AN: Cover Art made by vivsss_g

Also, Pony's height has been changed to be taller in this story, Aizawa teaches 1B and Inasa is in U.A. and in Class 1B.

Be sure to leave feedback if you please

Also special thanks to Arioses for beta reading

Chapter 22

Aizawa watched his students from afar, hidden from their sight behind the countless trees in the training area. He, much like Monoma, was surprised to see the pink halo suddenly appear over Matvey's head, while Matvey himself hadn't even realized its existence, yet.

The pink haired Russian just kept speaking on and on about his father and his upbringing all the while, the halo he tried so hard to form was above his head, shinning in a bright pinkish light you couldn't miss even if you tried.

This got Aizawa thinking.

He remembered that Matvey told him that the halo only appeared when he was dozing off and was listening to music on the train. He never did ask what his student was thinking about before he managed to materialize it, and right now Aizawa believed that he might have finally figured it out.

'Could that be it?'

…

Matvey was too deep reminiscing about his past to realize that Monoma was being uncharacteristically quiet, all while staring at something above his head.

There was a sudden buzz coming from Matvey's pants pocket which brought an end to his nonstop rambling.

Unbeknown to him, in that exact moment, the halo had disintegrated from atop of his head, leaving Monoma flummoxed at what he just witnessed, trying to wrap his head around what just happened.

Matvey just ignored his classmate and checked his phone to see what message he got before he groaned out in annoyance.

"Damn spam notifications. I accidently click on one popup invite while I'm on the toilet and now they completely fucked up my Calendar."

Matvey put his phone back into his pocket and glanced back at Monoma, "Sorry about that, I just started going off about my past and totally forgot that I was about to-"

"Do you have any idea what you just did?" Monoma abruptly asked.

Matvey quirked an eyebrow, "… Listen I'm sorry about the rambling, I just-"

"No, not that. You didn't notice what just happened?"

Matvey flashed his brows now, not at all sure what Monoma was getting at.

"… No?"

Matvey's confused response prompted Monoma to tilt his head in frustration.

"… You just had a halo floating above your head!"

The pink haired angel was stunned for a bit, before his eyes sprung. He sure was hoping that the blond was just messing with him. It would be something he would do, but the look on Monoma's face seemed serious enough for Matvey to believe him.

"W-Wait what!? Are you for real!?"

Monoma nodded his head and crossed his arms, "Yep, and it went away when your phone buzzed in your pocket."

Matvey stared at Monoma, in shock at what he just told him. He really couldn't believe that the halo had actually returned and was gone again just like that.

If it appeared when he was talking to freely to someone, then his theory of it showing up when he was relaxed was just thrown right out the window.

Matvey slapped his forehead with his palm and pushed his hairline back in exasperation, "Что за хуйня?... Maybe… maybe someone else is controlling the halo?" (chto za khuynya?- What the fuck?)

Monoma let out a light chuckle, "Someone like who? God?"

Matvey wasn't the religious type. No one in his family really was either, but they all identified as Christian. Back on the first day of school when Ibara Shiozaki introduced herself to the class and asked Matvey if he believed in God. He didn't want to answer her question then, but the truth is, he does believe in a god, but that's as far as his religious views went.

Even though his quirk was angelic in nature, Matvey himself was everything but. He for sure wasn't a choir boy and would hate the idea of wasting his time at a church session and he was absolutely sure his own father would, too.

Matvey was about to answer Monoma's question, but a voice close by emerged behind them.

"That might be the case, but it might be something else entirely though."

Monoma and Matvey looked over and saw their homeroom teacher walking towards them with the pitching machine he said he would be coming back with.

"Wait… did you see it the halo too Mr. Aizawa?" Matvey asked.

The ponytailed teacher nodded his head while the pitching machine followed him from out the trees, "Yeah. I was watching you train Monoma for a little bit and I saw the halo come back when you were talking about your father. Which brings me a new question I must ask you. When you were on the train the other day and the halo appeared over your head, what were you thinking about exactly? Was it just about the music you were listening to? Or was it something else?"

Matvey ears perked up when Aizawa asked him that. He thought back to that time on the train and he remembers that the song he was listening to was something that had him think back to when he was training with his father.

"… I was thinking back to when I was doing footwork drills with my dad. The song that I was listening to was the exact same song that helped me back then."

"And I take it that it was a good memory for you?" Aizawa asked.

"Yeah, I finally got a good hold on my movement at that particular drill we did," That was when Matvey figured out where his teacher was getting at.

When he was rambling about his past it apparently showed back again and judging what he thought about on the train, there could possibly be a connection.

"Wait, you think that me thinking about the good times in the past brings back the halo?" Matvey asked.

Aizawa simply shrugged his shoulders, "It's a solid theory… though it doesn't explain how you did it during the USJ attacks where you were unconscious."

"Perhaps he was reminiscing while he was out," said Monoma.

Aizawa hummed at Monoma's suggestion. It was plausible, but for what it's worth, they may be onto how Matvey's quirk functions.

"But wait!" Matvey said out loud. He started thinking about the events in his mind again, but the more he thought about it, the more blaring one particular logic gap became.

"I've had deep thoughts about my past before, so why would a halo start showing up now?"

This question was one that neither, Monoma nor Aizawa could truly find an answer for Matvey.

"I can't tell you the exact reason for it, but it might have something to do when the Nomu attacked you. Since then, have you thought about your upbringing aside from now and your time on the train?" Aizawa asked.

Matvey thought hard about it, but he wasn't entirely sure. He generally didn't have any thoughts about it as his mind was mostly focused on the halo that appeared inside the train.

"I can't say I have."

"Then maybe what happened at USJ was some type of awakening of your powers," Aizawa said.

"Awakening?" Matvey repeated, not sure what that could possibly mean.

The pink haired Russian then felt a hand touch the side of his neck.

"Let me try it," Monoma interjected.

The blonde then stepped back and took a quarter lotus seat on the grass. His eyes were closed and his mouth was shut, as Monoma looked to be deep in thought.

Seeing this, Matvey followed suit, not wanting to be outdone by his classmate.

Aizawa watched his students with much intrigue. He was curious to see if Matvey or even Monoma could do it again with the new theory they together came up.

He would soon find his answer, as it took what seemed like a minute for a pink halo had actually appeared over the head the blond student first.

'Interesting… so like with the wings, the halo stays the same color as Matvey's hair,' Aizawa observed silently, not wanting to break either of their concentration.

Monoma was still deep in thought with the halo floating above his head as the homeroom teacher looked instead at Matvey. There was no halo visible above his head, but it might've been because Monoma started his meditation earlier.

Yet, the more time passed, the more Aizawa doubted it, as Matvey still didn't have a halo above his head like Monoma did.

It wasn't until nearly two and a half minutes when Matvey finally had also a halo floating above his head.

Aizawa rubbed his goatee, thinking about the trigger might be. It was great that they managed to bring out Matvey's halo, but there was still another part of his quirk that he wanted to bring out and that was Matvey's ability to heal others.

He wasn't sure what the halo meant, but it's most likely a part of his healing powers.

After nearly five minutes, Aizawa finally spoke up.

"Alright. I think we figured out how to get the halo out now."

Matvey's eyes perked up at what the teacher said, "So wait, are you saying I got the halo back?"

Aizawa nodded, "You both did actually."

Monoma was surprised to hear that. Not just because of the struggles Matvey went through to get it but based on the fact he didn't even feel different at all.

"That's great to hear, but truth be told, I didn't feel anything at all," Monoma said to his teacher before turning his attention to the taller Matvey, "Did you?"

"… No I didn't feel any different either," Matvey answered.

"Well, you can figure out how the halo makes you feel at a different time, there's another part you need to figure out Matvey, and that's how you can heal people with your wings." Aizawa said, changing the subject.

Matvey listened to what his teacher said and realized that during their conversation at the teacher's lounge, he did bring up how Matvey was able to heal him with his Angel Wings.

"R-Right. There's a whole different problem I have to figure out too," Matvey sheepishly said, completely unsure of where to start with that.

Aizawa began to press some buttons on the pitching machine as he prepared the next exercise.

"Well, I'll be willing to assist whenever I have the time to, and of course Monoma will be there to help you as well."

Monoma face twisted, showing that he took exception to what his teacher said. From the way it was phrased, it didn't give Monoma the option to decline, not that would have though, as he agreed to mentor the pink haired angel.

"But let's move on from the halo and get into our next lesson," Aizawa transitioned as he brought everyone's attention over to the pitching machine he carried back with him, "Matvey, this machine is going to rapidly pitch… or in this case, shoot balls at you while you fly in the air to avoid them."

Matvey examined the machine that his homeroom teacher brought over a little closer. Being from Russia, Matvey wasn't all that familiar with baseball, but one glance at the device was enough for him to say, that it was too high-tech to be just a simple pitching machine. It wasn't much of an exaggeration to say that it looked more like a military grade gatling-gun turret.

"U-Um, is that going to be pitching actual solid baseballs at me while I'm flying?" Matvey asked, trying his best to mask his nervousness.

"No, it'll be shooting tennis balls. I don't expect you to avoid all of them, and with the speed and volume that the machine is going to spit it out, real baseballs may be fatal," Aizawa stated.

This brought a little bit of relief to the angel, but he was sure that tennis balls would still hurt him coming out of a machine like that.

"The machine is set to start shooting at you in 90 seconds. It will follow your every move and it'll stop shooting when it is out of tennis balls… or in this case, ammo," the homeroom teacher instructed while walking towards Matvey.

Matvey furrowed his brows and awkwardly shifted in place as his teacher was now almost in his face.

"I also brought a cup in case you needed it," Aizawa whispered.

Matvey raised his eyebrows as he looked down and saw that his homeroom teacher had really brought a cup for him.

He didn't bring his own, because they were supposed to being doing just some meditating to bring back the halo so Matvey came out unprotected, but their teacher had a change of plans.

With the tennis balls that were going to be shoot at him, it would be very wise for him to wear it.

"Uh… thanks," Matvey awkwardly replied, quickly taking the cup from his teacher and shoving it in his pants, all the while hoping Monoma didn't see what was happening between the two.

"As for you Monoma, you'll be training with me at a different open field not too far. I saw Matvey teach you for a little bit, so I'll pick up where he left off," Aizawa informed as he began to walk away.

"Aw, I wanted to see how Matvey would perform as a tennis racket with wings." The young blonde teased as he followed the teacher.

Matvey didn't let this comment bother him. With the two finally gone from the area he was able to fully put the cup onto himself.

Now properly protected, Matvey brought his wings out as he was prepared to put his flying ability to the test. He has greatly improved from when he first arrived in Japan and this would be a great, and albeit painful way to see how much he still needs to improve.

…

Aizawa had trained Monoma for about 15 minutes, and in that time, his student was put through the ringer. Monoma was secretly grateful that Matvey couldn't hit him when they sparred, and he truly wished that the rule could've also been applied for his teacher.

Monoma's goal was trying to land an attack on the black-haired teacher. The same thing he did with Matvey, but the difference was, that whenever he did something the teacher didn't like, or attack in an improper form, Mr. Aizawa would grab his arm and flip him over via shoulder throws.

During that time, Monoma was caught in countless of shoulder throws by Mr. Aizawa.

As aggravating and humiliating as it was getting slammed onto his back numerous times, Monoma had actually improved, with the pain and nauseousness of being flipped being a great motivator.

Having finished their sparring session, the two of them were now walking back to Matvey.

Monoma was walking slower than his teacher, still sore from the training he was put through. He began to roll both of his shoulders, to soothe them from the pain Mr. Aizawa had put on them from the constant shoulder throws.

"You know… I appreciate the lesson and all sir, but was flipping me over necessary?" Monoma groaned.

"Those shoulder throws were just to show you what could happen if you make the kind of mistakes you were making. Were it a real situation with a villain, you'd be dealing with something worse than a judo maneuver," Aizawa replied, not at all looking back at the aching student.

Monoma let out a low sigh. He was getting used to the pain, but he knew that the soreness was only going to get worse tomorrow.

The two finally reached the open field and saw what looked like hundreds of tennis balls scattered all over the grass.

Monoma was astounded by the number of balls all around the area. The machine looked like it could store a lot of balls, but seeing its full capacity scattered around the field, it easily exceeded his expectations.

Aizawa went over to the inactive machine and began to navigate around the touchscreen, "Let's see how well he did."

The balls used for the machine weren't just your average tennis balls, they had a special chip placed in each of them, feeding the machine with information when the balls made contact with something in the air, after being shot out.

There were exactly 575 balls in the machine and it read that a total of 113 balls made contact with Matvey, which would mean he was hit nearly 20% of the time. Aizawa pressed some more buttons on the machine and it suddenly came back to life.

The pitching machine began to move on its wheels and went around and swept up each tennis ball underneath it's brushy street sweeper like bottom base.

On the other end of the field laid a worn out and bruised Angel student of Class 1B. He was laying down on his stomach, clutching his abdominals from the abuse they took from the tennis balls that hit him.

The sound of the machine starting back up again prompted Matvey to snap back up to his feet, fearful of what it was going to do now.

When Matvey got a visual of the machine, he saw that it was just going around and cleaning up the balls that it shot at him.

He let out a sigh of relief as it wasn't going to hurl more at him.

With Matvey deciding to go shirtless, it gave Aizawa a pretty good look at how he fared against the pitching machine.

He has told him that he should've worn a shirt and the U.A. gym jacket as it would've felt a lot more pleasant to get hit by the balls, instead of hitting his bare flesh. Perhaps next time he will think about listening to his teacher's advice.

From the welts and bruises all over him, it was clear that Matvey had gotten hit a good number of times, which was something the homeroom teacher expected. The purpose of the test wasn't for him to dodge everything, but it was to test his overall agility while flying.

Aizawa remembered during the recommendation exam that Matvey was rather stiff when it came to him flying around the runner's track, so a test like this would do him good.

With how fast the machine shot out the tennis balls, only someone like Hawks could've had a chance dodging all of it, and Matvey was nowhere close to Hawks' level.

"So… how do you think you did?" Aizawa asked.

Matvey rubbed the left side of his jaw a little, still feeling the force of the last tennis ball hitting him square in the face before answering.

"I-I think I did okay. I was able to keep my cool and kept on dodging as I was getting hit. I'd say I got hit with no less than… 60?" said Matvey.

"Try 113," Aizawa corrected him.

The Russians far off guess got a laugh out from Monoma, who took great joy seeing his bruised-up classmate.

"I think you might've been struck in the head a couple of times as well for such an inaccurate guess," Monoma teased.

"And you must have been dropped a couple of times as well judging from the dirt that's all over your face," Matvey quickly countered.

Monoma's laughing stopped when he heard Matvey's retort. He immediately put his hand over to his face and lo and behold, there was some dirt that stained his face.

The blonde tried to rub it off his face, but his efforts were only making it worse, prompting Matvey to let out a quiet and pained snicker, his body still reeling from the abuse the pitching machine put him through.

The black-haired teacher rolled his eyes at his two students. He had hoped that bringing Monoma would help in Matvey not only in finding his halo, but also mend some of the bitterness between the two. Sadly, it would only solve one of the two problems for now.

Aizawa was just ready to end this afternoon training session.

"Back to your results Matvey," Aizawa sternly said, gaining him the two student's attention again, "You got hit 113 out of 575, which is nearly 20%, meaning that you dodged a little more than 80% of what the machine shot out."

"80%. Would you say that that's a good number?" Matvey asked, unsure of what to make of that result.

Aizawa wasn't expecting the result when he first read them. The recommendations exam was nearly two months ago and from then, the USJ attack and now, his flight has definitely improved, but he didn't want the pink haired student to feel complacent.

"It doesn't matter if it's a good number, just know that you can do better than that." Aizawa harshly responded.

That wasn't the response Matvey was looking for, but his teacher was right, he could do better. With the sports festival coming up, the pitching machine might be of great use for him, if he plans to do good at the event. With him being the son of one of the best fighters of the world, he already has some eyes on him, now he just had to make sure that he performs as one of the best first-years in the school.

The sound of the pitching machine going around and picking up all balls in the area had stopped, signifying that it was done.

Aizawa looked up at the sky and saw that the sun was beginning to set. He didn't want to keep the two boys any longer than needed. They accomplished a lot today, especially in regards of finding out what triggered Matvey's quirk.

He hardly spent any time out of regular school hours to help students if it didn't pertain to actual schoolwork, but after what Matvey did during the villain attacks, he was willing to offer the child some help in exploring his quirk's hidden secrets. Healing quirks are a greatly desired power after all, heroes get hurt on the job, and depending on the injury, they can be put on the shelf for quite some time. They won't just miss out on hero work, but they also miss out on time with family, friends and life if the injury is severe enough, so having someone who can instantly heal wounds would make them an absolute standout.

"That about wraps up our training session, hopefully you two got something out of this," Aizawa announced, "Me taking time out of my day for sessions like this won't be a common occurrence, so be sure to link up with your classmates if you want to train yourselves. Understood?"

"Understood." Both students replied.

"Good. We're going to head back to the school now and when we get there Matvey, you're going to head over to the nurse's office so Recovery Girl can treat your wounds," Aizawa instructed as he began walking towards the exit. Monoma followed right behind the teacher, while Matvey went over to fetch his jacket and shirt he took off at the start of the training session.

"G-Got it," Matvey answered back before he followed along.

"And Monoma, you can go to the nurse's office too if you want, but I don't think it's necessary in your case," Aizawa offered.

Monoma shook his head at the offer, "I'll be alright. I just need to shower to get this dirt off me."

With their homeroom teacher leading the way, Matvey and Monoma soon noticed they weren't the only things following the black-haired teacher.

The pitching machine was rolling along all by itself. It being another one of the many robots that was property of U.A., it most likely could navigate itself back to where the rest of the machines were.

"Say, has there ever been any type of robot takeover of the school?" Matvey asked out of nowhere.

Monoma turned his head back to give a dumfounded look to the taller student.

"We have dealt with some machines that went a little off script from time to time. All that was needed to be done was a simple shutdown and they were back to performing their normal functions. But I think after how you guys did during the villain attacks, a "robot takeover" is something I'm sure the class could handle."

"I don't know about that sir, that pitching machine alone nearly took out one of 1B's recommended students," Monoma joked.

Matvey gave the blond a sarcastic laugh, "Funny, but I'm not even that hurt from it. I've been in actual Muay Thai bouts, so these little tennis ball bruises are nothing for me." Matvey proudly claimed while gently pounding on his chest.

"You maybe wouldn't have so many little marks on your body if you just put your shirt on," Aizawa chided at the Russian.

Matvey sheepishly rubbed the back of his head as his teacher was right there, "W-Well… I like to think of these bumps and bruises as marks of how I'll get better. I'll keep taking that test and eventually, there's going to be a day where that machine shoots everything at me and it won't land a single hit," he declared.

Monoma snickered at Matvey's declaration, "And will that day be before or after hell freezes over?"

This snide remark brought an annoyed look on the face of the Angel who shot back an insult of his own, which then had the two arguing back and forth, making their homeroom teacher speed up to get out of the forest and dismiss himself from the two bickering students.

With him picking up the pace, Aizawa was able to see the exit, a more than welcoming sign for the always worn-out teacher.

"The exit is just up ahead, I'm sure you two can handle yourselves from here, right?" Aizawa asked.

Hearing the voice from their teacher put an end to the two's bickering as they saw the gateway that would lead them back to the school.

They were so wrapped up in arguing that they didn't even notice that they were at the exit.

Both answered with a firm yes and that was all the homeroom teacher needed to hear to part ways with the two boys.

"Great, now I'll see you two tomorrow," he departed, as he began to head towards the school entrance. He expected his students to go to locker rooms in the opposite direction to where he was going.

"Hey wait! Before you go, we just have one thing to ask you!" Matvey's voice called out, stopping him in his tracks.

He unfortunately wasn't that far away, so Aizawa turned around to hear what they wanted to ask him.

"W-We just wanted to know… who was it that got the halo first? Was it me or Monoma?"

Aizawa wanted to let out groan from the petty question as he knew that answering it would only cause more strife between the two.

But… his day was done, and he wanted to go home as fast as possible… so he told them the simple truth. He'll deal with the fallout tomorrow.

"… Monoma got it first."

Quickly turning around, Aizawa walked back to the school, never once looking at the reaction of the two students; just more than ready to finally call it a day.

There was silence between the two boys as their homeroom teacher was going farther and farther into the distance until he disappeared into the school.

Matvey's face from when Aizawa answered his question was that of an attempt to hide his shock and disappointment.

His mouth was closed shut but it was taking a lot of inner strength to not leave his mouth agape. He didn't turn around and just stood in place, knowing that his supporting classmate was going to rub the fact in his face.

Matvey heard the smug low chuckle from Monoma.

He fought the urge to run up to him and put him in every submission hold imaginable, so he instead just balled his fists up to contain himself.

"Well, I'll be heading back to the locker room," Monoma said as he began to walk away from the upset Russian, "I don't know if you'll be joining me in changing, but if you're going to just be standing here, then I'll be seeing you tomorrow, Angel!" The copy quirk user then began to fully laugh at the expense of Matvey, his laugh growing distant, signaling that Matvey was all alone now.

From just this brief training session alone, Matvey figured out something groundbreaking regarding his quirk, but the only thing on his mind right now was the fact that Monoma had somehow managed to get a better understanding of his own quirk faster than the actual owner of the quirk.

He wasn't angry or furious with that piece of knowledge, he was more… displeased as he knew that this would only fuel Monoma's petty ego, and he was not looking forward to seeing him tomorrow.

In a defeated tone, all he could do was swear in his native tongue.

"Сукин сын. " (Sukin syn- Son of a bitch)

AN: Chapter 22 is in the books everyone and we finally made some progress in finding more about are finally going to be heading into the Sports Festival. Looking forward to writing it, though the Obstacle Race is going to be tough to write while adding Class 1B into the mix of what Class 1A does, but I'll find a way.

So, Matvey made some great progression in developing and discovering his quirk (and unfortunately for him, so did Monoma) and it should be interesting seeing him (and Monoma) utilize it during the festival.

Hope you all enjoyed the chapter. Please leave feedback if you want to do so.

If you're enjoying the story, fav/follow if you're on FF and leave some kudos if you're on AO3.

Till next time, take care!