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Izuku was exhausted. On the very first day of school, his new homeroom teacher had them participate in a “Quirk Evaluation Test”, or as the class had decided to call it, “Let’s See How Much We Can Stress Out the Students on the First Day”. As a result of this test, Izuku had visited Recovery Girl to heal his damaged finger. Afterward, he retired to his designated private changing room to put his uniform back on. After Izuku had finished changing from his PE clothes, he found All Might waiting outside the private changing room for him, sporting his true form in a obnoxiously bright yellow suit, complete with black vertical stripes.
“All Might?” Izuku questioned, his mentor’s presence bringing a smile to his face, as he made the final adjustments to his tie.
“Hello Midoriya, my boy. I cannot stay long, but I just thought I should check up on you.” All Might greeted.
“O-oh. That’s really thoughtful of you. I’m fine, really!” Izuku reassured, waving his hands around frantically, flattered by the concern.
“That’s good to hear. However, I have something to ask you.” All Might’s tone suddenly became serious. Izuku perked up.
“What is it?”
“How long have you been wearing your binder today?” All Might asked, straight to the point, as he always is. Izuku stiffened, startled by the sudden question, then settles into a look of thoughtfulness.
“Well, I have been wearing it from when I woke up this morning until before the test, and I just changed back into it. So about… three hours so far today? We started the assessment test really early in the day. Plus I went to go see Recovery Girl afterward. Why do you ask?” All Might sighed in relief, then rubbed the back of his head nervously.
“Well, my boy, I knew somebody some time ago that also used a binder, and I remembered him saying that you shouldn’t wear a binder for more than eight hours a day. I also conducted a little research that backed this up. But if it has only been three…” All Might trailed off.
“Y-you really thought this much about this? You d-don’t have to worry about me, All Might! I’ve been binding for a while now. I know my limits.” Izuku said with confidence and slight embarrassment.
“Was it that knowledge of your limits that made you collapse at the beach all those months ago?” All Might jabbed, in a way that could not be distinguished between playful or serious. Izuku’s face turned red. Of course he would remember that. Izuku then turned to All Might with narrowed eyes.
“W-well, how much longer do you have in your hero form? You said you could only maintain about three hours a day.” Izuku retorted, half in retaliation, and half in genuine curiosity. This left All Might flustered.
“I have only been powered up for twenty minutes today; a minor incident on the way to work…” Both stared at each other blankly, before All Might broke the silence with a snort, breaking into laughter. Izuku then joined in with a fluttering nervous laugh, confused as to why All Might was laughing in the first place. All might placed a hand to his forehead.
“I guess we’re both on a bit of a time limit.”
-
“Five.” Izuku simply stated, while passing All Might in the halls of U.A. All Might acknowledged this, and replied almost automatically.
“One-twenty.” All Might responded. And with nods of affirmation, and no other words exchanged, they continued on.
Following the discussion after the quirk evaluation test, the topic of their time limits would come up whenever the two of them saw each other in passing, or during heroics training. However, not through normal conversation. The two had developed a sort of system. When seeing each other in public or around the school, they would simply tell each other numbers. A single digit number meant hours, a double-digit number meant minutes, and a triple-digit number meant hours first, then the minutes that accompanied them. During class, they had to be more discreet. Simply telling each other seemingly random numbers would raise suspicion and confusion among the other students. Instead, they chose to use tapping signals, by tapping a finger on their respective desk or podium. Singular taps meant hours, quick taps with a pause between the first and second digits showed minutes, and a combination of the two made hours accompanied by minutes. Izuku still isn’t quite sure how they came up with this system, but hey, don’t fix what isn’t broken.
-
Hero Studies, the last class of the school day, was surprisingly mundane. The students of Class 1-A found themselves not out on the training grounds, but simply at their desks, watching an educational video about the careers of various famous heroes throughout history. Normally, Izuku would have been diligently taking notes and gluing his eyes to the projected film, but today, Izuku’s attention was directed elsewhere.
For whatever reason, today had been a bad binding day. The material felt tighter than normal around his chest, and felt very uncomfortable, no matter how many times he had tried to subtly adjust it during class and breaks. So, while he was incredibly interested in the material being shown, he instead had his head resting on folded arms, laying across his desk, trying to ignore the discomfort. This did not go unnoticed by All Might.
All Might had noticed his successor acting strange when he had switched off with Aizawa to teach. He lacked the usual energy in his classes, and just seemed… off. At first, when he saw the boy’s fidgeting, he thought it only to be the actions of an impatient teenager, but later had an idea of what was wrong. The pro hero pulled out a pad of hall passes, and quickly wrote a note.
“Young Midoriya.” All Might called. Izuku raised his head curiously, and walked over to his teacher. All Might handed him the note. Izuku received the slip of paper and gave a questioning look.
“Go see Recovery Girl, just to make sure that your injuries have healed properly. Return to class when you’re done.” All Might explained, loud enough that the other students listening in would hear. Izuku nodded, still slightly confused, since he was healed the day before. Without any questions or protests, Izuku grabbed his backpack from his desk, and left the classroom, trying his best not to disturb the rest of the students. Bakugou gave a curious look as he left, but said nothing.
Izuku began his journey to the nurse’s office. Curious as to why he was excused from class, for seemingly no reason, he looked to the note. It was filled out like a regular pass, written with his destination and time he left class, along with All Might’s signature, but there was an extra scrawl at the bottom, circled several times. In bold letters read “Time’s up”. Izuku stopped in his tracks, and looked back to the classroom. So he noticed? Izuku felt both happiness and dread at the fact that All Might had noticed his binder cooperating with him. Despite his conflicting feelings, Izuku let a thoughtful smile spread across his face. He continued to find Recovery Girl.
After changing out of his binder, and into one of the sports bras that All Might had given him, he walked back to class. When he reentered the classroom, he caught the attention of his peers. Izuku shyly shuffled back to his seat, not noticing the way that Bakugou’s eyes lingered on him, how he noticed his blazer was buttoned all the way up to hide his chest. The hot headed teen let out an unnoticed sigh, and leaned back in his chair, slacking his posture. Izuku spent the rest of the class taking detailed notes in an old notebook with water-warped pages and covered with burn marks.
-
Izuku, along with the rest of Class 1-A, had an impenetrable air of excitement surrounding them. Just the sight of the grand structure that was the Unforeseen Simulation Joint. All the students were inspired by Thirteen’s appearance, yet Izuku noticed a profound lack of bravado in the area. Where was All Might? He found that both Aizawa and he were thinking the same thing. He couldn’t hear the words exchanged between the two pros, but he did see something odd. Thirteen held up three fingers for Aizawa to see. Izuku felt a pang of worry blossom in his chest. It was just like the signals he used with All Might. Time’s up.
Thirteen’s speech had put him a bit at ease. All Might was probably just resting. That’s probably why he had not shown up to class. Izuku let out a deep breath that he hadn’t noticed he had been holding in. However, the ease was short-lived.
All of the electricity running through the USJ seemed to flicker, and the temperature seemed to drop ten degrees. Then, from the center of the complex came a shadowy void, and many menacing figures emerged. Along with them was a peculiar-looking man, covered in hands...