Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Izuku rested his cheek on the palm of his hand, drumming his pencil against his dorm room's desk as he stared at the blank dry erase board and marker in front of him. 

It had been a somewhat last minute request to Ms. Midnight as classes ended for the day, one that seemed incredibly daunting in his mind as he packed up his things and waved off his friends to go back to the dorms without him. He hoped he didn't look like he was being led in front of a firing squad as he walked up to his homeroom teacher ( and wasn't that something to get used to ) and announced that he'd like to change his hero name. 

She had been slightly taken aback - most likely expecting a question from him about their upcoming Work-Studies - and after he promised her that this wasn't a decision he made lightly, she happily passed him a blank dry erase board and a marker, telling him to take a picture and email it to her once he had his new name.

Figuring out his new hero name wasn't a problem - he already had a new one in mind. No, it was the name he'd be letting go of that was making him hesitate: Deku. 

He was Deku, had been Deku ever since that day on the playground when he and Bakugou were four years old - useless. His diagnosis as Quirkless only enforced that point, as did the adoption of the name by the rest of his classmates in elementary and middle school. He told himself that he'd get used to the name eventually, that it was just Kacchan's nickname for him ( why else would the teachers never correct him? ), but he could never bury the hurt that bubbled up every time he heard it.

What could he do about it, though? Once Bakugou had his mind set on something, it was impossible to steer him away from it. All men weren't created equal, so If he said that Izuku was Deku, then he was Deku. 

At least, up until today.

It had been something he was thinking about ever since he began his counseling sessions with Hound Dog, something he timidly brought up at the end of last week's appointment.

" I think it's a great idea, Midoriya! " the Hunting Hero said, leaning forward in his seat. " It's your decision at the end of the day, but shedding that insult from your persona would do wonders for your self esteem ."

Given how angry the counselor was starting to get, their appointment was quickly ended and Izuku had made up his mind: he was no longer going to be Deku.

But what else could he be, if not useless?

" Isn't Deku short for Dekiru, like 'you can do it'? " Uraraka had asked on the first day of school.

At the time, Izuku's mind had short circuited and insisted that Deku was fine ( it really wasn't, but a kind and pretty girl was talking to him ), even though he explained where the name came from ( he gave an incredibly watered down backstory, now that he thought about it, but Ida acknowledged it ). He even made it his hero name after she called it cute ( how could an insult like that ever be cute ?). Bakugou hadn't liked it, his classmates had their reservations ( why hadn't they ever called it out beforehand ?), but he stuck to his guns.

He stuck to his guns for the sake of a boy who had never been a childhood friend and a comment made by a pretty girl who extended an offer of friendship.

Now, that boy was expelled, and the awful truth of the full scope of bullying he had put him through had been exposed not just to the girl, but to everyone around them. 

Nobody called him Deku anymore, and nobody felt the need to threaten him to mind his place and remain inferior. He could perform at the level he wanted, be as happy as he wanted, have as many people in on the One For All secret as he chose.

He could do it, live the life he'd been robbed of having since that day at the doctor's office.

He could do it.

He could be Dekiru.

His hand shook as he wrote it on the dry erase board and snapped a picture of it. He nearly dropped his phone as he sent the email to Ms. Midnight. But he felt like an unknown weight was lifted off of his shoulders as he got to his feet and headed down to the common area. His heart clenched with gratitude as Uraraka and Ida happily waved him into the kitchen to help with dinner, yammering on about how crazy difficult their latest English assignment was. 

He wasn't Deku anymore, never would be Deku ever again.

He was Dekiru now, and he couldn't wait to let everyone know it.

Chapter Text

"We're past the singularity point, now. Don't worry, you are not alone."

The last thing he saw before waking up was the past eight users of One For All looking right at him, the first user reaching out to him with a hauntingly familiar hand (wasn't it the same one from that night at Takoba Beach?). When he came to, his room was a mess - the window broken, floorboards charred, and his desk chair and figurines in complete disarray. Green lightning coursed up and down his right arm, and even in his half asleep state, it took him no time at all to put two and two together and realize that One For All activated in his sleep.

Crap.

How was he going to explain this to Ms. Midnight?

"Well, I had a vision of how the villain at Kamino Ward, All For One, created my Quirk by forcibly passing it down to his little brother. Said little brother gave me a vague message about passing the singularity point, and then it activated in my sleep and destroyed my room in the fallout. I'm sorry, it won't happen again!"

For that matter, how was he going to explain it to the rest of his classmates that weren't already in the know?

"Sorry for waking all of you up! You see, I was actually born Quirkless and met All Might during my final year of middle school. He passed down his Quirk to me after training me for ten months, and it turns out that the villain he fought at Kamino Ward created the Quirk. It has the spirits of seven other people living inside of it, and it made me destroy my room in my sleep." 

It was all too much to deal with this late at night (early in the morning?), so he decided to go for a run. The fresh air and change in scenery always did wonders in clearing his head, curfew be damned.

As he left UA's grounds and jogged to Musutafu, he reflected on how increasingly bizarre One For All and the conspiracy was proving to be. Why did the users appear before him at the Sports Festival? Why did All For One leave him and his friends unharmed at Kamino Ward? Why did both he and the first user seem so familiar to him? 

Why did the first user show him that frankly traumatizing memory from so long ago?

What more did he want to show him but couldn't?

He was definitely going to tell All Might about this at their next meeting, but would he be able to make sense of this new development? He hadn't believed Izuku when he told him what happened at the Sports Festival, chalking it up to latent willpower that allowed him to break free from Shinsou's Quirk.

If All Might wasn't able to make sense of this, then what in the world was Izuku going to do?

"Midoriya? Is that you?"

On instinct, Izuku activated One For All and spun around. To his surprise, the source of the voice was -

"Ojiro? What are you doing out here?"

His mild-mannered blonde classmate had come to a stop in front of him, bracing his hands on his knees as he regained his breath. Judging by the sweat on his brow and redness in his cheeks, he'd been out of the dorms for quite some time.

"I'd like to ask you the same thing," he retorted amusedly, watching as the green electricity surrounding his classmate vanished. "You were practically sleepwalking when you got back to the dorms. I almost thought we weren't going to be able to wake you up for class tomorrow." 

Izuku rubbed the back of his neck with a sheepish smile. His after school training session had been especially rigorous, so much so that he couldn't even remember whether or not he had dinner. All he had been focused on was going to bed, and even then, he hadn't changed out of his PE uniform before collapsing on top of his blankets.

"Yeah, I might have overdone it a bit today," the green haired boy confessed. "In between our Work-Studies and preparing for finals, I needed something to help me destress."

Ojiro nodded sympathetically. "Hence the clandestine evening run."

Izuku laughed, stretching his arms above his head. 

"When I can't sleep at night or if things get to be too much, running helps me to forget all of that… and with what all has happened lately…" His hands started shaking, and he let his arms drop to his sides. "It feels good being away from UA, even if it's for a few hours."

Ojiro's brow furrowed with concern, and after a moment of hesitation, he stepped forward and clasped a hand on Izuku's shoulder, giving it a squeeze.

"You think you're up for more running?" he asked. "I know about a good training area that'll help get your mind off of things."

~ ~ ~

The place that Ojiro was talking about happened to be a playground somewhat close to UA's grounds. It was on an outcropping overlooking Musutafu, making the city look reminiscent of a Lego display in a toy store, the lights from the streetlamps and various shops twinkling away and bathing everything in light.

Takoba Beach would always remain Izuku's favorite place in the city for obvious reasons, but he had to admit that this playground was a very close second due to the amazing view.

As they came to a stop by the swing set, Izuku immediately began his warm up stretches. Ojiro had mentioned this being a training spot, so he might as well -

"What are you doing?" his blonde classmate asked, furrowing his brow in what seemed to be genuine confusion.

The green haired boy was just as befuddled when he responded, "I'm warming up. Didn't you bring me up here for some training?" He stopped his stretching and looked up at him, tilting his head in confusion.

"After seeing how hard you worked yourself today, of course not!" Ojiro said as though it were the obvious thing in the world. "You know that you'll hurt yourself if you overtrain, right?"

"I mean, yeah…" Izuku trailed off, trying not to pout under his classmate's strangely intense gaze. "But we're about to become second years, and with our Work Studies… I just want to make sure that I still have what it takes to be here."

The blonde stared down at him for a second before shaking his head, a bemused smile forming on his lips as he sat down next to him, idly wagging his tail behind him.

"There's a quote that I think you need to hear, Midoriya: 'Sometimes the most productive thing you can do is relax,'" he said, looking up at the stars. "You've already done more than enough to show everyone that you're going to be an amazing hero, and I'm not talking about your Quirk."

The green haired boy's head snapped over to him in shock, and if his classmate noticed the utter surprise on his face, he didn't mention it. His smile was as easy going as ever as their eyes met and he continued.

"You're always ready to help everyone around you, even if it gets you in trouble. You work really hard, and you've never been arrogant about your class ranking or anything like that. I like that about you, Midoriya. We all like that about you."

Izuku was vaguely aware of how red his cheeks were, and he heard Ojiro laugh quietly as he tore his gaze away from him and drew his knees to his chest, staring at the cityscape below them in a bid to make the blushing go away.

"I just don't want to see anyone else go through what I've been through," the green haired boy quietly confessed. "It's… It's part of why I got so upset at the Sports Festival when Shinsou was saying all of those things about you."

Ojiro grimaced at the memory, his tail coming to a stop behind him.

"Yeah… unfortunately, that's not the first time I've been referred to as 'monkey' or things along those lines," he said, the tinge of resignation and bitterness in his voice rather uncharacteristic of him. "The funny thing about it is that I'm also part lion - it's why my tail is tufted, but of course, no one notices or cares about that. They see a prehensile tail, and it's open season on me for monkey related insults and jokes."

The blonde shook his head and helplessly shrugged. "I know I have it better than most other people with mutant Quirks - especially those not in the city, and it may seem like such a small thing to be upset about in light of what they go through… but my name was on the scoreboard. He could have read it or even asked someone instead of referring to me as 'that monkey.' And…" 

He took a deep breath as he sat up and crossed his legs, almost at war with himself as to whether or not to continue speaking. He bit his lip and furrowed his brow, only to gasp as Izuku looked back over to him and gently squeezed his shoulder.

"It's okay," he reassured him with a smile. "This'll stay between us two, and I won't judge you for what you have to say. I'll listen."

Though still clearly anxious, the blonde relaxed somewhat as he tentatively smiled back at the green haired boy.

"Thanks…" he quietly said, reaching up to squeeze Izuku's hand. "Anyways, when I heard about Mr. Aizawa training Shinsou… it kind of made me angry. Like, he heard how he was insulting all of us and insulting me, and he had no problem with any of that?"

A well contained but ever present anger began seeping through his voice as he ranted. "And for that matter… we all worked hard to get into the Heroics Department, and he just sleeps in class and conducts "rational deceptions" instead of being honest with us - his actual students. With Shinsou, he's actually teaching him, and he's not even in our class." He gritted his teeth and ran a hand through his hair. "He didn't even train to try and get into the Heroics Department and it's just… I mean… did you know how happy I was when his teaching license got suspended?"

The last question was a shocker, and it had Izuku reeling. Out of everyone in class, only Todoroki was the one who showed poorly hidden delight at that bombshell. Sure, Tokoyami was pleased (he did a much better job than Todoroki and Dark Shadow of hiding it), and Kirishima and Ashido were outwardly relieved, but everyone else? At that moment, they kept their true feelings and comments to themselves, Ojiro included.

Until now.

"I just can't find honor in a teacher who would rather trick his students instead of being open with them," he said. "It's good that we can count on him during a life or death situation, but he's a hero. That's the bare minimum of his job. And…" he sat up straight, his eyes blazing. "And I don't care if it's petty of me to say this… and I don't even know if it's true or not, but I don't want to have a homeroom teacher who thinks it's okay for people to insult those of us with mutant Quirks."

Izuku said nothing as Ojiro finally deflated, exhaling loudly as he closed his eyes and massaged his temples. Clearly, he had been holding that back for quite some time, and though he racked his brain for something - anything - to say that might help, he was drawing a blank. As someone who was born Quirkless, he knew all too well what it was like to be discriminated against, but he knew that the pain Ojiro touched upon was something different, something that he couldn't use as a point of reference towards.

Besides, would Ojiro still speak so highly of me if he knew I was born Quirkless?

Izuku didn't want to answer that question, so he tried to jump off of where he left off before.

"I couldn't sit by and let Shinsou say all of those things about us in front of everyone," he said earnestly. "And I couldn't sit by and hear him insult you, either. I know I should have taken your advice and ignored him… but it would have been wrong for me not to."

His cheeks flushed at the memory of the chain of events that went down: Ojiro's warning before the match, Shinsou's tirade against the Heroics Department, the anger that grew harder and harder for Izuku to keep under control as the insults moved onto his classmate, and the fog that took over his brain when he couldn't keep quiet anymore. It had been so stupid of him to not listen to Ojiro - Izuku said it himself as his body moved closer and closer to the boundary line of the arena - but Shinsou knew nothing about any of them. 

He didn't know how Izuku spent ten months cleaning Takoba Beach in preparation to receive One For All.

He didn't know how hard Kaminari struggled with controlling his Quirk (the hurt in his eyes whenever he was made fun of for it said it all).

He didn't know that Aoyama had been sent to Recovery Girl more than once for GI issues that came part and parcel with his navel laser.

He didn't know how hard Hagakure worked just to be noticed, because who would ever notice an invisible girl?

He didn't know how insecure Ojiro was at just having a tail for a Quirk in comparison to the other flashier Quirks his classmates had.

He didn't know the trauma Todoroki's fire (really, his entire Quirk) came with.

He didn't know any of this, yet he chose to believe that they had it easy. He chose to believe that they were arrogant blowhards who chose not to attend orientation and looked down on the General Studies Department. 

Izuku didn't doubt that Shinsou's Quirk led to him being bullied, but it didn't excuse him taking his anger out on everyone around him. It didn't excuse him using his Quirk on Ojiro and his other teammates in between rounds, and it certainly didn't excuse his Quirkism against Ojiro. 

He'd never admit it out loud, but it felt good seeing the shock on the purple haired boy's face when he broke out of the brainwashing and proceeded to lay him out flat. It felt good seeing Ojiro have no hard feelings towards Izuku ignoring his advice - he even saved him a seat next to him when he got back from getting patched up by Recovery Girl.

"It's not stupid, Midoriya," Ojiro reproached, breaking him out of his thoughts. "Not a lot of people stood up for me the way you did, and I could tell that you meant it, too. It also made my parents really like you."

Izuku's head snapped up in surprise. "M-Me?! They like me?!" he asked as though he had just been told that aliens existed.

"Well, yeah," The blonde answered plainly. "It made them happy knowing that I had someone in my class who was willing to potentially lose out on internship offers because they stood up for me. They also really liked how you helped Todoroki accept his Quirk, too, broken bones and all."

"I… oh…" The green haired boy lamely said, looking down at his lap.

Up until now, only Todoroki and All Might ever acknowledged the good that came from their match - helping the two toned boy begin to heal from the trauma his home life brought to him. Everyone else chose to criticize him for maiming himself using One For All (and it was funny how for how quick they all were to criticize him, they never offered any advice or help). He'd be lying if he said it didn't hurt sometimes, that he didn't want to snap "My name is Izuku Midoriya!" to anyone that called him "the crazy kid who broke his limbs at the Sports Festival".

But hearing that someone's parents actually liked him for what he did… it made his insides turn to mush, his brain short-circuit at the thought that anyone's parents actually approved of him, someone who hadn't made any friends until last April.

"You're a good person, Midoriya," Ojiro said with a smile. "And the good you do doesn't go unnoticed by those of us who care about you."

It was dark outside, the stars shining above them and the street lights twinkling below them. Izuku had initially gone for a run to be alone with his thoughts and make sense of the anxiety festering in him after the vision he had, but instead, he had found a friend that was in front of him the whole time.

He found a friend who helped him momentarily forget his place in a centuries old conspiracy that led to him destroying his room in his sleep.

And really, wasn't that what he needed at the moment? 

"Of course it is," the first One For All user whispered from inside of him.

Chapter Text

When Izuku was accepted into UA, he hadn't imagined that he would become as familiar with Central Hospital to the degree that he was now. 

He hadn't imagined that within the span of just a year and two months, he'd be able to smell antiseptic and immediately figure out where he was before fully waking up. 

He hadn't imagined that he'd be able to move around with catheters inside of him as if it were second nature.

He hadn't imagined that he'd be able to look at the fluid bags hanging above him and immediately know what they were pumping inside of him and why.

Above all else, though, he hadn't imagined that his stomach would still knot up in dread and worry as he took a look at the people visiting him.

Todoroki, Tsuyu, Ida, Uraraka, Tokoyami, and Aoyama were silently huddled together by the foot of his bed, owlishly staring at him as he got his bearings and reached over for the bed's remote control. As he lifted himself into a more upright position and turned on the TV to some sort of game show, he couldn't help but squirm under his friends' intense gazes. He couldn't help but curl his fingers into the thin blankets covering his abdomen and lower body, the beeping of his fluid pump and monitoring equipment filling the heavy atmosphere in the room.

It was Uraraka who finally broke the silence with a soft, "How are you feeling, Dekiru?"

If things were how they used to be before the Liberation Front War, Izuku would have answered with an immediate, "I'm fine!" He would have smiled, shoved down any physical and emotional pain he was feeling, and quickly changed the subject before they could notice anything was amiss. 

But now that the war had happened, now that he had left UA without so much as a warning… he was too tired to put up any sort of front around them. He didn't even know what day it was, let alone how he got back to Musutafu, and he didn't have the energy to try and figure it out.

With his non-catheterized hand, he reached up to rub behind his neck as he quietly admitted, "Not great, to be honest."

Ida immediately went to his side, tentatively reaching out to grasp his hand (and he felt so cold, almost as much as Todoroki's ice) before it moved to his forehead.

"The nurses took your vitals about five minutes ago, and you still have a fever," he explained. He sounded and looked so weary, so unlike his normally boisterous self that it honestly scared Izuku. "It's gone down to 102.4, so it's not as… not as high as it was before. He left to get you some fever reducers."

"I… oh," Izuku said lamely, leaning into his friend's cool touch and closing his eyes. His head swam, and his body felt so heavy, but it also felt like he was flying almost. Did Float activate and he just didn't realize it? He had used it so often in the past couple of months that it had begun to feel like second nature to him -

"You're still in bed, Midoriya," Tsuyu piped up as she moved to sit by his bulky left foot. Her smile was tired. "They have you on a lot of painkillers because of your injuries, ribbit."

He felt his cheeks redden at the realization that he had been speaking out loud without even knowing it. He supposed it made sense, though. On a scale from one to ten, any and all pain he had been pushing through was barely at a one at the moment.

It felt… nice.

It felt like he was sinking into the bed, like the normally uncomfortable mattress was a cloud in the sky. He supposed that after months of sleep deprivation and being holed up in abandoned buildings, any bed would have felt like a California King size mattress.

However, it didn't shake the dread that there were still countless people being put in danger while he was now out of commission. It didn't change the fear that he and everyone around him were sitting ducks since All For One and Shigaraki were still loose.

And the fact that All For One -

"Midoriya, are you in pain?" Tokoyami asked urgently from beside Aoyama.

"Wha-What?" Izuku asked in a strained voice, his monitoring equipment sounding off an alarm as the euphoria he was feeling began fading away. Slowly, all of the physical and emotional pain was coming back to the forefront:

The grazed bullet wound on his stomach and the stab wound on the other side of it, both from Lady Nagant.

His fractured left ankle from before he was ambushed by Dictator.

Months of barely eating and sleeping.

The realization that his friends were probably incredibly upset with him for abandoning them.

The horror that All For One -

"I see that you're finally awake, Midoriya!" the nurse cheerfully said as he strode into the room, carrying a new bag of morphine as well as two pills. "You're just in time for your new morphine dose! I hope you weren't in pain for too long, your blood pressure's pretty high at the moment."

"Non, he was fine up until now," Aoyama answered worriedly. It was strange seeing him without his usual confident smile, almost like seeing the sky on the ground and the grass in the air - it just wasn't supposed to happen. "Is he okay? Did we stress him out?"

The nurse smiled reassuringly at him as he replaced the empty bag with the new one, restarting the fluid pump and handing the pills to Izuku. Todoroki made himself busy by getting a glass of water ready.

"Don't worry!" he said, watching as the green haired boy took the glass with a shaky smile and dutifully washed down the medicine. "Morphine can sometimes have side effects, and they can coincide with when the dose wears off. We're keeping a close eye on him to see how he reacts to it and if we need to take him off of it. I'll be back later for another set of vitals, okay?"

As the nurse hurried back out of the room and closed the door behind him, Izuku shivered as the euphoria hit him at full force again. He sighed with relief as he leaned back in his bed, the pain ebbing away and becoming tuned out as silence returned to the room.

But the emotional pain was still present; the pain that he caused his loved ones with his departure, and the pain that All For One caused him by telling him about -

"Where's my mom?" he blurted out unexpectedly. With how much she worried, he would have thought she'd be the first person he saw after waking up. Also, it made sense to him to want to see her, given what he just found out about. -

"She's resting at UA," Todoroki explained as he sat by Izuku's right leg. "She and All Might have been alternating sitting at your bedside for the past week and half, and Mr. Yamada forced them both to rest before seeing you again…" He looked down at his lap, a troubled look on his face. "He said that given the condition you were already in… it wouldn't do you any good seeing how hard they took you being gone."

Izuku was sure that Todoroki wasn't trying to intentionally guilt trip about his decision. He was sure that he wasn't trying to rub it in his face how his efforts to protect UA wound up blowing up in his face, but that didn't stop the remorse from overwhelming him to the point of nearly making him bowl over from the weight of it.

"I didn't… I didn't mean to make you guys upset," he said. "I really didn't. All For One has Ragdoll's Quirk, and I didn't -"

"We understand why you left, Midoriya," the heterochromatic boy softly interrupted, reaching over to rest his hand on his knee. "Pragmatically, it makes sense… but we would have gone with you. You know that."

"We would have protected you!" Dark Shadow piped up as he manifested out from Tokoyami. Even he looked solemn as he undoubtedly hung back from glomping onto him due to all of the medical equipment connected to him. "We wouldn't have let anybody touch you!"

"But you would have been in danger," Izuku stressed. "I mean… you saw how I was when you guys found me. I was shot, stabbed, and about to be captured… I couldn't let that happen to you guys."

"But you let it happen to yourself," Tsuyu said not unkindly.

Izuku didn't have an answer to that. He could always trust her to instantly cut to the core of the conversation in such a way that left him speechless.

"Dekiru, we've told you before that we're with you in this no matter what," Uraraka said, gently holding onto his catheterized hand. "Even if it means leaving UA with you so that you're protected from All For One… and even if it means convincing you to come back to us so that you can be protected from yourself."

A lump lodged itself in his throat at her poignant words, and he looked into her kind brown eyes in an effort to stay in control over his emotions. How could they be so nice to him?

"But there were high ranking villains that were after me," he weakly objected. "They'd already hurt so many people… they're still hurting so many people."

"And you apprehended a good amount of them on your own," Ida said, now sitting by his waist. His hand was still on Izuku's forehead, trying to bring his fever back down. "We have no issue with protecting ourselves, Midoriya. You know that."

"I do," Izuku said, almost whining. It was getting to be too much, not unlike whenever the six of them rescued him from Dictator and began talking him down from his crusade. His arguments were being easily refuted, their anger borne of worry practically impaling him like Lady Nagant's rifle did days earlier. Sure, the lack of nutrients and self care had muddled up his brain, just like how the medications were similarly mushing things up in there at the moment, but they hadn't even used their Quirks on him. They hadn't raised their fists to drag him back by force. 

All they used were their words.

It worked then, and it was starting to work now… but…

Should he tell them? (Of course not!)

What's the worst thing that could happen? (They throw you in a cell for the rest of your life!)

Could he just hold it off until he talked it over with his mother? (Yes!)

Would he just keep putting it off if he waited to tell them (So what if you do?!)

Should he tell All Might? (He'd hate you!)

"Midoriya, we're your friends," Aoyama quietly said, his tone and facial expression unreadable (and wasn't that reassuring). "You can tell us anything. You know that, oui?"

As it turns out, it was reassuring… or that's what Izuku's morphine influenced thought process was. But even so, as he swallowed and straightened up, the gravity of what he was about to reveal to his friends hit him in full force. Again, he nearly bowled over, but this time, his friends held on. They helped him shoulder the weight, keeping him from breaking apart completely as they watched him in concern as he shakily said,

"Please don't tell anybody else this… but after Lady Nagant was apprehended, she directed me to a mansion in Haibori Woods up in Hokkaido," he started. "When I got there, All For One had left a message for me… and…" 

Izuku's throat ran dry, the words dying in his throat. It should have been simple; it was just six simple words. but they wouldn't leave his lips. Every time he tried to coax them out, they wouldn't budge. He cleared his throat and tried again.

"He-He told… He told me tha-that he's…" he said, beginning to tremble so hard that it almost seemed as though he were simply cold rather than terrified. 

His friends knew better though, and they converged upon him in a way that made him initially tense up. They hadn't done anything too rash, just grounded him with reassuring and secure touches (even Dark Shadow, given the trilling he heard right over his head), and Izuku took a moment to bask in the comfort that it brought. After all, they'd surely be tripping over themselves to get away from him once he told them the awful truth.

"He's…. he's-he's my…. he's my father," Izuku whispered. "All For One's my father."

It had been horrifically surreal hearing the villain say it in the video, and it was horrifically surreal repeating those words to his friends. The first time he heard that bombshell, he could at least operate on plausible deniability - his mom had never mentioned anything about his father other than the fact that he was working overseas, and it wasn't like he ever remembered anything about the man other than a flash of white hair, scarlet eyes, and large hands that held him close and rubbed his back to help him go to sleep.

All For One looked nothing like what he remembered his father looking like. He was bald and had no eyes, for crying out loud! But he remembered that vision of him creating One For All and giving it to the first user, Yoichi. That had been before he fought All Might, and before he fought All Might… he had white hair and scarlet eyes.

He had a frighteningly kind and happy smile in the pictures of him and his mother on their wedding day.

He had the same pout in his sleep as Izuku did in the pictures of the two of them napping on the couch.

He held his hands into fists whenever he got excited, the same way Izuku did in the pictures of them at a summer festival together.

The voice that had been lamenting the thorny road Izuku had chosen for himself was the same one that was softly encouraging him to take his first steps in the video playing on the screen.

And as if the knife needed to be driven any further into Izuku's very being, the paternity test included with the pictures did just that, showing a 99.999% Probability of Paternity.

Izuku's father was the Symbol of Fear.

Izuku was the son of Japan's #1 villain.

The same man who was such a soothing presence in his earliest childhood memories was the very man who nearly killed All Might and brought Japan to its knees over a century ago.

Where did he go from here?

What would this mean to those around him?

Did he have a villain gene inside of him?

Was him being born Quirkless karma retroactively hitting him for all of the horrible things All For One did to secure his power?

All of those questions and more were what led to him giving up against Dictator. The future Symbol of Peace couldn't be the son of the Quirk Boogeyman. All Might wouldn't ever love the son of the man who had made his life a living hell since he was a teenager. UA wouldn't teach the child of the man who was responsible for all of the attacks the school had gone through. The vestiges wouldn't let One For All stay with the offspring of the man who killed all of them.

Why fight when he could just lay back and make things easier on everyone by letting himself be taken away? After all, everyone was probably happy that he was gone. They didn't have to deal with his mumbling, his tenacity of being caught up in a troublesome situation, the stress of his unique Quirk… their lives would be easier without him.

Or so Izuku had thought until his six closest friends apprehended Dictator and the mob under his control. 

Now, he was laying in a hospital bed with his darkest secret let out of the bag. It felt as though Judgement Day were upon him, and at any minute, he would be called out for the fraud that he was. This was it, this would be the moment where he'd have to say goodbye to his friends, his dreams, his education - 

"I understand."

Izuku bristled with anger and almost bit back that he didn't, no one did and no one could. But then he realized that Todoroki had been the one to say that, and out of anyone in the room, he definitely understood what he was going through.

"I thought my oldest brother was dead, but he's a villain who's not only tried killing me, but killed countless people," the heterochromatic boy continued. "One of my cousins was a lieutenant in the Meta Liberation Army, but none of that makes me a bad person. You don't think that makes me a bad person, do you?"

Izuku recoiled at the question, his eyes wide as he looked up at his friend. If anyone had every right to be angry at the world, it was Todoroki. He had an abusive father, a hospitalized mother, a villain for an older brother, and was conceived as a wish fulfillment for his father's ambitions. He could have easily remained closed off from everyone… but he didn't. He chose to open up about his hardships and face the trauma his fire had given him. He chose to lower his walls and allow himself to have friends, fiercely protecting them from the same mistakes he himself made.

He became a regular at the Internity Book Club made up of Izuku, All Might, and Uraraka, always ready with off-the-wall theories about where the story was going next.

He'd hop on Tsuyu's video chats with her younger siblings and help them with their homework. 

He listened and followed along intently as Aoyama walked him through how to make pain au chocolat from scratch.

He'd sit in companionable silence with Tokoyami and Dark Shadow in the common area, watching ghost hunting documentaries and horror movies.

He was a consistent member of Ida's pre-exam study sessions.

If there was anyone who was the furthest thing from being a villain, it was Todoroki, and that was why Izuku immediately responded with a heated, "Of course not!"

"Then the same applies to you," Todoroki said with a nod, almost as though the response was sitting on the tip of his tongue.

"I was going to kill Stain," Ida added, shame written on his face as he let go of Izuku's forehead to clench his fists. "I'll have to live with that for the rest of my life. I know it isn't the same as what you and Todoroki have gone through, but I have no room to judge you two for being related to villains when you haven't done anything villainous to begin with."

Izuku reached out to take Ida's hands, his vision suddenly blurry as he tried holding back his tears. "But you didn't kill him!" he insisted. "You heard the two of us out and let us help you! You were sorry and you meant it!"

Shaking his head, Ida took off his glasses to wipe at his own teary eyes. 

"You also didn't kill any of the villains you defeated!" he retorted, taking Izuku's hands again. "You never intended on killing any of the villains you defeated, and that makes you nothing like All For One!"

"We've been through so much together," Tsuyu said through her crying. "We can't just abandon you because of who your family happens to be. That wouldn't be fair to you or Todoroki, would it, ribbit?"

"You're nothing like a villain, Midoriya, and neither is Todoroki," Aoyama earnestly said, tears welling up in his eyes as he clutched his hands to his chest. "The actions of your relatives don't make you a good or bad person. All that matters is your own actions."

Even in the midst of his own blubbering sobs, Izuku noticed how it almost sounded like Aoyama was telling himself that along with himself and Todoroki. He couldn't dwell on that for too long, however, because Uraraka had pulled him into a gentle hug, burying her face in his shoulder.

"You've been through so much," she said, sniffling into his hospital gown. "It's okay to rest, because we're here for you. We'll always be here for you, and we know you feel the same way about us, don't you?"

Izuku could only nod - he was crying way too hard to manage anything else.

"You saved my life both during the training camp attack and while I was held captive in Kamino Ward," Tokoyami said, his voice trembling. "I consider you to be a dear friend of mine due to your upstanding character, not the cleanliness of your lineage."

The shadowy tendrils of a beak gently nuzzled into Izuku's hair, and Dark Shadow's voice was slightly muffled as he said, "What Fumi said, Midoriya! You're really smart, and you're always nice to everyone! We'll always be your friends, even if you run away!"

The green haired boy keeled over once more, but not from the fear of being shunned due to the crimes of his father or the burden of taking on all of Japan's villains on his own. This time, it came from relief.

Relief that his friends would always be by his side and covering his blindspots.

Relief that he was finally resting after months of ignoring his physical and emotional wellbeing.

Relief that he wasn't a bad person because of who his father happened to be.

There were still a lot of unanswered questions (whether or not he'd be allowed back at UA and how much work he'd need to catch up on being his two biggest ones) that he knew he'd need to ask, but it could wait. Right now, he was content in letting out months of pent up emotional pain along with his dearest friends, friends who he was incredibly lucky to have in his corner.

~ ~ ~

Izuku was fast asleep.

It was to be expected, given the emotional roller-coaster the day had proven to be. In between the painkillers, the food in his belly, and all of the crying the boy did, Yoichi was surprised he even made it to dinner time with how exhausted he was. His friends (and didn't it warm his heart seeing what wonderful friends he had?) had bid him goodbye shortly after he finished his meal, and he was barely awake by the time the nurse came in to check his vitals for the evening and turn down the volume on the TV.

Luckily for the white haired man, visiting hours didn't apply to Quirk vestiges, meaning he could sit at his nephew's bedside for as long as he wanted without worrying about being caught. 

It had been what he wanted to do ever since Izuku began unlocking more of One For All.

The moment Izuku's consciousness began to meld with One For All, Yoichi had known that he was his nephew. He could tell in the green eyes and soft jawline that perfectly matched his own, the mannerisms that so closely matched Hisashi, and the curls that Hisashi used to have when he was younger. Once he got over the world shattering revelation that someone had willingly married and conceived a child with his brother, he was overjoyed at the prospect of his family becoming bigger and being able to bond with his nephew.

Did he like comic books?

Would he like Captain Hero as much as he did? 

Did he also like chocolate chip and banana pancakes?

What was he like as a baby?

As the green haired boy unlocked more of One For All, Yoichi was excited to finally get the answers to these questions, but there was one problem: how would he broach the subject of their relationship?

He remembered how scared Izuku was of seeing the vision of how One For All was created, how confused he was after his match at the Sports Festival when he and other vestiges broke him free of the brainwashing Quirk he was under. On top of all of that, he wasn't able to truly and fully interact with him unless he unlocked more and more of One For All. On top of the heavy legacy he had upon his shoulders, how was he supposed to handle the fact that the very man he was supposed to defeat was his own father?

Yoichi received his answer when Izuku made it to the Haibori Woods, and it was an answer that he hated to see.

He was already barely holding on as it was with the injuries he received from fighting that Lady Nagant assassin (which left him with a nasty staph infection), in addition to the lack of food and sleep that he was pushing through. The reveal that Hisashi was his father was the straw that broke the camel's back, and it was rather frightening seeing the normally cheerful boy completely shut down the way he did as proof after proof was shown to him. He pushed him and the other vestiges away, even going as far as trying to convince his friends to leave him behind. 

He didn't blame him. After all, Yoichi had an identical reaction once he found out the true scope behind Hisashi's plans for the world. It was why he rebelled against him as intensely as he did. For that matter, the second and third users were originally intent on killing him just for being related to Hisashi. It was only through their unexpected mercy that he was spared that fate.

Would the same be said for Izuku? Yoichi hoped so, but had his friends not come to his rescue when they did… Well, he shuddered just thinking about what could have happened.

The sight of Izuku scrunching his nose up broke him out of his thoughts, and the slight pout that accompanied it made his heart practically melt from the cuteness of it all. Though the green haired boy was a teenager, the white haired man could still see the remnants of the little boy who vowed to save Tomura Shigaraki because his heart was just that big.

The memory made him smile fondly, just as he had done back then. He really had been such a cute child. 

"I'll let you rest, Izuku," he whispered, reaching out to caress his cheek and laughing softly as his nose scrunched up again at the gesture. "You're safe now, and all you have to do now is focus on getting better. I'm saying this not just as your predecessor, but as your uncle… an uncle who is so proud to have you as his nephew."

Chapter Text

In hindsight, Izuku really should have listened to All Might.

When he looked back, he really shouldn’t have pushed the matter when he shot down his request for an introduction to Sir Nighteye.

Had he gotten the chance for a do over, he would have refused the man’s request for a fight and left the agency ( it wasn’t like the work studies were even required to begin with ).

There were so many things that he could and should have done to prevent himself from getting into this situation, but Izuku was a fanboy at heart. He was a fanboy and a student at Japan’s most prestigious heroics school, meaning that he would have done anything to get stronger and get his foot in the door! And when Gran Torino pointed him in the direction of All Might’s ex sidekick, this was simply too good of an opportunity for him to pass up!

As it turned out, not only was it too good of an opportunity to pass up, it also wound up being too good to be true. 

It didn’t matter that All Might hadn’t even wanted the first years to embark on their work studies to begin with. It didn’t matter that he had a point in Izuku needing to focus on developing Shoot Style. It hadn’t even mattered that he had been estranged from the man for the past five or so years. Izuku pushed and insisted and begged until the older man relented and had Togata put in a good word for him. Miraculously, he was granted an interview, and his new third year friend had been bursting at the seams at the thought of having Izuku work alongside him. 

Then came the actual interview, and that’s when everything completely and spectacularly fell apart.

Togata had given Izuku a heads up that Sir Nighteye could be a strict and stoic man, and he had prepared accordingly for that… but he found out that rather than being ‘strict’ or ‘stoic’, the ex sidekick was downright mean .

And that was only during the interview.

The actual work study itself was somehow even worse.

For the past several weeks, Izuku’s life was an endless cycle of school, long patrols, a surely illegal amount of paperwork, and his regular training sessions. He barely had enough time to eat, sleep, or spend time with his friends, whose schedules also happened to be all over the place. A partially empty classroom had quickly become the norm, as did lunches that Izuku would take on his own… and thanks to the above-mentioned stressors, days without lunch also became a regular occurrence. Instead, it was either spent catching up on paperwork, homework, or training. 

Was it lonely? Yes.

Was it what he needed at the moment? Also yes. 

Lately, all anyone ever wanted to talk to him about was his work study. What was it like working with Sir Nighteye? What was it like being in a work study with All Might's ex sidekick? What was it like being able to work with a member of the Big Three? Was it everything he ever dreamed for and more? 

He knew that there was no harm intended in those questions, but they made him panic all the same, because in between the Shie Hassaikai case, One For All, and…. other things, there was so much that he both couldn't and wouldn't tell.

How could he tell them about the little girl who was for sure being abused by her 'father'?

How could he tell them that he spent every shift having everything up to and including his appearance picked apart by Sir Nighteye?

How could he tell them that the bespectacled man had made it his personal mission to break down his confidence to the point that he gave One For All to Togata?

He couldn't , and that was why he holed himself up in Gym Gamma, practicing kickboxing maneuvers on a practice dummy he dragged out of the storage closet. Maybe if he tried to develop some more moves for Shoot Style, then it would help clear his head and give him something else to focus on. It was helping so far, and it would have helped more had he not been interrupted by an unexpected guest.

"Didn't mean to disturb you, kiddo," Mr. Snipe called out as he strode into the empty gym. "Just needed to pick up my training targets for repair."

Feeling a sudden surge of self consciousness pass through him, Izuku stopped in his tracks and folded his hands in front of him. 

"No, not at all!" he sputtered. "Uh, I was actually about to finish up, so don't mind me!"

The cowboy waved a hand and shook his head, motioning for the green haired boy to join him. 

"This gym's big enough for the two of us," he said once Izuku came to a stop by his side. "Besides, I could use a second pair of hands at the moment, and I've been meaning to get to know you some more since the Sports Festival. Midoriya, right?"

Izuku nodded, his stomach twisting into a knot. Mr. Snipe was in charge of the third years, and outside of the final exams and the USJ Incident, the two hardly ever crossed paths. Why would he feel the need to get to know him? Was it because of all of the trouble he got himself into? Did he want to see the famous Problem Child of Mr. Aizawa up close, maybe get in a few criticisms over his lack of control -

"Hey, what's with the nervous face?" he asked not unkindly. "I just wanted to get to know the kid who got first place in the obstacle course without using his Quirk! I don't bite, I promise!"

He raised his hands up in front of him in surrender, and though Izuku couldn't make head or tail of his facial expressions thanks to his mask, there was no ire in his words or gestures. He didn't know why he expected that to be the case; Togata had certainly gushed about the man enough for him to believe that he was kind, and he didn't seem to be annoyed with the green haired boy's shyness as he led him over to the storage closet to help him with his equipment.

"I always thought that was a mighty resourceful thing for you to do, using the robots to shield yourself from the mines," Mr. Snipe commented as he opened the doors of the storage closet. "A good hero is able to improvise and think on the fly when they're unable to use their Quirk. It shows they can keep their head on straight in stressful moments, and you did exactly that." 

Izuku blushed under the praise Sir Nighteye had the complete opposite sentiment about that aspect of his performance , and he busied himself with gathering up some of the heavy, battered up targets.

"Uh, th-thank you!" he bashfully said. "I-I wasn't sure it would work, but I had to try!"

"And look how it worked out," Mr. Snipe said, scooping up the rest of his targets. "You made it all the way to first place. I'll be honest, Midoriya, that's a quality I like to see in my students - both current and future. I'm looking forward to seeing how you'll have grown two years down the line."

Izuku's shoulders hunched up to his ears, trying to hide how red they had become ( Mr. Snipe was really nice! ). "I didn't perform that good, though -"

"Don't sell yourself short!" Mr. Snipe chastised. "Most of the greatest heroes to have existed had humble beginnings! Hell, even the Big Three weren't always the Big Three, and I love those kids as if they were my own!"

The comment itself wasn't funny, but the memory it conjured up was, and the green haired boy found himself choking on his embarrassed laughter as he remembered last year's Sports Festival - specifically, the moment Togata re-entered the arena stark naked after finishing the obstacle course. The results of Izuku's own performance made him cringe in hindsight, but he could at least live with the knowledge that his naked body hadn't been on display for a live national broadcast.

Mr. Snipe evidently also found the memory to be funny, because he chuckled to himself as they exited the storage closet. 

"They'll be the death of me," he fondly said as they shut the doors. "But when I look at how far they've come… I can't help but be proud."

Hearing a teacher speak so highly of their students was still a foreign concept in Izuku's mind, and he had half a mind to realize that he was staring up at the cowboy like he had just sprouted another head. After all, Mr. Aizawa's default mood around him and his classmates was a mix of apathy and exasperation. On his best days, it seemed like he only barely tolerated them. Ms. Midnight, in marked contrast, seemed to always be a mixture of excitement and barely contained amusement in their presence ( though that probably had something to do with Kaminari's strange comments and thought process ).

It was a big change, but it was a change that had been welcomed… even if it was something that was still hard to wrap his head around.

"And speaking of the Big Three, you're doing your work study with Togata at Sir Nighteye's agency, right?" the older man asked, snapping Izuku out of his thoughts. "Is he looking after you good, treating you alright?"

"Yeah! Togata's amazing !" Izuku gushed. "I mean, for all the talk about how he's ahead of even some of the Pro-Heroes in terms of his strength and his Quirk, he's never arrogant about it! He-He takes me seriously on patrols, and he's always giving me really good advice about hero work, school, and a lot of other things! He's so nice ! I really, really like him!"

As the two of them left the gym and made their way to Mr. Power Loader's workshop, the green haired boy could sense something… off about Mr. Snipe. Though he seemed perfectly happy with his answer, a certain tension slowly made itself apparent as the teacher said in a deceptively even voice, "That's great, Midoriya, but I was actually asking about Sir Nighteye."

The blunt admission almost had the younger boy tripping over his own feet, but he thankfully recovered before anything truly embarrassing happened. Hugging the targets close to him, he bit his lip and focused on putting one foot in front of the other, trying not to unload everything on a teacher that he only just started getting to know.

"Oh…" he said lamely. "Um… uh… It's-It's okay, I guess…"

"It's okay, you guess?" he asked, the furrowed brow perfectly apparent in his voice. "Kiddo, I've heard how much of an All Might fanboy you are, and I would have thought that you'd be over the moon working with his ex sidekick."

Izuku flinched, almost burying his head in the targets as he shrunk under Mr. Snipe's masked gaze. Whether it was from being called out on his fanboy ways or his poor attempt at hiding his true feelings about Sir Nighteye, he honestly couldn't say.

"I mean… it's stressful, but-but I'm learning a lot! Togata's been such a huge help, and Bubble Girl and Centipeder have also been really nice!"

"But not Sir Nighteye."

The way Mr. Snipe said that - as though it were a fact of life rather than a question or an accusation - made Izuku feel a certain way. It made him actually disappointed that they made it to Mr. Power Loader's workshop, because he didn't have the bullet ridden targets to grip or hide behind. He'd have to work all the more harder to mask the mounting panic that was getting harder and harder to suppress. 

He was going to be found out.

He was going to get in trouble for making Sir Nighteye look bad.

Would this get Togata in hot water?

Would this make Mr. Snipe hate him?

"Why don't we take a walk, Midoriya?" the man in question suddenly asked after finishing his conversation with his fellow teacher, reaching out to clap a hand on his shoulder. "I'll write you a late pass for Ectoplasm if you need one."

The gloved hand stayed on his shoulder as he directed him down the hall and to one of the unused study rooms that Izuku had frequently seen the third years use. After they entered the surprisingly large room, he took a seat at the round table as Mr. Snipe shut the door behind them. Much to his surprise, the cowboy chose to crouch in front of him instead of taking one of the other five seats at the table.

"Look, Midoriya," he calmly said, looking directly into his soul through the mask. "I'll cut to the chase here: I'm worried about the fact that you're more excited about working with Togata than you are about working with Sir Nighteye."

At the flinch Izuku gave, he reached out and placed a hand on his shoulder again, gently squeezing it. 

"You're not in any trouble with me, kid," he reassured him. "I just want to make sure that everything's okay. As a teacher, there've been times where I've had to remove some of my students from their work studies due to things like abuse, and I just want to make sure that's not the case with you, okay?"

The green haired boy found himself shaking his head, his eyes wide. 

"No-No… it's not anything like abuse, Mr. Snipe!" he sputtered. "It's…. well…. Sir Nighteye just doesn't like me very much, but that's okay! He-"

"Woah, woah, woah! Why don't you back up there a minute," he interrupted. "What do you mean Sir Nighteye doesn't like you? Has he said so?"

Izuku grimaced and shrugged, his eyes beginning to sting slightly as he stared down at his lap. He hadn't meant to blurt that out like that, but since the cat was out of the bag now, he supposed there would be no harm in telling him the abridged version of events. After all, there was no use in making a big deal out of this, was there?

"Yeah…?" he said hesitantly, almost as though he were asking a question. "But not a lot of adults like me, so it's nothing I'm not used to handling!"

There was a beat where Snipe looked like he wanted to say something, but chose not to. Instead, he shook his head and asked, "In what ways has he shown that he doesn't like you?"

Biting on the inside of his cheek, Izuku turned to look at the wall next to him.

"He doesn't… um…. he doesn't think that I'm cut out for hero work," he said simply. " Like, he's told me that I'm not confident enough… he's also said that I'm too weird -"

"He shouldn't be saying those things to you," Mr. Snipe cut in, thinly veiled displeasure in his voice. "And you wouldn't still be a UA student if we didn't believe you were cut out for hero work."

"Well, um, that's not what he thinks," Izuku quietly said with a shrug. Due to the secret of One For All, he couldn't get into the nitty gritty of what all was happening, so he decided to move on. "He'll give me a lot of work, like patrol times that cut into my study sessions and complicated paperwork that keeps me later than normal… One time, Togata got a look at my schedule, and he…" 

Izuku swallowed down the lump that was obstructing his throat, swiped a hand over his suddenly wet eyes.

"He said that Sir hadn't ever given him this much work when he was in my position… he-he said that he had to have seen potential in me to give me such hard work… and I couldn't just tell him that he'd been giving me this kind of work to begin with… but it's okay! I mean, I'm managing well enough! My grades are still good, and I'm not just going to give up because he wants me to -"

"He wants you to give up?" Mr. Snipe interrupted brusquely, the grip on his shoulder tightening. At Izuku's flinch and his mouth immediately snapping shut, he sighed heavily. "Sorry, sorry," he quietly muttered, giving his hair a ruffle. "Didn't mean to snap at you like that."

Crap, he said way too much! Why couldn't he learn to shut the fuck up for once? Now, Sir Nighteye was probably going to get in trouble, and Izuku could kiss this once in a lifetime opportunity goodbye - 

"Hey, kiddo, you're not in any trouble here," Mr. Snipe earnestly said after taking a moment to collect himself. "I just need to know what you mean when you say that Sir Nighteye is trying to make you give up. Again, you're not in any trouble here. Do you understand that?"

The green haired boy reluctantly nodded, and he cleared his throat, not taking his eyes off the wall as he quietly confessed, "When he approved my application, he said… he-he said that he'd only use this experience to make me realize that he's right about me… that he was going to make me quit of my own will… but it's okay! I can handle it on my own, Mr. Snipe! It's-It's really not that big of a deal, I swear !"

Mr. Snipe was silent for a long while before he quietly said, "Well, there's clearly a lot for me to be concerned about here… but first, I need you to understand that this is a big deal, Midoriya."

"It really isn't !" Izuku argued. "Like I've said, teachers have never liked me, so I'm… I'm used to being treated like this! It's nothing out of the ordinary for me!"

Mr. Snipe shook his head. "Kid, I hope you know that that's not the valid justification you may think that is," he wryly said, somehow conveying how unimpressed he was through his mask. "The fact that you're apparently used to this kind of treatment from the adults in your life is not good at all, and I need you to understand that."

When Izuku didn't respond, the teacher moved his hand from his shoulder to his knee.

"Teachers are supposed to take care of the kids under their care," he continued. "They're not supposed to make it their personal mission to break down a kid's already low self esteem to prove a point."

Well, ouch . He had already known that he didn't exactly have confidence in himself, but to have it so bluntly pointed out by a teacher he had just met… it was more than what he could take. Though he had bitten down on his cheek and diverted his attention away from the adult in front of him, it didn't stop the tears from falling. Horrified, Izuku scrubbed at his face and sniffled, trying and failing to bite down the hiccuping sobs that were coming out of him.

"S-Sorry!" he cried. "'M sorry! I'll-I'll get myself under control -"

"What're you talking about 'you'll get yourself under control'? Come here, kiddo," Mr. Snipe fondly murmured, pulling Izuku into a tight hug. "There's no shame in crying, who's been telling you that?"

The green haired boy didn't answer, instead just burying his head into the teacher's shoulder as he let weeks of pent up stress out into the open. The smell of leather, tobacco, and an earthy cologne was foreign to him, but it was strangely comforting, as was the hand rubbing up and down his back and the feeling of the edge of his mask pressing into his head. Mr. Snipe didn't say much. He just held Izuku close to him as he folded and buckled under the weight of his sobs, wetting the cowboy's shoulder with his tears.

After what felt like an eternity but was probably only a few minutes, Izuku's tears ran dry. Though all of the crying tired him out, he felt much better than he had in weeks, and he felt lighter as he and Mr. Snipe broke their embrace.

"Thank-Thank you," he gasped, wiping at his face. "I didn't… I mean, thank you ."

"Don't thank me for doing what a teacher's supposed to do, Midoriya," Mr. Snipe said, ruffling his hair. "Besides, you looked like you needed to get all that off your chest, didn't you?"

Izuku shakily laughed a little as he nodded. "Yeah… I think I did," he agreed, shifting in his seat. "I… um… I feel a lot better."

The teacher nodded. "I can tell," he echoed. "Why don't you go on ahead and wash your face? After that, we'll talk about where to go from here, okay?"

"Okay."

As Izuku made his way to the restroom, he was vaguely aware that there was only twenty minutes left for lunch. As he turned the sink on and started splashing water in his face, he had a feeling he was going to need that late pass to 5th period. As he wiped his face and red, puffy eyes with a wad of paper towels, he had an inkling that this wasn't over, but surprisingly, he didn't care.

For the first time since work studies began, he just didn't care, a nd it felt good.

Chapter Text

The teacher's office was empty save for Ms. Midnight and All Might. When Izuku and Mr. Snipe had entered, the two adults were looking at something on All Might's computer, and while the incredibly familiar way they were acting towards each other would have normally given him pause, it was nothing more than an afterthought in Izuku's mind at the moment. The earlier bravado surrounding exposing Sir Nighteye’s mistreatment of him had vanished, and in its place, dread and terror had settled. 

Not only was he going to have to tell Ms. Midnight everything, he was going to have to tell All Might , too. He was going to have to see the disbelief, the disappointment, the same negative emotions and disapproving looks that Mr. Aizawa directed at him because he just couldn’t stay out of trouble. He was going to be told that this was what happened when couldn’t leave well enough alone. He was going to be raked over the coals for daring to accuse such a respected hero of mistreatment. He was going to be told that even if Sir Nighteye was short with him, it was his own fault for not having control of his Quirk, for being Quirkless, for -

Mr. Snipe cleared his throat, and while the two teachers sheepishly separated from each other, Izuku was more focused on tightly wrapping his arms around himself and trying to keep his breathing under ccontrol.He'd already had one breakdown today, and he couldn't afford to have another one.

"Ah, Mr. Snipe! You wanted to see us?! I see you've brought Young Midoriya with you! Why aren’t you at lunch?!" All Might asked a bit louder than normal, his cheeks a light shade of red as he turned to face them. 

“He was training in Gym Gamma, and I needed some help getting some equipment to Power Loader,” Mr. Snipe responded, confusion apparent in his voice. “Did we interrupt you two just now?”

"Don’t be ridiculous, Snipe," Ms. Midnight reassured him, turning around to lean against All Might’s desk. She was doing a much better job than the blonde at not looking like a toddler who was caught with their hand in the cookie jar. "I was just showing Yagi how to access the new grading software Nedzu showed us in that meeting. He was at the hospital that day, remember?" 

As the cowboy mulled over what the R Rated Hero said, they turned their attention to Izuku.

“Is everything alright, Midoriya?” Ms. Midnight asked, her brow furrowed with concern. Taking a step forward, she reached down to place the back of her manicured hand on his forehead. “You don’t look so good, hon, and you feel warm, too. Why don’t you head on down to Recovery Girl to get your temperature taken?”

“That can wait a moment, Midnight,” Mr. Snipe said. “I need to tell you some things concerning Midoriya's work study. It’s not an immediate emergency, but it’s nothing good, either, and the sooner it’s addressed, the better.”

All Might and Ms. Midnight exchanged worried looks with one another and Izuku before the former Symbol of Peace asked, “What sort of things did he tell you, Snipe?”

The answer was quick and blunt, almost as if Tsu were the one speaking rather than Mr. Snipe. It was honestly comforting, like his green haired classmate was in the room with him. “Your ex sidekick’s been mistreating Midoriya, Yagi. The kid just let me in on some of the details, and like I said, it’s not good.”

The air in the room suddenly felt tight and heavy, like Izuku was back on Takoba beach all those months ago, lugging around heavy equipment. He started violently shaking, and he was vaguely aware of Mr. Snipe pulling a chair underneath him so he wouldn’t fall flat on his butt. This was it, this was when the criticisms started, the lectures, the passive aggressive insults -

“Todoroki and Ida told me that they were worried about Midoriya a few days ago,” Ms. Midnight quietly mused. “They said he had been withdrawing himself from the rest of the class, wasn't eating, and that he almost seemed scared to tell anyone how his work study was going. If this is the reason why, then it makes perfect sense.”

A gloved hand landed on Izuku’s shoulder, and it made him nearly jump out of his skin.

“I know you just told me everything, but Midnight and All Might need to know as well,” Mr. Snipe said. “Don’t be afraid. You’re not in any trouble here. Just tell them what you told me, okay?”

Izuku nodded, but when he opened his mouth, his voice just wouldn’t work. He tried clearing his throat, doing the breathing exercises Mr. Hound Dog had shown him at last week’s appointment, but it was like the words that had just come out of his mouth earlier were being blocked by a cork. Dammit, why was he such a coward?! It was his own fault he was in this situation to begin with! Shouldn’t that have made it easier for him to admit to All Might that he was right, that this was just the consequences of not listening to him -

“Young Midoriya, it’s okay.”

When Izuku snapped out of his spiraling thoughts, he looked up from his lap to see that All Might had gotten up out of his seat and was crouched down in front of him, looking at him with those blazing, turquoise eyes. He reached out and clasped both of his hands on his protoge’s shoulders, gently squeezing.

“We’re listening,” he earnestly said.

The timbre of his voice dislodged the cork keeping the truth inside, and slowly but surely, Izuku re-told the story of how his work study was going. His voice was shaky and he had to clear his throat a few more times when it died out, but he told the truth, the whole truth. Ms. Midnight and All Might listened without inteinterruption, aside from a few questions that Mr. Snipe answered. By the end of his spiel, Ms. Midnight looked exhausted. Her eyes were closed as she slumped against All Might’s desk, and Izuku had half a mind to feel guilty that he had driven his new homeroom teacher to such a state why couldn’t he just be normal, for crying out loud?

“I’m-I’m… I’m sorry, Ms. -”

“Don’t apologize, Midoriya,” Ms. Midnight quietly interrupted as she opened her eyes. When she met Izuku’s eyes, she looked… sad , disappointed … but it wasn’t directed at him? If not him, then who? “You’ve done nothing wrong here. Nothing at all.”

After taking a moment to collect herself, she continued.

“We believe you, but we’ll need to reach out to everyone else at Nighteye’s agency to get statements from them as well.” At Izuku’s look of horror, she clarified, “Again, we believe you , but we also need to hear from everyone else there as well to see if there’s a pattern to this behavior.”

"Either way, we'll be removing you from Nighteye's agency," All Might firmly said, having been silent up until now. His voice was remarkably even, despite the anger that was barely contained in him. "The way he's been treating you is not okay, and in good consciousness, we can't have you in that kind of environment."

Izuku shakily nodded. Hearing that should have made him feel better, but it didn't. In the grand scheme of things, it made perfect sense, and the thought of not having to go back in that environment had him almost flying out of the building from elation, but… what if Sir Nighteye decided to kick him out before that happened? If he got kicked out, what would happen to Eri and the other Quirkless people that Overhaul was holding captive? Would he still be allowed to take part in the case? Yes, Sir NNightey's treatment of him had driven him to a breaking point, but he couldn't just leave.

What kind of hero would he be if he just left them with Overhaul?

“Um… there’s something I need to tell you,” he said, wringing his hands together. “There’s a case -”

“Yes, the Shie Hassakai Case,” Ms. Midnight interrupted. “There’s a few of us teachers who have been let in the loop about it, and there’s also a few other agencies who are participating in it as well. If we're able to, we'll place you with one of them if you want."

“Can you do that?" Izuku increudiously asked. "And… and besides, who would even want me as an intern?” he quietly asked. "I... I-I'm weird and I'm not -"

“Hey, none of that talk,” Ms. Midnight softly chastised, reaching out to brush his curls out of his face. “I have it on good authority that at least three Pro-Heroes were gunning for you to join their agencies when we re-instated the program, and I'm sure they'd take you in a heartbeat if I let them know you were a free agent.” She smiled sadly. “Work studies aren’t supposed to be as selective as Nighteye is making them.”

"Sir Nighteye should never have said those things to you, Young Midoriya. You are more than cut out to be a hero, no matter what he says."

Though All Might's words were kind, that overbearing tension returned. He had been deceptively quiet since Izuku started talking, and he seemed to be taking precise, measured breaths as he closed his eyes. Had anyone else come across him, it would have almost seemed like he was meditating. But the greenhaired boy knew the man well, and the little spark of One For All inside him told him that his mentor was out for blood. He could even see his lips moving as he mouthed, "One... two... three..."

The other teachers seemed to realize this as well, because there was a hint of warning in Mr. Snipe’s voice as he said, “Yagi -”

“Thank you for bringing this to my attention, Snipe,” he said in a deceptively calm tone. He gave Izuku’s shoulders another gentle squeeze as he stood up. “I’m free for the rest of the day, so why don't I head down to Nighteye's agency and get those statements?"

Ms. Midnight gently grabbed his arm as he strided towards the door. "Yagi, please don't go nuclear -"

"Of course I won't, Midnight," All Might said with a kind smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. "I'm just going to have a civilized conversation with my ex sidekick!"

Chapter Text

As Hercules drove through Musutafu, Toshinori sat in the passenger's seat with eyes closed. As he quietly counted to ten and took deep, measured breaths, he thought of the two people currently keeping him grounded: Nana, whose pleasant and teasing voice walked him through the exercise, and Nemuri, who kept a hand on his knee as she focused on the road.

He hadn't originally planned on taking her with him to Mirai's agency. His plan had been to… calmly walk into the building, have a civil discussion with his ex-sidekick about his treatment of Young Midoriya, and leave as soon as the matter was resolved. Evidently, the plan was foiled when he realized that the R Rated Hero had followed him out to the staff parking lot, every bit as determined to get justice for her student as Toshinori himself was. 

It was that determination that made him keep his objections to himself as she rounded to Hercule's driver's side and opened the door, and it was that determination that made him fall head over heels for her in the first place.

"I know, Toshinori. I know," she said unexpectedly. "I'm just as angry at him as you are, but you have to keep a level head about this."

Had it been anyone else saying that, the blonde wouldn't have believed them. He would have rolled his eyes and shook his head in annoyance, because no , they didn't understand how serious this was. 

Young Midoriya, his boy , his Prince of Nonsense… he was already unconfident in himself as it was. As he himself would know, Quirkless people weren't particularly valued for their contributions to society. Sure, it wasn't as bad in his own day, but he remembered that first day on the rooftop. He remembered how small Young Midoriya was, how beaten down he already was as a middle school student. He remembered how long it had taken for the boy to start believing in himself, to let down his walls that years and years of bullying had made him put up.

He remembered how even after getting One For All and being accepted into UA, people around him still tore down his already non existent self esteem. They ignored his cunning, his budding leadership skills, his keen and unnurtured intellect, and his overwhelming kindness in favor of perceived flaws that they themselves were responsible for creating in the first place:

Of course Young Midoriya would be a Dekunobu if he was made to feel useless due to an arbitrary trait he had no control over.

Of course Young Midoriya would be a Problem Child if he was made to feel like he couldn't trust the adults in his life or make mistakes around them.

Of course Young Midoriya would be an inadequate wielder of One For All if the person saying that only saw the Quirk and its holder as a preconceived symbol rather than a person.

No one else knew and understood this better than Toshinori, but Nemuri was also up there as well. She took the unexpected change in her schedule with gusto and threw herself into being the best homeroom teacher she could imagine herself being. It hadn't been too long, but progress had become evident. 

Mic had almost thrown himself at her feet in gratitude for leaving him with a more happy and engaged class once morning homeroom ended. 

The students were slowly but surely starting to confide in her about things they hadn't dared say to anyone else beforehand.

Young Kaminari and Young Aoyama were starting to be given extra lessons centered around their Quirk Control at her behest.

Young Midoriya was given extra art projects and homework assignments as a way to keep him challenged. He was not only allowed to change his hero name, he was encouraged to.

Nemuri was an amazing teacher and an amazing person, and if anyone else could understand just how… infuriating this all was, it was her.

"I know, I know," he said with a heavy sigh, reaching down to give her hand a gentle squeeze. "And… thank you. Thank you for deciding to come with me…" He sighed again, closing his eyes. "I've told you bits and pieces about my relationship with Sir Nighteye, and… I just… I guess I really do need someone with me to help me keep my temper under control. We ended things on a bad note, and… it's not good."

"Hey, don't worry about it," the R Rated Hero earnestly said, reaching up to poke his cheek. "We're a team, remember? And if things are really as bad as you say they are… then I want to make sure you have someone who truly cares about you by your side."

Toshinori opened his eyes and turned towards Nemuri, grinning at her like he had just fallen in love with her all over again (which happened at least three times a week).

"You really are amazing, Nemuri," he said, catching her hand and softly kissing it. "Have I told you that?"

"Only every morning, afternoon, and evening," she cheekily responded.

~ ~ ~

Mirai's agency was about a thirty minute drive from UA, and as they parked Hercules and headed inside, the former Symbol of Peace felt himself starting to tense up.

' Count to ten, Toshinori ,' Nana soothed. ' It's okay. Just focus on your breathing and the actions that you can control, okay? '

He tried. He honest to God tried , but it was hard , because now that he was in the belly of the beast, all of the reasons he was so furious with Mirai and why he broke off their partnership flooded to the forefront of his consciousness: the utter disrespect of his boundaries, the fact that he was petty enough to take their feud out on a teenager, and the fact that he saw it fit to break down said teenager's already low self confidence to prove a point - a point that he had no right to be making.

The thought just made Toshinori all the more angry, and he straightened his spine as he and Nemuri entered the building. 

Count to ten, Toshinori , he told himself as they stepped into the elevator and made their way to Mirai's personal office on the third floor. You can't lose your temper around Nemuri. You can't lose your temper around Young Togata and the other sidekicks. Come on, just keep it together and count to ten.

"Nemuri, again, thank you ," Toshinori whispered, reaching down to hold her hand. 

Looking up at him with a grave expression, she gave his hand a tight squeeze. 

"It's okay, Toshinori," she whispered back. "I am here."

~ ~ ~

"Welcome to - oh! Hi, All Might! Hi, Ms. Midnight! What are you two doing here?" Young Togata greeted them from the desk he was sitting at. As he stood up and made his way to the two adults, Toshinori couldn't help but stare at him. Something about him was… off , in a way that the former Symbol of Peace couldn't quite explain. He had that same feeling when he brought him in to discuss the possibility of Young Midoriya having his work study with him, but he'd brushed it aside for the time being. 

Now, however, that feeling was back and he wasn't going to ignore it this time around. The short blonde hair kept long at the front, the perpetual smiling, the muscular upper body… the realization hit him with the strength of a freight train. On the surface, those traits weren't anything of note. After all, blonde and muscular heroes were a dime a dozen, and there was nothing wrong with keeping a smile on one's face. But knowing the kind of person Mirai was, knowing the treatment he was putting Young Midoriya through, and knowing how Young Togata looked in last year's Sports Festival (longer hair, a more evenly muscular body), Toshinori couldn't help but make an unsettling and startling realization:

It was like he was looking at himself .

Ever since he started teaching at UA, All Might had liked the third year student. For someone who was being favorably compared to ranked Pro-Heroes, he was incredibly kind - especially towards the underclassmen - and always looked at life through a glass half-full approach. He also worked incredibly hard to get his grades and Quirk control up to par, which surely wasn't easy given the many intricacies Permeation came with. It wasn't hard to see why Nedzu and Mirai had trotted him out as a prospective successor, but Toshinori had chosen Young Midoriya for a reason, and those reasons aside, it was Toshinori's decision to make. 

Nedzu had accepted it.

Mirai… hadn't .

He could remember the conversation they had about it all those months ago. It had been over the phone, but it still ended rather badly… okay, incredibly badly. In Toshinori's defense though, Mirai had made an awful comment about Young Midoriya's Quirklessness, and furthermore, Toshinori had simply hung up on the man right then and there rather than say what he'd really been wanting to say:

"Are you aware that the Symbol of Peace that you idolize was also born Quirkless? Does that make me less of a person to you?"

He'd heard it all before, both as a student and as a Pro-Hero, and normally he was good at not letting it obviously affect him. But to hear it from his ex-sidekick of all people? Sure, they'd already been estranged, but that had hurt him in a way that he didn't even know was possible.

Just like it hurt him that Young Togata was being dragged into this feud as well. 

He truly held no ill will towards the boy, and he knew that he'd make an amazing hero once he graduated this upcoming spring… but he wanted that to be on his own terms . He wanted to see Young Togata as his own person, not a copy and paste version of a younger Toshinori.

It was as creepy as it was troubling, but that was just the tip of the iceberg.

To his right, he noticed one of Mirai's sidekicks - a blue woman - being released from some sort of machine by a centipede man. She looked to be grimacing in pain, and her cheeks were wet with tears as her fellow sidekick helped her into a chair. A closer look at the machine bore two words that he hadn't quite expected to see: Tickle Hell.

Toshinori had no idea how to even respond to that, and when he took a quick glance at Nemuri, he saw the barely suppressed look of disgust and disapproval towards the machine, as well as concern towards the blue woman who was guzzling down a bottle of water.

"It seems that you are capable of having a sense of humor about things, aren't you, Bubble Girl?" an unimpressed Mirai asked.

The former Symbol of Peace swore he saw Nemuri's hackles raise, and he gently grabbed her wrist before she could storm over to the bespectacled man and raise hell - not that her feelings weren't warranted, far from it - but they were here on a mission, and Toshinori wanted to get it completed as quickly as possible.

Sensing the pairs of eyes on him, Mirai's gaze met Toshinori's. He saw the brief surprise that was quickly masked with his normal, stoic expression, and he also saw how quickly his gaze flitted over to the gentle hold he had on Nemuri. The disapproval on his face was brief, but it was evident enough for Toshinori's temper to begin bubbling under the surface. 

"Well, I can't say that I was expecting to see you here, All Might," he said, standing up a little straighter. "But I'll welcome it all the same."

Toshinori blinked, and a small nudge from Nemuri brought him back to Earth with an embarrassed clearing of the throat.

"Yes, well… Midnight and I are here to discuss the work studies and how they're progressing," he said, keeping his face and voice as neutral as possible. At least wait until you two are alone , he told himself. Then you can be angry .

"I'd like to talk with Togata and your sidekicks, if that's alright with you," Nemuri said, the firmness in her voice making it abundantly clear that she wasn't going to allow any objections to be made. 

Mirai blinked as his attention turned to the R Rated Hero. 

"And you are…?"

"I'm Midoriya's homeroom teacher," she answered with a smile. "We've heard some concerning things from him about how things have been run here, and we wanted to make sure we heard everyone's side of the story before taking action."

The bespectacled man's jaw tightened, and his glare deepened.

"Well, we have nothing to hide," he countered. "I'll let you talk to my sidekicks and intern, but you won't -"

"I wasn't asking your permission," Nemuri sharply interrupted, the smile still on her face as she and Young Togata joined Bubble Girl and the centipede man on the other side of the room. "Now, is there a conference room that we can use?"

"There's one on the second floor, Ms. Midnight," Young Togata responded, an uneasy smile on his face. "Um… can I get you something to drink before we head down?"

"No thank you, hon," she answered, her smile much softer as she gave him a loving pat on the arm as they headed for the elevator. "We should give All Might and Sir Nighteye their privacy to have their conversation."

~ ~ ~

As the elevator doors shut behind the four of them, Toshinori immediately rounded on his ex sidekick. 

"Mirai, I want to know why you see it fit to mistreat my successor," he demanded, his shaking hands clenched into fists at his sides. "I want to know where the hell you get off on thinking you know better than me about who is and isn't worthy of One For All, and I want to know who the hell you think you are breaking down a fifteen year old's already low self confidence in order to prove a point?!"

If Toshinori's raising voice had any effect on Mirai, it wasn't obvious. His bespectacled face remained as unflappable as ever as he fiddled with his hyper-density seals. 

"You can't fault me for being pragmatic about these matters," he said in an even voice. "You can't become a hero on good intentions and willpower alone -"

"That's what you think," the blonde snapped. "Those are the very reasons I chose Young Midoriya in the first place, and they're the same reasons I was chosen… not that I should be defending myself to you."

The bespectacled man sighed heavily, almost as though he were annoyed that Toshinori wasn't grasping the big picture that was right in front of him. He took off his glasses, pinched his nose, and said in a strained voice, "Must you be so stubborn about this, All Might? All I'm trying to do is prevent the vision I saw all those years ago from coming true!"

Oh, that was the wrong thing to say.

"Need I remind you that I explicitly told you to not use your Quirk on me?" the blonde quietly asked. "Need I remind you that over and over and over again, you've completely disrespected my boundaries in the name of 'trying to help me'?"

The younger man stiffened up. Clearly, he had hit a nerve with that comment. "I don't have a clue as to what you mean by that."

"Well, let's go through them together, shall we?!" Toshinori asked, vaguely aware that he  was beyond the point of not losing his temper. He didn't care, though. This was five years in the making, and now that it was all coming out, he couldn't stop it. "First, you browbeat me into accepting you as my sidekick after I made it clear I wanted to work alone." He counted off on his fingers, his voice growing louder and louder. "Second, you use your Quirk on me to try and make me retire -"

"I was trying to protect you!" Mirai snapped back just as loudly, slamming his seals on his desk. "You don't have a stomach anymore, let alone both of your lungs!"

"That wasn't your choice to make!" All Might shouted back. "At the end of the day, whether or not I retire is up to me , not you! And third, you go behind my back and groom another student to be my successor -"

"Leave Mirio out of this," Mirai snapped. "He's the ideal wielder for One For All -"

"Have you even asked him if he wants the damn Quirk?" All Might yelled. "Did you ever sit him down and explain to him what all is at stake, were he the one to wield it?!"

"I was going to explain it to him when the time was right," Mirai aggressively defended, the tiniest hint of self doubt present in his voice. "I helped him to master his Quirk control to prepare for that! Then -"

"Then what?! Were you going to force me to give it to him?! Were you going to force Young Midoriya into giving it to him?! What if Young Togata doesn't even want to have One For All?! Have you ever thought about that?! Were you going to make him take on a Quirk and a legacy that he may not even want to be a part of?!"

"See reason here, All Might!" Mirai finally yelled, running a hand through his hair. The fact that he completely ignored Toshinori's last point wasn't lost on him. "Midoriya isn't cut out for being a hero, and it's better that he realizes it before it's too late! He's unconfident, directionless, plain looking, and he's Qu -"

"I dare you to finish that sentence, Mirai," Toshinori spat, just barely stopping himself from getting arrested for assault. As furious as he was, he couldn't be throwing his weight around to prove a point. "I dare you."

"It's the truth! What on Earth would he know about working yourself to the bone -"

"Let me get a few things clear with you," the blonde spat. "First, you don't know anything about what all Young Midoriya has gone through to reach the point that he's at now. He is one of the most hardworking young men I have seen in a long time. He knows full well what I've brought him into, and he's taken the burden on with such maturity for someone still in his teens. Second, I don't know how many times I need to get this through your head, but Midoriya's Quirklessness has nothing to do with his worth as a person or a hero, and you're a horrible person for thinking that it does. Third, how would it make you feel to know that I was born Quirkless? I was also a Quirkless middle schooler who was chosen to wield One For All!"

Out of everything that the former Symbol of Peace had said (shouted) up to this point, he wasn't quite expecting for his past Quirk status to be the thing that rocked his ex sidekick down to the core. He reeled back, his yellow eyes wide as he took in that information. While part of it made Toshinori feel good, it just made him all the more angry that this was truly what he thought of people like the hero he idolized so much, the same people who were missing and being experimented on by Overhaul.

It wasn't villainous, but it certainly wasn't anything heroic.

"It's different with you," he tried rationalizing, raising his hands in front of him in an effort to placate him. "I'd never think that of you -"

"But you think that of other Quirkless people," the blonde interrupted. "You think that of other people who are like me. That doesn't say anything good about you, Mirai."

"Well, it also doesn't say anything good about you that you never told me this," he snapped, having the nerve to look and sound betrayed. "It doesn't say anything good that you never told me you entered a relationship with the R Rated Hero -"

"You know what? We're done here," Toshinori said in a deathly calm voice. It was one thing for the man to criticize him and the choices he made, but when it came to his loved ones? When it came to the people who truly made him happy?

He wasn't going to stand there and take it.

"We can argue in circles all day, but I want to leave you with this: you're not my mother or my teacher," he continued. "What I do in my life as both a civilian and a hero is none of your business, nor do you have any authority over how I choose to live my life. I chose Young Midoriya as my successor, because I believe he has what it takes to be an amazing hero, and I will keep making that decision in every life after this one. I'm in a relationship with a woman who actually has my best interests at heart, respects my boundaries, and makes me feel like the happiest man alive."

When Mirai stayed silent, he kept going, so furious that it actually calmed him down somehow. 

"I'm going to take what you told me to Principal Nedzu and have Young Midoriya pulled from your agency. As for Young Togata, I'm going to leave the decision up to him, but you're doing that boy a disservice in treating him as you have been. He deserves better, and I know he'll be an amazing hero with the Quirk that he already has. He's not some placeholder for the life you think I should be living, and I want you to know how truly reprehensible I think your behavior is. Goodbye." 

With that, he turned on his heel and headed for the elevator, righteous anger fueling him and keeping him steady. When he entered and the doors shut behind him, he pressed the button for the first floor before letting him sag under the weight of the fury and adrenaline leaving his body. He unexpectedly felt tears gathering in his eyes, and as he exited the elevator and headed towards Hercules, they began to fall.

Years of pent up frustration, anger, and resentment towards his ex sidekick had him bowed over as he tried and failed to muffle his sobs.

Good memories of the man keeping him grounded and optimistic flooded to the forefront had him folded into himself as he climbed into the passenger's seat and started the car.

The bitter realization of who and what the bespectacled man really thought Toshinori was had Nemuri (he hadn't even heard her coming) curling up against him and softly murmuring how she understood now, she heard everything, she never imagined things were that bad between them. She assured him that Bubble Girl and Centipeder corroborated what Young Midoriya had told them and they would remove him from the agency. She let him know that Snipe was going to need to know about Young Togata's situation as well.

But the hope that they could set things right for Young Midoriya and Young Togata's sake had him sit up after what felt like forever. It made him wipe his eyes and agree to drive around for a bit until he calmed down.

He may not have had Foresight (he didn't even have a Quirk anymore), but he had an inkling of hope that things were going to wind up okay.

Chapter Text

Izuku stifled a yawn as best as he could as he sat in Mr. Hound Dog's chilly office, slightly curling in on himself as he tried drawing his blazer closer to him. He already hadn't wanted to get out of bed, owing to yesterday's Fundamental Heroics lesson, the rigorous training session he'd had that evening with Uraraka and Ida, and the cold, rainy weather he woke up to this morning. His muscles ached and his eyes were heavy. It was Friday, yes, and tomorrow would be a half day as well, but Sunday was what Izuku was really looking forward to.

Sunday meant a day off from school.

Sunday meant a respite from training.

Sunday meant extra sleep, longer naps, watching TV, and running around Musutafu with his friends.

It was so close - only 41 hours away - but it felt so far.

Looking back, he should have taken Aoyama up on his earlier offer of having a second cup of café au lait. He knew he was going to have a busy day ahead of him, thanks to Mr. Ectoplasm and Mr. Yamada scheduling their tests to be on the same day. On top of all of that, he had an art project due for Ms. Midnight's class.

The thought made him want to crawl back to the dorms and burrow back under his blankets with a mug of hot chocolate.

"You can get up and walk around if you need to," Hound Dog commented from his desk, causing Izuku to jump to attention. His raspy voice had the slightest hint of amusement in it as he continued with a wry, "I don't mind. Classes start in an hour, and I don't want to hear about you falling asleep instead of paying attention."

Cheeks flushed pink, Izuku slowly got up from his chair and yawned, beginning to slowly pace back and forth. Though he was still sleepy, the increased blood flow was doing its part in making sure that he was starting to fully wake up.

"To start off, what affirmations have you been telling yourself this week?" the Hunting Hero asked, watching him as he did a few squats before heading back to his seat.

It was something that they always started off every session with, and the answer immediately came to Izuku. It was so fast that he didn't have to think about it.

"I have the power to change the world, I show up every day and do my best, and all I need to succeed is within me," he recited almost automatically.

Mr. Hound Dog nodded approvingly, writing something down on his notepad.

"Those are some really good affirmations," he warmly and sincerely praised. "Is there any reason you specifically chose them?"

Izuku shifted a little in his seat, scratching behind his head.

"Um… I guess I chose them to get me through my work study," Izuku said with a shrug, pausing his scratching to start wringing his hands together. "But, well… speaking of that, I guess I hadn't told you that I was removed from my placement, have I?"

Startled, Mr. Hound Dog frowned, tilting his head as he scribbled something down.

"No, you haven't," he remarked. "You haven't really touched on your work study in our sessions together. You've only been there for about a month, correct?" 

The green haired boy ashamedly nodded, somewhat shrinking in on himself.

"Would you mind me asking why exactly you were removed?"

The teenage boy sucked in a breath and squeezed his hands together. He hated how even in a safe place like Mr. Hound Dog's office, the mere thought or mention of Sir Nighteye set off his fight or flight instincts. It wasn't enough that Bakugou and Mr. Aizawa had already set off those instincts in his appointments (though it was happening less and less), but now someone who was supposed to have been a mentor to him?

It was exhausting.

"Sir Nighteye… well, he didn't really like me," he confessed. It had been almost verbatim what he had told Mr. Snipe, but the words still hurt all the same. At least he was able to say them without stuttering this time. "He accepted me as an intern for my work study to uh… to prove to me that I shouldn't be a hero -"

"He shouldn't have done that," Mr. Hound Dog growled, slouched forward as though he were getting ready to pounce. "He's a high profile hero who we trust to mentor our students! He should not emotionally abuse them and break down their confidence because he doesn’t believe in their capabilities!"

Before he could dissolve into a fit of howls, growls, and snarls as he usually did when he was overcome with anger, he paused and took a moment to breathe in and out - coincidentally, using the same exercise he himself taught Izuku.

"Sorry," he gruffly apologized after a minute or so, adjusting his muzzle. "I almost let my temper get the better of me." 

As he cleared his throat and sat up straighter, the Hunting Hero motioned for him to continue, writing something down. "How exactly were you removed from his agency?"

"Last week, I… I accidentally had a breakdown in front of Mr. Snipe about it all during lunch," Izuku said, blushing at the memory. "He made me tell Ms. Midnight and All Might, since they're my teachers, and… well, they both went to Sir's office to talk everything over…" The green haired boy shifted in his seat, and his voice got quiet as he said, "I guess it went really badly, because they pulled me out when they got back. I could tell they were really angry, even though they were trying to hide it."

And they had tried to hide it. Izuku remembered the strained smile on Ms. Midnight's face when she pulled him aside before afternoon homeroom and gently told him that he'd no longer be interning with Sir Nighteye. He remembered how All Might's hands were squeezed into fists at his sides and how red rimmed his eyes were as they met up before their after school training session. The former Symbol of Peace seemed almost exhausted in a way as he walked Izuku through his meditation and through his strength training, and though it worried him, he hadn’t pushed him to spill on what exactly had happened. 

“How did that make you feel, seeing your teachers so upset on your behalf?” Mr. Hound Dog asked, folding his hands in front of him.

Grimacing a little, Izuku shrugged. 

“I guess… I guess it felt good,” he confessed. “I’m still not really used to having adults in my life who actively look out for me, so seeing and hearing that they didn't agree with how Sir Nighteye treated me… it felt good. Does that make me selfish?"

Did it? No one ever said or did anything when Bakugou was burning your things, burning you , insulting you for being Quirkless, calling you a Dekunobu -

That’s not fair, though! You were one of 30 students, no one knew the truth about you and Bakugou, and Mom was supporting you all on her own. You can’t blame them for not picking up everything -

Did they even try to pick up anything? Did they even bother making the effort?

“To be honest, Midoriya, no,” Mr. Hound Dog bluntly answered, staring rather intently at him. “There’s nothing selfish in appreciating those who are protecting you and looking out for your well being. I want you to understand that. It’s very important that you understand that. Okay?”

Izuku nodded almost reluctantly, still ill at ease with his feelings.

"But what about Togata?" he found himself asking. "He's also with Sir, has been since last year. I'm glad I won't be doing my work study there anymore, but I really like Togata, and he was always really nice to me… I hope I didn't mess anything up for him by making-making a big deal out of this."

The Hunting Hero frowned, leaning forward slightly, the intensity still present in his eyes.

"I need you to listen to me very carefully, Midoriya," he started. "If you're in a bad situation where somebody is actively targeting you or mistreating you, there is nothing wrong with prioritizing your well-being and leaving. Nobody with basic empathy would or should fault you for doing that, because I guarantee you that they would do the same thing if they were in your place."

The green haired boy wring his hands together. What Mr. Hound Dog said made perfect sense, but when going up against a lifetime of being forced to place everyone else's well-being before his own, it was a hard pill to swallow.

Not that it ever should have been hard to swallow to begin with .

"Why don't we move on to something else?" Mr. Hound Dog asked, seemingly noticing Izuku's discomfort. "Have you been placed with anyone else, or are you going to hold off on having a work study until next year?" he asked. 

Izuku sat up a little straighter, grateful for the change in subject and latching onto it.

"I was actually placed with Fatgum two days later," he answered. "I've been there for about a week now."

"How have you been liking it so far?" the Hunting Hero asked as he wrote something down.

"Um… it's taking a bit to get used to," he confessed with a small smile. "I have to take the train to Esuha City, and that's about a 2 and a half hour ride. To make the most of it, I get to start on my homework during that time, and Kirishima and Amijiki are with me, too! We'll all help each other with our homework and study for any tests or quizzes we have. It's nice."

"Speaking of Kirishima, has being at the same work study positively impacted your relationship as classmates, given how you described him as one of Bakugou's most staunch defenders?” Mr. Hound Dog asked with genuine curiosity in his voice. 

After a long moment, Izuku looked down at his lap and nodded thoughtfully.

"I think it's getting better, not that it was ever bad to begin with,” he said, cautiously optimistic. “To be honest, I was a little nervous about being placed at the same agency as him… but it's going really well. He was really excited when he got the news about my placement, and he’s been the main one who showed me how things are done at Fatgum’s agency… not that Amijiki and Fatgum aren’t! They are, too! But, uh, yeah… it’s been going really good so far with Kirishima, specifically. Uh… c-can I ask… can I ask you something?”

“Of course.”

Again, Izuku deliberated for a moment before speaking slowly, almost fearfully.

“I’ve always liked Kirishima, and I’m really glad that he apologized to me after Bakugou was expelled, and I’m glad that we’re friends, but… is it okay that I’m still a little angry about how he was with him? I mean, I don’t know if I’ve really forgiven him for all of that, and sometimes I remember some things he's said or what all he's ignored, and it just… does it make me a bad person?”

Mr. Hound Dog, ever the patient man, was kind with his answer.

“No, I don’t think so,” he immediately said. "As long as these feelings aren't negatively affecting you or the people around you, you're entitled to them. The reason we have these sessions is so you can process and let them out in a healthy way. It doesn't do you any good to suppress them."

After a long minute of silence, he cleared his throat and wrote something down. “How is Fatgum treating you? Is it any different than how Sir Nighteye treated you?”

Izuku nodded excitedly, almost swinging his legs in elation. 

“Fatgum’s great !” he gushed. “He’s twenty nine, so he’s not much older than us, which makes it like having a big brother around. He’ll tease us and mess around, but he knows when to be serious. Um… he-he um… one of the first things he told me was that…”

Tears filled his eyes, and as a sob bubbled up out of him, a box of tissues was passed over to him. It had become a somewhat familiar gesture between them since starting their sessions together.

“Thanks,” he muttered, wiping at his eyes and wringing the tissue in his hands. 

“He said that…" He cleared his throat and took a deep breath. "He said that he could see I’d become a great hero, and that um… that Sir Nighteye was wrong about me, that he shouldn’t have been saying those things to me in the first place." He crumpled his tissue into a ball before wiping at his teary eyes. "He said he’d show me that I wouldn’t have to worry about feeling out of place with everyone, that I could trust him, and that he'd help me with my Quirk. He’s really nice. I'm really glad that I'm doing my work study with him.”

Though Mr. Hound Dog's muzzle hid his smile, it was clearly evident in his voice when he said, "That's good to hear, Midoriya. Hopefully, it stays that way."

Izuku nodded, smiling to himself as he stood up to throw his tissue away.

"Part of me is trying to say that it's all too good to be true, like how everything wound up being with Sir, but I'm trying to ignore it," he said, furrowing his brow in determination. "I'll keep trying to ignore it."

"That sounds like a plan," the teacher said approvingly. "How about you give it a month or so before passing any final judgements?" Taking a look at his watch, he said, "Homeroom starts in ten minutes. To wrap up, have you achieved your goals you set last week?"

"Of course!" Izuku answered. "I was able to finish the book Tokoyami let me borrow, I wrote and mailed out my letter to Kota, and I helped Todoroki look for a new nightstand last Sunday!"

Hound Dog nodded, scribbling away on his notepad. "What goals do you have for the upcoming week?"

"I guess to take Fatgum up on his offer to help with my Quirk," The green haired boy said after a minute of deliberation. "That would be my main one." 

Shifting on his feet, he tilted his head and tapped his chin. "I think I'll also ask him for some advice on improving Shoot Style, though Asui's really been helping me out with that. Fatgum is really known for close quarters combat, and-and he likes kickboxing, too, so maybe he can help. Um, for my third one… I guess I'll try to draw some more, outside of what I already do for my analysis notebooks."

"Why don't you try one sketch a day?" Mr. Hound Dog offered. "That way, it can be something measurable and specific?"

Izuku nodded eagerly. 

"Yeah! I can try and do that!"

The Hunting Hero smiled and motioned for him to get his backpack. “Why don't you head to class now? I’ll see you next Friday, Midoriya.” 

Smiling, Izuku shouldered his backpack and bowed his head. "Thank you, Mr. Hound Dog! I hope you have a good day today!"

"I hope you have a good day as well, Midoriya."

With a quick wave, Izuku left Mr. Hound Dog's office, quietly shutting the door behind him. Though it was still rainy and chilly, the slightly brighter sky perfectly symbolized how he was feeling at the moment: hopeful in the face of the storm. It was dark and dreary, yes, but he felt much more awake and invigorated as he made his way to class. 

Was it too good to be true? He didn't know. But what he could do was keep chasing the brightness. 

That was all he could do, all he would do.

Chapter Text

When Hitoshi Shinsou manifested his Quirk as a tiny, purple headed three year old, he wasn't aware of how soon he would realize that it was… different from everyone else's. He wasn't aware of the setbacks it would give him or the image that would be hoisted onto him.

At the time, he was just glad that he had a Quirk. 

He was glad to see how after his dad broke out of the slack, blank gaze Brainwashing gave to people, he excitedly called out to his mother that their son's Quirk manifested - a perfect mix between her Suggestion Quirk and his Voice Activation Quirk.

It was supposed to be smooth sailing after this, but all men weren't born equal, and certainly not all Quirks were equal.

It started in kindergarten that next day at school, when his class had received the news that he manifested his Quirk.

"He gets to make people do whatever he wants? That's so cool!" a girl in his class gushed.

"That's not fair! Why does he get a cool Quirk?!" a boy whined.

"You can be a hero with that Quirk! You get to just make people do what you want!" Another boy chimed in.

Everything went all well and good, and Hitoshi preened under the praise his classmates were giving him… only for it to come crashing down when his teacher tried bringing everyone back to order.

"Shinsou, it's great that you've gotten your Quirk, but please make sure you don't use it on anyone, okay?"

He hadn't realized it at the time, but the entire interaction would be the first of many . It would be the first time anyone would accuse him of wanting to use his Quirk for unsavory reasons. It would be the first time someone equated Brainwashing with villainous behavior. 

And it only got worse as he got older.

During Quirk Counseling sessions, there whispers amongst his teacher and the Quirk Counselor that he could for sure be admitted into UA with a Quirk like his. His classmates had muttered to themselves about how he'd for sure become a ranked Pro-Hero due to his Quirk. Sure, it was nice to hear, but there would always be one or two classmates who would say something like:

"I'm glad he's on our side," or "Good thing he hasn't used it on any of us."

That always took his head out of the praise, the exciting expectations, and it muted them all out… not that what those classmates said wasn't true.

Sure, he'd used Brainwashing once or twice when playing video games with his cousins, and he'd also used it a few times against the neighborhood kids when playing pick up games of baseball and association football, but he had to. It was the only way he could get a leg up over everyone else. They were stronger than him, had powerful Quirks that got them an easy ride compared to him. And it wasn't like anyone ever held it against him! Sure, they'd be annoyed about it or whatever, but they'd eventually drop the matter, and if they decided to stop hanging out with him, well, it was because they hated his Quirk.

It was because they thought his Quirk made him a villain.

By the time he was in his final year of middle school, he had vowed to not take anyone's insults anymore. He had vowed that in spite of the Quirk he had been born with, he'd become the best hero out there all on his own. He didn't need friends or anyone else by his side. 

All he needed was himself.

Of course, the first day of school meant going through the torturous ritual of self introductions: name, Quirk, the whole song and dance. He introduced himself, and like clockwork, three of his classmates swarmed him at his desk once the final bell rang.

"You can brainwash people, Shinsou?! Cool ! Never heard of a Quirk like that before!"

"I'm so jealous!"

"You could make all sorts of trouble with that!"

"And all of that without getting your hands dirty!"

"Just don't try controlling us, okay?"

Just don't try controlling us, okay?

At the time, he had sheepishly laughed and said, "Everyone says that," but it had really struck a nerve with him. Yes, his Quirk brainwashed people, but that didn't make him a villain. Why was that the thing that everyone focused on? 

Why did everyone think he was a villain?

Well, it was no matter, he eventually told himself as he walked home that day. He didn't need any of them as friends. Hell, when he got into UA, he'd most likely not see any of them ever again. 

All he needed to do was focus on getting his grades up to par so he could apply for UA.

He hadn't wanted to assume things, but he had a feeling that his Quirk would put him at a disadvantage in the entrance exam for the Heroics Course. It wasn't flashy, powerful, or "heroic", so what could he do? Everyone thought his Quirk made him a villain, and it was a non-combat Quirk to boot.

What could he do?

He was glad that his mom had advised him to also apply for General Studies as a fallback, because the entrance exam… it did not go well. 

Not at all. 

How was he supposed to brainwash robots into turning themselves off? How was he supposed to use brute force to defeat them at the physical conditioning he had? He couldn't! He couldn't, and despite passing the written exam, he'd gotten the message a week later that while he was accepted into UA's General Studies department, he had regrettably failed the Heroics Course's practical exam.

He'd figured as much, but it still hurt all the same. 

Everyone was happy for him: his parents, his classmates, his teachers, but he could see the pity in their eyes. He could hear the false hope in their voices when they told him that he could use the Sports Festival to transfer into the Heroics Course. He'd for sure be doing that, of course, but that was easy coming from them. Everyone saying that had powerful Quirks. They would easily become heroes in the future.

Hitoshi would always be having an uphill battle ahead of him, and he knew UA wouldn't be any different.

It never was.

~ ~ ~

Class 1A had already made a name for themselves by the end of the first day of school, and it wasn't a good one. 

They hadn't shown up to Orientation, allegedly because their homeroom teacher needed them for something, but that didn't stop the rumor mill from starting up. That didn't stop the other first years - those from 1B, the other heroics class included - from seeing them as arrogant blowhards who were too good for everyone else.

It made sense in Hitoshi's mind. After all, with the Quirks they all had, they all thought they were God's gift to the universe. They wouldn't know what it was like for him or anyone else with Quirks that made life stacked against them. 

To them, their lives were already sorted out for them.

Things only got worse three days later when they were attacked by villains at the USJ.

Sure, it had gotten everyone out of school early and the next day off, but what were the odds that the arrogant Class 1A would get actual hands-on experience when they hadn't even been at school for a week? Hell, what were the odds that two of them had gotten one of the teachers seriously injured?

Again, it made sense to him. They thought that their Quirks gave them the green light to act however they wanted, consequences be damned. 

It was why when school was back in session, once the Sports Festival had been announced, Hitoshi had fought his way through the massive crowd outside of 1A and made his intentions clear: he was declaring war on all of them. He was going to use the festival to prove that he deserved to be in the Heroics Course more than they did. He was going to knock them all off their high horses and give them a taste of what he had to go through in life, and if that meant fighting dirty, it meant fighting dirty.

If it meant brainwashing three other people to carry him through the obstacle course, so be it. He had to save his energy for the next round, after all.

If it meant brainwashing the monkey and the laser kid from 1A as well as someone from 1B into being on his team for the cavalry battle, so be it. No one was going to want to be with him, otherwise. The monkey stopping that Midoriya kid from speaking to him before their match in the finals proved that.

He'd like to say that didn't bother him, but it did get under his skin a little bit. It was bad enough that the monkey had already pitched a fit about the cavalry battle and dropped out in front of everyone. It was bad enough that he put the blame on Brainwashing in front of everyone on live TV.

What the hell would he know? All of this talk about pride, and he made the idiotic decision to drop out instead of fight his way through the finals. But of course, he was a part of 1A. He and his little tail had the world handed to him on a silver platter. 

Idiot.

At least it gave him some material to work with when going up against Midoriya… not that he already didn't have a bone to pick with him already.

He got into the Heroics Course on pure flash and dazzle, even having All Might of all people in his corner. He'd seen the two of them meeting up during lunch time every now and then, and it rankled his nerves every single time. He had it so easy compared to him, and now the monkey was undoubtedly spilling the beans on Brainwashing's mechanics. 

It was so unfair. What would Midoriya   know about Quirk discrimination? What would he know about being ostracized by everyone around you over something you had no control over? What would he know about having to claw your way up to the top because of the unfortunate reality that all men weren't born equal?

He'd even said as much to him: "Must be nice to have everything handed to you, Izuku Midoriya."

It's why it made him feel so good when the idiot fell hook, line, and sinker into his trap. One minute, he was going on a tangent about how the monkey had a name, he shouldn't be saying those sorts of things about his classmate (he'd gotten into a pretty big fight with his parents about how he was just trying to give himself the advantage later on that night, and if that meant calling the monkey some names, so be it), and the next, he was turned around and heading towards the boundary line of the arena.

Go on , he told himself. Disqualify yourself. Show everyone here that you're only where you are because of how blessed you are to have such a powerful Quirk .

And he almost did… until he didn't.

Somehow, Midoriya broke free from Brainwashing. Nobody had ever broken free from it before, not without him calling it off or the victim accidentally being jostled against something. It was confusing, and it got the crowd excited, especially when Midoriya bum rushed him and threw him out of the ring as easily as throwing a bag of garbage into the dumpster was.

He lost while Midoriya won, but it didn't mean he was going to give up. If anything, it only invigorated him more , especially hearing what his classmates were saying to him:

"You were awesome out there, Shinsou!" one of them shouted.

"You're the shining star out of us General Studies guys!"

He could even hear some of the Pro Heroes in the audience praising him and his Quirk:

"That would be a great Quirk against villains. I wish I had it."

"What the hell was UA thinking, putting him in General Studies?"

It made him feel a lot of things. Seen, validated… hopeful even? 

If the heroes were saying these kinds of things, what were the teachers thinking?

~ ~ ~

Training with Mr. Aizawa was not easy.

First off, it all happened before and after school (depending on his caseload, of course), leaving him with little time to keep up with his schoolwork. 

Second off, he had him on a training plan to improve his physical condition. It meant a lot of running and lifting weights. It meant eating a lot of ultra healthy meals that he'd seen Midoriya and a lot of the other Heroics students eating.

Third off, there was the damn binding cloth. That long, weirdly fluid, metal piece of cloth had him tripping over himself and getting stuck in trees every time he tried and failed to copy the moves that Mr. Aizawa did with ease. Sure, it had apparently taken him five years to master it, but it was still incredibly frustrating. 

One good thing did come of everything, however. As much as he complained about the schedule and the binding cloth and as much as he complained about the hand to hand combat drills, Mr. Aizawa would say one thing to him that made it all worth the trouble:

"I hope you understand that I'm not the type to waste time on hopeless causes."

It was blunt, yes, but Hitoshi knew what he was saying. He could tell that Mr. Aizawa was saying that he - not Class 1A - had potential. They were wastes of his time and resources, while Hitoshi wasn't. Mr. Aizawa saw something in him that Class 1A didn't have.

It wasn't like he tried hiding it. At best, he seemed to barely tolerate them. Otherwise, Hitoshi could tell that he'd rather be anywhere else. He'd seen him curled up in that yellow sleeping bag of his, looking like he'd just woken up from a nap. He'd heard how he was almost always threatening to expel them for one reason or another, only to take it back at the last minute as some sort of 'rational deception'.

Why was he even wasting his time on them if he hated them so much?

~ ~ ~

The start of the second term was weird .

First, there was UA implementing the dorms because of the Forest Camp attack the Heroics Course students went through (not that he was complaining, given that he and his parents seemed to be arguing constantly now over his 'abrasive attitude'). Then, Mr. King Vlad and Mr. Hound Dog raised an out of proportion fuss over two first years fighting and getting put on house arrest.

But none of that could have topped what happened two days later.

It had been weird, and in hindsight, he should have realized that something was wrong. First, there was the fact that Mr. Aizawa hadn't answered any of his phone calls or text messages. He knew that the man was busy, and he usually would answer by lunchtime, but there was complete radio silence that day. When his text during afternoon homeroom had gone unanswered, he'd tried doing the binding cloth training by himself. It… hadn't gone well, to say the least. He practiced for about twenty minutes before heading back to his room, frustrated by it all.

If only he knew how much worse it was going to get the next day.

~ ~ ~

"You didn't hear?!" He heard a dog faced second year student excitedly say by the school's entrance. "Mr. Aizawa's teaching license got suspended! He won't be able to teach for six months!"

Hitoshi stopped cold in his tracks, trying not to let on that he was eavesdropping.

" Suspended ?!" Their… creature friend asked, clearly shocked. "How do you know?! Is it true?! Did they say what he did?!"

Dog Face nodded eagerly.

"Some of the TA's were talking about it while I was doing morning clean up!" she gushed. "They had a big meeting yesterday, and then Mr. Aizawa was gone!"

"They probably realized how pathological him playing with our futures was and kicked him to the curb," a male brunette student snapped, coming up to join them along with a black haired boy. "Those expulsions are staying on our permanent records. How are we supposed to get a job when we graduate? Did he ever think about that, oh Mr. Logic and Rationality?"

"Don't let Fuwa hear you say that," Creature Boy snickered. "She'll just go on and on about how the experience helped us all to grow and mature as heroes. Easy for her to say; her uncle's a ranked hero, so she'll have no problem getting a job once we graduate… unlike the rest of us." 

"I'd heard he was caught really mistreating one student in particular," the black haired boy said. "Like, really targeting him."

"I bet he rigged his QAT score to place him last and then singled him out in front of everyone and threatened to expel him," the brunette said, a look of disgust on his face. "Wouldn't be the first time he did it. I'd heard he did that to some third year student in the class above us."

Dog Face seemed downcast, placing her hands over her heart.

"I feel bad for the poor kid," she said. 

The black haired boy nodded gravely.

"Even worse, the kid saved his life at the USJ Attack, and he still kept going after him," he added. "He was also being bullied by one of his classmates, and Mr. Aizawa just let it happen."

Creature Boy shot up in shock, pointing at his friend. 

"I know who you're talking about!" he almost cried out. "It's the green haired kid with the strength Quirk, right?"

The black haired boy nodded.

"Yup, the very same one," he confirmed. "Principal Nedzu found out that he'd had it out for this kid, one thing led to another, and then he was gone."

He frowned, looking almost… angry as he looked around and pulled his friends in closer. Hitoshi dared to shift closer as the second year whispered, "You want to know what else I heard, what makes this all even worse?"

When they nodded, he continued.

"The kid hadn't even gotten his Quirk until the day of the Entrance Exam."

Hitoshi reeled in shock at that bombshell. Golden Boy hadn't had a Quirk this whole time?! It didn't make any sense! It was a perfect Quirk that would let him coast through UA, through life . How the hell had he only just gotten it?

The group of second years was just as shocked, even the one who revealed that… honestly mind boggling piece of information.

"Yeah, apparently it manifested super late, otherwise it would have killed him. That's why he kept breaking his limbs - he wasn't used to having it, and he wasn't receiving any help from it outside of All Might. He didn't even learn how to control it until he was on his internship, and it only took him two days ."

The brunette looked disgusted as he asked, "So he was targeting and attacking him over a Quirk that he's only had for what… seven months? And he did all of this while refusing to help him?"

The black haired boy shrugged. 

"It wouldn't be out of character for him, would it?" he quietly asked.

"That's awful ," Dog Face sadly said. "He seems like a sweet kid from what I've heard the teachers say. Togata's taken a huge liking to him, too."

"That's not even the worst thing," the black haired boy said. "There's two other kids in 1A who also need help with their Quirks, and he just left them to their own devices. One of them got taken hostage at the USJ because of the drawbacks of his Quirk, and nothing was done."

"Damn," the brunette muttered, shaking his head. "And to think he went to bat for that explosion boy? The one who had that Violent Typhoon level meltdown over losing in the Sports Festival? The one who got kidnapped because the League wanted him to join them because of said meltdown?"

"I also heard he's been favoring a student who isn't even in his class," Dog Face whispered. "He's been giving them private tutoring -"

Hitoshi took a deep breath and entered the building, hoping his pace was steady enough and his face was neutral enough to not betray the whirlwind of emotions he was currently feeling. 

Mr. Aizawa had gotten suspended ? All because he was this horrible teacher who supposedly hated 1A? No, there had to be something missing here. He couldn't have been treating them that badly he was suspended . He probably got firm with them over their lack of potential, and then they threw a fit they weren't wrong that he never seemed to help them with anything . It was just another classic case of 1A being catered to, specifically Midoriya. He must have pitched a fit about Mr. Aizawa not giving him the preferential treatment he was undoubtedly used to in life but he hadn't gotten his Quirk until recently . He had to have been jealous that Mr. Aizawa saw something in Hitoshi that Midoriya just didn't have didn't the fact he got his Quirk late basically mean he was Quirkless growing up . That had to be it, right?

Right?

Okay, he needed to look at the bigger picture here, mainly, his mentorship.

What the hell was going to happen to him now that Mr. Aizawa was gone?

Could he ask him to privately tutor him? His teaching license was suspended . Could he ask him to send over any more training plans or something? He's probably deleted your number with how he's ignoring you . 

Would any other teacher understand what all he had struggled through to get here like Mr. Aizawa had? He always talked in terms of 'people like us,' and 'people like you and me.'

Who else could teach him about the binding cloth? 

Who could help hone his hand to hand combat and give ideas about Brainwashing's capabilities?

Who else would help him prepare for the opportunity to transfer into the Heroics Course next term?

He didn't have the same opportunities that everyone else did, didn't have a Quirk like everyone else did, so how in the hell was he going to do this?

He didn't know.

He just didn't know.

Chapter Text

If anyone were to pull a UA student aside and ask them what they thought about Mirio Togata, they'd draw their answer from a pool of common responses: he's a model student, he has such an amazing Quirk, he's always ready to help any teacher or student who needs it, and just like with Nejire and Amijiki, there'll be no other member of The Big Three quite like him.

They were all answers he heard before, and though it was always nice to hear them, he always felt that they didn't quite tell the full story of how he had gotten to the position he was at today.

Those who called him a model student didn't know about all of the all nighters he pulled, or all of the before and after school tutoring sessions he needed (still does) in order to get his grades up to par.

Those who gushed about his amazing Quirk didn't know how the intricacies of Permeation were so complex that it not only made his dad give up on his own dreams of being a Pro Hero, but it led to two pretty bad performances at the Sports Festival (or maybe they chose to ignore that last bit).

Those who talked about how he was always ready to lend a helping hand didn't know that he did not only because of the hero who helped him out of that river all those years ago, but because it was just the right thing to do. 

And those who said that there wouldn't be a more memorable Big Three than him and his friends didn't know about the struggles that they went through to get to where they are today.

It was all water under the bridge, though. There was no use in dwelling on what people did or didn't think about him when there was schoolwork to complete, a dad to spend time with, friends to hang out with… not that he had been doing much of that, as of late.

Ever since he terminated his internship with Sir's agency, he really hadn't been doing much of anything, not that he wasn't trying! He tried getting his head in the game with the statistics and thermodynamics units his Math and Physics classes were going over. He tried giving the old Plus Ultra effort when playing video games with Amijiki after school. He tried putting in 110% into his training, both in and out of school. He tried being the beacon of smiles, bad jokes, and positivity that the teachers, underclassmen, and fellow classmates expected him to be.

But it was hard, so much so that people were noticing.

"Are you okay, Togata? You've been really quiet lately," Nejire asked as they headed back from lunch. "Do you have a sore throat? I have some cough drops in my room. Ooh, what if you're coming down with the flu? You look kind of like a cartoon character with how pale you look, and the shadows under your eyes -"

"Leave him be, Nejire," Amijiki quietly said, sitting at his desk and putting his head down. "If he doesn't want to talk, he doesn't want to talk… just like me. I want to go home…"

Mirio opened his mouth to answer, but then Mr. Snipe came into the room, leading everyone to quiet down and pay attention through the post-lunch slump for their Fundamental Heroics lesson. 

~ ~ ~

"Let's go for a walk, Togata," Mr. Snipe unexpectedly said, reaching out to pull him aside once afternoon homeroom ended. 

A little jolted by the action, he stumbled, sheepishly smiling at Nejire and Amijiki as he motioned for them to go on ahead without him. It took a bit, but they eventually did turn to leave - Amijiki looking as though he'd rather be hiding in a hole somewhere and Nejire cheerfully waving goodbye.

Was this about the Fundamental Heroics lesson? He thought it had gone well, all things considered. It was a full scale disaster drill in Ground Beta, and the class was split off into teams, simulating a search and rescue operation. Miro - as usual - was assigned the leader of his team, and from what he remembered, they had done great! 

Right?

Sure he may have second guessed some of his decisions, and the dummies they brought back weren't completely unscathed, but his team finished second! That had to count for something!

Right?

They headed for Gym Gamma in silence, and though Mr. Snipe had never given Mirio a reason to be nervous around him, now he wasn't sure.

He wasn't sure about anything anymore.

"Heard you left Sir Nighteye's agency," the cowboy started conversationally, pausing to open the door. He motioned for the blonde to head in, following behind him. 

"Yeah, I did," Mirio said as casually as possible. "I… realized that there were certain important things that we didn't see eye to eye on, and I thought it would be best for us to part ways."

The teacher nodded slowly as he let the door shut behind him.

"That's good," he praised. "It's always good to put yourself first, especially if you see or hear something you don't agree with. Shows you have integrity."

The blonde tried smiling, but he had a feeling that it didn't quite reach his eyes… not that Mr. Snipe could see.

"That's the thing, Mr Snipe… do I have integrity?" he quietly asked, turning to the spot he saw Mr. Aizawa and the Half Cold-Half Hot kid standing during his bout with class 1A. He made the turn and stood with his back flush to the wall. He leaned against itl, letting it brace him as he struggled to not fold under the weight of that question he'd never imagined himself asking, of what all he was about to confess. 

When Mr. Snipe didn't say or ask anything, he spilled.

"I was always told by my dad that integrity means doing the right thing, no matter what and no matter if anyone's watching," he started in the bright, easygoing tone he was known for. "I've always tried living by that, and-and I thought that I've been living by that, but lately, I'm not sure about that, Mr. Snipe."

If the cowboy was judging him, the blonde couldn't tell. Instead, he merely mirrored his pose, a silent invitation for him to continue.

"There's a case that Sir's on, a Yakuza case. I'm sure that some of the teachers are involved in it, and that's why I'm telling you…" Mirio rambled before clearing his throat. "But anyway, a little girl's involved, a-and…" He ran a hand through his hair, biting on the inside of his cheek as tears filled his eyes. "We had a chance to rescue her, to end all of this… but I didn't take that chance. I didn't take it, because Sir told me not to. He said it would interfere with the investigation. I saw a little girl who was covered in bandages, wearing tattered clothes, and was terrified to go back with her father… and I just left her there ." 

As a tear fell down his cheek, he angrily wiped it away. He had no right to be crying, not when she was suffering a million more times than he was, suffering not just emotionally, but physically.

"She's only six ! And-and even if she was older or younger, or a boy or whoever… I still left a child there, even when all signs were telling me not to… and then it turns out that had we rescued her, it would have instantly foiled their plans!"

Mr. Snipe was still and silent, and the blonde couldn't make head or tail of what he could possibly be feeling or thinking about all of this, but everything was coming out before he could stop it. He was going to see the true colors behind Mirio Togata the model student the bystander , the Big Three member the sham of UA , the boy who was already surpassing Pro Heroes the boy who already failed a little girl .

"And that's not all," he said with a hollow laugh, his eyes welling up with tears again. "You know Midoriya? The first year -"

"Yeah, I know who he is," Mr. Snipe confirmed with a nod. 

"Well, I recommended him for a work study position at Sir's agency, because he's my friend and I thought he'd be a good addition to the team… but the whole time, Sir's just been awful to him!"

"He told me about that," Mr. Snipe gravely echoed. "It was pretty bad, wasn't it?"

"That's the thing, Mr. Snipe! It was bad!" he cried out, clenching his fists. "I mean… he only accepted him in order to break down his confidence and make him give up! He kept overworking him and negatively comparing him to me, and I… I didn't think it was anything other than him…" He ran a hand through his hair, looking down at his feet in shame. "I thought he just saw something in him that just needed some pushing. I thought he believed in him, not hated him. I mean, what does that say about me that I keep not saying anything when I see that something's wrong? I’m Lemillion because I want to save a million people, but how can I do that if I can’t even save two ?"

More tears were falling, and Mirio could do nothing other than angrily swipe at them and sniffle away.

"Even if Midoriya wasn't already my friend… I'm supposed to look out for the underclassmen, especially when it comes to the work studies… and I-I just sat by and let Sir… I'm a horrible -"

"No, you stop that kind of talk at once, Togata," Mr. Snipe cut in. He turned the blonde so that he was facing him, gripping his shoulders tightly. "There's no good in blaming yourself for any of this -"

"But I'm one of the Big Three!" Mirio shouted, wrenching away from him. "I'm one of the Big Three, and-and that comes with obligations ! It comes with expectations that I… I don't even know how to meet anymore! I don't know anything anymore, and it's killing me!"

The blonde felt the ground fall out from under him, sending him crashing to the ground, and the sniffles and one or two tears from before had now escalated into guttural sobs that he tried to keep contained. He was confused, horrified, shocked, and furious at himself and at everything that he thought that he stood for, and now that the ground was gone, it felt as though he were freefalling into a world he had no clue existed; 

A world of a possible kidnapping and human experimentation case.

A world where a good friend and the Symbol of Peace were the subjects of discrimination for apparently being Quirkless.

A world where a mentor would only take him on to shape him into what he thought he should be.

A world where he would harshly reject the help of a teacher he highly respected.

A world that would take his identity as one of UA's Golden Children and flip it upside down and turn it inside out.

There was nothing from Mr. Snipe, and for a moment, Mirio was scared that he had simply left him to wallow in self pity on his own - not that he would have blamed him. But he heard a rustle of clothes in front of him, a knee popping and a sigh as strong arms pulled him away from the wall and towards their owner. The smell of tobacco and leather and the feeling of his teacher's mask resting against his head was both grounding and liberating, and it only served to make the blonde cry even more. 

How could Mr. Snipe be so nice to him when he had just shoved him away?

"Togata… this isn't just about Midoriya or the Shie Hassakai case, is it?" Mr. Snipe slowly asked him, rubbing his back.

Mirio shook his head.

"There's something else about all of this that's bothering you, isn't there?"

Mirio nodded his head.

"Well, I'm not going anywhere," the cowboy said, giving him a reassuring squeeze. "We've got all the time in the world if you want to talk about it or not. It’s your call, Togata. Either way, we're going to sit here and let you cry it all out. It looks like you really need it, don't you?"

And this was why he both loved and respected Mr. Snipe. Out of respect for them being upperclassmen, he never pried or hovered, but he always made sure that his students knew that he'd lend a listening ear if they ever needed it. He knew that he had been a driving force in trying to get Amijiki out of his shell more and had helped keep Nejire grounded in case she said something a little too insensitive. He even remembered how he'd pulled Amamiya aside to talk to him after his father died and he'd been in tears the whole day. His classmate had later said that Mr. Snipe couldn't have been nicer.

And after seeing so many of his classmates and his friends receive his help and advice, Mirio only thought it was fair that he take the hand that was reaching out to him… especially given how he had shoved away minutes before. 

With his sobs having stalled out and his tears running dry, Mirio wiped at his face, silently aware of the fact that neither one of them had made the move to break their embrace. Though exhausted from his emotional outburst, he felt a little bit safer knowing that if he couldn't be with his dad right now, Mr. Snipe was here in his stead.

It may have been childish, but it was effective in making him calm down.

"All Might and Ms. Midnight came to Sir's office a few days before I left…" he said slowly and quietly, closing his eyes. "I don't know if they told you how it went, but… it went pretty badly. I mean, there was a lot of yelling between All Might and Sir, but all that aside, I learned a few things about Sir and… and-and how he saw me…"

He swallowed, clenching his hands into Mr. Snipe's cape.

"I can't really explain it fully since it isn't my story to tell, and I still don't really understand the details, but to sum up… Sir only wanted me as an intern to prove a point against All Might. He never actually believed in me or saw anything special in me. He only wanted me so that he could use me."

The admission hurt even more than it did hearing about it that day, and he curled in a little on himself at the memory, causing Mr. Snipe to hug him a little tighter. The gesture immediately made him think about Midoriya, and that just made everything hurt even more. After all, he'd seen the younger boy do it constantly, both when Sir was present and when he wasn't. It was like he was trying to hide from the world (and after what he had learned, he now understood why). He hadn't really said much about it at the time, but now, he realized that he should have. There was so much that he should have spoken up about, but he hadn't.

Some 'model student' he was.

"My grades and Quirk control were horrible when I started here at UA - you know that, and it felt good getting an offer from Sir after uh… after last year's Sports Festival," he said, ears flushed pink at the mention of his nationwide wardrobe malfunction. "He helped get me on a consistent training regimine, gave me extra tutoring to get my grades up, and he gave me advice and ideas on Permeation that I hadn't even considered! I mean, it's why Physics is my best subject now! He had me relate the two to each other, and it all makes sense!" 

He smiled a little to himself, only to bite it back. At the time, seeing how his grades were steadily going up was amazing. Seeing how his Quirk control was rapidly improving had been almost unbelievable. His dad had always been proud of him - even through the bad grades and less than stellar parent-teacher conferences - but he had been so happy for him and his improvements that they took a camping trip to Mt. Fuji, something they'd been talking about doing but never went through with. They both attributed part of it to Sir at the time, but now that he heard what he heard…

"But there were other things that I didn't really think about until Ms. Midnight brought them up that day," he said.

"Things such as?" Mr. Snipe asked.

"Like when he wanted me to cut my hair but leave it long up front, or when he wanted me to focus more on my upper body when exercising. All of that is good advice in hindsight, and I'm fine with how I look now, but knowing what I know now… he only had me do those things because wanted to turn me into All Might. When I see myself in the mirror, I can't help but wonder who I am. Am I Mirio Togata or All Might 2.0? Just… I don't know who I am now that the one person who vouched for me never really believed in me in the first place, and it's scary."

Mirio's voice died off in his throat, and there was a long period of silence between them - the blonde trying to maintain his composure, his teacher watching him - before the cowboy pushed him back, keeping a tight hold on his shoulders as he did so.

"I want you to listen to me, and I want you to listen to me very carefully, okay?" Mr. Snipe quietly asked. When the blonde nodded, he said, "What Sir Nighteye did to you was wrong, and while All Might shouldn't have lost his temper like that with you around, I don't blame him at all for being upset. Hell, if I were there, I'dve had more than a few choice words for Sir Nighteye as well. I still do, to tell you the truth."

Mirio nodded again, a little unsure of what to say to that.

"But I want you to keep this in mind, Togata. Sir Nighteye is far from the only one who ever believed in you," the cowboy stressed. "I understand that he held a great deal of influence as your work study mentor, but he wasn't the only one in your corner. There's also your father, or are you saying he never believed in you?"

The blonde recoiled, horror painted on his face as he answered with a horrified, "No! He's always -"

"What about Amijiki and Nejire? Did they ever believe in you?" Mr. Snipe bluntly continued.

"Of course they -"

"See?" he asked with a tilt of his head. "That's at least three people who've always been by your side that aren't Sir Nighteye. In addition, you've done some great work that's had nothing to do with him - today's Fundamental Heroic's lesson for example. You were a lot more shakier and outwardly unsure of yourself than you usually are, but you did great. There's also your volunteer work for Orientation at the beginning of last year. That was before even the Sports Festival, when you didn't even know Sir Nighteye existed. And your decision to leave Sir Nighteye's agency was something you ultimately did on your own. You weighed the costs and benefits along with the evidence presented, and you made a reasonable decision based on those factors."

Mirio sat still as he mulled over his teacher's words. Rationally, everything he was saying made perfect sense. Nejire and Amijiki had always been great friends, and he didn't even need to expand on Mr. Snipe and how great he was. But considering how it was always him taking that leadership role for his classmates and taking care of his friends... having the shoe on the other foot was clearly something that would take time for him to get used to. It's why he nodded somewhat reluctantly, taking a deep breath as Mr. Snipe gave his shoulders a squeeze before releasing them.

"You've accomplished a lot without Sir Nighteye, and you'll keep accomplishing a lot without Sir Nighteye, and you know what?"

"What?" the blonde asked.

"You'll have a whole host of people who care about you in your corner as you do so," the cowboy firmly said. "You have me, your father, Amijiki, Nejire, and others who have been pretty worried about you for the past few days."

"I guess I have been moping around pretty badly, haven't I?" he asked, smiling uneasily as he scratched the back of his head. "I should apologize -"

"You'll do nothing of the sort," Mr. Snipe sharply interrupted. "You've been through the wringer, Togata, and even if you hadn't, you don't have to always be smiling and happy 24/7. It's not healthy… but knowing that you'll undoubtedly be resolute about this, you can apologize if you want. Regardless, I'm going to have you start taking appointments with Hound Dog, just so you can have a licensed professional to talk to."

"Talk about what?"

"Anything," the cowboy answered with a shrug. "School, home… just anything. He's a good listener, Togata, and he really cares about you kids."

"I'll give it a try," Mirio promised, nodding resolutely. 

"That's all I can ask for," Mr. Snipe said with an approving nod. "You don't have to if you don't want to, but I want you to at least give it a couple of sessions."

His shoulders released, Mirio leaned back against the wall, closing his eyes and tipping his head back. He could feel his teacher's eyes on him, and it brought attention to a small yet persistent nagging in his stomach that he tried and failed to ignore.

"Mr. Snipe, this is all well and good, and I really appreciate you sitting with me and helping me vent…" he said, trying not to sound as unconfident and scared as he was feeling at the moment. "But what's going to happen to me, now that I don't have an agency to do my work study at?"

"The work studies are optional," the cowboy reminded him, joining him against the wall. "Don't feel pressured to do one just because other people are." Mirio opened his mouth to object, only to be silenced by a pair of raised hands. "Of course, if you really feel ready to move on to another agency, and this is in fact what you really want, I can make some calls. On the other hand, you could use this time to have a break. You've run yourself ragged enough as it is, and relaxation provides perspection. Does that make you feel better?"

Mirio tried nodding, but even though the mask, he could tell that the cowboy didn't buy it. With a slow shake to the head, he admitted, "No... not really. It did help a little, though."

"And that's perfectly fine, Togata," Mr. Snipe reassured, reaching over to give him a pat on the leg.

"Do you think we could stay here a bit longer?" the blonde asked. "It's just, I'm so sorry for shoving -"

Mr. Snipe shook his head. 

"Don't worry about any of it Togata," he assured him. "You're my student, and it's my job to look out for you. Of course we can stay for a bit longer."

Mirio nodded, smiling genuinely for the first time in days. Sure, he may have been out of a work study, but he'd stuck to his principals and conscious. Sure, he may have left that little girl in a horrible situation, but he'd save her. Sure, he may have sat by and let his friend be harrassed by someone who was supposed to mentor him, but they'd stick together through thick and thin. And sure, he was far and away from saving a million people, but maybe he could start by saving himself.