Beta'd by Greed720 and HardwinPotter

Classes 1-A and 1-B huddled together in the school's auditorium for the Beast's Forest attack debrief. Though the teachers never said what exactly needed to be kept secret about that night, the same rumor was on everyone's lips. Deku had a Quirk. Classmates across the A/B border pestered Monoma for details, but the usually loud-mouthed student refused to give answers. Midoriya's absence from the crowd only galvanized the rumor mills.

Mina sat towards the back, away from the gossip. Her mind was on the first year, on the hesitant, nervous Izuku that had taken her out on dates, wondering if it had anything to do with the mystery Quirk everyone was talking about. Was it terrible that she didn't even think there might have been something wrong? Was there something she could have done? Should she have told someone?

So wrapped up in her questions, Mina didn't notice Aizawa, Inui, and Sekijiro come up onto the stage until a deafening silence from her classmates made her look up. Both had grim expressions, and Aizawa wore a flat look that threatened expulsions at the slightest misstep.

"First, I would like to thank you all for keeping discreet about what happened. Thus far, we have not detected any information leaks, which has allowed us to present a clear and unbiased picture of what happened to the public and the HPSC. If any of you feel that information publicly available is incorrect or incomplete, please contact your homeroom teacher."

Not a whisper touched the silence after Aizawa's statement. Tension stirred the air as the second-year hero students waited for further explanation.

Vlad King rolled his shoulders and stepped up to the podium. "The purpose of this debrief is to address certain rumors that have been spreading and to inform you on both the school's policies and the HPSC's policies regarding this incident going forward. First, three-fold identification of biometrics, I.D. card, and vocal passwords will be mandated for entry onto U.A. premises. Second, trips outside of campus must be approved by your homeroom teacher. Third, any and all visitors to the campus must first be screened by U.A. staff and be accompanied by a staff member at all times."

An uproar rippled among the students. A flash of red flickered in Aizawa's eyes as he swept his gaze over them. Everyone instinctively fell silent shrunk into their seats. "These measures are for your safety. The villains we fought were specifically targeting you. Failure to adhere to these rules is grounds for suspension or expulsion, depending on the severity of the infraction," Aizawa said. "Are there any questions?"

There was only one question on everyone's minds, but no one was bold enough to ask.

"Good." Aizawa looked around the walls and ceiling,making sure there weren't any eavesdroppers. "Now, it has come to our attention that you all have reason to believe that Midoriya Izuku, who has been listed as Quirkless on his school records, has a Quirk."

Mina felt herself holding her breath. Everyone shifted in their seats, leaning forward to hear every word.

"Midoriya has volunteered to give a full account of his situation. Before that, however, I need to make this very clear. Not a single word of what you are about to hear is to leave this room. As Heroes, sometimes it falls upon us to keep secrets, whether it is to protect the public or their peers. Details about someone's patrol route, or their Quirk, their support gear, anything can and will be used by villains to harm us. While a lot of this information is expected to be leaked, there are certain secrets with a far greater potential for harm. This is one of those secrets."

Mina tensed as Aizawa's eyes cut straight through her, with an edge of lethal gravity that she had never seen in anyone before. She shivered in her seat and saw everyone just as unnerved by the cold steel in Aizawa's words, even Todoroki and Bakugo.

"This information is not to be discussed with anyone outside of this room or Hound Dog's office. Otherwise, once you leave this room, you will take this secret to your grave. Is that understood?"

Nods all around. Aizawa scowled and said, "I need to hear it. Speak up."

"Yes Aizawa-sensei."

"Good. I know there are a lot of mixed feelings regarding these rumors, but I ask that you be courteous with Midoriya. This is, to be blunt, a difficult time for him, and I will not tolerate any harassment towards him. With that in mind, I will let him explain as much as he is able."

Mina knew the Izuku that walked up to the podium, eyes downcast, shoulders hunched, glancing at the crowd and twitching away. Going by the mutters and confused stares around her, everyone else picked up on the difference. Mina felt herself tense up, suddenly afraid of what he was about to say.

For what felt like an eternity, Midoriya stared uneasily at them from behind the podium. Vlad King whispered, "Today, kid," and Izuku flinched.

"Uh… hi."

Izuku was not going to throw up. He definitely was not thinking about this afternoon's katsudon creeping up his throat, nor was he toeing the garbage bucket Recovery Girl had thoughtfully left up there for him. He could do this. All he had to do was say it. Easy, right? He already told Aizawa-sensei. How hard it could be to tell his friends and classmates, who he had spent all of last year lying to, that he had a Quirk that allowed him to cheat the Sports Festival?

Vlad King whispered something. Izuku's heart nearly came up with his lunch. Startled into action, Izuku said the first thing that his tongue could fumble out.

"Uh… hi."

The class stared. The teachers stared. Izuku stared at the floor, willing himself to be anywhere else but at the center of attention of the entire universe. Two words into his confession, and he was already wishing for the numb comfort of his Quirk, where he would already know exactly what to say.

A soft knocking noise broke the silence. Eyes drawn to the source of the sound, Izuku saw Koda, front and center, with a comforting smile on his face. His hands formed a silent message, "It's okay. You're doing fine."

Izuku never felt more grateful to know sign language. He signed a quick 'thank you' and cleared his throat. "I, uh, don't really know how to say this, so I guess I'll just say it. I… I have a Q-quirk. It… sends my memories back to me in time. It's like remembering the future, well, sort of, except I don't really get a say in how it goes, it just shows me what's going to happen and makes me do it."

Kirishima raised his hand. "So, wait, you can see the future?"

"Uh… yes?"

At that admission, Mina felt so many pieces coming together at once. The USJ, it was his idea to store the acid she needed to weaken the Nomu. And the Sports Festival, did he arrange everything so he would win? There were all those new rules, and he had to have known about that Gen-Ed's Quirk ahead of time.

Mina wasn't the only one experiencing a sudden epiphany. Many students, Ojiro in particular, looked frustrated at Izuku. The more level-headed students between the two classes, Todoroki and Tsuyu in particular, looked more thoughtful. Yaoyorozu had an uneasy smile on her face, now that she knew how she had been bested all year.

Iida was furious. A look of confusion and contemplation gave way to quivering rage once the implications of Izuku's Quirk reached him. He was halfway out of his seat before a glare from Aizawa froze him in place. Bakugo, on the other hand, sullenly sat with his arms crossed, glaring at Izuku, but otherwise keeping his anger in check.

"What about right now?" Mina asked. "Are you using your Quirk right now?"

"Uh, no, I'm not. I need to keep it turned off, b-because I spent so long with it active, I don't really, uh, handle being without it. I'm still not really sure how I'm able to stop using it, I was asked not to, and it turned itself off. So, yeah."

While Mina puzzled together what that meant, the questions moved on without her. Aoyama raised his hand and asked, "Could you, perhaps, demonstrate your Quirk? What number am I thinking of?"

Midoriya's expression slackened, and he answered, "Twenty-three."

"Magnifique! That's exactly what I was going to say!"

Kirishima scratched his head. "Wait, you can read minds too?"

In a flash, anxious-Midoriya was back. "No, I just knew that was the right number to say. I remember saying that and remember Aoyama saying that was the number he was thinking of. I didn't even know he was going to ask that question, I only knew I'd give an answer."

Monoma raised his hand. Kendo expanded a hand, ready to karate chop him into submission, but he was surprisingly subdued as he said, "I could only see for thirty minutes, because that was how long I had the Quirk. How far into the future can you see?"

"Ah, well, I don't entirely know for sure, but the longest I've seen was nine years."

Excited murmuring rose among the students, but Monoma rose his voice over it. "And the memories, do they all come at once?"

Izuku winced, remembering when his Quirk came in at the age of five. "It took about an hour," he said quietly.

"How bad was it?"

The class fell silent at the stricken expression on Izuku's face. Katsuki shot Monoma a perplexed look. Izuku froze, wondering exactly how much to tell them. He couldn't mention all the stuff Katsuki did to him, not without making everything worse. "I-it was fine. Why do you ask?"

Monoma shrugged. "How typical of 1-A, pretending to be so tough all the time."

Kendo cuffed him on the back of the head. Monoma turned back to her and said, "Come on, that one was an accident!"

"You promised."

Yaoyorozu cleared her throat. "If you can see so far ahead, then surely you knew about both villain attacks ahead of time. Why didn't you say anything?"

"Uh, well, I didn't actually get much warning for those. The first time, things… changed when Aizawa-sensei erased my Quirk. I didn't have a clear picture until after then. And the second time, m-my Quirk was having… problems. I had to have Aizawa-sensei erase my Quirk again before I could talk about it."

"So, wait, Aizawa-sensei can change the future?" Kaminari asked.

"No, I think? I can't see what happens after he uses it. All Might, though…" Izuku thought about the times All Might changed his future and decided that implying he had seen his own death so many times was probably not a good idea. "Uh… next question?"

Todoroki raised his hand and asked, "Are there any villain attacks you see happening?"

Izuku cowered under the intense gaze of the thirty-nine students before him. He glanced at Aizawa, but his teacher only stared back. Swallowing, Izuku wondered how much he could disclose. He saw a few of the students there in the glimpse he had of his future, but he also knew that raid was an important secret.

"I d-don't foresee the League of Villains attacking again," Izuku said once he found his tongue. "I guess getting beaten like they did means they need to recover?"

His classmates relaxed and smiled at each other. Before anyone else could ask more questions, Aizawa came forward and said, "Right, that's enough. One thing that I feel is important to note is that Midoriya-san cannot influence the outcome of what he sees. It remains unclear exactly how his Quirk works, which is why we're trying to keep him from using it until we understand it. At the same time, for both his and your safety, he will continue to use it when necessary to preserve his Quirk's secrecy."

Hound Dog stepped forward. "You'll all be having counseling sessions with me for this incident. If you feel that a one-on-one conversation with Izuku about his Quirk will be necessary, you can sign up for those sessions right now."

Iida stomped over and hastily signed the first available meeting. Izuku shrank back under Iida's glare. Shocked, and even hurt by the fury on someone Izuku thought would have taken news of his Quirk well, Izuku felt cornered behind the podium. Guilt washed over Izuku as he saw the troubled and angry expressions on the rest of his classmates' faces. Ojiro, hard-faced and tail whipping about with a temper, Mina, uncharacteristically quiet and subdued, and Bakugo, shoulders squared and back straight, yet hesitant when he put pen to paper.

Izuku had spent all year lying to them. He didn't belong here, but because his Quirk said so, he had lied his way into U.A., cheated his way through the Sports Festival, and hurt so many of his classmates in the process. Izuku couldn't help but think that they would be better off if he left.

"Hey, Copycat."

Monoma turned as he was about to walk out of the auditorium. Bakugo stalked over to him.

"Ah, Bakugo-san, what's got you ready to explode this time?"

Bakugo grabbed Monoma by the collar and dragged his face closer. "You said Deku was acting tough. What did you mean by that?"

Monoma glanced at the door. All he had to do was walk out and he could argue that his lips were sealed. However, with Bakugo's hand near his face, Monoma decided against struggling.

"I don't think it's any of my business to tell you," Monoma said. "If you're so curious, why don't you ask Midoriya yourself?"

Bakugo's teeth audibly ground. Monoma gave his dentist a pitying thought.

"I asked you for a reason. Now, spill it."

"Fine. I guess I don't care that much anyways." Monoma studied Bakugo's expression. He was close enough to smell the burnt-sugar scent of his nitroglycerin sweat, so he may as well get something out of it. Bakugo's usual swagger and confidence were gone. His red eyes darted back and forth, and he glanced over his shoulder, checking for listeners. His hand was shaking, and not from the effort of pulling Monoma closer, and sweat dampened Monoma's collar, in a silent but effective reminder that he was dealing with a walking, talking bomb.

"When I first got that Quirk, I felt everything that happened within the next half hour all at once. I got off easy, since I knew where every attack would come from, but I still got clipped in the shoulder dragging Shishida out of the path of a chainsaw, I got a few cuts when one of Pony's horns exploded, and there was also the exhaustion of fighting for half an hour. All of that felt as though it happened at the same time, right when I first got that vision. As those things actually happened, I hardly felt any of that. It was like watching a movie for the hundredth time. You already know everything that's going to happen, and it loses all its impact."

As Monoma spoke, Bakugo's grip slackened, and his eyes widened with horror. Monoma gave a smirk and asked, "Is something the matter, Bakugo-san? You look guilty about something."

Bakugo shook himself and let Monoma go. "Out of the way, extra," he snapped as he shoved Monoma aside and rushed out the door.

Monoma watched Bakugo leave and pondered his reactions. The guilt had been clear on his face, but what did he feel guilty about?"

A shadow dimmed the light around Monoma. He turned around to find Aizawa staring down at him. "I would advise against antagonizing Bakugo further. Leave him to the grown-ups."

"Fine. Kendo-san would kill me if she thought I was planning something anyways. No fun at all, that one."

Katsuki made it a couple dozen steps on the path towards the front gate when his legs gave out from under him. Kneeling on the ground, Katsuki shivered as images of him hitting and burning Deku, both in first person and in the videos Nezu had shown him, flashed unbidden before his eyes.

Just as he finally found a way to absolve himself of the guilt, since Deku had a Quirk all this time and could have kicked his ass anytime he wanted, Katsuki learned the hideous truth behind why Deku never seemed to care about getting hurt. For nine years, he had beaten him, angry that he never showed any pain or fear, only to realize now that it was because he had already put him through all that pain at the age of five.

As the smell of scorched flesh hit his nostrils, Katsuki felt his stomach twist. Vomit spurted out his mouth and nostrils. Shivering, Katsuki crawled away from the mess and rolled onto the grass. He clenched his hands, furious that something so stupid as a memory could make himself weak enough to lose his stomach.

He wasn't sure how long he had laid out there until the sound of footsteps made him look up. Hound Dog walked up the sidewalk and paused to sniff the air.

"Thought I smelled something," he muttered. His eyes fell on the puddle of vomit and Katsuki's unmoving form on the grass and sprinted over. He rolled Katsuki onto his side and tried to check for a pulse, but Katsuki shoved him off.

"I'm fine, just leave me alone."

Ignoring Katsuki's words, Hound Dog pried Katsuki's jaw open and checked for a black tongue. Katsuki spluttered and scooted away on the grass.

"Stop that! I said I was fine!"

"You were lying on the ground next to a puddle of vomit," Hound Dog said. "Hard to believe you're fine."

"Well, I am. Just go away."

Hound Dog crouched and offered his hand. "Why don't you have some tea in my office? It'll help with your stomach."

Katsuki wanted nothing more than to slap his hand away, but the firmness in Hound Dog's voice suggested that the offer wasn't optional. If nothing else, the tea would wash out the putrid taste in his mouth.

Ignoring the offered hand, Katsuki pushed himself to his feet. He glared at the guidance counselor and said, "Fine, I'll have some stupid tea, but I don't need it."

Katsuki settled into the familiar seat and glared at the floor while Hound Dog heated up some water. Once the tea was ready, he added a generous dollop of honey and set it in front of Katsuki.

"I'm guessing you're not sick or on drugs," Hound Dog said.

"I just threw up. That's all."

"I can't help you if you don't tell me what's wrong."

Katsuki slammed the mug on his desk, sloshing tea everywhere. "I don't need help!"

"If that's the case, tell me what happened, then I can send you on your way."

Katsuki glowered and drank what was left of his tea. After a long silence, he asked, "Was it true, what Copycat said?" At Hound Dog's raised eyebrow, Katsuki clarified, "That thing about De- Midoriya-san experiencing everything I did to him all at once."

Hound Dog winced and hid the action behind his mug. "I'm afraid it's true. How does that make you feel?"

"Pissed off!" Katsuki roared. The mug slipped from his fingers and rolled on the floor. "All this time, he could have kicked my shit in! Instead, he sat there and took it! I… I hit him, tripped him, burned him, and he just let it happen! Why?"

Bakugo's heavy breathing rasped out of his open mouth. Hound Dog sat in his chair, silently watching him, while he waited for Bakugo to cool down. Once Bakugo relaxed back into his chair, Hound Dog said, "In earlier sessions, you said that hurting Midoriya-san was wrong because he couldn't defend himself. Do you still think you were wrong?"

Bakugo blinked at him. "Of course not. He could have stopped me anytime he wanted."

Hound Dog inwardly groaned. They had unwittingly built Bakugo's rehabilitation on the premise of Izuku's Quirklessness. With that premise crumbling, Inui had to swiftly and carefully move the metaphorical skyscraper they had built over the summer onto a sturdier foundation.

With the trepidation of a man setting off into a minefield, Inui said, "For now, let's set aside whether or not he could have done anything about it. Do you acknowledge that you caused Midoriya significant pain?"

Bakugo felt blood rushing to his head as he thought of it. His head went fuzzy, but he forced himself to take deep breaths. "I did. Heroes do that all the time, though, to villains."

"Was Midoriya a villain?"

"No…"

"Then why did you hurt him?"

"Because he kept looking down on me! All this time, he acted like I was nothing! No matter what I did, no matter what I said, he acted like I didn't mean anything."

Inui sniffed the air and studied Bakugo's face closely, but the kid had too many emotions piled on top of each other for him to make any sense of it. It was akin to trying to pick out the scent of a specific spice out of a whole warehouse of different aromas.

Without any other options for progress, Inui had no choice but to reveal more details about Midoriya's Quirk. "His Quirk suppresses his emotions. It wasn't because he thought less of you that he didn't react, it was because his Quirk kept him from feeling anything."

The anger drained out of Katsuki's face. He rubbed his forehead, deep in thought, and said, "He changed overnight. It was like he broke, somehow. He stopped smiling, stopped mumbling about heroes, and stopped talking about me. I thought it was because he gave up."

"It's the main reason why we're trying to get Midoriya-san to stop using his Quirk. For most of his life, he had never dealt with his emotions. It's likely that minor incidents like having a tray knocked out of his hands or being tripped in the hallway would cause a panic attack." Inui locked eyes with Katsuki when he said, "Please bear that in mind during class."

"I'll treat him like porcelain if that's what you want," Katsuki grumbled. After some more thought, he said, "You never mentioned why he was hiding his Quirk this whole time. It's not like he had any reason to."

"Truly precognitive Quirks are extremely rare and highly prized. One with Midoriya's capabilities has never been observed before. If word of his Quirk had spread, there would have been a lot of powerful and unscrupulous people that would have tried to take him."

"So, he let me beat him up to sell the fact that he was Quirkless." Katsuki sat up straighter and nodded to himself. "That's why he pissed me off."

Inui felt a growl rising in his throat. Keeping a calm voice, he asked, "You didn't know any of that, though, did you?"

"Well, no, but-"

"You physically and emotionally harassed him for nine years. Between his Quirk and the negligent staff of your middle school, there was nothing he could do to stop you. You were in control of your actions, not him. So, Bakugo Katsuki, why did you hurt him?"

Katsuki bolted up and slammed his hands on Inui's desk with a small flash of nitroglycerin. "I don't fucking know, okay! I - I'm messed up, too angry all the time and all that shit. There, you fucking happy?"

Smoke rose from between his fingers. Tears were streaming down his face, and he was shaking uncontrollably. Inui put a comforting hand on Katsuki's arm and gently eased him back into the chair.

"From what I know about both of your histories, I have a guess for why you did what you did. When Midoriya stopped responding to you, you tried to get his attention. Called him names, threw objects at him, gradually doing worse as time went on. Does it sound accurate so far?"

Katsuki numbly nodded. "The other kids started doing it too. He treated them all the same, and I think that pissed me off too. Like I wasn't anything special."

"I think that, this whole time, you just wanted your friend back, the one who got overly excited about heroes and went bug catching with you. How did you feel during those first couple days after Izuku changed?"

"I… I felt confused. Hurt, I guess." Katsuki wiped his face until no sign of his tears remained before looking up at Hound Dog. "Why are you saying this? What do you want me to do?"

"Part of learning from our mistakes is in knowing why we made them in the first place. I want you to think about what we discussed and decide how you're going to move forward. Do you think you can do that by the next appointment?"

"It's tomorrow, isn't it?"

"This can count for this week's session. Are you feeling better now?"

Katsuki stood and brought back the mug he dropped. "No, but I can deal with it. Later."

As the door closed, Inui sagged onto his desk and growled to himself, "I really need to stop going after strange smells."

Not much for me to say this week, and I gotta get cracking on more of this stuff, so I'll just do the usual replies to reviews and bounce.

timmysocool: "This has gone from cool to fucking awesome within the first few chapters, and from fucking crazy to fucking crazier within the last any amount of chapters."

Bardothren: something tells me you're going to love the next chapter. I certainly did.

StillHere: "But his inability to provide any meaningful aid to the matter with Yaoyorozu just seems kind of disingenuous here."

Bardothren: There's a reason Izuku doesn't have the whole picture, and it has nothing to do with his Quirk's functionality. I appreciate your concerns, but I don't want to spoil anything, so I'll just leave it at that for now.

That's all I got. See you next Sunday!