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Barely a week into the semester and 1A was already known for never being silent. Kan was headed to 1B a little early the Monday following 1A’s rescue training because he needed to set a few things up and found a bead of sweat dropping down his back the closer he got to the cursed classroom.
The voices of a handful of students that’d already arrived echoed through the hall, but none of them belonged to any of Aizawa’s hell class. Cautious and ready to call in back up (it wasn’t an overreaction when one, if not both, of the man’s kids were probably involved, not to mention the purple one he’d semi-adopted), he peeked in.
Julia stood in front of Bakugo’s desk, hands on her hips and fuming, locked in a stare-down with the spiky blonde. Izuku was sitting on top of Shinso’s desk, silently eating a granola bar, while Shinso sat in his chair, coffee clutched in both hands. Neither made a move to stop what was happening. Neither did the rest of 1A. Kan’s phone was in his hand in an instant as he slowly backed back down the hall.
“It’s too early to deal with your bullshit, Kan.” Shouta reluctantly answered his phone. “This better be worth it.”
“Suck it up, Aizawa- we’ve got a Code M. You’re needed in your classroom immediately.” All traces of sleep left Shouta’s body in an instant.
“Target?”
“Bakugo.”
“Shit.” Nedzu put Bakugo in his class so Shouta could keep an eye on him. After Izuku finally came in from the cold (after being flown back from America of all places) he’d finally told them about what sent him into vigilantism in the first place.
His lack of quirk was one thing. In the society they lived in it could’ve been a death knell in the wrong situation, and for Izuku it nearly was. His dad, before he’d finally given up and left for America, had been an abusive ass, his mom was neglectful, and his school let the kids with strong quirks run rampant.
Unwilling to deal with the bullying anymore, doubtful the school or Inko would even report his absence, and genuinely worried Bakugo would do more than release a few pops near his ears, Izuku just never returned home one day. The anonymity the streets lent him was a much safer environment and he’d finally started to thrive- so much so that he’d drawn the attention of one Pro Hero Eraserhead and soon to be adoptive father.
Aldera made Shouta nervous. Nedzu was working on taking down the school, but they didn’t have anything he could really nail them on. Not when the cops felt the same way and the students/staff didn’t have a proper target. There were weaker quirks, sure, but there was no remaining footage of when Izuku was there.
What they really needed to go the legal route was a quirkless child to enroll. Nedzu refused to let any go through that gauntlet and was working on arson related plans instead, not that anyone would ever be able to trace it back to him.
Those plans had been moved to the back burner- he had bigger fish to fry- but Shouta wanted to keep an eye on Bakugo. His quirk made him the perfect golden boy for the school to spoil and he refused to let someone into the field that wasn’t worth the title of Hero. Thankfully, the only issue they had the first week was Bakugo being stand-offish and abrasive whenever anyone else tried to talk to him. Other than that, he kept to himself.
Izuku was keeping an eye on him too. He didn’t trust the quiet act in the slightest, but he couldn’t be everywhere at once. Well, he could’ve tried, but his parents and Inui had thoughts on what constituted ‘healthy behavior’. That’s why Julia got to him first.
She wasn’t as quick to action as Izuku was, but when she was pushed to it (or her need for vengeance engaged)…
“I’ll be there in twenty seconds.” Shouta didn’t bother with the halls, he just jumped from his chair to the side of his desk to the vent that just so happened to have a grate above it.
All hail the Rat and his need for vents that could hold a grown man’s weight.
…
“The fuck do you want?” Bakugo scoffed when the silence had dragged on too long. He was tired of it- who did the 1C extra think she was to come in and glare at him like that? She wasn’t even in the business course- she was in gen ed. Even worse, she hung out with Deku and the brain-washer all the time. She wasn’t worth the dust on his shoes and needed to get out of his face.
“Funny.” Despite the cold fire in her eyes as she narrowed them, Julia’s voice came out calm. She reached back to pull her hair back into a ponytail, getting it out of ‘King Explosion Murder’s’ way. She’d heard all about him trying and failing to come up with a hero name. “That’s exactly what I was going to ask you.”
“Excuse you?” He jumped to his feet, slamming one hand down on his desk as he leaned over the 1C reject. Behind him, Izuku leaned forward. He wasn’t intervening- yet- but he was ready in case Bakugo decided to get physical. Julia didn’t take her eyes off Bakugo but she did hold a hand out slightly before crossing her arms over her chest. She was fine.
She was more than fine- Julia knew exactly how much she could get away with in her dad’s classroom, even if her options were slightly limited by the fact she was now an official student. Besides, even if she didn’t have the whole of UA behind her, she knew exactly how to take care of Bakugo’s type.
“Excuse you, actually.” She didn’t waver. “Where do you get off bullying the general course students? Just because it’s off campus doesn’t mean you went unnoticed. What did Ige ever do to you?”
“Who?” Bakugo was genuinely confused- he didn’t know anyone by that name. The confusion was quickly overshadowed by an angry, prickling sensation that moved from the top of Bakugo’s head to his toes. The girl wasn’t acting scared of him in the slightest. That wasn’t the way this was supposed to work.
“Ige.” Julia repeated, unimpressed. She held one hand up to roughly Ige’s height. “From 1C, about yea tall, shoulder-length black hair, loves romance books? You threw her backpack into a giant puddle because she wasn’t moving fast enough for you this morning. Her homework and two library books were ruined.”
“So what?” He scoffed. “She should’ve moved out of the way if she couldn’t move fast enough. Fucking extras should know their place. You included.” He poked her in the shoulder, hard. Izuku jumped down from the desk as Hitoshi jumped to his feet (a few of their classmates stood up alongside them- Todoroki, Tenya, and Ojiro among them).
“So you’re going to pay for her books and anything else you ruined.” Julia pushed his hand away. “And preferably learn what it means to actually be a hero, what the heck is wrong with you?”
“You fucking think-” Bakugo straightened to his full height, only to get cut off by Shouta swinging from the vent in front of the whiteboard onto the top of his desk.
“Bakugo, that’s a detention for language and a second for putting your hands on another student.”
“She got in my face first!” He immediately protested, but he put his arms down. Izuku and Hitoshi relaxed slightly, but only slightly. Julia hadn’t moved away from Bakugo yet.
“I wasn’t referring to Julia, but we can add that to the list.” Shouta raised an eyebrow. “Bullying won’t be tolerated, regardless of if it happens on this campus or not. Is there anything else I should know about?”
For once, Bakugo was smart enough to stay silent.
“I emailed full details to you and Nedzu.” Julia finally turned her back on Bakugo to face her dad. Normally she’d never- taking the eyes off an opponent was a surefire way to get yourself hurt- but Shouta’d erase Bakugo’s quirk if he tried anything and the idiot would be too flustered by that to even think about anything else physical. “Ige did so as well.”
“Noted.” Shouta nodded his head toward the door as the first bell rang. “Now get to class before you’re late.”
“Sir, yes sir!” She shot him a salute with a bright grin before scampering out of the room.
“Alright, the rest of you sit down.” Shouta got homeroom started a few minutes early. All his students were already there anyways. “We’ve got a lot of announcements to get to and a limited amount of time to cover them in. Now, I’m sure you’re all aware how popular the Sports Festival is. What you may not know-”
The prospect of the looming festival- and the eyes of basically every hero in the country- successfully distracted most of 1A from the chaos of the morning and the brazen girl who’d stormed in without a second’s hesitation. Izuku and Hitoshi were already mentally making plans to corner her at lunch to get the full story- the siblings had walked to school separately that morning because Julia wanted to meet up with Ige.
Ojiro wiped his hands on his pants, wondering how he could get to know her a little bit better.
“Are you sure we did the right thing?” Ige nervously scanned the cafeteria as they were released to lunch. The ass from 1A wasn’t the first bully she’d ever had to deal with and aggravating them always made it worse. Plus he was in the hero course- hero kids always got away with it.
“Yes.” Julia’s immediate, certain response soothed some of Ige’s frayed nerves. “You’ll be fine, don’t worry. Sorry I couldn’t get there faster.” She’d still been a block and a half away when she spotted Ige, already in a confrontation with Bakugo. That meant Julia saw the whole thing but was unable to stop it. She did manage to get part of it on video though.
“You have nothing to apologize for!” Ige, adamant, turned to face her directly. “I don’t want to hear those words again!” Julia glanced up at her with a small but genuine smile.
“Okay, I won’t. But I am sure about this. Now, not to change the subject and all, but how do you feel about eating outside today? Because I have a feeling if we don’t get out of here fast I’m about to be kidnapped by my brother and I’m not sure if you’re ready for 1A yet.”
“They’re… kind of a lot, no offense.” She glanced over to where the cluster that contained most of the class was either staring at them or trying not to be obvious about staring at them.
“Most of them seem nice enough, they’re just loud and excitable.” Julia linked her elbow through Ige’s. “You’ve got a bento, right? Let’s go!”
“...you’re secretly just as crazy as they are, aren’t you?” Ige noted as she was abducted outside.
“It’s not so secret, 1C just hasn’t figured it out yet.” Julia grinned up at her. Ige thought about the Charlie Kirk conversation the previous Friday and the way Julia just casually took matters to Nedzu like it was nothing. She didn’t think Julia was as subtle as Julia thought she was.
“Izuku.” Tenya settled down next to the greenette about halfway through lunch. “We need to talk.”
“What’s up?” Izuku reached over to steel some of Hitoshi’s edamame. Hitoshi tried to stab him with a chopstick in return, but he was too fast. He wasn’t very impressed with Izuku’s self-satisfied, impish grin either.
“I appreciate that you wanted to protect your sister, but in the future please leave such endeavors to me.”
Silence fell over the table at the statement. Izuku turned to face Tenya, considering how his earnestness played against his rule abiding nature. He didn’t think Tenya meant anything nefarious by it, but the implication he shouldn’t be there for Julia still didn’t sit right.
“Care to elaborate?”
“I was just about to ask the same thing.” Hitoshi added, tone laden with suspicion as his eyes narrowed.
“It’s not right for you to get into fights during school. As the class Vice Representative, it’s my job to bear that burden.”
“So you don’t want me to get into trouble?” Izuku clarified.
“That is correct.”
Well… that was kind of sweet, actually. Izuku had to fight not to laugh- not at Tenya, but at Hitoshi’s face. It was written all over him that he didn’t know what to do with Tenya.
“I appreciate the sentiment, but I’m willing to risk a little trouble when it comes to my family.” Izuku told him. “Besides, I wasn’t going to jump in for Jules if things went wrong, I was going to jump in for Bakugo. My sister can hold her own just fine, you don’t need to worry about her.”
“For… Bakugo?” Kaminari leaned around Tenya. “Did I hear that right? Is she a secret bad-ass or something?”
“Or something.” Izuku grinned to himself, refusing to elaborate further.
“She’s not gonna be very happy you added to the rumor mill.” Hitoshi told him. “She just wants to be normal for high school.” Izuku just shrugged.
“Then she shouldn’t have chosen UA. Absolutely no one here is normal.”
“I… can’t really argue with that.” Hitoshi frowned.
“Exactly!” Izuku mock-toasted the sentiment with his water, then pulled out his phone to check the family group chat. He wanted to stay on top of whatever was about to unfold with Bakugo.