Chapter Three: i'm sick of these rainy days (maybe we're meant to be alone)
Midoriya Izuku walked through the gates of U.A. on the first day of school. All things considered, he never really thought that he'd get to this point. Even if he didn't apply for the hero course, he expected to be denied for some half-cooked reason that was really just an excuse to deny him based on his quirkless status.
Somehow that didn't happen, which was a relief. Yeah, he applied to a few other schools, but he wasn't sure if he would have wanted to go to Shiketsu High or… really anywhere else. No other school felt right for him in the way U.A. has— he only hopes that it stays that way.
He looked for his classroom— 1-H, apparently— and hoped that he wouldn't run into Kacchan. When Izuku told him that he was still applying to U.A., he exploded without giving Izuku a chance to say that he was applying for the support department.
When he finally managed to say it, Kacchan turned deathly quiet and froze for a moment before he stalked away. After that, Kacchan hadn't even looked in his direction at school. He wasn't sure why he was acting that way. Sure, Kacchan had never been nice to him— not after Izuku was diagnosed quirkless— but he never ignored him like that. Which was… fine.
He knew that Kacchan wasn't his friend, not really. They used to be, before they started to care only about quirks and using them to beat up (pretend) villains. But after Izuku's never came in, Kacchan distanced himself from him, and since he was the strongest and the smartest, everyone else followed his lead.
School wasn't very fun after that. During lunch, he sat alone in a corner because no one was willing to make space for him. When he was caught mumbling, his classmates would tell him to stop, with annoyed faces and contempt dripping from their words. Kacchan and his gang would beat up on him, sometimes, but it wasn't ever too bad— Kacchan knew that he couldn't leave scars, so Izuku was left concealing bruises at worst. If anything, U.A. would probably be the same. He would be the same.
Just the weird quirkless kid sitting alone in the corner.
And that was fine with him! Really, it was. Izuku had read stories during late nights on internet forums about quirkless kids who were bullied so much worse than he ever got. Really, he should be grateful that the most anyone did to him was what Kacchan did, and he never left permanent damage so it was fine.
And hey, since everyone else avoided him (they thought he was contagious) he had a lot more time to study for the entrance exams, so everything was fine!
He's still not sure how he passed those.
The written exams were fine, made almost trivial by the amount of studying he did (the holographic recording of Power Loader said that he'd actually gotten one of the highest scores for the written test ever recorded, which was a nice feeling), but what was trickier were the support-specific exams. There was a written portion to those, which were made more difficult by the fact that Izuku hadn't been studying support items all his life (only since he met All Might). Those were still only moderately difficult, at least. The hardest part was the practical, which meant he had to actually build a piece of gear.
Theory could only take him so far, and just knowing the theory can't build him a support item that's good enough to get into U.A..
That was much harder, to say the least, because the closest Izuku had to a support lab was Dagobah beach— which really shouldn't be called a beach anymore, because it was far better known as a garbage dump.
Izuku didn't have any friends and his mom didn't make enough money in order to rent out time in some sort of studio (and his dad hasn't spoken to them in two years, though he still sent some money monthly), so he did the best he could by clearing out some of the trash and making a small work area where he could try to make whatever scrap he found into something useful. It wasn't the best, but it was his only real option.
The only way he could really use most of the scrap metal was by manipulating it with a blowtorch, and since he really doubted he would find a blowtorch (and the fuel to use it) in a garbage dump, he decided to build his own miniature version of one. It didn't really work very well for larger scraps, but it helped him with building some smaller stuff.
For parts that he absolutely needed but couldn't find on the beach, he managed to get a part-time job at a nearby convenience store. It was mostly just stocking shelves and moving boxes and other menial tasks, but it paid fairly well.
The owner was an older man called Kinoshita Tatsuya, and he was kind to him. He never asked Izuku about his quirk, and Izuku was happy to not talk about it. Kinoshita-san said that some of the boxes were probably too heavy for him and that he didn't need to worry about those, but Izuku found that a few months of working there plus the assimilation of the beach into his gear helped build up his muscles. He wasn't buff or anything even close, but his arms were toned and if someone looked at his stomach they would be able to see that his abs were getting more defined as time went on.
The pay was enough for him to be able to buy a small generator with solar panels built-in, which would let him make use of tools that needed to be plugged in, like the broken soldering iron he got for dirt-cheap and managed to repair.
He had some tools, scrap metal of questionable quality in reasonably high quantity, and a massive amount of theoretical knowledge. All he had to do was put it to use and create something that would be good enough to get him into U.A..
That day, with just over half a year left until the entrance exams, he sat frozen for hours as he tried to think of something functional that he actually had the ability to make. He didn't get anything done, and went home utterly defeated.
He tried again the next day, and once again realized he had no idea what he was doing.
He looked at the prompt again, hoping to glean some information. Unfortunately, the prompt amounted to "build something that shows you know what you're doing," though with more words and better phrasing.
Well, that's fine. He could work off of that. He decided to stick to something that reflected why he wanted to go into hero support, but that didn't get him very far when his main reasons were I want to help people and All Might said I couldn't be a hero.
Maybe mentioning that second one to people would be a bad idea.
So then sticking to the first sounded like a good idea, though there was once again a decision on whether to make a piece of gear that would be useful in a combat situation or in a rescue scenario.
Well…
Why not both?
And so he built.
After months of trials and several prototypes, he had finally finished his submission for the support exam. He started by looking at different weapon types, and he made notes for each one on how he could modify them to make them useful for rescue scenarios.
It was slow-going, but eventually he decided that something that wouldn't be too complex to craft would be an extendable metal staff. By pressing two buttons on the center module, the user would be able to extend the small capsule into a staff up to two and a half meters and vice versa (though two and a half meters would be too long for anyone to effectively use as a weapon. At its smallest, it was about the length of a water bottle at twenty-four centimeters (though much thinner) and could be stored in most bags. It was about as durable as he could make it, but with increased durability came increased weight.
The document that detailed the workings and uses of this gear (along with two other designs) talked about combat uses— such as keeping it at half-length during a fight and then surprising an opponent by extending it— and rescue uses like fitting it under debris and extending it in order to lift and hold it up.
Thankfully, Power Loader seemed to like it, since he did into U.A., even if he wasn't entirely sure it was his best work. He probably could have managed to reduce the weight, since it's almost completely steel— he had a hard time taking it with him to U.A., and that was without using it for its intended purposes. Maybe they'll have chances to improve their designs during the school year? Or maybe they would have to build one of the other two designs they submitted?
Izuku kept his thoughts to himself as he walked through U.A.'s hallways, though he never did figure out how to stop his mumbling entirely. Some of the other students looking for their homerooms gave him weird looks, but he didn't really pay attention to them. It was a wonder that he didn't walk into anyone, but the other students were observant enough to get out of his way.
He stopped in front of a massive steel door that had to slide up to open. He pressed the button to do so, but paled and ducked for cover the moment he saw the projectile that had been rocketing towards him. It hit the wall opposite him with a massive crash, and it only now that it stopped he saw what it was.
A shoe.
Granted, it was more of a boot, and it had some sort of thrusters in the sole, but it was still a shoe.
He was almost murdered by an explosive shoe.
He wondered if it was too early to drop out of high school.
"My baby!" Izuku stared as a girl with pink hair scrambled out of the room, smoke trailing behind her as she screeched about her… baby?
…
Hopefully she was referring to the shoe.
He eyed her and quickly slipped into the room as she was too engrossed in seeing if the shoe was alright. Izuku was just glad she didn't seem to notice him there.
He surveyed the room, drinking in all of the details. It was large, much larger than any classroom he'd ever seen before, but he supposed that made sense, considering it was supposed to be a support lab as well. It contained five rows of two fairly wide lab benches with two seats each, which meant that their class would have twenty students.
Not a bad number, Izuku thought. Definitely smaller than my classes at Aldera.
The teacher wasn't here yet, but he could see a small door in the back leading to another room. They might be in there, but he wasn't about to check and find out.
There was a large desk in the front of the room, and off to its side a free-standing whiteboard was placed, with the seating chart written in messy handwriting.
He found his spot in the front next to someone named Dupain Marinette, which sounded foreign, though he couldn't really place what nationality that was. Probably European or maybe American, if he had to take a guess. They hadn't arrived yet, so he just sat down in his assigned seat and took out Support Notes #11, opening it to a blank page. He didn't write anything yet, but he needed to be prepared in case he needed to take notes at the start of class.
Which wouldn't be for another 20 minutes.
Okay, so maybe he was a bit early, but his excuse was that he was really nervous and he wanted to make a good impression on his teacher.
After a few minutes of glorious silence, during which Midoriya contemplated taking a short nap, the shoe girl walked back in. She was fixated on the shoe, however, and didn't notice Midoriya sitting at his desk.
He prayed to whatever god was laughing at him that she wasn't Dupain Marinette, because he'd already seen one too many explosions from her.
It seemed that the gods were being merciful that day, and even though she was in the front row with him, they were on opposite sides of the room. He checked the seating chart, and he was pretty sure that her name was Hatsume Mei.
She was still muttering to herself, similar to Izuku's mumbling except with a lot more enthusiasm. She immediately got back to her work and took off the bottom panel of the shoe— hopefully to stop any wayward explosions, and not to make them more common.
He wondered about that. Certainly their teacher wouldn't permit them to work with the lab equipment before they even started the school year, though Izuku wouldn't be the one to tell this Hatsume girl that.
He watched her as she engrossed herself in her work, trying to get a read on her. He didn't notice earlier, but now that she wasn't running around, he could see that her pupils took the shape of crosshairs. Perhaps she had some sort of aiming quirk? Or possibly it was a zooming quirk. Clearly, it affected the eyes.
He started to take notes on what he could see of her quirk and drew a quick sketch of her eyes. If he was lucky she'd reveal more details later and he would have more data to analyze.
Over the next ten minutes about half the class trickled in through the open door, though none of them sat next to him.
About five minutes before class was supposed to start, the small door opened and Power Loader himself came out, holding a stack of containers. He carried them to the front of the room and deposited them on a rolling cart next to his desk, then took a dry erase marker and wrote down Maijima-sensei on the board.
So Power Loader is going to be teaching us, Izuku thought. That was fine with him. Power Loader was the one who collected his practical exam materials, and he was fairly polite. If he knew about Izuku's quirklessness he didn't comment on it, though he surely had to know if he placed Izuku in his class.
Maijima-sensei still hadn't said a word as he sat in an office chair. He could see some sort of remote built into the armrests, but it was slightly too far to make out anything. It probably controlled the lighting in the room, but there were far too many buttons for that to be its only function.
Izuku checked the time, then turned his gaze onto his classmates. Homeroom was about to start and almost everyone was here, barring his… partner? He assumed that that was the intention behind having two people for each table.
Hatsume's partner had shown up and was paying no attention to her tinkering, choosing instead to focus on their laptop. Izuku would have tried to look at what they were doing, but the laptop screen was turned away from him.
He wondered when Dupain would show up— surely it was only a few seconds until class started, when a girl ran through the door. It slammed onto the ground as soon as she passed, which made everybody jump, but it probably made her see her life flash before her eyes if her expression was any indication. She crept over to the last empty seat, which was at Izuku's table.
So this was Dupain. She was definitely a foreign student, if her facial features were any indication, though he couldn't place her nationality. She had jet-black hair tied back in two pigtails and acted very nervous— to be fair, if he was going to high school in a foreign country, he'd be nervous too.
Maijima-sensei cleared his throat and stood up, taking off his helmet as he did so.
"Next time try not to be late, Dupain. You never know if the door will close on top of you or not." He said pointedly at her with a frown on his face, but he struggled to hold it in place before he burst out laughing.
"Just kidding! Did you really think I would actually allow something I designed to do that? Of course not!" This got a few uneasy chuckles from the class.
"Alright, that's enough of that. Welcome to class 1-H. My name is Maijima-sensei, though some of you may know me better as the Excavation Hero: Power Loader. I will be your homeroom teacher for your next three years at U.A., which means you'll also have the same classmates for the next three years. That's why before we head off to orientation we'll have everyone introduce themselves with their names, quirks, and why they applied for our support course. We'll start from the back row."
"Hai, sensei!" A lean boy with bright blonde hair stood up in the back of the room. "My name is Takei Hotaru. My quirk allows me to absorb electricity and then release it by making my hair glow. I applied for U.A.'s support course in the hopes of learning more about electrical systems and using my quirk to work with them in ways that would be dangerous to other people."
The rest of the students followed, some of them had some interesting quirks, including someone who had a USB plug on the end of one of his fingers that used his brain as a storage device, which sounded really useful and made Izuku want to grab his notebook and start asking questions about it.
Of course, he didn't do that, but he wanted to. He was rather more concerned with the fact that he would be the last one to introduce himself. He was panicking and didn't know how people would react to his lack of a quirk.
The introductions finally made their way to the front row, starting with Hatsume. She looked up from whatever she was doing, clearly not having paid attention to anyone else's introduction, and didn't even stand up before she started to speak.
"My name's Hatsume Mei, future CEO of Hatsume Industries and the best inventor you'll ever meet! My quirk's called Zoom, and it lets me magnify my vision so that I can see things clearly up to five kilometers away!"
So Izuku's speculations on her quirk were correct. That sounded like a pretty useful quirk. If it could magnify things that were close to her, it could probably be used like a microscope.
Her partner was already speaking. "My name is Masaki Chihiro, and my quirk can encrypt and decrypt any data. I've had to sign multiple contracts that prevent me from intercepting any data and decrypting passwords and credit card numbers. I'm here to learn how to create cybersecurity systems for hero agencies."
That was a weird quirk. He could see why he was made to sign those contracts, because a villain with that quirk would be able to obtain any amount of data illegally. It did sound pretty useful for cybersecurity, though.
His partner stood up to introduce herself. "Watashi no namae wa Dupain Marinette desu." She was hesitant and stuttered when speaking, marking herself as a foreign student along with her name, though her pronunciation was good.
"I am a… recommended student? I think that is the word. I plan to study design for costumes. I am quirkless."
If the class was quiet before, it was nothing compared to the oppressive silence felt after that. Nobody seemed to want to say anything to break it. Meanwhile, Izuku was having a bit of a crisis.
She's quirkless? She's like me?
Those were only two of the many thoughts running through his mind.
He hadn't realized that there was another quirkless student. It just hadn't crossed his mind that there were others out there like him. Of course, he knew that he logically couldn't be the only quirkless person applying to U.A., but he didn't expect anyone else to get in— not that he expected himself to get in either, but that wasn't really the point.
Even more surprising, at least at first, was that the only two quirkless in the school were in the same class and sitting next to each other, but besides them applying for the same course, he could reason that away as Maijima-sensei wanting them together for… some reason. He didn't know how Maijima-sensei was going to treat them. If he was like his previous teachers, then they wouldn't even be acknowledged unless necessary.
The thought that he wouldn't be like his past teachers didn't even enter the realm of possibility for him.
He sat there for almost twenty seconds before he realized that since Dupain-san had gone it was now his turn to introduce himself. He jumped to his feet as fast as he could and said very quickly, "My name is Midoriya Izuku and I want to invent new gear for pro heroes and I am quirkless."
He sat down as soon as he finished speaking and faced away from the class so that he wouldn't see their reactions. Would they feel disgust? Pity? Contempt? He couldn't be sure. He didn't want to be sure.
"Now that everyone's finished with their introductions, we'll be going to the orientation," Maijima-sensei cleared his throat. "This will probably take until lunch, and afterwards we'll return here to discuss rules and regulations for working in the lab. You'll also receive your schedules, which will be in effect starting tomorrow. Follow me and stay with the group."
Izuku stalled as long as possible so that he could walk at the end of the group, though he wasn't sure as to whether being at the front would be better. At the front he knew that everyone would be watching him, but he wouldn't have to see them; at the back, fewer people were likely to stare at him but he would see every person that craned their neck back to look at the quirkless freak.
He should warn Dupain-san. He wasn't sure where she's from, but maybe quirkless people are treated better there. He could feel her confidence, even under the layer of anxiety she had (probably just from being in a new country). He opened his mouth to say something, but he wasn't able to get his vocal cords to make any noise.
She'd already stood up and was about to leave when Izuku finally overcame his paralysis, and he got up to follow her and the rest of the group to orientation. He probably wouldn't be able to talk to her during it, so it would have to wait until the school day ended for them to speak.
He lingered at the back of the group as Maijima-sensei led them to the auditorium. They were supposed to sit together, and their class took up three rows near the wall.
He waited for everyone to sit down so that he could get an aisle seat— he didn't want to feel boxed-in, without an escape route. This way, even if someone did something, he could just run off.
Looking around, Izuku noticed that there was a section of empty seats— apparently, one class hadn't come. He wondered if it was Kacchan's class, because he couldn't see (or hear) him anywhere.
Nedzu walked onto the stage, using a stool so that he could reach the microphone on the podium, and cleared his throat. Everyone in the auditorium quieted down at that, and he began to speak.
Three hours later, the first years emerged from the auditorium knowing more about U.A.'s history than they ever thought they would need to know.
Even Izuku was having a hard time processing the information that Nedzu had forced onto them. The principal had spent about twenty minutes going over typical school things— rules, regulations, expectations, and the like. He then spent the next two and a half hours lecturing the student body on the history of U.A.. Sure, it was interesting, but Nedzu seemed to keep his voice monotonous on purpose. He was pretty sure he saw Maijima-sensei doze off in the middle of it, but he had no proof of it.
They were heading to lunch, and Izuku resolved to try to speak to Dupain-san about her experiences with quirklessness, and if she did have it better than he did, he would ensure that she would never have to feel that way.
First, however, he had to get his lunch from— holy crap was that Lunch Rush?
After ordering his lunch (he thought about getting katsudon, but figured his mom would be making some so he just ordered some tsukemen instead), his gaze swept around the room as he looked for Dupain-san.
Finding her sitting alone at a table with six seats, he approached her a bit bashfully. He didn't have any idea of what he would say to her or how he would introduce the issue of their shared quirklessness.
He wondered if it was maybe too late to pull out his phone and look up how to make friends, but by that point his legs had carried him to the table and it would have made it more awkward had he done that.
"C-can I sit here?" He asked her, and he silently cursed when he stumbled over his words. Off to a great start, then.
She finished her mouthful of yakisoba and smiled at him. "Sure!" She said brightly. "What was your name? Midoriya Izuku?"
"Hai, Dupain-san," he nodded and sat in the seat across from her. "Are you a foreign student?" He grimaced when he heard his voice crack. He really needed to go out and talk more.
"Yeah, I am from France!" She nodded and slurped up some more noodles. "And you don't need to call me Dupain-san, just call me Marinette! I'm much more used to that."
"Oh n-n-no, that's okay. I couldn't possibly call you by your first name when we barely know each other," He stuttered and blushed.
"I insist, Midoriya-san!" She was so bright and bubbly and happy, and though it pained him that he couldn't be like that, he was glad that clearly not everyone went through what he did (or worse).
He cleared his throat. "I just wanted to congratulate you on being the first quirkless student to ever be admitted to U.A.." Had he been less awkward, he might have laughed at the way her face twisted in confusion.
"What do you mean, the first quirkless student? I can't have been the only one admitted— well, aside from you."
Izuku winced at that, because she clearly didn't know too much about quirk culture in Japan. "N-no, you're the first. Japan doesn't have too many quirkless people especially in our generation, and those that do exist aren't… treated very well."
"What do you— Alya, Nino, venez-vous ici!" She called out suddenly, waving her hand high in the air.
Izuku struggled with the sudden change of tone and looked towards where she was waving, where he could see two students heading their way. They must have been from different classes, and they were obviously already familiar with Marinette.
"Oh, I'm so s-sorry, I didn't realize you were waiting for your friends," Izuku said and got ready to move to a different table, not wanting to invade their group.
"No, don't worry! You can still stay here, there's more than enough room for all of us!" She shot him a smile and looked back towards her friends to make sure that they were going in the right direction.
Not wanting to make a fuss, he sat back down and hoped that if these new people were friends with Marinette, then maybe they wouldn't mind his quirklessness.
The girl, who had reddish-brown hair and wore thick-rimmed glasses spoke up when she and her friend got near the table. "Oh? Who's this guy? Don't tell me you've been making new friends without us?"
"This is Midoriya Izuku from my class!" Marinette giggled. "He sits next to me at our table, and he's quirkless too!"
The girl sized him up, before she grinned and introduced herself. "Hey there, Midoriya-san! I'm Alya Césaire, though you can just call me Alya."
The boy next to her, who wore a red cap and glasses, smiled and waved at him. "And I'm Nino Lahiffe! Feel free to call me Nino."
Izuku was really out of his element here, and in lieu of saying anything he just gave a weak wave and what he hoped came across as a smile.
Alya sat next to Marinette, and Nino took a seat next to her.
"Have either of you seen Adrien?" Marinette asked the two once they were settled.
Nino swallowed some of his rice. "Nope. He should probably be here soon."
"Where were you during orientation?" Alya asked him. "I didn't see you anywhere."
Nino's face morphed into a look of horror. "Dude. Our teacher? He's terrifying. He looks like a hobo and uses this scarf as a weapon. He said that the orientation was pointless and instead he had us do a quirk evaluation thing— and he threatened to expel whoever did the worst."
"Teachers can do that?" Marinette gasped.
"Apparently. Last place was this weird grape-haired guy, but in the end he didn't end up expelling anyone. It was mad freaky though."
Izuku coughed a bit to get his attention. "A-are you in the hero course? Because I don't think any other classes would have a quirk test or anything like that, so…"
Nino cracked a smile. "Yeah! I'm in class 1-A! My quirk lets me make these super-tough bubbles around things, so I'm trying to become a rescue hero."
"That sounds like a really useful q-quirk," Izuku said, more to himself than anyone else. "Depending on how tough the bubbles are, you could use them to protect victims, or even trap villains. Maybe you could make one around each of your fists, so you can use them to punch—"
He was pulled from his musings by Alya, who snorted. "Whoa there, quirk nerd. It's lunchtime, not quirk analysis class."
Izuku blushed and hung his head down in embarrassment. "S-sorry, I didn't mean to—"
"No need to apologize, bro!" Nino grinned in his direction. "It was actually pretty interesting! I've never really thought about using it to cover my fists, though. Do you do this kind of stuff all the time? The analysis, I mean?"
Somehow, Izuku's blush deepened. "Y-yes? I a-actually take a lot of notes in these notebooks. I used to want to be a hero, but…" he trailed off awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck and unwilling to meet their eyes.
"Well, I think it's pretty cool, Sprout!" Izuku looked to Alya in surprise at the nickname, and she must have read the confusion in his expression because she laughed and explained, "You know, like a Brussels sprout? They're green and round, your hair is green and round, and it's a nicer nickname than something to do with broccoli."
Izuku was still confused so he switched his focus to Marinette, who looked like she was struggling to hold in her laughter. "Don't worry about her, Midoriya-san! She's like that with most people." She smiled reassuringly at him. "Before these two got here though, you going to tell me something about—"
"Tell you something about what?" someone said behind her, and the three friends turned around and simultaneously exclaimed, "Adrien!"
"Hey Nino, Alya, Marinette! Sorry it took me so long!" He waved bashfully and made his way around the table to sit next to Izuku. His Japanese was noticeably better than the others', though it was oddly stiff and formal. "Who's the new kid?"
"This guy's Midoriya Izuku, he's from Marinette's class!" Nino spoke up to answer his question.
The boy smiled and turned towards Izuku, inclining his head as he did so. "It's nice to meet you! I'm Adrien Agreste, but you can just call me Adrien if you want."
Izuku nodded back a bit nervously. It had been years since he'd interacted with so many people at once— at least, people who were being nice to him.
Adrien placed his food on the table and sat down. "So, what was Midoriya-san here going to tell you about?"
Izuku picked at his food as he thought about how he was going to phrase this. "Just how Marinette is the first quirkless student to ever be admitted to U.A.."
Alya turned to her friend in shock. "Really?" Then she turned back to Izuku, looking confused. "That doesn't make sense. There had to have been other quirkless people who applied to U.A.. I mean, you got in as well!"
He shook his head. "U.A. didn't allow quirkless people to even apply for anything but general studies until a few years ago, and even then the few who did bother applying hadn't managed to get in. And since Marinette's a recommended student, she did get accepted before I did— so she's the first quirkless student to get into U.A. in its history."
"How does that work? I mean, there are laws against quirkless discrimination, right?" Nino asked.
Izuku pursed his lips. "...Technically. They do exist, but n-no one really does anything about it, and any reports aren't taken seriously."
Marinette's eyes narrowed, but Izuku didn't notice and she resolved to leave her suspicions for later.
Ignorant of the thoughts running through his friend's mind, Adrien exclaimed, "That can't be right. The entire country can't be just ignoring this sort of discrimination against a group of people like this." He was frowning pretty hard and had a look of intense thought on his face.
Izuku shrugged. "It just is. Nobody really does anything about it, and there aren't enough quirkless people to do anything substantial."
Everyone else was quiet for a moment, and he worried that maybe he'd said something they didn't like.
Alya looked at each of her friends in turn before putting her hands together. "Well, you've given us a lot to think about, Midoriya-san, but I did want to ask you guys about your classes. Turns out— Midnight is a really laid-back teacher."
The rest of the meal devolved into more light-hearted conversation about their first impressions of U.A. and their classes, and even Izuku managed to get more comfortable, with some of the tension beginning to ease from his shoulders.
He didn't notice the concerned looks the others shot each other when he wasn't looking, or the times Marinette looked at him with worry written in her features, a promise to herself to address what went unsaid.