Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Izuku didn’t know how long he had been at the hospital at this point, and honestly he didn’t know how to feel. He was grateful he got to see his mother again, don’t get him wrong, but he hadn’t had a home for so long he didn’t know what to do.

Everything had been ripped from under him once again, and Izuku didn’t know what to do. He held a round, red and white ball gingerly in his hands. He could see his mother outside his room, talking to a doctor, Mitsuki standing by her with a comforting hand on his shoulder.

The green-haired child grimaced internally. He liked Mitsuki, but if she was here, then it could mean that Katsuki was here, and Izuku didn’t really want to see him at all. He sighed, pulling the ball (the pokeball, containing one of his closest friends) to his chest.

“Excuse me, Midoriya?” the doctor said as he walked in the room, Mitsuki and his mom behind him. Izuku looked up and tilted his head slightly. “I am happy to inform you that you are being discharged from the hospital.”

“Ok, thank you Doctor.” Izuku responded, pushing himself off the bed. He heard his mom sniffle, and felt a pang of guilt. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to be home! He had missed his mom so much those two years.

It was just that Izuku had started a life for himself in those two years. He had started to discover himself, started making friends and connections he never got the chance to have before (hell, he had even dated someone for a while! Granted the two were firmly broken up even before he was transported back, but still).

People here didn’t care about him, in fact most of them hated him simply for existing. It wasn’t like that there, or at least not the same or as badly as it was here. It had been freeing in a way Izuku hadn’t known was possible, and he doubted he would ever get to feel it in this world.

At least he wasn’t completely alone now. He wasn’t sure how it happened, but he was glad that when he woke up his pokemon had been brought with him (even if it was selfish to subject them to being torn from their world, he couldn’t imagine being without them again). The doctors had tried to take the pokeballs that contained them at first, but Izuku refused to part with them (no self-respecting trainer just gave up their pokemon anyways).

The car ride back home was quiet, with just Inko and Izuku (Mitsuki had driven in her own car), and it was clear that Inko wasn’t sure what to say to her son. He was different then before he went into his coma, quieter and he looked more confident. Inko couldn’t begin to imagine what had happened during the coma to change him (not that the change was necessarily bad, she was just… confused).

~/❉\~ ... - .- .-. -

“Come on Midori! I don’t want to have to camp outside again!” Izuku’s new friend, Jemma, whined. He rolled his eyes fondly as he watched the Joltik scutter across the forest floor and he did his best to quickly sketch them, or at least the big parts of them, in his notepad.

He knew he didn’t need to stay and watch the pokemon to try and draw them, once it was logged in his pokedex he could pull up the image of them whenever, but Izuku liked trying to sketch the real thing out in the wild (much to his friend’s exasperation).

“We’ll be fine Jemma, the next pokemon center isn’t even an hour away and we have plenty of daylight left.” he answered, and he heard her grumble. He huffed a small laugh as he finished up the important bits of the Joltik drawing and stood up. “I swear, you are so impatient, it’s surprising you even wanted to go on an adventure in the first place.”

Jemma let out a “hmph” at him, and there was a very obvious pout on her face. Her Skitty (no name given to her, Izuku didn’t understand why most people didn’t name their pokemon. It was like just calling a dog “dog”, or maybe more accurately calling a corgi “corgi”) laid on her two shoulders, clearly unbothered by her trainer’s antics like usual.

“Of course I want to go on an adventure! Think of all the cute pokemon I wouldn’t get to see otherwise! Oh oh, and the pokemon competitions!” She started, spinning on her heel a little and holding her cheeks as she thought about it. Her Skitty gave an unimpressed sound at the spin and Izuku held back a laugh.

“Okay, okay, I get it. I don’t need to hear all about the pokemon competitions again.” Izuku said, flipping his notepad closed and putting it in his pocket as he walked down the past. “Come on, now you're the one slowing us down!” he teased over his shoulder.

He had only been friends with Jemma for maybe a month, but the two had fallen into a dynamic quickly. When Professor Noether (the man who had graciously taken Izuku in after he had woken up in this strange world and had explained so much of it) had asked Izuku to go with Jemma on her adventure and study the pokemon he found, the greenette had been ecstatic.

He had only been in this world for a month and a half, but already he found himself wanting to know everything. Quirks here were barely even a thing of stories, practically unheard of, and seemingly instead the world was overrun by magical creatures called “pokemon”. Izuku had started analyzing them like he did quirks, and although it was quite different and he wasn’t that great at it, it was very fun! He had even started up drawing more (before he only ever did those simple drawings in his hero notebooks) and he found that he enjoyed that a lot more than he thought he would.

He hoped this adventure would lead him to find his own pokemon partners, a part of him longing for that close bond of friendship that pokemon and trainer seemed to share. And maybe, just maybe, on his journey he would be able to find a way home.

. -. -.. ~/❉\~

Izuku sat on his bed, a bed he hadn’t seen in such a long time. He had gotten so used to sleeping in pokecenters beds and mainly in sleeping bags, that his own bed felt foreign to him. Well really, most things in this world had started to feel foreign to him. His mom was clearly worried about him, but she mainly left him alone (waiting for him to come to her when he was ready).

He held the pokeball in his hand once again, worries and nervousness taking over him. What if his pokemon, his friends, couldn’t come out? He prayed that wasn’t the case, he didn’t want them to be trapped inside their pokeballs forever (no matter how comfortable the insides of the balls were supposed to be).

He held the ball of his smallest pokemon, figuring if they did come out they would make the least amount of a mess. Izuku took a deep breath as he turned the pokeball outwards and pressed the button, forcing himself to keep his eyes open.

It opened up and bright light erupted out from it, and Izuku felt himself relax as he watched the light begin to take shape. It took only a few seconds, but when the pokemon did take shape Izuku gave a sharp gasp of air.

Instead of the Frosmoth that had been inside before, a Snom like the one he had first caught sat. His Snom, which he had named Yuanye, seemed just as confused as he was from what Izuku could see. He knelt down in front of her and gently picked her up off the ground.

“Yuanye, are you ok?” He asked, to which she nodded. “I guess whatever brought us all here must have reversed the evolutions you all went through. Or at the very least, that you went through.”

Izuku stood up slowly as Yuanye shifted herself to be comfortable in his arms. He figured if she had gone back to being a Snom, it only made sense that the rest of them went back to their first evolution stages. At the very least, neither the reversal nor arriving in this world had seemed to hurt his pokemon (he didn’t what he would have done if it had. How was he supposed to heal his pokemon?).

Yuanye made a soft sound to comfort him and touched his arm gently with her nose. Izuku smiled at her, using one of his hands to gently pat the top of her head in the way she had always liked (pokemon could be very particular about where they were pet or groomed). She made a noise of content, and Izuku took a deep breath to fully calm himself down.

He would get used to this world again, it would just take a while. And at least the other world wasn’t completely gone, and he wasn’t alone. (A part of him wondered if he could finally achieve his old dream of being a hero, with his pokemon by his side. And even if he couldn’t, at least this time he had other career plan ideas.)

Chapter Text

Izuku had been right about his pokemon all going back to their first stages. It was odd that they were all back like that, and Izuku wasn’t sure if they could evolve anymore (he had no idea what rules from the pokemon world remained true in this one honestly), but his pokemon didn’t seem to be too upset about it at least.

They also didn’t seem to be extremely upset about being in this world. They were clearly confused and didn’t fully understand what this meant (he didn’t either), but they seemed like they were glad to be with him.

Introducing them to his mom had been quite the ordeal, to say the least. She had been extremely surprised, but had taken it in stride (which Izuku appreciated more than he could express). Inko had assumed that it was his quirk, and Izuku hadn’t corrected her. When they went to the doctor’s afterwards they assumed the same thing, and that the coma had been a symptom of its forming which is why it didn’t form sooner.

Izuku knew that wasn’t at all true, and that he was still just as quirkless as before, but he let them think that. After all, it wasn’t like he knew any other way to really explain it, and it was probably best to just let them try to put it in a way they best understood (it was what he had done a bit when he first arrived in the other world).

He had even found a good spot to train with his pokemon. Dagobah beach was a place that sounded pretty on paper, but had become a total trash dump before Izuku had even been born. But on the plus side, it was a good place for his team to practice their moves on trash, and he himself had been slowly cleaning it up to try and build some muscle up.

He found out that healing his pokemon wasn’t too difficult too, after he had stupidly set up a battle between two of them before figuring out how. Apparently here, they would not only heal inside their pokeballs (albeit rather slowly), but he could also make some herbs into a liquid and it would work like a potion (he found that out after spilling some of his mom’s essential oils that she used for aromatherapy on one of his pokemon).

Feeding was also rather easy. His pokemon could eat basically anything that was food in this world, although they preferred fruits and berries (which didn’t surprise him much). One thing he was excited about doing in this world was cooking. He had learned to in the other world, but it was very much easier to cook over a stove instead of a fire.

Going back to school was probably one of the weirdest parts of being back. Classmates and teachers weren’t treating him like they had before, though Izuku didn’t know if that was because they thought he had a quirk now or because of his supposed “coma”. Even Katsuki had been pretty decent to him.

Not to mention that class was much easier than he remembered. He had thought that two years of traveling on the road would have made it harder, and there were some things that were hard (mainly history), but most things felt easy. Maybe it was just because he had grown more confident in those two years, or maybe it was because he had been taken in by a scientist family during that time. Maybe it was both.

~/❉\~ ... - .- .-. -

“Ew, what a weird-looking pokemon!”

“I bet it’s one of those creepy ghost or dark types.”

“Well either way, I don’t wanna go near that thing. It might infect us or something.”

“Wait, you don’t mean like possession or something do you Addisyn? Ewww, that’s so ghoulish! Who would even want a pokemon like that?”

“Probably some loser weirdo. Let’s get out of here before it tries to call its friends or whatever, Braelynn. They’d probably be equally disgusting.”

Izuku had sped up down the road when he heard the conversation. He had just decided to go for a small walk while Jemma checked out the shops near the pokecenter, he hadn’t expected to hear something so awful! Who could ever talk about a pokemon like that?! They were all so cool and amazing!

By the time he arrived where he had heard the two girls talking, they were already gone. All that was there was a humanoid pokemon that Izuku hadn’t seen before standing solemnly, and a little injured looking, by a tree. He couldn't believe how cool they looked, and had automatically gasped in awe at seeing them. They reminded him of an old yokai legend, the futakuchi-onna.

The pokemon had quickly turned to look at him upon hearing him gasp. They looked defensive, as if ready for an attack. If the conversation he heard meant anything, that probably was a common occurrence for the pokemon (a part of him whispered that he knew what that was like, that his life used to be the exact same way).

“Hello there.” he said gently, slowly pulling an oran berry out from his pocket (he was suddenly grateful that Emmy had drilled into his head to always carry at least one berry with him at all times). He carefully rolled the berry towards them, and the pokemon stared between him and it for a while, before picking it up and eating it with a fierce hunger.

“Wow, you must have been really hungry huh?” Izuku said with a chuckle, moving to sit on the ground while he pulled out his notepad and started to draw the pokemon in front of him. It probably would have been better to scan them with the pokedex first, but Izuku didn’t want to accidentally scare them with the loud noise.

⁎-⁑-⁂-⁑-⁎

Izuku wasn’t sure how long he had been sitting there with the pokemon, a Mawile he had eventually learned, but it was definitely longer than he had planned on being out. The Mawile had even positioned herself into a better position for Izuku to draw, which was fun. He didn’t think he had ever gotten such clear drawings.

By now, Izuku’s small bag of food he carried with him had started to dwindle as he kept feeding the Mawile (which he didn’t regret at all). He knew Jemma would be a little mad at him since it would mean he would already have to buy more, but he didn’t really mind all that much.

“Midori, where are you? It’s been forever!” Jemma called from down the path, drawing out the last word with a small whine. He huffed another small laugh, and gave a loud whistle to tell her where he was.

“Ugh, Midori- Ah, what is that?!” she said when she ran up, beforing yelping at the Mawile. A growl erupted from Izuku’s throat without him meaning it too, and he turned towards Jemma with a glare.

“THAT, is a pokemon. You’d think you’d be able to recognize one, considering you’re a pokemon trainer and all.” He told her sternly with narrowed eyes. He knew Jemma probably didn’t mean anything by it, she was just prone to saying things before her brain had the chance to actually think, but still.

“I, uh… sorry. I just wasn’t expecting you to be up here with a pokemon. Just surprised me is all, didn’t mean anything rude by it.” She mumbled out and crossed her arms, but she did seem sincere in her apology.

Izuku sighed and turned back around, only to find the Mawile much closer. He blinked a couple times in surprise, before smiling at her gently. The Mawile made a noise of resolve, before pointing at the spot on his belt where the empty pokeballs he had sat.

“Er, what…?” Izuku blinked in confusion and tilted his head slightly.

“Oooo, I think they want you to catch them! How cool, you’re first ever pokemon!” Jemma said excitedly, hopping up and down a little.

“Is… is that true? Do you want me to catch you?” Izuku asked tentatively. The Mawile nodded, her face determined. He smiled wide, familiar tears beginning to collect in his eyes, and he pulled off a pokeball from his belt.

He moved the button outwards and held the pokeball in front of the Mawile carefully. She didn’t even hesitate before she pressed the button. Soon a glowing white light overtook her and pulled her into the pokeball. Once it closed, it shook once, then twice, then a pleasant “ding” came from the ball and two sparkles emanated from it.

Izuku couldn’t help himself, he jumped up off the ground and held the pokeball that now held a Mawile (his first ever pokemon!!!) close to himself. He couldn’t believe it, his very own pokemon! And they had chosen him to be their trainer!

“Futakuchi.” he whispered into the ball, naming his new pokemon. He could feel the Mawile inside agreeing with the name. His smile was light as a fluffy feeling he wasn’t sure he had ever felt before filled him.

. -. -.. ~/❉\~

Izuku hummed quietly as he sat at the kitchen table doing his homework with one hand, his other hand being used to pet Noizu (his Noibat) who was currently curled up in his lap. She was contently humming along with him, a few soft purrs interrupting her.

“Izuku?” his mother’s voice called out, and he looked up from his homework and set his pencil down. Noizu perked up a little, and Izuku’s hand stilled for a moment. “Mitsuki’s throwing a party tomorrow, I was wondering if you wanted to go? You could bring your… familiars.”

The greenette thought it over for a moment, and he glanced at Noizu. The Noibat had always been a little shy, although slowly she had started coming out of her shell, and it was clear that she wanted to go. He smiled softly at her, mustering up the courage to go for himself.

“Sure mom, It would be nice to see Auntie Mitsuki and Uncle Masaru again.” He responded after maybe half a minute. It was true, he would like to see his pseudo-aunt and uncle again (they had always been so kind to him…). However, not only seeing Katsuki but having to talk to him again?

Well, Izuku wasn’t entirely sure how that interaction would go, but he doubted it would go well. Katsuki had left Izuku alone during school, sure, but he had also been avoiding the explosive blond whenever he could (which was most times. Avoiding Beedrills in forests and Zubats in caves and lots of other wild pokemon had heavily trained his stealth and speed).

“Let’s hope for the best, huh Noizu?” Izuku whispered, hugging the bat-like pokemon a little. She gave a small, comforting squeak and touched his arm with her claw. He took a deep breath, and started up on his homework again.

Chapter Text

Izuku kept his hand near his Pokeballs the entire time at the party. He exchanged some niceties with the guests, but that was about it. His mom excitedly chatted to the guests and Mitsuki, sending a look over to Izuku every once and awhile (he made sure to smile when she did).

“‘Tch, of course you’d be here, nerd. Still be fucking anti-social?” Katsuki said, looking at Izuku with his hands in his pocket. Despite his words being angry and rude (like usual with Katsuki), there wasn’t any real bite behind it. It surprised Izuku, and he blinked a few times.

“I’m not anti-social, I just don’t want to keep being asked about my coma.” Izuku said, smiling softly. “There’s not much to say about it anyways.”

“Whatever. Auntie said you got some new quirk or something.” Katsuki said, leaning against the wall. Izuku’s smile twitched (he should have known that would be the topic everyone cared about) but he nodded. “Well, you gonna show me or what?”

“...Maybe it’d be better to show you outside.” Izuku responded. He didn’t really want to draw attention to himself or throw his pokemon into a large group of people like this without warning. His pokemon weren’t all the most sociable.

The two middle schoolers headed outside the house into the Bakugou’s backyard. (Izuku was reminded slightly of Emmy showing him around the lab when he first found his way to the other world.) Katsuki turned and looked at him expectantly.

He pulled out one of his pokeballs, this time a ball with a green top and red and yellow markings on the front (a friend ball, a gift given to him by his friend Ekber). He pressed the button and watched as the bright light lept from it and formed on the ground.

He watched as one of his earliest caught pokemon formered. Tomo, an eevee and his most sociable pokemon, was already seemingly wagging her fluffy brown tail. She jumped around in her usual dance, weaving between Izuku’s legs as she often did. He giggled at her antics.

“What the hell is that fucking thing?!” Katsuki said loudly. It wasn’t a yell, at least not yet, but it was still very loud. Izuku leveled him with a glare as he leaned down to Tomo and scooped up the energetic eevee (he didn’t need her running off… again).

“Her name is Tomo. she’s one of my po-... familiars.” Izuku explained, petting Tomo as she pouted in his arms. He loved his eevee, really he did, but she could be quite the handful and had gotten him to trouble a few times.

“One of?! How many of these damn things do you have deku?!” This time Katsuki was even closer to yelling. His face was conformed into its usual anger (Izuku had to wonder if part of that was due to him having a “quirk”).

“I have six, and please don’t call them ‘things’. They aren’t objects, they are their own individuals.” Izuku said, his voice stern and a glare still directed straight towards his childhood friend.

Katsuki looked a little uncomfortable about Izuku glaring at him (the “coma” had changed Izuku, and he wasn’t the same quirkless child who would follow Katsuki without question). He looked away from Izuku with a huff, and crossed his arms.

Izuku sighed as Tomo nuzzled his shoulder, but he left to go back inside to the party. Well, Tommo liked meeting new people anyways, so perhaps she would like the party. As long as he didn’t have to keep interacting with Katsuki.

~/❉\~ ... - .- .-. -

“So, ‘Zuku, how’s things going with Lloyd?” Jemma teased as the group of five sat around the fire they made at their campsite. Izuku’s cheeks flared red as he looked away from the girl quickly.

“For the last time Jemma, we’re just friends! There’s nothing going on.” Izuku said, rubbing his cheeks a little. Jemma’s Stufful made a noise, almost like he was disagreeing with Izuku. He stuck his tongue out at the pokemon.

“I never said you weren’t friends, why would you assume I meant anything else?” Jemma questioned, a smug look in her eyes as she placed a hand on her chest. Izuku stuttered a little, before just settling on glaring at her.

“Oh come on Jemma, leave greenie alone already!” Ulva said, smacking Jemma playfully on the arm. Her skiddo bleeted, taking another bite of the watmel berry in front of her. Her twin brother, Milo, rolled his eyes at his sisters as he continued to write by firelight.

“Ulva’s right, for once.” Ekber starts, ignoring Ulva’s joking protests. “We shouldn’t meddle with this, we might end up scaring Lloyd off. It’s a miracle we haven’t scared Izuku off.” he finished, continuing to brush his buneary that sat in his lap.

“Thank you Ekber.” Izuku said, smiling at his older friend. “But, there is no ‘possible love life’.” he reiterated. Sure, Lloyd was sweet, and Izuku liked being around him, but it wasn’t romantic! (Was it? Would Izuku even know if it was?)

. -. -.. ~/❉\~

Izuku had nearly completely cleaned his room of hero merch since he had first “woken up”. None of it felt right anymore, his love for heroes still very existent, but heroes having been something he hadn’t had for two years (two years that had felt so very, very long…).

He had since covered his room in glowing stars, posters and pictures of the outdoors, animal figurines, fake and real plants, and just things that reminded him of the outdoors. After Izuku had spent so long camping outside, having an actual room and bed felt… odd, to say the least.

The green-haired child knew his mother was worried, knew his behavior was disturbing his classmates and teachers he used to know. He was isolating himself from people he used to long to be close to and to the few people who knew did love him.

His pokemon still remained by his side, his closest friends and companions. They were like his rock, and he loved them for it and for being there for him, but he knew they were confused by this new, strange, world. Izuku could only wonder “why?”.

Why had he been forced into the other world? Why was he forced back just when he had finally accepted that he would never return home? Why had he lost the only friends he had ever had that had truly cared for him? Why were the beings he cared most for forced to suffer through being thrown into a new environment they were never meant for?

Chapter Text

“I could pass out some career aptitude tests, but what’s the point!” the teacher said, throwing the sheets into the air. “I know you all want to be heroes!”

The class cheered out, using and showing off their quirks and Izuku held back an eye roll. All the rest of the class (rest of the school really) cared about was quirks, and a good portion didn’t have quirks that would really help them with heroics anyways (not to say their quirks were bad or useless or anything like that of course).

“Don’t lump me in with the rest of these extras teach! They’ll be lucky if they make it as sidekicks to some d-lister.” Katsuki called out, confident and cocky as ever. “I’m gonna make it into UA. it’s the only place worthy of me!”

He kept going on with some speech about how he was gonna be the greatest hero ever, but Izuku honestly wasn’t really paying much attention.

“Oh right, Midoriya, you want to go to UA too don’t you?” the teacher said. Before where Izuku was sure people would make fun of him and insult him for his choice, instead there was a heavy silence.

People still didn’t know how to treat him since his coma, since he obtained a “quirk”, even though by now it had been months. Most just tried to ignore him and his existence whenever they could, which Izuku usually returned. Even Katsuki wasn’t sure how to treat him, though it was clear he hadn’t gotten any less aggressive.

Eventually the class moved on to the rest of the lesson, a few voices mumbling to each other about it. A few glances were thrown at Izuku, but he didn’t pay them much attention and just focused on the lesson.

The rest of the day went by rather smoothly, and felt rather quick. He left the classroom basically unnoticed, besides a dirty look and a small “tch” from Katsuki (probably mad that Izuku was planning to apply to UA).

As Izuku walked home, he opened one of his pokeballs to let out Hasha, his Riolu. Hasha was protective, not just of Izuku but of Izuku’s other pokemon too, so he liked to walk besides Izuku to protect him.

“The entrance exam is ten months from now. I’ll have to up my own training and studying, but you guys should be fine.” Izuku said to Hasha, the pokemon nodding in acknowledgement. “I should probably go out to buy some more herbs so I can have a good supply of potions by then. Could probably pick up some more fruit too.”

He mumbled to himself slightly, mentally making a shopping list of things to buy in preparation for the exam, as the two walked. He had still had plenty of money leftover from selling his hero merch, and he worked part-time at a flower shop (he still remembered Lloyd teaching him about flower languages, even if he now hated Lloyd’s guts).

He turned to walk under an overpass, but was stopped in his tracks by a growl from Hasha. Hasha was not an aggressive pokemon without good reason, so something had to be wrong. An aura of danger?

Izuku stepped back, and Hasha jumped in front of him in a fighting stance. All the teen could hear was drops of some kind of liquid, which- which didn’t make any sense, considering it had been perfectly sunny for the entire month.

He sniffed the air and his nose curled in disgust. What was that, a muk?! It certainly smelled like one. The stench of sewage and trash wasn’t exactly easy to mistake (especially after that one time with Jemma and Milo).

Izuku just picked up Hasha and decided to take the long way home instead of dealing with whatever that thing was. He was a random 14 year old, it was not his problem. (Plus he didn’t want to get him or Hasha in trouble if something happened and Hasha defended him.)

He decided to stop by Dagobah, sending his mom a text that he would be home late. Throughout the course of the school year, he had managed to clean a good part of the beach, enough so that people actually started going there sometimes.

He hadn’t expected the beach to actually stay clean while he was cleaning it, but surprisingly people had stopped throwing their trash there (or at least, most people did) upon seeing that it had been cleaned. There were even a few times where he came to the beach being a little bit cleaner than when he left it.

(He could only assume that Irene’s philosophy of “do something good, and others will follow” had some truth to it after all.)

It wasn’t all clean, still leaving a good amount for Izuku to do some more strength training with, or to have his pokemon work on doing battles on rocky terrain. Of course, the clean part of the beach was also perfect for battle training.

“Okay guys, come on out.” he mumbled to himself, before pressing the buttons to release the rest of his pokemon. Thankfully the beach was clear of people, so Izuku wasn’t worried about someone admonishing him for “illegal quirk use” (which was stupid even if he did actually have a quirk. It was basically like making it illegal for someone to move their arm; as long as they aren’t actively hurting anyone with it, they should be able to use it since it’s literally a part of their body).

Izuku smiled at his pokemon. “Okay guys, we got ten months left! Let’s get ready to put our all into this exam and knock their socks off!” he said with his hands on his hips, his pokemon letting out cheers in response.

~/❉\~ ... - .- .-. -

“And here we are, Circhester Gym, home of the Typhoon Badge.” Milo said as they stood outside a giant building. It was decorated beautifully, and was clearly a water gym.

Izuku looked up at it in awe. Every gym in this region so far had been absolutely gorgeous (he ignored that this was only the third gym he had seen so far). He looked over at Jemma, Ekber, and Ulva, who all looked determined.

Milo and Izuku both hadn’t signed up for the pokemon league, since neither of them really cared about winning it or even really being a part of it. But the rest of the group had signed up, and were excited to collect their third gym badge.

“You guys ready?” Izuku asked as they walked inside, looking around the gym. It was decorated just as much on the inside as the outside, and looked very cool in Izuku’s opinion.

“As ready as we can be.” Ekber responded, putting a hand on Izuku’s shoulder to make sure he stayed with the group and didn’t wander off. “Plus, that training you suggested for water types will do us great, I’m sure.”

Izuku blushed a little but smiled. Analyzing pokemon types and how to work around them and their attacks wasn’t exactly like analyzing quirks, but it was similar in ways. It was fun to be able to put his theories into practice though.

Izuku gave a small, slightly nervous chuckle. “I don’t know if it will be that helpful.” he mumbled, rubbing the back of his neck.

“Hey, don’t sell yourself short! Even if it just helps us feel more confident for the fight, that’s still helping.” Ulva called back with a giant grin. Jemma nodded enthusiastically in agreement.

He smiled and straightened himself slightly. “Yeah, yeah.” he wasn’t sure if he entirely agreed with her point, but it didn’t hurt to just let himself feel helpful if they said he was.

. -. -.. ~/❉\~

Izuku had gotten half way through the five month mark, and he was marginally proud of his progress. He had looked up some martial arts stuff online and managed to follow the tutorial videos pretty well, and he had definitely gained some muscle from the beach clean up.

His pokemon were doing great too with their own training. They already knew a lot of the moves before, but since they had been forced to go backwards with their evolution stage they had to get used to them again. And they had, amazingly so!

Izuku hummed as he sat on his bed, scrolling through his laptop. He was home alone, his mom at her job that day. Tomo and Yuanye laid on his bed near him. He had a fond smile as he sent a glance at the two. He was happy to have his team, but…

But he missed the others, the ones he hadn’t been allowed to keep on him because of that world’s “rule of six”, and had instead sent to the professor. He had been able to video call them before at least, but now… now they were gone.

The greenette let out a shaky breath as he clicked to a different tab and-

Wait, that… that was definitely not what he clicked. He- he had clicked a tab about protein smoothies (he had started making them to help with the beach clean up), but this was something very different. Something he recognized, and never thought he’d see again.

After all, why would he ever expect to see the screen that was basically only available in a pokecenter or a professor’s lab that allowed you to see the pokemon you had caught that weren’t on your team?

Izuku was almost certain this was not supposed to be here. And he didn’t understand how it was there, how it had just appeared on his screen!

…in this world, the rule of six wouldn’t exist, and he could basically see the icons representing them. It might not even work, but… but he could try, right?

He moved the cursor and held his breath, hope and nerves overtaking him in equal measure. There was a heavy weight in his chest, and he felt like his heart was going to burst. He squeezed his eyes closed, and then clicked.

His laptop was basically thrown to the floor as a light enveloped him and the room. Tomo Yuanye both let out noises of alarm, and Izuku let out a strangled gasp, and then…

Then, they were there. His many friends he hadn’t gotten to see in so long, sixteen of his pokemon he thought he would ever get the chance to see again.

And Izuku, in true Midoriya fashion, sobbed in happiness, as the pokemon (now in their first evolution form) jumped on him in a hug.

Chapter Text

Izuku wasn’t sure he had ever felt so anxious as he walked up to UA. The school building towered over him, literally and figuratively. He had all of his pokemon with him inside their pokeballs (although the newest four were a bit farther behind with the training, they had been working twice as hard to try and catch up).

He had a spray bottle with his “potion mix” hidden under a jacket he was wearing (he looked over at the rules repeatedly, and no where did they say he couldn’t bring something in, but Izuku didn’t want to get in trouble for it).

He took a deep breath and started walking towards the school. He had trained and studied for this. He could do this, he could do this, he could do this-

The un-isekai-ed teen bit his tongue to stop himself from squealing as he tripped and started crashing towards the pavement. He closed his eyes and brought his hands in front of him, bracing for impact…

Only for it to never come.

“Sorry for using my quirk on you, I know I should have asked, but I thought falling on the first day would be bad luck.” an upbeat feminine voice said. Izuku opened his eyes and blinked to see a girl with a brown bob in front of him.

And, more pressingly, realized he was floating above the ground. Was this her quirk? It reminded Izuku of a psychic type, maybe some kind of control over gravity. “Can you control gravity?’ he blurted out, holding back a wince at his lack of tack.

“Oh, uh, no, my quirk allows me to cancel the gravity of things I touch.” the girl said, rubbing the back of her neck. She placed the pads of her fingers (five-point activated quirk then, based on her putting her finger tips together and the slightly different coloring of them) and Izuku was released back onto the floor.

Izuku thought that sounded weird, since if he had no gravity he would probably just keep floating up into the sky forever instead of just hovering above the ground, but he kept his mouth firmly shut. She would know her own quirk better than him.

“Uh, well thank you for catching me.” He forced out a smile through his nerves, though he wasn’t sure how effective it was with how anxious he felt. “I uh, hope you do well on the exam!”

The girl broke out into a smile. “You too! Maybe I’ll see you there.” she said, waving to him as she turned to run inside.

Alright, in and out, in and out. He could do this. Just maybe pay more attention to where he was walking so he didn’t trip over his own feet again.

He took a deep breath, straightened himself, held his head high, and walked into the building.

⁎-⁑-⁂-⁑-⁎

The written exam had been… okay. It definitely lived up to the difficulty UA said it was. Izuku wasn’t sure how well he had really done, but he was semi-confident that he had at least passed it.

He pulled his lips into a tight line as he entered the auditorium when he saw that they had put him next to Katsuki. He just hoped the blonde wouldn’t glare at him the entire time.

Izuku pushed his hands against his pant legs as he sat down and watched other examinees trickle in (he wondered if some of the kids he saw would be his classmates if he managed to pass).

His nerves had managed to calm down a touch, but the trainer still felt like his heart was going to beat out of his chest. He took a few deep breaths (he was taking a lot of those today) and ran one hand gently over his pokeballs.

Eventually everyone had sat down, and Izuku was a little surprised at the lack of talking. Maybe nerves were getting to anyone (or maybe they just didn’t want to make a bad impression on the school).

Present Mic walked onstage and Izuku felt himself brighten a little. The voice hero was known for being pretty friendly, and Izuku had sometimes listened to his radio show while cleaning the beach. (Plus, although Izuku would never say it aloud, the hero reminded him a bit of a Chatot.)

“Can I get a YEAH!” The pro started off with a big smile. Without fully thinking, Izuku called out a “yeah” back.

He soon realized that no one else had responded to Present Mic, and a few people glanced up at him. Izuku’s cheeks burned in embarrassment and he curled into himself in the chair, as if trying to will himself invisible.

“Thank you, listener!” Present Mic called out, pointing a finger at him with a smile, before moving on.

Izuku had a bit of a hard time listening to his exact words, but he got the gist of it. Fighting against three types of robots, each worth a different amount of points.

Robots, probably closest to a steel and electric type. Tomo knew some ground type moves, which was good against both steel and electric types. And both Hasha and Enpaia were good typing against steel (fighting and fire respectively). Kihin and Noizu weren’t great for the electric part while Futakuchi and Yuanye weren’t good for the steel part, so they should probably sit this one out. Of course, that was assuming the robots were even really like steel and electric types, which might not even be the case-

“Excuse me, Present Mic sir!” A voice shouted, interrupting the pro-hero and Izuku’s train of thought. “On the pamphlet, there are four robots but you’ve only mentioned three of them!” Which was phrased a little accusingly, but him not mentioning it likely meant it was probably some kind of surprise obstacle, right?

“And in addition, you with the unkempt hair!” The boy said, turning around and pointing at Izuku, which Izuku thought was a little rude considering he could have just pointed or used another defining factor (like, the fact that his hair was green). “You have been muttering the entire explanation and have been very distracting! It is not very heroic to try and distract your fellow examinees!”

…Okay, Izuku didn’t know who shaved a stick up that guy’s ass or where he got the audacity to accuse someone of purposefully trying to get other examinees to fail, but so far he seemed like a bit of a jerk. They were much nicer ways to say “hey, stop muttering” (like just saying “hey, stop muttering”) that didn’t actively embarrass someone else.

Thankfully, Present Mic quickly got the attention back onto him by saying that the fourth robot was a zero pointer and was just best ignored. Which definitely meant that it was some kind of giant obstacle that would make the exam a lot harder, especially since Mic said there was only one in every area.

Gym Leaders and high-up trainers (like the champions) were almost always at least a little sadistic in their battles and tests, so Izuku had learned some of the keywords that gave away that things were not as easy as they lead on.

“Show me your exam card nerd.” Katsuki said once Present Mic left, although there wasn’t as much bite as his words would usually have. Izuku showed Katsuki his card, unsure why. “Different arenas, probably don’t want people from the same middle school helping each other.”

That… made sense, yeah. “Good, then I won’t have you and you six quirk-fuckers to trip me up.” he scoffed.

“There’s ten now actually.” Izuku corrected as he put away his exam card again.

“What, you got four more of those things?! How the fuck-” The explosive blond’s voice started to raise slightly, but Izuku was quick to cut him off.

“I don’t know. One second they weren’t there, then the next they were. Quirks are weird, and mine is not an exemption.” technically Izuku still didn’t have a quirk (at least, he didn’t think he did) but that was besides the point.

Katsuki ust narrowed his eyes and scoffed, before leaving for his exam center. Huh, that was surprisingly mild of a reaction from him… well, Izuku wasn’t gonna distract himself by thinking of it or look a gift horse in the mouth.

He walked over to his exam center and- oh, the girl who helped him earlier was there! And what looked like the guy from the auditorium, but Izuku didn’t really feel like acknowledging him at the moment.

The girl looked rather nervous, maybe Izuku should go check if she was okay before the exam started-

“I hope you are not thinking of distracting that girl! She is here to do her best and you should not sabotage her chances!” and there went his chances of ignoring the auditorium guy. Damn, was this guy determined to make Izuku out to be some jerk who wanted to win by any means necessary?

Izuku probably could have said something, but thinking something was much easier than actually saying that thing out loud. So, instead Izuku just shook his head and tried not to look at anyone.

Legendaries, why couldn’t confidence just be simple? Was it his anxiety? It was probably his anxiety.

A buzzer sounded, and Izuku ran through the still opening doors. Waiting wouldn’t be of any help, and if pokemon battles had taught him anything, it was that you couldn’t put moving and thinking at different times; you did both, or you fell behind and failed.

“What are you listeners waiting for?! There’s no countdowns in real life!” Present Mic yelled out. Izuku nearly paused as he realized that no one else had started running, but Present Mic was right. No countdowns, no waiting.

He pulled out a pokeball as he saw robots approaching and clicked the button to open it. Tomo appeared from within the glowing light, letting out an excited and determined call.

“Tomo, quick attack on the one with a three on it!” he called out. Tomo was enveloped in what looked to be a loose silver aura as she rushed at the robot, it shutting off and falling once she hit it.

Huh, they were probably made to be breakable huh? Probably so that the examinees could focus on quantity of fights over the individual fights.

“Tomo, attack as many robots as you can!” Izuku called and Tomo nodded with a smile. Most trainers preferred to instruct pokemon on their individual attacks, but it wasn’t necessary. It made the fight’s easier, sure, but Izuku could instead focus on trying to take down robots on his own.

…hopefully he could actually take down a robot on his own. He had gotten kinda strong, and he didn’t want to rely entirely on his pokemon.

Maybe it would do him good to start hiking or rock climbing, like he did back when he was traveling. Plus, if he got into UA hopefully they would help him get better at sparring and fitness, and wouldn’t just focus on his quirk.

…they wouldn’t just focus on his quirk, right? It was UA after all, they produced four of the top five and was considered the top hero school. Yeah, of course they wouldn’t.

⁎-⁑-⁂-⁑-⁎

He was right about the zero-pointer, he was right about the zero-pointer, HE WAS RIGHT ABOUT THE GOD-DAMN ZERO-POINTER.

It was gigantic, towering far above the buildings. The ground shook as it stepped, and it grabbed onto buildings as it walked forward and made them begin to crumble (Izuku could only imagine how much it must have cost to make the robot, and how much time and money it would take to fix the city).

Izuku checked to make sure Tomo and Enpaia (his off-color, or shiny as Professor Noether called them, litleo he had let out a bit earlier) were close by his side as he started to run away like everyone else, before he heard someone yelling. He looked back towards the yelling, only to see the girl from before trapped under rubble.

UA wouldn’t let someone die during the exam, obviously, but… was Izuku just supposed to not help her? He ran towards her with a whistle to alert his pokemon to follow him.

“Hey, can you lift the rubble?” He asked, vaguely remembering her quirk. He assumed not, since she was trapped under the rubble, but it didn’t hurt to ask.

She shook her head and groaned. Okay, so she was out of commission… okay, a plan, he could come up with a plan; he was good at that type of stuff.

“Tomo, Enpaia, use shadow ball and flamethrower and try to distract the giant robot.” He told them both and the eevee and litleo jumped into action. He then grabbed two pokeballs and let out Futakuchi and Hasha. “Hasha, use metal claw on the ruck, and Futakuchi, use iron head on it.” he instructed.

As the two chipped at the rock, Izuku did his best to pull the girl out from under the rubble. He gave one last pull that lodged the girl out and fell down on the ground hard, and a buzzer sounded that caused all the robots to deactivate. The entrance exam was over.

He didn’t know exactly how many bots Tomo and Enpaia had destroyed, or what types they had gotten. And, he had only managed to take down one robot on his own (thanks to a pipe he had gotten out of some wreckage), a one-pointer.

Meaning, he had no idea what his score would be so he had no idea if he had gotten into the hero course. And he wouldn’t get his results back until a week later, meaning a week full of anxiety.

Great. Well, maybe he would at least get into gen-ed if he failed? Like he had told himself before, it wasn’t like being a hero was the only thing he wanted anymore (he still knew how awful it would hurt if he was rejected from the hero course).

Chapter Text

~/❉\~ ... - .- .-. -

“Professor Noether?” Izuku asked tentatively, stepping into the part of the lab where the researcher was.

“Yes Izuku?” the adult said, turning his chair to look at the tween with a smile. His ditto, who the professor has named Bakeru, chirped from their place on the desk.

Izuku cleared his throat as he stepped inside, flexing his fingers a bit to try and get rid of any remaining nerves he had. “I uh, I had a question about pokemon colors? Cause um, Bakeru is blue, but the pokedex shows dittos as being pink?”

Professor Noether gave a chuckle. “Well, there isn’t a definitive answer just yet about why some pokemon have different colorations from their counterparts. The most well-known theory on the matter is that most pokemon carry a recessive genome for that coloration, and it’s just not often that the genome actually comes through.”

He stood up and gestured a little with his hand. “There’s also some theories that pokemon used to have ancestors that were colored that way, but when people started catching them pokemon changed biologically, which caused a change in color. There’s also some belief that pokemon with differing colors have some connections to legendary pokemon.”

“In short, no one is entirely sure.” Aloys said with a shrug. “People have only really been studying pokemon for a century or so now, and we are discovering new things every single year, if not every day.”

Aloys placed a hand on Izuku’s shoulder and looked at him kindly. “But even if there aren’t answers, it’s good to ask questions like that. If no one takes the initiative to ask questions, then we might miss out on an answer that could change the very world we live in or put everything we know in a new light.”

“That’s why every region has at least one pokemon lab and professor in it. That’s why I’ve decided to dedicate my life to researching why pokemon can look so different from others of the same species.” The professor said with a big smile, and Izuku found himself smiling too. “Because people’s questions about the world deserve to be answered.”

(Izuku found it nice to not get in trouble for asking a question. He found Professor Noether’s view on it all refreshing too. Even if this new world was so new and strange to his own, he was glad Aloys and his family had found Izuku and taken him in.)

(He missed his mother every day, but at least he had something of a family here.)

. -. -.. ~/❉\~

Izuku didn’t know if he had ever felt this anxious before. He knew he had probably thought the same thing during the exam, but at least then actually doing the exam had been a way to distract himself.

But now? Now, nothing seemed to be distracting enough. Training himself, training his pokemon, trying new recipes to cook, going on runs, studying, analyzing quirks, none of it worked.

He had even tried going over his hero costume design (which was based on outfits of some of the first ever pokemon trainers in the early Sinnoh region, known as the Hisui region at the time) again. This had been the opposite of helpful, since it just put the whole “exam results” at the forefront of his mind.

It was like some looming force that wouldn’t go away. Or in other words, it was the longest seven days of the trainer’s life.

“Izuku, Izuku!” His mom called, and Izuku almost ran out of his room to her. She was waving an envelope that had UA’s official symbol on it. “It’s here!”

It was here. Calm, calm, calm. This was only the letter that would be defining his future, no big deal. No big deal at all.

Izuku sat at his desk in his room, Futakuchi sitting in his lap comfortingly. His mom was waiting out in the living room (at his request; he didn’t know if he could take the pitying look she would have if he failed). He held the envelope, which felt very heavy.

He held his breath slightly and opened the envelope slowly, and- wait, was that a projector?! They were delivering their exam results through a, like expensive, projector? …did that mean he passed? Would they send something that expensive to people who failed?

The green-haired teen moved his hand and pressed the button that would turn on the projector, and when All Might suddenly appeared through the hologram with a loud “I AM HERE”, Izuku nearly screamed.

“Young Midoriya, on the written exam you got an 89% on the written exam. On the practical, you managed to score 46 points, which would put you 12th overall.” All Might announced, and Izuku nearly deflated with relief. “However!” shit, spoke too soon-

“UA could not say they were the best hero school if they only gave points for destruction!” Wait, so did he get in or not? What was All Might saying? “For your brave and thought-through rescue of your fellow student from the zero-pointer, you were awarded 65 rescue points!” rescues points? “Putting you with an overall score of 111 points, making you the top scorer of the practical exam!”
Sorry, he was what? He had wanted to get into UA, yeah, but that didn’t mean he wanted to be the top scorer! He was perfectly comfortable blending in the background without having high expectations about his potential, thank you very much.

Oh Arceus, Katsuki was gonna be pissed at getting lower than “Deku” wasn’t he? That would be sooo much fun.

At least he actually managed to get into UA. That was a big accomplishment, and Izuku couldn’t deny he was happy about that. Getting taught by pro-heroes and learning how to be a hero and save people was a dream come true.

…wait, didn’t All Might say he was gonna be a teacher at UA? Likely for the more experienced 3rd years, but that still meant Izuku had a chance to run into THE All Might.

⁎-⁑-⁂-⁑-⁎

Izuku would admit that Katsuki had not reacted how he expected. He glared at Izuku a lot, but other than that it was mainly just kinda awkward between them. The blonde was as explosive as he would have been before Izuku’s “coma”.

The green teen kept his pokeballs close as he walked down the halls of UA. When he finally arrived in front of 1-A, he found himself pausing as he stared up at the giant door to the class. It was big, probably for students with quirks that made them large.

Or maybe it was just to intimidate new students. Lots of people claimed that Nedzu could be rather sadistic, so it wasn’t entirely impossible that was the case.

Izuku took a deep breath, and pushed open the door to-

“Get your feet off the desk at once! That is UA property and you are disrespecting the institution and our upper-classmen that have used that desk before us!” oh great, the auditorium guy with too much audacity was here.

“Oi, who shoved a stick up your ass? I’ll do whatever the fuck I want.” ah, and Katsuki was his usual lovely self.

Izuku tuned out their conversation and looked around at the rest of the room to see who his other classmates were. He waved at one he recognized, a rather sparkly guy who had used a laser to destroy a robot that had been behind the greenette.

There were a few others that stood out, specifically a bird-headed student (who reminded Izuku of a corviknight), a dual-haired student (who reminded Izuku of a vulpix and it’s Alolan variant), and a yellow-haired student with a lighting bolt in his hair (who reminded Izuku of a pikachu).

“Oh hey, plain guy!” a voice he recognized called out (calling him plain was a little rude, but he understood why someone would say that). He turned around to see the girl he had talked to and helped during the exam. “I’m glad we got in the same class! I’m Uraraka.”

“Oh, hi!” He greeted with a smile. “I’m Midori-” he stopped mid-sentence as a feeling of dread went down his spine, a feeling that was like when you were spotted by a wild pokemon; a feeling of being watched by something that didn’t trust you and wouldn’t hold back.

He looked behind a confused Uraraka to try and see what it was that gave him this feeling, only to find… was that a full grown man in a sleeping bag just, lying on the ground? (He reminded the teen of a metapod, but yellow.)

“It took 5 seconds for one of you to spot me.” The man said, causing Uraraka to jump in surprise and every other student to snap their attention to him. “That’s better than average, but still unacceptable. If you're only here to make friends, you might as well leave now.”

Alright, this was probably their teacher. He was… very intense, that was for sure. Then again, UA was the best of the best, so Izuku had expected them to be relaxed in their teaching.

“I’m Aizawa, your homeroom teacher. Now, put these on and meet me in the PE grounds.” he said as he threw out some gym uniforms. Oh, so that was a “no” on going to orientation then. He wondered what their teacher had planned.

As Izuku walked out of the changing room and onto the PE grounds, he saw a guy with purple hair standing against the wall (he seemed like a ghost or dark type for sure) and he waved. He got no response, which he would normally find rude but the guy also had eyebags that rivaled the one’s on Professor Aloys’s assistant, Kerem, and literally no one had ever seen them sleep.

Eventually other students started to filter in, and the auditorium guy walked up to Izuku. The trainer could only imagine what he wanted-

“Ahem, I would like to apologize for how I conducted myself during the entrance exam. It is clear to me now that you had no ill intent and clearly figured out something that I had missed during the exam.” the guy said with a deep bow. Well, that was… unexpected. Definitely nice though.

“It’s okay, really!” Izuku answered quickly. Now that he thought about it, it was possible that the guy was just stressed out in the auditorium and had tried to settle his nerves by paying very close attention to every detail, and Izuku had been very distracting to him.

The guy opened his mouth to say something else, but was interrupted by the teacher. “Now that you’re all here, we can start the quirk-apprehension test.” oh, a quirk test? That sounded cool!

He wondered how the teacher planned to do a test like that, since it would need to be very broad because quirks could have a lot of variety to them. Maybe the tests were put into categories or-

“Midoriya, you got the top score in the exam, get up here.” Izuku held back a noise of surprise and walked up to the circle Aizawa gestured too. “What was your ball throw score back in middle school?”

…shit, what was it? They hadn’t had a physical exam last year, so Izuku’s last score would have been a while ago and so much had happened since then-

“Nerd’s last score was from elementary school, and it was like 15 feet or something.” Katsuki called out with a grunt. Wait, was Katsuki actually helping Izuku? That was new.

“You don’t have middle school scores?” Aizawa raised an eyebrow, although the rest of his face didn’t change.

“I uh, was in the hospital, sir.” He whispered, rubbing the back of his neck slightly. Thankfully, Aizawa didn’t press any farther, although his frown deepened slightly.

“Well, anyways, throw this ball. But this time, use your quirk.” Wait, this was part of the test? Surely it wasn’t all just fitness stuff, since that wouldn’t test maybe a third or so of the class’s quirks. Surely just because the entrance exam was a bit biased, that didn’t mean the entire school year and curriculum would be?

“Okay sir.” Well, Izuku just needed to get the ball as far away. He could do that.

He grabbed Noizu’s pokeball (he was so glad he had remembered to grab them all once he changed) and pressed the button to open it. The bat-like pokemon formed through the light, already flying. He heard mummers behind him, but chose to ignore them.

“Noizu, when I throw this ball I want you to catch it and fly as far away from me as you can.” He instructed the pokemon, and Noizu nodded in understanding. He pulled back his arm, and threw as far as he could.

When the ball started to fall downwards, Noizu swooped down to grab it and started flying far away. Izuku looked over at his new teacher nervously.

It took a few minutes, but eventually Aizawa spoke again. “1300.6 ft. Now, call back your quirk so we can move one.”

Izuku didn’t like Noizu being referred to as “his quirk”, but pressed the button on the pokeball that would pull Noizu back.

"Wait, so we're just doing stuff like that? That sounds fun!" A voice called out, and suddenly the air around Aizawa became a thicker, darker (ghost type, he was a ghost type- not a friendly one that Izuku could spend hours listening to as they told stories in their unique way, but a dangerous one that brought about disasters and death to those they thought offended him and that could be easily set off).

“Fun? Do you think heroics is some kind of game?” Aizawa asked rhetorically. Izuku bit his tongue and held his breath, waiting in dread. “Whoever comes in last in these tests will be expelled.”

Izuku could barely breathe as he walked back to the crowd, not hearing what else was said. Expelled? Just like that? Through an arbitrary test that didn’t even really test quirks like it claimed to do? A test that was clearly easier for some than others, meaning measurements it made about people might be wildly inaccurate?

And the boy had no doubt that the man truly meant what he said. He could feel it in the air when he spoke the words, he was being completely truthful.

⁎-⁑-⁂-⁑-⁎

The tests were going… okay, Izuku supposed. It was pretty cool to see most everyone’s quirks in action, and a lot of people were getting by with being creative with their quirk use. It wasn’t as biased as Izuku expected them to be, Aizawa was definitely being rather loose with the rules.

He himself was doing pretty well. There were a few tests where his pokemon were allowed to do the test instead of him, as his “quirk”, and even without them Izuku was okay. He had gotten a bit athletic since he woke up from his “coma”, so he could do fitness stuff well-enough.

Or at least, the tests had gone okay, except for one test. It was pretty simple, a speed test where two students would sort of race each other. Izuku was paired up against the bird headed student, who didn’t seem too enthusiastic about the test.

Izuku grabbed the pokeball of his largest pokemon, but when he moved to press the button to open it,he felt a cold chill down his spine of wrongness. He looked over to the source to see his teacher with his quirk activated, his floating hair and glowing red eyes confirming it.

Eraserhead, an underground hero with the ability to cancel others' quirks as long as he was looking at them. And he was staring right at Izuku. But that didn’t-

His pokemon. Everyone thought his quirk was his pokemon. He was trying to erase them.

Izuku had never felt so much rage in his life. He had been thrown from world to world, bullied and ridiculed for simply existing, betrayed by someone he thought was his person, and yet the anger he had felt then was but a candle to the inferno of rage underneath his skin.

“You were trying to erase them.” he hissed through his teeth as he seethed in anger.

Aizawa simply raised an eyebrow at him (like it didn't matter that he was going to steal what mattered most to Izuku), quirk still active. “You won’t always be able to rely on your quirk for speed. What do you plan to do without it?”

Izuku finally locked eyes with Aizawa, and the man blinked in surprise. Izuu didn’t notice, but the student he was paired against took a step back from him.

“You are an imbecile, and even just labeling you as that is a kindness. Do you think that just because you are a teacher, just because you are a hero, you have a right to take away the existence of a living being?” Izuku growled, anger practically coming off him in waves. “Because that is what they are, living beings with thoughts, emotions, and personalities all their own.”

“If you cannot respect that, then please send me to the principal so I can ask to be transferred to another class or just expel me now.” he snapped, before turning back to the test. Aizawa didn’t say anything else, but didn’t activate his quirk again.

The bird-headed student afterwards looked at him with understanding and gave a nod. Izuku then remembered that the other’s quirk was sentient itself, the shadow-creature often talking to the boy or inserting itself into the conversation. The greenette’s face softened and he nodded back.

Other than that, the tests went by rather smoothly. There were a few glances thrown towards him now and then, but Izuku was used to ignoring things like that. Aizawa didn’t comment on any of his tests afterwards.

Besides, Uraraka had said that he had looked cool during it, and the student he had been partnered with on the race (Tokoyami, he had introduced himself as) seemed to be more receptive towards him. The engine boy (Iida) hadn’t said anything, but he had given Izuku a nod.

Eventually they had done the ball throw again for other students, Aizawa had made the purple haired student Izuku waved to early use his quirk (which had felt a tad rude- what if the kid had an invisible quirk, or no quirk at all? It was unlikely, sure, but still possible).

(First he wanted Izuku to not use his quirk, then he wanted that student to use theirs? It was almost funny in it’s contradictory.)

The kid had brainwashed (brainwashed!!! He was a psychic and dark type then. Which added up, since he looked a bit like a malamar) Uraraka to use her quirk on the ball, meaning the two of them had both gotten infinity.

(The other student had looked very uncomfortable afterwards, like he expected everyone to turn on him for the display. Izuku knew what that was like, to be waiting for the other shoe to drop, to not trust anyone.)

At the end of the test, Aizawa showed the scores. The girl in last place, a girl whose quirk made her invisible, nearly started crying before Aizawa announced that the whole “expelling threat” was just a logical ruse.

The girl in first place started saying something about how she thought it was obvious that it wasn’t real when everyone else erupted, but Izuku just pursed his lips. He looked at Aizawa, wondering why the man had chosen to not expel them.

They both knew after all, that he hadn’t been lying when he said he was going to expel one of them.

Chapter Text

Shouta had fucked up. He knew that, he wasn’t a complete moron. Even if he had just proved himself to be a total idiot. (the comment of “calling you an imbecile would be a kindness” his student had made still stung in his mind.)

He had figured that the worst part of the first day would be when he made Hitoshi use his quirk in class. Shouta knew his son wouldn’t be happy with him after that, but it was necessary so Hitoshi wouldn’t hold himself back.

But he had been so very wrong. Midoriya, the top scoring of the exam by a margin of 34 points. His quirk was versatile, and Shouta would be lying if he said he fully understood how it worked. He had expected the kid to be cocky, needing to be taken down a little.

So he had erased his quirk for one of the exercises. He expected the teen to be a little mad, but describing the boy’s reaction as anything less than total fury would be underselling it. Even the most arrogant students at UA never threatened to take an expulsion over something.

Because it wasn’t the reaction of some arrogant kid who had been spoiled all his life. It was the reaction of a kid who was traumatized beyond belief and who was clinging to something to an almost unhealthy level.

And instead of giving the kid something else to branch out and trust so he could heal from his trauma, Shouta had broken any semblance of possibility for that within seconds. Both as a teacher and as a hero

So yeah, he had fucked up bad. It was why he hadn’t expelled anyone; he didn’t want to risk messing up further. (A part of him was sure that Midoriya knew he was going to expel someone at first, and he dreaded the amount of truth there was in that feeling.)

When Shouta got back to his house, Hitoshi went straight to his room without a word. Which, honestly, he had expected. Hizashi gave a low whistle from the kitchen, his hearing aids still in (the heroics teachers always had to fill out a little more paperwork on the first day, so Hizashi got home first).

“I see he didn’t take having to use his quirk in class very well.” Hizashi said with a smile as Shouta sat down at the counter. The blond set down a cup of coffee in front of him and he gave a hum of thanks. “So, who did you expel this time?”

At Shouta’s silence, his husband gave him a pointed look. “Shouta, if you expelled Hitoshi on the first day-”

“No, no, nothing like that.” Shouta interrupted. It hadn’t even really been a risk, since Hitoshi had gotten a good enough score to be several places above last. “I didn’t expel anyone.”

Hizashi raised an eyebrow at him, an almost disbelieving expression on his face. “Really? Last place impress you or something?”

Shouta shook his head. Nothing against Hagakure, the girl clearly had some potential for stealth (enough so that Shouta might have re-enrolled her in the hero course after her expulsion). The girl had just been a little too dependent on her quirk to carry her as a hero.

“What is it then? Something happened?” Hizashi asked, concern evident in his voice from Shouta’s expression.

“The top scorer of the exam.” Shouta said, taking a drink from his mug as his expression soured. “...I fucked up.”

“The Midoriya kid? What do you mean?” Hizashi asked, placing his hands on the counter. (It was then Shouta remembered his husband pointing the kid out during the exam, saying that he was the first kid to respond to his call out since… well, since Hizashi had started doing that.)

“I thought he would be like the usual top scorers, so I erased his quirk for one of the tests.” Shouta explained, and Hizashi nodded along. “The kid, he was furious at me, threatened to take the expulsion if I ever did it again.”

Hizashi gave a noise of surprise. “I wish he had just been angry. Hizashi, the look in the kid’s eyes… he looked so afraid, so broken. I… I fucked up, badly. The kid’s clearly traumatized, and I think he depends on the entities his quirk made to cope with it…”

“And you tried to take them away.” His husband finished. Shouta could only nod. “That’s… yeah, that’s bad. Maybe we should check his file? Maybe it says something about what happened to him?”

⁎-⁑-⁂-⁑-⁎

Fuck, fuck, fuckity fuck fuck.

That was the only thought going through his head after he read through the kid’s file. Shouta didn’t read through his students' files heavily on the first day. He skimmed through the basic information, their quirks, what they looked like, their names, but that was it.

He didn’t want to be influenced by a bias from middle school teachers who were purposefully trying to make a kid pass or fail the entrance exam, so he didn’t look much further.

But this? Well, like he had thought earlier: fuck.

A coma for a full two years was certainly possible as being responsible for his trauma, but him being registered as quirkless before that? It was no wonder he was so dependent and attached to his quirk-creatures.

The coma certainly made Bakugou’s comment about him not having middle school scores and Midoriya’s comment about being in the hospital make a hell of a lot more sense.

And the comments about the teen on his file, along with him having been registered as quirkless, didn’t exactly paint a pretty picture about his school life. Using up nurse resources without reason, instigating conflicts with other students, distracting people in class, etcetera.

It was eerily similar to Hitoshi’s own teacher comments, before Hizashi and Shouta had gotten him into a better school.. And considering how awful Hitoshi’s school, and especially the teachers, had been…

Well, to put it simply; FUCK.

Chapter Text

Izuku was exhausted, mentally and physically. Mostly mentally, but the quirk apprehension test was a bit tiring.

He had no idea where he had gotten the courage to speak against his teacher like that! He didn’t fully regret what he said, but it was Eraserhead! One of Izuku’s favorite heroes! (or at least, he had been when Izuku was a kid.)

Izuku sat in the park, his pokemon out. He wasn’t too worried, no one had gone to the park in years other than him. He laid his head down on his largest pokemon, one he nicknamed Subete, but one he didn’t need to nickname.

Although most pokemon were of a species, there was a certain type of pokemon that wasn’t. Pokemon that were more powerful than any pokemon could truly be, with some being able to control parts of the world.

Subete was a bit different from the rest in that sense, though they were still strong. Their actual pokemon name was Type: Null, but Izuku thought it felt too… artificial, for a pokemon so kind and alive.

(Maybe it was because Izuku saw a part of himself in Subete… and maybe Subete had stayed with Izuku because they saw a part of themself in Izuku.)

UA was definitely… an experience, so far. He hoped he wouldn’t be in trouble with Aizawa tomorrow. At least he would officially start his heroics lessons?

⁎-⁑-⁂-⁑-⁎

The second day of school was… well, mostly just regular school stuff but the teachers were pro-heroes. It was cool to see so many different heroes.

His favorite class so far was English, since Present Mic was pretty fun (even for a teacher), and Jemma had basically beaten English into him during their journey. Not that Izuku participated in class much

(All of his friends had each taught their own languages to the group. Izuku with Japanese, Jemma with English, Ekber with German, and Ulva and Milo with Russian.)

Lunch tasted really good and was pretty cheap. He had sat with Uraraka, Iida, and Tokoyami which was really fun. Dark Shadow, the sentient entity of Tokoyami’s quirk, has also been super happy when Izuku addressed them directly.

And now, it was the long-awaited Foundational Heroics Studies. Izuku waited excitedly, listening to the whispering of classmates as they waited for the teacher. No one had any real idea who it would be.

Izuku did know some of the teachers who were said to work here, but not all of them, so while he had a couple guesses he couldn’t be sure. Oh, maybe-

“I AM HERE!” Wait, what? “COMING THROUGH THE DOOR LIKE A NORMAL PERSON!” All Might shouted as he burst through the door, his hands on the doorframe. (Normally people don’t come through the door like that.)

Well, Izuku’s theory that he would be teaching the third year students was dead-wrong. Maybe All Might had more teaching experience than Izuku had thought? The man’s private life was a well kept secret after all.

“It’s All Might!”

“Is that his silver age costume? That’s so retro!”

“All Might’s gonna be teaching us?”

Excited whispers filled up the room as All Might marched behind the desk. Izuku would be lying if he said he wasn’t excited. It was All Might, his childhood hero! Why wouldn’t he be excited?

“Welcome to the start of your hero training! I will be your teacher for the year!” He announced, bringing up a device. “Now, for the first step of being heroes; looking the part!” (Izuku didn’t deny that looks were important, but the first step?) All Might pressed the button and multiple compartments opened up from the wall, containing multiple suitcases that were numbered 1-20.

“These are the hero costumes you submitted! Put them on and meet me in Ground Beta!” All Might said. Students rushed to grab the one with their seat number excitedly while All Might exited the room.

Izuku wondered what the man had planned for their first day of their first heroics class. Maybe he would have them testing out their costumes and the support gear they requested along with it?

⁎-⁑-⁂-⁑-⁎

Izuku’s costume felt great. It was a black jumpsuit with fluffy shin-length pants and fluffy sleeves that reached just below his elbows. His footwear was a bit changed from his design, but it still looked mostly the same.

He himself had switched out the hats that poke-trainers used to wear with the costumes instead for a white fox mask with black, gold, and blue accents on it that covered the top half of his face.

All in all, whoever had made it had done an excellent job.

Izuku left the changing room, making sure he had everything (including the herbal mix to help heal his pokemon he had made that morning) on him, and walked to Ground Beta.

“Midoriya, your costume looks amazing!” Uraraka complimented when he arrived.

He smiled brightly. “Yours does too. I’m guessing you were going for a space theme?”

“Yeah! Though, the costume is a little tighter than I had wanted…” She admitted with a half-hearted shrug.

“Well, you can always ask for alterations, can’t you?” Izuku said, cocking his head slightly to the side.

Uraraka’s face lit up slightly and she nodded. “Yeah, you’re right! I-”

The girl was interrupted by All Might calling for the class's attention. “Excellent! You all look like real heroes!”

There were a couple people saying things, including the sparkly guy saying something that sounded like “Isn’t my cape magnifique?”, before the girl who had gotten first place yesterday called out above everyone.

“Sir, why did you ask us to come here? Are we doing simulated urban battles?” She asked, her voice rather proper. That made sense, since Ground Beta was designed to look like a city.

“Actually, today we are doing battle trials!” All Might said as he pulled out… were those flashcards? “You will each be pulling out lettered balls, and the person with the same letter will be your partner!”

“You will be up against another team, one of you representing heroes and the other representing villains. The villain team will be protecting a bomb, and it’s the hero team’s goal to secure the bomb before time runs out!”

“Sir, wouldn’t it make more sense for us to choose our partner for the teams?” Iida asked.

All Might fumbled for an answer, before the girl from before answered. “Well, in heroics you often don’t get to choose who you are partnered with, so maybe it’s to simulate that?”

“Exactly Young Yaoyorozu!” ah, so that was her name. Izuku should have known that, since it was on the screen yesterday in the first place. He really should try harder to learn all of his classmates' names; he didn’t want to become like Katsuki.

One by one, everyone grabbed a ball. Izuku got one labeled ‘C’, and when he met back up with Uraraka, she had one labeled ‘F’. Which was a bit of a shame, she was fun and Izuku was sure she would be cool to work with.

After looking around a bit, he found out his partner was Tokoyami. Well, at least he was partnered up with a friend (he was pretty sure he and Tokoyami were friends).

“And, for the order and roles!” All Might announced, before a screen appeared. Tokoyami and himself would be going second as the hero team, against Shinsou (the dark/psychic type) and Kirishima (the red-head).

Up first on the hero team would be Katsuki, and Izuku winced slightly for his teammate. Hopefully Ashido wouldn’t get too offended by how Katsuki was.

He hoped Jirou and Iida wouldn’t get too hurt by going against him. Katsuki wasn’t necessarily physically violent, but he wouldn’t be holding back, even if it was only the first day.

“The hero team will get 5 minutes to discuss and come up with a plan, and the villains can use that time to prepare how they see fit!” All Might announced. “Now, those who aren’t participating, please come and join me in the observation room!”

In the observation room, Izuku did his best to use the cameras to see the map of the building, before Tokoyami pulled him out of his thoughts.

“You already know my quirk, but Dark Shadow is weaker in the light. I don’t know how helpful they will be in the building.” Tokoyami whispered. Oh good idea, using this time to strategize too!

“The building is well lit… I can see if my p- er, familiars, could maybe mess with the wiring so the lights shut off?” Izuku suggested. Tokoyami thought for a bit before nodding.

“The lighting from outside the building should make it so I can keep Dark Shadow under control. He responded with. “Do you think your familiars would be able to help scout out the building?”

“Uh, yeah, I’m pretty sure they would be able to. We're against Shinsou and Kirishima right?” Tokoyami nodded, and Izuku thought back on the quirks they used during the quirk-apprehension test.

“I think Futakuchi would be good against both of them, and I can have Kanpeki on recon and the wiring.” Izuku mumbled to himself. He still felt iffy about using pokemon and their moves on people, but he trusted his pokemon to be able to not seriously injure anyone. (Plus, he doubted the villains would hold back against his pokemon, so he couldn’t hold back against them.)

He and Tokoyami talked a little more about their strategy, but otherwise watched the first match. Katsuki wasn’t really working with Ashido, instead just going headfirst against them. That plan obviously didn’t work, with Jirou using her quirk to alert Iida to where he was.

Ashido apparently didn’t take Katsuki dismissing her too badly, since she used him and Iida’s fight as a distraction to get to the bomb. Katsuki’s explosions were so loud that Jirou wasn’t able to catch her approaching, and Ashido used her quirk to melt a hole through the floor above and land on the bomb.

Even though his team won, Katsuki still looked rather peeved when they all arrived at the observation room. All Might then asked the students to decide who the MVP was off that round.

“Ashido was very creative with her quirk, and using her Bakugou’s explosion so Jirou couldn’t her.” Yaoyorozu responded. Katsuki’s scowl deepened, while Ashido looked proud of herself.

“Both Iida and Jirou worked together well as a team though.” Izuku piped up, forcing back a flinch when he felt people turn to him. “If they had been up against a different team, they probably would have won.”

“That’s true.” Yaoyorozu said with a nod. “It was just a bad pairing. Though, I suppose that just happens sometimes in heroics.”

“Precisely Young Yaoyorozu!” All Might cut it. “On the field you won’t always have the luxury of going against someone whose quirk you can easily counter!”

Of course. That was true even in the otherworld; sometimes you get a bad type match-up. It’s why it pays to be creative and to train instead of just relying on the strength and weaknesses of any type.

“Now, Team C and Team E! You have five minutes to prepare!” All Might announced. Izuku and Tokoyami walked down to the entrance of the building, while Kirishima and Shinsou went inside.
Izuku reached into his jacket and grabbed the two pokemon he planned to use and pressed the button to release them. The pokemon formed through the familiar light. Kanpeki trilled excitedly, the shuppet always happy to help and be involved.

Izuku quickly introduced the pokemon to Tokoyami, so he could know what Izuku was talking about. Dark Shadow seemed rather excited to meet them (they likely hadn’t met any other sentient creature made by a quirk. Even if the pokemon weren’t really quirk made, they were close enough and everyone thought they were anyways.)

“Kanpeki should be able to phase through walls to find where they hid the bomb and lead us to it, and he should be able to mess with the wiring so the lights turn off.” Izuku explained. “Futakuchi should be able to help us fight the others.”

Tokoyami nodded. “Dark Shadow can use their reach to grab the bomb if I can get close enough.” He supplied. Izuku started to nod, when suddenly All Might cut through the coms and said the exercise was starting.

Well, at least the two had a pretty solid plan?

Izuku sent Kanpeki inside to mess with the wires and find the bomb. It wasn’t long before the building’s lights turned off, although the windows still kept the place semi-bright. It took a little while longer for Kanpeki to come back, but when he did he gave a happy trill to let the two know he had found it.

“Futakuchi, stay vigilant.” He whispered to his first pokemon. “If Kirishima or Shinsou come, I can hold them off while you go for the bomb.” He said to Tokoyami. The bird-headed student nodded in agreement.

(Tokoyami was easy to work with. Izuku assumed he was used to communicating plans with Dark Shadow, like how Izuku was with his pokemon. Izuku really hoped this meant they were friends.)

✧✇↝⍢↜✇✧

Kirishima had told Hitoshi to stay with the bomb while he patrolled when the timer went off. Hitoshi had given a grunt in reply, honestly a little miffed that he had been assigned onto the “villain team” (it was like he would never escape that label).

It wasn’t even seconds after he left that the lights turned off. The room the two had put the bomb into didn’t have any windows, meaning Shinso was left in the nearly pitch black. (He was pretty sure that the lights turning off was messing with him, cause he swore for a second he saw something in the dark. It was kinda weird, since he had never been scared of the dark before.)

“There’s enough light outside I can still see the hallways, and everything looks clear so far!” Kirishima said through the coms. Hitoshi winced slightly at how loud Kirishima was. If they had been nearby and he just hadn’t seen them, then they definitely heard him.

“Nothing here either.” Hitoshi replied evenly. He let out a breath, as he crossed his arms. He was glad to be in UA, and even happier to have made it into the hero course, but… well, after his dad had basically forced him to show off his quirk he knew any possible connection with his classmates was gone.

Not that he really cared. He hadn’t come to UA to make friends, and honestly with how many flashy quirks there were, Hitoshi wasn’t sure he would have really been friends with anyone anyways.

“NOT CLEAR!” Kirishima shouted into his mic, and Hitoshi snapped up. “I found Midoriya, he sent one of his quirk-creatures at me.” the red-head said between what sounded like hits and punches. “I think Tokoyami is coming your way!”

Hitoshi grabbed his capture scarf and the material started to float slightly under his hand. “Got it.” he growled slightly. He was not going to lose, not on his first real heroics lesson (but he was playing the villain; would winning prove he really was one?)

“It has a mouth on the back of its head! I can’t tell if that’s cool or really weird?!”

✧✇↝⍢↜✇✧

They had been so close! And they had a good plan! But in the end, Izuku and his teammate had lost. Shinsou had managed to bind up Dark Shadow and then take control of Tokoyami, and Izuku hadn’t been able to get away from Kirishima before time ran out.

Maybe he should have brought out Hasha (who would be good against both Kirishima and Shinsou presumably) too, so the riolu could’ve helped Futakuchi fight Kirishima, or he could’ve gone up to help get the bomb when Tokoyami was brainwashed.

Shinsu looked somewhat uncomfortable (like he did yesterday after using his quirk. Izuku knew why, and could only imagine how much shit he was given for simply having his quirk). Kirishima had a large smile on his face, though he seemed a bit disappointed in himself.

“So, who is the MVP of this round?” All Might asked, standing tall with hands on his hips. (When did he start looking so… plastic? When did it stop being Izuku’s biggest dream to just meet the man once?)

“Shinsou and Kirishima both did really well, kero.” a girl with frog-like features (Asui maybe? He wasn’t sure) said. “Kirishima holding back Midoriya solidified the villain team's win.”

“And Shinsou had total control over his scarf! Even though it was really dark and Tokoyami’s quirk is made of pure shadow, he was still able to see it and capture it.” Uraraka piped up. (Izuku knew she held no ill-will to Shinsou for using his quirk on her, and she had actually said that it was really cool after class.)

“Midoriya was also able to find the bomb with his quirk very quickly, saving them a lot of time.” Yaoyorozu said. “Plus, he and Tokoyami worked very well together.”

All Might didn’t seem to fully know how to respond to so many different answers at first. “Er, yes, well, I suppose that just goes to show how each role in an operation is important!” He eventually said.

Kanpeki made a noise as he hide behind Izuku, and Futakuchi pointedly didn’t make eyecontact with anyone (then again, she usually didn’t).

Well, at least he could watch the other matches?

Chapter Text

Izuku’s first official day had gone marginally better than orientation day, in his opinion. Even if he hadn’t won in the exercise in Foundational Heroics, he still had done pretty well, and he was pretty sure he had made friends with Tokoyami.

Futakuchi was a little ashamed that, even though she had been beating Kirishima in her fight, Izuku had ended up losing. She kept a high head, but Izuku knew his pokemon (his first pokemon, the one who had been on his journey with him since the very beginning) well, well enough to tell how she truly felt.

Thankfully, Kanpeki still seemed to feel mostly proud of himself with how he had managed to help (even if he was a little upset). Kanpeki always was quite an optimist, even if the world hadn’t been all that kind to him.

Izuku had taken nearly the entire rest of the day after school taking care of his pokemon, grooming them, making them food, and just spending time with them, to make sure they both weren’t too disheartened.

He wasn’t entirely sure if it had completely worked, but he had enjoyed relaxing with his pokemon again, and he knew they had enjoyed it as well. (Perhaps he should try to make sure to make time to do it more often.)

But now it was his third day of school. He wondered what would be in store for him…

⁎-⁑-⁂-⁑-⁎

The entrance to the school was swarmed by reporters who were shoving mics and cameras in the faces of any student that tried to go through. Izuku heard them asking questions about All Might, and bit out a curse internally.

Of course the media would catch wind that All Might was teaching at UA. Of course they would clamor around the gates and harass anyone passing by, hero student or otherwise. Izuku had met a couple reporters before, after all Ulva and Milo’s mom was a reporter, but they were far more aggressive here.

A concerned click came from Izuku’s bag, and he placed a hand in to gently stroke the pokemon sat inside. Kihin, a surskit, wasn’t exactly an extroverted pokemon, but he was.. Well, in the simplest wording, clingy and protective, to those he was comfortable with.

He was also excellent when it came to figuring out people’s emotions, which was both helpful and unhelpful (unhelpful when he was trying to hide things from his friends or foster family, but helpful when he was trying to help his friends or foster family).

Izuku took a deep breath as he looked at all the reporters clamoring around the gate, desperate for any kind of scoop, and steeled himself. He could do this, he could do this, he could do this-

“Midoriya!” a voice said behind him, and if anyone asked he would absolutely deny that he practically jumped out of his skin in response. He turned around to see Iida and Uraraka approaching him.

“O-oh, hi guys.” he said with a small smile, pulling his bag slightly closer to his side. He felt Kihin lean towards his side, unsure if it was to help him or the surskit (maybe both of them).

“There’s a lot of reporters, huh?’ Uraraka asked, looking out at the crowd of reporters covering the gate. Izuku nodded as he watched the reporters try to talk to students walking through. Many of them didn’t seem to even be hero students (though it’s possible some were from 1B and he just didn’t recognize them).

“I think they heard All Might teaches here and have been asking about him.” Izuku said with a shrug.

Iida stood up a little straighter. “I understand the want to know how All Might is as a teacher, but harassing students is deeply unacceptable!” he said, stiffly moving his arm up and down. (Izuku had no idea why he did that. Maybe to emphasize what he was saying? It was still kinda odd either way.)

Uraraka huffed out a sigh. “I really hope we can get through without them bothering us…” She responded. After all, dealing with reporters was something they were supposed to have to deal with when they were adults, when they were taught how to do so, not on their third day of school.

Izuku nodded, before taking a deep breath. “Well, we gotta get to class eventually, right?” he gave a nervous smile, as he looked at the crowd of reporters.

Well, as Ulva would say: if you’re fast enough, they’ll never get a chance to stop you.

~/❉\~ ... - .- .-. -

“Wow, this place is beautiful...” Izuku murmured in amazement as he looked around the museum. Lloyd, who was walking beside him, chuckled at his reaction.

“I thought you’d like it. This place used to be one of the first pokemon research labs before they turned into a museum.” Lloyd told him. “There are a couple of museums like this around the region. Most of the written words are in dead languages, and some of the drawings are of pokemon that no longer seem to exist. It turns away a lot of people, but I think it makes it all the more interesting.”

Izuku looked up at Lloyd with a smile. “You certainly seem to know your stuff about these places.”

Lloyd gave a shrug, but the smile on his face revealed his true feelings on the matter. “What can I say? I do my research on things I like, and the past is one of those things.”

“That makes sense. It’s much easier to research things you like.” Izuku replied. He knew he often had that problem back– …when he went to school. If it didn’t interest him, it went in one ear and out the other. “Well, thank you for taking me here Lloyd.”

Lloyd gave him a kind smile, a look in his eyes that Izuku couldn’t quite place but made him feel rather warm. He pushed some hair behind his ear as his cheeks flushed slightly and he turned his eyes away from Lloyd with a small nervous laugh.

Lloyd cleared his throat, gathering Izuku’s attention again. “I um, have a gift for you.”

Izuku tilted his head slightly, curious as to what it was. He certainly hadn’t been expecting to get a gift. (A part of him felt slightly bad, knowing he hadn’t gotten Lloyd a gift too, even though he had no way of knowing.)

Lloyd pulled out a lotus and placed its stem behind Izuku’s ear so the flower would sit in his hair. The green-haired boy felt the flush on his cheeks grow even more. “Wha- I-” he stuttered, unable to form the proper words to respond.

“Lotus flowers are your favorite, right?” Lloyd asked, to which Izuku nodded wordlessly. The taller of the two chuckled and pulled back.

“I- How did you know?” Izuku asked. He didn’t remember ever mentioning it to the other.

Lloyd gave him a smirk and tipped his head to the side slightly. “Like I said, I do my research.”

Izuku gave a small laugh. “Now I guess I’ll have to get you your favorite flower to pay you back.”

Lloyd gave a chuckle and shook his head. “I would say there’s no need to, but knowing you, you’d just do it anyway.” Izuku smiled sheepishly, knowing that was true. “Well, since I can’t stop you, my favorite flowers are crab blossoms”

. -. -.. ~/❉\~

Chapter Text

When class started Aizawa dropped the “bomb” that they had to choose a class representative and vice-representative. Before promptly climbing into his sleeping bag and taking a nap. (Izuku knew his teacher was an underground hero, meaning he worked at night, but he was starting to get a little concerned about his sleep schedule.)

“Wait, so, do we just vote or?” Kaminari, the electric-type (and pikachu-looking) student, asked, looking around at the rest of the class a little confused.

Yaoyorozu (who had told her classmates to just call her Momo during the battle trials) clasped her hands together and smiled. “Oh, I can make a box for us to put all our votes in before we count them!”

“But, what’s stopping everyone from voting for themselves?” Izuku asked, bag held gently to his chest as Kihin slept inside.

“Good point, kero.” Asui chimed in, a finger resting on her chin. “I’d probably just vote for myself.”

Shinsou let out a puff of air, drawing everyone’s attention to him. “Isn’t it obvious? Just put a rule you can’t vote for yourself.” he said after a moment. Once he spoke, he turned away to instead look out the window.

Once everyone agreed (even Katsuki had agreed to the rule, which was a tad surprising), the room was quiet as everyone wrote down their votes. Once they were down, Mom went around with a box she had made with her quirk to collect the papers.

Momo, since she was the one with the box, then went up to the front of the room and started counting up votes. Most people just had one or zero, except for a few of them.

Momo with two, Shinsou with two, and himself with three- wait, what?! Izuku had the most votes?! Who had voted for him?!

“So, if Momo and Shinsou tied, who's gonna be vice-rep?” Sero asked while Izuku was still frozen with shock.

“Well, if Midoriya’s class-rep, then maybe he should choose?” Hagakure suggested, with what seemed to be a shrug (the sleeves of her uniform moved up in a shrug, but it was hard to tell what with her being invisible).

The class then turned to Izuku, who bit his tongue to hold back a squeak. “Oh, um, well…I uh, voted for Shinsou, so uh, I guess him?” he replied nervously, sinking down into his chair a little.

The purple-haired student’s eyes widened a little in surprise when Izuku said he voted for him. In truth, Izuku felt like he was being a little biased, since he had voted for Shinsou because he felt like he could understand what it was like to grow up being hated for your quirk, or lack of one in Izuku’s case.

Momo nodded, though she seemed a tad disappointed. Izuku felt guilty for not choosing her, but did his best to ignore it. (Remember what the Ogovu gym leader, Alys, had told him: “you’ll never make everyone happy, just try to do what’s best for you and the people you care about”.)

✧✇↝⍢↜✇✧

“Hey, Midoriya?” Hitoshi said to the green boy as people started leaving for lunch. The two people he were talking to, Iida and Uraraka, glanced between him and Midoriya, and he bit his tongue to stop himself from saying something (he should be used to judgmental looks by now, with a quirk like his).

Midoriya gave them both a smile, though he looked a little nervous. “Go ahead without me, I’ll catch up with you guys in the cafeteria.”

“Alright, see you there. We’ll make sure to save you a seat!” Uraraka replied, grabbing Iida’s hand and pulling him towards the cafeteria as she waved goodbye.

After a few moments, Midoriya cleared his throat and turned to Hitoshi. “So, uh, what did you need?” the greenette asked, holding his bag close to his chest (he had been doing that all day for some reason).

“Why did you vote for me?” Hitoshi asked. This was the first time the two of them had even had a conversation, so the purple-haired boy had no idea why Midoriya would vote for him. Not to mention that Hitoshi had used his quirk on two of Midoriya’s friends, during the quirk assessment and the battle trials.

Midoriya shrugged half-heartedly and looked at the floor for a second before meeting Hitoshi’s eyes again. “Well, I mean, I just felt like you would be a good candidate I guess. And, um…”

“And?” Hitoshi prodded when Midoriya trailed off for a few moments, an eyebrow raised. He didn’t know why the other would think he was a good candidate, but he supposed he didn’t really have any reason to complain.

Midoriya laughed nervously, looking away with his shoulders slightly raised. “Well, it’s kinda embarrassing, and a little silly, but I uh, I think your quirk is really cool…”

…Well, that was new. His quirk had been called a lot of things, but never as “really cool”. Hitoshi… wasn’t fully sure how to feel about that reaction.

He opened his mouth to say something (though, honestly he wasn’t sure what to say), when suddenly an alarm blared through the school. Hitoshi instinctively flicked his hands up to his ears, while Midoriya…

Opened his bag?

Hitoshi didn’t have time to question it when Midoriya grabbed his arm and pulled him down the hall. “Come on, we should probably find a teacher or something!”

“Wha- alright, I’m following, stop pulling me!” Hitoshi said, pulling his arm out of Midoriya’s grasp. The greenette barely paused to give him an apologetic smile before trudging down the hall much faster than Hitoshi would have thought possible considering his size.

The two didn’t make it all that far when the alarm suddenly stopped. Hitoshi looked up confused, as though the ceiling would give any answers. When that, predictably, didn’t make him any less confused, he looked over at the large windows overlooking the courtyard, only to find Midoriya already looking out.

“It looks like the press got inside?” the other said, sparing a glance at the purple-haired teen. “It looks like the teachers are handling it. I guess it was just a false alarm then…”

Hitoshi shrugged, walking closer to the window.. “Yeah, most likely. The alarm probably went off automatically when they entered.”

He looked over at Midoriya for a second, and saw that the shorter had an unsettled and worried look on his face, like he wasn’t convinced.

Chapter Text

“Do you think he can really do this?”

“Someone must. Who else but him would even be willing?”

“What will happen to our worlds if this doesn’t work? What will happen to us?”

“Don’t think about things like that. We must have faith in him, in the plan.”

“You’re right, you’re right, I’m just worried…”

“I would be concerned if you weren’t.”

“Quiet, both of you. He can hear us now. We mustn't reveal too much, not until everything is in place.”

❉✧ᗢ︻ᗢ✧❉

“Midoriya?” A voice called, waking Izuku from his… from his what? He wasn’t asleep, he just… zoned out? That didn’t feel right either, but…

“Midoriya?” the voice called again, this time dragging out the “I”s in his name. He shook his head before looking at the person who said his name, Ashido.

“Sorry, I… zoned out there. What did you say?” Izuku asked with a half-hearted smile and tilt of his head.

Ashido just laughed, not seeming to put off by it thankfully. “I was just asking how you think we should get on the bus.”

Izuku blinked a few times, a little confused. “I don’t think it matters?”

At his response, Ashido turned to Iida with a smug, but playful, grin. Iida’s frown deepened, but he seemed to concede. Wait, had they been arguing about it? He hoped he hadn’t upset Iida by saying it didn’t matter…

Aizawa sent a pointed glare over the class, and the students ambulated into seats on the bus, grouping up and sitting next to either those they knew before school or newly made friends.

Izuku was one of the last to get on the bus, and ended up sitting next to Tokoyami, who acknowledged him with a nod. The greenette took a deep breath, trying to clear his head.

What… what was that? He had heard voices, three of them, he knew that for sure. He also knew for sure he had never heard any of those voices before, yet each of them felt oddly familiar. And what had they been talking about? A plan, “have faith in him”?

None of it made sense, and it bothered Izuku. No, it annoyed and aggravated him. Too many things had stopped making sense, and everytime he did manage to make sense of it, something else was thrown his way.

The worst part was that for the life of him, he had no idea why this was happening to him. It wasn’t some quirk, he had been firmly diagnosed quirkless and the doctors had stated that his “coma” was not caused by an outside quirk. Had he done something to cause this all to happen? He couldn’t think of anything he had done that would cause this, at least nothing he hadn’t done for most of his life.

So why him? He was just some quirkless, (formerly) hero-obsessed nobody. Nothing about him was particularly special, nothing about couldn’t be found in someone else, so why? He-

“Midoriya, kero?” Asui started, snapping Izuku out of his thoughts and making him aware that the bus had started moving.

“Um, yeah Asui?” he said, blinking a few times to try and shrug off the last of his weird drowsiness.

“Call me Tsu.” the frog-quirked girl said, before continuing. “I’ve been told I’m very blunt.”

“Er, that’s okay?” Midoriya said, a little confused. Where was this going?

“What did you and Bakugou mean during the quirk assessment? About you being in the hospital since elementary school?” She asked with a tilt of her head. Ah, so that was why she warned him that she was blunt.

Midoriya shifted nervously, not sure how to fully respond. He didn’t like telling people about the “coma”, because it felt like a lie. To him, it hadn’t been a coma, it had been him starting and living a new life in a new and unfamiliar world. “Well, um…”

“Tch, nerd was in a coma for two years.” Katsuki cut in rather pointedly. Huh, that was odd. It sounded a little like Katsuki was… defending him? No, Izuku was probably just imagining things, the explosive blond hated him.

The bus went rather quiet as most people glanced at Izuku. Oh yes, the other reason the un-isekai-ed teen didn’t like telling people about his “coma”; the weird looks and treatment, usually pity, people gave him afterwards. (He didn’t want their pity, their “sympathy”, he wanted to be treated like any other person. It’s all he’s ever wanted.)

“Man, I can’t imagine what that would be like.” Kirishima was the first to break the silence. “It’s pretty manly that you managed to catch up with school too!”

Izuku gave a shaky smile, not fully sure how to react. “T-thanks Kirishima.”

The silence went on a little longer before talking started up again, although he wasn’t really paying attention to what they were saying.

“What the fuck did you just say extra?!” At least, he wasn’t until Katsuki exploded in rage. Not because it was unusual or anything, just because it was loud. None of his other classmates seemed to take his outburst as a serious threat, most of them just laughing in response.

“I mean, if we're talking about our images, I think Midoriya would have the best one.” Uraraka said. Ah, so that’s what they were talking about, but why would he-? “I mean, his quirk-creatures are so cute!”

“That, or super cool!” Ashido cut in. “Like the one with a mouth for a ponytail, or the big one with the helmet. I would totally buy a plushie of them if they were sold.”

…huh. Izuku hadn't really thought much about what it would be like when he was a hero with marketing and stuff. I mean, if he did become a hero, he’d probably be a limelight one, wouldn’t he?

It was what he wanted to do, when he was younger; be a limelight hero just like All Might. But now, he wasn’t so sure… underground heroes were great, but he didn’t think it would really work for him, same with rescue heroes…

Well, he would just have to do some research when he got home, wouldn’t he? Figure out which would be best for him?

Tokoyami tapped Izuku on the shoulder, surprising him a little. When he looked up he saw that they had stopped and everyone was starting to get off the bus. He quickly got up, shifting his mask back up to the side of his head when it slipped down a bit due to the sudden movement (he would have to get that checked out once they got back to the school).

He came out of the bus with Tokoyami behind him to hear Aizawa say something about this being the USJ, to which Kaminari responded by calling the place “Universal Studios Japan”. (As absolutely exciting as that would be, it was their fourth day, technically their third official day, of hero school. It just wasn’t very realistic.)

Aizawa gave the teen a tired look, effectively shutting him up, before turning to the rest of the class and explaining that this was the Unforeseen Simulation Joint where they would train in rescues.

(Didn’t it seem a little early for rescue training? Then again, they had battle training on, like, the second day. …UA really took the “throw them in the water so they learn to swim” approach, didn’t they?)

When they walked inside, Izuku looked around the building. It was huge, bigger than anything Izuku had ever seen. It was split into six sections of “disaster zones”, a center plaza in the middle of the paths that led to each section. It all looked distant from where they stood at the top of a staircase leading down to said plaza.

“Hello everyone! I’ve been waiting for you.” A voice said from the front of the staircase’s first platform. Izuku quickly looked forward to see Thirteen, the space hero, waving at the class.

“It’s Thirteen!” Uraraka excitedly whispered. “They’re a super awesome rescue hero!”

“Welcome to the USJ everyone. Here, you’ll learn to deal with lots of different scenarios. A shipwreck, a landslide, a fire, and more.” They gestured to each of the zones they said; a ship in a man-made lake, a rather steep mountain area, and a red dome with designs of fire on the outside of it; beforeing gesturing to the rest of the USJ.

They tilted their head ever so slightly, and Izuku felt like they were smiling under their helmet. “It’s a training ground I made to prepare you for situations you’ll often encounter in rescues.”

“Thirteen, where’s All Might?” Aizawa approached the rescue hero and said gruffly, only slightly quieter than normal (in general he was very quiet). “He was supposed to be meeting us here.”

Thirteen raised three fingers, and whispered back to Aizawa almost too quiet for Izuku to hear. “He’s resting in the lounge, sorry.”

Aizawa gave a disappointed sigh and shook his head slightly. “It can’t be helped now. We took precautions just in case.”

Izuku was somewhat confused. What did three fingers have to do with All Might? Why was he resting in the teacher’s lounge? Why was this something the teachers had prepared for?

He didn’t voice any of these questions, but they stayed in the back of his head. He doubted he would actually get answers if he did say anything, but still.

“Before we begin, there’s something else I would like to discuss.” Thirteen said, turning back to the class. “I’m sure everyone’s aware of my quirk, Black Hole. I can suck up anything and turn it to dust.”

“You’ve used it to save people from all kinds of disasters!” Uraraka said excitedly, and Thirteen gave a small laugh at the praise.

“Yes, but it’s a power that can also easily be used to kill.” they said sternly, a finger held up. “I’m sure some of you also have quirks like that.”

“In a superhuman society like ours, quirks can be used for lots of things and that includes harm.” Thirteen said, their gaze sweeping across the now much quieter students. “As a hero, it will be your job to stop others from using their quirks to cause harm and use yours to save people, but you must never forget that your own could easily be just as dangerous if you aren’t careful.”

“With Aizawa you learned the possibilities of your own different powers. With All Might, you experienced the danger that comes with using it against others. This, is a fresh start, where you’ll learn how to use it to save others.” The space hero told them, determination in their voice.

Izuku could feel himself, and the rest of his class, feel excited and determined by the end of the speech. He heard people around him saying things like “Thirteen is so cool!” and “I’m so pumped!”, and he agreed with the statements.

This would be amazing!

{“Spectre, run!”}

Chapter Text

Izuku wasn’t fully sure what had happened. One second, they had been preparing to start their training at the USJ, and then the next they felt a chill of danger down their spine and they swear they could hear a voice (an oh-so familiar voice) warning them to run.

Then, before they had time to process the words and feeling, villains had appeared in the center plaza. There had been a couple questions of if it was part of the training, but everything in Izuku’s body screamed that it wasn’t.

Aizawa had jumped in to fight the villains with a command to Thirteen to protect the students. Izuku had more felt himself say something then anything else, but in the end Aizawa had gone down to fight.

Then a person, a warp-gate of some kind, had appeared in front of them, blocking the exit and their escape. Thirteen had moved to fight back, but Katsuki and Kirishima had jumped in front of them.

He remembered hearing Thirteen’s scream of pain and the rip of fabric as the floor swallowed him whole and he began to fall.

Fall faster than his brain could process.

Faster than the events could catch up to him.

Fast enough that wind rushed past his airs, deafening.

Fast enough that he knew whatever underneath him would bring a dense pain.

He felt himself splash against water (the shipwreck zone, he was in the shipwreck zone-) and start to sink as his arms felt too numb with pain to move. The fabric parts of his outfit started to soak up water and drag him down further and faster.

His entire body ached with pain from the impact. He tried to move, but the water remained heavy around him and he felt like lead. Izuku’s body ached and screamed with pain with every twitch he managed to accomplish.

Vision blurred with the water around him, he could barely see the gray figure darting toward him fast with jaws wide open.

This was it, he couldn’t move fast enough to draw out a pokemon, and even if he could none of them were properly suited to be underwater. He was going to die-

An arm wrapped around him, and he was pulled out of the way just as teeth snapped shut. He didn’t get time to look around before he was pulled out of the water and onto a ship.

He hacked out the water in his throat as Izuku gasped for air, doubled over with his arms around his chest and his mask half-hazardly dangling in his grip. He looked up, his vision still slightly blurry, to see Shinso and Tsu on the ship with him.

“Th-thanks A- Tsu…” Izuku said, as he slowly stood up and his vision began to fully return. His hand wandered to where his pokeballs were kept, glazing over them to ensure they were all still there.

(If one of his team ended up at the bottom of the lake, he didn’t know what he would do…)

“They knew UA’s schedule. They knew All Might was meant to be here.” Shinso said, looking out at the villains waiting atop the water’s surface. “They seemed so confident they were going to kill him…”

“They must have set up the media’s intrusion the other day, kero.” Tsu stated, and Shinsou nodded. “If they’re trying so hard, they must have a way to kill him.”

Izuku shook his head to clear his thoughts. He and Shinso weren’t particularly good in this zone (though Shinsou wouldn’t be bad here either), but why was Tsu here? She was a frog, this was literally as in her element as possible here. So why… unless?

He put down his fist in his hand, an idea forming. “They don’t know our quirks!” he said matter-of-factly, making the other two turn to him. “Think about it; if they knew our quirks, they’d put Shinso in the overpour zone so no one could hear him and Tsu in the fire zone so she would dry out.”

Tsu nodded with a thoughtful expression on her face. “True. That's probably why they haven’t come up and attacked us yet, kero.”

“Yeah, well, I can’t imagine that’ll last lonG-” Shinso was cut off as the boat was shaken by the villains in the water and the three moved to steady themself. “Okay, what’s the plan here exactly? Cause we’re stuck on a boat surrounded by villains, and d- ai- Eraserhead, is in the plaza fighting another horde of villains.”

Izuku thought for a moment, before giving a small smile and pulling off two pokeballs. “I think I have an idea. What can you both do with your quirks?”

✧✇↝⍢↜✇✧

Fifteen…

Fourteen…

Thirteen…

The times were getting shorter. The hero was getting tired.

It was only a matter of time before he couldn’t keep it up anymore.

Tomura felt a sinister smile creep onto his face, hidden by the hand covering it. It was still annoying that All Might wasn’t here, but killing his coworker and students would surely send him a message.

Just a little longer until-

A pinkish light came at him out of nowhere, knocking a hand off of his shoulder. Who the hell-?!

Tomura looked over to see- what the hell was that?! It was smaller, and floating in the air. It looked fabric-like, with two big eyes and a spike on its head. Like a living, flying blueish-gray cloth.

Well, whatever it was, it was annoying and Tomura wanted it gone. Now.

He reached out his hand to grab it and-

What. The. Hell.

His hand phased right through the weird creature, making it give off a weird sound like a giggle.

It flew around Tomura, giggling in it’s weird way the entire time.

✧✇↝⍢↜✇✧

Hitoshi’s head felt like it was made of lead and was being jackhammered by fifty people all at once.

Asui, or Tsu, as she insisted on being called, helped him walk across the ice Midoriya’s quirk-creature was making. How the hell was he so powerful anyhow? A quirk that made some living beings was already insanely powerful, but each of them could use some elemental attacks?

It was unfairly overpowered.

When Midoriya had said his plan involved Hitoshi brainwashing the villains in the lake, he hadn’t been sure he would be able to do it. He had barely practiced having a handful of people under his control, and even that often left him with a god awful headache for hours.

But the purple-haired teen hadn’t said that. He had to do this. He had to be able to get them all out of here, get them to safety.

(he wanted to get them to his dad, so he could help. He knew he shouldn’t, that his dad would never forgive him for it, but the thought of leaving his dad alone with all those villains nearly brought him to tears)

“Tsu, you might need to take us up soon!” Midoriya called back, not looking away from the spider-like creature in front of him. “Kihin can’t keep this up for much longer.” (so that was its name.)

Tsu nodded, her grip on Hitoshi tightening as they went up to Midoriya. They were close to the plaza, which surprisingly both Tsu and Midoriya had insisted on (not that he was complaining).

Kihin chirped, and jumped up onto Midoriya when Tsu grabbed onto him, nestling itself snug into his costume.

Hopefully…

Hopefully, they would make it through safe.

(Hopefully, his dad would be okay.)

Chapter Text

Izuku ducked down next to Shinsou and A- Tsu, Kihin having been recalled back into his ball once they landed (the surskit had used his ice beam move a lot back there, he deserved a break). He looked over at the plaza where Aizawa was still fighting off the hoard of villains.

Where was-

There!

The teen caught sight of Kanpeki, who was twirling around a blue-haired man covered in hands. Everytime the man got close to actually grabbing Kanpeki, his hand just phased through the pokemon (ghost types, annoying to fight against, amazing to have on your team).

The man, the same one who had declared himself as being behind this entire attack, growled in frustration at the shuppet. Before he made another move, a man appeared behind him through a purple made of the same purple fog as he.

“Kurogiri! You better have some good news.” the hand-covered snarled, scratching his neck and turning his attention away from Kanpeki. “Did you kill Thirteen?”

“Thirteen has been incapacitated, Master Shigaraki.” the fog replied, and the scratching slowed minutely. “But a student has escaped and left to warn the heroes.”

“I said good news!” the man, Shigaraki apparently, hissed. “If you weren’t our only way out, I’d dust you right here!”

His quirk was probably related to turning something into dust then. Maybe it had something to do with his hands, since he kept trying to grab Kanpeki. Most likely a five-point contact quirk, but Izuku couldn’t settle on that for sure.

Kanpeki huffed, before building electricity in front of him and sending out a charge beam at Shigaraki’s leg. Not hitting him directly, but grazing him enough to let the villain feel the electricity.

“Gah, son of a-” The villain jumped looking down at where the electricity struck. A fair reaction, Izuku had gotten hit by electric moves before, and knew they could be pretty brutal. “What the hell is this damn thing?!”

The teen gave a small smile. Kanpeki had always been a rather mischievous pokemon, he was definitely in his element here. And the distraction seemed to be helping Aizawa focus on the hoard, although he glanced at the shuppet every now and then.

Izuku took his eyes away from his teacher and pokemon to look at the hulking brute standing next to Shigaraki. It stayed unmoving, its eyes looking empty.

Something about it felt wrong, inhuman. It was as though it was made with all the physical components of a human, but whoever created it forgot to add the final ingredient, the soul.

He didn’t like it.

“Ugh, and All Might’s not even here!” Shigaraki screeched, waving his hand to try and shoo the shuppet away. “Maybe…”

Shigaraki turned, right at where Izuku and his friends hid. “Maybe if we kill some kids, that will get his attention.”

Izuku’s eyes widened as Shigaraki’s hand came towards Tsu’s face, Kanpeki giving off a small screech as the pokemon flailed forward. He did the only thing he could think of, and pressed a button in panic-

In a white flash, Shigaraki screamed in pain as his arm as stars pierced his arm and he stumbled to the side. Barely a moment later, Shinsou pulled Tsu back as a fox-like pokemon stood next to Izuku.

Naisho, a nickit as beautiful as she was vicious, with silver and dark blue fur. She growled at Shigaraki, hunched down and ready to attack again.

Shigaraki hissed, holding his injured arm. “What the hell?!”

He glared at Izuku, his eyes narrowed. “You. These things belong to you, don’t they?” His voice was raspy and full of rage.

Izuku’s mouth felt dry, but he didn’t move. His pokemon had been brave enough to stand before this man, this villain, he would be brave enough to stand with them.

Suddenly, the sound of doors smashing open echoed through the building. “I AM HERE!”

Oh thank Arceus.

⁎-⁑-⁂-⁑-⁎

Izuku sat outside the USJ on the steps, Tsu sitting next to him. Naisho was laying down on his lap, letting him pet her without complaint, while Kanpeki curled up next to his feet.

The fight had been brutal, with the creature standing next to Shigaraki attacking All Might. All Might, the number one hero, had struggled against it. He had barely managed to defeat it in the end, the hulking monstrosity able to take his punches and return them with ease.

Shigaraki had said the creature, Nomu he called it, had multiple quirks. If Izuku hadn’t basically seen it using multiple quirks, he wouldn’t have believed it. But it had been true, the teen had seen it with her own eyes.

Katsuki, Todoroki, and Kirishima had arrived soon after All Might had burst in. They had helped somewhat, mostly with Kurogiri starting to attack too.

Izuku had seen Todoroki freeze the Nomu, had seen Kurogiri cut it in half with a portal. The Nomu hadn’t even reacted, had just taken the damage, regrown half it’s fucking body, and had gone back to attacking.

He didn’t know what the Nomu was, but it was inhumane. Izuku knew artificial pokemon, he had one on his team and had heard stories of others, but this was very much different. It was wrong. It was completely and utterly wrong.

Whoever made it wasn’t looking to make a living creature, they were making a weapon. And based off how Shigaraki and Kurogiri treated the creature, they viewed it as a weapon. The Nomu had attacked and attacked, like some robotic entity following a single command.

It disgusted Izuku. The Nomu might have attacked them, but it was still a living, breathing, creature. To take something like that, to make something like that, and twist it into a biological weapon meant to fulfill a single purpose was disgusting and cruel.

He had met people who only valued their pokemon for a singular trait, who treated them like objects. People who only valued how well a pokemon fought in battle, people who treated their pokemons like dolls or mannequins.

People like that, who treated living beings as objects simply because they weren’t human, were scum. Plain and simple.

(Izuku tried to focus on that, and not the sound of bullets hitting flesh when the other teachers had come, or how exhausted All Might had looked before Cementoss put up a wall, or how he had seen Thirteen be loaded into an ambulance.)

“You two are Izuku Midoriya and Tsuyu Asui, correct?” a voice knocked Izuku out of his thoughts, and he looked up to see a plain-looking detective standing in front of him. “I need to take your statements about the attack.”

Izuku nodded in understanding. It would be alright, he would be fine. It wasn’t like this was the first time he had needed to give a statement to the police…

Chapter Text

When Izuku walked into class the next day, things seemed… pretty okay. There was a lot of talk about the USJ, sure, but thankfully no one looked too injured or anything like that. Izuku hadn’t heard of any of his classmates getting hurt, but he also hadn’t seen many of them after the whole ordeal.

“Oh, hey class prez!” Kaminari greeted with a wave when the green-haired teen walked in. He smiled and waved back, heading towards his seat.

He was… honestly still shaken up by the whole ordeal. It was the first time one of his pokemon had actually attacked a person head on, instead of just around or near them. He didn’t know how to feel.

Naisho hadn’t been wrong to attack, and he wasn’t upset that she did, but it still concerned him. He didn’t know how much he had to hold back, or how certain moves might affect different people, or anything like that!

What if one day he made a wrong move and a classmate got hurt? Or worse, a civilian bystander? What if one of the pokemon’s moves killed someone?!

Izuku… he needed to do a lot more practice and research and testing. He couldn’t let himself do something like that, couldn’t force his pokemon to commit something like that on his behalf.

“Quiet down.” Aizawa’s voice called out as the hero walked into the classroom with a deadpan stare. There were a few bandages on him, but he didn’t look too bad all things considered.

Aizawa walked up to the podium and looked over the class. He let out a long breath before he started speaking “I’m going to be blunt here. You all did well considering the circumstances, but if there is ever a situation like that again-”

Aizawa glared at the class. “You are to leave and let the pros handle it. You are first years, you are not permitted to use your quirks in a villain attack. If this attack did not take place on school grounds, there would be serious reprimands, including possible expulsion or even jail time.”

The class went quiet, almost uncomfortably so, as their teacher’s words sank in. He was right, they had to be careful. Even if Izuku’s pokemon weren’t actually his quirk, people all thought they were, so the same logic applied (although Izuku didn’t like the idea of treating them as a quirk).

“Now, moving on, there is something important coming up.” The class all looked up at the teacher in silent wonder. “In three week’s time, you will be participating in the UA sports festival.”

“Aizawa-sensei, are you sure we should be doing the festival so soon after the USJ?” Iida asked, moving his arm up and down.

Aizawa sighed. “I understand the hesitance some of you may have. However, it was decided that UA needs to show that the attack has not brought us down. Rest assured, the Sports Festival will have increased security to ensure no villains will get inside. Not to mention, there will be multiple pros in attendance.”

Iida gave a nod, seemingly settled by that. Izuku bit his lip slightly, looking around the room. Was worrying about something like this normal for first years at UA? It… it didn’t feel like it should be, but he didn’t know.

Nowadays, it felt like he didn’t know a lot of things.

~/❉\~ ... - .- .-. -

“Come on Zuks! Milo!” Ekber called up ahead, his doublade floating by his side. Ulva stood by him with her dreepy curled up on her shoulder and gave the two a smile.

Jemma laughed ahead of them all, her black-furred furfrou that was recently styled into a kabuki style standing tall beside her.

Izuku rolled his eyes fondly, walking on towards them as Yuanye, his now-evolved frosmoth, sat on top of his head. Milo walked behind him, exhausted, his kirlia trying to herd him forward faster.

“Jeez, you would think we were late for something with how you guys are acting.” Izuku teased his friends. “You do realize the showcase isn’t for like, three more hours?”

The showcase was a fashion show for pokemon that a trainer they ran into told them about. Jemma, who had recently been finding her passion in pokemon fashion, had insisted they take a detour before the next gym to go to it.

“Yeah, but there’s a restaurant here! And I’m starving!” Ulva fake-whined, drawing out the last word and leaning back a little.

Milo gave a long sigh at his twin’s antics. “A restaurant we have a reservation for in a little over half an hour! We’re still on time.”

“Still!” Ulva said with an over-exaggerated frown. Milo rolled his eyes, jogging a little to catch up to Izuku and the others.

Ulva threw an arm around her twin, and the four of them started talking as Izuku smiled. This was… this was nice. He missed home, but this was nice.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw something lingering in a nearby alleyway. He looked over seeing a floating being he didn’t recognize, pink and white with two tails and red round gems.

{“It is not yet time for you to remember, Banyan. Be patient.”}

. -. -.. ~/❉\~

Izuku woke up in his bed with a bit of a start, causing Sheru (his kabuto) to fall off of his legs with a small hiss.

He winced apologetically, brushing the top of the pokemon’s shell lightly. The fossil pokemon gave another hiss, before crawling back onto his legs to sleep. Izuku glanced around his room in confusion.

Everything looked the same as when he went to sleep, pokemon curled up together or alone in different spots around the room. None of them looked different or injured, even Enjiru (his finizen) seemed still content in his little tub full of water.

So what was that dream? It wasn’t a memory, not one that Izuku knew. He remembered, vaguely, the first showcase Jemma dragged them too, but nowhere in that was a strange pokemon like in that dream.

And that voice at the end there! It was the same as one of the ones he had heard when getting onto the bus to the USJ! But whose voice was it, and why was he hearing it?

And-

Wait…

What was he thinking about?

Izuku yawned and looked at this alarm clock. Why was he awake at 2 am? He was way too tired, he should just… go back to sleep.

{“Apologies Bunyan, I’ll be more careful from now on. Just be patient.”}

Chapter Text

The first week before the sports festival was passing by quickly. Izuku had spent lots of time training, mainly back at Dagobah Beach.

It was a lot cleaner than when he had first started his training, but there was still plenty of trash. It was still a great place to train with his pokemon, especially considering there still weren’t a lot of people going there.

As Izuku was training, having two of his pokemon fight on top of some trash piles near the water as he moved some of the smaller items to the nearby dumpster to be collected eventually, there was some movement in the trash that made him pause.

“YOU!” Yelled a pink haired girl as she popped up from behind a pile and pointed at him with a wrench. She was wearing a sand-covered outfit that consisted a black jumpsuit and a pair of overalls, and she wore yellow gloves that matched the outside of her goggles.

Izuku blinked in confusion and pointed at himself. “Me?”

“You’re the one taking all my material and throwing it in the dumpster!” she accused, waving her wrench up and down. “This beach is full of goodies I can use to make my babies, but you’re getting rid of it all!”

“Huh? Wait…” He said, slowly taking in everything she said (she talked almost as fast as Izuku did when mumbling-). “Were you using the trash on this beach to make stuff?”

“Not just any stuff, my amazing, wonderful, spectacular, babies!” The pink-haired girl said. “I was trying to find extra materials to make a jetpack baby, but I came to find you taking and throwing it all away!”

Oh, she meant inventions! Oh, now Izuku felt kinda bad. Here this girl was, recycling this material to make something new, while he was just throwing it away just to give himself some extra strength training.

“Oh, I’m sorry!” Izuku apologized. “I didn’t know anyone was actually using the stuff on the beach, so I just came here to do some extra training.”

“Hmmm…” the girl looked him up and down, studying him in a way that reminded Izuku of when Jemma came up with a new clothing idea. “Say, you’re one of the class 1-A students, aren’t you?”

Izuku nodded and the girl lit up, bounding towards him. “That’s perfect! I’m Mei Hatsume, future CEO of Hatsume Inc. and student of support class 1-H! Say, you use my babies during the sports festival to advertise for me, and we’ll consider this water under the bridge! What do you say?”

“Huh?” the green-haired teen blinked a few times in surprise. “You want me to use your support items to advertise for you?”

“Yeah!” Hatsume said excitedly. “The more time and people I have using my babies, the more likely the support companies at the Sports Festival will take notice of me and the sooner I can launch my career!”

“Um, well…” he wasn’t fully sure what to say to this girl, but was cut off by a small growl. Looking over, he saw that Tsuyoi (his deino, who was Izuku's third smallest pokemon) and Naisho had come over.

“Oh my Kami! Who are these?!” Hatsume asked excitedly.

“Oh, these are two of my familiars. They’re uh, from my quirk.” Izuku explained, tongue stumbling over the lie at the end. It was then the teen was reminded of held items pokemon often had. “Say, Hatsume, what kind of inventions can you make?”

“I can make all kinds of babies!” She said confidently, placing her hands on her hips.

“Can you make something… elemental?” they prodded. Support items were capable of a lot of things, and if he could give his pokemon an edge in battle before the sports festival…

Hatsume paused for a bit, before she broke out into a big smile. “What kinda elemental?”

Izuku couldn’t stop himself from grinning back at the girl.

This beach might be a trash heap and a mess, but the teen was starting to love it.

⁎-⁑-⁂-⁑-⁎

Hatsume had said she wouldn’t be able to make all the items the two had brainstormed before the sport’s festival, but she should be able to make a good handful of them. She had been extremely excited about Izuku’s familiars upon hearing that they got their power from the world around them, and that items with those same things could boost their power. She had gone on and on about all the things she could make.

In the end, Hatsume and Izuku had come to an agreement; Hatsume would put his support items at the top of her priority list, and in return Izuku would only use items made by Hatsume and her future company.

It turned out, to use support items during the Sports Festival (that you didn’t make yourself), there were some forms to fill out. Hatsume had told Izuku to meet her in the support lab after school the next day.

While he tried to find the support lab, he heard an explosion along with yelling and almost maniacal laughter coming from a room up ahead. He smiled and giggled into his hand. Well, this must be his destination then!

He knocked on the door a few times, before opening it. He saw Power Loader standing there shaking his head at a student who was sat covered in smoke and ash in front of their workstation.

“Mido-chan!” Hatsume said when she saw him in the doorway, getting up and bolting to him. “Perfect timing! I just finished up the blueprints for Futakuchi’s necklace! If all goes according to plan, which I’m sure it will, it will be finished in 2-3 days.”

Power Loader cleared his throat. “Care to explain why a student from one of the other tracks is here?”

“Oh, I’m Izuku Midoriya, from 1-A.” he introduced. “I plan to use some support items from Hatsume during the Sports Festival, and was told I needed to sign some forms?”

The pro-hero sighed. “That would fall under the student-cooperation rules. Are you using support items from any other students or companies?”

“No sir.” Izuku shook his head. He had already talked to Aizawa about the pokeballs, and since they were “produced by his quirk” (or at least people thought that), they counted as a part of him basically.

Power Loader reached into a drawer on his desk and pulled out a piece of paper. “Here. the two of you need to fill this out together and then turn it in to either Aizawa or I so we can give it to the principal.” the support teacher explained.

Izuku nodded, taking the paper from him as Hatsume basically bounced beside him. Once he held the paper, Hatsume dragged him over to her desk.

“Come on! Sooner that gets signed, sooner you can use my babies!” the pink-haired teen said, or rather yelled, excitedly. Izuku gave a small laugh and smiled.

Chapter Text

The sports festival was a day away, and Izuku felt mostly prepared. He had trained very hard with his pokemon, including seeing how hard they could hit someone. He had actually planned to use himself for that, but Hatsume had basically insisted on helping and had dragged one of her classmates, a mild-mannered girl named Ozaki who was also the one who caused the explosion Izuku had saw his first time in the support lab

As it turns out, pokemon attacks hurt and often even stung afterwards, but besides the occasional small burn or scrap (both of which could be healed rather easily), the attacks weren’t super dangerous.

Ozaki, whose parents were apparently doctors, had told Izuku that at most they could cause someone to be knocked unconscious if they were faced with too many attacks without being able to heal up a little. Which… sounded extremely similar to a regular pokemon battle.

He didn’t fully know how to take all that information, but at least it meant that having his pokemon attack others wouldn’t lead to anything too serious. Not that he planned to have his pokemon attack if unneeded.

Along with all of Izuku’s training, Hatsume had also completed four of the support items they talked about around three days. The necklace for Futakuchi, a steel bracelet for Hasha, a harness full of water for Enjiru, and heated metal cuffs for Banpei (Izuku’s charcadet).

After some rather rigorous testing from Hatsume to make sure all of them actually did as they were supposed to (which, thankfully, they did), she had told him that she wouldn’t be able to work on anymore since she had to finish up her own stuff for the Sports Festival.

He was honestly more surprised that she had put in the work to completing four of them. Hatsume was truly an expert in her craft, and Izuku was glad she had chosen to work with him of all people.

Izuku sat on the brick wall next to the stair that led down to the beach, looking out onto the ocean. He silently stroked Sutekina (his goomy) in his lap as he took a breath.

Tomorrow was the day, the official day where he would be known to the world as a UA hero student. Quirkless, useless, waste of space Deku, a hero-in-training. This was what he had wanted for so long in his life, accomplishing it was like a dream come true.

Or, at least, it should be. Shouldn’t it?

After everything that had happened, a part of him felt empty with the path he was on. It felt like he was torn in a way, torn between the two worlds that he called home.

He wondered, silently, if his friends in the pokemon world missed him, or if they had moved on with their lives without him. He wondered about his foster family there, how they had reacted to him being gone.

Izuku didn’t know who he was anymore. In this world, he was a soon-to-be hero, someone who wanted to help anyone he would with a smile. In the other world, he had been an artist, a professor’s assistant.

But what was he really? A combination of the two? Neither of them?

He didn’t know yet. Maybe he would never know.

Sutekina gave a garbled chirp when Izuku stopped moving, and he looked down at him and smiled. At least he wasn’t alone.

⁎-⁑-⁂-⁑-⁎

Izuku stood with his class as he listened to Present Mic start the announcements. He grabbed onto the harness where all his pokeballs were (he was starting to think that the “six at a time” rule was more for space than anything else, since carrying sixteen pokeballs on him at all times was a bit of a hassle).

“And now, for our amazing first years classes!” ah, here they go. “First off, the class who has faced real live villains and won; CLASS 1-A!”

As Izuku walked out into the field with his classmates, he had to bite his tongue a little to control his expression. Did Present Mic really have to mention the USJ? It wasn’t exactly an event he took pride in, and he was pretty sure some of the other students were mad at the attention they got.

“Secondly, their sister class that should not be underestimated; CLASS 1-B!” especially their sister class. He had seen a few of the students garring at 1-A when they left the class or in the cafeteria.

“Next, our gen ed class; C, D, E, and F!” well that… didn’t feel as energetic as the first two classes. Izuku held back a wince when he realized that the following applause was much less than for the heroics students.

“Then our support class; 1-G, and 1-H” oh, that’s where Hatsume was! Izuku tried to peek through the crowd and see his friend (at least, he thought they were friends), but couldn’t spot her. Oh well, he was sure he would get a chance to see the crazy pink-haired inventor later in the festival.

“And finally, our business classes! 1-I, J, and K!” huh. There were both more and less students in the first year than Izuku realized. He knew that UA was a rather exclusive school, being one of, if not the, top hero schools in the country, but Izuku had never really looked into the number of classes or students.

“And now, for our top scorer of the entrance exam to address the crowd!” oh, right, that part! Who was gonna- Wait a minute, didn’t he- “Izuku Midoriya!”

Oh, oh shit! He had watched the Sports Festival before, but it had been so long that he had forgotten that the top scorer spoke in the beginning! He had no idea what to say!

Someone gave him a small nudge, and he gave a glance over to see Tsu gesturing towards the podium. With a deep breath, Izuku walked up to the mic on the podium. What to say, what to say-

(“For years I thought trust was a useless endeavor, something that would only result in pain and betrayal. But you… you have shown me otherwise.”

“You give your heart to those you care about, your soul to save and protect those who’ve lost their way. The trust and bond you have with your team, with your friends, it… it has proved to me that maybe there is more to life than just surviving, than just pain.”

“Power, strength, both mean nothing without hope, and now I have been given the opportunity to have just that. You have shown me much. The next time we see each other, I will be able to stand next to you with pride and truly say that I deserve to.”)

“Power, strength, both mean nothing without hope, and now UA has given me the opportunity to have just that. My classmates and teachers have shown me so much. The next time we see each other, I will be able to stand by you, by them, and truly say I deserve it.” Izuku spoke the words before he processed them, an image of a tall pink pokemon flashing through his mind. Racing through his mind to end the speech like students before him with, he shouted. “Plus Ultra!”

Once the crowd started cheering, Izuku quickly walked off the stage. What… what was that? He didn’t remember seeing a pokemon like that or anyone saying anything remotely close to that to him.

“Nice speech Midoriya.” Tsu whispered to him as he got back to his place in the crowd. He gave the girl a small smile as he listened to Present Mic start announcements back up.

“For the first event, We have..!” He started as Midnight spun a wheel (A wheel Izuku was like, 90% sure was rigged-). “AN OBSTACLE COURSE!”

The students were shuffled off to the start of the course. As they walked, he went into his head to come up with a plan.

Alright… alright… What did Izuku know from previous Sports Festivals? Only about the first 42 could pass the first event. The higher up, the easier the next round, but the person in first place almost always had some type of disadvantage (that was often disguised as an advantage) given to them.

So, if Izuku wanted to make it to the next round, he should probably aim for somewhere around the top 20. Not too far back to be concerning, leaves him with chances to pull up, but keeps him away from first place.

He wasn’t here to really win, just show off Hatsume’s item mainly and get noticed by some heroes for possible internship opportunities. He didn’t need to take the spotlight, and honestly he didn’t want to.

They entered the room where the obstacle course started and Izuku took a deep breath. He could do this, he could do this. He could do this. (Saying is believing.)

Chapter Text

Before Izuku had even been able to make a plan, Todoroki had frozen the ground in front of the entrance. The entrance. Which was a fucking bottleneck.

“AND WITH THAT CHILLING SHOW, SHOTO TODOROKI TAKES THE LEAD! CAN THE REST OF THE STUDENTS CATCH UP?” (Tune him out Izuku, you need to focus.)

Damn it, Izuku needed to get up if he wanted to get past all the students, but none of his pokemon were big enough to carry him in the air…

Wait, wait!

“Tsu!” He turned to the frog girl and grabbed her arm. “Can you jump us over the students near the door and get us out?”

Tsu looked at him for a second before turning to the door. “Not with the ice on the ground, kero. It’ll make it too slippery for me.”

“Leave that part to me.” he said with a grin as he pulled off a pokeball. The good thing about having fire types; you never had to worry much about the cold.

Banpei appeared in front of him, looking as ready for anything as she usually did (she and Hasha were similar in a lot of regards, probably why they got along so well). “Banpei, use Mystical Fire on the ground.”

With the cuffs on, Banpei’s fire attacks were stronger so she melted a sizable chunk of ice on the floor.

“That works, kero.” Tsu said as Izuku brought Banpei into her ball. She gestured over to him and once they were on the solid floor she grabbed him and jumped over the crowd.

“WHAT AN AMAZING DISPLAY OF COOPERATION FROM 1-A STUDENTS MIDORIYA AND ASUI TO GET OVER THE FIRST OBSTACLE!”

“Thanks Tsu! And good luck!” Izuku said as he grabbed Subete’s ball and released him. Thankfully, Subete was not only big enough for the teen to ride on, but the pokemon had no problems with allowing him to ride.

He looked around, seeing robots like the zero pointers everywhere. Present Mic had called this “Robot Inferno” or something, right? Well, he had to be careful, many had fallen and there was still ice all around.

“TODOROKI AND BAKUGOU REMAIN NECK IN NECK OR FIRST PLACE, ARRIVING TO THE THIRD OBSTACLE, THE FALL! CAREFUL FOLKS, IF YOU FALL IN, YOU’RE OUT!”

The fall, so some type of giant hole probably. That was a similar problem to the bottleneck, but Izuku didn’t want to ask Tsu for help again. Even if he did, the frog-quirked girl was long gone by now.

Subete and him arrived at the third obstacle not to long and-

Arceus, that was a big hole. He couldn’t even see the bottom!

There were some ropes across the hole that students were climbing, but there was a limited number and they were somewhat thin…

“Hey, Mido-chan!” a familiar voice said. Izuku turned to his side to see Hatsume standing next to him with a toothy grin on her face. “You need a ride?”

The green-haired teen laughed and nodded. Even if he said no, Hatsume would probably just grab him to show off that her jetpack could carry two people during flights. She somehow grinned wider and grabbed Izuku’s arm.

As she pulled him up, he called back Subete and they went over the pit. Looking down at the people, he could see a few of his classmates, including Tsu, going over the pit themselves.

“AND MIDORIYA ONCE AGAIN SHOWING GREAT COOPERATION WITH OTHER STUDENTS, THIS TIME BEING SUPPORT CLASS 1-H’S VERY OWN HATSUME! SAY ERASER, DID YOU TEACH YOUR ALL STUDENTS ABOUT TEAMWORK, OR JUST HIM?”

“Midoriya’s quirk allows him to summon a team of familiars, so he’s used to working with others. That said, UA as a whole encourages students to work together.”

Izuku hadn’t even registered that Aizawa was up in the commentator’s booth. Huh… that didn’t really seem like the underground hero’s scene…

“Remember, you gotta show off my babies!” Hatsume yelled as she flew away after letting him down. He smiled and rolled his eyes. As if he could forget.

Okay, what had they said about this area? Right, right, it was a minefield… okay, so, he should be careful going across-

And stepped straight on a mine.

“AND BAKUGOU STEALS FIRST PLACE WITH TODOROKI JUST CENTIMETERS BEHIND HIM!”

Didn’t they say the mines gave a little shock? That was… that wasn’t any worse than a pokemon attack! Hade’s (his blitzle) Shock Wave hurt more than that! Izuku could probably walk through the field and be fine.

Not that he wanted to. It would probably worry his mom, and be unnecessarily showy.

But how to get around this… oh, that could work!

Izuku let out Noizu and Hade, instructing them to attack the ground and find a path for him together.

⁎-⁑-⁂-⁑-⁎

Izuku made it through in 18th place. Not bad, but not all that great either. Not that he was all that proud of it.

If Tsu and Hatsume hadn’t been there, hadn’t helped him, he would be a lot farther back. That was, if he even managed to pass at all.

Heroes had sidekicks, sure, but most of them didn’t or couldn’t afford to rely on others. Izuku wanted to be able to stand with his team, with other heroes, he didn’t want to have to constantly depend on them.

Izuku trusted them, sure, but he wanted them to be able to do the same to him. For them too be able to depend on and trust him as well.

He knew it was a little unfair for him to be judging himself so harshly so far. It was only his first year at UA after all, and before his “coma”, he hadn’t really been allowed in many dojos or gyms (and the one’s he was allowed in were too far away for him to reasonably go to regularly).

Knowing all that didn’t make him feel any better though.

“Now, for the second event of the day! We have…” Present Mic did a small drum roll on his desk as Midnight spun the wheel. “CAPTURE THE FLAG!”

Chapter Text

Capture the Flag? That would be... interesting.

“Now, Midnight, would you like to explain the rules for us?” Present Mic called out, and the female pro-hero grinned.

“Each flag is worth the points of everyone in the team combined! Your points are decided by your placement in the last round. The better you did, the more points you get!” Midnight explained, speaking into the microphone on her headset. “42 gets 5, 41 gets 10, 40 get 15, etcetera.”

Alright, so that would make… 210 points possible? And since Izuku got 18th place he would have around… 120, right?

“However!” oh right, the fake-out reward for first place. “First place will have 5 million points!”

Okay, so everyone would be gunning for first place then for sure. First place being… being Katsuki. Okay, yeah, Izuku was staying far away from that then.

“You are allowed to be in teams of up to 4, and no more!” Midnight said. “Only four of those teams are going to make it to our last event.”

Okay, so-

“Hey, Mido-chan!” Hatsume walked up to him. “Team up with me!” it wasn’t a question, more of a demand really.

“You got it!” Izuku responded with a smile. “But, hold on just one sec-”

Izuku turned away from the support student and started scanning the crowd. Where… aha, there he was!

The teen rushed over and grabbed the raven-headed student he had been looking for by the arm. “Tokoyami, join my team?”

The gothic student blinked at her for a few seconds, surprised. “I-”

“Ah, come on! I was just about to ask him!” Both of them turned to see the invisible student of class 1-A. Hagakure, standing behind Tokoyami.

“You should join us too!” Hatsume (wait, had she followed him?) said. “I have the perfect baby for you!”

“Wha-” Hagakure seemed taken aback (though it was hard to tell with her being invisible and all-).

Izuku laughed. “She means one of her inventions, Hatsume is a support student.” he explained, letting go of Tokoyami’s arm.

“Wait, really?” that seemed to cheer her right up. “You have a support item for me?”

“Yep!” Hatsume said, pulling out a- oh Arceus, were those bombs?! “Flash bombs! People can already barely see you, why not take away their sight all together?!”

Hagakure gasped and took the bombs from the pink-haired student, before- oh legendaries, that laugh was far too similar to Hatsume’s. He should have never let these two be introduced.

Tokoyami cleared his throat, drawing the attention of the group back. “To answer your question Midoriya, it would be an honor to join your team.”

“Yeah!” Dark shadow peeked out from behind Tokoyami. “Sentient quirks have to stick together!”

Izuku smiled at the duo, though a part of him panged with guilt. He was a liar, wasn’t he? But he couldn’t really explain what pokemon were without sounding crazy…

⁎-⁑-⁂-⁑-⁎

Each team was given an area as their “base”, where their flag would be. Apparently, once you brought a different flag back to your base, it would change to match the color of your flag, which just sounded unnecessarily expensive in Izuku’s opinion.

Still, he liked the color of his team’s flag, which was a pretty teal color.

“So, what’s the plan?” Hagakure asked. “Someone should probably stay and guard the base, right?”

Tokoyami opened his mouth, likely to volunteer, but Izuku quickly responded before him. “I can do that! I don’t need to be with my po- um, familiars, so I can send some out with you guys to collect flags and have some with me defending ours.”

Hatsume sent him a look, as though to say “don’t forget the items I made you” (well, she would say babies, but still). As if he would have forgotten.

“So, the rest of us split up and collect flags then? I like it!” Hatsume said with a smile.

Izuku nodded, thinking over his pokemon. Noizu would be a good fit for Hatsume, who could fly with her jetpack, and Kanpeki’s ability to turn intangible (like almost all ghost pokemon) would match well with Hagakure, and Tsuyoi would definitely work well with Tokoyami. Not to mention, he could probably send out Hasha and Banpei to collect flags together.

And he could have Futakuchi, Tomo, and Enjiru help him secure the base, and keep his other pokemon on standby in case of emergencies.

“We should probably go for the five million, right? It’s like, a guaranteed win!” Hagakure said, snapping Izuku out of his planning.

“No!” Izuku said before he really thought through his words. Everyone in his team turned to look at him, and suddenly he felt nervous. “I- I mean, um, everyone will be going for the five million, so if we got it we’d put a huge target on our backs.”

Tokoyami nodded after a few seconds. “In that case, going for smaller point amounts while the teams are focused on Bakugou’s team would allow us to remain largely undetected, but still likely able to pass.”

“Huh, yeah, that makes sense.” Hagakure said, the flash bombs Hatsume had given her now fashioned onto her belt-line. “I mean, my quirk is already better suited at stealth.”

Izuku nodded enthusiastically (although really, he wanted to tune more into what Hagakure said about her quirk, but that was better for a later time). He then pulled off the three pokemon he thought would be the best help to his friends and released them.

“Um, here! I figured having some extra protection wouldn’t hurt.” the un-isekai-ed teen said with a small (and somewhat nervous) smile. He directed each of the pokemon to a different person silently, before he blanked as Hagakure squealed.

“Wait, really?! We get to have one of these little cuties come with us?!” she asked excitedly, before seemingly pulling Kanpeki into a hug when he went to her.

“That would be helpful if we plan to split up.” Tokoyami eventually said, though Izuku could see Dark Shadow near Tsuyoi with an absolutely delighted expression.

Hatsume nodded, though Izuku wasn’t sure if that was in agreement with Tokoyami, or if she was just examining Noizu.

“ARE WE READY FOR THE MOST SPECTACULAR GAME OF CAPTURE THE FLAG FOLKS?!” Present Mic called out to the crowd, causing them to cheer. The game was about to start then.

Izuku nodded to his teammates and then went over to the flag. He could do this, he could do this (if he said that enough, surely, eventually, it would be true).

He released Banpei and Hasha, instructing them to collect any flag that wasn’t red (the color of Bakugou’s flag), and then to bring it back to him after the buzzer, before he let out the other three.

(Eight pokemon out… it felt kinda odd to have. He was so used to only having one or two out during a battle, or having them all out when relaxing. Huh… had he been limiting himself unconsciously because of that? Something to look into after the Sports Festival, he didn’t have time right now.)

A blaring buzzer sound, and his teammates and pokemon (besides the three that would be helping, obviously) were off. And-

He was alone, lying in wait for some to come and try to take a flag from him. Huh… Well, surely this would help with his anxiety during this event! Yay.

✧✇↝⍢↜✇✧

“AND WITH THAT, THE TEAMS ARE OFF! KEEP AN EYE ON THE SCORES FOLKS TO SEE WHO WILL MANAGE TO MAKE IT TO OUR LAST, AND MOST POPULAR, EVENT!” Hizashi called into the mic, before turning it off.

He let out a breath as he watched the excitement happening. Like always, almost every team was gunning for the highest points, except a few… Well, he wasn’t gonna call them out. Where was the fun in that?

Clearing his throat and flipping the switch to turn the mic on, he quickly switched back to his “announcer mode”, as he liked to call it. “AND AS THEY HEAD STRAIGHT FOR THE FIVE MILLION POINTS, TEAM RED IS PUT ON THE DEFENSIVE TO DEFEND THEIR FLAG AND FIRST PLACE!”

“BUT NO TEAMS SHOULD GET TOO COMFY FOLKS! THE FIVE MILLION IS A GUARANTEED FIRST PLACE, BUT THE OTHER THREE SPOTS ARE ALSO STILL UP FOR GRABS!” He then once again flipped the mic’s switch, and then turned to his husband. “So, what you thinking?”

“I’m thinking that I can’t believe I let you talk me into this.” Shota deadpanned, narrowing his eyes at the blonde.

Hizashi laughed, more than used to the underground hero by now. “Oh come on, you can’t seriously tell me you don’t have any opinions on how they’re gonna do?”

Shouta rolled his eyes before looking out among the students. “The teams who are going for other flags besides the red have a good chance of getting fourth or third if they’re careful.”

“Oh, what glowing praise.” he quietly teased, earning a glare from his partner.

“Bakugou and his team are being too cocky. They aren’t going for any other flags, so if anyone takes their’s, they’ll have a long way to catch up.” the black-haired teacher finished.

Hizashi nodded in agreement, looking at the explosive boys team. He was strong, sure, but you could practically see the arrogance around him.

“I’d say Team Teal and Lime have a good strategy, going for lower points. Team Teal though seems to have split up more, which good land them in some trouble.” Shota said with a yawn. Despite not having patrol the night before, the night-time hero had gotten a great sleep.

“I disagree, actually.” Hizashi said. “Look, each of the members have one of Midoriya’s familiars with them, and two are even going out on their own. They’re all paired up, giving them some extra defense.”

Shota gave a hum before Mic put up a hand and switched on the mic. “AND WITH AN EXCELLENT DIVERSION, TEAM CORNFLOWER HAS BEEN KICKED OUT OF FORTH PLACE BY TEAM INDIGO! MEANWHILE, TEAM AMBER AND TEAM MINT HAVE KEPT A FIRM HAND ON THEIR RESPECTIVE SECOND AND THIRD PLACES, BUT CAN THEY KEEP THEM?!”

“Focusing on the five million flag is distracting people.” was all Shota said into his own mic, and Hizashi held back a snort.

He used the time after to call out a few more things happening down there, keeping an eye on the time. The second round was only 30 minutes after all.

“WERE HALF-WAY THROUGH, ONLY 15 MINUTES LEFT ON THE CLOCK! THESE TEAMS BETTER WORK HARD IF THEY WANT TO PULL THROUGH INTO THE TOP FOUR!” he announced, before flipping off the microphone.

✧✇↝⍢↜✇✧

“Hade, quick attack! Futakuchi, play rough! Enjiru, agua tail!” Izuku instructed his pokemon as two students (ones he didn’t recognize) approached the base area.

As he did so, Banpei and Hasha returned. Biting his lip, he thought of something. His team was around 6th place, and currently Team Cornflower had been knocked to fifth…

“Banpei, Hasha, I have an idea.” He gathered their attention and pointed at the timer. “When that reaches around 10 minutes, grab Team Cornflower’s flags, as many as you can, and get back here as quickly as possible. Don’t let anyone stop you, got it?”

The two pokemon nodded, and then went off to lie in wait. Izuku wasn’t gonna get out yet, he still had some plans, and he was sure the rest of his team did too.

He wouldn’t let them, or himself, down. Maybe he wasn’t the best fighter, maybe he had to rely on his pokemon to battle for him, but he was smart. He could plan, and using his plans he could win!

{“Your mind is one of your biggest strengths, Daydream, as well as your heart. We all believe in you.”}

✧✇↝⍢↜✇✧

“AND WHAT’S THIS? WITH 5 MINUTES LEFT ON THE CLOCK, TEAM CORNFLOWER’S POINTS HAVE ALL BEEN TAKEN AND CLAIMED BY TEAM TEAL, PRACTICALLY DOUBLING THEIR POINTS AND PUTTING THEM IN A STRONG THIRD PLACE!” Present Mic yelled out over the announcers.

Tooru, carrying a few flags she snatched from Team Peach, couldn’t help but laugh as she made her way back to the base. She didn’t know which of her teammates accomplished that feat, but however it was, they were amazing!

Izuku’s floating familiar (Kanpeki? Kanpeko? Kanojo? She couldn’t remember) made an excited noise, twisting in the air in front of her.

“AND THEN TEAM AMBER SWEEPS THROUGH AND TAKES TEAM RED’S FLAG! CAN THEY MAKE IT BACK TO THEIR BASE WITH THE LAST 4 MINUTES REMAINING?!”

If they did, that would put Tooru’s team in second place! She couldn’t remember who Team Amber was, but she was rooting for them now!

She made it back to the base with 2 minutes to spare, and high-fived Hatsume. And, she still had a flash bomb left of the 3 she was given, which would totally help in the one-v-ones!

Oh, and she was definitely getting flash bombs added to her hero costume when this was over. It would probably make her need a belt, so she would have to find a way for that to fit her well, but be as easy to remove as her gloves and boots…

“WITH LESS THAN A MINUTE TO SPARE, TEAM AMBER TAKES THE LEAD AND LEAVING TEAM RED WITH ZERO POINTS!”

A buzzer then sounded, signaling the end of the event. It was over, they were in the top four for certain!

“AND WITH THAT, WE HAVE OUR FINALISTS OF THE SECOND EVENT! TEAM AMBER WITH 1-A’S TODOROKI, YAOYOROZU, IIDA, AND KAMINARI IN FIRST PLACE; TEAM TEAL WITH 1-A’S MIDORIYA, HAGAKURE, AND TOKOYAMI, AND 1-H’S HATSUME IN SECOND PLACE; TEAM INDIGO WITH 1-B’S MONOMA, SHIOZAKI, TSUBARABA, AND TETSUTETSU IN THIRD; AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST, TEAM LIME WITH 1-B’S KOMORI AND TOKAGE, AS WELL AS 1-H’S OZAKI AND HIRANO!” Present Mic announced.

Tooru cheered. She did it! She had made it to the last round! Screw all those people who said an invisibility quirk was useless!

“We did it…’ she heard Izuku whisper, and turned to look at him. He looked nearly as amazed as she felt.

Tooru couldn’t help but smile wider, even if no one saw that.

Chapter Text

Izuku looked over the board that showed the battles as the break started to end. He was gonna be the last one battling, which he was definitely glad for.

His pokemon had plenty of stamina, sure, but it had been diminished when they were de-evolved. Not to mention, using moves a bunch took it out of a pokemon.

“Hey, Mido-chan!” Hatsume called out as she walked up to him, before she swung an arm around his shoulders. “Excited for your first match?”

He shrugged. “I mean, a little, but I’m mostly nervous…”

“You kidding?!” she said, grabbing his shoulders and turning him to face her. “You and that brain of yours? You’re gonna do great!”

Izuku gave her a smile, though it was much smaller than her bright grin. “Thanks Hatsume…”

“Oh, none of that!” she shook her head. “If we’re gonna be partners, then you can call me Mei!”

“Okay then, Mei.” he said with a laugh. “I guess you can call me Izuku then.”

She gave a laugh, her maniacal laugh that Izuku found oddly comforting. “You got it, Izu-chan!”

Suddenly, he didn’t feel so nervous about the fight coming up. Win or lose the festival, he still felt like a winner in his book. He had a friend, an amazing team, and honestly he had already done a pretty good job showing his skills.

He was still going to do his best, Plus Ultra and all that, but he let himself relax a little. Either way, he would be happy with himself and what he accomplished.

⁎-⁑-⁂-⁑-⁎

Izuku sat in the stands, looking out as the first of the battles began. In his lap he sat grooming his zorua, Akachan, who had been gifted to him as an egg from an odd elderly woman. Unlike most zoruas, Akachan was partly a ghost type, and her fur was white and red.

“Oh hey Midoriya!” Uraraka said, taking a seat next to him. “Good job during the second event!”

“Oh, hi Uraraka! And thank you.” he responded with a smile. “I’m sorry you didn’t pass.”

The gravity girl shrugged. “I mean, I’m a little disappointed, but it’s not so bad. I actually tried to team up with you!”

He blinked in surprise at that. “Really, you did?”

“Yeah! I mean, you’re super cool and my friend. But by the time I managed to find you, you already had a full team.” She explained. Izuku felt warm when she referred to him as her friend. “I guess next time I’ll just have to get to you quicker, huh?”

He giggled slightly at that, before Akachan chirped to get Izuku’s attention. She looked pointedly at his brush and he chuckled softly, going back to brushing her (she was quite the spoiled pokemon).

“Oh right, I wanted to ask who this was. He’s adorable!” Uraraka said, looking down at Akachan who preened at the attention.

“This is Akachan. You can pet her if you want, she loves that.” Izuku told her. Uraraka looked delighted at that, and reached down to let the zorua sniff her fingers (like how Izuku was taught to do with dogs).

Akachan looked at her for a moment, before leaning her head forward to let the brunette pet her. “Oh my kami, she’s so soft!”

“Yeah, she constantly makes me brush her and give her baths to maintain it.” he explained. “She’s pretty spoiled, but the fact that I give in so often probably doesn’t help much.”

Before Uraraka could respond, the announcements for the final event began.

“WELCOME TO THE LAST EVENT, WHERE ARE AMAZING STUDENTS ARE GONNA SHOW THEIR METTLE IN ONE ON ONE FIGHTS!” Present Mic called out as the crowd cheered. “FIRST UP, WE HAVE 1-B’S VERY OWN MEAN, GREEN, LIZARD-SPLITTING MACHINE, SETSUNA TOKAGE!”

On the left side of the field, a girl with dark green hair stood stretching her arms back and forth.

“AND ON THE OTHER, ANOTHER ONE OF 1-B’S STUDENTS, THE ONE WHO CAN PUT UP WALLS, KOSEI TSUBURABA!”

On the right side, a brunette stood looking around the stadium.

“READY?”

The two looked at each other, the girl nodding her head and shaking her hands to pump herself up while the boy got into a fighting stance

“BEGIN!”

The two ran out each other, Tokage coming in quickly with a punch towards his stomach. Tsubaraba stepped back and let out a large breath, and instead of hitting him, the girl hit an invisible wall in front of him.

She jumped back when he took the opportunity to swing at her, before going back in. This time, however, she separated one of her hands from her arm and had it come in from the left while she swung from the right.

They continued the same song and dance for a while; Togake would swing, Tsuburaba blocked it then attack, she would dodge. Of course, every other swing or so one of them would get a hit.

However, as it went on, Izuku realized that Tokage was slowly leading the boy towards the edge of the boundaries without him noticing. She slipped a hand behind him, as she threw a bunch with the other.

As he took a step back to dodge, her floating hand grabbed his collar and pulled him out of bounds while he was unsteady.

“Kosei Tsuburaba is out of bounds!” Midnight called out into her mic. “Setsuna Tokage wins!”

The crowd cheered as the boy threw his head back in a groan (or, it looked like that), before following Tokage out of the tunnels.

“You think all the fights are gonna be like that?” Uraraka asked, glancing over at him.

“Probably not. Neither of them had super flashy quirks, so it was more down to who could adapt faster or was a better fighter.” Izuku said. “They both seemed pretty evenly matched there, but that probably won’t be the case for every one.”

“Oh yeah. Like, if Bakugou was up against Tokage, she would probably have a hard time with his explosions.” Uraraka said. Izuku winced slightly, remembering that Katsuki hadn’t passed the second event. The greenette could imagine that the explosive blonde wasn’t exactly thrilled about that.

“UP NEXT, WE HAVE 1-B’S METAL MAN HIMSELF! TETSUTETSU TETSUTETSU!” that could not be someone’s actual name. What parent just, gives their child the same first name as their last name?

“VS, THE ELECTRIC WONDER OF CLASS 1-A! DENKI KAMINARI!”

⁎-⁑-⁂-⁑-⁎

After the school managed to fix some of the lightbulbs from when Kaminari had electrocuted Tetsutetsu (Izuku still couldn’t believe that was his actual name), the next handful of fights went by rather fast.

Todoroki had been next, going up against a girl named Komori who could create mushrooms. He had created a giant iceberg, trapping her and making her unable to do anything. The girl had even gotten the chance to do anything really.

After that, it had taken the teachers a bit to clear up all the ice. Honestly, it felt kinda… excessive, in Izuku’s opinion.

Then Hagakure had gone up against one of the support students, Hirano (who honestly, didn’t look like he wanted to be there). Apparently, she had saved one of the flash bombs Mei had given her, as she used one to blind Hirano and push him out of the bounds.

According to Mei, Hirano was still rubbing his eyes from the flash. Also according to Mei, that meant the bombs had done their job.

Now, it was Mei’s round, and already she was up to something. Because, of course she was. Izuku hadn’t even known her for a month, but she was always up to something or other.

She was up against Iida, who had come out with a bunch of support gear she had apparently given him “to make things fair”. Which, to Izuku, sounded like bullshit. Mei wanted to show off her inventions, and if they beat something easily, then they would get noticed more. And Izuku knew that Mei knew that.

“IT SEEMS THAT 1-H’S MEI HATSUME HAS GIVEN HER OPPONENT SUPPORT GEAR! IS THAT EVEN ALLOWED?!”

“It’s not against the rules.”

“WELL THEN, I SUPPOSE WE SHOULD GET ON WITH THE BATTLE! SUPPORT VERSUS HERO! WHO WILL-”

“Testing, testing, 1, 2, 3.” wait… that was- Mei hacked into the commentator booth. Izuku sent a glance up to see Mic looking very shocked and pressing buttons in the booth. “Hello esteemed audience members! I am Mei Hatsume, that’s M-E-I H-A-T-S-U-M-E, support inventor and future CEO of Hatsume Industries!”

Iida also looked extremely confused, looking at the pink haired girl in front of him. “Now, I am here to show off my amazing babies with the help of my lovely assistant here!” She pointed to Iida, and suddenly things made perfect sense.

Oh, poor Iida. he was pretty nice all things together. But, well, when Mei was on a roll, there seemed to be no way of stopping her.

She pressed the buttons on her jetpack and went up into the air. “This here is version Alpha 2.3 of the MH Compt-Jet. Lightweight and compactable when not in use so it’s easy to carry, yet still able to lift multiple people in the air at once, this baby can take you anywhere in the field for fights or rescues!”

She flew around to show it off, before clicking a button on a small remote that lifted Iida into the air. “And here we have Beta 1.4 of the MH Limb Extenders! These babies can get you to any high places and across the field in seconds!” She said as Iida took a wobbly step and was half-way across the field.

She kept going along, introducing inventions while Iida was forced along for the ride. From armor, to net-guns, she showed it all. Iida didn’t not look enthused about being pulled along against his will in the slightest.

“And, if you watched Hagakure earlier you would have seen her use version Alpha 3.1 of the MH Flashes!” Mei said, now hovering near the edge. “And Midoriya also used four, that’s right four, items made by yours truly to enhance the abilities of his familiars!”

After getting the final words out, she shot herself out of bounds. Iida looked at her shocked, unmoving. Which was fair, she had basically used him as a puppet mannequin.

“Well, that was- oh, wait- ahem, AND WITH THAT, MEI HATSUME IS OUT OF BOUNDS! AND HAS FINALLY GIVEN ME BACK MY MIC!” Present Mic said, caught slightly off-guard.

“There will be discussions with Power Loader about this later Hatsume.” AIzawa drawled, clearly unimpressed. Izuku just knew that Mei was laughing in the tunnels at that.

“That was kinda mean of her to use Iida like that.” Uraraka said from his side.

Izuku nodded. “Yeah, and probably a bit embarrassing for him…”

“It was funny though.” a voice said from behind them. The two turned to see Shinsou sitting behind them.

“Hey, that’s not-” Uraraka started, before cutting herself. “Well, I mean, yeah, it was pretty funny.”

“Plus, it’s not like Iida lost his fight.” Shinsou said with a shrug. “Just got pulled around a little. Seems to me it was a good lesson that fights aren’t ever gonna be ‘fair’.”

“Yeah, true. And I mean, she was his opponent.” Izuku agreed. “We might all be UA students, but we aren’t on the same team right now.”

Uraraka giggled into her hand. “Iida looks so confused down there.”

Shinsou huffed a laugh. “Did you see Po- Yamada up in the booth? He was practically frantic trying to get back control.”

The greenette noticed the small slip, but decided not to comment on it. “I mean, he was without a mic. That makes him just Present, doesn’t it?”

Shinsou snorted and Uraraka burst into more giggles. “Does that mean if you have old pictures of him, he’s Past Mic in them?” She smiled, raising an eyebrow.

“Aizawa and the Mics of Past, Present, and Future.” Shinsou said, deadpanned. “He must learn the true meaning of commentating.”

Chapter Text

“Ready you two?” Izuku said, Hayai (his fletchling) sat on his arm and Enpaia stood in front of him. He didn’t fully know who Shiozaki, his opponent, was, but he vaguely remembered seeing her with vines for hair.

The two pokemon gave noises of agreement, Hayai flapping her wings and Enpaia crouching down slightly. He smiled at them both, once again reminded how much he loved his pokemon.

“Let’s do this then!”

“ON THE RIGHT, WE HAVE THE VINE PRIESTESS, 1-B’S IBARA SHIOZAKI!” so she did have something to do with vines then. Perfect.

Izuku started walking forward, Empaia walking next to him with his head held high and Haiya moving to fly next to him.

“AND ON THE LEFT, WE HAVE THE FAMILIAR CREATURE-HANDLER FROM 1-A, IZUKU MIDORIYA!”

He took a deep breath, looking at his opponent. She had her hands clasped together and her head held high. Her eyes were closed, and she seemed to be whispering something.

Was… was she praying? On the battlefield? Wouldn’t it have made more sense to do that beforehand?

“READY?!” as he’ll ever be.

“BEGIN!”

The vines that made up the girl’s hair shot forward towards him, and Izuku dug his heels into the dirt. “Hayai, Flame Charge!”

The fletchling lit up in flames and dived at the vines reaching towards him. He turned multiple of them ablaze and the girl stepped back in shock as she snapped her vines down to put out the fire.

“Enpaia, Bulldoze on the ground!” the teen yelled, taking advantage of the girl’s confusion. The lion cub’s front paws lit up and he slammed them against the ground.

The rocks shifted and cracks appeared. The vine-haired student gave a scream as the ground fell from under her and she fell down with it. She looked at him with an angry expression, her hair moving to lash out again.

Empaia had been standing a little too close, and got hit with one of the vines, sending him flying backwards. He managed to get his feet on the ground, but it was clear he was very hurt.

“Fire Blast, Flamethrower!” Izuku called out, the fletchling and litleo doing their respective move on the hair. “Barrage!”

Shiozaki patted at her now flaming hair, stumbling around as she tried to put out the raging fire. Running forward with outstretched arms, Izuku pushed her.

She stumbled more, trying to catch herself. However, without any vines to place on the ground and stop herself, she fell backward over the line.

“AND SHIOZAKI IS OUT OF BOUNDS! LEAVING IZUKU MIDORIYA AS THE WINNER!” Yamada yelled out. “AND WITH THAT FIERY WIN, THE FIRST ROUND OF THE BATTLES ARE OVER!”

“Um, are you alright?” Izuku asked, reaching his hand out to Shiozaki (whose hair was still smoking, but no longer on fire) to help her up.

“I am fine.” she said, slapping his hand away. “I do not need help from you and your ungodly beings.”

She stormed off, her hair now resembling more a wolf cut then the long, flowing hair it was before that reached her feet.

The teen flinched at her words, but was quickly distracted by Empaia and Hayai coming over to celebrate the victory. He smiled the best he could, letting the bird pokemon land on his shoulder, and walked out of the arena with his litleo at his feet.

So maybe his opponent definitely didn’t like him, but he had still won the first round! His pokemon had done amazing.

~/❉\~ ... - .- .-. -

“Hey Professor Matzinger!” Izuku said to Professor Noether’s wife once the call came through. “How are-”

“Your pokemon here are perfectly fine.” she said and rolled her eyes fondly. “As are the rest of us down at the lab.”

Izuku smiled brightly at that. “That’s great to hear! Things here in Dannap are going good.”

“Ah, speaking of which, did you get a chance to visit Professor Falk?” Irene asked, before a noise came through the call and the screen was covered by faded-tan pikachu costume.

“Daijina!” Izuku greeted the mimikyu he had caught a few weeks ago. “Hello!”

The pokemon gave out many happy noises, before the professor pushed him to the side. “Yes yes, you’re happy to see your trainer again.”

The teen giggled and smiled wide. “And yes, I did get a chance to talk to Professor Falk. he said he should be able to have the stones I found processed the day before we leave.”

Irene nodded in approval. “Good, good. Oh, and tell Jemma I said good luck on her fashion show.”

“Of course, she’ll be happy to hear it!” Izuku responded. Jemma was always happy to hear from her aunt anyhow, but the extra support would surely be nice.

“Heya, Greenie?” Ekber said from the doorway, his klefki floating next to him. “You ready yet?”

“Hm?” she hummed, slightly confused. Then he gasped, remembering. “RIght, the reservation! I’m so sorry Professor Matzinger, but-”

The professor waved him off. “No no, don’t be late on my behalf. You kids go have fun.”

She ended the call, and Izuku bounced up. “Sorry Ekber, I’m ready!”

. -. -.. ~/❉\~

Izuku stood in his prep room, getting ready for his fight with Hagakure while the TV played in the background.

“Alright, remember, we don’t want to hurt her too badly. Just try to knock her out of bounds.” Izuku reminded his pokemon, as he grabbed out one of his homemade potions to help Empaia.

He sprayed the potion onto the litleo where he was hit during the battle. Empaia growled in appreciation, and pushed his head against Izuku’s arm. As he pet him, he looked around at his pokemon. Who to take with him for the fight?

Hagakure wasn’t the strongest member of the class, but she was certainly sneaky…

“Noizu?” he reached out his arm for the bat pokemon to land on. “Would you want to come to the battle?”

The noibat gave a small screech and landed on his arm happily. He scratched her head, taking that for a yes.

There was a hissing down at his feet, and he looked to see AI (his skorupi) moving it’s tail back and forth in anticipation. “You want to be part of the battle too?” he asked, and received an excited hiss back.

Kihin then hopped up onto Izuku’s shoulder. “Oh, really? You want to battle?” he asked, only to be meet with a handful of nods from the surskit.

“Alright then!” he smiled. He liked Hagakure, sure, but he wasn’t about to lose. Besides, holding back against her would probably just be insulting.

“AND WITH THAT, KAMINARI IS UNABLE TO BATTLE! TENYA IIDA WINS!” ah, so that meant he was next.

“You guys want to wait here and watch?” Izuku said, lingering near the door. He was met with almost a symphony of noise and laughed. “Alright, just don’t cause any trouble!”

Alright, the second battle. He could do this! (he had been saying that a lot lately…)

✧✇↝⍢↜✇✧

“TO THE RIGHT, WE HAVE THE QUEEN OF SNEAKS HERSELF, TOORU HAGAKURE!” Hazashi yelled out. “AND TO THE LEFT, WE HAVE- OH HOLY-”

Shota reached over and cut out his mic before he could swear, before giving Midoriya a quick introduction and sending a glare to Hizashi.

“You didn’t tell me some of his quirk-creatures were bugs!” the blonde hissed at his husband, still staring at the spider-like creature in the arena as the two students battled below.

“I don’t know all of his creatures, he usually just has one or two out at a time.” Shota shrugged. “It’s not like I went up and asked about the all, kid doesn’t talk unless he has to most of the time.”

“Or maybe, he just doesn’t talk to you. Since, y’know, you neglected to read his file and both terrified and pissed him off?” his husband painfully reminded him and the underground hero winced.

“I’m working on it…” he grumbled.

Hizashi raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms. “And has this ‘working on it’ included, I don’t know, an apology to the kid? And I mean an actual apology, with the words ‘I’m sorry’ and everything.”

Shota decided not to respond to that, and instead focus on the match. “Midoriya is icing the field, you should probably say something.”

“This isn’t over Shota Aizawa.” the blonde said, before flipping on the mic and announcing again (and also giving a quick excuse to the early reaction).

Full name, esh. Shota was really in trouble.

Chapter Text

“It’s beautiful, don’t you think?”

“Beautiful? It’s horrifying.”

“Well, that too.”

“...I suppose, in a way, it is beautiful.”

“It seems to have slowed slightly. The gates are still safe.”

“For now, but who knows how long that will last. Moving Spectre was already a risk, one we can’t afford to take again.”

“I know. It’s sad, isn’t it? These worlds, their minds, they used to be so free…”

“...it is. If only we could have predicted that man would come. Perhaps we could have stopped it.”

“His brother had a good heart and mind, ones like Daydream’s. Maybe is we had just taking the risk back then-”

“There is no use wondering about the ‘if’s and ‘maybe’s. It is too late for that, we must live with the path we are on.”

“Ah, lord. Apologies, we didn’t see you.”

“There is no need for you to apologize to me. This is your realm, I am the intruder.”

“What brings you here, lord?”

“I wished to see how much time remained. Banyan is not ready yet.”

“I don’t think he’ll ever truly be ready, lord.”

“Can anyone ever be ready, for something like this?”

“...You are both correct. No matter how much I wish to protect mine, it’s more important that we teach him for what’s coming. Or else, there may not be anything left to protect.”

❉✧ᗢ︻ᗢ✧❉

Izuku had done it, he had made it to the semi-finals! He was at the very least, going to end up tying for third place.

To think, for 12 long, grueling years of his life, he had been told that a quirkless deku like him would never achieve anything. And now, here he was, near the top of the first year UA Sports Festival. He had accomplished something he never even hoped to dream of.

(It didn’t make him feel as proud as it would have years ago. It almost felt a little empty in a way, not having his friends here to celebrate with him. Ekber would have given him one of the tightest hugs, Jemma would have spun him around in excitement, Ulva would have practically knocked the air out of him when congratulating him, Milo would have made him some special gift, and his foster family would have dropped everything to call and congratulate him.)

(Not having them here with him, to celebrate with him, it made the whole thing bittersweet. Sure, he had his mom and his new friends here, but it didn’t feel the same… it was like, they didn’t know him as well.)

He wandered around the halls, trying to get rid of some nerves before his next fight. He was up against Todoroki, one of the strongest in the class. Even if he had all of his fire-type pokemon out with him, the sheer amount of ice the boy could produce…

“Shouto, cease this idiotic rebellion!” a loud voice yelled from around the corner. Wait, was that-?

Izuku peaked around the corner of the hallway, making sure to be silent and to keep out of sight. And sure enough, there stood Todoroki and Endeavor, the latter clearly angry with his flames flickering high.

“You are my masterpiece!” Endeavor yelled. Masterpiece? That… that wasn’t how you referred to a member of your family, or anyone you were meant to care about. “You must act like it! Refusing to use my flames is an insult to yourself!”

Sorry, “his” flames? Last Izuku had checked, a person’s quirk belonged only to them, no matter if they inherited it from their parents or not!

“I do not need your fire.” Todoroki, his face blank as ever. Despite that, there was a rage, a hatred, in his eyes. “I only need my mother’s ice to win this.” (he didn’t actually buy into that “my quirk” bullshit, did he?)

Endeavor’s flames raised and the hallway grew hot. His scowl tightened, and Izuku could see his hands twitch and curl into fists. Surely he wasn’t going to- here, in a UA hallway, with all the cameras- surely he would get in trouble-

But he was the number two hero. If the cameras were turned away for even a second, people would just assume they saw wrong. Or, if they didn’t have audio, that Endeavor was just disciplining his son (maybe they would say it even with audio).

“Todoroki, there you are!” he was walking to the dual-haired boy before he even registered he was moving. “I’ve been looking all over for you! I-”

Izuku feigned surprise at the pro-hero in front of him. He gave his sweetest smile and tilted his head slightly. “Oh, Endeavor sir! I’m sorry, I didn’t see you there! I didn’t realize that anyone other than staff and students were allowed back here.”

Endeavor glared at the two teens in front of him, before huffing loudly and angrily. “We will speak about this later, Shouto.” he growled, before storming off.

Once Izuku was sure he was out of earshot, he let out a breath he hadn’t even realized he was holding. “Are you alright Todoroki?”

Todoroki gave him a strange look, before nodding. “Why were you looking for me?”

“O-oh, right, that!” Izuku stuttered, his cheeks heating up a little. “I um, I wasn’t actually… I was just walking and heard you too, and w-well, Endeavor looked really mad, and-”

“It was fine.” Todoroki interrupted. “He wouldn’t have done anything that would leave a bruise and lower my chances of winning.”

That… didn’t make the green-haired feel any better. That implied that Endeavor wasn’t opposed to doing it, that he would in different circumstances.

He was quiet for a while. “... he shouldn’t have said that stuff, about your quirk. He’s- it’s not true. It’s not his quirk. Th-that’s not how quirks work.” he said softly, his worry clear in his expression.

The stone-faced boy simply looked at him, no emotion in his expression.

“I won’t use his quirk.” Todoroki stated. “I was bred for it, I won’t use it.”

“‘Bred’ for it?! What the hell?! Like he was an animal or something?! H-how did that even happen-

“Have you heard of quirk marriages?” the other interrupted, making Izuku realize he had been speaking out loud. He clammed up, but nodded. Surely he didn’t mean-?

“My father has always been second place to All Might. So, he decided to have a child to surpass him.” the taller said, emotionless, like this was a completely normal thing. Izuku felt sick. “He chose a woman with an ice quirk, so his child would be able to control their temperature unlike himself.

Todoroki continued on, about how he was the true masterpiece Endeavor had wanted. How he had his father’s fire and his mother’s ice, the perfect combination of the two. How Endeavor had trained him to be the number one hero, to surpass All Might, his whole life.

He reached up, and touched the scar etched on his face. “My own mother did this. She couldn’t bear to even see my face, and she poured boiling water on it. He said, looking Izuku straight into the eyes. “My old man shipped her off to a mental facility, for ‘daring to harm his masterpiece’.”

Izuku felt sick. How dare he?! How dare a man who dedicated his life to protecting others, turn around and hurt his family like that?! He didn’t deserve the title of hero, much less deserve to be the number 2 hero.

Izuku moved to say something, when there was a chime to signal the next match. His match.

The other teen gave him a nod in goodbye, before walking away from him. The un-isekai-ed teen almost made a move to follow him, but he knew deep down that it would be pointless. He would just be forfeiting his match, and then Todoroki would have no reason to talk to him.

This was fine. He could make a plan, he would get Todoroki to listen. He wanted him- no, he needed him to understand that Endeavor had nothing to do with his power. Endeavor had controlled Todoroki’s life for years, and that had to end.

Izuku had six of his pokeballs on him, his original team, his closest confidants and friends. This was a fight he might not be able to win, but that didn’t mean he wasn't gonna try his hardest. He knew his team would too.

✧✇↝⍢↜✇✧

Nothing.

It had been weeks, and there was nothing.

How the hell was that possible?! How could someone just, disappear from thin air?! It shouldn’t be possible!

And yet, here she was. Searching almost desperately for her best friend with no sign of him.

“Jemma, please, you need to rest.” Milo stood next to her, a hand on her shoulder. “I know you miss him, I do too. But we won’t get anywhere if we just burn ourselves out.”

She bit her lip, holding back tears. Her delcatty pushed its head against her leg and gave a soft meow. Jemma knew Milo was right, but…

“What if-... what if we don’t find him?” she whispered, glancing at Milo as a tear ran down her check.

“Don’t say that, Jemma. We’ll find him, we will.” he said, hugging her tightly. “Izuku would never give up on us, and we’re not giving up on him, alright?”

Jemma nodded, gingerly hugging the boy back as tears continued to flow. They would find him, she would see her best friend again. The two had been through so much together, she wouldn’t stop until they were together again.

Chapter Text

~/❉\~ ... - .- .-. -

It hurt, it hurt so bad.

Where was Lloyd? He was… he was right next to him a moment ago, wasn’t he?

Was he hurt too? And his team, were they hurt?

He had let his flareon go around and explore outside the museum, but what about the others? He couldn’t remember, why couldn’t he remember?

It hurt.

It hurt.

IT HURT.

. -. -.. ~/❉\~

Izuku walked into the field as Present Mic announced him, his eyes trained on Todoroki. The boy’s face was impassive, cold as ever. If Izuku didn’t know better, he would say he looked almost cruel.

But Izuku knew now to never trust a person based on how they presented themselves. He knew now that there was always something lying in wait for you to find.

Todoroki… just what was he hiding? Anger, vengeance? What was his goal? Just to spite his father?

Surely not. Todoroki was smart, surely he didn’t have such a short-sighted goal. He wouldn’t just half-ass being a hero by metaphorically tying an arm behind his back and risk people’s lives just because Endeavor also had a fire quirk.

Or would he? Izuku didn’t know Todoroki, he’s pretty sure their conversation (if you could even call it that) in the hallway was the first time they spoke, so it wasn’t like he knew the dual-haired’s character.

And based on everything he had seen, Todoroki wasn’t willing to use his flames in the slightest. He thought he would be just fine with only his ice, to the point where he was willing to hurt himself by risking hypothermia or icing an entire side to constrict his vision and movement.’

And for what? To spite Endeavor? To prove a man wrong by letting his idiotic ideology and monstrous actions control him for the rest of his life and put people at risk?

It was stupid. It annoyed- no, it infuriated him. Izuku had lived nearly his whole life surrounded by stupid ideologies, by monstrous actions. How dare Todoroki claim that he was fighting them by letting them control him? How dare he take the gift he was given and abandon it simply because it was similar to another?

Maybe he didn’t choose the gift, maybe he didn’t choose the path of a hero, but that didn’t give him any right.

Tsuyoi hadn’t chosen to be born smaller than his siblings or to be abandoned for it. Fukakuchi hadn’t chosen to look the way she did or to be met with disgust for it. Subete hadn’t chosen to be made by scientists or experimented on. Daijina hadn’t chosen to be made of something that humans couldn’t look at or to have to make a costume in the hopes of being loved. Izuku hadn’t chosen to be born quirkless or to be ripped away from his home twice.

So many people didn’t get a choice in their lives. That didn’t give them a right to choose to hurt or endanger others, like the choice Todoroki was heading for.

Izuku was going to fight for everything he had. He wouldn’t let Todoroki let Endeavor control him anymore, wouldn’t let him make the choice to hurt others later down the road.

~/❉\~ ... - .- .-. -

“L-Lloyd?” his voice was strained, dust pulling at the edges of his throat determined to rip it to shreds.

He looked at the blond boy in front of him, who was just standing there. Why, why was he just standing there?

He could see him, Izuku knew he could see him, legs pinned under a heavy stone that threatened to shatter his bones more than it already had landing on them. So why was Lloyd just standing there, looking at him and doing nothing?

He coughed, his body jolting with the movement and pain cutting through every inch of his being. His hands were rough with cuts made and filled with the stones on the floor.

“Lloyd, p-please-” he tried to beg, tears in his eyes as he looked at the person who claimed he would always be there for him while he did nothing. “P-please help-”

“Lloyd, good job with the museum!’ a voice cut through his pleasing as a girl walked up to Lloyd. She wore a smile too happy for the destruction she was overlooking. “I mean honestly, blowing the whole thing? Fine work!”

What?

Lloyd had done this?

But- but Lloyd had taken him here. Had told Izuku home much he would love this museum, that it would be great and that he had a surprise planned for him.

Was…

Was this the surprise? Had Lloyd taken him here to get rid of him? But why? He thought-

…he thought Lloyd loved him…

“DId you find the piece Alev?” Lloyd asked the girl, eyes still looking at Izuku with a look of pity. Fucking pity. He had done this to him, and had the gall to look at him with pity?!

The girl, Alev, laughed. “Yep. and with all this destruction, the police won’t even be able to tell it’s missing! We’ll get off scot-free, I’m telling ya.”

No.

No, no.

No, that wasn’t right. How could they do this to so many people, how could Lloyd do this to him, and then just get away free?

Izuku had to stop them-

…but he couldn’t.

He was trapped here, forced to hear and watch this all play out. He was going to die here, wasn’t he? He was going to die without ever seeing his mom again, without getting to thank his foster family for all they had done for him, without getting to say goodbye to his friends.

Izuku cried, harder than he had ever cried before as his body collapsed down. His vision filled with tears, he had no idea if Lloyd was still there or had finally left him to die alone.

His body ached with pain, cuts and breaks and bruises all crying with him as he waited to die.

As he finally let himself succumb to a pain-fueled slumber, he saw the blurry edge of something different. Gray, steel, bronze, all just out of reach.

. -. -.. ~/❉\~

Cold.

It was so very, very, cold.

Of course it was, because Todoroki only used ice attacks. Thankfully, between Hasha and Tomo having fire and steel moves he was still in the ring. Not to mention, Yuanye was basically unaffected by the cold.

“TODOROKI GIVES ANOTHER GIANT PUSH OF ICE, BUT MIDORIYA CLEARLY ISN’T BUDGING! I WONDER WHAT HE HAS PLANNED WITH THOSE CREATURES OF HIS?”

What he has planned? Currency, to not die of hypothermia and avoid getting skewered by an ice spike.

“Fuka, Stone Edge!” he said, glancing at the mawile perched atop some ice. The pokemon nodded, leaping towards the floor and hitting it, sending cascading pillars of blue stones towards the other boy.

“Yuanye, Noizu, use Icy Wind and Gust!” he yelled, the two pokemon using their moves in tandem. Maybe if Izuku got Todoroki cold enough, he would cave and use his fire? It was the best shot he had.

Todoroki scowled at the cold wind that cut at his skin, before sending another blast of ice straight towards him. Subete jumped in front, using a well-placed Shadow Claw to stop the ice from reaching him.

“What are you doing?” Todoroki hissed. “Did my father pay you off or something to make me use my fire?”

“Oh, fuck you! Like I’d ever take money from that man!”

It wasn’t until Todoroki gave a blink in surprise that Izuku realized he had yelled that out loud. Well, it was the truth, so might as well keep going?

“I don’t care what that asshole thinks!” Wow, he was really pissed, huh? Usually he tried to avoid swearing. “His fire has nothing to do with yours!”

Todoroki glared and sent more ice that was met with more counter-attacks from his pokemon while he dodged. “It’s his fire-”

“IT’S YOUR FIRE, YOUR QUIRK, NOT HIS!” Izuku practically screamed, grabbing a broken off ice piece and lobbing it at the other’s head (it missed and shattered on the ground inches before his feet, but Izuku was also pretty far so he considered it a win).

“Endeavor doesn’t get to take credit for it! It’s all yours!” He yelled at the other, who had stopped moving. “You’re the one with fire and ice, an amazing dual-type, he just has a sucky, cheap imitation of it!”

“Stop letting his shittines control you.” He finished, his voice lower than before that he wasn’t sure if the other even heard him. (Was that really for Todoroki? Was the other teen the one letting someone’s shitty actions control him? Or was… was Izuku projecting?)

A flame burst out.

~/❉\~ ... - .- .-. -

Izuku woke up, his head against dark gray fur. He blinked, moving to sit up before lurching in pain and nearly throwing up.

There was a soft growl, as whatever Izuku was laying on shifted slightly, beforing nudging Izuku up with a paw. It wasn’t painless, but better than when he tried to move.

He looked over to see a large pokemon unlike any he’d ever seen before with a helmet covering his head. He reached out a hand slowly and carefully to pet the pokemon’s back and was met with a purr-like sound.

“H-hello-” his voice scratched out before he was let into a coughing fit. The pokemon gave a concerned growl and Izuku smiled.

He was still in a world of pain, and his legs were definitely broken, but he was alive.

Izuku was alive. He would be okay. Maybe not today, but one day.

Hopefully.

. -. -.. ~/❉\~

Chapter Text

Izuku stood on the lowest podium, head held high and a smile on his face. Sure, he hadn’t won, but tying for third place wasn’t bad! (Though, he did wonder where Iida was… he hoped everything was alright.)

All Might (All Might!!!!) handed out the medals to them all and Izuku couldn’t stop from smiling even wider. It might not be the coolest medal, but he was so very proud of it. He had earned it, fair and square.

He had won. Third place or not, he had won.

✧✇↝⍢↜✇✧

Tenya sat outside the hospital room as his parents spoke to the doctor. His fists were clenched and tears rolled down his cheeks.

How dare someone do this to his brother!? Tensei was a good person, an amazing hero, how dare Stain attack him like that?!

He would pay, Tenya would make sure of it.

✧✇↝⍢↜✇✧

As Izuku walked, he glanced over at Iida. His classmate insisted everything was fine about his brother when they walked into the school, but the greenette didn’t believe him. He didn’t think there was a “fine” after something like that.

“It’s so weird that people recognize us from tv!” Ashido said as Izuku sat down. “Everyone wanted to talk to me on my way here.”

“Same!” Hagakure exclaimed. “People on the street were staring at me! It was kinda embarrassing.”

People continued to talk about the sports festival, how the class was like celebrities now. The teen wasn’t too sure about that. The hype would probably wear off soon.

“Incoming teacher.” Jirou stated, fiddling with her earphone jack. By the time Aizawa walked in, the entire class was seated and facing forward.

“We have a big class today on Hero Informatics.” Aizaw stated. The class seemed to tense up slightly.

“I hope it’s not a pop quiz!” Izuku heard Kaminari whisper.

Kirishima gave his own whisper in response. “I bet it’s about hero laws! I’m so bad at that stuff.”

Either Aizawa didn’t hear said whispers, or chose to ignore them (likely the ladder). “You need codenames. Time to pick your hero identities.”

“Hell yeah!’

“Sweet!”

“This is awesome!”

The classroom erupted into cheers, before Aizawa sent out a quirk-fueled glare (one that Izuku noticed was never directed at him) to quiet them all down.

He sighed. “This is related to the pro hero draft picks that come with the sports festival. This can open avenues for work studies during your second and third years, but it’s important to know that pro heroes can rescind all offers they send.”

“So we’ll still have to prove ourselves even after we’ve gotten recruited?” Hagakure asked.

“Correct.” their teacher nodded, turning to the board. “Now, here are the totals for those of you who got offers. If you didn’t get any, don’t worry too much, you’ll all be interning with pros. UA has a list of 40 pro-heroes you’ll all be able to choose from.”

He pressed a button and a few names popped up on the board with numbers next to them. Yaoyorozu, Todoroki, Iida, Hagakure, Midoriya-

Wait, what? He got how many offers?! Was that- 24?!

Sure he was at the bottom of the list when it came to how many offers people got, but 24 was still a huge number! At least, it felt that way to him.

24 people saw his performance during the sports festival and chose him out of everyone else. That was a huge honor!

“You’ve all faced real combat with real villains during the USJ, but that doesn’t mean you have nothing to learn during your internships.” Aizawa told them. “You will be up close and personal in the field, seeing their work firsthand.”

“And for that we need hero names!” Sato said excitedly, a large smile on his face.

Uraraka, sharing his excitement, pumped her fist in the air. “This is gonna be so fun!”

Aizawa’s expression didn’t change. “The ones you choose today will likely be temporary, but take them seriously or-”

“You’ll have hell to pay later!” Aizawa was interrupted by the door being pushed open and Midnight walking in. “What you pick today could be your codename for life. You better be careful or you’ll be stuck with something completely dreadful.”

“She’s right.” Aizawa nodded as the sexily clad heroine walked up to the front. “Midnight here will have final approval over your names. It’s not my forte. But remember, these hero names are here to represent who you are as a hero and who you want to be.”

Aizawa grabbed his yellow sleeping bag, while Midnight pulled out whiteboards and gave them to each row to pass back.

As Izuku sat there, he started thinking about what he wanted his hero name to be. He remembered when he was younger, he had thought about silly and rather embarrassing names like All Might Jr and Zuku Might. Once he got older, the actual task of becoming a hero or even getting into a hero school had seemed so monumental that he hadn’t stopped to think about what he call himself as a hero.

The only other name that came to mind was honestly Deku, but that didn’t feel right. Deku wasn’t who he was anymore in any sense of the name. He wasn’t the quirkless weakling who would never become anything, but he wasn’t the kid fighting against all odds to be a hero.

He was many things. An artist, a friend, a trainer, and so many other things. In two years in the other world, he had experienced and done so much that connecting to who he was outside of it to be able to pick a name that represented him.

“Who among you is ready to share?” Midnight asked the class. “Feel free to take your time, the rest of your schedule is adjusted to fit around choosing these and your internships. Once your ready, come up here to show us.”

“We’re presenting to the class?!” Kirishima whisper-yelled, shocked. Izuku felt the same shock and nervousness the red-head seemed to.

As Aoyama walked to the front with a whiteboard, with a long hero name (“I Can’t Stop Twinkling”? That seemed like… a lot), Izuu thought more about his hero name.

❉✧ᗢ︻ᗢ✧❉

“A hero name? Is that important?”

“It seems important to him, so I’d say it's important enough.”

“I didn’t mean anything negative by it.”

“I know RGFya3JhaQ==.”

“What are you doing?! Our names!? He might hear us.!”

“Oh no, I-”

“It’s alright. He won’t know.”

“Are you sure?”

“Positive Q3Jlc3NlbGlh. Names like ours can’t go through the veils without interference.”

“I suppose that makes sense.”

“Do you have any ideas?”

“Hm?”

“About what his hero name should be?”

“Beyond offering my own? No.”

“QXJjZXVz? But… can’t he not hear that?”

“I was thinking more-”

❉✧ᗢ︻ᗢ✧❉

“Aeeshiasu?” Izuku whispered the last word he heard. And the only name he heard, the rest seemingly cut out and replaced with layers of static.

“Huh? Is that what you’re thinking of for your name?” Hagakure said, her uniform making it look like she had turned to him. “Man, that sounds so cool! I was just gonna go with Invisible Girl, but maybe that’s too simple…”

“I uh, I guess I was thinking about it.” Izuku rubbed the back of his neck. “And I think Invisible Girl works well for you. I mean, maybe it’s a bit simple, but it also sounds cute in a way? That seems to be what you go for with style, so..”

“It is, yeah!” Hagakure said happily. “And you really think it sounds cute? I wanted to do something quick and easy, so I wouldn’t end up super unpopular with my quirk not being flashy.”

Izuku nodded and gave her a small smile. “Thanks Midoriya! Oh, and good luck with your internship offers!” Hagakure said, writing down her chosen codename.

Although he wasn’t sure where the name came from, Aeeshiasu felt special to him. He didn’t know why, or even what the name meant, but to him it felt like being chosen and choosing something. Like something important, mystical.

Izuku watched Shinsou walk up to the podium as he wrote down his name (how he knew how it was spelled, he wasn’t sure). He flipped up his board, seemingly uninterested though Izuku was almost certain it was an act.

Midnight cooed. “Siren! Very pretty, nice symbolism. You’re planning for underground heroics, right?”

Shinsou nodded. “Yeah. thought short and simple would work best.”

Midnight gave a nod of approval, letting him go back to his desk.

Hagakure went next, Midnight agreeing with the cute point with the name. Then Iida went, and Izuku wondered what he would choose. His family was a big legacy family, so would he also pick Ingenium like his father and brother or-

Tenya. His first name, that was his choice.

Something was wrong, how hadn’t he noticed sooner? Looking at Iida, he could see it clear as day. His eyes held an anger in them that was unlike him, his body’s posture was tense as if he was forcing it through every action, and he just seemed wrong.

It was then Izuku remembered the news around Hosu. With all that had been going on, Izuku had just skimmed over the article without really thinking about it. He was such an awful friend, he should have realized earlier and checked in on him!

Midnight approved it, but she also seemed to notice how tense the boy was and looked concerned. Not that she could do anything while teaching an entire class.

Izuku finally stood up to go next, taking a deep breath when he showed his codename.

“Aeeshiasu?” Midnight questioned. “I’ve never heard anything like that.”

“It’s uh, a little weird yeah.” Izuku admitted. “I… can’t really explain where it came from, but the name means a lot to me. It’s important, mystical, all-encompassing. To choose something and to be chosen. To start something and see it through, to protect those you care for and even those you may not.”

“How passionate!” Midnight smiled, licking her lips. “You certainly put a lot of thought into this. Approved!”

Izuku sat down with a small smile, to try and power through his nervousness. This was his first official time getting first-hand heroics experience. He could do this.

⁎-⁑-⁂-⁑-⁎

Izuku looked through his list of offers, making mental notes of each hero he saw on the list. This was an important decision, he didn’t want to be impulsive about it. What if he made the wrong decision and it ruined his learning and he fell behind in school and they had to expel him and he would never be able to be a hero and-

“Hey Mido!” Uraraka said, walking up to him. “Who are you gonna choose to intern with?”

“Oh, uh, I’m not fully sure.” Izuku said, a little taken off-guard as he hadn’t seen her approach him. “I mean, I want to go with someone versatile. I just don’t know what I want to focus on.”

Uraraka nodded in understanding. “Oh, yeah. With all your familiars, you have a lot of range but also a lot of stuff to work on, huh? I was planning to go with Gunhead, so I could be a better fighter. I mean, I failed the second round at the sports festival ‘cause I got overpowered…”

“Oh, yeah, that makes sense.” Izuku nodded. “Gunhead would probably be a good fit for you. He’s very good at merging his quirk with quirkless combat. I mean, I was kinda torn between going with Native or Professor Royal.”

“Oh? I don’t think I know those heroes.” Uraraka leaned over the desk to look at his hero lists.

“Oh, well, both have quirks that tend to be about commanding multiple things at once.” the un-isekai-ed teen explained. “Native can control different types of plants, while Professor Royal can influence people around him. Native is more a twilight hero though, so I’m leaning more towards him so I can get experience with limelight and underground work, so I can see which I prefer.”

“Checking out stuff like that is smart. I mean, I think you would be suited for limelight more with your quirk, but then again I guess I don’t know a lot about underground heroics.” Uraraka responded with a shrug.

“Yeah. And I mean, his quirk is probably more similar to-” Izuku swallowed over the words, the lie not coming out easily. “How mine works. Plus, Professor Royal’s agency is pretty far from here so it would be a long travel time there. I’ll go with Native.”

“Where’s his agency?” Uraraka asked as Izuku put his selection onto the paper.

Izuku blinked, trying to remember. “Oh, it’s in Hosu!”

Chapter Text

Izuku was nervous as he waited for the train to Hosu. He had his costume case and some luggage for the days he would be at the agency, but he wasn’t too concerned with it. UA had approved Native as an offer and as a placement, so that probably meant he wasn’t a bad hero to go with.

There were classmates waiting for other trains, all talking excitedly about their internships. But, what Izuku really noticed was the classmate standing next to him also waiting for Hosu, Iida. the idea of the other teen also going there, when his brother had just been attacked there.

He was sure that Iida was planning to do something stupid and dangerous, and end up getting hurt or much, much worse. He had talked to him during school, told Iida he could talk to him, but had been brushed off. It didn’t help his nerves over Iida, especially with how angry he seemed.

There wasn’t much he could do. The school let him go to Hosu, and it wasn’t like he could say anything to change that.

“It’s cool that we're both interning in Hosu, huh? Maybe we’ll run into each other.” Izuku tried to strike up a conversation, Iida glancing at him was the only response he got. “Well, you have my number, right? Feel free to call me if you ever need anything, alright.”

Iida nodded, but the shorter didn’t think he was being taken all that seriously. Well, at least he had extended a hand and Iida had a way to contact him. He was very thankful Uraraka had insisted on them exchanging numbers before.

The train rolled up not long after, and with a wave goodbye to his teachers and classmates, he boarded. He hoped this internship would actually be helpful in some way, though he wasn’t sure what he was looking for. Battle experience, maybe? Controlling the amount of damage an attack caused? Or was it just to see how twilight heroics worked?

Well, he had a train-ride to figure it out.

⁎-⁑-⁂-⁑-⁎

Native’s agency wasn’t big by any means, but that was pretty standard for twilight heroes. It wasn’t small or anything though, a decent two story building. It didn’t stand out against the other buildings in Hosu too much besides the plant motif around and on it.

He guessed theming was rather important as a hero. Top trainers, like gym leaders and champions did that too, didn’t they? Usually theming themself around a pokemon type they specialized in.

With a breath, Izuku went to the door and knocked before walking in. There was a lady sitting at a desk in the front, typing on a computer. Her hair was like a plant itself, composed of green leaves with flowers growing out of it.

“Um, hello miss?” Izuku asked, walking up to the desk. The lady jumped a little, looking over at him with wide eyes.

“Oh, sorry, I didn’t notice you there!” The woman said, her voice breathed like wind. “Is there something you need, sweetie?”

“I’m from UA? I’m Native’s new intern?” He replied, feeling a little nervous. Had something happened?

What if Native hadn’t meant to send the offer? What if UA forgot to send word that Izuku accepted it? What if they were supposed to meet someplace else? What if Izuku was making a fool of himself? What if-

“Oh, Izuku Midoriya, right?” another voice from the right said. Izuku looked over to see Native walking out of a room in his hero costume. “Sorry I wasn’t there to meet you at the train station, there was a situation I had to handle.”

“Oh, it’s alright.” Izuku said, mostly on instinct. He hadn’t expected to meet at the train station anyways, but it was nice to know the Native was going to.

“This is my receptionist, Jurie Suzuki. If you ever have any questions and can’t find me, she can answer them.” Native explained, the lady at the desk smiling.

“Happy to have you here sweetie.” The lady, Suzuki, said kindly. She reminded Izuku a little of his mom, in that she just seemed to excude kindness and comfort with the way she spoke and held herself.

“You can leave your bags with her while I give you the tour.” Native instructed him. Izuku felt a little weird about that, but didn’t want to make a bad first impression with his new mentor so he put his bags next to the desk.

Native gestured him along, taking him through the agency. There wasn’t a lot to show him, just some changing rooms, a lounge area, training rooms, and a few other areas. Izuku supposed that for twilight heroes who were supposed to be out in the field as much as possible, there wasn’t a lot that was necessary in a hero agency. Made their work a lot more streamlined, since they had to be out in the field a lot.

“So, I have a question for you.” Native said as they stepped into the largest training room.

“Um, yes?” Izuku asked, a little nervous. He wasn’t sure why, but then again he tended to get nervous whenever he met someone. Especially when they were an authority figure of some kind.

…maybe it was childhood trauma from his teachers as a kid.

“What are you hoping to learn here?” Native asked. “I know why I sent an offer to you, but this isn’t an internship for me.”

“Well, your quirk has you splitting up your focus between different plants a lot. Having multiple of my p- uh, familiars, out at once is better for battles and stuff, and while they can do stuff by themself, having to split my focus to help them all is… is hard.” Izuku explained. Most, if not all, double battles he had participated in had been with another person on his team.

Native nodded in understanding. “Splitting your focus while not worsening your performance or leaving you vulnerable is difficult, for sure. It took me a long time to learn, and while I can’t get you to the same level as a pro over the course of your internship, I can give you tips to get there one day.”

Izuku gave a small smile at that. That was good, no false promises or saying too much but Izuku was still confident Native could do what he said.

Hopefully that meant he had chosen the correct internship.