Ritsu woke up to the sound of faint beeping. His alarm? He didn't remember setting it. Did it always sound that quiet? Not only that, but his bed was a lot softer than he remembered.

He turned to his side to silence his alarm and instead found himself face to face with a deep green curtain. Turning to his right, another curtain faced him.

"What in the—?"

He went to sit himself up and felt a slight tug on his forearm. A long thin tube attached to it by some cloth-like tape. He followed the tube from his arm and to the small bag, full of liquid and hanging from a metal pole, that it was connected to. It was an IV. Why was there an IV in his arm?

Looking down at his body he found that there were multiple electrodes attached to his arms, legs, and chest. Each of them had a wire that connected them to the origin of the beeping. A heart monitor. A heart monitor that was increasingly beeping faster.

Was he in a hospital? Why was he in a hospital? And where was his shirt? What happened?

When he grasped his head, trying to recall his memories, and felt the bandages wrapped around it, he remembered. The attack at the USJ.

He had arrived at the plaza to find All Might in the midst of fighting a purple monster. Bakugou had run off to fight that "dark smokey bastard" so Ritsu was left to stand and watch, unsure of what to do with himself.

He watched as All Might punched Nomu into the side of the building. An impact that resulted in lots of dust flying in the air. Enough dust to provide cover for Nomu.

All Might didn't see Nomu popping up behind him, ready to strike him in the middle of his head, but Ritsu did. And the Shigeo in him told him to do something.

So, just as All Might realized that he was going to be jumped and could do nothing about it, Nomu stopped his fist mere centimeters away from the hero's face. Ritsu held it in place, frightened by the gust of wind that Nomu's fist had caused. Even more frightened at the thought of what might have happened if it had landed.

Nomu glowed with Ritsu's signature blue and it turned its wide eyes toward him.

"Cheats! All of you!" The hand villain screeched. "Nomu! Get this hacker out of the game before he tries to cheat again!" He pointed his dry, pale finger right at Ritsu.

With jerky movements, Nomu strained to turn its head toward him. Ritsu tried to force it to stay in place, but he was pretty sure that he was failing.

Nomu kept on craning its head and Ritsu really had tried his best, but after all of the running around mixed in with his terrible sleep schedule, he felt his hold snap. It was only for an instant, but it was enough.

A large hand grabbed snatched his head and lifted up into the air. For a moment, Nomu held Ritsu with its iron grip and stared at him with its wide eyes. In the next one, it threw Ritsu across the plaza.

As he flew through the air, he reflexively put up a barrier around himself. A barrier that he vividly remembered being shattered once it made contact with the ground. He also remembered how his head violently rattled on impact.

Things got blurrier from there. The image of All Might stepping in to block Nomu's next attack popped into his head. A loud voice that sounded like Iida, saying that helped had arrived. The sharp sound of gunshots in the air. The warmth of his own blood. All Might's shouts of victory. A tall, skinny man, with bright blue eyes, staring at him.

Wait what?

He had to double-check himself, but Ritsu was pretty sure that he had seen a tall man before he had passed out. A tall man that wore the same clothes All Might had worn, stood where All Might had stood, and had cursed when Ritsu saw him.

A curse that Ritsu felt like saying right about now.

"Oh, you're awake." One of the curtains had been drawn and the smiling face of a little old lady faced him. "You've been out for quite a bit," she continued. "It's already 5pm! I wish that I could have used my quirk to speed up your recovery but I'm afraid that, with your amount of stamina, you would have died. Here, have some gummies." She reached into her coat pocket, pulled out about five gummies, and dropped them into his hand. "We tried to contact your parents but we could only reach your brother. He's in the hallway waiting for you."

"Shig—I mean, Teruki's here?" Ritsu mumbled while looking at the multicolored gummies. "Where am I? Who are you?"

"You're in the nurse's office at UA," the old lady said as she pulled out the IV from his arm and the electrodes from his body. She then put the back of her gloved hand to his forehead, nodded to herself, and took a step back. "And I'm the Youthful Heroine: Recovery Girl. Also known as, UA's only nurse."

Youthful Heroine? He really was at UA. Of course they would have medical equipment better suited for a hospital.

"You have a clean bill of health so I'll let you go, but make sure that you get a good night's rest and that you drink lots of fluids. Your parents will be receiving an email before the end of the week about today's events." Recovery Girl made her way out of the room with her giant syringe of a cane and called out, "Your clothes are in the corner. I'll tell your brother to wait a bit before coming in so that you have time to change."

She closed the door behind her and Ritsu looked to the corner. His costume was folded up neatly along with his uniform. He dragged himself out of the bed and took somewhat wobbly steps toward the pile of clothes.

As he was putting his costume jacket over his uniform's short sleeved shirt to protect against the cold of the office, he heard the door slowly creak open behind him.

"My goodness, Teruki," Ritsu said. He was still tired and the natural irritation of Teruki's presence brought did nothing to help. Neither did the reminder that he still had to attend online school after this. "Didn't Recovery Girl tell you that I was changing? You couldn't at least knock?"

"O-Oh, I'm sorry," fumbled out a meek voice that definitely didn't belong to Teruki. "I'll come again later."

Ritsu turned around just in time to see a bush of green hair disappear behind the door.

"Midoriya, wait!" And Midoriya did. "I thought that you were my brother. Could you tell me what happened during that fight with Nomu, I kinda...passed out. But more importantly, what are you even doing here?"

Midoriya stepped back into the room and gave Ritsu a nervous smile. "Aizawa-sensei fought the League of Villains—that's what they called themselves—along with Nomu by himself and got really injured. Despite that, he was able to save Asu—Tsu, from getting her face disintegrated by the hand villain. Then All Might stepped in, you came a bit after that with Bakugou, then you got...tossed. And I broke both of my legs—" Ritsu's eyes went wide at that and Midoriya frantically waved his hands in an attempt to calm him down. "It's happened before so it's not that big of a deal! But anyway, I broke my legs trying to save All Might so I had to go to Recovery Girl. I knew that you were also here so I waited so that I could talk to you."

"Couldn't you just have waited to talk to me tomorrow? Aren't your parents worried?"

"I already talked to my mom and you haven't been that...talkative at school. At least toward me," Ritsu cringed at that. "I just want to know why? You're clearly upset with me. Did I do something wrong?"

Ritsu had been meaning to talk to him about this earlier. He honestly just never got the chance. Now Midoriya was the one initiating the conversation, so it was now or never.

"Look," he started. "You're right. I am upset with you," it was Midoriya's turn to cringe, "but it's only because I'm so tired." Ritsu had been quite placated before but the emotions that ran through him during the battle exercise and the reason why he was so upset in the first place came back full force. "Like, what's going on between you and Bakugou? Why did you go so far in your fight with him? We barely get here and you guys decide to try to kill each other! Can't you see that it's not just about you?" All of a sudden, all the things he had been wanting to say to his brother vomited out of him and spilled onto Midoriya. "There are other people who care about you! Don't you care about me!?"

He slapped his hand over his mouth at that last slip up. Did he not know how to shut up? Midoriya stared slightly down at him with wide eyes. Huh, he was shorter than the freckled boy, he never noticed.

"I-I'm sorry about that," Ritsu finally muttered after an uncomfortable period of silence. "We don't even know each other that well. I don't know what came over me." He kept his eyes to the floor as Midoriya struggled to find his own words.

"It's fine. I didn't know that you cared that much," the boy began, "but, if I'm being honest with myself, I don't think that I would have changed anything about that fight."

Ritsu looked up at Midoriya in bewilderment. He wanted to tell the boy how crazy he sounded but he was cut off before he could even start.

"I mean, I would have talked to you sooner afterwards, but that's all," Midoriya paused, seemingly arguing with himself, and then continued. "Kacchan and I were childhood friends. We were really close too. But then we turned four," his mood dampened even more. "When you turn four, you're supposed to get your quirk right? Well, when Kacchan turned four, he got his explosions. When I turned four, I got nothing. From then on, things changed. My dreams of becoming a hero dropped drastically and he went from a close friend to my worst nightmare. It's hard for me to admit it sometimes, but he was a bully.

"Whenever he could, he would attack or insult me, sometimes both, just because he thought I was quirkless. He always wanted to make sure that I knew that I was worthless. And what's worse? I believed him. I think that what really broke me was after he found out that I was planning to take the UA entrance exam. He told me to make 'the leap of faith' from the roof of our middle school."

Ritsu's body went stiff at that. Bakugou had told Midoriya to commit suicide? The same Bakugou that had looked so frightened and panicked and helpless earlier that same day? It was hard to wrap his mind around. But then again, he didn't know the blond like Midoriya did. Just because Bakugou hadn't hurt him didn't mean that he hadn't hurt others.

Looking at Midoriya's downtrodden face and knowing who caused it made Ritsu's blood boil.

"I had given up hope after that," Midoriya continued on with his story, "but then, like a miracle, my quirk came. And with it, came a courage and hope that I had never felt before. I still had a chance." His face brightened just a bit and he looked like he was off in his own little world. "I took the entrance exam and I got into UA. Bakugou confronted me when he heard the news but I was done being pushed around by him. I'm going to become a hero. And he can do nothing to stop me.

"When we were pitted against each other in the battle trial, it wasn't just a battle. It was my first step to proving that I wasn't worthless. I couldn't let him look at me the same way as before because I wasn't the same as before. I'm not afraid of him and I'm not backing down.

"I doubt that you can relate, but I need you to understand all of the work that it took just to 'barely get here'."

Midoriya let out a shaky breath but kept his eyes locked onto Ritsu's. His story and pure determination were enough to make Ritsu feel lightheaded, but there was one thing he needed to get straight.

"Although I didn't have to deal with the bullying, I do get what it's like to feel powerless," he whispered. "I was a 'late bloomer' too."

Midoriya blinked once in surprise.

"I've had my quirk for less than a year now so I've spent the majority of my life really bitter. Mainly of my brother. Ever since he turned four, he's always been at one with his quirk." He wasn't exactly telling the truth but neither was Midoriya. "For years, I watched him treat a gift that I would have killed for, like something insignificant. I tried to appear happy around him and admire him but really I was just wallowing in my own darkness.

"He went off to who knows where, using his powers for who knows what, while I stayed home and tried to excel in every other aspect of life. I was angry and there was no one I could relate to about the suffocating jealousy I felt whenever I was around him. I felt trapped.

"Then, about ten months ago, all of my emotions came to a head and I just...snapped. Next thing I knew, my spoon—of all things—bent and I developed my quirk."

Ritsu made his way to Midoriya and placed a hand on his shoulder. "So while I processed my emotions differently than you did, I do understand. And I think that I'm the only one here that can."

Midoriya stared at him with glossy eyes and then looked down. He began to softly laugh and wipe his face before looking up and letting out a crooked smile. "Well, we aren't powerless anymore, are we?"

Ritsu let out his own smile in return and replied, "No, I guess we aren't."

"I hope that I'm not intruding on anything," a new voice cut in.

Ritsu looked behind Midoriya to see who it was. Midoriya looked over his own shoulder and brightened with a sense of familiarity at who he saw.

"Oh sorry, did I take too long?"

Teruki, who had a visitor's pass around his neck, waved his hand in a dismissive manner. "No worries. I just wanted to see what was taking Brother-kun so long to come out. I didn't think that your conversation would take this long so I figured that you had already left without me noticing."

Midoriya turned to fully face Teruki and scratched the back of his head. "Sorry for the confusion. Thanks again for letting me speak with Kageyama first." His eyebrows then knitted together as he processed something. He looked between Ritsu and Teruki and asked, "Wait, you're his brother? Not to be rude, but you don't look all that alike."

"Nonsense, you don't know rude until you actually live with Brother-kun, trust me he can be—"

"He's adopted," Ritsu cut him off.

"See what I mean?" Teruki then smiled at Ritsu, "But I came first. So, technically, you intruded into my family with your rude birth."

"Ugh," Ritsu groaned. "You're such a pain you know that?"

Before the boy in question could retort, Midoriya began chuckling at their banter. "I never imagined that your brother would be like this, Kageyama."

"If I was there when my parents were deciding to adopt, he definitely wouldn't have been my first option," Ritsu mumbled.

"You wound me dear brother."

Midoriya smiled to himself again and looked toward the window. The sun was beginning to dip below the horizon.

"I have to head home before it gets dark," he said. Then he looked back to Ritsu and his smile became softer. "I'll see you tomorrow. Try to keep your head safe."

"Only if you look out for your legs." Ritsu then added, "Both of them? Really?"

Midoriya gave him a soft shrug before disappearing out the door.

Teruki made his way to the back of the room and grabbed Ritsu's folded costume. "We should probably follow his lead, don't you think?" As he made his way to the door, he bumped Ritsu's shoulder with his own and stepped out.

Ritsu followed him and they walked together in silence. A silence that didn't last long because he was with Teruki of all people.

"So, do you want to talk about what happened today? Or what about your conversation with the green haired kid? You two seem close; it'll be a shame when you have to leave."

Feeling a headache coming on, Ritsu looked to his 'brother'. "I'd rather not talk about any of those things. I feel terrible and all I want to do right now is go back to the apartment and sleep. And, before you say it, yes, that does mean that I'm not going to do my homework for online school tonight."

Teruki snapped his mouth shut before opening it again. "Okay fine," he said reluctantly. "But I'm getting more information tomorrow."

"Yeah, that's fine with me."

"However," Teruki had more to say, "since you won't talk about your day, I'd like to tell you about mine. It was actually somewhat eventful. Butterscotch got stuck in a tree and All Might, came in and saved her from falling to her tiny doom while also stopping a car from hitting me!"

That seemed to wake Ritsu up. He looked to Teruki with wide eyes and asked, "When did that happen?"

Somewhat confused by Ritsu's sudden interest, Teruki stumbled out, "Fairly early in the morning. Long after you had already left for school though."

Ritsu didn't respond to Teruki. He had to keep to himself and hold his breath to keep from exploding.

While he, Aizawa, No. 13, and all of his classmates were busy fighting for their lives, All Might was out on the streets stopping petty crimes? That's what he was doing? That's why he was late?

It was unbelievable. Yet, at the same time, it was totally believable. Because it was All Might.

The two of them were approaching the main entrance of the school in a stifling silence when they were stopped by someone calling out.

"Young Kageyama."

Ritsu turned around to see the same tall skinny man from earlier that day. Or perhaps, a better descriptor would be that he turned around and saw All Might. Much hollower and much thinner than usual, but definitely All Might.

"May I please talk to you in private?"

Teruki looked to Ritsu in confusion but he shrugged the blond off and stalked toward All Might.

"I would love to."

They were inside the teachers' lounge. There was a large table in the middle but they stood. Ritsu glaring up at All Might and All Might staring down at him, his bright, signature smile absent.

Finally, he spoke, "I'm glad that you're okay."

Ritsu blinked once in barely contained anger.

"Uuh," All Might coughed, this time there was no blood. "I assume that you already know that I'm All Might."

At that moment, there was nothing Ritsu wanted to do more than ignore him (he was a natural at the silent treatment), but this was the perfect opportunity to get information from the source.

He made his glare into a flat stare and nodded once. "How come you're so skinny now?"

All Might reached for the hem of his shirt and pulled it up to reveal a large scar. It covered about half of his torso and had a dent in the middle. The scar was an angry red, as though he had just gotten it earlier that day, but based on the lack of bandages it was most likely much older.

Ritsu failed to keep his mask of indifference and raised his eyebrows in concern. All Might just chuckled.

"I got this in a fight with All For One back in the day. He left me with this but he looks much worse than I do, so I think that I won that one," he pulled his shirt down. "My quirk was greatly impaired after that. You can think of my 'muscle form' as though I were someone at the pool trying to suck in their belly. I can only hold it in for so long though. My time used to be around two hours, but after today, I'm most likely at 50 minutes."

Ritsu went over the story about a dozen times within a couple of seconds. All For One? Who was that? All Might's explanation only left him with more questions but he continued to rake through the details, unable to shake the feeling that something was off. It took about two seconds of silence for it to click.

"Two hours?" He deliberately took his time to gather his thoughts because if he didn't, there was no doubt that he would turn into a ball of fire. "You had two hours worth of juice and you couldn't last through the fight with Nomu?"

He did the math in his head and, as realization dawned on him, Ritsu buried his face into his hands and screamed. He screamed and screamed and continued to scream even as the oxygen left his lungs.

"Are you alright, my boy?" All Might placed his hand on Ritsu's shoulder and it was harshly slapped away.

"When Teruki told me that you had saved him earlier, I was mad. But knowing what I do now, I'm furious," Ritsu looked back up to All Might and his glare was back and stronger than ever. "You knew that your quirk had a time limit and you knew that you had to be with us at the USJ on time and yet, somehow, you decided that dealing with your common neighborhood thug was at the top of your list."

He shook his angry fists up at All Might, but since he was too frustrated to decide what to do with them, he slammed them firmly against his sides. "Your fight with Nomu didn't even last ten minutes! That means that—taking out the time it took for you to actually start heading to the USJ—you were running around the city for over an hour and half!" He stepped closer to the pillar of a man and pointed a rigid finger right between his blue eyes.

"What's wrong with you!? You should have been there on time but you were late! Do you know what your irresponsibility cost us!?" Ritsu retracted his finger and clenched his hand into a fist until it became numb. "Aizawa-sensei will be in the hospital for who knows how long, one of us had a panic attack, Asui almost died—all of us could have died—and Midoriya broke his bones, again!"

Ritsu let out a bitter laugh. "First, your irresponsibility broke his arm, and now it broke his legs. What else needs to be broken for you to understand? His other arm?" He took a deep breath. "So, no. I'm not 'alright'. You have to be responsible. Not just for the public but for us too."

All Might looked at him in surprise that quickly turned into shame. He frowned and looked down to the floor. Although he tried to stay still, Ritsu could see the bones of his knuckles as he held his dress shirt.

"I'm so sorry Young Kageyama," he muttered before looking back to Ritsu. It unnerved the teen that All Might could look so vulnerable and so...human.

"You're completely correct. You all never should have had to face a situation like that at such a young age. I've failed you as a hero, but more importantly as a teacher. And there's nothing that I can do to change what's happened, I can only promise you that I will try to be more responsible."

"Okay," Ritsu's shoulders fell and his fist unfurled. He was still upset but there was nothing that he could do except take All Might at his word. "But you better keep that promise."

"I will," All Might nodded. "Although, I need you to promise that you'll keep my real condition between us."

"You have nothing to fear All Mi—" Ritsu had to pause on his way to the door and consider the new status quo. He looked back to the man, "Actually, what do I call you now?"

"My real name is Toshinori Yagi."

"Well then, your secret is safe with me, Toshinori-san."

And Teruki.

"Who was he? What was that all about? Was it something big?"

"Gargantuan."

"Wait really? You have to tell me then!"

"I already told you that I'm tired. Stop harassing me."

"You can't just tell me that you learned something 'gargantuan' and then not tell me what it was!"

"Watch me."

"You really are so rude."

Ritsu's Notebook 5

I'm beyond tired so I'm not too sure why I'm writing in this. A lot of bad things happened today, but so did some good things. Midoriya and I are closer now and Teruki's right, it will be a shame when I have to leave.

I strongly dislike Bakugou. Will my opinion change? That depends. But I shall refer to him as Chihuahua until then.

UA was indeed in danger. It probably still is since All Might's still alive. The USJ was attacked.

I had my first encounter with the League of Villains:

Nomu is a giant monster who was designed to beat All Might in a fight. All Might ended up beating it.

There's a villain that can create portals (I should make sure that Teruki looks into that) and I saw the one that destroyed the school gate. He can disintegrate anything he touches (would that work against barriers?). I don't know why—it might just be his quirk—but something about him deeply unsettles me.

All For One is an old enemy of All Might's. Maybe he's tied to LoV?

Toshinori has about 50 minutes on him. If he pushes himself too hard, the time limit will shorten. I don't know when I'll stop being upset with him but at least he promised to try to be more responsible.

Huh, I haven't written a proper diary [crossed out] entry since I've gotten here. I forgot how much I enjoyed them.

Author's random thoughts they had whilst writing the chapter

This chapter was going to be longer but I decided to cut it off and add it to the next chapter. I was also going to have a sweet little omake between Ritsu and Shigeo but decided that it would fit the cut off portion better.

Next chapter will be short

My updated "schedule" took a steep nosedive but November is really stressful every 4 years.

What did you think about the conversations? Is there anything that you wished I added. I have a soft heart but I won't shun away your criticism ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ

WatermelonCandy, it turns out that Midoriya was meeting Teruki first. Past me is such a liar smh

Fiction Press readers, you know the deal. You ask the questions and I'll pm you the answers.

Happy Holidays everyone ( ꈍᴗꈍ)

Favorite, follow, review and I'll show you how to confront that one teacher who doesn't know what teach means