warnings: implied/referenced past bullying and discrimination against quirks, the USJ incident from outside POV

Tuesday night. Shinsou's first time with the full class of hero hopefuls at the dojo. Izuku's there early, warming up with Wakana and Hiraku.

"My homeroom teacher says I have a lot of potential as a support hero," Hiraku says as he takes off his everyday wear braces in order to put on his exercise braces. Izuku himself wears ankle braces and religiously wraps and tapes his wrists. He has a brace for his left wrist, but he tries not to wear it unless necessary—most of the time, tape and wraps will do him just fine.

"It's not a flashy limelight position, but honestly, I don't think I'd want to be one of the limelight heroes, anyway," Hiraku continues, fastening down the last strap on his knee braces and moving onto his ankle braces. "It seems like they spend a lot of time worrying about the media and not enough time worrying about saving people."

"Isn't that the truth," Izuku replies, his tone flat as he begins to stretch his arms. "Both my main mentors are, or were, underground. They both take any chance given to complain about the commercialization and sensationalizing of heroics."

"Are you planning on going underground?" Wakana asks, and Izuku shrugs, shaking his arms as he switches stretches.

"I haven't decided yet," he replies. "What about you?"

"I also haven't decided," she agrees.

Aomi is the next one to arrive, dropping her bag in the usual spot and jogging over to the other three to join them. Hiraku is finishing up with his braces, so she waits and then starts working on partner warm-ups with him.

Ichihei and Shinsou arrive at about the same time, and Izuku can see the double take Shinsou does as he catches sight of the very large, tree-like teenager.

"Hey!" Hiraku says, launching to his feet. "It must be our newbie! I'm Koizumi Hiraku. I go to Ketsubutsu!"

"Shinsou Hitoshi," Shinsou says. "U.A."

Mashirao finally joins them, coming out of the side room as their doing introductions. He's followed by Kazue and Isozaki, with Kazue making a beeline right for Shinsou.

"You must be Shinsou," she says. "I'm Ojiro Kazue. My wife's told me what she thinks of you, but I look forward to seeing what you're capable of myself. She said she expects some peer teaching to be happening?"

"I do," Isozaki takes over, talking as the seven teens warm up together. "Now. You six," she says, pointing out Izuku, Hiraku, Mashirao, Aomi, Ichihei, and Wakana individually, "have been a unit for years. I fully expect you to open your arms for Shinsou. Do not make him feel like a seventh wheel."

"Yes ma'am!"

"The six of you will be taking turns working with him," she continues. "You think you're all advanced, correct? Let's see how well you can teach a beginner, then. Kazue and I will be keeping our eyes on you. Don't let us down."

"Yes ma'am!"

She nods and turns to Mashirao and Hiraku. "You two are going to be peer teaching first. When I have you switch out, it will be Midoriya and Nakano, and then Shibayama and Roka. Got it? Good. Midoriya and Roka, center."

Kazue leads Mashirao, Hiraku, and Shinsou to a spot a few meters away from the main group. Izuku can't watch, having been prompted up to go first, but the next time he has a chance to look, it seems like things are going well, with Hiraku showing Shinsou something.

"You don't have to mom him," Aomi says, and Izuku startles and glances over at where she just… appeared. "He'll be fine."

"I know," Izuku replies.

Aomi's dark eyes tell him that she's not convinced, but she shrugs and lets it go, fixing her attention on Ichihei and Wakana's spar.

Given that Kazue and Isozaki have a license to train quirks, the hero hopefuls often do work on quirks, too. They can't get as wild and destructive as students at well-funded schools (like U.A.) but they can use them. To be honest, Izuku's excited to see what Shinsou's quirk is. The two of them, plus Wakana, are probably some of the only members of class 1-C who haven't shared their quirks with anyone.

(He knows that there's rumors running around that he and Shinsou are quirkless, but that doesn't bother him. He did spend most of his life pretending to be such, after all, so it'll take more than just some rumors to get to him.)

All six experienced students have had their turn working with Shinsou by the time their halfway break happens. They have ten minutes, as long as they keep their muscles warm, to do whatever they want. Izuku takes the time to find Shinsou.

"How are you liking it?" he asks.

Shinsou groans. "I thought I was in good shape. That was before this. We still have an hour to go?"

"Yeah." Izuku chuckles. "I can share some workout tricks with you that I use, if you want. Just remember: chocolate milk is king."

"Chocolate milk is king," Shinsou repeats, nodding dully. "Got it."

After the break, they do a quick re-center (they refuse to call it a warm-up, since technically, they're supposed to stay warm over the break) and then it's quirk time. Isozaki, a devilish grin on her face, calls up Shinsou and Wakana first.

Izuku gets the feeling she knows something he doesn't. (She does—you have to disclose your quirk, or lack of one, on the form to join the class, after all.)

Shinsou, to Izuku's surprise, looks… reluctant? About the prospect of using his quirk in a spar. Huh.

"You're free to begin," Kazue says.

"Why did the chicken cross the road?" Shinsou asks, taking everyone by surprise, including Wakana, who lets a confused what? out.

And her eyes go blank, and she stops moving. Kazue hands some money to Isozaki while the students stare at Shinsou and Wakana, eyes wide.

Izuku is the first to move, going so fast that it's almost like he vanishes and reappears at Shinsou's side.

"Holy shit! Is that your quirk? Some sort of… of brainwashing?" he moves so he can examine Wakana, waving his hand in front of her eyes. No response. There's no response from Shinsou, either. "It looks like it's activated by call-and-response, verbally here, but I wonder if it could be activated non-verbally, too? How specific does the reply have to be? Can you dodge the activation by addressing your reply to someone else? Can you give commands, or is it just… zombification?" Izuku jabs Wakana in the shoulder, and she startles back to life with a gasp.

"Woah," she breathes, eyes wide. "That was trippy."

"Hey, Izuku," Ichihei says, extending a branch arm out to stop him in his orbit of Shinsou and Wakana. "Maybe give him a chance to respond?"

"Yeah, yeah, of course," Izuku says, turning back to Shinsou. "So a hard enough physical hit can break the hypnosis? It has to be, I only used one finger there."

"Uh… yes," Shinsou replies, blinking, looking completely taken aback. "Yes, a hard enough physical jolt will break them out of the brainwashing. Uh… it's only verbal response that activates it, and I can give commands, as long as they're simple. Anything with too many steps or too much complexity fails. And, uh, yeah, it works even if you're technically addressing someone else, as long as it's a response to me in nature."

"That is so cool," Izuku breathes, flitting over to Shinsou's side.

Shinsou, who looks so confused. "You're not… angry?" He addresses this mostly to Wakana, who shakes her head.

"No," she replies. "My singing voice can do something similar, you know. I think that's why Ms. Ojiro and Ms. Isozaki paired us. We have very similar quirks."

"Oh," Shinsou says. He turns to the rest of the group. "And all of you? You're not… scared? Disgusted?"

"What," Izuku hisses, a flash of anger in his blood. "Who has told you your quirk is disgusting? I need to know. Just to have a chat. Just a friendly chat."

Ichihei rests a branch on Izuku's shoulder again. Their touch is grounding. "I'm not scared," they say. "I also want to know where you got the idea your quirk is disgusting from. It's a quirk. People shouldn't make value judgments based on it alone."

Shinsou inhales, sharp and shaky, as he turns to Aomi, Hiraku, and Mashirao.

"And… and you? You don't think that I'm, that I'm a villain in the making?"

"Because of your quirk?" Aomi asks, shaking her head. "Ichihei's wise. You should listen to them."

"No one's evil just because of their quirk," Mashirao agrees, nodding his head.

Hiraku takes a few steps forward and rests his hand on Shinsou's shoulder. "No one here is going to judge you for your quirk. We're all a little… odd, here, in our own ways. Wakana's quirk, she already mentioned, is very similar to yours. My quirk lets me bend my joints all the way backwards. Ichihei is a tree, Mashirao has that huge tail, and just wait until you see what Izuku can do. We get it, Shinsou. I think you've been alone for a very long time, but you don't have to be, not anymore, not with us."

Izuku suddenly understands why his crying can freak people out sometimes, as Shinsou suddenly bursts into tears.

It takes them a solid ten minutes to all recollect themselves, and then it's Ichihei against Wakana and then Hiraku against Mashirao. Both fights drag on a while, considering they're all fairly evenly matched and know each other's fighting styles, mostly.

Finally, it's Izuku facing Aomi. There are buckets of water hanging out next to them for her to use, although she and Izuku will be responsible for cleaning up the spills (there will undoubtedly be spills).

Izuku, while preparing, pulled the tape off his fingertips so he has all ten bare. There's no visual indication of his quirk, not like some people with five-point quirks, but from Shinsou's expression, he's noticed the deliberate application and removal of tape.

Well. Izuku only hopes that his quirk can live up to Hiraku's hype.

"Begin," Isozaki says. Aomi immediately starts backing up, pulling water out of the buckets, as Izuku darts forwards. She put on sweats and a long-sleeved shirt just for him, so he has to either get a lucky shot on a hand or duck underneath her guard and get a touch in on her face or neck. She tends to have large, wide movements when manipulating water, but he knows they're carefully guarded gaps in her defense, and he has to make his own opening.

Dodge a punch, duck to the left, they've traded places. He keeps moving, weaving around. She's focusing a lot on keeping hold of all her water at once, and, honestly, she has improved on that front quite a bit since the beginning of the school year.

Her focus on her water is her undoing: Izuku rolls underneath one blob of water and comes up underneath her guard, way inside the theoretical blood circle of her arms, and slaps five fingers down on her cheek, the sound of the smack loud in his face. His fingertips glow red, there's a brief flash of red lightning which crackles over her body and around the water she's controlling, and then the water drops to the floor with a splash. Some of it actually douses Shinsou, who has now learned to stay out of the splash zone when Aomi is fighting.

From there, it gets harder to spar her, since now she can focus solely on fighting him. In the end, he does throw her to the ground (into her own puddle of water!), and reaches a hand out to help her up, both of them panting hard as he snaps the fingers of his other hand, a brief crackle of red energy passing between them as her quirk comes back online.

"Wow," Shinsou breathes, and Izuku turns to see him staring at the two of them, eyes wide. "Are you related to Eraserhead?"

Izuku shrugs. "Yeah," he replies. Shinsou's eyes go, if possible, even wider.

"I'm still keeping my quirk a secret at school so that I can get a leg up on the competition," Izuku continues, first looking at Shinsou, and then turning a glare at Mashirao and Aomi. "So no telling."

"Wouldn't dream of it!" Aomi says, pulling off a snappy salute.

"I'm keeping mine a secret, too, for now," Shinsou adds, looking around the group. "So same to you."

"That's great," Isozaki drawls. "Midoriya, get moving. You have cleaning to do."

"Yes ma'am," he says.

The rest of the group cools down and stretches as he cleans up and they all linger with him despite the presence of all their parents there. Izuku catches sight of a woman with long purple hair, a similar shade to Shinsou's, and points her out to him.

"Is that your mom?" he asks.

"Older sister," Shinsou replies. "My mom's the one with black hair. They both insisted on coming to pick me up, even though I told them they didn't need to."

"Oh, so that's actually your mom talking to my mom," Izuku says.

Shinsou squints. "Oh, I can see the resemblance now."

"Can you?" Izuku asks, voice dry. "It's not like we have the same hair color, or the same eyes, or anything like that."

He smiles as Shinsou snorts. "Okay, fine. It was pretty obvious."

Mashirao hangs back, saying his good-byes as the other six walk over to the parent group, together. Hiraku pats Shinsou on the back as he leaves with his brother, telling him that he's looking forward to Thursday. Wakana waves and grins—a full, shark-toothed grin—at Shinsou, prompting her mother to look at her like she's grown a second head.

Izuku observes Shinsou's mother and sister as the class disburses. There's an expression of disbelief, carefully masked, and something sours in Izuku's stomach.

He ignores it, for now, turning to Shinsou with a grin. "I'll see you in class tomorrow!"

"See you," Shinsou replies, waving as Izuku turns to leave with his mother.

"So that's Shinsou," she says, and Izuku nods. "I was talking with his mother. You should invite him over for dinner sometime."

"Alright," Izuku says, already planning on doing that.

Snipe runs out of class on Friday, leaving Class Rep Mori in charge.

"What the fuck is that about?" one of their classmates asks, staring out the door Snipe just rushed out of.

"No clue," Izuku replies, also staring.

"Hey, does this mean we can go home early?" One of the slacker-adjacent kids (no true slacker could get into U.A.) asks.

"No!" Mori says, standing up and striding to the front of class. "Instead we can, uh, do a talent show?"

"Full class study session!" someone suggests, and then everyone's suggesting things to do, all one over the other, speaking all at once.

"HEY!"

Everyone freezes, shutting up to turn and see Yamazaki standing at her desk in the back corner, hands flat where she'd slapped them down on it.

"Be respectful!" she snaps. "Snipe left Kazuko in charge. Kazuko, what are we doing?"

"We are…" Mori pauses, clasping her hands together. "Going to watch educational videos."

"Ah, a staple of substitutes everywhere," someone says, just as Izuku gets a text from Aomi.

did snipe just run out of class? cause mr. kan just did and i'm curious

His stomach drops as he types out a response.

Yes. Something must be wrong. Our Class Rep is putting on a video—what's happening there?

The reply comes a few moments later.

chaos. we were in the middle of practical training so everyone just kinda went all battle royale and poor kendou can't get anyone in line because monoma started a revolt :\

Oh. Oh boy. All of a sudden, Izuku is very glad he's not in class 1-B, though he can't shake the feeling that something very, very wrong is happening, to have two teachers rush out of class at the same time.

That's when he notices Wakana's eyes on him and turns to catch the question in them. He texts her the answer.

Aomi just told me that Vlad King ran out of 1-B the same time Snipe did

Wakana's eyes widen as she reads the message, and she looks over at Izuku, worry written all over her expression.

Izuku, for his part, texts Mashirao—Did Mr. Aizawa just run out of class?

There's no response.

That's okay, maybe he was dealing with a situation similar to Aomi's?

It's more worrying when there's still no answer fifteen minutes later.

As a matter of fact, Izuku doesn't get his answer until school's almost over, when the P.A. system crackles to life and Nedzu makes an announcement.

"Students, I regret to inform you that class 1-A was attacked by villains during a field trip today. Press is already at the gates, and you will be escorted out the back entrance by class, starting with the first years' class 1-B. To our knowledge at this moment, everyone involved will recover, so please don't panic!"

Wait, what? Izuku leaps to his feet, heart in his throat. Class 1-A was attacked by villains? Mashirao's in that class! Iida, Shouji, Jirou, and Tokoyami are in that class! Aizawa is their homeroom teacher!

Wakana had stood with him, and they look at each other, the same expression of shock on their faces. They knew what they were told to do, but what should they do?

"Midoriya, Nakano, sit back down," Yamazaki snaps. Her expression looks… tighter. A lot tighter.

They do as they're told. There's nothing they can do in this moment, is there.

Ten minutes later, and Ectoplasm is the teacher sent to retrieve them.

"If you'll follow me in an orderly fashion," he said. An order, not a request.

The class does so.

Izuku and Wakana walk together to the train with a group of their 1-C classmates. Shinsou walks just behind Izuku, slouched with his hands in his pockets. Izuku can't shake the buzzing in his ears.

His friends had just been attacked.

His school had just been attacked.

Some people point and whisper. The attack is already being reported on, it's already in the news, and they're all wearing U.A. uniforms.

No one approaches them, though.

"Can I go home with you?" Wakana asks, her voice a ghost in the noise of the train.

"Let me ask my mom," he says. There's no way his mom will say no.

She doesn't, so Wakana doesn't get off at her stop. She gets off with Izuku and follows him to his apartment. Shinsou tags along, a tall, silent purple shadow.

His mother is waiting when he and his friends come inside. She takes one look at them, gasps "oh, Izuku", and all but runs over to pull him into the biggest hug she can manage. It takes him a moment to remember to hug back.

"I haven't heard from Mashirao, or Mr. Aizawa," he whispers.

"I'm sure they're okay," she replies, her voice soft.

He has no tears at the moment, none of them do, so his mom settles them on the couch with feel-good movies and a whole bunch of popcorn.

heroes or bust!

Ojiro Mashirao

received: 18:01

I'm okay

Roka Aomi

received: 18:01

oh thank fuck

Shibayama Ichihei

received: 18:01

I'm so glad! I was so worried when I saw the news!

Koizumi Hiraku

received: 18:01

Oh that's so good to hear. They initiated lock-in protocols here and wouldn't tell us why until they sent us home. I was so worried.

Roka Aomi

received: 18:01

is everyone in your class ok? shouji? jirou? tokoyami?

Ojiro Mashirao

received: 18:02

Yeah, they're all okay. There were almost no major injuries.

Nakano Wakana

received: 18:02

Almost no?

Ojiro Mashirao

received: 18:02

None of the major injuries were students.

"No," Izuku whispers, staring at his phone, the noise of the movie blurring into the background of his mind.

"We can't know for sure that Mr. Aizawa was one of the major injuries," Wakana says, and Izuku shakes his head, pushing her hand off his shoulder as he stands and begins to pace.

"No, no, Mashirao—no, there's a reason Mashirao isn't saying any specifics, it's because he knows and he's not—he's—he's," Izuku stutters to stop, with his words and his movements.

"No," he whispers, sinking to his knees as his mother and friends rush over.

heroes or bust!

Shinsou Hitoshi

received: 18:07

Was Mr. Aizawa one of the major injures?

Ojiro Mashirao

received: 18:23

Yes

i hope you enjoyed this chapter! thanks to everyone who's reviewed, favorited, and followed! i appreciate every one!

anyways how's everyone doing with that social distancing lol

i'll see you all next time!

(x-posted on ao3, username: orkestrations)

Hiraku: *comforts Shinsou*

Shinsou: I'm gay

Shinsou: I'm not here to make friends.

Hero Hopefuls Class: *exists*

Shinsou: I have six friends

Vlad King: *leaves*

Monoma: Is this license to cause chaos?