Yagi settled into the chair, an apprehensive expression on his face. He rested his elbows against his knees as he leaned forwards,his hands clasped tightly. Midoriya just remained standing, patiently waiting for the former Number One hero to focus his thoughts.
After Midoriya had found the hero in the teacher's lounge, Yagi had pulled the boy into a private break room so no one could overhear their conversation by accident.
"Does... Togata-senpai know?" The green haired boy asked softly, "Does Sir know?"
"No... they don't." Yagi softly admitted, "After all, this theory isn't something that I'm even sure of myself... most of the past users of One for All have been killed by villains... and only the fourth user has died of old age... there could have been underlying health conditions or something else that resulted in his death... and I don't want Young Mirio and Nighteye to worry about something that might not even be an issue."
Midoriya nodded. He did understand where Yagi was coming from.
"Young Mirio is already having a hard enough time already trying to deal with one of the new abilities of One for All." Yagi sighed, "After all, I was quirkless myself, and I never manifested any of the other abilities other than enhanced strength. It could just be because Permeation is a good quirk for One for All to work on as a base... or One for All is reacting to the prevailing threat of All for One. There are just too many unknowns. I don't have a solution for this yet."
Yagi looked up at Midoriya, and gave the boy a smile, "I want you to just worry about your final examinations, okay? Leave everything else to the adults. Can you do that for me?"
Midoriya just gazed at the large, empty smile that was present on Yagi's face; there was an unnatural, hard set of his mouth. It was revoltingly fake, hiding hopefulness and fear that the former Number One hero was trying to hide from the green haired first year.
The boy looked away, and nodded. If that was what Yagi wished, then he would honor the wishes of the blonde man.
After all, Yagi had been using One for All for decades; all Midoriya had done was merely research. Compared to Yagi's heaps of experience, Midoriya knew nothing about One for All.
Yagi watched as Midoriya exited the break room, before he let out a depressed sigh, and sank back into the couch. He remembered the time he had a talk with All for One while the first year students were busy with the Provisional Hero License Exam.
Sure, All for One had seemed interested in Midoriya at that point of time, but that could simply be because the child had been kidnapped, and talking about him would surely upset Yagi, and not to mention, Shigaraki held an intense hatred and disdain for the quirkless boy.
Or, All for One knew something about Midoriya that they didn't. Something that even the boy himself didn't know.
All for One was his enemy. His main targets were only supposed to be the users of One for All; Yagi and Sasaki had spent a lot of time training Togata, and making sure that he knew the risks and burdens of taking on a quirk like One for All.
And yet, because they, no, he failed to take down the villain all those years ago... and now, All for One now had a weird fixation on Midoriya. And liked to talk about fire-related idioms whenever he talked about Midoriya, for some odd reason.
It wasn't like Yagi didn't believe that Midoriya could take care of himself. He had seen first hand how good the boy was at fighting, at figuring out the weakness of the villains he fought and using that to give him an edge. He knew that the boy was perfectly capable of taking care of himself in a fight against any other villain.
But All for One wasn't any old villain. All for One was a man who had lived for decades, stockpiling quirks that could be used together in lethal combinations, and constantly learning from his past mistakes.
The later was what really scared Yagi. An extremely powerful man who kept learning, and knew how to manipulate people, even his enemies. Despite all their knowledge, in a battlefield, what really counted was experience, knowing when and how to make a move without even thinking about it.
And when it came to experience, no one could even begin to compare to All for One. Even if he wasn't physically there... he definitely had something planned.
Yagi looked at the door, before he stood up, and stretched, before he headed out of the break room. There was no point in thinking about it if he couldn't do anything; he should probably discuss this with Nezu and Sasaki before he makes a decision on what to do.
"Everyone!" Iida raised his voice, as he stood in front of the television, preventing several of the students from watching some villain get arrested on live television.
"Iida, bro, can you please move?" Sero tried to watch the news, though he really couldn't see anything behind the class representative, "We're watching the news."
"Ah, apologies." Iida nodded, and moved to the side, "I just wanted to tell you that Yaoyorozu, Sato, Bakugou and I had a short discussion, and we have decided that we will be starting and ending dinner early, until the examination period is over. This is to ensure that there is ample time after meals for you all to shower and do last minute revisions, as well as late night snacks, while still allowing you to sleep early and get enough sleep for your papers."
"You actually had a discussion with Bakugou over food, without him blowing up?" Jiro raised an eyebrow, and Iida nodded proudly, "Yes. He was actually very civil, and gave out very fair points."
"That does seem like a good idea." Shoji nodded, looking up from his textbook, "But I do not think it would be fair for Sato and Bakugou to do all the cooking for the duration of our examinations. Even though the rest of us are the ones cleaning up, cooking does take much more time and effort."
"Yaoyorozu and I were going to talk to Aizawa-sensei about this problem tomorrow. We are hoping that we can get Lunch Rush to cook dinner, or we get daily take-outs, but that might be a little expensive for a week and a half's worth of food." Iida replied, noting the slightly anxious look on Uraraka's face, since she did transfer a good chunk of the money from her internships over to her parents, and didn't have a lot of money to splurge on food, "Not that the price is a problem anyways, since I believe that UA would be the ones covering food, if we are not going grocery shopping. Hitoshi, please stop eating up all the popcorn; it's not healthy to eat so much of it. There are fruits in the fridge. It's almost dinner time, anyways."
Shinsou just shrugged as he was called out, popping more kernels into his mouth as he scribbled some answers down on his Literature homework, "Hey, it helps me study. You should be more supportive of me eating popcorn."
Midoriya just walked out of the kitchen with a steaming hot cup of coffee in his hand, peering down at the list of conjugate verbs that Yamada had given them for their English examination. He sat down next to Shinsou, and reached over to grab a couple kernels of popcorn, eliciting a sigh from Iida.
"Izuku, just how many cups of coffee have you had today? Inclusive of this current cup, and starting from that cup you had a midnight." Iida asked in exasperation, "How do you even fall asleep with so much caffeine in your system?"
The greenette raised his head as his name was mentioned. He tilted his head, thinking for a couple of seconds, before he raised five fingers.
Iida let out another sigh, "Please don't drink too much. You need proper sleep if you want to be well rested for your examinations."
Midoriya nodded, before his eyes glinted, and he whispered something in Shinsou's ear. The lavender haired boy snorted, and turned to Iida with a mischievous glint in his eyes and a cheeky grin on his face, "He says that this is around a third of what he usually drinks, back when he was still in middle school."
Iida's eyes threatened to bulge out of their sockets, and the bespectacled boy spluttered, "I... what... how... why...!?"
Kaminari burst into peals of infectious laughter, and it wasn't long before almost everyone was chuckling as Iida was unable to get any of his words out.
Eventually, Iida just gave up. The blue haired boy shook his head, "Just... don't drink too much..."
Midoriya nodded again, before he turned his attention back to the list of conjugate verbs.
"Yes! It's finally over!" Kaminari shrieked, as he flung himself onto the couch, "That Mathematics examination was so difficult!"
"Isn't Mathematics supposed to be your strong suit?" Ashido questioned, dropping her bag on the floor, "You're good at Physics!"
"Physics uses Mathematics, but Mathematics doesn't use Physics!" Kaminari countered, "It's that uh... Van Diagram thingy! The one that looks like the Mastercard credit card logo."
"I believe the term is a Venn Diagram, dummy." Jiro corrected, unplugging her earlobe from her phone.
Midoriya just walked into the common room behind the noisy students, and leaned against the wall, yawning. He hadn't gotten much sleep over the week, revising for the examinations, and he was completely exhausted. He knew that he had been treated poorly in middle school and had gotten marked down for literally everything due to his lack of a quirk, and that the teachers in UA were all different.
Yet, it was a habit he had yet to correct, and he had spent every night obsessive over past mistakes, and had barely gotten an hour's sleep in total over the past week.
"Mina is good at Chemistry, and Kami knows Physics." Kirishima sighed, "You two probably did well for the Science examination."
"Well, at least it's all over." Sero grinned, "Our first year is over! Let's party!"
"I do not see a problem with that." Yaoyorozu nodded, "But we have run out of snacks, as well as groceries for our meals, as Lunch Rush had only agreed to provide dinner during the examination period. We will have to make our own dinner again, so we will probably have to go grocery shopping again."
"I will contact Aizawa-sensei about another grocery trip." Iida nodded, "Please make a list of snacks that you would like, and give the list to Sato and Bakugou so they can add the essential items."
"Yes! Get alcohol!" Ashido grinned, but she was immediately shut down by the bespectacled boy, chopping his arms excessively with every word, "No! Absolutely no alcohol! That would be considered as underaged drinking! We are explementary Hero Course students, we must set a good example! I will not allow that, especially while we are still on school grounds! Ashido, you should know better than that!"
"Looks like the examination stress has finally gotten to him, huh?" Kendo laughed, leaning against the wall, but Yaoyorozu shook her head, smiling slightly, "I don't think so. Iida's always like that."
"Ah ha! Iida is so uptight, but Kendo is much calmer and level-headed! That is why 1-B is so much better than 1-A! We are the -"
"That is enough. The examinations just finished, and you have to go back to your old self. You're the one examination stress has gotten to." Kendo shook her head as she grabbed Monoma by the collar, "But thanks for sticking up for me, anyways."
Kendo turned back to the 1-A students, and grinned, "We overhead something about a party, so we've decided to crash it. No questions asked."
"Awesome! The more the merrier!" Kaminari cheered, before Aizawa walked into the common room, his hands in his pockets. The Erasure hero looked around, mentally accounting for every single student, before he sighed, "In light of the end of your examinations, you have the rest of today, and tomorrow, off. The day after that, we will go back to having hero course training."
There was a series of groans, and Aizawa continued, "Remember, you all joined the hero course. I understand that you are still children, but there are more pressing matters at hand that require our immediate attention."
The black haired man dragged his feet as he walked out of the common room, and Shinsou turned towards the sleepy green haired boy, who looked like he could drop any minute.
He could tell that Midoriya had issues sleeping before examinations. They had studied together at night, and it had been almost two in the morning every day before Shinsou himself went to sleep, but he noted that Midoriya just remained seated by the kotatsu, sipping from his cup of coffee as he went over his notes and homework over and over again to ensure that he knew everything.
The lavender haired boy slowly maneuvered himself towards the smaller boy, and asked, "You okay, bud?"
Midoriya jolted, and blinked, almost like he was asleep and had just woken up, before he turned towards the taller boy, yawning tiredly.
"Maybe you should go to sleep." Shinsou muttered, "You haven't rested much this entire week. You need to sleep. You'll crash at any moment now."
The greenette just gazed up at Shinsou, exhaustion washing over him. He knew was in absolutely no shape to argue that he was interested in this "party" his classmates wanted to host, and even if he were able to argue, Shinsou would most likely just use his quirk and make him go to bed.
"Look, go to sleep, and I'll make sure to leave some popcorn and apple juice for you when you wake up." The lavender haired boy stated.
That sounded like a great deal; sleeping, and in exchange, he got snacks and a nice drink.
Wordlessly, Midoriya nodded, and just forced himself to trudge back to his room. He unlocked his door, and dumped his bag on the floor, before he ambled towards his bean bag bed.
His eyes slid shut, and he passed out, fast asleep, before his cheeks even hit the fabric of his bed, and he fell into a deep, dreamless slumber.
"Alright." Aizawa walked into the classroom, and the students instantly scrambled into their seats.
"First things first, we aren't having lessons, so Iida, Yaoyorozu, Midoriya, please put your pens back in your bags." The Erasure Hero started, and the trio hastily did as they were told.
"From today onwards, we will continue with your hero training." Aizawa glanced at the students, "We will be working on strengthening your quirks and abilities as best as we can. Working with other students and utilizing your quirks together as combination attacks or maneuvers would also be useful."
Yaoyorozu raised her hand, "Aizawa-sensei... I'm sorry to interrupt... but I do not think we're supposed to have lessons after our examinations. That's not what happened in past years."
"You're right. But in case you have not noticed, this year isn't like past years." Aizawa replied gruffly, "The two attacks on UA, Hosu, Kamino, the Provisional Hero License Examination, the Eight Precepts of Death; it is no accident that the League of Villains has been involved in all of these events, and I do have reason to believe that all the mishaps during your internships were largely influenced by the League, even if they might not have any direct meddling. As much as the Hero Commission likes to withhold information until they are sure that an event will come to pass, I do not think that hiding information will do us any good. We believe that the League of Villains are up to something, whatever it is, I'm sure that none of us are going to like it."
The Hero turned to walk out of the door, "Now, get all of your gear. Ground Gamma, in five minutes."
The 1-A students slid out of their seats, and grabbed at their Hero Costume cases, an unusual melancholy hanging over the entire class. After so many villain attacks and stressful events, they were finally hoping that they could relax, and enjoy their summer break, like normal first years.
Alas, fate seemed to have different plans for them.
"Ya know... the way Aizawa-sensei spoke... it was so ominous!" Kaminari started up, breaking the silence, "Like, he's always super emo and stuff, but this is just downright depressing!"
"Then we should cheer him up! Aizawa-sensei likes cats right?" Sero grinned, turning to Koda, "Let's go find a couple of strays and surprise him!"
"I will not let you do that!" Iida half-heartedly chopped his arms around, but even he could tell that Kaminari and Sero were trying their best to lighten the mood, "And you won't be able to get into the Teacher's Lounge anyways without permission! So don't even bother!"
"But you're the Class Representative!" Kaminari lit up, and lunged at Iida, "You can request to talk to Aizawa-sensei and make him open the door! Then we throw cats on him!"
"No! Absolutely not!" Iida flailed as he had to now support the weight of the electric blonde and another Hero Costume case, "That is dangerous; all the germs and bacteria on the claws of stray cats! And let go of me, I'm going to fall!"
Midoriya walked up to Shinsou, and tapped his arm lightly. The taller boy looked down at him, and the greenette nodded, muttering softly, "It's finally starting."
"Yeah." Shinsou looked down at the floor, "I was hoping we'd have a bit more time... but it looks like the road ahead is going to be as treacherous as usual."
"It's going to be a war." Midoriya joined him at gazing down at the small, imaginary speck on the floor that just seemed out of place, "And we don't know if any of us are going to get out of it alive."
"Hey, don't forget what you said to me." Shinsou offered Midoriya a small smile, "We're going to be heroes together. None of this "provisional license" nonsense. We'll kick the League's stupid butt, finish the rest of our two years in UA, and become actual, full-fledged heroes. No dying on me before then."
The small greenette looked up, and nodded resolutely, "Yeah."