The rest of the break was... A little boring. I didn't really leave the house. And stayed home with Eri and Dad instead.
I took a deep breath, trying to steel my nerves before walking into the classroom, where there would be people who had to witness...
He exhaled, opening the door-
"Izuku!!" I was startled by Toga rushing up to me as soon as I open the door, shutting it on her in response. Realizing what I did, I opened the door.
"I- dont scare me like that! Im so sorry!" She was grinning with a madman, but I could see the tears pricking at the edges of her eyes and the bright red spot on her nose she was rubbing.
"You're fine!" She said, before going back to her previously hyper state.
"What are you doing here?" I ask her, and she beams.
"I got switched with bakugou!" She said, bouncing in the balls of her feet. I blink in surprise.
"I- b-wha?" I splutter a response, but she doesnt stop.
"Yup! Over break when they decided to put Bakugou in class 1-B, they switched me over to fill his place!!" She said, and I hesitantly smiled.
"Thats great!" I said, scooting around her so I can get to my seat.
"Ooh! I wonder if we're going to have a sub!" She said, sitting where bakugou used to.
"Most likely after what had happened." I heard uraraka state "plus, with the bell ringing in a few minutes-"
The door to the room opened, and I stopped in my tracks.
It was Aizawa sensei, but completely mummified. His arms were in slings, his face completely wrapped up except for two slits for vision. His hair loose around his shoulders. He wore his regular outfit, which begged the question of how he even got it on in this mummified state.
I froze, the image of his bloodied and broken body popping up as the class started protesting to him. I felt like stone, I couldn't make myself move, like sleep paralysis, only worse. Instead of the demon in the corner or the hands coming off the walls, this was real. He was right in front of me after I had watched him stop breathing, as he bled out on the plaza floor.
"Sir, shouldn't you be in the Hospital?" Iida asked, raising his hand.
He made a noise of acknowledgment. "I released myself early so that the substitute that would be stuck with you didnt end up going insane trying to keep you in line." There was a bunch of 'hey!'s, 'rude!'s, and other sorts of dejected noises.
"Now get in your seats before i count all of you tardy, the bells about to ring." Everyone started to shuffle into their seats quickly. I numbingly sat down in mine. I glanced at Toga, and she herself looked extremely uncomfortable and awkward, almost looking like she was going to jump out of her skin.
At least I wasn't the only one.
I took a deep breath, trying to relax in my seat.
"Before we start classes, I want to make an announcement." Aizawa said, standing at the front of the room.
"In two to three weeks U.A will be hosting their annual Sports Festival." The reaction around the class was either that of excitement or groans of regret.
"The sports festival is going to be where some of you shine, and some of you pushed under the rug. This is a school wide event for the first years, departments within the school will be joining in. This is a chance for those in other departments to get into the hero course, and those who are not suited for it put out." A wave of density and fear washed over the class.
"With that in mind, I want everyone in here to take this seriously, because after the sports festival will be internships. Your performance in the sports festival will determine which heros choose you and how much experience you have against hand to hand combat-"
"Aye yae yae shouta, do you have to drone on for so long?" The class turned their heads to the newcomer. Ms. midnight walked into the room, a big furry coat covering most of her hero outfit.
Aizawa groaned, but continued talking. "I was about to finish before you barged into my classroom." He said. And she waved it off.
"Whatever." She said, walking up to the podium, as Aaizawa stepped off.
"Hi! You may all be wondering why I'm here. Today you're going to be choosing hero names!" She said, causing those in confused shock to shout in glee. "Yes yes, i know you're all so very excited, now, if you check under your desks you will find a whiteboard and dry erase marker. I want all of you to write your hero name on the board, and come up here to share it! And I WONT tolerate inappropriate names i'd see from a bunch of middle schoolers!" She barked out the last bit, making some people a little nervous.
The class was quiet, only the sound of squeaking filling the room.
I was having... Difficulties. I didn't know what to come up with, what name would be suiting for a quirkless hero? Half the class had already gone up and shared their names.
"Shut the hell up Deku!"
"Nobody wants a Deku!"
"Deku, go jump off the roof"
"Deku!"
"Deku."
Deku... That... That sounds like something else, but what...
I almost gasped a little at the idea. Now that I thought about it, I was beginning to feel more and more like an idiot. 'How did i never notice this before!?'
I smiled as I wrote down what I wanted my hero name to be.
I raised my hand and was called on. I felt a little nervous, honestly. I offhandedly wondered what people would think when they hear it, especially if he was mentioned on T.V. how would his old classmates react?
"I want my name to be Dekiru!" I said, trying to push away any stutter and not show any nervousness.
Midnight gave me a look "that sounds a lot like 'Deku'..." She said, and I chuckled nervously.
"W-well. That... Thats kinda the rea-reason I picked it. Everyone always called me that, so I decided to use something close to it that means something different, something- something that says "you can do it!" While Also being an od-ode to how i got here and a way to rub in the fact that the kid they bullied became a hero!" I said, rubbing my neck and chuckling nervously.
Midnight smiled, "Dekiru it is then! Go sit down kid." She waved me off, and I left the podium with a smile on my face and cheeks flared with embarrassment.
"Dekiru as in "you can do it!", right?" Ochako asked, and I nodded. "That's a perfect hero name!" She grinned at me, and my cheeks got almost impossibly warmer.
"Its Like a way of saying "im at a disadvantage but I can still do it!"" Kirishima stated, and i hand to turn around a little bit to talk to him.
"A-actually I was think more along the lines of- f encouraging other quirkless people, Ki-kinda like a, um, a beacon. A lot-lot of quirkless people, uh, get bullied and rid-ridiculed for wanting to be heroes, so if they were to see me and see my hero name it would be a comfort to see that through hard work you can still be a hero!"
"Thats so manly!!" Kirishima said, before going to his board, thinking for a second, before writing something down and presenting.
"Red Riot!" He said, and I raised an eyebrow.
"Isnt that really similar to Crimson Riot?" I asked, and he chuckled.
"Yeah, he was a big influence on me, and even though he's retired, its kind of a way to carry his legacy." He said, and I smiled.
"Put more force into your punches!" Master Emiko said, punching pads on her forearms, she had them raised up near her face.
"Says the woman-" he had to pause. Moving out of the way of a kick from her "- using her legs!"
"Shut up and put more force! You gonna win the sports festival with those weak things!? I think not!" She yelled, throwing a punch of her own. I reacted instinctively, shoving her fist out of the way and throwing a punch to her gut which was then blocked by her.
She used that as an opportunity to grab my forearm, spinning me around and holding my arms behind my back. "Quick! What do you do now!"
I kicked backwards and slightly to the left, aiming for her knees. She let go and backed up, leaving me free of her grasp.
"Good!" She yelled, then went back to her pose before, forearms raised with padding. I sighed, going back to punching the padding.
"Put more force into your punches!" She yelled, and I groaned, trying to use more body weight. "By the end of this i want you to be able to break someones jaw, you hear me cupcake!?"
"Stop calling me that!"
"No special treatment!" She yelled, snap kicking upwards, just barely grazing my nose as I backed up in panic.
"Punch harder and maybe I won't have to kick you!!" She yelled, and i sighed, tired from hearing her yell at me for what was-
I sneak a glance at the clock and am shocked.
'ITS ONLY BEEN 30 MINUTES!!! THESE CLASSES LAST FOR 3 HOURS!!!'
Thats when I felt a punch to my gut, crumbling to the ground as all air left my lungs and my stomach muscles convulsing painfully. I heard her sigh. "Stay focused! Don't let me leave your eyesight!!" She said, holding a hand out to help me off the floor.
"You also need to learn to stay up when getting punched! You've been getting better, but what if you loose the festival just because you got punched and fell out of bounds!" She criticized, holding the pads up once again.
"I know!" I said, and she growled.
"Then lower your center of gravity!"
"How the hell do i do that!?"
"Yoga!"
I dodged under a punch.
This was going to be a long day.
Everyone was starting to pack up and go home, some kids laying around the refrigerator, the water fountain, and especially around the AC unites, kids either waiting to be picked up or waiting to use the changing rooms.
I sat on the floor, completely exhausted, my hands sore and overworked, the skin around my knuckles starting to go raw and bleed.
Once his instructor realized his knuckles started to bleed, she had him move to the kicking bags, but not before scolding him for not putting on his arm padding. (He also caught her mumbling to herself and criticizing herself, but he decided not to comment.)
"Kid." He looked up to whom had addressed him, and it was none other than master Emiko.
"Yes?" I asked, and she threw a gatorade at me. I caught it, but i was still confused. "Why-"
"Thats not why im here. Anyways, I wanna talk to you about something." She said, sitting down on the patted floor. I raised an eyebrow.
"With the sports festival coming up, i want to sign you up for some new classes im going to be starting. Its hand to hand combat, like we do in class, but the government is regulating it so we can add minor quirk usage to it." She grinned, and I stared, dumbfounded.
"Wait, What?"
"Yup. It wont be like in the sports festival, but the kids are allowed to use their quirks to an extent. Not enough to hurt the other person, but to make it more of a challenge." She said, and I thought it over.
"That... Could work." I said, opening up the bottle of gatorade. "But Why me? I don't have a quirk-"
"Then why go to U.A?" She asked me. I stopped for a moment. What did she mean? Why go to U.A without a quirk? Why put yourself in danger-?
No. That look in her eyes meant something completely different. 'Why sign up to be a quirkless hero, and then use that as an excuse.' It was almost taunting. 'If you want to use the excuse of being weak, why enable yourself to do the opposite?'
'Why go to U.A if you're only going to whine about being there?'
"I'll do it." I said, and she grinned, standing up.
"Now, give me your hand for a moment." I stood up, raising an eyebrow, but i held out one of my slightly bloody hands.
She did something unexpected. She licked her hand, and before I could move slapped it across my knuckles.
"WHAT THE-" my eyes blew open in shock. The stinging around the knuckles were gone, the blood wiped off and the rawness fading. My body felt extremely hyper, even after the exhausted workout. It almost felt like-
"Do you have a healing quirk?" I asked, looking at my hands, both were free of blood and rawness. She smirked.
"Yup, but its kinda gross. My spit can heal people, theres contents in it that clean out the wounds and speed up the healing process. it acts like a steroided version of what normal spit is like for your own body." She said, and i nodded.
"Normal spit has slight healing properties, no? It cleans the would and helps speed up the healing process cause of cell derived tissue and has antibacterial stuff in it. If your quirk enhances that, even for other people than it would clean the wound and would have cell tissue that could be compatible for all situations and the anti bacterial matter wouldn't affect the others immune system so offensively like normal-"
"Okay I think thats enough crazy analysis for one night. Go home kid, ill sign you up for the other class while im still here." She said, rubbing a hand on my head.
Honestly with how much people do that you'd think i have a quirk where people call me 'kid' and rub my hair. Its kind of annoying at this point.
I smile and nod, picking up my backpack and heading home.
"Hey Izuku!" I stop at the doorway and peer behind me.
"Beat the shit out of the others and win, you hear me?" She said. I grinned and nodded.
~0~
A/N: hey everyone! I wanted to release a 3 chapter filler for those stuck at home due to COVID-19. Im stuck at home for the rest of the school year, and maybe even somewhat into next year. I want everyone know to stay home, whipe down all the belongings baught at the store, buy soaps(you wont believe how many body washes were still at the store, ew.) And stay in contact with your loved ones, even if they arent there physically!
