"Yes… I know. But I'm worried about some of them. The ones who were closest to the fighting are taking it the worst… and him as well… yes… alright, he can come as well. Thank you so much, Kyoken. I owe you one." Inui put the phone down, and sighed, "He agreed to come help me out in about a week. He's bringing his colleague as well."
"That's great." Nezu nodded, "It would be good to check on the other students, especially Shinsou, Monoma, Todoroki, Bakugou, and Uraraka."
"Even though Iida wasn't part of the fighting for most of the time, he's still guilty, because he feels that he was too slow in getting help." Inui sighed. "But it's probably nowhere as bad as Midoriya's."
"His mental state is particularly worrisome, since he had taken the brunt of the attacks, and probably the most pain and trauma. Not to mention the abuse under his previous schools and foster parents." Nezu agreed. "What does his colleague do?"
"Well, you know Kyoken's quirk is an empathic one. It allows him to … feel… for a lack of a better term, the emotions and mental state of a person through contact, though in a much dampened state so he won't be overwhelmed. He might get flashes of memories, but that would only be the case if the memory is tied to a particular emotion. His colleague is a therapist, the one that asks questions, using Kyoken's quirk as a base to figure out what is appropriate and what isn't. His quirk allows him to calm people down in case they end up panicking." Inui replied, "They've handled much worse cases than I have, like military trauma, so I feel that they are best suited to handle this."
"Alright." Nezu sighed, "I really hope that they can get over this. They deserve that, at the very least."
Aizawa stood at the table, waiting for Yagi to enter the room. He was supposed to teach the heroics class now, and he seemed to be late.
He eyed Midoriya, who was sitting at the back of the classroom, staring blankly ahead.
"I don't know where the big oaf is, but -"
"I AM COMING THROUGH THE DOOR LIKE A NORMAL PERSON!"
Aizawa watched as Midoriya winced slightly. It was almost unnoticeable, but definitely a wince. He resisted the urge to facepalm. He had already run through will Yagi on how to act with Midoriya in the class, and the idiot had already forgotten the first two rules that Aizawa had put down; not to suddenly yell or make loud noises, and to make Midoriya aware of his presence before doing anything.
Yagi burst into the room in his muscle form, and he saw a small glint of displeasure that appeared in Midoriya's eyes, that disappeared as quickly as it had appeared. Nezu had already told him to read Midoriya by his eyes, not by his posture or actions, and Aizawa could definitely read Midoriya much better than before.
Midoriya disliked Yagi for some reason. Aizawa felt that while Midoriya might have been semi-conscious after being smashed by the Nomu, he had a vague idea of what was going on, and somewhat knew about Yagi accidentally smacking him away. Not to mention the man had freaked him out when Midoriya had just regained consciousness.
Aizawa didn't like Yagi as well; the man had no tact at all.
"I told you to tone it down." Aizawa growled, and Yagi scratched his head sheepishly, "Ah, I'm sorry."
Yagi fished his script out of his pocket, and turned to address the class, "Alright, now we're going to go to Ground Gamma!"
Apparently, the activity Yagi had in mind was an obstacle course in the fake factory labrinth in the industrial site. He had already grouped the twenty one students into four groups of four and one group of five.
The first group consisted of Bakugou, Aoyama, Iida and Sero. Bakugou initially had the upper hand, blasting himself into the air, but once Iida gotten a high enough vantage point, they were neck and neck with each other. Bakugou eventually won, followed by Sero, Iida, and lastly Aoyama.
The second group had Todoroki, Asui, Mineta and Ojiro. Todoroki had merely made an ice path to victory, while Ojiro had taken advantage of the ice path and gotten second. The cold severely slowed Asui down, but she managed to jump her way to the end before Mineta, since Todoroki had accidentally frozen him in the ice. He wasn't sorry when he set him on fire thawing him out.
The third group consisted of Koda, Kirishima, Ashido and Tokoyami. Surprisingly, Ashido managed to get first, followed by Kirishima, Tokoyami, and Koda. Poor Koda didn't have a quirk that was useful in the test at all; at least, Dark Shadow was able to carry Tokoyami across large gaps if they wanted to.
The fourth group consisted of Shoji, Sato, Uraraka and Jiro. Uraraka, with her quirk, was easily able to float over all the obstacles. Shoji and Sato's quirks were useful in getting to the finishing point, and Jiro didn't perform that badly, considering her Earphone Jack quirk wasn't really helpful in the trial.
The last group consisted of Shinsou, Midoriya, Kaminari, Yaoyorozu and Hagakure. Yaoyorozu had immediately formed a grappling hook to get herself up to higher ground, but Midoriya had instantly scaled a pipe, before making his way towards the finishing point. He jumped over and slid under pipes, and easily jumped over the gap between the buildings. Shinsou was close behind him, having used his capture weapon to fling himself to the roof, only for Midoriya to put on a huge burst of speed.
Unsurprisingly, Kaminari was the last due to his poor stamina. Aizawa made a note to up his endurance training.
"Damn… I expected Yaoyorozu to get first." Jiro scratched the back of her head, after Yagi had dismissed them, "Midoriya's really fast. Though I guess I should have expected this after the Sports Festival."
"Man… I guess this nothing for you, huh, Midoriya?" Kaminari laughed, once he regained his breath, "I suppose that compared to pulling truck tires on a beach, this really is no biggie."
"I guess so - Wait did you say pulling truck tires!?" Sero gaped.
Kaminari snapped his mouth shut, and Shinsou facepalmed, "I thought we agreed to keep quiet about this."
Midoriya just glanced at Kaminari, remaining quiet, before going back to staring at his feet.
"Midoriya, you okay, man?" Kirishima asked.
Midoriya looked at Kirishima blankly, before turning around, and making his way towards the changing rooms, ignoring the rest of his peers who were making small talk.
"I hope he's okay… he seems a little on edge." Kirishima muttered, looking towards the boy in concern.
"I guess he's upset about us following and watching his training yesterday." Kaminari scratched the back of his head.
"I honestly don't think it's about that." Yaoyorozu replied, "If he trains at a beach, it's a very open area. No doubt that other people would have chanced upon him training as well. I guess he's just not used to the idea of people… caring about him."
"We should all stop talking about him behind his back. It's very rude." Iida put his hands on his hips, stopping all the ongoing conversations, before ordering, "Now, we should go back to class and go home. We had been given tons of homework, so we should finish them as fast as possible."
Iida stared at his phone, and sighed.
Midoriya had been added to the 1-A group chat a few days ago, and the only thing he had said in the chat was a confirmation that he had been added. Despite Ashido and Kaminari acting like idiots and spamming the chat with memes, or Iida ordering people to do their homework or sleep, or even Bakugou filling the chat with swears after someone had insulted him, Midoriya had not responded at all.
He was sure that Midoriya was alright; he saw him in classes all the time. Maybe he didn't know how to use a group chat? Or maybe he wasn't sure if he was welcome?
Iida sighed again. He was the class representative, and yet he was having so much trouble trying to welcome Midoriya into their class. He understood that due to Midoriya's past, he needed time to slowly get used to his new environment, but Iida wasn't a very patient person; he would admit that much.
Maybe he should ask Tensei for some advice on how to handle this.
"A sleepover?" Uraraka gaped.
Yaoyorozu nodded, "Yes. My parents will be out for the weekend, and they gave me permission to invite my friends over. Since our exams are also in a few weeks, I think we can use this opportunity to study together, and hang out."
"Who are you planning to invite?" Hagakure asked excitedly.
"Well, I was originally planning to invite everyone from 1-A and 1-B, excluding you know who, but I wanted to just having 1-A over first, just to test it out." Yaoyorozu replied.
"Are you sure we all fit in your house?" Jiro frowned, "There's twenty of us. Six girls and fourteen boys."
"Yep." Yaoyorozu gave a small smile, "We have several guest rooms; it's more than enough for all of us. I'm going to ask Iida if it's a good idea, before asking if people can come."
It wasn't surprising that Iida agreed to it; he was up for anything that was remotely related to class bonding, but he did bring up another problem, "What about Midoriya? Do you think that he'll accept the invite?"
"If he doesn't want to come, we can't force him to. You know that." Yaoyorozu sighed, "I hope he does choose to come though; he needs to learn to loosen up a bit."
"No… I don't mean that." Iida shook his head, "If he thinks that we want him to come… I think he'll feel pressured into coming. I don't… want him to come if he thinks that he has no choice."
Yaoyorozu bit her lip, "You… have a point…"
"Why would he feel pressurized, though?" Jiro asked.
"Er… I asked my brother. He said it is possible for victims of bullying to feel more... inclined to listen to what they're being told to try and avoid being hurt. I know that Midoriya may not seem like that… but he does care more about others than himself. He risked his life for us at the USJ. He defended Shinsou even though he was the one being made fun of. He doesn't even eat lunch in school. I'm just worried… that we might be pushing too much and making him uncomfortable. That wouldn't be productive to any one of us."
"Well… at least if he's with us, we can take care of him, can't we?" Yaoyorozu smiled, patting Iida on the back, "Don't worry about it too much."
Midoriya froze when he processed what Yaoyorozu had told him.
A study session and a sleepover? What's that? Sleep over where?
He signed his confusion to Yaoyorozu, and she looked over to Shinsou for a translation. He translated it, and she replied, "You just… come over? We'll study, play games, fool around for a bit and sleep at my house. "
Midoriya blanched. It didn't sound that bad, but he was sure that their definition of "playing games" were different from his.
"You can bring Reiko and Ryuto if you'd like; I don't mind." Yaoyorozu continued.
Midoriya really didn't want to go, even if he could bring Reiko and Ryuto. He didn't trust them, who knew what they would do once he was trapped in their house. But they were asking so nicely; Midoriya felt that it would be rude to say no.
Plus, who knew what they would do if he refused. If he fought back, it would only be worse. He would just have to do his best to protect Reiko and Ryuto.
But Midoriya also knew that he wasn't the only one who had to make the decision. He needed to ask Nezu for permission. After all, the principal had custody over him; that meant that Nezu had to make the final decision whether he could go or not. He just hoped that Nezu didn't agree that it was a good idea, though he seriously doubted it; after all, Nezu had so many other things to do, he wouldn't think sleeping over at someone's house was a big deal.
Midoriya hastily signed back, "I'll get permission first."
"Alright. No rush. I'm glad you're considering it." Yaoyorozu gave him a small smile, and Midoriya did his best to not flinch. Usually, when people smiled at him, they were getting ready to beat him up.
Midoriya quickly nodded, before slinking away, much to the confusion of his peers.
"Huh… that was… weird…" Jiro muttered.
"At least, he's considering it?" Yaoyorozu asked, "That's a win?"
Midoriya walked back from the principal's office and flung himself on his bed. He rolled over, and groaned.
Nezu had given him permission to go, but had also said that if Midoriya truly didn't want to go to Yaoyorozu's house for the study session and sleepover, he shouldn't force himself to do something he didn't want to do.
Midoriya didn't know how to make a choice. He hadn't been given any choices since he had been transferred to his former foster home, why start now? His former foster mother had chased him to every study session that he was invited to, just to get him out of the house, disregarding whatever protests the boy had.
Despite knowing that his classmates were pretty much harmless for the most part, Midoriya couldn't push down his fear and paranoia. He did want to go; he never had a sleepover before, and he was curious about it. But he didn't want to push his luck; the last time he had been invited to a study session by his "friends", he had ended up in the hospital, and Midoriya did not want a repeat of that experience.
Midoriya rolled over onto his back, and Reiko crawled onto his chest and sat there, looking down at him with her cyan and mint eyes. Ryuto buried himself in the crook of his neck, and squeaked, gently nibbling on Midoriya's ear.
"What do you think, Rei? You think we should go?"
He knew it may seem silly to be discussing this with a cat; he wasn't like Koda or Nezu and could understand her word for word. But he could understand Reiko's intent, he knew what she meant, even if he didn't know what she was saying. They had a connection, a bond, and that was good enough for him.
Reiko tilted her head, letting out a whine, before settling down on his chest. She rubbed her head against Midoriya's chin, and purred.
"I know they seem nice, but what if they're like them? I can't trust them; I can't risk it. She said I could bring you and Ryu along; what if they decide to hurt you guys instead?"
Reiko looked at him again, before smacking her paw against his cheek lightly. She pressed herself against the crook of his neck, purring softly.
Midoriya sighed, and rubbed Reiko's ears affectionately, "Fine. If you say so, Rei. I'll go."
As a note, I recommend re-reading Chapter 15 and 28.