Chapter 5: oh, how good it felt (to be young and loved)

While his son ate lunch with his friends, Gabriel Agreste made his way to the meeting location. All his subordinates knew was that M. Agreste (or Agreste-shachou, as some of his newer Japanese employees knew him as) had personal matters to attend to, and that he was not to be disturbed in any way. His phone was left in the penthouse he had bought, to guarantee that he couldn't be tracked to his location.

He stepped into the shadows of the alley leading to the point of rendezvous. He scanned for security cameras, and seeing none, made sure he was not visible from the street before whispering the transformation phrase: "Nooroo, dark wings rise."

He made his way deeper into the alley not as Gabriel Agreste, but as Hawkmoth. His features were obscured by the silver mask that covered his head. He looked down, admiring the striking purple dress shirt and jacket that came with the Butterfly Miraculous's powers. If not for the fact that doing so would expose him almost immediately, he would have released a line based on his costume years ago.

He turned a corner and walked through the wall he knew to be an illusion, finding himself face to face with a man that appeared to be made of mist. This was the man he expected to meet.

"Greetings, Kurogiri," he spoke in impeccable Japanese. "I am Hawkmoth, and I believe Sensei may have mentioned me." There was a bitter taste in his mouth when he referred to him as Sensei. He could understand the need for secrecy, but surely the self-proclaimed "Lord of the Underworld" could come up with a better handle than that.

Kurogiri nodded, almost imperceptibly, and a dark portal appeared behind him, composed of the same mist that made up the man's body. Hawkmoth eyed him, before determining the portal was likely safe. A powerful quirk, all things considered. He would have to keep an eye out for him.

He stepped through the darkness, and found himself in an abyss that within a few seconds resolved into a dimly-lit bar. Kurogiri himself appeared moments later and strode towards a door to the side of the bar. He entered, leaving the door open, which Hawkmoth took as his cue to follow.

This doorway led to a stairwell that was even darker than the main bar, and he was only able to see a meter or two in front of him. He was pleasantly surprised to find that although the passageway was made out of concrete and scantily lit, it was relatively clean and dust-free. At least these villains held themselves to some standard of tidiness.

After about a minute of going deeper into the ground, the two men found themselves in a much better lit hallway, with tiled floors rather than concrete. He could see multiple doors and at least three branching hallways, though he was sure the compound was more expansive than it appeared.

He wondered why Kurogiri didn't just take them directly to his master; the man must have had his own reasons, but they were indecipherable to him.

Hawkmoth followed the gaseous entity through a labyrinthine series of hallways, sometimes taking more stairs. He was just starting to get annoyed when Kurogiri stopped in front of a sturdy-looking metal door with an intricate password lock on it. Rather than unlocking it, the man just formed a portal over it, possibly to prevent the newcomer from gleaning the password. He respected the caution, at any rate.

Stepping through yet another portal, he found himself deposited in a large room with wood panelled walls and relatively high ceilings. The floor was covered in soft burgundy carpeting, and a large table dominated the center of the room. The far wall was covered in computer monitors, and sitting at the end of the table overseeing the screens was a man in a wheelchair. He was hooked up to a stunning array of medical equipment, and he surmised that this must be the man he was looking for.

Kurogiri did not follow him to this room, and he stayed silent as he waited to be acknowledged. Were this anyone else he would not have waited so patiently, but he knew that to allow his temper to get the better of him would make him a target of the strongest man alive.

After a minute of waiting, the seated man heaved a great sigh and turned around. He beckoned to Hawkmoth with a finger, and he took that as his cue to step forward and introduce himself.

"It is a pleasure to see you in person, All For One. I am known as Hawkmoth." He bowed slightly in greeting, and waited for a response.

"Now, now, let's not use silly names. I know very well who you are, Gabriel Agreste," All For One shook his head as Gabriel fumed under the mask. He had no idea how his identity had been revealed, though if anyone were to figure out it would be him.

All For One didn't take notice of his visitor's feelings; or if he did, he didn't show it. He continued, "It is my understanding that you are here to make a deal. For your sake, I hope that it… interests me." The emphasis on the second-to-last word placed no doubt in Gabriel's mind what would happen should he fail to be interesting.

"Does the word Miraculous bring to mind anything?" He decided to start strong, and mentally smirked when he saw All For One stiffen; it would have been impossible to notice for anyone else, but as the holder of the Butterfly Miraculous, he had the ability to sense emotion to aid his main powers.

"Good. That should make this meeting much smoother." Gabriel allowed himself to grow more confident. He would be controlling the pace of this conversation now. "My… sources have led me to believe that you are in possession of a certain ring of considerable power."

All For One had turned his full attention on to Gabriel, and suddenly he was even more grateful for the mask than before, because he could feel his forehead break out into a sweat.

"I take it that you are the Butterfly?"

Gabriel gave a self-assured smile. "Guilty as charged." He dropped the smile and licked his lips. What he was going to say next was risky, and if All For One wasn't willing to entertain him, then he'd be in trouble. However, the information that he could obtain was worth the risk. "May I inquire as to how the ring came to be with you, instead of its rightful Guardian?"

His eyeless gaze was petrifying, and it led Gabriel to wonder if perhaps he was using a quirk. He considered countering with his own, but that was too dangerous to really entertain the idea. If he tried, it would only serve to end whatever this meeting was, likely with excessive violence. Physically, he needs to distance himself and ensure that he doesn't make any threatening motions towards the villain; he'll establish himself by pushing his verbal boundaries.

All For One gave a single, slow nod before returning to his monitors. "Once, I fought a man who had some of the most incredible destructive powers I've ever encountered. Of course, I had to take his quirk. After his defeat, when I found out that this bumbling fool was completely quirkless, I killed him and pocketed the ring." He smiled, but it had no warmth behind it. "He tried to bargain and told me everything he knew, but that didn't save him."

He leaned back in his seat. "By the time I could get to where he said the Guardian could be located, he was long gone. Now, if I may ask you, how did you come into possession of a Miraculous of your own in France, of all places?"

Gabriel didn't take that tale at face value, though it likely had some merit to it. He would bet that All For One had a truth telling quirk of some sort, so it wasn't worth outright lying. That didn't mean he couldn't be vague.

"My wife… happened upon it during her travels in Asia." He wasn't about to tell him that they'd spent years looking for the Miraculouses, only for

All For One looked suitably unimpressed at the quality of his answer, but otherwise did not comment. They were at an impasse, each waiting for the other to crack.

Unfortunately for Gabriel, the other man had spent over 150 years perfecting the art of patience, and the tension in the air was almost thick enough to see when he cracked.

"I have a… business proposition." He waited to see if All For One would say anything, but he couldn't even detect a sliver of emotion. This, for some reason, frightened him more than anything.

Did All For One already figure out my powers? Is he using a quirk for this? Everyone feels something, even if it's indifference. At least he felt some measure of shock earlier.

He did his best to remain outwardly undisturbed, and continued. "I require the temporary use of the Ladybug, which unfortunately remains with the Guardian. However, I believe that there is no better way to lure out the Ladybug than with its counterpart."

"You intend to combine the two." It was not phrased as a question.

"Yes."

All For One remained stoic, staring straight ahead and betraying none of his thoughts. Eventually, he replied, "You may leave. I can arrange a public appearance of the Black Cat. You may capitalize on that event, and the Guardian will be forced to use the Ladybug. I will hold the ring until it is acquired, and you will be contacted by Kurogiri at that point." He turned around and focused on a monitor in clear dismissal.

Gabriel felt anger at being treated like this bubbling up in him. Who did he think he was, to treat Gabriel Agreste like this? Of course, he didn't allow himself to let that anger control him, because he would surely be killed on the spot, even with the Miraculous's protection.

He walked towards the door, where one of Kurogiri's portals appeared. He walked through it and found himself in the alley he met the mist man in earlier, though he was nowhere to be seen.

He sighed and said, "Nooroo, dark wings fall." When the transformation dissipated, he cursed at his foolishness in allowing All For One to meet him alone. He should have taken Nathalie with him— but then that would have revealed his possession of the Peacock Miraculous.

He let the anger run its course before he left the alley on foot, Nooroo safely hidden in his pocket. He would feed him later, once he was alone.

He began to make his way home through the streets of Musutafu, wondering what All For One had meant, though he never questioned if this was worth doing.

All For One gazed at his wall of monitors. Even though he didn't have eyes, he had quirks that let him see the information the monitors showed.

Gabriel Agreste was a fool to try and make a deal with him. He even dared to attempt to barter for the Black Cat? No, he would never get a chance to wield it. He half considered turning him away from the start, but he was interested in seeing what a global fashion mogul of all people would want to do with him.

And then he was foolish enough to reveal that there are active holders?

All For One smiled cruelly. He would let Agreste play his little game, but All For One would be the only victor.

He pushed a button on the arm of his chair, activating an intercom.

"Shigaraki Tomura. I have a special assignment for you."

Izuku yawned as he made his way back to the workshop, his phone buzzing in his pocket. Kaminari-kun had collected all of their phone numbers and started a group chat already, and somehow it was already being spammed with all manner of texts and memes. He would have muted it, but it was nice to have a reminder that people wanted to text him.

He grimaced. That thought was depressing. He ended that line of thinking quickly.

Marinette was walking alongside him as they headed to their first general engineering class of the year. This was what every support student was looking forward to, as they would finally be able to take advantage of the multitude of tools and materials that U.A. offered.

Izuku was tentatively excited as well, as this would be the first time he would have the ability to build something with full access to professional tools. As important to him as his makeshift trash workshop was, it was beginning to stifle his ability to work on more complex gear.

Marinette was talking about gear that she was looking forward to being able to build, and Izuku was content to let her do most of the talking, interjecting every so often with comments.

"Do you think that Maijima-sensei will have us working in pairs?" Marinette proposed.

Izuku thought for a moment. "Well, I-I guess that he put us in pairs for a reason. M-maybe we'll be doing some sort of group projects?"

Marinette hummed in agreement as they entered the classroom. There, they were greeted by Maijima-sensei standing in front of his desk, various boxes stacked on the surface behind him. They hurried over to their table, eager to see what a licensed pro hero and support technician could teach them.

Once everyone was seated, Maijima-sensei cleared this throat to get their attention, though it took a few seconds as there were still students conversing with each other. Finally, once everyone was paying attention, he began.

"Welcome, everybody, to your first session of Engineering 101. Over the course of this year, we're going to cover topics ranging from polishing your existing engineering skills by creating gear for the first year hero students to learning completely new things such as creating circuit boards and incorporating them into your builds.

"Now usually, I'm fairly lax with my assignments. I typically give you a prompt, which you will then have a set amount of time to fulfill to the best of your ability; or instead I teach you a certain technique, which you will then have to incorporate into a new piece of gear. Some time after the sports festival, you will either be assisting in or working individually on costume repairs for the first year hero course students, and starting in second year one or two of you will be assigned to each hero student, to handle all of their gear and costume issues that are within your power to do so."

Someone near the back of the room asked him, "You said usually. What are we going to do today?"

Maijima-sensei shot a glare at the boy. "I was getting to that. For the next week, I'll be giving you all a crash course on techniques you will likely need to use when building your gear in preparation for the Sports Festival. As students in the support department, you will be able to use whatever gear you build yourself. Your designs will have to be screened in order to ensure the safety of the other participants, but ultimately you will be competing in the hopes of showing off the gear you all will build in the following weeks."

This announcement set off a chain of murmurs around the room, as the U.A. Sports Festival was one of the best known events in the world. It wasn't really "sports" as it was a means for the most promising hero students to show off for an audience that consisted of what could potentially be their future fans and even pro heroes on the lookout for interns.

"If you manage to impress the right people, some of you might find yourself with internship offers from the bigger support companies." This stopped any muttering from the students as they stared in shock. "You might not have known this, because they typically aren't publicized as much as hero interns are, and not every support student gets to become an intern. Those who don't receive offers will be working at U.A., with ample time for personal projects as a sort of compensation."

That final sentence silenced those that would have complained at the unfairness in not allowing everyone the chance for an internship, who were always eager to get free time in the lab.

"So," he clapped his hands together. "Let's get started! We have a busy week ahead of us."

An hour later, some students left the room in order to get to their electives. Marinette's design-focused elective was in the next lab over, so she parted with Izuku soon after leaving 1-H. Izuku's computer programming class, on the other hand, was on the second floor of the building, so he had to hurry to make it there in time.

Just under half of 1-H joined him on their way there, though no one spoke to him or bothered to look at him. Masaki-san was there too, but it didn't feel like they were ignoring him out of malice, and more out of fixation on whatever they were doing on their laptop. He desperately wanted to ask, but he didn't want to bother or distract them.

They were joined by about 15 more students, representing support classes 1-F and 1-G. They mostly spoke among themselves, none of them reaching out to the other classes.

Izuku frowned. This wasn't what he imagined U.A. to be like. He thought that the students would be friendlier. And some of them were, like Marinette and her friends, or Kaminari-kun, but most of his classmates in the support department tended to only talk to two or three other people, max.

The door to this classroom had a more regular shape, though it was about fifteen feet tall. He gaped in wonder at the sheer height. Are there actually students that are this tall?

Other people were bumping into him as they moved past, so he got a hold of himself and entered the room. Inside were a few very long tables, each with two rows of computer set-ups. At the front was a desk with three monitors set up, and sitting behind them was a strange, robotic-looking person who Izuku didn't recognize. He wore a metal gas mask-type thing, similar to what the pro hero Snipe used. A long, pitch-black cloak covered most of his body (maybe it was their hero costume? He was inside, surely he was sweltering under that) but he could see at least one robotic hand under it. Either that was a prosthetic, or it was part of his quirk.

Are those… USB plugs?

Sure enough, it looked like there were two USB plugs on his fingers, one on the middle and the fourth finger. Scratching his head in confusion, Izuku decided to find an empty seat and hope that he would get an explanation when class started.

People were still streaming in when the bell rang for the beginning of class, and the stragglers scurried to the last remaining open spots as the mysterious figure stood up.

Instead of making some sort of sound to draw attention to himself, as was Maijima-sensei's preferred way of starting class, the person just stood silently at the front of the room, patiently waiting with his hands clasped behind him. It took about half a minute for the last conversations to wind down, an awkward silence ensuing.

"Good afternoon. This is your first session of Computer Programming at U.A.." His voice was slightly robotic, with awkwardly stilted speech. "I do not expect any of you to know me, because I am the underground pro hero known as Terminal. You may refer to me as Terminal-sensei or just Sensei. In this class, we will be covering various computer programming languages, such as the classic, easy-to-understand Python and Java; along with their modern equivalents, namely Carbon and DFine."

He took a step towards them. "I understand that some of you may already be familiar with these languages, amongst others. For those of you who feel they are proficient, you may step to the side and I will see to you individually to ensure you all use your time efficiently." Four people stood up from their class of 25, including Masaki-san.

"The rest of you may proceed to turn on your computers. The principal has decided to not provide laptops to the first years, so we will all be using the desktops. If you have your own laptops, you are encouraged to bring them with you." He turned around and began to draw something on the whiteboard behind him. "Ample time will be provided for you to work on assignments during class, and a schedule exists of when this room is available after school." He stepped away to reveal the times. They didn't really matter to Izuku, who did have a working laptop at home.

Once everyone had taken that information in, he asked them, "Does anyone have any inquiries?"

A hand tentatively went up in the front of the room from a girl with short red hair. "What's your quirk?" she asked rather bluntly.

Terminal-sensei stared at her for long enough to make her break out into a sweat before he raised one of his hands, showing off the two USB plugs on his fingers. "I am able to directly interface with computers by plugging myself in, enabling me to access files far more quickly than even the fastest solid state drives, and I am the single largest medium of storage in the world, since I can use my brain to store various files."

"Does that mean you can watch movies in your head?" the boy sitting next to the girl asked.

"Yes."

Izuku pondered that for a second, taking a break from his inner nerd-session. He'd never heard of a quirk like Terminal-sensei's before, though he'd heard of some people with quirks that let them connect to technology. The level of complexity that their teacher exhibited was just unlike anything he ever conceptualized before. It was said that the human brain could store over two petabytes of information— was that what Terminal-sensei's quirk could do? How much had he used up already? Could he edit things like text files or videos in his head?

He had so many questions, but didn't ask any of them as the teacher spoke. "If that's everything, I'd like for those new to programming to wake up your computers and follow the instructions you find. I will be spending the rest of today assessing the more experienced among you, and next class we will begin lessons."

As he ambled over to the gathered students, Izuku leaned back in his chair, yawning and rubbing his eyes, before waking the computer out of sleep mode and reading the Notepad window that was already opened.

Doors all across U.A. slammed open in unison, marking the end of the first day of school.

Students streamed out of the various classrooms, talking to their friends and reaching out to new ones. Izuku wasn't doing anything social, but he was leaving the computer lab as fast as he could, excited to get home.

As he was walking to the building's exit, an arm grabbed his shoulder out of nowhere and pulled him towards the wall. He froze, not knowing who grabbed him or for what purpose, and only when he saw that it was Marinette and Alya did he allow himself to relax.

"Alya, you can't just grab people out of nowhere like that!" Marinette berated Alya for her actions, and she had the decency to feel remorseful after seeing the way Izuku froze up at the unexpected touch.

"I'm sorry, Midoriya-kun!" Alya apologized. "We just wanted to invite you to come with us to a cat café!"

He blinked, not expecting that (though he wasn't sure what to expect in the first place). "I— me?"

Alya snorted, and even Marinette was quietly giggling. "Yes, you. Nino and Adrien are already waiting for us at the gates— I've never heard of cat cafés before, so we were really looking forward to seeing one!" Marinette explained.

Obviously, Izuku knew what a cat café was, he'd just never been to one before— he never had any friends to go with, and he felt like going alone would be weird and would draw attention to himself. "I-I'm sorry, but I've never been to one before," he stammered out.

Alya's expression brightened. "That's perfect!" she exclaimed. "Then we can all experience it together! I found one on the internet that's only a five-minute walk from here."

"O-okay. I just n-need to call my mom and let her know." He followed them out the door, at a short distance so that he could call her privately.

She picked up almost immediately. "Hi sweetie! I'll be getting home soon! How was school today?"

"It was good. I-I just wanted to let you know that some friends invited me to a café, so I'll be coming home late."

For a bit, all was silent from her end, before he heard the telltale sniffling that preceded his mother's excessive crying.

"My baby… you're finally growing up!" Izuku could hear the tears of joy start to cascade down his mother's face. "I'm so proud of you! Make sure not to stay too late, you still have school tomorrow!"

Izuku gave a soft smile. "Thanks, mom. I love you."

"And I love you too."

The line went dead, and Izuku smiled and ran to catch up to his friends.

He couldn't stop a grin from appearing on his face.

Alya was talking about her journalism class, which was taught by Midnight and apparently worked on the U.A. student newspaper (he'd never heard about it, but it probably wasn't available to people outside U.A.)

"According to Midnight, there's even an old printing press for students who want to print newspapers! I'll probably join the online division, which writes articles and records videos for the website— like what I've already been doing!" Alya was waving her arms around to emphasize her excitement over the class's offerings. If it was even possible, Izuku's smile widened even more as he took them in.

Friends, huh?

He liked the sound of that.

"Midoriya-kun!" That was Alya speaking.

"Y-yes?"

"Have you had Midnight yet?" She asked.

"N-no, not yet. What d-does she teach?"

"She teaches the art- and history-related classes."

"Then we have her tomorrow for— History, I think? It's not entirely clear," Marinette interjected. "The design teacher also said that Kayama-sensei would be coming in every other week or so, because she apparently knows a lot about fashion and design."

Izuku nodded. "That makes sense. She's gone through a lot of different versions of her costume where she only changed the looks in order to keep up with fashion trends. She probably knows a lot about it."

"Really?" Alya looked perplexed. "Her costume is already a bit boring. There can't be a lot she could do to change it."

"You'd be surprised," Izuku perked up. This was his area. "At minimum, she changes the color scheme of her costume every few years. Two years ago, I think she had a dark red theme? And she can also change her belt and boots— at one point she was trying out having some sort of mechanical components to her footwear, but I think she dropped that pretty quickly."

"Huh. I guess I never thought about that." Alya looked thoughtful. "I would have guessed that she keeps it more consistent to build up a brand, be more recognizable."

"I actually think that she gets more time in the media right around the moments she changes her costume? It's probably because it gives reporters something new to write about, if not one of her controversies. I wonder…" Izuku trailed off, muttering something under his breath.

Marinette leaned close to Alya and whispered, "Did you notice? He's not stuttering anymore!"

She snickered. "He just needs some more confidence."

They were just leaving the gates, where they could see Nino gesticulating wildly in a conversation with Adrien, making him laugh occasionally.

Alya waved and shouted, "Hey guys! Sorry we took so long!"

They closed the gap and Marinette explained, "We wanted to invite Midoriya-kun, if it's alright with everyone."

"I don't see why not," was Adrien's immediate response.

"Everyone's welcome!" Nino exclaimed. "I actually wanted to invite Kaminari-kun, but he said that he was busy."

Marinette grabbed all of their attention and said, "If we're all ready, then we should go now so we have time to do homework after."

There was a chorus of general agreement, and they all set off. The café that Alya had chosen was a short walk away from U.A., and only about a block away from the nearest train station, which meant that Izuku would get home quicker.

This time, Izuku found himself speaking up more often in the discussion, even participating in their banter from time to time. Even if he didn't realize it, he was constantly growing to be more comfortable around these people, which was a huge step in the right direction for him.

They reached the small business making good time, and Izuku was happy to see that there was no one there (he was getting confident around his friends, strangers were a completely different story). Adrien volunteered to get them whatever they wanted to order, and Marinette blushed before shouting out what she wanted and rushing to find a good place to sit.

Izuku already knew that he wanted some matcha green tea, so he told Adrien and tried to hand him the money, but Adrien insisted on paying for everyone since "Father gave me a big allowance." Naturally, Izuku started tearing up and Adrien started to panic, wondering if he did something wrong before Izuku explained that he cried a lot.

(Adrien almost used his quirk before the misunderstanding got cleared up, though he would have been glad to help either way.)

After the debacle, Izuku, Nino, and Alya went towards where they saw Marinette scamper off, with Adrien waiting for their orders and paying for their time. They found her in a booth at the back of the building, holding a cat in her arms and rocking it back and forth like an infant.

"Guys," she stage-whispered. "Look at this adorable ball of fluff! He just loves being cuddled, don't you, mon petit minou." She directed the last part of the statement at the cat lazily drifting away in her arms. The cat stared at them, decidedly not enjoying being treated like this, but not willing to do anything about it.

Nino leaned over to Izuku and said, "Don't worry, she's always like this with animals."

"But Marinette, I thought your favorite animals were hamsters, not cats!" Adrien showed up behind them, placing their orders on the table.

Marinette's blush returned at Adrien remembering such a small detail about her, though she fought the urge to run off. "T-that doesn't mean that kitties aren't cute too!"

Izuku sat across from her, Alya and Nino pushing themselves into the row so that Adrien would have to sit next to Marinette. He narrowed his eyes and looked over to Alya, an unspoken question in his eyes. Alya responded in kind with a sly smirk that confirmed his observations: Marinette (probably) had a crush on Adrien.

Now that he thought about it, that made sense. During the last two days' lunches, she was always relaxed until Adrien joined them, when she sat up straighter and started to fidget with her hands. Alya always made an effort to choose a seat that would force Adrien to sit next to her (which was incredibly obvious in hindsight— he had no idea why Marinette didn't complain about it. Or maybe that was what she wanted? He didn't understand girls or crushes.)

He had to admit, it was funny to see how Marinette somehow got more uptight and more relaxed around Adrien. She was already a clumsy person (they'd started with basic soldering in that day's class and she'd almost burned herself with it even though she seemed to know what she was doing), and when the boy was around her clumsiness seemed to extend to her speech. It was far more humorous that it should have been to watch Marinette fumble around with her words, and he found himself having to stifle his laughs often.

Marinette glared at the three sitting across from her while Adrien was yawning, and Nino couldn't help the chuckle that managed to slip past his lips.

"What's so funny?" Adrien asked, paying more attention than they thought he was.

Izuku, the quick thinker that he was, pointed at the cat trying to jump on to Adrien's head. He looked up just in time for the feline fiend to make her leap, landing squarely on his face rather than his head. She slid off easily enough as he rubbed his nose in amusement, landing on the table and looking around at the five of them in confusion. They watched in silence as she sauntered over to Izuku and swatted him on the nose with a paw. Izuku recoiled as the rest of them burst into laughter, and even Izuku broke into laughter after a moment of hesitation.

"Here," Adrien said, pointing to a plate he'd set down. "I ordered some cat treats from the front, so you can feed them."

Izuku tried to give the cat (who was named Aki, according to the tag on her collar) a few different treats, until he stumbled upon one that she actually liked. She then decided that he was worthy to pet her and sat down on the table in front of him. When he stroked her fur, she purred softly, letting her eyes close as she rested.

Izuku looked up with veritable stars in his eyes. He didn't say anything in order to avoid disturbing Aki, but the wonder in his eyes was clear, and Alya leaned over, cooing at the animal. Nino started to tell them a story about the training exercise that his class had that day, which was taught by All Might, of all people.

He didn't even know that All Might was a teacher at U.A., and that knowledge didn't sit well in his stomach. He was still the greatest hero, of course, and he had more of his merch than he knew what to do with, but…

"You can't be a hero without a quirk."

He was right, and now Izuku was on a different track in life, but it still stung. Hopefully, if they passed in the hallway, the hero wouldn't recognize him.

Alya noticed his worsening mood, so she elbowed him lightly and mouthed, "You okay, Sprout?"

He thought about it for a moment, but after looking at Nino reenacting some sort of fight scene with just his hands and Marinette holding her stomach from laughing too hard?

"Yeah, I am."

And now we're caught up with the chapters on Ao3! From this point onwards I will be posting one chapter per week, every Friday. I will also be including author's notes.