Chapter Text
Shouta is in the middle of teaching Heroic Law and Ethics when it happens.
He’s in the middle of explaining the laws surrounding the different fields of Heroics, and how each field has different standards and laws attached. For example, Spotlight Heroes have more restrictions around use of force, while on the flipside, Undergrounders have a required minimum amount of patrol hours and a minimum quota on villain arrests. It’s different for every field, and this is a week-long course, each day focusing on the five main fields of Heroics. Rescue, Underground, Spotlight, Twilight and Intelligence. Next week they’ll get more into the sub classifications and their specific standards.
Today, Shouta is focusing on Underground Heroes as the first day of the course, mainly because he’s a petty asshole.
He’s not dumb, he knows most of the Hellions plan to go Spotlight for their careers, as most dumb teenagers want to do. However, he hopes by focusing on all the other fields first, it’ll help convince some of the kids with real potential for lesser chosen fields to change their choice before second year starts and they have to consider their chosen electives. At the very least, it might make some of them consider what other fields go through on a daily basis even if they stick with being Spotlight to the end.
In Shouta’s mind, if he had the option to choose for them, he already knows who would do best in certain fields. Hagakure, Shinso, Ojiro and Tokoyami are prime candidates for Underground. Shinso and Tokoyami are the only ones who know they’re going that route though. Surprisingly, Hagakure wants to be Spotlight, despite it being a terrible quirk matchup for her. He’s seen worse, but she could do so much more as an Under.
Kaminari, Bakugo, Todoroki, and Midoriya are guaranteed to be great Spotlighters, though Kaminari needs to work on control and Bakugo needs to work on attitude. The only thing Midoriya really needs to work on to be great is his confusing quirk and his confidence issues. Todoroki could use some work on social interaction, but he’s practically ready to hit the field-power wise anyways.
Yaoyorozu, Jiro, Kirishima and Sero are the four that could go into any field and excel. He genuinely believes that those four would be perfect for any of the fields of heroics, they all meet the criteria needed for each one.
Intelligence Heroes require patience, common sense, intelligence, and the ability to detach themselves from their intel. Underground Heroes need to be hardy but empathetic, and they need a certain level of emotional intelligence in order to keep from drowning in the dark things they see on a day to day basis. Spotlight Heroes have to be calm and collected, especially under pressure, with an alluring personality that people can trust in an instant. Rescue Heroes have to be kind and approachable, while also being able to look a person in the eye and command them without any uncertainty in their choices. Twilight Heroes have to be the best of both worlds between Spotlight and Underground. They need to have the skill of an Under but the personality of a Spottie.
They are the only four that can possibly surprise him in their final choice of heroic fields.
Uraraka, Asui and Koda are prime examples of Rescue Heroes in training. He knows through the school’s gossip grapevine that Thirteen is going to try and snatch Uraraka up for her next work study, already jumping through the hoops to get a UA student as their work study, despite the restrictions in place for UA teachers taking on UA students for internships or work study programs. Shouta himself is jumping those same hoops for Shinso and Hagakure. Tokoyami and Sero will be his next victims, but one of the restrictions in place is that a UA teacher can have no more than two UA students at a time. Hopefully, by separating Tokoyami and Shinso and putting them with Sero and Hagakure instead of each other, their passion for Underground Heroics will sway the other two.
If Shouta opens an agency any time soon, he wants these four hellions to himself.
God he can just imagine it now. Having four of his hell class, the four who are practically designed for Underground Heroics, under his wing? They’ll be the most powerful and skilled paper agency in Japan- no, Asia. There’s a few in Vlad’s class he would take too. Tokage with her Lizard Tail Splitter, Kuroiro with his shadow walking Black. A stupid name, but a wonderful quirk. Maybe Monoma, if he gets the stick out of his ass. Shouta has hated the restrictions of Agencies, paper or otherwise, since he first graduated, but with these brats?
Ohoho the things Shouta could do.
“What if we want to be both Spotlight and Underground?” Midoriya asks, and Shouta breaks out of both his train of thought and his lesson to send a deadpan look at Midoriya.
“You mean Twilight Heroes? We’ll be covering that on Wednesday.”
Midoriya shakes his head violently, waving his hands around before fidgeting with his pencil. He doesn’t look up at Shouta as he and the rest of the class focus on Midoriya. “I mean, be both Spotlight and Underground, but… separate? Like two different hero personas?”
Shouta imagines his thoughts screeching to a halt like they do sound like a broken record scratch. “What?” Shouta eventually forces out, feeling like his head is spinning.
"What the fuck are you talking about Deku!?" Bakugo explodes, quite literally as he makes a singe mark on his desk. Again.
"Yeah, what do you mean Midobro?" Kirishima asks.
"Everyone shut up and sit down, Midoriya please explain what you mean." Shouta interjects before the Hellions can get more rowdy. Damn, and they had all been attentive up until now. He blames Problem Child.
“You know, like.” Midoriya’s voice gets significantly higher in pitch as he continues speaking, fidgeting hard enough Shouta worries the kid will break his pencil. “Smiling to the masses as a Spotlight Hero and inspiring hope, but doing the same as an Underground Hero and inciting fear? At the same time, but separate? Like, if you and All Might were one person, and by day you smile to make people feel safe, but by night you smile to make villains afraid and they’re mutually exclusive? Is that possible?”
Shouta stares at the kid as the cogs of his brain try to regain momentum. It’s- well it’s an idea. Something no one has attempted before, he would know. It’s just not the done thing. You pick a field, you stick to it, and you let others take the lead when you venture into a field that isn’t your own. Like in Rescue Ops. When it comes to situations, say, like Kamino, the Rescue Heroes take charge of the situation, everyone else does as they say because it’s not their field of expertise. Not only is it polite, but it’s literally a law. When a Hero gets involved with an operation outside of their own designated field, those who are designated in that field are your temporary superiors and you take their orders and carry them out to the letter.
He’s never heard of anyone doing multiple fields and being licensed in them. Like, Shouta himself has done Intel work, Unders and Intels may not get along, but the fields cross paths often, much like Spotlight and Rescue. So he’s done Intelligence before, but he had a superior hero that gave him his orders. The Overhaul Raid for example. Up until the moment of infiltration, that was not Shouta’s jurisdiction, so he followed Nighteye’s orders to the letter. After infiltration, Shouta was his own boss once again, because that’s his field of operation.
“I-” Shouta starts to answer, but he has to pause a moment more to collect his thoughts. “I genuinely don’t know. One moment.” Shouta, when faced with questions he has no answers for and doesn’t know how to get them, he does one thing and one thing only. He proposes a hypothetical to his Sensei. Shouta pulls out his phone, lays it on the podium and calls Nezu on speaker. “Nobody is allowed to speak while I’m on this call.”
Nezu answers on the second ring.
“Hello Shouta-kun! Aren’t you supposed to be in class? Do I need to get out the expulsion paperwork again? And here I thought this class had potential! What a shame. Well, that’s just how it goes I guess, which student-”
“Sensei.” Shouta says and Nezu immediately quiets.
“Oh? Sensei hmm? Very well my student, why have you called me? What can I do for you?”
Shouta clears his throat, hesitating, before saying, “I have a hypothetical for you Sensei.”
“I do so love your hypotheticals, they never fail to amuse! Do tell, do tell!”
“Hypothetically, if a student were to choose two fields of heroics at once, what would you say?”
“Oh.” Nezu says, sounding mildly disappointed. It sounds far too much like amusement to Shouta. “I thought you weren’t teaching sub classifications until next week! But why would you ask when you already know the answer?”
“No.” Shouta says, running a hand down his face. He knows Nezu knows what he means, he’s just being difficult because he realizes he’s on speaker. “I mean. If a student wishes to make two separate hero identities, one for, say, Spotlight and the other, let’s go with Underground, would that be possible?”
Nezu starts cackling over the receiver, and Shouta sees Kaminari and Ashido blanch. “Which one is it?”
“This is a hypothetical question, Sensei.” Shouta grinds out between his teeth. Nezu only cackles harder.
“Come now Shouta-kun. Do you really think I believe that? You know better than that. So which one is it?”
Shouta doesn’t answer, scowling at his phone. “Just answer the question, you overgrown rat.”
“Oh?” Nezu cackles some more, and Shouta can hear tea being poured into the Rat’s favorite tea cup. He knows it’s Nezu’s favorite, because he recognizes the sound of the tea splash. He spends way too much time with the Rat, he needs a vacation. “Don’t tell me- Young Midoriya?”
“Just answer the question already.” Shouta grumbles. Nezu takes a long sip from his tea.
“It’s never been done, but I’m sure between the two of us we can find a way. Now I have a hypothetical for you!”
Oh boy, here we go. Nezu’s hypotheticals are the worst. They always make Shouta either feel off balance and disoriented, or will send him into a research frenzy to know the answer, before inevitably caving and asking Nezu to tell him. On the very rare occasion, Shouta will find the answer before he caves and asks Nezu, and after he does he rides that high for weeks. But that is only very rarely. Maybe once or twice since he started teaching, only once when he was still a student here. Shouta braces himself on the podium, feeling like he’s fixing to walk off to war and never return.
“How do you feel about getting a new kohai?”
Shouta’s hand slips from the podium and he has to rebalance. This- this is not what he was expecting. “What do you mean? I’m not a student anymore, how could I… have a…" His eyes slip to focus on Midoriya for a second and he feels the blood drain from his face as he realizes what the hell the Rat is talking about. " Nezu don’t you dare!”
“Too late!” Nezu cackles. “I’m already submitting the paperwork! And to think, you kept him away from me for so long too! See you after school for tea, Shouta-kun!”
“Wait don’t- hang up.” Shouta trails off into a dejected sigh as the phone clicks. He slumps down, forgoing his chair and just collapsing against the wall. “I regret everything.” He mutters before very pointedly ignoring his concerned hellions as he stares off into space.