Midoriya wasn't too sure what to do. Reiko had been in the common room when they had gotten back, sitting on the sofa with the others and watching the news. Midoriya honestly wanted to go take a quick nap before dinner, but the second that Shinsou placed Shirou on the ground, all hell broke loose.
The larger cat's eyes were immediately trained on Ryuto, who was playing tic tac toe with Kaminari and Ashido on the floor, using rocks and sticks. Admittedly, Kaminari and Ashido won the first couple of times while trying and failing to teach Ryuto the rules, until Tokage found them and explained everything for Ryuto. It took a couple of tries for the hawk to really understand how to play, but he did have several wins against the two students.
Shirou nearly pounced on the bird while he was distracted, and Reiko growled from her perch on the armrest, but the larger cat merely ignored her, opting to take in the new surroundings. Ryuto warbled in delight as he won another round, and Shirou pounced.
He would have torn Ryuto apart if Reiko hadn't leapt off the armrest, tackling Shirou and knocking him off course. Ryuto gave a panicked squawk, fluttering upwards to perch on Shoji's shoulder, out of reach, as he tried to figure out what was going on.
The two cats tumbled to the ground, and Reiko snarled, baring her teeth, and Shirou took this as a challenge. Shiro swiped at Reiko, but the smaller cat instantly evaded and pounced, tackling Shirou in the side. Reiko rolled over, quickly regaining her footing, and pounced on the downed Shirou, letting out the most terrifying growl anyone had heard from the normally gentle cat.
Shirou glanced at Reiko, before closing his eyes and turning his head to the side, sign of defeat, and Reiko let out of victorious huff. She hopped to the ground, and quickly glanced upwards, at Ryuto who was still perched on Shoji's shoulder, before looking at Midoriya. She chirped, and walked over to him, rubbing herself against his leg.
"Well, that's one way to introduce yourself." Shinsou blinked, as Midoriya reached down to pick his cat up. Midoriya gave Shinsou a quick look, making a slight nod in the direction of the hallway that led to the rooms, before he gave a sharp whistle. Ryuto hopped off Shoji's shoulder, before perching on the green haired boy's head, and Midoriya made his way up to his room.
Shinsou bent down, and scooped Shirou up.
"New cat, Shinsou?" Ashido asked, and Shinsou nodded, "Yeah. Called him Shirou. Aizawa-sensei said that I could bring him, even if he's new. And honestly... I didn't think he'd end up fighting with Reiko."
Shirou gave a small hiss, and looked away, and Shinsou stood up, "I'm going to get Shirou comfortable. I'll see you guys at dinner."
Shinsou walked up the stairs to his room, and Kaminari blinked.
"I'm going to be honest. Reiko can be terrifying." Sero spoke up, "I didn't think she'd be able to take Shirou down, given the size difference."
"Well, Reiko is overprotective of Ryuto, and Shirou did try to attack him." Tokage pointed out.
"True." Sero admitted, and Kirishima grinned, "That's cause Reiko is super manly!"
Midoriya sat down on his bed, and picked Reiko up. He slightly nudged Ryuto, and the hawk hopped over to his hand, looking back to Midoriya, "Reiko, Ryuto, that was Shirou. Shinsou's new cat."
Reiko gave a small mew, and Midoriya looked at her directly in the eye, "No fighting, okay?"
Reiko whined, and Midoriya sighed, "I know you're just protecting Ryu. But Shirou's new. You don't have to like him, just tolerate him."
She gave a small, irritated sounded growl from the back of her throat, and Midoriya leaned back into his bed, placing her on his chest and wrapping his arms around her. He leaned forward, nuzzled Reiko and Ryuto, before pressing himself against the soft mattress.
"Also, if Shirou tries that again, feel free to kick his butt again."
Reiko licked Midoriya's cheek, and purred.
Oh, whoever tried to pick on her baby was going to get their asses handed to them all right.
Midoriya stood outside the principal's office, a bag in his hand, and knocked.
"Come in."
Midoriya slowly pushed open the door, and tried his best to close the door slowly. He turned around, spotting Nezu sitting at his desk, finishing up some work, before the principal looked up, smiling at Midoriya.
"Hello Izuku. Feeling better?"
Midoriya nodded, and Nezu's smile softened, "That's great. Well... do you need something?"
The green haired boy slowly made his way to the table, and placed the bag on the table, letting Nezu take a look. Ryuto was still nestled on Midoriya's head, while Reiko was perched on Midoriya's shoulder.
"A mask... and a...?" Nezu pulled out a couple of pieces of paper out of the bag in curiosity, "Ah, a voice changer and a shooter with pointers."
"For Shinsou and Kaminari. Can you... uh... help me talk to the support department?" Midoriya looked away uneasily, "I... uh... can do it myself... just...uh..."
"That's fine. You're probably still wary of Hatsume, right?" Nezu patted Midoriya's hand, "Don't worry about it. She's not in trouble. We all know she's really enthusiastic, and it was our fault for not disclosing the true extent of your injuries; plus, she feels bad for hurting you. We've already told her how she should act around you. But still, I can talk to Power Loader regarding these."
Midoriya nodded, "Thank you."
"No problem. If you have any other issues... feel free to talk to me, okay?" Nezu said, making a quick note in his to-do list.
"That reminds me... Recovery Girl and I talked it over... if you feel up to it... you can visit her everyday after lessons and she can try to speed up the healing process slowly." Nezu stated, "But you're going to have to eat regular meals in order to have enough energy, okay?"
Midoriya nodded, and Nezu smiled, "I know you're trying your best, and I'm really proud of you, Izuku."
Proud of him?
Proud of someone as useless and worthless as him!?
The green haired boy nearly froze, and left the principal's office. He hated to admit it, but there was this really... warm feeling in his chest.
What on earth was that?!
"We need to find new members to join the League. We've got pros all over hunting for us, and the only thing we can do now while being inconspicuous is to find new members. Remember, our next target is going to be one of the pros." Shigaraki spoke up, "This is our new hideout. Disperse. It will make it easier for us to hide for the time being."
The rest of the League nodded, as Shigaraki continued, "I'll expect you to be keeping everyone else updated. That's it. Kurogiri will be teleporting all of you to various locations. Be careful."
Hikiishi, Toga, Bubaigawara, and Sako walked through a portal that Kurogiri had set up. Dabi and Iguchi were about to follow suit, when Shigaraki looked up, his blood red eyes glinting maliciously behind the hand sitting on his face.
"Did you think that your little scheme went unnoticed? Freeing Void, letting him believe that villains were better than heroes... it would only be beneficial to us. That's the only reason you're still alive now. Cross me again... and I will not let you leave alive. Understood?"
Dabi and Iguchi flinched. They didn't respond, and they walked through the portal, unharmed.
He knew?
And he didn't do anything to stop them?
Midoriya stood, staring at the punching bag right in front of him.
Shuzenji had been slowly using her quirk on him for the past few days, doing her best to speed up the healing process while leaving him with enough energy to function. His hands seemed alright for the time being; he could write for short periods of time, and use his cutlery normally. Shuzenji was also getting him to start eating soft solid foods like potatoes and carrots in his soup.
She has just deemed him well enough to start training, and Aizawa was only letting him participate in the training with the rest of the class because he knew that Midoriya was starting to get restless, sitting around and watching but not being able to do anything.
Ryuto was working with Dark Shadow and Tokoyami, while Shinsou and Kaminari were trying out their voice changer and sharpshooting gear respectively; the Support Department had just approved and finished them, and had added them to their hero costumes.
Meanwhile, Midoriya just stared at the menacing punching bag that towered over him. He knew it was irrational to be terrified of a punching bag, of all things... but he hadn't trained at all ever since he had gotten out of the hospital. Reiko was sitting by the stand, keeping an eye on Midoriya.
"Go be… the hero… that we all believed that you could be…"
It didn't help that Yagi was walking around, in his skinny, deflated form, watching his classmates train while he gave out pointers.
It's YOUR fault.
You killed the Symbol of Peace.
Midoriya cautiously pulled his arm back, and tried to punch the punching bag. The punching bag barely moved, and he tried again.
"Useless waste of space."
And again.
"Worthless child."
And again.
You're just better off dead.
And each time, the punching bag didn't even seem to move at all.
Pathetic. You can't even hit a punching bag right.
No wonder you let them DIE, you weak, pathetic, useless child!
The green haired boy gritted his teeth in frustration, and growled, baring his teeth, putting all his body weight behind his fist as he punched the punching bag with all his might. The chains holding the punching bag up squeaked as the punching bag swung upwards, and Midoriya promptly lost his balance. He blinked, trying his best to regain his balance, before it hit him, literally.
The punching bag swung back to its original position, smacking Midoriya right in the face.
Midoriya tumbled backwards, disorientated from the impact, and he lay on the ground, stunned. He blinked, coughing, and tried to push himself back up, but in that moment, all his strength left him, and he slumped back to the ground again, panting, trying to suck the air back into his lungs.
Weak. Useless. Pathetic.
"Midoriya? Midoriya, are you okay?" Aizawa asked, quickly walking over to Midoriya and crouching down. Midoriya glared at him, and Reiko hastily yelped, running over to where Aizawa was and tugging on his pants leg, trying to get him to stop. Aizawa looked down at the cat in confusion, before turning back to Midoriya, watching as the boy looked at him with an expression he couldn't really place.
Reiko, seeing that Aizawa had stopped, let go of his pants leg, before padding over to Midoriya carefully. She licked his cheek carefully, and Midoriya took his attention off Aizawa, turning to the cat. Reiko nuzzled him gently, and Midoriya tried to push himself up again, only for his arms to give way, causing him to slump against the ground again, shaking.
You deserve to die. This is all your fault.
"Midoriya, calm down. You've barely recovered, I think a punching bag is too much for you right now." Aizawa inched closer, watching Reiko for a signal that he was getting too close. Reiko let out a small hiss, and Aizawa promptly stopped.
"You should rest for now. I'll get Recovery Girl here to check on you."
He stood up, and looked around. Iida was the closest, and he immediately called out, "Iida, can you come here for a second?"
Ever the alert class representative, Iida promptly stopped whatever he was doing, and marched over to Aizawa, "Yes sir? What would you – Midoriya? Are you okay?"
"Can you bring him to the side? I think he's overexerted himself for the first training session after not training for so long." Aizawa stated, and Iida promptly bent down, Reiko hopping away to give Iida space, and the blue haired boy easily picked Midoriya up.
"You should be more careful, alright?" Iida lightly berated, carrying Midoriya to the side, but his words did nothing to quell the intensifying guilt that Midoriya was feeling.
See, you useless being. Now you have to disturb those "friends" of yours, all because you couldn't get up. Pathetic. Shigaraki was right; you really are a useless child.
Nezu looked at his phone in confusion, as his phone rang. He didn't have any meetings scheduled, so who on earth was calling him?
The contact name was Tsukauchi, and Nezu promptly picked it up, "Yes?"
"Nezu, I just had a conversation with the Hero Commission… I've got some news for you. You're not going to like it. It's regarding Midoriya's position in the hero course. I think… it's better if I tell you about it in person. Are you free anytime soon?"