Work Text:
The first sign that something had gone terribly, horribly wrong appeared on what should have been a completely normal afternoon in the dorm common room at U.A. High School. The room itself was quiet for once, which was unusual considering the number of teenagers living in the building. A few students were studying at the long table, someone had left the television on low volume, and the faint smell of instant ramen drifted through the air. Everything seemed peaceful—until Izuku Midoriya walked in and heard Shoto Todoroki say the single most concerning word he could possibly say.
“Interesting.”
Midoriya stopped in the doorway immediately. His instincts screamed that something about that tone was wrong. Todoroki didn’t say “interesting” often, and when he did, it usually meant he had discovered something strange and was attempting to understand it with complete seriousness. The last time Todoroki had used that exact tone of voice, he had been examining a microwave and wondering whether it could theoretically freeze something instead of heating it. The result had been an unfortunate bowl of half-frozen soba noodles and a very confused kitchen appliance. Remembering that disaster, Midoriya slowly turned toward the couch where Todoroki was sitting.
Todoroki was sitting perfectly straight with his phone held just inches away from his face, staring at the screen with intense focus. His expression was the same neutral one he always wore, but his eyes were sharp with concentration, like he was studying something extremely important. Midoriya walked closer, curiosity beginning to mix with a strange sense of dread.
“Todoroki?” Midoriya asked carefully.
No response came. Todoroki continued staring at the phone.
“Todoroki?” Midoriya tried again.
Still nothing.
At this point Midoriya leaned forward slightly and glanced at the phone screen, and the moment he saw what Todoroki was looking at, he realized exactly what the problem was. Displayed on the screen was a simple picture of a small dog wearing sunglasses. The caption read: deal with it.
Midoriya blinked once. Then he sighed.
“Oh,” he said slowly, already understanding the situation. “You found memes.”
Todoroki finally looked up at him.
“Yes,” he replied calmly, as if he had just discovered an interesting scientific concept. “They are fascinating.”
Midoriya immediately regretted asking the next question.
“How many have you looked at?”
Todoroki paused thoughtfully, tilting his head slightly as he considered the answer. “I began approximately thirty-seven minutes ago,” he said after a moment. “During that time, I have viewed roughly four hundred.”
Midoriya nearly choked on air.
“FOUR HUNDRED?!” he shouted.
Todoroki nodded once, completely unfazed by Midoriya’s reaction. “Yes. They are very efficient forms of communication. Each image contains both humor and commentary on human behavior.”
Midoriya stared at him in growing horror. This was bad. This was very bad.
_______
The second sign that things were spiraling out of control appeared the next morning during homeroom. Class 1-A sat in their usual seats, chatting quietly while waiting for their teacher to arrive. Eventually the classroom door opened, and Shota Aizawa walked in wrapped in his sleeping bag like an exhausted human burrito. His hair stuck out in every direction, and his expression looked even more tired than usual.
“Morning,” Aizawa muttered.
“Good morning, Aizawa-sensei!” the class replied automatically.
Everyone spoke except Todoroki.
Instead of greeting their teacher normally, Todoroki calmly reached into his pocket and took out his phone. Without saying anything, he turned the screen outward so the class could see it. Displayed on the phone was an image of a raccoon with extremely tired eyes.
The caption read: when the teacher says group work.
Todoroki looked directly at Aizawa.
“This reminded me of you,” he said.
The entire classroom fell silent.
Midoriya slowly lowered his head into his hands.
Tenya Iida gasped in complete shock, his glasses flashing dramatically in the classroom lights as he stood up halfway from his desk. “Todoroki!” he exclaimed. “Is this… humor?”
“Yes,” Todoroki replied calmly.
Aizawa stared at the phone for several seconds before slowly shifting his gaze toward Todoroki. His expression remained blank, but there was a faint hint of irritation in his eyes.
“…I’m confiscating that,” he said flatly.
Todoroki simply pulled the phone back.
“You cannot,” he replied.
“Why not?”
“Because it is educational.”
Several students tried very hard not to laugh.
_______
Things only got worse during lunch.
Todoroki sat at the usual table with Midoriya, Katsuki Bakugo, and Ochaco Uraraka. For a few minutes, everything seemed normal. Everyone was quietly eating their food, and the conversation stayed relatively calm.
Then Todoroki suddenly looked at Bakugo.
Bakugo immediately narrowed his eyes.
“What.”
Todoroki slowly pulled out his phone again.
A moment later he turned the screen toward Bakugo. The image showed a volcano violently erupting, lava exploding into the air.
The caption read: when someone steals your food.
Todoroki nodded toward Bakugo.
“This reminded me of you.”
There was a brief moment of silence.
Then Bakugo slammed his hands on the table and jumped to his feet.
“WHAT THE HELL IS THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN, HALF-AND-HALF?!”
“It is a meme,” Todoroki explained calmly.
Bakugo looked like he was about two seconds away from committing several violent crimes.
_______
Within twenty-four hours, the situation escalated dramatically when Todoroki discovered something even more dangerous than memes themselves.
He discovered the class group chat.
At exactly 1:13 in the morning, every single student in Class 1-A received a notification.
Todoroki had sent a message.
The attached image showed a cat staring dramatically into the distance with exaggerated seriousness.
The caption read: when you remember homework exists.
Midoriya stared at his phone in confusion.
“Todoroki why are you awake,” he typed.
The reply came almost immediately.
Memes do not sleep.
Over the next several minutes, Todoroki proceeded to send image after image after image. Each meme appeared with perfect seriousness, as if he were presenting important research findings instead of random internet jokes.
Iida eventually sent a frantic message asking Todoroki to stop sending images at such a late hour.
Todoroki responded with one word.
“No.”
______
The next morning, half the class looked like they had not slept at all.
Midoriya had dark circles under his eyes. Uraraka nearly fell asleep during breakfast. Iida looked like he had attempted to maintain a strict sleep schedule and failed catastrophically.
Meanwhile, Todoroki looked completely normal.
“Did you sleep?” Midoriya asked cautiously.
“No,” Todoroki replied.
“You didn’t sleep?!”
“I was researching memes.”
Midoriya stared at him in alarm.
“How many?”
Todoroki checked his phone.
“Two thousand three hundred and twelve.”
Midoriya nearly fainted.
______
By the third day, Todoroki had begun using memes during normal conversation.
During training that afternoon, Eijiro Kirishima attempted to punch through a reinforced practice wall. Unfortunately, the wall proved stronger than expected. Kirishima bounced backward dramatically, landing on the ground while rubbing his arm.
Everyone stared for a moment.
Then Todoroki quietly pulled out his phone.
He showed Kirishima an image of a tiny hamster struggling to lift a dumbbell.
The caption read: he tried.
Kirishima blinked at the screen.
“Bro… was that an insult?”
“No,” Todoroki said seriously.
“It was encouragement.”
______
Later that evening, Mina Ashido made a horrifying discovery.
“TODOROKI IS MAKING HIS OWN MEMES!”
The common room instantly erupted with chaos as everyone rushed toward her.
“What?!”
“How?!”
“WHY?!”
Ashido held up her phone.
Displayed on the screen was a picture of Bakugo yelling angrily.
The caption read: local man experiences mild inconvenience.
Bakugo’s explosion rattled the windows.
“TODOROKIIIIIIII!”
Todoroki looked mildly pleased.
“My meme has achieved emotional impact,” he said thoughtfully.
The meme war officially began three days after Shoto Todoroki discovered the internet’s endless supply of reaction images, cursed edits, and strangely specific jokes. For the first few days, the rest of Class 1-A had assumed Todoroki’s interest would fade naturally, the same way a lot of random hobbies did. People tried things, got bored, and moved on. Midoriya had hoped—desperately hoped—that memes would be like that for Todoroki.
Unfortunately, Todoroki did not treat memes like a hobby.
He treated them like research.
By the morning of the third day, Todoroki had categorized memes into several groups inside his phone: reaction memes, situational memes, animal memes, deep-fried memes, and something he had labeled “aggressively confusing memes.” Midoriya had seen the folders while Todoroki was scrolling once and had immediately decided it was best not to ask further questions. Todoroki had approached the concept with the same serious intensity he used during training exercises.
Which was exactly why things went wrong so quickly.
It started during lunch.
Class 1-A sat at their usual tables in the cafeteria, most of them still recovering from the chaos Todoroki had already caused in the group chat the previous night. People were talking, eating, and attempting to behave like normal students when Todoroki calmly placed his tray down across from Bakugo.
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then Todoroki quietly slid his phone across the table.
Bakugo looked down.
Displayed on the screen was a picture of an erupting volcano again, but this time someone had edited Bakugo’s face onto the side of it. The caption read:
when someone breathes too loudly near you.
Bakugo’s eye twitched.
“What,” he said slowly, “is that.”
“It is a meme,” Todoroki replied calmly. “I modified it.”
Bakugo stared at the image for several seconds. The cafeteria suddenly felt very quiet around their table, because everyone nearby had noticed the expression forming on Bakugo’s face. Midoriya immediately recognized the signs of an incoming explosion and slowly began scooting his chair backwards.
“You edited my face onto a volcano,” Bakugo said.
“Yes.”
“You’re saying I explode over nothing.”
“Yes.”
Bakugo stood up so quickly his chair tipped over behind him.
“YOU WANNA DIE, ICY-HOT?!”
Todoroki blinked once.
“Your emotional reaction confirms the meme’s accuracy.”
That was the moment the war began.
______
At first, Bakugo attempted to fight the problem the way he fought most problems: by yelling loudly enough that it stopped existing. Unfortunately, memes did not function like normal opponents. They could not be punched, threatened, or intimidated into submission.
Todoroki, meanwhile, had already begun escalating.
That afternoon, during training, Bakugo blasted through a practice target with his explosions while the rest of the class watched. The attack was powerful, dramatic, and extremely destructive—exactly the type of move Bakugo liked to show off.
Before anyone else could say anything, Todoroki calmly held up his phone.
The image showed a man pressing a giant red button labeled “overkill.”
Below it, someone had edited Bakugo’s face onto the man.
Several students snorted.
Bakugo slowly turned toward Todoroki.
“You think you’re funny.”
“I believe the meme is funny,” Todoroki corrected.
Bakugo cracked his knuckles.
“Alright,” he said.
“If that’s how you wanna play this.”
______
What most of Class 1-A did not know was that Bakugo had also discovered memes before.
He just hadn’t cared about them.
Until now.
Because now they were a weapon.
That night, at exactly 10:42 PM, the Class 1-A group chat received a message from Bakugo.
Midoriya happened to be studying when his phone buzzed. He picked it up absentmindedly and immediately froze.
Bakugo:
image attached
Midoriya opened it cautiously.
It was a picture of a man desperately trying to stop a leaking dam with pieces of tape.
The caption read:
Midoriya trying to control One For All.
Midoriya stared at the image in stunned silence.
A moment later another message appeared.
Bakugo:
I can make memes too.
The group chat exploded.
Uraraka sent three crying emojis. Kirishima typed “BROOOO.” Mina started spamming laughing messages.
Then Todoroki replied.
______
Todoroki:
Interesting.
image attached
The meme showed two buttons. One was labeled “yell.” The other was labeled “explode.” A sweating man was trying to decide which one to press.
Bakugo’s face had been edited onto the man.
______
The war escalated instantly.
Images started flying back and forth through the group chat faster than anyone could read them. Todoroki posted reaction memes every time Bakugo said something aggressive. Bakugo retaliated with badly edited screenshots of Todoroki looking confused.
Within twenty minutes, the chat had received thirty-seven memes.
Within forty minutes, it had reached eighty-two.
Iida attempted to stop it.
_______
Iida:
PLEASE CEASE THIS NONSENSE IMMEDIATELY
______
Bakugo responded with a meme of someone covering their ears.
Caption: can’t hear you.
Todoroki responded with another.
Caption: rules were made to be broken.
Iida nearly threw his phone.
______
The next day at school, the entire class was exhausted again.
Aizawa walked into homeroom and immediately sensed something was wrong. The students looked chaotic, distracted, and several of them were trying very hard not to laugh whenever Bakugo and Todoroki looked at each other.
“What happened,” Aizawa said flatly.
No one answered.
Then Todoroki raised his phone.
The meme showed two cartoon characters fighting dramatically while everyone else watched in horror.
The caption read:
Class 1-A watching Bakugo and Todoroki.
The class burst into laughter.
Bakugo slammed his desk.
“I’M NOT DONE YET!”
He pulled out his own phone.
A few seconds later, another meme appeared in the group chat.
It showed a split image.
On one side was Todoroki’s calm face.
On the other was a block of ice melting slowly.
Caption:
brain loading.
Even Midoriya laughed at that one.
Todoroki stared at the meme for several seconds.
Then he nodded thoughtfully.
“Good format,” he said.
“I will improve it.”
Bakugo grinned like a villain.
“TRY ME.”
Across the room, Aizawa buried his face in his hands.
“This class,” he muttered, “is a mistake.”
______
Meanwhile, the rest of U.A. High School had begun noticing something strange.
Students in the hallway kept hearing laughter coming from Class 1-A.
People were whispering about a meme war happening inside the hero course.
And unfortunately, it was only getting worse.
Because that evening, Todoroki discovered something even more dangerous.
Video memes.
Midoriya saw the notification appear in the group chat and immediately whispered one word.
“Oh no.”