, even before Tenko’s death.

Kacchan looked at Izuku with a little smile on his face. He seemed content at Izuku’s laugh.

Izuku’s laugh made Ashido start laughing and soon the whole table was laughing.

“Call me Mina. I’m hoping we can all be friends.” Ashido said and smiled.

“Sure,” Izuku responded. He hadn’t really had any friends other than Kacchan in years. No one else had ever really understood what he was going through. Most people downplayed it because it happened over five years ago. They thought it had been so long ago that he would be over it. That he was perfectly fine and all that he needed was time. And Izuku hated it. He didn’t just lose a distant cousin, he lost his other half! Izuku wasn’t whole without Tenko. Tenko’s legacy was the only thing that even got him out of bed in the morning. That, and Kacchan. Kacchan wouldn’t let him waste away his life. Kacchan always wanted Izuku to live, but he didn’t know that Izuku was only following Tenko’s legacy.

“Call me Izuku, then.”

“Call me Denki,” Kaminari said.

“I’m Hanta,” Sero said.

Kacchan glanced around and said, “Call me Katsuki, then.”

This was an interesting change in Kacchan. He never let anyone else other than his parents call him Katsuki before. Well, Izuku could and Tenko used to be able to, but both him and Tenko had called Katsuki Kacchan since they were little. It had just happened, Izuku didn’t remember when it actually started, it just did. Maybe Kacchan actually liked and/or respected the other kids at the table. Izuku didn’t really think that they had really proven themselves yet or anything. Perhaps it was just that they had been the ones to approach him despite his gruff exterior? Izuku knew his friend well enough to know that Kacchan certainly wasn’t the one to approach them.

When the laughter died back down, Izuku said, “So… What do you guys like to do in your free time?”

“I like dancing and shopping,” Mina said.

“I enjoy memes, stargazing, and modern literature,” Denki said.

“I guess I like to draw. I try to live without regret but I really don’t do much. Oh and I used to play D&D but my DM was at my old school so we don’t play anymore,” Kirishima said.

“I just train and sleep,” Kacchan said. Or course he wouldn’t want to mention hanging out with Izuku when they were surrounded by a bunch of other people. Not while Izuku was there, he couldn’t.

“I like to swim in my freetime! How about you, Izuku?” Sero said.

“Well, I feel like I already introduced myself yesterday, but I figure I should show you guys what I meant when I said I liked analysing quirks.”

“Sure!”

Izuku pulled out his notebook and opened it up to one of the half-filled-out pages, it was about Mina.

He didn’t want to show any of them the pages with the super in-depth personality notes. It could come off as creepy.

“Oooh! This one’s about me!” Mina excitedly.

Izuku turned around the notebook so that she could read the page.

Mina sat in silence for a moment as she read the page. Everyone else at the table was craning their heads to try and read what it said.

“My quirk is Acid. It can come out of my hands and feet and I can control the properties,” Mina finally said, obviously filling in the blank spot for her quirk in the notebook. Izuku hadn’t caught her using it enough to find out what it was.

Izuku pulled back his notebook from her and quickly wrote it down.

“I love your art, though. It’s beautiful. I feel like it really captured my bubbly personality in a still.”

“Thanks,” Izuku said a bit meekly. He wasn’t used to people complimenting his art. Then again, he usually didn’t show people his art voluntarily. 

“You said something about quirk applications yesterday?” Mina said.

“I would have to see your quirk in action, but I could help you figure out what to work on to be a better hero.”

“I’d love that. I'm at a bit of an impasse with my quirk at the moment. How about you text me when you’re available?”

“Sure. I’ll give you my number.”

Izuku wrote it down on a sheet of paper and passed it to Mina.

She looked at the sheet and typed it into her phone, adding his contact.

Izuku got a ding on his phone and he took it out.

Unknown: “Hi! 👋”

This would give Izuku a solid chance to study her quirk. Izuku added her as a contact on his phone. Izuku wasn’t sure if she liked him or just was free with her number but Izuku freaked out slightly, internally. He just got someone's number. He didn’t like girls very much and knew he’d turn her down if she asked, but it was still entertaining.

The rest of the lunch period, Izuku didn’t engage in any more conversation besides putting in his input once and a while. The conversation never really went anywhere. The whole time Izuku was just internally rolling his eyes at their mindless chatter. He tried not to speak unless he had something meaningful to say, it was really all so pointless. 

When the lunch bell rang for them to all go back to class, Izuku got up silently and dumped his lunch tray before heading straight back to class. Sure it was nice to have some other ‘friends’, but Izuku didn’t really care for them. Maybe once he got to know them better.

Chapter Text

Izuku sat down back in the classroom as Aizawa-Sensei walked in, in his sleeping bag as usual.

    When the class was quiet and settled in their seats Aizawa-Sensei spoke up, “Today we are going to the Unforeseen Simulation Joint, or as most of the student body calls it, the USJ. We will be joined by two other teachers. The first of which is Thirteen and they are already at the USJ waiting for us and our second is…”

    All Might burst into the classroom, “Is me!”

    All of the students, except for Izuku and Monoma, gasped and stared at All Might.

    Izuku honestly didn’t care for All Might that much. Sure, he was a popular hero and the symbol of peace but Izuku felt that it was an empty promise. All Might couldn’t be there for everyone. No one could. All Might had been in town the day Tenko was killed. All Might got there too late and that was part of the reason Tenko was dead. And, no matter how much Izuku put on a fake face in front of everyone, no matter how much Kacchan idolised him, Izuku didn’t like him.

    “Now let's put on your hero costumes and let’s hop on the bus. The USJ is near the edge of campus and is too far to walk and still have time for class activities.”

    The class started getting up and flowing around the classroom. 

    Izuku called out to the classroom, “Get in line.”

    The class shuffled into a single file line. Izuku doubted that they actually respected him as a class president because he hadn’t done much yet, but at least he kept them from embarrassing themselves in front of everyone else.

    After the class changed into their hero costumes, they went back into line without Izuku even asking. Izuku supposed they didn’t feel like getting lectured in front of the symbol of peace.

    On the bus, Izuku sat down in one of the benches in the back and put in his earbuds. He closed his eyes, leaning back into the seat.

    Someone poked him on the arm.

    Izuku turned to see Jiro looking at him, “What’re you listening to?”

    Izuku took out one of his earbuds and handed it to her. 

    She put it in her ear and listened to the song that was playing.

    “What band is this?” Jiro asked.

    “It’s from Julie and the Phantoms. Netflux used to run it but it’s over 200 years old now and hard to find. I love the music, though. It reminds me of someone,” Izuku said, reminiscing of the days when he would sit down with Tenko and binge-watch all of the seasons. Once Tenko died, Izuku couldn’t watch it anymore. But he still listened to the music because it was so reminiscent of Tenko, especially Unsaid Emily and Wake Up . 

    “That’s nice.” Jiro said and handed him back his earbud. 

    Izuku put it back in his ear and relaxed, Wake Up coming on.

    A while later, Izuku felt the bus grind to a stop and he took out his earbuds and slid them into his pocket, watching all of the other students get out. 

    They weren’t in order anymore but Izuku didn’t really care. They were so far away from the main campus that the only people that would see them would be the teachers.

    As the class shuffled into the USJ, many of the students gasped in awe. It was a huge dome with a bunch of different sections with different weather happening in each section. One area was on fire, one seemed to be icy, there was a mudslide area, and even a ruined city. 

    Thirteen was standing just inside, “Welcome Class 1-A! Today we are going to be learning how to navigate a variety of dangerous environments so that in the future we can practise saving people in said environments.”

    Izuku's gaze wandered from Thirteen for a moment when he saw movement in the distance.

    A swirling purple portal appeared in the middle of the centre plaza area and hundreds of people swarmed out. Izuku felt momentarily confused, this was supposed to be navigation training not rescue training so why were extra people here?

    “Villains,” Aizawa-Sensei said in a bitter and surprised tone. 

    Thirteen turned around to survey the scene. “Students, you can use your quirks. These are real villains, we didn’t schedule this. Try and get help!”

    Izuku copied Aizawa-Sensei’s quirk quickly. If they got separated, Izuku didn’t want to be stuck without it. It was just too useful to pass up.

    Izuku served the situation. 

    Ida was running backwards towards the doors, he was the fastest in the class, though Izuku would probably get back to campus faster. Izuku turned to watch him run out of the corner of his eye.

    Aizawa-Sensei and All Might were already running toward the villains.

    A misty man appeared in front of the students and Thirteen. He seemed to be the source of the portals. He formed a portal in front of Ida and Ida re-appeared directly in front of Izuku.

    Izuku copied the portal man’s quirk. Teleportation quirks were very rare and it would be useful for Izuku.

    Without thinking, Izuku copied the quirks of every student in the class whose quirks didn’t have any effects on their appearance in his short term slots.

    Thirteen tried to disintegrate the portal man with her quirk. The man put a portal in front of him, and another on Thirteen’s back. Thirteen started to be disintegrated by her own quirk. 

    Izuku tried to cancel Thirteen’s quirk. Nothing happened. He didn’t know how to use Aizawa-Sensei’s quirk.

    “Kids, run!” Thirteen choked out.

    Izuku used his mother’s quirk to pull as many of his fellow students as he could away from Thirteen. He didn’t know the trigger for the mist man’s quirk. He needed to think.

    The mist man formed a portal beneath the students. Izuku hadn’t even lifted off of the ground yet it was so fast.

    Izuku and Monoma fell through the same portal, directly into the water of the water zone.

    Izuku glanced at Monoma, neither one had taken a breath before being dropped.

    Izuku burst out his wings and scooped his arms beneath Monoma’s armpits. Izuku used his mother’s quirk to quickly pull them towards the surface with the assistance of his wings.

    Villains were all around them, swimming towards them. But, for a moment they halted.

    A sudden thought came to Izuku’s mind. They don’t know our quirks.

    Izuku burst out of the water with Monoma and flew them on to the sinking ship that was in the simulation zone. At least they stayed at the USJ not hundreds of miles away.

    Izuku could get help if he could just figure out how to use the mist man’s quirk.

    Izuku took a few deep breaths.

    Izuku’s hair was flat once again, his white roots starting to show even more prevalently. He knew he should have re-dyed it already.

    “Shimura,” Monoma said.

    Izuku cut him off before Monoma would continue, “Shut up. I need a minute to think.”

    The mist man’s quirk seemed to be an emitter quirk. Most emitters were visualisation so all he had to do was focus.

    Izuku concentrated on making a portal back to the main campus.

    Izuku closed his eyes and visualised a spot, the student lounge in the main building. Izuku tried to focus his thoughts and make a portal, swirling white in colour.

    Izuku opened his eyes. A swirling white portal sat in front of him. Izuku felt a strain on his head trying to keep it open but pushed through the headache.

    “This will bring you back to campus on floor five. Go out the door and down the hallway to the elevator. Take my student ID for the elevator, it’s in my back pocket. Get as many teachers as you can and come back. Hurry.”

    Monoma grabbed Izuku’s student ID out of his pocket and ran through the portal.

    Izuku felt like he was going to fall over. The strain of keeping the portal open was intense. 

    Izuku took a few deep breaths. The villains were surely waiting for them to make the first move, they didn’t know what Izuku and Monoma’s quirks were and probably were waiting for them to make the first move. 

    One villain rammed into the boat, it sank slightly. Izuku couldn’t do anything. If he tried to use any other quirks, even his wings he would surely lose control of the portal.

    Izuku tried to at least sit down against the wall.

    He felt dizzy and his vision wavered. How did the mist man do it? There were so many portals at once in so many different locations.

    Izuku tried not to fall unconscious. 

    Another villain rammed into the boat.

    Midnight-Sensei walked through the portal with Snipe-Sensei, Cementoss-Sensei, Present Mic-Sensei, and a bunch of other professional heroes. All of the teachers at UA were heroes so it wasn’t that surprising. Monoma followed them up.

    Snipe-Sensei shot off bullets with pinpoint accuracy and the various heroes rushed into battle.

    After a moment and no one else came through, Izuku closed the portal and sank into the darkness. He couldn’t stay awake any longer. The pounding headache was already too much.

Chapter Text

Izuku’s vision was blurry. He blinked a few times trying to regain his bearings. Where was he? Was the attack over? What happened?

    Izuku shuffled around and tried to move as his vision cleared slightly.

    He was in a hospital bed. 

    Izuku looked around a little bit. A splitting headache hurt his head. He was in Recovery Girl’s office. Thirteen laid in the bed next to him, completely wrapped in bandages. They seemed to be unconscious.

    Recovery Girl walked over to him, “Calm down. Everything’s fine. The attack is over. How are you feeling? You didn’t have any physical damage.”

    “I think I’m okay. I’ve just got a killer headache,” Izuku said, rubbing his forehead.

    “I’ll get you some medicine for that. Do you know why you passed out?” Recovery Girl walked over to a cupboard and took out a bottle, shaking a few pills into her hand.

    “I tried to use the quirk of one of the villains. The misty purple one. But, when I tried to use it I couldn’t keep it open very long and I overstrained myself trying to get the heroes to the USJ.”

    “You did well getting the heroes there. Thirteen was the only one injured besides a few scrapes and bruises. Eat these,” Recovery Girl handed him the pills.

    Izuku took them and swallowed them quickly without any water.

    “School is let out till Monday while we put more safety measures in place. I think the big three and Hayami with Aizawa-Sensei are waiting for you outside, though.”

    Izuku nodded and tried to stand up. The headache hit him hard and he wobbled. 

    “Stay put for a few more minutes, at least till the medicine kicks in. After that, I would recommend taking some headache medicine again in a few hours. You should be able to sleep off the headache. Get lots of rest the next few days and try not to over-exert yourself. If you want to use that quirk again, make sure to start small so you don’t pass out.”

    Izuku nodded and laid back into the pillows. 

    A few minutes later, he felt the headache start to vanish. Within fifteen minutes, it was down to a mild pounding in the back of his head.

    Izuku stood up carefully, making sure that the headache wouldn’t increase. “Thank you,” he said as he exited Recovery Girl’s office.

    Izuku walked into the hallway and saw Hayami sitting down in one of the chairs outside.

    “Everyone else is in the lounge. We weren’t  sure when you would wake up.”

    Izuku nodded silently and went up to the lounge, Hayami walking close behind.

    When he opened the lounge door, Izuku found Aizawa-Sensei sitting on one of the couches, with the big three occupying the couch across from him.

    “How are you feeling?”

    “I’m okay. I had a headache, but I took some medicine so it’s pretty tame now.”

    Aizawa-Sensei let out a sigh of relief. “When we first found you, we thought you might have a concussion, but you weren’t injured. What happened?”

    “I overexerted myself using the quirk of the warp gate villain. It took a while for Monoma to get enough teachers and I had to keep the portal open the whole time. I haven’t needed to use a quirk that I hadn’t already trained with in a while and I didn’t think about the physical toll of most quirks before I tried to use it.”

    “You realise that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense right?” Aizawa-Sensei seemed confused. He probably hadn’t heard much of the physical toll of quirks since it was something most people adapted to at an early age. It was really only a problem for people who had to rely on the quirks of others.

    “Oh. Sorry! Many quirks have physical tolls on their users but the body naturally adapts to it as they age so most don’t need to worry about it. For example, Bakugo’s quirk puts a lot of strain on his shoulders and hearing but his body naturally adapted to it as he used his quirk. I’m already used to a mental visualisation quirk but it put a ton of strain on me to keep it open for so long since it was much more intense than the quirk I usually use.”

    Aizawa-Sensei nodded in understanding.

    “We’re so glad you’re okay! We were worried about you.” Nejire beamed at Izuku.

    Izuku smiled a little bit. It was nice to know that someone cared. Already, these people were his family more than his actual family since Tenko died. He wondered if his mother actually cared or even noticed that it was Izuku’s class that was attacked. His mother only cared about him once in a blue moon. The entrance exam day was the first day she had taken off in several years.

    “Can I have your number? We have a group chat for the heads and one for us and the teachers. It helps us quickly alert them during emergencies,” Hayami asked Izuku.

    “Sure.”

    As Izuku gave her the number, he sat down next to Aizawa-Sensei. Izuku wasn’t sure if he still had Undercover training, but he almost hoped he did. He wanted to ask Aizawa-Sensei how to use his quirk.

    Izuku had put Aizawa-Sensei’s and the warp gate villain’s quirks in his permanent slots. He figured that they would be useful to keep around, especially if there wasn’t a distance limit on the warp gate villain’s quirk.

    Izuku’s phone dinged twice, signifying that he was in two new group chats.

    Izuku pulled out his phone and, with the help of everyone else, assigned everyone in the group chats contacts so he could see who was talking.

“Shimura. We need to talk. Follow me,” Aizawa-Sensei said.

Izuku got up from the couch and followed Aizawa-Sensei out of the room.

Aizawa-Sensei brought them to the teacher’s lounge and had Izuku sit down on the couch and he sat down in the chair across from him.

Aizawa-Sensei didn’t say anything. He just stared at Izuku.

Izuku stared right back at him.

After a few minutes passed, Izuku’s eyes wandered to look around the room. There was a portrait of three girls jumping rope and one on each end spinning the rope. Eventually Izuku’s gaze wandered back to Aizawa-Sensei and he took out his notebook, starting to analyse him.

Aizawa-Sensei always seemed tired so he either had trouble sleeping, probably from trauma because he’s a hero, or just liked to sleep. Izuku wouldn’t have been surprised if it was a mix of both. Izuku wasn’t sure how many teaching credentials anyone here had, but they seemed at least pretty good. Aizawa-Sensei most likely also didn’t want to waste his time on hopeless causes like Mineta based on how he expelled him on the first day.

“Mimic me,” Aizawa-Sensei said after a while.

Izuku immediately assumed that he was testing his acting skills. Izuku carefully adjusted how he was sitting to mimic Aizawa-Sensei’s body posture and left his eyes blank in the same way Aizawa-Sensei did at the end of a long day, like today. Aizawa-Sensei was slightly slouched but still sat up enough that he wouldn’t fall forward, fall asleep, or be labelled as ‘slouched’.

Aizawa-Sensei watched him for a moment. “Do a lap around the room.”

Izuku walked around the room in a tight circle. Aizawa-Sensei didn’t take the long route for anything, so it wouldn’t make sense to walk around the edges. He walked quickly but not in a run. Izuku made sure not to look like he was in a hurry, just simply walking.

Izuku sat back down in the same position he had been in before he got up and looked back at Aizawa-Sensei.

“Impressive. Have you done acting work before?” Aizawa-Sensei asked Izuku.

“No plays or anything but in private, yes.” Izuku didn’t want to let Aizawa-Sensei know that he was acting every single time he said he was fine. Every single time that he pretended that losing Tenko didn’t hurt him.

Aizawa-Sensei nodded. “We need to do something about all of that.” Aizawa-Sensei used his hands to wave about all of Izuku.

“You just pointed to all of me,” Izuku said.

“Exactly. You’re way too recognizable. I need you to be plain, someone that can easily fit into a crowd. You can’t look like a hero or a villain specifically. You need to be able to do both. Don’t change your hero costume, it already works. Some very powerful villains wear suits so it will come off as a power move on your part with the villains, and it isn’t too uncommon to see a hero in a suit, like Sir Nighteye. We should start with your hair. Green is too recognizable.” Aizawa-Sensei squinted at Izuku for a moment. “Your hair is flat and you have white roots, why is that?”

“I dye my hair green. It’s naturally white and straight.”

“White is good. Stop dying it and stop curling it.”

Izuku flinched.

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s nothing…” Izuku really didn’t want to talk about Tenko.

“It’s obviously something,” Aizawa-Sensei said with a strict tone. He looked down for a moment and continued in a softer tone, “You can tell me. It won’t leave this room.”

“I…” Izuku tried to get the strength to continue. “I had an identical twin brother named Tenko,” he choked out. “He died when we were ten. I haven’t been able to look in the mirror since without thinking of him.”

Aizawa-Sensei looked away slightly and quietly said, “One of my high school friends was killed in a villain attack during work study in my second year. He was crushed to death by a collapsing building. Everyday, I think of him and think that if I had just been a few minutes earlier he wouldn’t have died. He was one of my best friends besides ‘Zashi. When you look in the mirror, think of him. I’m sure he’d be proud of you.”

Tears started running down Aizawa-Sensei’s face.

It almost made Izuku feel a little bit better, he could cry here without worrying about appearances.

“I hope so,” Izuku replied in a soft, distant tone. He really didn’t want to think about Tenko but, maybe it was time to face himself. Izuku let the tears leak from his eyes and started sobbing. Once he started, it was hard to stop.

Izuku always knew he couldn’t dye his hair forever. He would have to get rid of it eventually, but he never thought it would be so soon.

This was all for Tenko, why not look like him too. The only thing was, Izuku didn’t know if he’d be able to separate himself from Tenko anymore. At least this had given him an identity. Without it, it was hard to remember that he was Izuku. That Tenko was dead when it looked so much like Tenko was staring back at him in the mirror.

But, Kacchan would help. Kacchan would know how much it hurt Izuku, but he would also know that Izuku had to do it. Not just for Aizawa-Sensei but also for himself. Izuku really needed to join something. Something for himself. Something that wouldn’t be what Tenko wanted but what Izuku wanted! 

A few minutes later, Izuku brushed away his tears and sat up, locking the sadness away once more. “Thanks. I needed that,” Izuku said to Aizawa-Sensei.

“Any time. I needed that too,” Aizawa-Sensei smiled a sad smile at Izuku.

Izuku took in a deep breath and said, “Okay. I’ll take care of my hair before I come back to school on Monday.”

“You can head home, if you hurry you can catch the nine o’clock train. Don’t worry, though. You can stay as long as you need. I’ve even got an extra sleeping bag if you’re too tired to head home.” 

“I’ll head home, but I actually have a question first, if you don’t mind.” Izuku didn’t get up.

“Go ahead. I’ve got plenty of time.”

“How does your quirk work? I tried to use it at the USJ to save Thirteen but I couldn’t get it to activate,” Izuku asked. He was a bit nervous, many people didn’t like being asked questions about their quirk.

“You have to focus on the person you want to affect, it’s all visualisation, but you have to visualise it happening in real time, not just in your mind. It helps to have a basic understanding of what their quirk is, but it’s not required. Blinking cancels the effect. Wait to try this out until you’re with me, understand? It can be extremely painful to get their quirk cancelled for some people, especially if they are dependent on it for something. Even the quirks that wouldn’t seem like they would be dependent can be.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t try it. See you on Monday.” Izuku got up, leaving the room.

The next few days went smoothly, Izuku tried to use the teleportation quirk, starting with small portals across his room.

It wasn’t a huge strain to keep it open long enough for Izuku to use the portal to go somewhere, just a headache. He went across his room multiple times and even over to Kacchan’s backyard a few times. So far there didn’t seem to be a difference in the strain based on how far he went. Izuku even tried going to a local field that was a common training ground where quirks were allowed and there wasn’t a difference. 

The main strain was mostly just keeping the portal open for more than thirty seconds. During the attack, it had to have been at least five or ten minutes before Monoma gathered everyone and came back through. But Izuku wasn’t quite sure. It had been difficult to keep track of time while also focusing at the same time.

Izuku avoided Kacchan the whole week and weekend. He didn’t want to show his friend that he was growing out his hair, that he wasn’t redying it and curling it. His hair grew fairly fast at least, his hair had already been short, so when it finished growing it he could just cut it off and leave it chin length, just like when he had been a kid. If he was going to look like Tenko again he was going all or nothing.

Chapter Text

Monday at lunch, Izuku sat down at Kacchan’s table again. He wanted to sit with them at least on Monday. Sure, the other heads were great but he wanted to hang out with the kids in his class sometimes. It would only help him in the long run, especially since it gave him a chance to look into their quirks further.

Denki, who was sitting next to him, turned to him, “Tenko, right? How are you doing? You were like the hero of the class during the USJ attack.”

Izuku tensed up. Through gritted teeth, trying not to cry, Izuku said, “Never call me Tenko again. My name is Izuku.”

Kacchan also tensed up. Neither of them wanted to bring up Tenko, it was a hard subject to talk about.

“Oh. Sorry Izuku. But how did you get the teachers there so fast?” Denki said, it seemed like he had taken the hint and changed the topic, or at least knew not to broach the subject.

“I can copy other people’s quirks. I managed to use the quirk of the warp gate villain to create a portal. While I held it open, I had Monoma get all the teachers. I was almost unconscious by the time they got there and once everyone was through I passed out. I wouldn’t say it was too heroic.”

Kirishima took notice of their conversation and said, “Naw dude. That’s super manly, kind of sacrificing yourself to make sure everyone else was safe.”

Izuku shrugged, “It wasn’t like I knew I was going to pass out. I had a killer headache from using the quirk but I didn’t know I would be completely incapacitated.”

“Still,” Kirishima insisted.

Izuku didn’t like taking the credit. Sure he had gotten the teachers, but he also couldn’t really assist in the fight due to passing out. Izuku really felt like he would have done well as a fighter. It was bothering Izuku that he had passed out so early on.

“I don’t care much for taking credit. Everyone had a part to play. What happened after I passed out, though?”

Kacchan spoke up, “Aizawa-Sensei erased the large blue thing’s quirk and All Might took it out right away. I think I heard it was called a Nomu. The main couple of villains, the hand guy and the mist man retreated immediately after that. The teachers took care of the rest of the thugs pretty quickly and then the police questioned all of us about the attack. I’m surprised they never talked to you about it at all. You and Thirteen were rushed to Recovery Girl’s office and we went home.”

Izuku was mildly upset that Kacchan hadn’t stayed to see if he was okay. Aizawa-Sensei and the other heads, who he had known for far less time, were the ones to stick around. Izuku supposed it had been late. He had been knocked out cold for almost six hours while his body recovered but it was still disappointing.

“Okay.”

“Hey, Izu, did you straighten and dye your roots?” Mina asked him.

Izuku liked the nickname Izu. No one had ever called him that before. It had always been ‘Zuku’ or ‘Zuzu’.

“No. I normally curl it, but I’m not doing it anymore and I’m trying to grow out my natural colour.”

“So the white is your natural colour?” Mina asked, probably trying to clarify.

“Yeah.”

“Cool.”

Izuku continued eating his lunch, trying to communicate that he no longer wanted to talk. He had hit his social battery limit for now.

The group left him alone, they must have taken the hint, or it was just the glare Kacchan sent their way whenever they tried to speak to Izuku.

After lunch back in class, Aizawa-Sensei addressed the classroom, “Based on the attack last week, it has come to my attention that many of you are not nearly in shape enough, and do not have enough stamina to become heroes. Therefore, we are going on a run today. Your assignment will be to make it back to the classroom before the end of the class period. You may do so individually or as a group. Shimura, as class president, will be given a compass to point any lost students in the right direction. If you find yourself lost, get yourself above the treetops so Shimura can find you from the air. You can all go ahead to the locker rooms, put on your gym uniforms not hero costumes. Shimura, I need to speak with you.”

As the rest of the class filed out, Izuku went to Aizawa-Sensei’s desk. 

“First of all, you have Underground training tonight after school. Second,” Aizawa-Sensei passed Izuku a compass, “Here’s your compass, we are directly north from the drop off location. You should be able to see the school from the air but probably not super well since it’s about 6 miles. Since you can fly, I don’t think the activity will be hard for you. I want you to just watch the other students and keep track of them. Message me if something happens or someone needs medical help. Feel free to keep the compass after the activity. Do you still have the quirk of the warp gate villain?”

“Yes, I still have the quirk. I was practising with it this weekend and have a pretty firm grasp on how to use it. It wouldn’t take more than a minute for me to bring in an injured student and get back out into the field,” Izuku felt confident he could warp himself and another person to a specific location. The real challenge was keeping the portal open for long periods of time.

“Okay. I give you permission to use the quirk to take in the students but still alert me and don’t be gone more than a minute or so.”

Izuku nodded, “Anything else?”

“Yes, your hero costume was cleaned and fixed this weekend, but it’s in your locker with the rest of your things.”

“Thank you.”

Izuku walked out and put on his gym uniform.

The rest of the students were already prepared and waiting outside by the time he got out.

In the hallway, Aizawa-Sensei spoke up again. “We’re taking a short bus ride to the location, follow me.”

The students followed Aizawa-Sensei, in single file, to the bus. Izuku sat next to Monoma.

“Hey, aren’t your quirks, like, super similar? Are you guys related or something? Ribbit,” Asui asked Izuku and Monoma.

Izuku shrugged, “Not that I know of but I’m pretty separated from my family. I’m kind of an anomaly, from what my parents have told me there hasn’t ever been a copy type in our family before.”

“Are you actually related to them, then?” Denki asked. Really, he had no concern for personal space. It was rather annoying, like he just said whatever came to mind.

“I’m like a carbon copy of my father as far as looks go, I’m pretty sure I’m related to him,” Izuku almost wanted to laugh, if they had seen him with his father they wouldn’t even have asked that question.

Todoroki looked on with a furrowed brow, the scar around his eye bunching up awkwardly.

The bus pulled to a stop on a dirt road in the middle of a forest.

“Everyone out,” Aizawa-Sensei called from the front of the bus.

Izuku stood up with the rest of the class and they filed out.

When everyone was out, Aizawa-Sensei stood inside the stairs of the bus, “Good luck. Remember to contact Shimura if you need help. I would recommend walking through the forest or you won’t make it back in time.”

Aizawa-Sensei walked backwards up the bus stairs.

The bus sped off.

The rest of the class spread out, talking.

Izuku clapped his hands, taking charge. 

“Split up into groups or go alone. Every team should at least have one person capable of scaling trees or another way to get my attention. I’ll be flying in the air above the forest. Just about anything will work to get my attention.” Izuku checked the compass and said, “School is that way. Good luck.” He pointed North.

He took off his shirt, revealing his muscles and spreading his wings. He then flew upwards, darting through a gap in the tree cover.

He burst into the sunlight. He wished he had put on sunscreen, he would be in the open sun with no cover for the rest of the afternoon.

Izuku thought for a moment. Where did his mother keep the sunscreen? In his mind, he located it.

He created a small portal and stuck his hand through it.

Izuku groped around beyond the portal until he grasped a familiar sleek bottle. He pulled out his hand, grasping a sunscreen bottle.

Izuku used the spray can on his body before sending it back to his house.

He did a few flips in the sky before scanning the forest to see if they needed him yet.

Nothing so far.

About ten minutes later, a beam of light shot up from the forest. It was coming from the opposite direction of the way they should have gone. Aoyama’s quirk.

He sighed and swooped down, circling the tower of light as it flickered and went out. 

Izuku ducked his head through a gap in the trees to survey the situation. Aoyama was with Mina. The two of them were turning around in circles, obviously lost. They didn’t seem to notice him.

He flew down and landed next to them, “You’ve been going in the wrong direction.”

“We crossed the road to scope out the area and everyone else left. Neither of us could figure out which way you pointed, and we couldn’t find anyone else. What way should we be going?”

Izuku pointed towards the direction of the school, “You both need to work on being aware of your surroundings. If you had noticed which way the other students were going you wouldn’t be fifteen minutes behind everyone else.”

Mina nodded and started jogging with Aoyama in the direction he had pointed.

He flew back up above the tree tops and flew horizontally, using his mother’s quirk to pull most of his weight upwards slightly while his wings occasionally beat downwards to keep him still.

He was lying face down in midair, watching the forest carefully.

The hot sun beat down on Izuku’s back. It wasn’t too dark in the forest, so he hoped no one would get injured.

Every fifteen minutes or so, Izuku flew forwards a ways to keep up with the general group while still being able to see anyone who was behind.

Once and a while, a scatter of birds would fly up all from a specific location. It was a good signifier of where the other students were in the forest without Izuku having to physically go look.

A scream cut through the forest, somewhere beneath him.

They were almost to the main campus now, only about half an hour more.

Izuku dove down, searching for the source of the scream.

Mina and Kaminari were laughing with Kacchan and Aoyama on the forest floor.

“What happened?” Izuku asked Mina.

“I snuck up on Kaminari when me and Aoyama got close, and I scared the wits out of him,” Mina said.

“Oh,” Izuku gave a single amused laugh and smiled a bit. These last few days with his new friends and the other heads had been the most Izuku had smiled in years. 

Izuku swooped back into the sky and watched as the first few students made it back to the main campus where Aizawa-Sensei was waiting.

Over the next half an hour, almost all of the students made it back. The only ones who were noticeably not back yet were Koda and Sato.

Izuku landed in front of Aizawa-Sensei at the end of the forest, “Koda and Sato aren’t back yet. I’m going out to look for them.”

Aizawa-Sensei nodded, “If you aren’t back by four, when Underground training starts, I’ll come out to help. I’ve got a few things to attend to, though.”

“Okay.”

Heflew back out into the forest, this time among the trees. “Koda! Sato!” he called out into the forest.

No response but the whistling of the light breeze through the trees.

Heflew farther out into the forest. He was panicking slightly. He had lost two students under his watch. He hoped they were just behind and not injured.

He called their names out again.

Still nothing.

Izuku broke through the tree line and called again, hoping his voice would carry farther.

He really needed Present Mic-Sensei’s quirk right now. That would be useful.

He internally cursed for never finding a good voice amplification quirk. He didn’t use his mother’s quirk that much besides to amplify his flight, as not to put too much strain on his wings. Besides, the teleportation quirk, once he mastered it, would make up for that just fine and be far more applicable.

Izuku called out again and heard a faint call of something. It sounded like “down here”, but it could’ve just been his mind playing tricks on him.

Izuku called out again and heard it more clearly this time. It was coming from a little ways off.

He called out again, he was right above the source of the sound this time.

Izuku landed on the forest floor, seeing Koda and Sato jogging lightly towards him.

“Hey, you guys are really behind. It’s about an hour's walk to get back to campus. Do you want to head back immediately, or finish up?”

“Could you get us about twenty minutes away from campus and let us go? I still want to finish the run, even if I skip a bit,” Sato said.

Izuku wasn’t sure if Koda spoke. He hadn’t heard the boy speak yet but they had only been at school a few days. He could just be shy.

“Sure. I’ll run the last bit with you guys. I’ve been flying all day and don’t have anything going on till 4:00.” Izuku checked his phone and said, “It’s about 3:30 now.”

He opened a portal in front of him about 20 minutes from campus. It gave him a blinding headache to open the portal, but Izuku knew from experience that the headache would go away as soon as he closed it as long as he didn’t go above his limit.

“Hop on through. Don’t worry, it’s safe.”

Koda and Sato approached the portal carefully. Koda stuck a hand through before walking through the portal. Sato walked straight through without fear.

He knew he was starting to reach his limit. He wasn’t sure if he could keep it open long enough to walk through.

It would only take him a minute to fly there at full speed.

Izuku closed the portal, giving his mind a moment of rest before quickly opening it again and stepping through.

The moment he stepped through, Izuku closed the portal. It was far too difficult to keep it open any longer.

“Let’s go,” Izuku said to Koda and Sato. He started jogging quickly. He couldn’t run the whole way at breakneck speed, but he could jog long enough to make it back.

Izuku figured he should probably take up running at some point to increase his speed when he couldn’t use a portal or the area was too public for wings.

Sato and Koda started jogging with him in an awkward silence.

When they got back to the main campus, no one was around. They had all already left.

After Izuku, with Koda and Sato, got changed in the locker room, Izuku sent them home.

Chapter Text

Izuku messaged Aizawa-Sensei. It was almost exactly 4:00. He was just a few minutes early.

Izuku: “Where should I meet you for Underground training? I found Koda and Sato and already sent them home.”

Aizawa-Sensei replied almost instantly.

Aizawa-Sensei: “Meet me in the same room as yesterday. Do you know why Koda and Sato were so far behind?”

Izuku: “No. I forgot to ask. I found them about an hour out and teleported to the twenty minute mark from the school. We went back together since I didn’t want to lose them.”

Aizawa-Sensei: “K. Just make sure to ask them tomorrow and find out what was up and report back to me.”

Izuku: “👍”

He put away his phone and went up to the meeting room.

When he walked in, Izuku saw Monoma and a purple haired kid he didn’t know sitting on the couch across from Aizawa-Sensei, talking.

They both looked up when he entered, halting their discussion.

“Hi, Shimura!” Monoma said when he saw Izuku.

“Hello, Monoma.”

Aizawa-Sensei spoke up, “Now that you’re all here, we should start.”

Izuku sat down on the couch next to the purple haired kid.

“So you both want to be Undergrounds? This is your last chance to back out. Shimura is an Undercover.”

Izuku met Aizawa-Sensei’s eyes and nodded.

The purple haired kid and Monoma also nodded.

“Very well. I’ve got to assess you two, Shinso and Monoma. I already talked to Shimura on Tuesday.”

Aizawa-Sensei leaned back into the opposite chair silently. So he was doing the same thing as he had with Izuku.

Izuku took out his notebook and started scribbling down notes on Aizawa-Sensei and the other two while Monoma and the kid named ‘Shinso’ looked around the room.

A while later, Aizawa-Sensei said, “Both of you, mimic me until I tell you to stop.”

Monoma and Shinso nodded. Neither of them seemed much for words or senseless talking. Izuku liked that.

Neither one changed their body language or even their facial expression. They truly didn’t seem to understand the point of mimicry. You didn’t just have to just speak like the person, you had to act like them too. It was the intricacies of body language and facial expression that made acting and mimicry work. You also had to understand the person. If you didn’t understand what they regularly did and didn’t have any idea of why they did it, they wouldn’t have any chance.

Izuku rolled his eyes from the corner of his notebook, not trying to hide it.

“Walk a lap around the room.”

Monoma walked a wide lap around the room, walking normally. 

Shinso walked a tighter lap around the room, hitting the long strides that Aizawa-Sensei normally walked in. At least he was competent at that. Both definitely needed acting lessons, though. There was no question about that.

Shinso and Monoma sat back down on the couch.

“You can stop now. I really need to get both of you in acting lessons.” Aizawa-Sensei said in an annoyed tone. “Shimura, please show them what you showed me on Wednesday.”

He nodded silently and put away his notebook, simultaneously swapping his body position into a position similar to Aizawa-Sensei’s.

Izuku let his typical poker face expression melt into the tired expression that Aizawa-Sensei wore.

“Do a lap.”

Izuku complied with Aizawa-Sensei’s request, calmly taking long and fast strides in a tight lap around the couch and chair before sitting back down in the same position.

“You can stop now,” Aizawa-Sensei said in a neutral tone.

Izuku fixed his positioning back to his usual as Aizawa-Sensei continued speaking.

“Do either of you know how to compare what he just did compared to what you did?”

Shinso shook his head and Monoma shrugged. For wanting to be Underground Heroes, neither seemed particularly observant.

Aizawa-Sensei sighed, “First off, he mimicked my body posture. He had been watching even beforehand to see how I stood, walked, and sat. As you will soon find, each individual walks and conveys body posture differently. For example, when Shimura is uninterested or doesn’t want to talk, he leans his head back against the seat. Small moves like that can help you establish a separate underground identity from your own. Not to mention, you will need to spew whatever nonsense and unrealistic ideals it takes to join an underground villain group, and you need to do it convincingly. If you don’t convince them that you believe in them, then it’s your life and the lives of any hostages on the line. Let me make this clear, you are never the only one to pay for your actions. There will always be people hurt emotionally or physically when you make a bad call.”

Monoma and Shinso stiffened in unison. It was like they weren’t used to this. This wasn’t anything new. Lives were always the cost in heroics. It wasn’t a hand-made card factory where the worst could happen was a paper cut.

Aizawa-Sensei took a breath before he continued, “Body posture is one of the most important parts of acting. The other big one is being able to lie with a straight face. You can’t have a tic that tells when you’re lying, especially not with someone with an analysis quirk. Speaking of which, Shimura, do you have one active?”

“No. I didn’t use one yesterday either. I’ve only got five quirks copied right now and they’re all combat based.”

Aizawa-Sensei scrunched up his brow a little bit and said, “Nedzu wants to meet with you after this, as well.”

“Okay. I’m assuming my keycard will get me in?”

“Yes. But, that’s actually all I need from you today. You’re good enough that I won’t sign you up in any classes, I’ll just get you ready for a few performances to get some actual experience. We’ll talk tomorrow about your classes, but it’ll probably be physical so come in your gym uniform.”

“Okay. I’ll be heading out, then. Bye.” Izuku walked out of the room and searched the name plates on level five until he found the door that was marked as ‘Principal Nedzu’ .

Izuku walked up to the door and swiped his keycard.

The door clicked and Izuku eased it open.

Principal Nedzu sat in a raised chair, “Shimura, come in, sit down.”

He sat down in the chair across from the Principal.

“I wanted to speak to you for a variety of reasons. I saw your acting during your interview with Aizawa-Sensei, and I must say that I was impressed. I’ve also seen snippets of your notebooks which were also impressive. Not to mention that you’re planning to be an Undercover which is interesting in itself. Your entrance exam scores were also very interesting, especially how fast you figured out the english test during the written portion. So, I would simply like to play chess with you.”

Principal Nedzu’s quirk was obviously an increased intelligence because he was still a rat. The size increase was most likely from the increased intelligence. Though, the quirk seemed to overall make him more humanoid.

Izuku wasn’t particularly good at chess, sure he usually won, but it was always against his father. Izuku remembered after each game whether his father won or lost would always say, “Just wait. You’ll need this someday. Someday you’ll have to choose between saving two pawns or a queen. Someday you will see me really try to play chess and you will have to pick a side. I wish you luck.”

After a while, Izuku figured out the beginning of the phrase. Two pawns or a queen. Two random people or his lover/friend. He still didn’t understand why he would have to pick a side yet. Maybe it was a side in a war or just heroes and villains.

Izuku wasn’t quite sure.

“Of course. I haven’t gotten to play chess in almost a year, so don’t blame me if I’m a little rusty.”

Nedzu motioned for Izuku to sit down on the couch in the corner of the room. 

As Izuku sat down, Nedzu jumped off of his desk onto the floor.

“Tea?” Nedzu asked.

“Sure.”

Nedzu started a kettle of water on the stove in the corner of the room.

Nedzu sat down across from Izuku. A chess board was already set up on the table.

Nedzu was white. He made the first move.

Izuku squinted at the board, eyes narrowed and made his move.

The two continued playing as the minutes ticked by.

Nedzu was truly great at chess. He seemed to know Izuku’s moves before he did them, but then again, Izuku also knew Nedzu’s moves.

After a few minutes of play, Izuku found Nedzu to be quite predictable. He seemed to be intent on capturing Izuku’s rooks and Bishops first, but he almost totally ignored his knights. 

Not using his knights, let Izuku capture many of his pieces.

A few minutes into the game, the kettle whistled and Izuku and Nedzu had herbal tea.

Near the end of the game, Izuku only had his king left and Nedzu had his king and his rook.

Fifteen minutes later, and they were at a stalemate.

Izuku shook Nedzu’s hand, “Good game.”

Nedzu shook his hand in return and said, “May I see your notes now?”

“Sure,” Izuku handed Nedzu his notebook and a UV-light. “I take half of the notes in invisible ink.”

Izuku felt like he could actually show them to Nedzu. With Nedzu being on a similar intelligence level as Izuku, if the game of chess was anything to go by, Izuku actually felt that he could trust Nedzu. He seemed about the same level of sane as Izuku. Which is to say, not very, but it’s enough to know he’s not entirely crazy.

Nedzu shined the light on the pages in the notebook, reading them over carefully.

A while later, when Nedzu had flipped through almost all of the pages, he spoke again, “I’d like to offer you a proposition. You show me your notes and play chess with me once a week, and in return, you’ll be my personal prodigy. I’ll take care of teaching most of your classes and will give you very specific training. I do understand that you already work with the big three every night at seven, this won’t interfere with that. Most of your training will happen during your regular class time and during lunch Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. I’ll make sure you still get to Undercover training too. I can also pull a few strings to help you get your provisional licence early and you’ll work on special jobs from me. You’ll also get to start your work studies earlier than third semester.”

Izuku thought for a moment. There didn’t really seem to be any major drawbacks to this, minus spending even less time with students his age. Then again, that seemed to happen anyway, even without Nedzu intervening.

“What’s the catch?” Izuku asked.

Nedzu smiled, “You might miss a few of your regular classes, but it won’t be anything I won’t be able to help you catch up with before you fall behind. If anything, I’ll be keeping you ahead of the rest of your class.”

Izuku thought for a moment more, Nedzu seemed like he was smart enough to keep Izuku ahead. Besides, Izuku could always study on his own if he couldn’t keep up. 

Izuku stuck out his hand to Nedzu, “It sounds like you have yourself a deal.”

Nedzu shook his hand firmly. The hyper-intelligent mouse was surprisingly strong.

“Come to my office during your lunch break tomorrow. Please inform Aizawa-Sensei that you are my personal prodigy. He is probably in his office. It is grouped in with the rest of the teachers for your grade. You may leave for now.”

Izuku nodded and got up from the couch.

When he found the first year teacher’s offices, he slid his keycard across the pad and when it clicked, he opened the door.

All heads in the room turned to him. Almost all of the teachers were there, the only one noticeably not present was Present Mic-Sensei.

Izuku stood awkwardly in the doorway, “Ummm… Hi. I needed to talk to Aizawa-Sensei.”

“I’m over here, Shimura,” Aizawa-Sensei called from the corner of the room.

The other teachers looked away and continued doing whatever they had been doing before.

Izuku moved past the teachers in the room to get to Aizawa-Sensei’s desk. It was less of a desk and more of a soft pillow pile with a desk poking out from the very corner of the area.

“Sit on down. How’d your meeting with Nedzu go?” Aizawa-Sensei patted the spot next to him on the mess of pillows and blankets.

Izuku sat down next to him and shifted until he was comfortable, “I think it went pretty well. We played chess and drank some tea.”

Before Izuku could continue speaking, Aizawa-Sensei interrupted him, “I’m assuming you got obliterated at chess?”

“No. We actually ended in a stalemate.”

Aizawa-Sensei looked genuinely surprised, “Not a single teacher here has ever managed to last twenty minutes into a chess game with him, much less get to a stalemate.”

Izuku shrugged, “Then he looked at my notes and said I could become his prodigy if I wanted.”

Aizawa-Sensei swore fiercely. “Did you say yes?”

“Yes, I did. He actually told me to come in here to tell you that.”

“When do you start?” Aizawa-Sensei side.

“I’m meeting him during my lunch tomorrow. He said it wouldn’t interfere with being a head or undercover training.”

Aizawa-Sensei sighed, “Not much to do about it now. Good luck with him. Most of his prodigies don’t last the week before they cancel. It’s a hard position to hold. He hasn’t had a prodigy in a few years now, though. Maybe you’ll last the month.”

“What makes them stop?” Izuku asked, suddenly concerned for his safety.

“Nedzu can assign some very difficult assignments, it’s mostly spy work. It will definitely help you get lots of experience in acting, though. Nedzu has always said that if he got a student to last all three years at school, they would always be welcomed back as a teacher when they wanted to retire or stop working as a hero for a while. That’s actually what I did. I made it through the program for the most part. I didn’t join until my second year, but still.”

Well that would be good for Izuku. It was basically a retirement program if he could make it three years in Nedzu’s program. It shouldn’t be too hard for him, right? Izuku didn’t have any qualms about spying on people or taking advantage of situations to gain the upper hand.

And, Izuku could handle difficulty, he dealt with it everyday. Every single time he suffered quirk exhaustion because his body wasn’t used to the quirk he was using. Every time he studied a new topic that was grades above his current level. Life was never easy for Izuku. He constantly faced difficulty in just the simplest things. Like living without Tenko.

Izuku nodded at Aizawa-Sensei.

Aizawa-Sensei leaned back and rested his eyes, “Get sleep while you can, kid. You might not have much time in the future.”

“Okay.” A sudden thought came to Izuku’s mind. “What time is it?”

“About 6:45, why?” Aizawa-Sensei mumbled.

“I’ve just got to go to the heads at 7:00. I should probably be going.”

Izuku stood up as Aizawa-Sensei bid him a goodbye and left the room, heading straight to the head’s private lounge.