Teachers


Izuku went to the beach where he had cleaned in preparation for his new life. He'd done it for a chance to get into UA, for a chance to inherit One For All. He stared out along the slow, lazy waves. Where he once saw a horizon so full of promise and intrigue, now he saw the uncaring mass of water it had always been. He failed to see beauty in the place that had once been so dear to his heart. This is where we had our chats… He and his classmates had gone their own ways to get home. Texts from all of them assured the green-haired teen that they were safe.

Or at least, as safe as any of them could be in the dawn of a villainous world.

It had only been days since the hero's death. "All Might," he whispered to the indifferent sand. "I can't do this without you. I don't even know where to start." More tears dripped down his face and slid to the ground. His figure rocked with full body sobs. "Why did you have to go?" Izuku called. His shout echoed over the seemingly endless horizon of water. Despite his plea for knowledge, he remained unanswered.

Inko knew how his son, no, the world, had idolized All Might. Izuku trained. Inko cooked. In their own ways, they grieved. For the dozenth time that day, the anxious mother peered at the notice she'd received in the mail. UA All-Dorm System. That was the jist of their proposal. It sounded harmless enough. As a mother, she only saw letters that jumbled into an incompressible mess. She wanted to have Izuku all the way until college. Though it had destroyed him not to have a quirk, a part of her had been glad that he'd been safely out of harm's way.

Every day he attended UA, Inko grew increasingly worried. For him to be gone for long stretches of a time, locked under the watchful eyes of the teachers who had failed to predict attack after attack… it was too much for her to take. She felt certain her heart would give out after any more scares. She didn't wish to trouble Izuku with the pain that sometimes made the fingers on her left arm numb or her ears ring.

His dreams and her peace of mind could not coexist. She glanced at the clock and pulled batch of bread out of the oven. At the moment when she pulled off her oven mitts, Izuku walked in. She opened her mouth. As a mother, it was her duty to make everything better. At once, she knew nothing could be done. His bloodshot eyes made the green of his irises stand out even more than usual. She knew that around the world, there were countless hopeless faces just like Izuku's, all thanks to the death of All Might. Inko turned away, before the image of her distraught child could burn into her mind forever.

Meanwhile, Aizawa and Midnight rode in UA's street car together to talk to the students' families. For the most part, the somber families agreed to the change. There was hesitation from a few parents, but all of the students seemed driven by a new and rather startling determination. Though their Symbol of Peace was dead, they had the drive to become great heroes.

Midnight looked at their list. "Last up, the Midoriyas." She looked at the information - single mother raising a lone son. "Uh oh…this one will be tricky." Izuku was all Inko had in the world. Aizawa and Midnight climbed up the stairs to the family's small apartment and knocked on the door. Izuku answered and they all took a seat at the table. Judging from the boy's wet hair, he was fresh from the shower and wore only a white T-shirt and pair of workout shorts. The house was meticulously clean and smelled delightful, thanks to Inko's grieving.

Inko even had two baskets of goodies for the teachers, which she pressed in front of them. "I seem to have made too much," she explained in such a sweet voice that neither Aizawa nor Midnight could find it in their hearts to refuse. Before they even had the chance to bring up the dorms, Inko began to speak.

"My son has no place in UA." The chilling words shocked Izuku to the core. He turned to stare at his mother, as did Midnight. It was Aizawa's ability to stay calm under pressure that pulled them through.

"What makes you say that?"

Inko took a deep, chilling breath, and began. "His quirk miraculously appeared and I was grateful, at first. The more he attends your school, the more beat up he's gotten. My healthy, strong, intelligent, beautiful son has had more casts in the past semester than he's had in his life. If he's not there, then he's rushing off with his friends, injured, or home studying. My son's not even a hero yet and I've already lost him. He doesn't know when to quit, so his arms are just a few injuries away from becoming unusable for the rest of his life." She stared intently at Aizawa. "You, as his teacher, are supposed to help him learn his limits. All Might, the man he admired most in the world, didn't know when to stop. Now look where he is. I can very easily see my son going down that same avenue and it terrifies me."

Izuku sprang from his seat. "Mom! That's not his fault. It's nobody's fault but my own."

Aizawa interjected. "No, it is my fault. As his teacher, I should have intervened long before now. UA should have. As a school, we will be making changes. We will evolve from this crisis so we can continue to turn out great heroes."

It took many more minutes of convincing and easing Inko's worries, but in the end, Izuku would be joining his eighteen other classmates in the new dorms.

"That was harder than I thought it'd be," Midnight sighed to Aizawa. Though they should have felt triumphant at gaining Inko Midoriya's blessing, they felt incomplete. With Bakugo gone, they only had reason to visit nineteen of Class-A's twenty enrolled students.


Shigaraki scratched thoughtfully at his throat. The League of Villains loitered at their new bar. Kurogiri, as per usual, played the role of bartender. He wore his business-casual dress to cover the darkness of his body. Around them the rest of the league sat or stood. Toga somehow wrangled Dabi into a game at their new pool table. "How do we get the brat to change his mind?" The leader wondered aloud, as if he expected anyone to jump in with an opinion. While he was the mastermind, that didn't mean they didn't have to contribute.

"Maybe we could beat him into submission," Twice suggested.

Mister Compress' mask turned to the dark-clad villain. "You're welcome to throw the first punch."

Toga took a shot and smacked a ball into the corner pocket.

"What about you, Dabi?" Shigaraki stared through the fingers at their black haired fire user. "Any ideas?"

Dabi watched Toga sink another shot. Her aim was incredible. At this rate, I won't get a hit in. He idly made the assumption while he chewed over the question. He was quite burnable, so not at all the guide that could lead Bakugo into the league. "My mentor would have been a better fit for a task like this."

"Oh?" Shigaraki asked with obvious interest. "And where is your mentor now?"

Dabi pretended to glance at the clock. Though he knew what time it was, he enjoyed pissing off his leader. "I imagine she's making lunch."

"Then go and get her," the man-child hissed. His fingers scratched more swiftly over his aching throat. He wanted to ruin something, but settled for the small act of self-harm. His fingernails cut into his flesh. "Kurogiri. Take Dabi to wherever his mentor is. We need to get the kid while he's down."

Dabi set down his cue and smirked at Shigaraki. "You don't even know if she shares our ideals." He pointed out.

Shigaraki's fingers stopped. He froze at once and looked the fire-user over. "If she's your mentor, I imagine you'd have similar goals as her." He waited for Dabi to confirm the theory, but was infuriated when all Dabi did was laugh. "Well? Is she worth getting or not?!" Shigaraki slammed his fist on the bartop and planted his feet firmly on the stool beneath him. The tantrum was quite unbecoming, but it made Dabi feel as if he had a victory, however useless it may be.

"Yeah, she's worth getting." The young man pulled Kurogiri to the side and described their destination in reasonable detail. As he didn't want his family knowing of his existence quite yet, he added in a contingency. "I'll go alone. She'll attack if too many people show up in her place." Shigaraki trusted Dabi. After all, Dabi was the one who had been given the Nomu during the training camp excursion. As such, Kurogiri trusted Dabi. Dabi was given an intercom with a tracking device, which he'd use to signal when he needed picked up.

Dabi arrived outside his childhood home in broad daylight, all while knowing full well that nobody would notice. Most people were at their jobs or work, while the rest watched a memoir of All Might, which played on repeat over every news station, as if to remind everyone that the Symbol of Peace was dead, but hope lingered in his memory. Dabi knocked on the door and waited.

As expected, it was his aunt who answered. Teiko didn't seem too surprised by her guest. Then again, Dabi recalled that the woman was nearly unshakable. She was the reason he was alive. The reason he lived the way he did. "May I come in?" He asked with a light grin, as if tempting her to answer no.

"You better take your shoes off. I just mopped." Even as she spoke, she took a step back to admit him.

Dabi chuckled and did as she asked. He entered and expected to feel any spark of familiarity or pull to the settings around him, but all he experienced was indifference. He plopped down on the couch, in front of the TV, and watched the images of the fallen idol flash before the screen. Teiko went to the kitchen and got them both a glass of water. This was the first time she'd seen her eldest nephew in nearly a decade, so she imagined there must be some sort of story behind the visit. She plopped in a few cubes of ice and walked over to join Dabi on the sofa. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"First of all, we really need to change your hairstyle. It's startling how much you look like him." He didn't say Enji's name, but they both felt it linger in the air.

Teiko was remarkably quick on the uptake. "Are you kidnapping me?" She sounded far more amused than worried. Dabi recalled their last encounter, when she had taken him down in a single hit and shown him how weak he was. That had been shortly after his flame-out, when he was fresh out of the burn ward. He idly wondered how a fight between them would end if they had a rematch.

Dabi lifted his water and took a long drink. Once he'd finished his swallowing, he set his turquoise eyes upon her matching gaze. "That depends. Are you going to resist? We've recently acquired a fire user in dire need of guidance that only you can give."

Bakugo. She had seen him at the sports festival. Like the rest of the crowd, Teiko had marveled at the boy's ingenuity and raw talent.

"My results certainly vary. Shoto is going the route of a pro-hero." She slid her eyes to the most recent portrait of the teen in question.

"He wasn't very troublesome at the training camp. I think you lost your touch."

"Well," she shrugged and chuckled. "They can't all be perfect."

Each couldn't help but wonder what the other was truly thinking. On Dabi's end, he considered just how much of an influence Teiko had made on him that their acts were so completely parallel. "No, they can't," Dabi agreed. He set his empty glass down and stood. "Get some hair dye, make up an excuse, and be ready by tonight. If you're by the old Quirk Gym at midnight, you can join us as equals. If you don't, then we'll kill that precious student of yours." Dabi pressed the button behind his ear to signal Kurogiri and stepped forward into the dark abyss nearly the instant it appeared.

Shigaraki didn't afford Dabi a moment of silence. The instant the young man walked into the bar, he was assaulted by a frustrated voice. "You didn't bring anyone back," Shigaraki hissed. His eyes bulged beneath the benign palm gently cupped at his face.

"We'll get her in a few hours."

"In a few hours?" Shigaraki echoed, his tone filled with anger.

Dabi lazily grinned. "If you take her at once, she'll be reported missing. If you wait, then she'll come of her own accord and tie up any loose ends."

Kurogiri decided to intervene. "A clean break does seem to be the best track, Shigaraki."

Shigaraki scowled. "Fine. But if she doesn't show up, a clean break is exactly what you'll get." His words direct themselves at Dabi with force.