Shinso felt very awkward standing in front of the class of 2-A. Despite wanting to become a hero, he still found it very hard to be the center of attention. He could feel the eyes of everyone boring into him, and he wanted nothing more than to walk back out of the classroom door.
"After great deliberation with the other teachers, we decided it was best to place Shinso with 2-A. I hope that you will be able to make him feel welcome," Aizawa said.
Shinso's eyes wandered around the room, trying to avoid making direct contact with anyone. He couldn't help but notice the very empty desk that was behind Bakugo. The class gave a polite applause, except for Bakugo who gave a small huff and sat with his arms crossed. Then Ida stood up and gave a very rigid bow.
"Welcome to 2-A, I am your class president, so let me know if I can help you in any way!"
Although Shinso had met everyone in 2-A, he hadn't gotten to know everyone to the same level, so he was grateful at Ida's words.
"Thank you Ida, now Shinso please can you take a seat behind Bakugo, there are a few things I would like to talk to the class about."
Shinso reluctantly walked down the classroom and took a seat that he knew didn't belong to him. At least it was towards the back of the room, so he would have less people staring at him. He noted how clean and pristine the table was, almost as if it was brand new. He knew it was the most logical place to put him, but it didn't help that he felt very much a replacement for the usual bubbly green haired guy whose seat he was sitting in.
"First off, welcome all to your second year at UA. I would say that your training would be ramping up, but I think you guys have gained more experience in one year than most third years would spend accumulating. Now the times have been changing, with the world getting more dangerous with villains such All For One and Shigaraki on the loose, not to mention the recent prison break outs."
Shinso had heard all about the raid on the Paranormal Liberation mansion. It had been the biggest attack mounted by the pros against the villains in recent history. Many people had died; heroes, villains and civilians alike. So much of Japan was in turmoil and many people had been displaced from their homes. Shinso had been frustrated that he could only watch from the sidelines, but having not made the transfer to the hero course until today, there had been little that he could have done.
"Now it is paramount that you keep training as hard as you can. Japan needs pro heroes, now more than ever. Each hero school is being turned into an evacuation zone, and we are working with the government to make sure each citizen is able to be safe. As part of your training from this year onwards, each student with a provisional hero license will be required to take on public duty. This will include helping citizens evacuate to relevant safe zones, patrolling the local area and continuing your work studies with the agencies that you signed up to at the end of your first year."
Aizawa paused and looked at Shinso directly, "of course, we will be helping Shinso acquire his provisional hero license as soon as possible so he will be able to join the rest of you." He felt uncomfortable once again to be called out in front of the class, but Aizawa quickly moved on.
"Now, I'm going to address the elephant in the room. As many of you know, Midoriya has dropped out of UA. The villain All For One has been targeting him for a quirk that he possessed. I'm not privy to all of the details, but he is currently working alongside the pros such as Endeavour and Best Jeanist, who are making it their utmost priority to look after him. His safety is in their hands, so please do NOT even think about going to look for him, or making contact."
Shinso couldn't help but notice that Aizawa was deliberately looking at Bakugo and Todoroki. He wondered what had happened in the past to provoke such a response.
"Any student leaving their dormitory outside of any school or hero work will be severely punished. This will include having your hero license revoked."
There was an audible gasp in the room. Shinso knew in the past Aizawa had a reputation of expelling students who didn't take school seriously, but it had been a long time since that had happened.
"Furthermore, the principal will be holding a memorial service tomorrow. The whole school will be in attendance, and I believe there will be several more announcements to be made."
With that, the silent class broke out in a buzz of activity over the news.
Warm.
He was warm. And comfy. He wanted to stay like this forever. Whilst he was sleeping, nobody was bothering him. Well, except for the throbbing in the back of his head. He tried to ignore it, to go back to the warm blissful sleep he was having.
However the pain would not go away, no matter how much he tried to push it down. In the end, Izuku opened his eyes and looked blearily at the ceiling above him. He ached all over.
It had been a while since he had slept for this long. Due to his newly acquired danger sense quirk, it had been hard to sleep longer than a few hours. He would awake to a large pounding in the back of his head. Today was no different. The only saving grace was that his fight last night with Nagant had exhausted him to a point where he was able to sleep a couple hours longer than he normally did.
He lay on the mattress for a while trying to gather his thoughts. Izuku had spent most of the drive home last night in a haze, his mind too exhausted to properly process what had happened. All Might had insisted that he looked at his injuries before Izuku was allowed to sleep, and in his tired state, he couldn't find the energy to protest. All Might had done a good job in applying the medical gel and bandages to his body. Now that he was properly awake, he could feel the worst of his pain was near his stomach, where Nagant had clipped him with her bullet.
Ah, Lady Nagant.
Izuku mulled over what she had said in their battle about the commission. He, like many of his classmates, had looked up to them over the years. After all, they were responsible for overseeing the integration of pro-heroes into society. They were the official channel for getting your license, and provided all the basic teaching material for both normal and hero schools. As well as moderating the various hero agencies around Japan and organising raids for the more serious and dangerous of investigations.
It made Izuku sick to think that they had forced Nagant to kill dozens of villains and heroes in the guise of keeping the peace. How many other heroes had the commission forced to kill against their will? Izuku knew of heroes operating underground, after all Aizawa used to mainly work behind the scenes. And by law, heroes were not allowed to kill villains, rather they had to use humane efforts to subdue their opponents.
A small knocking at his door pulled him away from his thoughts.
"You okay in there Izuku?" All Might opened the door and peered around, with a concerned look on his face.
"Hey All Might," he replied, sitting up and pulling his covers around him. All Might smiled and walked in, sitting next to Izuku.
"How are you feeling this morning?" he asked.
"I'm fine," Izuku responded. He hated worrying All Might, so often downplayed how bad his danger sense headaches were. All Might after all had dropped everything to join Izuku on his venture. Although Izuku was grateful to have his mentor around, he had slowly begun to feel the guilt eating him up on the inside. After all, the villains had set their sights upon him, so anybody close to him was going to get targeted. All Might was the only one that Izuku trusted himself to be near, and even then that didn't stop the thoughts in the back of his mind, about how powerless All Might was without himself around. He already had come close once to losing his mentor, he didn't want to experience that again.
However that didn't stop All Might from fussing over him, "Are you sure? I know Lady Nagant did a number on you!"
"She only grazed me, the bruise will fade in a couple of days," Izuku sighed, "has Hawks given you any updates about her?"
All Might looked mildly peeved at the change in conversation, but didn't seem to push him any further about it, "she's in critical condition, but she'll live. Apparently it's a miracle she even survived at all."
"Good." Izuku felt mildly relieved that she was alive. He would have to talk to her at some point soon when the immediate danger had passed. She would be the biggest clue in his investigation of the Villain League. It had been a month since he had gone rogue, and he still had gotten no closer into finding any of them.
It frustrated him at how quiet they had been. But now he had his first solid lead. Haibori Woods. He had never visited the area, and he was eager to head there as soon as possible.
"How about we talk about the details of your fight over breakfast?" All Might offered. Izuku gave him a weak smile, remembering that the last time he had eaten had been nearly twenty four hours ago.
"That sounds like a wonderful idea!"
The rest of the day had passed pretty uneventfully for Shinso. Classes that day had been pretty basic, the only change from the General Course was that there was a lot more focus on training your quirks. Shinso had spent a sweat-ridden afternoon in the gym, practicing using his binding cloth against the others.
He had initially been hesitant about interacting with his new classmates, feeling like a complete outsider. Class 2-A had gone through a lot together over the past year, and Shinso felt apprehensive about trying to break into the group to make any sort of friends. In the General Studies Course, he hadn't been the most popular, with most of the students finding his quirk very creepy and off putting.
So it had been a pleasant surprise when Tenya had made his point to try and include Shinso in their training.
By the time the evening had rolled around, Shinso had pretty much had the opportunity to speak to most of his new classmates. The exception being Bakugo, who was being standoffish, and then a couple of quieter people such as Koda, Sato and Ojiro, who kept to themselves.
He was surprised to find that all of his stuff had been moved so promptly over to his new dormitory. After spending some time unpacking his boxes, the growling in his stomach caused him to realise how hungry he was. Sighing to himself, he headed out of his room in search of food.
The common room was bustling with activity. Everybody was downstairs, either cooking or eating dinner. Shinso decided to take up a spot on an empty chair, waiting for the kitchen to be free so he could make some food.
"Yo Shinso!" called Denki, after seeing the boy enter the room, "how's the unpacking going?"
The electric blonde bounced over, sitting next to Shinso. The others in the room turned to look at him, after hearing Denki call out his name.
"It's going okay," replied Shinso. He had never been one for small talk, so felt uncomfortable that he had been singled out again.
"Shinso!" Mina yelled eagerly, also deciding to join the two of them at the table, "so how are you enjoying your first day of the hero course? We haven't scared you off yet have we?"
Her grin was infectious, and Shinso couldn't help but give a small smile, "It's been okay so far, it was nice to finally train with you in a non-competitive environment."
"That's right," Mina said, "we've only ever fought against you at the Sports Festival, and then when we did our joint training with Class 2-B over winter! Do you remember when we battled against each other? That binding cloth of yours was insane to fight against!"
"You were amazing!" Denki grinned in agreement, "I told you that you would make an awesome hero! And remember how we destroyed Class B in our battle? Me, you and Tsuyu made such a great team."
Mina and Denki continued to talk excitedly about their joint training session with Class 2-B. Occasionally Shinso would nod in agreement, and make the odd comment, but it was hard to get a word in edgeways. Whilst this was happening, Ochaco and Tenya made their way over, bowls of hot steaming ramen in their hands.
"Yo," Tenya said, sitting down at the table opposite the three of them, "I hope you two haven't managed to talk poor Shinso to death. I would hate to tell Aizawa-sensei that our newest classmate wanted to leave after just one day."
The two of them grinned sheepishly at Tenya.
"Ah sorry, I'm just so excited to have Shinso join our class," Mina said.
"What have you guys been talking about?" Ochaco asked, taking a seat next to Tenya.
"That training exercise we did against Class B, the one where we got to fight against Shinso for the first time," Mina replied.
"Ah yes," Ochaco said, looking deep in thought, "that's the one where Deku lost control of his powers right?"
"Um yeah," Shinso replied. After Aizawa's talk with them that morning, nobody had brought up the topic of Midoriya, with everyone skirting around any references to him. He was surprised that Ochaco out of all of them had mentioned him, as he knew that the two of them were fairly close. The rest of the table went quiet.
"Good job you were there to stop him," said a gruff voice behind him. He turned to see Bakugo was leaning with his back against the wall, arms crossed. Shinso could feel his bright red eyes piercing right through him.
"That was all thanks to Uraraka, it was her idea to use my quirk on him."
Shinso wasn't sure what to do in this situation. Bakugo had barely said two words to anyone all day, and it made him feel on edge. Shinso was grateful that the rest of the class thought of him as one of their own, but it was meeting Bakugo that he had the most anxiety about.
"That stupid idiot," he grumbled, "I'm going to kill him when I see him next!"
"You heard what Aizawa-sensei said!" said Mina apprehensively, "we're not allowed to leave the school grounds."
"I know!" he retorted, "Doesn't mean I can't be angry at that moron for going off on his own, and without telling me beforehand!"
"Why would he tell you specifically?" Mina asked quizzically, "I thought you hated his guts."
"I thought that was just Kacchan in general," said Denki, "he does have a tendency to just be super aggressive to everyone." The group nodded in agreement, much to the visual annoyance of Bakugo. However he didn't respond back to Mina's question, leaving an awkward air of silence.
Shinso had heard about the infamous rivalry between Bakugo and Midoriya. He had seen how the two of them had interacted in the joint training session. It had looked to him that they had both been trying to one up each other.
"It wasn't that bad," said Tenya, deciding to break the quietness, "after all, he did agree to doing those training sessions with All Might and Izuku."
"Wait," Ochaco said slowly, realisation dawning across her face, "all those extra training sessions you did with Deku… you knew about his secret power?"
Shinso watched as Bakugo's cheeks went slightly red.
"It's not like I could have told any of you," he looked away from the group, choosing to focus his gaze outside of the window.
"How long have you known for?!" Ochaco exclaimed.
"Long enough. I made a promise to him and All Might that I would not tell anyone."
"For real?!" Denki said in disbelief, "You were the last person I expected to keep a secret like that!"
"Yeah!" agreed Mina.
"Enough of that!" Tenya said butting in, "Kacchan respected both All Might and Deku to keep his secret. I think any of us would do the same if we were in his position."
Sighing, Bakugo decided to take a seat at the end of the table. He rubbed his hands on his face and looked very comtemplevely at the group. They sat in an awkward silence, before he decided to start speaking again.
"It is not my story to tell, but since neither of them will be here to tell it themselves, I will tell you as much as I know."
A quirk that could be passed from one person to the next? It didn't seem real. If Ochaco hadn't heard about All For One stealing Ragdoll's Search quirk and the existence of the Nomus, she would have outright called Kacchan insane.
"Well, do you remember when me and Deku had that massive fight?" Bakugo asked.
"Yeah, I'm surprised that Aizawa-sensei didn't expel the both of you on the spot," said Tenya, "fighting on the school grounds without the teacher's permission, is very highly dangerous!"
Ochaco remembered back to when the two of them had fought. She had been very surprised to hear about what happened, that Bakugo had goaded Deku enough for him to retaliate back. She knew that Deku tried so many times to reach out, only for Bakugo to reject him.
"Yes I know it was stupid," growled Bakugo, "but I was just so pissed at him. I don't really know what was running through my head at the time. All my life Deku was trying to copy me, and it really bugged me. I guess I just felt threatened by him, especially when he started to outperform me in exams. I just felt like I had something to prove. To him and myself."
This shocked Ochaco. She had never considered that Bakugo was actually jealous of Deku. He was a very prideful person, so openly admitting his faults to the group of them felt very surreal to her.
"That's when All Might stopped us. And honestly, it wasn't too hard to put two and two together. All my life I knew Deku as this crying quirkless little kid. And suddenly he develops this insanely crazy super power just before we enter UA?"
"Wait, Deku was quirkless?!" Denki exclaimed, "the same Deku that broke his arms repeatedly because his quirk was too damn powerful for his body?!"
Ochaco shook her head in disbelief, "It's just one thing after another."
"Yeah, he told most people that he was a late bloomer. But that didn't sit right with me."
Bakugo scowled, but Ochaco could tell deep down that he was worried about the situation. After all, it wasn't everyday you found out one of your closest friends had been given a super strong quirk by the hero you looked up to, and that villains were targeting you because of that.
"I guess that's why I agreed to help out Deku with training his quirk. Partly because I felt guilty about how I had been treating him in the past. And also he just, deep down doesn't take himself into account y'know? He's always been like that."
He looked down guiltily. Ochaco remembered back to the time when she, Tsuyu and Sero had been invited along to help out Deku when his blackwhip first materialised. It had been a fun afternoon playing around with different quirk techniques.
She had noted that Bakugo and All Might had sat off to the side, watching the four of them. In particular, she had noticed that Kacchan had looked particularly unhappy. However at the time she had just put it down to his usual aggressive self. But if he had known about OFA at that point, then she surmised that he must have been unhappy with the situation itself.
"You didn't like the fact that Deku received the OFA quirk?" asked Ochaco, her introspective thoughts catching up to her, "not because you were jealous of its power. But how it affected Deku."
"Yeah," Bakugo agreed, "to him, it seemed like God's divine gift. But to me, it felt like a curse. A burden that he was forced to bear. Of course that idiot wouldn't see it that way. But how many people would blindly accept a quirk that had been passed down by multiple people, in order to stop the strongest villain in existence?"
The group sat, letting Bakugo's words sink in. It did seem like such an absurd concept when he put it that way. It made sense that of course he would keep it secret from them, after all, they had a hard time accepting it now after all that had happened. Despite this, Ochaco felt a pang of sadness that she had not been told. After all, Deku had spent so much time being there for her, it was only natural that she would want to be there for him.
"Man, I don't know what to think," said Mina, her usual bubbly smile being replaced with a more serious grimace. It was a rarity that Mina could look anything but cheerful.
"I agree," Tenya said, "If we hadn't had to fight against Shigaraki and his multiple quirks, I almost wouldn't believe it."
Bakugo winced at the sound of Shigaraki's name.
"Talking of Shigaraki, it's crazy to think that you managed to take him head on." Denki commented, "I think I would have frozen up in front of him."
Ochaco had only heard second hand what had gone down at the hospital. Bakugo and Shoto had been the only ones there from Class A, the rest of them had been split up in trying to take down Gigantomachia. However, neither of them had personally spoken about what had happened. The war had taken such a mental toll on the class, with both of them being hit harder by any of the others.
She noticed that Bakugo's right hand had begun shaking slightly, and that he held on firmly with his left hand, attempting to hide it under the table. Tenya meanwhile frowned.
"Is that why you disappeared off?" he asked.
"Well, that idiot Deku thought he could take him on his own. Which turned out to be a terrible idea, it nearly killed him."
"It nearly killed you!" said Mina, with a cry of concern, "Seeing you both in hospital made us all so worried!"
"Turns out that that freak had that cat woman's search quirk, so Deku thought it would be easier to go straight to the source," Bakugo growled softly.
"Really?" Ochaco queried anxiously. She thought back to the letter she had found under the door in her room. It had made her so upset and angry at the time when she had read it, not understanding why Deku had chosen to leave UA. It felt like he was abandoning the class. Abandoning her.
The conversation with Bakugo had brought up those feelings again, the feelings that she had been so desperately trying to push down. Looking at the group around her, she saw how similarly they were thinking. Everybody was feeling all sorts of hurt at Deku leaving, and even though he had left them all a personalised note, that didn't push aside that hurt and apprehension.
However, Ochaco understood that he had done it to protect them. If Shigaraki could use Ragdoll's quirk to find him, there was nowhere that he could hide. And if he had stayed at UA, at some point he would launch a full scale villain attack at the school. Which could be equally, if not more devastating.
"It still doesn't make me any less angry that he decided to leave without saying anything. After all the time we had spent training together. I nearly died because of him!"
She agreed with Bakugo. What an idiot. If only he had spoken to them before he had left, maybe they could have been able to help. Instead he had chosen to bear the burden of AFO alone. It just wasn't fair!
And finally she understood why Bakugo had been so beaten up by Deku leaving. He had held Deku's secret for so long, to help protect him and pay respect to All Might. He'd even been stabbed trying to save Deku. And they had both left him.
The group sat in a forlorn silence, each of them digesting the situation fully. No one knew what to say. What could you say back?
The only one who had not said anything during this entire conversation, had been Shinso. After all, he hadn't been there during the fight against the Paranormal Liberation League. He had only had a couple of interactions with their class prior to joining. She knew that Class A had garnered a reputation of troublemaking throughout the school, with so many attacks by the League of Villains on their class. Ochaco felt very sorry for Shinso. What an awkward time for him to join.
"Shinso."
The purple eyed boy turned to look at Bakugo, worry plastered all over his face.
"I know this is probably not the welcome you were expecting when you were asked to join our class."
Shinso nodded nervously.
"However, as Eraser-Head said, we need more pros to fight. So don't ever think that you are replacing that moron Deku. You're joining our ranks to make this shitty world a better place."
Ochaco smiled, glad that Bakugo had finally decided to acknowledge him.
"Besides, you were the only person in the past who has ever been able to stop Deku. So if we ever run into him again, I know who the first person I would want there with me."
Shinso's shoulders visibly dropped a few degrees in relief.
"It would be my pleasure to train alongside you," he said, with a small smile.
"Don't think though that I'm gonna go easy on you, just because you are new!" Bakugo said challengingly, cracking his knuckles on the table.
Ochaco sighed. It had almost been a nice moment. But Bakugo had to be Bakugo.
Toga surveyed the street below her. She was perched upon an abandoned skyscraper, waiting patiently. It was a grey muggy evening, but still early enough that it was light out. On a normal day, this would have been a very hectic rush hour. However, since the mass prison breakout, most civilians had either evacuated to one of the nearby hero academies, or were taking extra precautions with their daily commute, so the streets were practically empty.
And that suited her just fine. No more hiding in the shadows.
There was a slight buzz from her coat pocket. Pulling out her phone, she smiled as she read the text that had been sent.
'Bunny is on the move again. Bait has been taken."
Toga gave out a little excited squeal. She could not wait to see her beloved Izuku once again.
Thank you everyone for all of the follows and reviews so far! It's been super heart warming to see the support just for the first chapter! I didn't mean for chapter 2 to basically be just exposition, but I felt trying to interject any pieces of action would interrupt the flow of the story. Plus now we have Shinso as part of 2-A woo! It made the most logically sense to put him in there, especially with the class had interacted with him in the past. I will say, I found it really hard to write for both Shinso and Kacchan, as normally Kacchan is shown as this very fiery angry person, so here I hope to show a more softer side to him. And then we've not seen too much of Shinso, other than this reserved person who finds it hard to fit in.
Also chapter 318 came out at the weekend, and I have so many feelings about it! This fic will be following the manga at the moment, so in later chapters you will see basically re-writes from Izuku's perspective about what is currently going on. However I do plan to diverge at some point, especially since the manga is on a two week break. I'm hoping to update the fic about once every 10 days to 2 weeks or so. I kinda write sporadically, so I pretty much have a load of the later chapters written up, but need to go back and do the in between bits now. I hope you enjoyed chapter 2!