Chapter Text
It was lunch, and I was so tired. I barely slept last night, and even though my morning classes didn't take that much energy, I was still exhausted. I had already finished eating at the table everyone had decided was the table for the quirkless kid–basically I ate alone–when my phone rang. I pulled it out of my pocket and answered without looking at the name. There're only a few people who call me during the day.
“What?” I asked, eyes closed as I pressed my phone against my ear.
“Hello to you, too, Dex,” Stendhal said, chuckling slightly.
I groaned. “What do you need, Stendhal?”
“Well, it depends. Do you have your computer?” Stendhal asked, and I noticed he was breathing heavily.
“Yeah, what hero is after you right now?” I asked, pulling my laptop out of my backpack and opening it.
“No, not a hero,” he said, and that confused me before he continued. “Some villain group.” That was surprising since villain groups normally didn't try and seek out Stendhal.
“What's their name?” I asked, typing quickly on my keyboard as I got up from the table I was sitting at and rushed to a secluded area of the school.
“That new villain group, The League of Villains. The leader guy said his name is Shigaraki Tomura, and his partner’s name is Kurogiri,” he explained, answering most of my unspoken questions.
“Did he say why they're after you?” I asked, typing in the information I was given before trying to search up information about the group who'd attacked UA just a few weeks ago.
“He said he wanted me to join them and said he could tell that I hated the heroes. I've been trying to run away from them for like an hour now, and…they're coming up my ass right now!” Stendhal exclaimed as he started running away from the League.
I quickly pulled out my burner phone. I found the pings of the phones in the area where Stendhal was, and I chose the one that was closest to him. I called the number on my burner phone.
“Shigaraki’s phone is ringing,” Stendhal told me. Good.
Shigaraki answered in a gravelly voice. “Who are you?” he asked. No greeting. Good, he's not messing around, so neither will I.
“This is Dex. I'm Stendhal’s partner. Now, unless you want me to notify the heroes of your position in Hosu, I suggest you stop chasing my partner,” I said, and I could hear the moment that Shigaraki stopped running.
“How did you get this number?” he demanded, venom in his tone.
“That's a secret, Tenko Shimura,” I said before hanging up.
“Shit, kid,” Stendhal said, catching his breath. “You called a well-known villain, and you got him to stop running after me. Thanks.”
“Yeah, and I found out that the said well-known villain is my supposedly dead older brother,” I said in a bland tone.
“What?” Stendhal asked, concern in his voice.
“I'll explain more after I get out of school. Remember, you're meeting me at my house,” I said before hanging up.
I sighed as I leaned against the wall behind me. Why does all the most random and bizarre shit happen to me? First, my mother was killed a month after my father left us. Then, I get put into the foster system. Next, I have to deal with several abusive foster families before I finally get to one that isn't physically abusive but mentally abusive who just don't come home. Then, I meet a vigilante, Stendhal, and we become friends, and he asks me to be his partner. Then, I help Stendhal take down a bunch of villains and run away from heroes. Then, when he gets famous for being a vigilante, my code name, Dex, gets famous, too, and I become the most feared right hand man of a vigilante. Now, I find out that my supposedly dead older brother is a new villain. What is my life?
Instead of reminiscing over all of the weird as fuck things that have happened in my life, I decided I'd get to class since the bell just rang for lunch to be over. I stood up and made my way to my classroom. My homeroom teacher, Matsuda~Sensei, was in the room when I got there. He gave me a small smile as I made my way to my seat behind the loud boy, Inasa.
Inasa turned around in his seat to look at me. “Hey,” he said, loudly. I glanced up at him and raised an eyebrow. “Sorry, I just wanted to ask why you practically ran out of the cafeteria today after you answered your phone,” he said, looking a bit sheepish.
I sighed. “It was nothing,” I said, and this is the first time I've ever spoken to Inasa. “I just got a call from my friend from another school, and I didn't want anyone around me to hear us talk since he wanted to talk about something personal.”
“Ah,” Inasa said, understanding crossing over his face. “Who’s your friend, and what school do they go to?”
I knew Inasa was just curious. He was the only student who hadn't had any prejudice towards me, so I felt bad lying to him, but I still did. No one can know I'm Dex. I thought of the first UA student I could think of from the sports festival, and said, “Hitoshi Shinsou, the purple haired boy from UA.”
“Ooh,” he said, perking up at the mention of UA. “What does he think about UA?”
“He likes it there. He said it's much better than the last school he went to,” I said, and I knew that was the truth. Shinsou has a quirk that people like to call villainous. UA is a school that values quirks whether they're mental, enhancement, emitter, or mutations. Other schools don't value quirks that aren't strong. I have looked into the middle schools that all of the UA students went to, and I figure out which students had been bullied, and which students hadn't been based on the school’s history of bullies. Shinsou was one of the students I'd figured out had been bullied.
“Well, I'm glad he likes it there! I do wish I could go there, too,” Inasa said, smiling wide.
“You do realize you had the chance to go to UA when you passed the recommendation student exam right?” I asked, making sure he wasn't that stupid.
“No, no. I know,” he said, still smiling.
“Then,” I paused and looked Inasa up and down. “Oh. You chose not to go because of Endeavor's kid, didn't you?”
“How…how did you know that?” Inasa looked taken aback.
“I was there the day you met Endeavor. I watched your interaction, and when I saw his son in the sports festival, I could see a look that resembled his father's. Sorry,” I said, leaning back in my chair. “I just want you to know, Inasa. Shoto is way different from his father. In fact, he hates his father. You should actually hold a conversation with him before you assume anything about him. He really is nice. His father is the problem, not him.”
Inasa looked at me as he thought about what I said. “Ok,” he said after a few seconds of silence. “I don't know how I'd talk to him, though.”
“I have his number. I can give it to you,” I suggested, writing Shoto's number on a piece of paper.
“Ok, thanks, Midoriya,” he said, smiling.
“Call me Shimura,” I said, smiling slightly as I gave him a slip of paper with Shoto’s number on it.
Inasa turned around when Matsuda~Sesei started talking. “Ok, so I wanted to tell you all that you will start doing internships with heroes next week. This is going to help you gain some first hand experience of working with other heroes. You will get to choose which agency you work with, but before you do that, you have to pick out your hero names.” There was an outcry of happiness from the class. “Now,” Matsuda~Sensei said, getting everyone to quiet down. “You will be picking your hero names today, and I will be handing out a packet that has the hero agencies that are willing to take students on internships. I want you to pick an agency that you think can help you hone your skills or that can teach you something you want to learn. If you pick a hero for a reason like being in the top ten, then you won't learn anything from your internship. Now, if you want to intern with a hero that isn't on the list, just talk to me, and I'll see what we can do. You must have your choice of which agency you want to work with turned in by Thursday, got it?”
There was a chorus of yeses. Matsuda~Sensei smiled and started handing out the packets and white boards and markers. “Once you've decided what you want your hero name to be, you will come up to the podium and show the class. Then, I will decide if the name you've picked is appropriate or not,” he said, still smiling.
Well, that's amazing. I already know what I want my hero name to be. I uncapped the marker and wrote down the name. I quickly got up and made my way to the podium. I turned my white board around to face the class. “Atlas. He’s a titan from Greek Mythology. He had to hold up the sky as a punishment. I want my hero name to be Atlas because I want people to know that no matter what is going on in their life or mine, I'll save them even if it means I get hurt in the process.”
Matsuda~Sensei smiled. “That's a lovely name, Midoriya. I approve,” he said, and none of my classmates said anything in protest, so I made my way back to my seat.
The rest of my classmates went up, and none of the names really stood out to me. Once everyone showed their hero names, we were told to look at the list of heroes we could intern with. I skimmed over the list, but none of the hero names caught my eye. I was also looking for one specific hero. NightHawk. She's an underground hero. Her quirk is called eyescope it allows her to adjust her vision, she can still see perfectly fine even if it's dark or someone tries to sabotage her field of vision with a smoke bomb or something. She can also see things that are really far away, and she can see really close details. She's amazing.
I want to do my internship with her because she fights basically quirkless. I know she can help me learn how to fight better, and yes, I do have a pretty good grasp on fighting, but I want to learn more. I would choose Eraserhead since he goes on patrol more than NightHawk, who really only takes cases and doesn't patrol often, but I don't think I'd be able to get an internship with him. I'll try, though.
A few minutes after Matsuda~Sensei told us to look over the list, I walked up to his desk with my notebook in hand. “Matsuda~Sensei,” I said as he looked up at me and smiled.
“What can I do to help you, Midoriya?” he asked, closing his laptop.
“I was wondering if you could help me reach out to Eraserhead,” I said, handing him my notebook with it open to show Eraserhead’s page. “All I need is a way to contact him.”
He smiled at me. “Of course, Midoriya,” he said, handing me my notebook before typing something into his laptop. Matsuda~Sensei has to be the best teacher I've ever had. He treats me like everyone else, but he does still look away when the others bully me, so he could still put in some more work, but I'm just glad he doesn't join them in their ridicule. “Here you go,” he said, handing me a piece of paper with Eraserhead's email on it.
“Thank you,” I said, bowing before going back to my seat.
When I was at my seat, I pulled out my laptop and pulled up my email. I quickly typed in Eraserhead's email. I sat there for a few minutes before I figured out what I wanted my email to say.
To: [email protected]
From: [email protected]
Subject: Hero Course Internships
Sent: April 24, 2014 at 13:47
Dear Eraserhead,
I am Izuku Midoriya. I go to Shiketsu High School. I'm in the hero course, and I was wondering if I'd be able to do my internship with you.
I know you work at UA, and Shiketsu is kind of UA’s rival school, but I want to intern with you, so I can learn, not so I can mock UA like some others would. If you're wondering why I've chosen to reach out to you, it's because even though there are a lot of heroes who I could reach out to, they'll most likely shut me down after reading my file since I'm quirkless. I'm reaching out to you because I have a good feeling you wouldn't do that.
I know that if I want to even have a chance at having an internship with anyone, I have to make sure I mention what I already know and what I want to learn or improve on, so here are some of the skills I want to let you know I'm decent at:
hacking
analysis
stealth
communication
What I'm hoping to improve on during my internship includes:
fighting
awareness
finding a support item
If there is anything else you'd like me to tell you about before you decide whether you take me on or not, please email me.
Regards,
Izuku Midoriya
I had a very tiring day. My class of first years were as rowdy as ever, which is better than how they were after the USJ attack. I'm glad they're having fun, but I really wish I didn't have to be the one to announce that they'd be doing week long internships, and some of them might see some Shiketsu students since Shiketsu is doing internships, too.
While Nemuri was helping the kids choose their hero names, I pretended to sleep, but that was cut short when my laptop pinged with an email notification. I stood up and walked to the desk. I sat down as I unlocked my laptop, and I opened my email. There was an email from someone I’d never emailed before, but they had a Shiketsu address. I opened it. The email was from a Shiketsu student. His name is Izuku Midoriya, and…he’s quirkless.
Weren’t we supposed to have a quirkless student, but Yagi told Nezu that he couldn’t accept the boy for some reason? Huh. I’ll have to talk to him about that. Anyways, the email was talking about how the boy thought he’d get rejected by some of the other heroes, and he wanted to actually learn. I thought about it before I responded.
To: [email protected]
From: [email protected]
Subject: Hero Course Internships
Sent: April 24, 2014 at 13:54
Dear Midoriya,
Thank you for reaching out yourself rather than having your teacher reach out to me. By reaching out yourself, you’ve shown me how much you really want this internship.
After looking at the skills you are hoping to improve on, I have a good idea of what you are looking for from me. I’m pretty sure you are hoping to learn how to fight using a capture weapon, and maybe some other weapon or weapons.
I am pleased to inform you that I will be taking you on for this internship. Please, tell your teacher to contact me with all the necessary paperwork I need to fill out. I’ll see you next week.
Regards,
Shouta Aizawa
After responding to his email, I decided to look into the kid a bit more. I looked up his file in the Japanese resident network. I found him pretty easily. Once I found his file, I started reading it.
Name: Izuku Midoriya
Age: 15
Gender: Male
Date of birth: July 15, 1999
Quirk Status: Quirkless (diagnosed at age 4)
Birth Parents: Inko Midoriya (deceased), Hisashi Midoriya (deceased)
Current Guardians: Sariyama Wenmata (foster mother), Relioma Wenmata (foster father)
Address: 618 Mariana Street Masutafu, Japan 75230
Phone Number: +81 538-762-9034
Past Schooling: Aldera Elementary, Aldera Junior High
Current Schooling: Shiketsu High School
Email(s): [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
Relationships: Mitsuki Bakugou (godmother), Masaru Bakugou (godfather), Yoichi Shigaraki (deceased uncle), Kudo Shigaraki (deceased uncle), Tenko Shimura (deceased brother), Nao Shimura (deceased aunt), Kotaro Shimura (deceased uncle), Hana Shimura (deceased cousin), Nana Shimura (deceased grandmother), Rayama Shimura (deceased grandfather)
I stopped reading there. This was the kid’s public file. It shouldn’t have this much information on him. His private file, maybe, but this is his public file. Why is there so much information about him here? Other than that fact, some things that stuck out to me were Bakugou’s parents being the boy’s godparents, his dead uncles having the last name Shigaraki, and his email address from his junior high and elementary school. Before I could contemplate anything else about the boy’s file, I got a new email from him.
To: [email protected]
From: [email protected]
Subject: Hero Course Internships
Sent: April 24, 2014 at 14:15
Dear Eraserhead,
Thank you so much for taking me on. I’ll make sure to pass on the message to my Sensei.
Also, you were right about me wanting to learn how to use the capture weapon and a few other weapons. The other weapons being a pistol, knives, and a personalized support item. I know you know how to use knives, and I know that just about all students who go to UA are taught how to use knives and guns. I also would like your help finding my own support item that would be specific to me.
If there are any further questions you would like me to answer, please do email me. Thank you, again. I’ll see you next week.
Regards,
Izuku Midoriya
I had to suppress a smile at the kid’s eagerness, which is weird because the only times I ever have to do that is when Hizashi or Hitoshi do something weird or stupid. This kid seems so innocent. There’s no way he’s related to Tomura Shigaraki, right?
“Midnight,” I said, and she turned her head to look at me. She raised an eyebrow at me. “I’ll be stepping out for a bit. Are you ok to look after the students?”
Nemuri let out a scandalized gasp. “I’m offended you think I can’t take care of your students. Go on, Eraser. Leave,” she said, crossing her arms and turning away from me.
I sighed as I left the room with my laptop. Where was I headed? Nezu’s office. I needed to let him know that the kid’s public file shared way too much information, I needed to let him know that he was related to Shigaraki, and I also needed to talk to him about the quirkless student who was supposed to come to UA.
When I got to his office, the door swung open, and Nezu was cheerily greeting me with a cup of tea in front of the vacant chair across from him. I walked to the chair and sat down.
“What are you here to discuss, Aizawa~Kun?” Nezu asked, smiling as wide as normal.
“Izuku Midoriya,” I said, setting my laptop on his desk with the screen facing him. Nezu’s smile immediately dropped when he looked at the screen.
“This is his public file, isn’t it?” Nezu asked, looking at me. I nodded. “I told them to delete it,” Nezu said, scowling as he pulled his own laptop towards him and started writing an email. I wasn't even surprised. Nezu is very intelligent, and I know he looks into different systems looking for any problems, so of course, he knows about this boy’s public file. “Does Shimura know that his public file looks like this?” Nezu asked, typing on his computer.
“Shimura?” I asked, confused. I saw the boy's grandma, uncle and aunt, cousin, and brother all had that last name, but his name is Izuku Midoriya.
“Yes, Izuku Midoriya doesn't like going by the last name Midoriya because it reminds him of his father. Shimura is his mother's maiden name. Before you ask how I know all of this even though I haven't met him,” Nezu said, putting a paw up as I opened my mouth. “All Might met him before school started and told me about their interaction. That is also the reason why I didn't allow him to enroll at UA.”
“So he is the quirkless student we were supposed to have?” I asked, narrowing my eyes. “Why does All Might have any say in who you enroll and don't enroll, Nezu?”
“Ah, Shimura is a special case,” Nezu said, clasping his paws as he looked me in the eyes. “Shimura knows All Might's secret. He knows about his skinny form, his time limit, and his quirk. And yes, this is because Yagi told him, but Yagi thought the boy would take whatever he offered to him, but the boy refused, so Yagi didn't feel comfortable having Shimura in this school. That is why I had him moved to Shiketsu instead.”
“He wasn't enrolled in UA…because…because All Might didn't feel comfortable with having a student, who he told a bunch of government secrets to, in his class? That's fucking stupid, and you know that,” I said, glaring.
“Yes, I do, but Yagi said he'd quit if I enrolled the boy, and it would take a long time to find another heroics teacher, and I wouldn't force you to teach heroics alone, Shouta,” Nezu said, looking a tad bit sheepish but keeping his normally stoic facade in place.
“Ok, well, did you know the boy is related to Shigaraki?” I asked, and Nezu looked taken aback with his eyes wide.
“What?” Nezu asked, looking in my eyes for a lie. “What are you talking about, Shouta?”
“Under relationships in his file it says he's related to Kudo and Yoichi Shigaraki. It says that they're his uncles. I assume you didn't know that?” I said, raising an eyebrow.
Nezu's head snapped to my laptop screen, and he zoomed in on the relationships section of the boy's file. “Oh my,” Nezu said. “That means…holy…his father is…oh no.” I didn't like the way Nezu kept pausing.
“What?” I asked, eyes narrowed on the rat.
“Shimura is related to…two very important people in quirk history who tried to take down a terrible villain, All For One. I'm sure you've heard of him. If not as All For One, as the Underground Boogie Man. Yoichi Shigaraki was All For One's little brother, and Kudo Shigaraki was his fiance. The only way for the two of them to be Shimura’s uncles is for All For One to be his father, but that should be impossible considering All Might killed All For One just a few years ago. All For One is the reason he has his horrible injury.”
“So…let me get this straight. Shimura is the son of All For One, and you turned him away from UA because All Might basically guiltripped you. Is that right?” I asked, and Nezu wore a face of realization.
“Oh dear,” Nezu said, looking down at his paws. “One of the first humans I actually decided to trust, guiltripped me. This is why I don't trust humans.”
Our heroics lesson was pretty easy today. All we did was one-on-one sparring. I ended up being paired with a boy named Itaki Camteli. His quirk is called Beam. It allows him to shoot beams of energy from his hands. It was really easy to dodge the beams since they weren't that fast, or maybe they were fast, and I just thought they were slow. Anyways, I just finished packing all of my stuff away, and I was about to leave when Inasa called for me to wait. I sighed but complied. Inasa packed up his stuff quickly before walking up to me.
“Let's walk together,” he said, smiling wide.
I shrugged. “Sure, I don't care,” I said, starting to make my way down the hall.
We were about a fourth of the way from the classroom when Inasa broke the heavy silence we'd fallen into. “So how was your day?” he asked, trying to start some small talk.
“Not as bad as it could've been,” I responded shortly. “You?”
“Oh, um, my day was good!” he said, trying to smile as if what I said hadn't bothered him in the slightest even though I could tell it had. “Um, about that message to Todoroki…”
“What about it?” I asked, my curiosity peaked since it had something to do with my friend.
“What should I say?” Inasa asked, a bit sheepish.
I was silent for a moment before speaking. “Tell him about what happened at the entrance exam and how you saw things. Then tell him about why you felt that way. Also tell him that you feel bad for judging him before actually meeting him. The most important thing, though, is to be extremely blunt. Don't sugar coat anything. He's dense. He barely understands sarcasm when his teachers use it. He understands it coming from me and his friends, I think, but not anyone else.”
Inasa was nodding along the whole time. “Ok so my point of view, feelings, apology, and being blunt. That's all right?” he recounted.
I nodded. “Yeah, but don't message him right when you get home or anything. UA has classes in session until three. Also I need to tell him I gave you his number so he doesn't just block you,” I said, rubbing my wrist.
“How will you know what number not to block if you don't have my number?” Inasa asked, smirking.
I held back a snort and kept a straight face as I said, “Easy. I'll just wait for a very long, cheesy, and drawn out story of a message which will indicate it is a message from you.”
He left out a fake, offended gasp, putting his hand to his chest. “I thought we were friends, Shimura!”
“Yeah, keep telling yourself that, Windy Woo-Hoo,” I said, smirking.
Inasa snorted. “Windy Woo-Hoo? Is that a play on Cindy Lou-Who?” he asked, looking at me with a huge smile.
“What can I say?” I said, shrugging. “I'm a Grinch at heart.”
Right as I said that, we made it to the front doors. I opened the door and held it for Inasa. He thanked me, and we talked for a little while longer, all the way until we got to the station, and we had two different trains to catch. We said our goodbyes before getting on our trains.
Inasa’s train was heading in the opposite direction of my train. He was going farther into the city while mine was going to UA.