Izuku arrived early the next day, which proved to be a good thing since several people with cameras and microphones were loitering around the gate. Reporters.

He didn't like crowds at the best of times, or collections of people lying in wait for someone to come around. This was developing into both, and it likely had everything to do with the article that announced All Might having taken up a teaching position at UA. Reporters, especially those around heroes, didn't let up or back off easily, and he didn't imagine that any of these people would be different. And since they were camped at the main entrance, they were probably there to talk to students, not teachers. Teachers had ways to avoid the main entrance, he was sure. Students usually didn't.

He stopped and pulled out the campus map to see if there was another entrance he could use, but the main gate was the easiest and best way into UA, so he was going to have to risk the attention. There was a collection of maybe a dozen people there, and from what he could hear, there were more coming. Which meant this was the best time to get in before the collection turned into a media mob.

Drawing on all of his skills from middle school to fade into the background, Izuku somehow managed to slip past the reporters with only a sharp call after him. It wouldn't have worked so well if they had acted more like a crowd and he didn't envy anyone who was going to encounter the burgeoning mob by coming later.

He needed to find Aizawa-sensei and hand over the note Power Loader had given him. Which meant he needed to find the teachers' lounge or offices and hope he was in one or the other. Consulting the campus map yet again, he turned down the hallway that promised to have the teachers' lounge and hoped.

He didn't even make it down the hallway. Almost as soon as he turned down it, he saw Aizawa walking toward him.

"Ah, Midoriya. I was hoping to speak with you today. Are you free at the moment?"

Izuku had thought he was mentally prepared to talk to his teacher, but apparently only when he had been seeking Eraserhead, not the other way around. "Uh, yes?" He tried desperately to recollect his frazzled thoughts. "I mean, I was actually looking for you. I have a note to give you from Power Loader."

Aizawa frowned. "Did your costume need adjustments already?"

Izuku shook his head. "No, I went to the support labs because I had a few questions about what they did down there. I'm interested in support tech and what it would take to make my own." It was the simplest explanation for everything that wouldn't immediately incriminate him. What was more, it was true. Having support items made and provided by people in the support track was all well and good, but he wasn't always going to have access to the sort of resources UA had, so if he could figure out how to make his own, so much the better.

If he could reproduce them the same way he managed to grow scarves, he only ever needed to worry about finding raw materials.

"Oh. That would explain a few of the comments Maijima made yesterday. I'd wondered why he was acting so smug." Aizawa accepted the note from Izuku and led him back down the hall to one of the conference rooms. Once they were inside and sitting down, he pinned Izuku in place with an indecipherable look. "I was going over the footage from Battle Training yesterday and noticed a few discrepancies in your file."

Izuku's heart immediately leapt into his throat. This was the moment. This was where everything fell apart. "Discrepancies?" he choked out, hoping he'd be able to fight this, even though he doubted he'd be successful.

Maybe there really was a law somewhere about faking a quirk.

"Yes. Like the fact your quirk was registered less than a year ago." Aizawa shifted in his seat and suddenly he was Eraserhead the underground hero instead of Aizawa the tired teacher. "Why is that?"

"I got my quirk really late. Late enough that everyone already thought I was quirkless." It was a lie, and it tasted like ash on his tongue. He could only pray to whatever beings watched over him that Eraserhead wouldn't realize it. "At that point, I just wanted something for myself. It was already as bad as it could be, I didn't want it to get any worse by suddenly showing up with a quirk. There were kids that used to say I'd steal people's quirks if they got too close. I knew if I said anything, someone would suddenly remember that, and I'd be the quirkless freak who stole someone's quirk."

The best lies always had some truth to them. He'd managed to lie to his mother about the bullying in school by saying it wasn't that bad, which was true in that he could imagine all the ways it could be worse for him. Bakugou and the others were looking to cause pain, to humiliate them. He let them succeed in that, let them think they could break him down, and things at school were manageable. Kids had really thought he could steal their quirks. Whenever someone new transferred into the school, the first thing they learned was that he was quirkless, which meant he was obviously looking to steal someone's quirk.

Somehow the story had died when he never claimed the scarf as a quirk. When they came to the conclusion themselves, spurred on by the natural bias to consider anything particularly unusual the product of a quirk, everyone was suddenly so much nicer to him. He didn't let them get close enough to hurt him, and he thought they might have understood that.

"There was no mentioning of bullying in your records. Did you talk to your teachers about it?"

Izuku couldn't help the sour expression that twisted across his face. "I tried to at first, but they wouldn't do anything about it because I was quirkless. I'm pretty sure a couple of teachers tried to say I was instigating things. But I wasn't. Most of the time, I didn't even fight back because they would use that against me."

Eraserhead frowned. "None of that is in your file. How recently did your quirk develop? I assume it's been more than a year."

"I was 12." The scarf tightened around his chest, encouraging him to sit up a little straighter in his seat. "By that point, I didn't think I'd ever get a quirk, so I hid it from everyone. But I've been practicing almost constantly, whenever I could, to get it under control."

"That was when you took up gymnastics, then."

Izuku nodded. "And as many self-defense classes as I could manage. I always wanted to be a hero. That was when I finally figured out that I needed to do something about it." He didn't add that he came to this conclusion because that was when he realized it was pointless waiting for a quirk that would never come. He didn't expand on the broken dreams he had built upon, dragging himself out of the ruins of his childhood expectations to meet the future with a more realistic point of view.

He wondered if anyone would know that side of the story someday, how the life he was currently fighting to live started in a dark alley late at night with a capture scarf that didn't used to be his. He wondered if he'd ever be able to tell Eraserhead how much his very existence meant to him.

"If you were planning on keeping your quirk to yourself, why register it at all?"

Izuku shrugged. "Because people found out." He bit his lip, unsure how much he should share. Bakugou hadn't done anything to him at UA yet, technically, but the possibility was always there. At the same time, he didn't want to be the reason Bakugou didn't get to become a hero. The actions Bakugou took may be on him, but if Izuku was the one to set everything in motion, he could only see things getting worse between them. He had managed to convince his mother not to cut ties with Mitsuki over it or even mention it if it didn't become a problem again, but he was stuck holding his breath and hoping Bakugou wouldn't do anything stupid where people were actually paying attention.

Aizawa's eyes narrowed. "How exactly did they find out? Your reaction says there's a bit of a story there."

"The teacher had announced to the class that I intended to apply to UA and some of my classmates weren't happy with that." He looked away, hoping Aizawa wouldn't ask for names. "They took some of my things so I couldn't just leave, then tossed it out the window. The first thing I trained when I got my quirk was how to grab things until it was almost instinctual. And I didn't want to lose that notebook, so I just reached after it and the tendril grabbed it out of midair. Everyone was so shocked that it happened that I was able to get away. When I got to class the next day, everyone was congratulating me on how my quirk finally came in and the teacher handed me a registration form for it."

Eraserhead's gaze was heavy on him. Izuku didn't even need to look to know they were both aware that there was more to the story than just that.

Thankfully, the man didn't press the issue. "You trained on your own to do what you do?"

Izuku nodded. "Whenever and wherever I could, as long as no one was around. A lot of it happened in my room or on Dagobah beach, since no one in their right mind would go there."

"I hesitate to speculate what that means about you." Aizawa pulled the note from Power Loader out of his pocket and read it. "So, support tech. I'll have to talk with Maijima and figure out if there's something in your schedule that can be replaced with a science class or if this is all going to be after-school work, but I'll see what I can do. As for right now, you should head to class."

Nodding, Izuku stood. "Thank you, sensei. For listening." And maybe Aizawa could tell now how much that meant to him knowing even just some small pieces of his past. No one had listened to him before. When they did, they blamed the bad things on him. To have a teacher willing to listen and take his story at face value was more valuable than all the placating words previous teachers had thrown at him.

The natural bias against quirklessness was apparently working in his favor yet again, as Aizawa didn't even question the unlikeliness of a quirk coming in that late. It was a bit frustrating that no one believed someone quirkless could be capable of the things he accomplished, but as long as it kept people unaware of what he actually did, he would hide his disappointment in their social blindness.

Izuku sat in his seat and let himself relax just a bit. His classmates were slowly trickling in, but he didn't put a lot of thought or effort into being mentally present at that moment. He was tired and stressed, but somehow okay at the same time. The conversation with Aizawa had settled him in a way, grounded all of the loose and panicked feelings. He wanted to trust the man, to believe that Bakugou wouldn't be the problem at UA that he'd been at Aldera because Eraserhead was looking into things.

Maybe it was selfish, but he wanted the teachers to be on his side this time.

Aizawa entered, calling the class to attention and announcing the need to select a class representative, before tucking himself into his yellow sleeping bag. For all appearances to the contrary, Izuku didn't think he actually went to sleep whenever he did that. Did he need the sleep? Probably. But he never relaxed enough for Izuku to believe he'd actually fallen asleep.

Izuku was still mostly stuck in his head when they agreed to put it to a vote. The ballots were hastily constructed and passed out, and he took the moment of silence while everyone was trying to make their decisions to look at the people in the classroom. He didn't know anyone other than Uraraka, Iida, and Bakugou all that well. He wasn't going to vote for Bakugou. Any ties of loyalty between them needed to be broken for his own peace of mind and health. He couldn't be sure if Iida or Uraraka would want the position. Someone had pointed out that most people would vote for themselves, but Iida at the very least didn't seem like that sort of person.

Thinking about it, Iida was also rule-conscious in the way a class rep should be, and rigidly responsible. Which was enough to make the decision for him. He wrote down Iida's name and passed it to the box where they were collecting the ballots.

Needless to say, it came as a complete surprise to him when his name had the most tally marks beside it. It was only four, but when most people only had one vote for them, it was still significant. Yaoyorozu came right behind him with three votes, and Asui after her with two.

He stared helplessly at the board at the front of the room for a minute before he forced himself to stand and address the class.

"I'm sorry, but I don't think I can take the position. I already have a lot of responsibilities and I recently took on another, so I don't think I'd have the time to do the position justice," he admitted. If the science class was going to happen after-school, his already tightly budgeted time was going to get even smaller and he really didn't want to upset the whole class by choosing his own education over any tasks he was meant to fulfill for them. "With the votes being what they are, I think Yaoyorozu and Asui should be the rep and vice rep."

"What are you doing?" Kaminari asked. "If you can't be the class rep."

Izuku shrugged. "I have my usual training, school obviously, homework, and I just asked to add science classes to my schedule, so that's another commitment that will take a lot of time and energy." He sat back down. "I'm sorry, but I'd prioritize my education first over other responsibilities, and I don't want to let any of you down by forgetting something important if I were the class rep."

"That makes sense," Ashido chirped. "And I'm all for girl power!"

"If you've all decided then," Aizawa cut in, rising out of his sleeping bag like the walking dead, "your class rep is Yaoyorozu Momo and your vice rep is Asui Tsuyu. Congratulations. Now go to lunch."

Once they were crowded around a table in the lunchroom, Izuku let himself relax a little. Sitting behind Bakugou gave him the perfect angle to see how Bakugou's shoulders tensed when the votes were totaled. He didn't say anything, but Izuku had never needed Bakugou's words to help interpret his body language. That had become a matter of survival, one he neglected to dwell on the necessity of for a long time. The fact that nothing had happened yet between them was setting his nerves on edge because the explosion in the moment wasn't as bad as the anticipation. But when Bakugou waited, when he stored up all that rage, the resulting explosion-both in words and fire-was always terrible. The last time it happened, Izuku barely managed to avoid his mother finding out about it, and only because she came home late.

"So, science classes?" Uraraka remarked. "I had noticed they weren't really included in our schedules. Is there any reason why you wanted to put them back in?"

Izuku glanced up. "Oh. Um, it's more that the science classes are the basis for getting into support tech. You've got to know what you're doing before you try to make something, right?"

"You have an interest in support technology?" Iida asked. "Why would you not pursue a place in the support department in that case?"

"Because I want to be a hero?" He sighed. "Support tech, as I see it, is sort of an equalizer between people with different power levels. Take what Todoroki can do, for example. He iced over that whole building in the exercise, which made the floors slippery and blocked doors. You could combat the slipperiness of the ice with a number of things. Spikes on shoes, a bunch of gravel or sand, even a flamethrower. The flamethrower would work on the blocked doors too because it would melt the ice. Or you could just use an ice pick. And that's just fighting the effects of his quirk. Against Todoroki himself, you could use pretty much any ranged weapon, provided he didn't see it coming. And even if he did, you would effectively trap him in place or have him on the defensive. You could move and avoid whatever he attempts to throw at you, but he wouldn't be able to leave his protection without risking getting caught and taken down."

"You've put a lot of thought into this, haven't you, Midoriya-kun?" Uraraka mused. "I'm not sure I would have thought of that."

"Well, all you need to do to defeat Todoroki is get close enough to touch him. He always makes his ice from his right foot. If you managed to separate his connection to the ground, he wouldn't be able to send out those big ice attacks and he doesn't really have a way to propel himself in the air as far as I'm aware. Bakugou would be a little bit more trouble because I know he's tried flying with his explosions, but most people don't think they'll be flying, so most of your opponents would be disoriented if they suddenly didn't have any gravity. I don't have that kind of power, though, so I have to think of other ways. At the moment, my best strategies are distract, deflect, and outlast. With support items, I can give myself more options in a fight. Knowing how to make them means I don't have to go into a fight without something I need because I can make what I need."

"An admirable strategy. Although I have to wonder, have you-?"

Before Iida could finish his question, the sound of an alarm shattered the relatively calm atmosphere of lunch. The PA system crackled to life over the top of the din and announced, "Security level 3 has been broken. All students please evacuate in an orderly fashion."

"Level three?" Izuku glanced around at the mob of upperclassmen who apparently didn't hear the second part of the announcement considering how they converged on the doors in a distressed panic that would have put his middle school self to shame. There was nothing orderly about the crowd rapidly bottle-necking the door, trampling one another to get out.

"What is security level 3?" Iida demanded of a passing upperclassman.

"It means someone's infiltrated the building! This has never happened here!"

A chill traveled down Izuku's spine. It was only their third day, and already something had gone very, very wrong. And as much as he knew it couldn't be his fault, he couldn't shake the distant feeling of guilt he shouldn't have. Uraraka pulled him along to the crowd behind her, but he pulled away on the edge of it. The crush of bodies was too much. He didn't want to be touched and jostled and tossed between people until he inevitably ended up on the floor getting stepped on and kicked. It wouldn't even be on purpose this time, and that somehow made the idea of it worse.

There were more people behind him, all attempting to join the crowd pushing itself slowly through the much too narrow entrance to the lunchroom. Before he could pull out, he was trapped between them, being dragged along and under. He looked up, searching for something that might be able to carry his weight on the ceiling before throwing one end of the capture scarf to catch on one of the crossbeams.

When it was secure, he pulled himself up out of the crowd and as close to the ceiling as he could manage. The chaos continued below him, and he tried to search for his friends among the mob. He only found them when Iida shouted Uraraka's name, reaching across several people in order to get her to make him float. He lost his glasses as he floated upward. He didn't even seem to notice Izuku clinging to the ceiling beam like a limpet.

Izuku noticed him, however, and the out of control spin he sent himself into using his engines to propel him while he had his gravity negated. Lashing out with the capture scarf, he managed to snag Iida's ankle before he could careen painfully into the wall. He had enough experience to know how much it hurt to be blasted into a wall, regardless of the fact it was Iida's decision to do it.

Grabbing onto the pipe above the exit sign, Iida's eyes trailed up from the end of the capture scarf wrapped around his ankle until he noticed Izuku perched in the ceiling. Izuku waved sheepishly, and Iida nodded before turning his attention to the panicked mob.

"Calm down!" He shouted, pulling the attention of the room to him where he hung above the exit sign. "It's just the press! There's no actual danger and the teachers are taking care of it! Everything is fine!"

Izuku swung between beams until he was hanging nearby to catch Iida when Uraraka would eventually cancel her quirk on him. It was starting to become an interesting strategy, floating someone so they could get somewhere they couldn't otherwise reach. Now that the crowd and the frenetic energy of the room had calmed, he felt less like he needed to hide and lowered himself closer to the ground. When it thinned enough for Iida to safely land, Izuku wrapped one end of the scarf around Iida's chest as Uraraka cancelled her quirk on him, following him down the rest of the way to the ground.

"Thank you for the assistance, Midoriya-kun," Iida said, bowing. "I overestimated how much power to use to boost myself."

"It's fine," Izuku said, trying to wave off the attention. "It's not really fun crashing into walls at speed and I didn't want you to get hurt. And it can be easy to lose control of yourself when you don't have any gravity to slow you down."

"Is that what you did in the battle trial?" Uraraka asked. "You came around that corner so quickly."

He nodded, rubbing the back of his neck. "I used my tendrils to turn myself into a slingshot and caught the last door on the corner to swing around. Probably not the smartest thing to do, but it worked."

Uraraka blinked at him. And stared. And opened her mouth, then closed it again. She shook herself. "Midoriya-kun, you are a whole brand of crazy I've never encountered before and I'm glad we're friends because I don't think I'd know how to handle that otherwise." She giggled. "I'm not sure I know how to handle that now. Just casually popping up to the ceiling because the crowd's getting pushy, throwing yourself down a hallway and hoping to catch yourself before you careen into a wall. The worst part is that it almost makes sense!"

"Uh..."

Uraraka threw an arm around his shoulders. "I mean, I knew you were a bit crazy after the entrance exam, but I don't think I fully understood. I'm pretty sure it's too late now. At the end of this, I'm going to be just as crazy as you!"

Izuku wasn't sure if that was supposed to be a compliment or not, but he decided not to question it too deeply. He was a little afraid of the answer.

Hope you liked the chapter! It's a bit shorter than usual, but I didn't have anything else I wanted to add here. In related news, I have up through chapter 18 plotted out (not written, mind you, just plotted) so this story isn't going anywhere anytime soon.

Please feel free to leave reviews, follows and favorites at your leisure! I may not always respond, but I do read them!