Chapter twelve - Underestimation
Today was the first day of attending U.A high School and Bakugou was really feeling confident in himself.
"I got the highest score in the whole fucking exam. Hell, maybe I even broke a few records.." he thought as he grinned to himself. Half an hour later, Bakugou arrived at the door of his classroom, 1-A. The second Bakugou walked in, all eyes were on him but it didn't go silent. Bakugou was expecting to be flooded with praise and lackeys swarming him, but none of that happened. A boy with red spiky hair walked up to him, along with a girl with pink skin, a boy with black, flat hair and a boy with orange hair and a black streak in it.
"Dude, what you did in the exam was so manly! Kirishima's the name!" said the boy with spiky, red hair. He smiled and put his hand on Bakugou's shoulder. But, before Bakugou could even retaliate, the rest of the people around him started to speak.
"I'm Mina and your quirk is soooo powerful and your hair is soooo spiky! Like Kirishima's!" said the pink girl as she touched Bakugou's hair in fascination and innocence.
"Oi…" Bakugou growled hoarsely under his breath. Nobody seemed to notice, they were just so loud.
"I'm Kaminari. Nice to meet ya'." He waved to Bakugou.
"Sero here! Man, you were awesome out here..we should have lunch together sometime." said the black-haired boy.
"Hey, Sero! Not fair, he is gonna eat with ALL of us!" exclaimed Kirishima. Sero just rubbed the back of his neck and smiled sheepishly.
"Who do these fucktards think they are? Touching me and speaking to me like we are even on the same caliber..I swear, I'm gonna…" thought Bakugou. But before Bakugou could even do anything, he was cut off.
"You lot. Sit down in your seats, if you think that this is a social club that you can just sit and chat then you can get out." said a dull voice coming from a yellow sleeping bag on the floor. All the student, except for a few, were utterly shocked that someone just spoke of nowhere from the floor. Nonetheless, everyone sat down.
"My name is Aizawa Shota and I will be your homeroom teacher for the rest of the year." he said as he crept out sluggishly out of the bag.
"Homeroom teacher?!" said the boy with glasses. "So, he's a hero? I've never seen him before.."
"Tenya Iida, do you have anything to say so me? If so, speak aloud. If not, everyone put on these uniforms and head outside." said Aizawa.
"Y-Yes, Mr. Aizawa! Sorry!" Iida bowed and made his way outside with his uniform, as did the rest of the class.
Minutes later, the class were outside doing some stretches to prepare for whatever they were going to do. A few minutes after the students, Aizawa came with his hands in his pockets and hair in his face.
"Today, you will be doing an apprehension test. I'm doing this of my own accord and to see whether or not you lot have any potential. If you do not do well, you will all be expelled." Aizawa said in a mundane tone. There were confused noises and sounds coming from the class and groans as well. Bakugou was even happier.
"Hah. I'll show those happy bastards just who is above them and that they aren't on the same level as me." Bakugou stretched and made small explosions in his hands.
An hour went by and the class had done all the tests that were given to them. Bakugou came third and was annoyed that he didn't come first, but as long as he was above the four classmates that he encountered earlier, he was fine. But, that produced the opposite reaction.
"Bakubro! You did amazingly as always!" Kirishima said while putting his arm across Bakugou's shoulders.
"What the hell do you want?" said Bakugou in a hostile tone with a sour expression.
"What..? What are you talk-"
"What do you want from me? I don't want a fucking lackey weighing me down!"
shouted Bakugou. Everyone looked at the two of them. Kirishima let what Bakugou said sink in and then he laughed.
"Bakubro! I want to be our friend! Not your damn lackey!" he laughed out and flapped his hands in Bakugou's face. Kirishima genuinely liked Bakugou, though they knew nothing about each other. He thought Bakugou was strong, independant and manly.
"Whatever.. I'm out." said Bakugou in an irritated tone with his hands in his pockets. Sero, Mina and Kaminari flocked towards Kirishima to find out what happened and asked many questions about the shouting.
"Did you fight? Are you still gonna be friends with him? Is he hot headed?" All three of them asked in a jumble.
"Hey, hey, hey! Slow down. He is hot headed but he will soften up a bit..! Maybe…" he laughed and then walked up to their next lessons. The rest of the class went on with their day.
(With the League)
Izuku walks into the bar from his room wearing black jeans and a black t-shirt. Tomura groaned in annoyance to see Izuku's face so early in the morning. Izuku kept an unfazed face, as if Tomura wasn't there. Tezobi was lazily slouched on the purple sofa staring at Izuku.
"Fucking quirkless shit. He thinks he is better than me..I'll kill him.." thought Tomura as he scratched his neck in contempt.
"Good morning, Midoriya." said Kurogiri, who was cleaning glasses. "Do you want anything to eat?"
"Good morning. Protein bar, please." responded Izuku with his hand on his face.
"So, you aren't gonna say shit to me, brat?" said Tezobi in false irritation. She darted to Izuku at an inhuman pace.
"Hah. You're gonna get your ass kicked this early in the morning." said Tomura grimly. Tomura couldn't be anymore wrong. Izuku darted towards Tezobi at the same quick pace and kicked her in the groin and jumped off her shoulder onto the bar counter. Izuku glared down at Tezobi with tired, bored eyes but those same eyes had a hint of determination in them. Tezobi smirked and back flipped up back into her former seat. Izuku just swiftly jumped down onto his chat and ate his protein bar like nothing happened. Tomura was shocked beyond definition, Kurogiri was slightly surprised as well.
"What the fuck was that?" commented Tomura in distress. "You fought Tezobi on par..!"
"Midoriya, Sensei has a job for you. It'll be your first official job for the league so you need to get ready." explained Kurogiri. "I think you should change up your style a bit and get an alias. You don't want your name spreading around different villains, since you're new and quirkless. Though you aren't to be underestimated."
"I figured." replied Izuku. "So?"
"So, what will your alias be?" Asked Kurogiri. "Please be brisk as I have to do your hair."
Izuku hummed and decided to call himself after the face of his nightmares, the weight of his guilt.
"Faceless." replied Izuku. "Call me Faceless."
"What kind of dumb name is that?" argued Tomura.
"Did I not tell you there is always a reason for why I speak? Why would I bother to think of something meaningless and trivial?" Izuku retorted with a glare.
"Don't speak like that to me, you have a haircut way overdue so shut the fuck up." said Tomura, who was fully prepared to disintegrate Izuku's face and was gripping his chair in resentment. Izuku didn't think much of Tomura but knew he was quite quick on his feet.
"Tomura. Calm down." said Kurogiri sternly but politely. "If you don't mind me asking, why are did you choose this name?" Kurogiri asked Izuku but noticed that the computer monitor had the red light flashing. Sensei was listening.
"They are bound to find out anyway." thought Izuku. He shut his eyes and spoke.
"Well, the first time I had my dreams, it was more of a nightmare. In the nightmare, I was in a black void and I heard distant voices. I suddenly couldn't breathe and I touched my face, only to find out it wasn't there. I had no features on my face. It was the most painful thing I had experienced in my life. Then, someone grabbed my head and dunked it in freezing water then I could breathe again." explained Izuku. "But after that, I was sent in my parent's car and we drove in our neighbourhood to our home. It was a really happy and joyous time for me..I wanted it to continue forever.. But then I distracted my dad over something trivial and silly and he lost control of the car and I felt my facial features leave me again and I was faceless, yet I still had my eyes. I cursed my luck and cried. I woke up only to find out it was a dream but...the dream happened in real life. Everything happened as the dream dictated it would. I killed my parents with no face, I killed them twice.."
The whole room went silent and you could hear a pin drop. Tezobi was there to hear Izuku's life story along with Sensei, Tomura and Kurogiri, it was extremely tragic but they never heard about his dreams. Izuku wore a melancholic expression on his face but did not cry or waver. His story painted more emotions than words could ever tell.
"What a sad life for a young boy." thought Kurogiri. Everyone thought similarly to him but knew not to underestimate him. Faceless truly was meant for Izuku. It was all he had.
"How sorrowful. Very sad, indeed, Midoriya. I do sympathise with you wholeheartedly but I hope you know you will not carry this burden on your own. I will carry it with you during your time with the league." Izuku bowed in response. Tezobi and Tomura were surprised Sensei was listening at all. "Regarding your quirklessness, it seems that you do have a quirk."
Izuku froze in his place and was having a panic attack inside, though he didn't show it on the surface.
"W-What..?" asked Izuku in a shaky voice. "My toe doesn't have the specific joints it should to develop a quirk. You are mistaken, Sensei.."
"You are correct. Ever heard of the proverb 'If the shoe fits, it's yours'? Well, your case is the opposite. Just because the shoe doesn't fit, doesn't mean it isn't yours. You have a quirk called 'Make Believe' where the user can see glimpses or events of the near future within their dreams. Whatever happens in the dream, happens in real life. The user can change the future by acting however they wish within the dream and nobody can interfere. However, the user must be asleep or unconscious while dreaming or to activate the quirk at all. This quirk is only compatible with few people, it didn't even work for me!" declared Sensei.
Izuku was finding it nearly impossible to take this all in but he had no choice but to do so. Izuku was confused at what All for One's last statement meant, but he bore it no attention.
"But...how.." said Izuku. He held his head in his hands and breathed in and out before regaining his composure. "Okay. I understand..Uh..Kurogiri. I'd like to change my appearance now."
"If you wish. Please, follow me." Kurogiri led the way to a room with salon and barber supplies and a mirror and chair. Izuku sat in the chair and waited for Kurogiri to finish preparing the equipment.
"Now, Midoriya, I will be dying your hair black and straightening it to change your appearance. You are currently missed to the public so we can't have anybody noticing your long, green hair. Please know that you will look a bit feminine."
"I don't care for my looks." said Izuku blandly. Kurogiri continued to dye and straighten his hair and the process only took 20 minutes to do. When it was over, Izuku thanked Kurogiri before going to his room to change into his yukata, tabi, sword and geta. Izuku just held his mask in his hand as he would wear it outside. He grabbed his books and a pen to write with for the job.
Izuku now had long, black, straight hair, big green eyes, pale skin, thin strips of bandages hugging his arms and eye bags. He still had a small physique but now had visible muscles. Tomura stared at Izuku before snickering.
"You already looked like a girl before, now you are seriously convincing me, samurai boy." insulted Tomura, as he destroyed a cup, much to Kurogiri's anger.
"Wanna repeat that, handyman?" retorted Izuku, as he held his hand on his sword ready to chop of Tomura's hands without a second thought.
"There's no time for bullshit arguing, you have an analysis job to do for Sensei. Hurry up and go before the whiny bitch Tomura starts throwing a fit." said Tezobi, drinking soda on the chair.
"Come back quickly, there's a big event tomorrow." ordered Kurogiri, cleaning up Tomura's mess in anger. Izuku nodded, put on his faceless mask and ran off. He was analysing a hero taking down a low-rate villain upclose.
"This'll be easy and quick." thought Izuku as he got close to the fight going on. The hero was 'Mount. Lady' and she was fighting a pink villain. From what Izuku could tell the villain was weak an quite reckless and stupid, but Mount. Lady was no better. She was fighting for the paparazzi to video her and take photos of her and increase her publicity. But that wasn't Izuku concern, he was only there to analyse the situation.
"Hero name is Mount. Lady and her quirk is Gigantification. She can make herself very, very tall and big at will. Due to her size, she can take down many villains at once. Her weakness is that she can't vary in sizes between her normal height and her height using her quirk. Meaning she can only ever be 162 cm or 2062 cm. Her quirk could be improved if she learns how to regulate her height and minimise excessive damage…" Izuku writes down. He mumbles in between his sentences and records the fight. Minutes later, he thinks he has seen all that is necessary and takes his leave.
However, on the way to the League, he goes through an alleyway to make it quicker and is met by a bunch of thugs. Some are drunk but they are all very stupid. Izuku was getting annoyed as he had to get back quickly as Kurogiri ordered.
"Heyy, Missyyy, why you in suchh a rushh..? I'll show you a good time..!" said one chubby thug as he approached Izuku and attempted to grab him as the thug thought Izuku was a girl. Izuku simply sighed under his mask and swiftly kicked the thug in the skull. He accidently killed him. Blood splattered across the street and onto Izuku's yukata and mask.
"I went a little hard there, didn't I fellas?" said Izuku in a mocking tone. "I'm a guy, by the way. I suggest you let me through or you'll all die in vain."
"You bastard!" screeched a thug as he made a katana out of his arm and ran towards Izuku. Izuku easily dodged the man and cut of his arm and slashed all his arteries, leading him to a slow, painful death. A bit more blood got onto his outfit.
"Too slow, way too slow. He can't even use a sword. I will only kill the other two thugs if they provoke me." thought Izuku. If he was gonna kill them, he wanted it to be fast as he had somewhere to be. A thug made his fist bigger than his head and ran at his fastest towards Izuku. Izuku dodged the punch and concealed his presence, which caught the thug off guard, and cut off the thug's fist with the swift move of his sword. Izuku was getting bored and tired of fighting pests. He raised his sword and flicked off the excess blood of the sword and it splattered on the ground to meet with the three dead thugs.
The last thug was frozen in fear, and just stared at Izuku, who was now walking towards him with his sword unsheathed.
"So?" Izuku casually asked, as if he didn't just kill three people. "What's it gonna be?"
"W-Who are you?" stuttered the thug. Izuku just tilted his head and his hair moved to the side softly.
"Call me Faceless."