Izuku glanced down at the small block in his hand for the millionth time, running his thumb over the familiar kanji. He… he didn't know what to do. He needed to put the name plaque back up, he knew that much, but that wasn't the problem.
Izuku wanted to be a hero. Izuku was training to be a hero. What kind of hero listened to a villain threaten people's families (threaten their own family) and just sat back and did nothing? At the same time, what could Izuku do? He wasn't fast enough or strong enough or clever enough to kill a monster like Korosensei. He couldn't tell anyone either. He highly doubted All Might would have been okay with their plan of letting middle schoolers handle this, which meant he didn't know and was never supposed to know. Which meant that, even if he'd been involved previously, Izuku would only get in trouble for talking to him about it.
Then there was the problem of Korosensei's speed. He could go to every student's home and bring back a souvenir in a second. He might not be the subtlest person in existence, but no one seemed to notice the Mach 20 octopus flying through the air earlier today, which meant he could be. He could watch and listen and Izuku wouldn't know until something stupid happened. Likely after Korosensei learned something Izuku didn't want him to know.
Izuku carefully put the name plaque in his pocket, glancing around to see if anyone had noticed. Not that they would think anything was weird, but all this secret keeping was making him jumpy. He just needed to go home, put the plaque back before anyone noticed it was gone, get changed, and head to the beach to haul trash with All Might. Easy.
It was easy. Izuku needed to stop psyching himself out over simple things like this. No one cared. No one paid attention to him. Why would they? He wasn't anyone important by their standards. Just some random middle schooler. Moving trash got his mind off the problem for a little while. Until he remembered that Korosensei seeing this and learning about All Might's true form was one of the problems he had been worrying about.
"Hey, All Might?" he said, slowing to a stop before he could grab another piece of rust covered junk.
"Hm? Yes, Midoriya-shounen, what is it?" All Might asked, taking a few steps closer in his skeletal form.
"Um, I was just wondering," Izuku began, his face starting to get a slight blush, "if someone, uh, came across us, I should probably have something other than 'All Might' to call you. It doesn't have to be your real name. I just don't want to go floundering for something that you might contradict later, and-"
All Might laughed. "At ease, Midoriya-shounen," he said, clapping a bony hand on Izuku's shoulder. "It's alright. It's something I should have thought of earlier, honestly. This beach is a public place, after all, even if no one comes here anymore. My name is Yagi Toshinori."
Izuku beamed. "Right! Thank you, Yagi-san!"
Yagi-san laughed again. "Alright, back to work now! We've got a lot of ground to cover!"
Izuku groaned, flopping down on his bed. With everything that happened in 3-E, he really shouldn't be surprised that keeping secrets was going to be difficult. He thought he'd fixed the problem (or at least part of it) when he'd gotten Yagi-san's name. But now things were harder. He didn't think there was any physical way for him to fix this one. To keep the secret from spreading at all. He would be surprised if it hadn't already.
That's what happens when one of your classmates is an AI that can transport her consciousness to other devices like his phone. The same phone that had All Might's contact information (saved under "Yagi-san" now, but those texts were still suspicious). The same phone that had a GPS chip and he took with him everywhere, including the beach. The same phone that could be used to listen in to any conversations he had because that's how microphones work.
He sighed again, sitting up. He might not be able to stop Ritsu-san from knowing, but he could (hopefully) keep her from telling anyone else.
Which was really his only option other than trying to avoid talking about One for All, which he could only do so much. If All Might brought it up and Izuku deflected, he'd probably realize something was wrong. Probably. Maybe. Yagi-san wasn't always the most observant person.
Izuku picked up his phone, pausing for a moment to wonder how he was going to get Ritsu-san's attention. He didn't think she just hung out listening all the time, but he didn't really know what else to do. "Ritsu-san?" he whispered, cradling his phone. No response. This was weird. A blush covered Izuku's face as he realized he looked like he thought the phone was a magic talking rock with how he was holding it and trying to talk to it.
Time for a different plan. Izuku scrolled through his phone, looking for anything he didn't remember putting there. A new app or contact- Contact information. Sitting there, as plain as day, was a new contact labeled "Ritsu." Izuku quickly pulled it up, typing out a text message.
"Hey, Ritsu-san," he wrote, "can we talk for a minute."
As soon as he hit send, Ritsu-san's figure appeared on his screen, standing next to the short message like it was the most normal thing in the world. Izuku shrieked slightly at her sudden appearance.
"Hello, Midoriya-kun!" she greeted. "What do you need to talk to me about?"
"Um… right," Izuku muttered, pulling his dignity back together. "There's some, uh, things I don't really want the rest of the class, or the teachers, to know."
"Are you in danger?" Ritsu-san interrupted.
"What? No! I'm not-! No! I'm fine!" Izuku sputtered. "Korosensei's a bigger threat to me than this… uh, secret."
"Oh, okay then." Ritsu-san immediately went back to her usual calm self. "I only asked because I have been going through a lot of human media and your behavior was very similar to someone trying to keep others away for safety reasons."
Izuku winced. She wasn't wrong. Not wrong at all. "Listen, just, I don't know how far your… awareness of the data on our phones goes, and I don't want to assume you would go through my phone, but I want to make sure."
Ritsu nodded. "That's understandable," she chirped. "I have learned that searching through someone's data is something of a… I think you call it violating someone's privacy? I try to avoid going through any data I don't need to. However, I cannot stop myself from seeing any data being interacted with while I am on a device, which is why I like to use my avatar when using my Mobile Ritsu form."
"Oh," Izuku said, slumping slightly in relief. "That's good. Thank you, Ritsu-san."
"Don't worry," Ritsu-san said. "You're not the first one to bring up such concerns. Would you like to tell me what information you want kept private in case I see something by accident or one of the teachers requests the information?"
Izuku hesitated. That had been his original plan, but did he really want to direct her attention to the information? She said she wouldn't look, and there shouldn't be a reason for anyone to ask about it, but… "Anything to do with Yagi-san," he said slowly. It wouldn't hurt to be careful. Just in case. "And I'd rather you didn't access the location data without talking to me."
Ritsu-san nodded, smiling. "Alright, I'll do my best to stay out of your data and keep anything I learn to myself!" she said. "Is there anything else you needed?"
"No," Izuku said, smiling a little himself. "Thank you, Ritsu-san."
"You're welcome! Goodnight, Midoriya-kun!"
"Goodnight, Ritsu-san."
Izuku collapsed back on his bed again when Ritsu-san was gone. One more problem taken care of. Hopefully, he wouldn't have to do something like that again. Izuku couldn't help but wonder how he got to be tangled up in this web of secrets and lies.