There were a lot of things about Midoriya Izuku that pissed Bakugou off. He hated the earnest look on his face. The way he always seemed to be there to witness Bakugou's weakest moments with a smile and a helping hand. How he had clung to his dream of being a hero after he should have come to terms with the fact that he was quirkless years ago. In all honesty, Bakugou didn't need to have a reason to be pissed at Deku, but he liked to have one anyway. And today that reason was dumbass Deku's bag.
Since their first year in middle school Deku had always carried the same stupid bag, the red, blue, and yellow of All Might's color scheme clear from where Bakugou sat across the room. It had been a limited release-Bakugou knew because he had tried and failed to get one when they came out- and the hero obsessed loser had used it every day, mocking Bakugou with his failure whether he was aware of it or not.
But that wasn't the bag he carried anymore.
His new bag, black with a white stripe along the bottom and a pair of what looked like yellow goggles in the middle, looked familiar. It had to be related to some pro hero, but Bakugou couldn't place which one. That fact added to his already simmering anger, but if it had been just the bag Bakugou might have been able to ignore it. Something had changed about Deku in the last few weeks though, and whatever it was Bakugou didn't like it.
The dumbass had always been upfront about his intentions to still try to be a pro hero, despite how useless he would be without a quirk. It got him a lot of flack from teachers and students alike, but he had always reacted to it with a wobbly smile and meek protest. Deku would shift uncomfortable at the attention, mumble something about there being nothing stopping him from trying, and wait until whoever was confronting him grew bored and moved on. Even in the face of Bakugou's own abuse Deku never really fought back, letting Bakugou and his friends push him around. That pissed him off too, the way Deku never stood up for himself. He could hold onto his dream in the face of everything telling him to give it up, but he wouldn't stop people from pushing him around.
Until whatever happened that made him change his bag. Bakugou had no proof the two things were linked, but he knew that they were, and it was all because their teacher brought up high school applications.
"I know that you all are only second years," Yoshida-sensei said, standing at the front of the room, "but that doesn't mean that you can put off thinking about high school until next year. You need to have your top choices narrowed down by the end of this year so that you can spend next year studying for your entrance exams and preparing your applications."
After taking a look around the room at all of the student ignoring him, Yoshida-sensei sighed. "You need to take this seriously. The high school you attend will have an enormous effect on your potential job prospects post graduation. Especially those of you who are planning on trying to become pro heroes. Don't cut yourself off from opportunities because you wasted time and didn't prepare. Now I want all of you to stand up and tell me which school would be your top choice if you had to decide today. Let's start with you, Miyamoto, and go in order."
This was a stupid exercise, Bakugou thought, ignoring his classmates as they started to list off their top schools. Whatever schools they chose, it didn't matter to him. Bakugou knew where he was going, had known where he was going since his quirk manifested. He would be the only person from this crummy old school and-
"I am going to be in Yuuei Academy's Hero Course."
Bakugou had to have heard wrong. He was the only person who would be going to Yuuei. The only person who could. And those words sure as fuck hadn't come from him. A mop of curly green hair stood a few desks away from him, his back straight as he looked at Yoshida-sensei. "Deku," Bakugou growled, and he watched as Midoriya tensed at the sound of his voice but didn't turn around. Laughter and whispers broke out around the room as Yoshida chuckled nervously.
"I know that I said your top school, Midoriya, but by that I meant a school you could feasibly be accepted into. Yuuei is the most competitive hero school in the country and well.. Midoriya you don't have a quirk. It would be impossible for you to be accepted at all, let alone for the hero course." Laughter filled the classroom once more.
Bakugou could see the stress in Deku's shoulders, the way he shook as the class laughed around him, but he didn't sit down. He didn't fold in on himself like he always had before, but continued to stare straight ahead, his face adopting an emotionless expression that didn't seem to fit Deku's normal nervous energy. Bakugou's eyes narrowed.
"This is why I wanted us to have this discussion," Yoshida made a sweeping gesture at Deku. "You need to know, given your grades and what profession you want to be in, which schools are most appropriate. Having dreams is fine, but when it comes to your education you need to be more realistic. Choose another school, Midoriya. You have great grades. You're intelligent, but that isn't enough to get into Yuuei. It isn't enough to be a hero. It's unfortunate, but as your teacher I need to make sure you are prepared for your future and-"
"It isn't impossible," Deku said, loud and clear for the entire class to hear him.
"I- What?" Yoshida looked stunned. Midoriya Izuku had interrupted a teacher, and the entire class was frozen.
Bakugou leaned forward in his seat, eyes trained on his old friend. Deku hadn't stuttered. He hadn't mumbled. He just stared at Yoshida with that blank look that seemed so out of place, his emotions hidden behind a wall that even Bakugou couldn't see through despite how well he knew him.
"I said that it isn't impossible. You are right that there has never been a student without a quirk accepted to Yuuei before, but just because there isn't a precedent for it doesn't mean it can't happen. There is no rule that says a quirk is a prerequisite for admission, meaning that I have just as much of a chance of getting in as any other person who applies. To be accepted you have to pass the exam. I can pass the exam without a quirk."
"Midoriya there may not be a rule against taking the exam without a quirk, but that does not mean you have the same chance of getting in. Please be reasonable. This is your future we are talking about." Yoshida pleaded, still too caught off guard by being interrupted to punish him for speaking out of turn.
"My future is at Yuuei." Deku responded calmly and sat.
The class erupted.
What the- What the actual fuck? Bakugou shut out the chaos around him. He didn't need to listen to know that Yoshida wasn't regaining control of the class anytime soon after that, and honestly he didn't care. Because where the hell had that come from? Deku had never given up on being a hero over the years-that had always been true- but that composed, collected attitude? He had interrupted a teacher, a teacher who had already shut Deku down about being a hero multiple times in the short period they had been in his homeroom, and he did it without fidgeting or mumbling or stuttering.
Small explosions burst from his hands, but Yoshida was still too preoccupied getting the class in order to pay him any attention. Not that Bakugou would have listened if he had because that fucking idiot Deku was trying to take his chance away from him, Bakugou was supposed to be the only student from their school trying for Yuuei. Bakugou was supposed to be the only one to have a chance at being a pro hero, and quirkless Deku not only still believed that he could be a hero, but he thought he could get in Yuuei as he was? Only the best of the best got into Yuuei, and that meant Bakugou and Bakugou only.
No. Something was definitely wrong with Deku, and Bakugou would get to the bottom of it eventually.
When Izuku sat back down it felt like his brain had short circuited. He couldn't believe he had just done that, but he also couldn't bring himself to feel bad about it either. Izuku had listened to people tell him for years that what he wanted was pointless, that there was no possible way he could ever live up to his dreams. He had tried to ignore them, to focus only on why he wanted to be a hero, but over the years their words had slipped through the cracks in the walls he tried to build around his resolve, resurfacing every time he started to doubt himself, whispering all the reasons he would fail. No one had ever told him he could be a hero.
No one until Aizawa.
Aizawa believed that he could make it into Yuuei without a quirk, believed it enough that he had agreed to train him, and if Aizawa believed in him then Izuku could believe in himself just a little more. Doubt would linger, of course it would, until Yuuei officially accepted him. But Izuku had told Aizawa that he didn't let being quirkless define him, and he refused to make himself a liar by letting Yoshida tell him to give up without even trying. Izuku would get a lot of criticism for being a quirkless student at Yuuei. Aizawa had warned him. So maybe now was the time to start figuring out how to take it.
He could feel Kacchan staring at him the rest of class, but he didn't turn around. The moment class ended he grabbed his bag and was out the door. He had stood up to one person today. Kacchan could wait.
When he got back to his apartment his mother greeted him from the kitchen. "I'll bring you a snack in just a few minutes! Do you have a lot of work to do today, Izuku?"
"Just some stuff for Aizawa-sensei before our session tomorrow," he answered. "He gave me a few more profiles he wanted me to look over."
Barely two weeks had passed since he had started training with Aizawa, but Izuku could already tell that tracking down the elusive hero had been the best decision of his life. They had only met four times for three hours each session, but on days they weren't meeting Izuku followed Aizawa's instructions to the letter. The tasks outlined for him to complete alternated between physical and mental exercises and all of them were designed to push him to his limits. He felt exhausted, collapsing into bed the moment he finished each night, but he could tell that he had improved, the challenges getting just a little bit less challenging each day.
He had always wondered what made Yuuei the best, why it consistently had the most graduates become pro heroes. Other schools had pro heroes as teachers too, after all. Two weeks with Aizawa had answered that question. If Yuuei students had an entire staff of teachers like Aizawa, teachers who seemed to know exactly how to pull the best out of each student, how to push them without breaking them, it was clear why they always came out on top. It made Izuku excited to think about where he would be when it came time to take the entrance exam.
Keeping in mind they had an actual training session the next day, Izuku's work for the day had been light- a six mile run before school and a mental exercise to do after. On the days he had a break from physical training Izuku always did the same thing. Aizawa would send him short descriptions of quirks current students at Yuuei possessed, making sure not to include any names. This list would usually include fifteen to twenty quirks, with the amount of information given varying from quirk to quirk. Izuku would read each description and then have thirty seconds to record himself saying everything he could about the potential strengths and weaknesses of that individual quirk.
"When you are confronting a villain" Aizawa had explained the first time he had given Izuku the assignment. "You aren't going to have endless amounts of time to make your observations. You need to work on processing a lot more information a lot faster, learning what information is important and what you can ignore. The less time you have to spend figuring out their quirk, the sooner you can find a way to stop them. Your goal needs to be to find their weakness and exploit it before they even know you're there."
Making voice recordings of his observations also meant that he couldn't go back and fix his mistakes because "You need to learn how to make them and move on from them. Mistakes happen, but it's your reaction to them that's going to make things easier or harder in the long run." The first night had been a disaster. He'd stumbled over his words, mumbled a little too quietly for the mic to pick up, and at one point completely forgot how to speak he was so nervous.
Like with the physical training though, the recordings got easier. He still ran out of time before making all of the connections he needed to, but Aizawa hadn't seemed disappointed in his progress. Izuku found some reassurance in that, and each night he went back over the profiles adding all of the information to his journals, making note of what was essential and what he could have left out. He had never thought to time himself before, never had access to so many different quirks. All in all it was the perfect training for him. Tomorrow though, he would be starting something new.
Aizawa had been shifting his training just enough as time passed to keep him from becoming too comfortable, and he had finally deemed Izuku good enough at the most basic hand to hand fighting to add something else to his menu. Tomorrow they were going to talk about what Izuku could add to his arsenal to help even the odds when it came to fighting without a quirk. While Izuku had been right about Aizawa basically fighting quirkless, it was because of his quirk that he and his opponent were put on a more even playing field. Izuku couldn't nullify other people's quirks, so he needed another skill to be able to compensate.
He knew he should be nervous, but he felt too excited. Izuku trusted Aizawa, but the pro hero had made it clear that he would only teach him as long as he continued to prove that he had potential. Every new task, every new skill. They were all tests. Pass and the training continued. Fail and Aizawa might decide that Izuku wasn't worth his time anymore. Izuku didn't want to think about what would happen then, so he pushed the thought firmly out of mind.
There were a lot of things about Midoriya Izuku that Aizawa didn't understand. When he first agreed to train the kid he knew he would be an interesting student. He couldn't be anything other than interesting after that kind of introduction. He knew he was dedicated, determined, that he had initiative, but Aizawa hadn't been sure how all of this training would pan out. Determination can only get you so far, after all.
It would be nice if determination and hard work were all it took to be a pro hero. If that were the case then every graduate from Yuuei would be successful, but unfortunately that wasn't how it worked. Somethings, maybe most things that were lofty enough goals to be considered dreams, required a little something extra. An innate talent that can't be taught, a drive that exceeds simple determination. The kind of thing that you either have or you don't, and no amount of work can make up for it.
Aizawa hadn't know Midoriya long, and already the kid was giving him pause. It was too early to tell, he had only just started, but with each passing day Aizawa felt an instinct he had grown to trust over the years telling him that Midoriya might just be that kind of hero.
And then there was the fact that he actually, genuinely seemed to like him. Aizawa knew he could be intimidating. It was an opinion he didn't care enough to dissuade. If his students were intimidated by him then they might just listen to him a little more carefully, and who knew when that would save their lives? Yes, Midoriya acted nervous often, but Aizawa got the feeling that that come more from the fact that he had basically stalked the hero. And weirdly held Aizawa in high regard. Midoriya had tried to hide it, but he wasn't that great of an actor. Not yet at least. Aizawa had never been someone's favorite before. Maybe he should ask Hizashi for advice…
No. Midoriya was Aizawa's student not a fan. Only if his admiration interfered with his training would Aizawa broach the topic with his friend. He had told no one he was training Midoriya and he wouldn't mention it unless absolutely necessary. Although not technically not allowed, Aizawa would rather not deal with Nezu's prying or the other pro heroes who would demand they meet Midoriya. Better to keep the kid away from that mess at all costs.
In the meantime, Aizawa needed to figure out what he would suggest to Midoriya the next day. The kid still needed a lot of work on the basics-he had only started fighting two weeks ago after all- but he trusted him enough to up the difficulty level just a bit. The easiest thing to teach him would be the same technique Aizawa himself used with his scarves, but that would draw too much of a connection between the two. Aizawa's style was unique, and if anyone else showed up using scarves the way he did they would know Aizawa had trained them.
Midoriya needed to make his own way, succeeding or failing based off his own talent. When he made it into Yuuei people would be looking for ways to tear him down. He didn't need anyone saying he only got in because of favoritism. Not after all of the work he would be putting in.
"Are you sure about this, Rave?" A quiet voice asked, looking over the plans laid out across the table. "Eraserhead… There's no going back from this, you have to know that."
The room had grown dark as the sun set, the papers spread out around them barely visible in the dim light. Rave didn't need to see the pages to know what was written there though. Hours of pouring over the information again and again had guaranteed he would never forget it. "I'm very aware of what we're doing, Asahi. It's necessary."
"But murder? We kill a pro hero and we'll have every hero in the city after us. Are you sure you can handle that?"
Rave stood, the sound of his chair crashing against the floor echoing in the empty room, paper flying as he brushed them off the table. "It's Eraserhead's fault, Asahi. It's his fault she's dead. We can't just let that go. He thinks he can just kill someone and get off free because he's a pro hero? He's got another thing coming."
"I'm not saying that he shouldn't pay! But there has to be another way. Some way that doesn't make us targets to every pro hero in the prefecture. He has to have some weakness, something we can strike at that's not so direct."
" Make him suffer like we did and then we kill him."
"That-That's not really the point of what I was saying." Asahi sighed. "You're really set on that part aren't you?"
"We find his weakness. We take them out. And then we kill him. Simple as that."
AN: And the plot begins! Bakugou is suspicious and on a mission, Aizawa doesn't want to share, and someone wants to kill Eraserhead. And on top of all of that Midoriya is going to be trusted with a weapon.
I'll try to update early, but the next chapter will be out on Friday at the latest. Leave a review and let me know what you though!