Izuku Midoriya entered his homeroom classroom early. The bell, signalling a solid ten minutes until class started, hadn't chimed yet. He knew he was early, but it didn't matter. Majority of the class, however, was excited he was there.
"Midoriya!" Sero waved, calling him over to his desk. His feet carried him over, a quiet hello escaping him as he did so. "Dude, check it out," The boy handed his phone to the other, a youtube video pulled up. Midoriya read the title and tried to swallow the lump that formed in his throat. The title to the video read, "I Want It - Official Music Video." It wasn't so much the title of the video that had Midoriya visibly shaken, it was the channel that posted the video - Ryoko Iwasaki.
The sun was setting, Midoriya laid in a bed adjacent to All Might's. He had an IV attached to his arm, the same hand bandaged. All Might's chest was bandaged, his time limit shortened with the fight at the USJ. Staring at his teacher's back, he felt regret - if only he was stronger, if only he could control One For All.
Midoriya's thoughts changed course, him sitting straight up in his hospital bed as a police officer entered the room. Upon hearing it was a close friend of All Might's, he relaxed. The two began to talk about the other students and teachers and their injuries when the door opened again. Naomasa turned just as Midoriya was trying to see around him. He could see out of the corner of his eye that his teacher perked up ever so slightly.
Standing in the doorway was a redhead donned completely in black clothing. A leather jacket, tight black jeans, and heavy combat boots - she looked like she belonged on a stage rather than in a hospital room. Her eyes were wide, puffy even, as they landed on All Might, her body physically relaxing as she saw the hero.
"Toshi,"
"Ryo!"
Her heavy boots scuffed the floor as they took her to the hero's bedside. Her hands, tattooed knuckles Midoriya noticed, reached for All Might's cheeks, cupping them as she brought their foreheads together. All Might's own hands wrapped around her, fingers gripping the leather material as if she could disappear without a trace. They sat holding onto one another for a few seconds, Midoriya noticing that his teacher was oozing happiness with the redhead. Finally, she pulls away from All Might, hands still holding his face as he smiles up at her. She shakes her head at him, her own smile failing to remain hidden.
"You damned fool," The words held no malice. Midoriya could see that and glanced around between the adults nervously.
"Did Present Mic call you?"
"Well, I called Mic since neither you nor Aizawa were picking up. My gut said something wasn't right. One minute we're talking and the next the call dropped." One of her hands, knuckle tattoos and long black acrylic nails - Midoriya was finding the woman quite different with each passing second, ran through the blond's hair.
Midoriya felt awkward, like he was watching a tender moment that he shouldn't see. He shifted and the redhead turned her head to look at him. Caught. He started to stammer, find an excuse for why he was there. Though, clearly she could tell why he was there if she knew All Might, Present Mic, and his homeroom teacher.
"Hey, you okay kid?" She asks, hands falling from All Might's face, his own leaving her jacket. One of his hands still found their way into hers.
"Oh, yes! I'm alright!" Midoriya freezes, a heartbeat passing before she smiles and nods at the boy.
"Good," She turns to look at Naomasa, "That was no fucking joke." Midoriya blinked, she let a curse slip like it was a comma!
"Thankfully the students walked away with scratches. Eraserhead and Thirteen will both be well again after some recovery time."
"Speaking of," She looks back at All Might. "I did check on Aizawa and Mic and everyone. They're stable and doing okay. I figured you would want to know that."
Midoriya knew that All Might was aware of these facts, considering the officer had told them both all of this before she arrived. Instead, All Might chuckled, still staring up at the redhead standing at his bedside.
"You checked on Aizawa and Mic before your own boyfriend?" She quickly flicks him in the middle of his forehead, to which he yelps.
"Eraser was in worse shape than you, shut up!"
Midoriya blinked. Did All Might say boyfriend? That had to have been a mistake… right?
The officer coughed, pulling the two's attention to him. "I hate to cut in between, but I really need to talk with All Might and get any and all information possible."
The redhead shrugged, pulling her hand out of All Might's as she walks over to Naomasa. "Man, I just hate when people actually have to do their jobs." Midoriya could have sworn she was upset about his comment, but no one in the room bat an eye at her words, so Midoriya figured it couldn't have been so bad. Her hand lifts, curled in a ball as she gives the officer a fist bump. "You know where to find me if ya need help."
She starts to head towards the door until All Might calls her name. He looked like he wanted to jump out of the hospital bed, follow her to wherever her final destination would be. She turns around, walking backwards as she talks to him. "I'm gonna go check on Aizawa once more before I head out. I'll see you when you get home,"
"I love you," She's at the doorway, hand reaching behind her to grab onto the handle when All Might speaks. She never broke eye contact with him, keeping her body facing All Might as she smiles at him.
"I love you too, hun," She pulls the door open, still looking at the smiling blond. "I'll see you later." Almost as quickly as she had appeared, she disappeared and Midoriya was left questioning what he just saw.
In the months that he knew All Might, he had never mentioned a significant other or even a family member for that matter. Before he ever met the Symbol of Peace, Midoriya thought he knew so much about the hero. When One For All was passed to him, he thought he had learned about the man, who he really was.
Midoriya never factored a redhead into the equation.
"Um, All Might?" The teacher turns to his student and Midoriya is certain that All Might knew the question already. "Who was that?"
"That was Ryoko," The Pro Hero trails off, seemingly wanting to leave it at that, but Recovery Girl doesn't let him.
"Come now! Tell the boy about your girlfriend."
"Girlfriend?!" Midoriya didn't necessarily mean to blurt that out, he just never thought that All Might would have a girlfriend. Though, he does suppose that even if All Might is a Pro Hero, that doesn't mean he can't have normal relationships like anyone else. It especially shouldn't have come as a shock after hearing All Might call himself Ryoko's boyfriend.
"Yeah, Ryoko is my girlfriend. Very few people know that about us and, I'm afraid I'll have to ask you to keep another secret for me." Midoriya stares at his teacher, remembering how happy he looked when Ryoko entered the room. The boy nodded and swore to keep his hero's secret.
Midoriya hands Sero his phone back, hands shaking ever so slightly as he did. It was hard keeping secrets. He hadn't seen much of Ms Ryoko since she came to their room at the school that day. He saw her for a split second when she unknowingly rescued him from Endeavor's cold gaze at the Sports Festival. The way she walked up to him with a resounding "Endeavor, my guy, what's good?!" will forever be branded in his brain. Outside of that, the redhead was like a ghost.
The class was a buzz, however, as they discussed the video. Apparently, Midoriya learned, it was about their class. Not necessarily Class 1-A, but the first year's Sports Festival. Sero began to play the video, Midoriya and a few others that hadn't seen the video were crowding around the phone screen. The video started off with a black screen, white text typing across as the video played. No students or faculty from UA High were shown without permission. Permission was granted by the faculty for themselves and by the parents of the students shown. Then the true music video began. The first shot was of a microphone, the blue sky behind it, the murmuring of a full stadium of people was heard as the video played. After a moment, Ryoko walked into frame, green eyes looking around.
The camera panned around the UA Stadium, showing the audience members from the Sports Festival, the murmuring getting slightly louder as it did. It then panned back to Ryoko, the camera starting at her feet and moving up her body. She was dressed head to toe in All Might's hero costume. Her hair went to her waist, red at her roots, fading to an orange and the ends a bright yellow. She inhaled a breath, closed her eyes, and exhaled. Then the song began.
The video went back and forth between clips of Ryoko singing and dancing as All Might, which many students found hilarious, to clips of the first year students at the Sports Festival. Midoriya saw himself, he wondered when his mom gave Ryoko permission to use clips of him, as well as his fellow classmates - Bakugo, Todoroki, Iida, and even Ochako. The music video spanned the entirety of the Festival. From the obstacle course, to the one verse one battles, and even the award ceremony, the video covered it all. The final moments of the video was All Might giving Bakugo his first place medal, an actual clip from the event, before it cut to Ryoko, singing the final words of the song. It was a close up of her upper body, singing and smiling as she sang the final "I want it more than you ever did" before the screen went black.
"Isn't that so cool?!" Ashido exclaimed, fists being thrust into the air out of excitement. The entire class, in their own groups, were talking about the video. Midoriya did find it incredible, how the Sports Festival was only a few days ago and yet a complete song and video was published. He was recognized on the way to school that morning, as was a lot of his peers, but being shown in a music video like this was something Midoriya had never thought about.
"It's awesome, dude!" Midoriya turned to look over his shoulder at Kirishima. He appeared to be the most excited out of everyone, practically jumping out of his seat as he spoke. "Ryoko's music is some of the coolest there is! It's so cool that she was inspired by us enough to write a song about us!"
"Someone sounds like a fan," Kaminari smirked at his friend.
"I'm such a fan! My parents listened to her when she first hit the music scene so I grew up listening to her. She's awesome!" When Kirishima began to ramble off some of his favorite songs from Ryoko, Jiro's attention was caught.
"Your favorite is We Don't Have To Dance?"
"Well, yeah! That was the song that got her popular and caught Present Mic's eye!"
"It was her first single, but Overweight is better."
"I'm afraid I have to disagree," Midoriya glanced over at Tokoyami. He knew Ryoko too? "Her song We've Got Soul is my personal favorite."
"The Void is one of her better songs," Todoroki said from his seat at the back of the class. Even Todoroki knew about Ryoko and her music? He didn't seem like he listened to or even enjoyed the type of music Ryoko put out.
Kirishima blinked as he looked at his classmate, "Dude, The Void is one of her saddest songs…"
"It's still a good song regardless of the emotions."
"Okay but have you heard her music with Present Mic?" Hagakure spoke up, joining the conversation. "Their music is my favorite!"
Most of the class knew of Ryoko's music before her song about the Sports Festival came out.
Midoriya wasn't going to lie, after he had met Ms Ryoko, even if it was just briefly, he did look her up. He had managed to find her website that sent him to varying web pages about any live dates she was doing - which was currently none, her YouTube channel - where she posted her music videos and a plethora of other videos, and an online store where one could purchase her music or merchandise from her. Midoriya also managed to find clips of her on Present Mic's radio show. There was so many, he even managed to find a full length one where she hosted the show instead of Present Mic. Listening back to many of them, Midoriya recognized the clips. It was shocking that he couldn't remember Ms Ryoko, though.
In his search, Midoriya did dive through her YouTube channel. He had actually watched the music video for the song that Kirishima said was his favorite. It had come out almost eleven years ago, and it was much darker and angstier than the song Sero just played for them. We Don't Have To Dance certainly fit Ryoko's aesthetic more than I Want It did.
Among the videos, however, Midoriya found many where Ryoko would do a question and answer session with her fans. She would go through and answer varying questions that people sent her through social media. It was slightly shocking, hearing her talk about how she disapproved of how society viewed heroes. Midoriya recalled how she said that society wanted heroes to risk their lives for popularity and fame and money but kept them on a leash with so many laws about quirks. She disliked how much society would push kids to become heroes, making them believe that was the best and only career path to take. She would also talk about how society made quirkless people feel looked down upon. Midoriya specifically remembered one video where one of her fans asked her if they could do what she did without a quirk. She went on a solid five minute rant about how having a quirk didn't mean anything.
Ryoko even went as far to criticize UA High and their entrance exam. Ryoko claimed it put kids with less flashier quirks down, keeping them out of the hero courses. She even wrote a song about it, Cut The Cord, the music video showing Ryoko as a UA High teacher and pushing the students harder than they should have. Midoriya wasn't going to lie, that song was one of his favorites that he had heard from Ryoko. Despite it's negative and sadden tone, he thoroughly enjoyed the music.
He managed to learn a lot of Ryoko from her videos. Her best friend was Present Mic, meeting him through his radio show when her first single made it to the radio eleven years ago. The two have been inseparable ever since. She was a UA Alum, graduating two years after Present Mic and Midoriya's homeroom teacher did. She never wanted to be a hero or be in the public spotlight for hero work, but she still was in Hero Course A and completed everything, earning her a hero license. She signed with a hero agency when she graduated from UA High, but has kept who she works for a secret.
In her videos, she talked about how her boss was able to work with her in what she wanted. She received a hero license in order to use her quirk when it was needed, wanting to help but not wanting to be in the public eye. She first started as a "glorified secretary" as she called herself, telling her boss that she didn't want the publicity for hero work and wanted to work on her music. Her boss agreed to only call her in extreme emergencies, but over the years, Ryoko has slowly worked her way up to essentially be the hero's sidekick. "My boss would never say it and I don't want to admit to it, but I'm basically his sidekick. We work well together and times are changing so I've been doing more field work recently. I personally like to think of myself as his assistant, but society prefers the technical term of sidekick."
Ryoko also kept her quirk a secret, saying she found ways to work and fight without it. She said it was for safety, having not only the element of surprise on her side, but also keeping what she called a flashy quirk from helping her gain popularity. Midoriya, while he was diving deep through her YouTube channel, found himself thoroughly intrigued by Ryoko. He wondered what her quirk was that she deemed it to be flashy. He was curious about who she worked for that would sign her and save her for extreme calls only, for one, and then would end up working so closely with her that she would be their sidekick. His teacher's girlfriend was shrouded in mystery.
"Uh, guys?" Sero called, causing the class to look at him. He was staring at his phone. He was just playing another of Ryoko's music videos, curious about who the redhead was. His phone was apparently on autoplay, a video already playing. Not many could see it, but everyone could hear it.
"At precisely one minute after midnight on the night of the 27th, All Might, the number one hero, made an elaborate post to his Instagram account. Multiple pictures of himself and the rockstar, Ryoko Iwasaki, were posted, with the last being a video of the singer playing an acoustic guitar while singing to the hero in a bed."
Midoriya began to sweat. All Might made a post last night?
"The pictures of the two clearly showed them in a romantic setting, one of them showing Ryoko wearing nothing but one of All Might's oversized shirts. The pictures appear to be of the couple over a long period of time. The most recent of the pictures being of All Might with his arm around the singer's waist, while holding a boxed lunch, clearly taken during UA High's Sports Festival."
The class was silent, everyone had their sole attention focused on listening to the video that Sero had playing. Midoriya did glance around, noticing that Kirishima pulled his phone out, more than likely checking for the post.
"The caption itself was quite a lengthy one. It read, "To the love of my life. To my number one hero. To my home. It's crazy to think there was ever a life before you, but there will never be a life after you. Hard to believe that we've spent eight years together. It's almost as hard to believe that it's only been eight years. Loving you was one of the best decisions of my life. You have no idea how important you are to me, and I have no idea how to explain it to you. The first song you ever wrote and played for me was "Calling You" and somehow you read my mind and put my emotions and feelings into a song. I can't believe you actually picked me. Happy anniversary, Ryo, my love. Here's to at least eight more anniversaries."
The girls in the class were sighing, saying how sweet the caption was. Mineta a little angry that the hot singer was taken, and by his teacher no less. Midoriya, along with most of the others, were simply baffled. Not only did All Might make a post, but he wrote all of that?
"Many people have commented on the post, fans and fellow heroes alike. Present Mic himself even commented on the post, leaving nothing but a short "ew." Ryoko responded to the comment left by her best friend with a simple middle finger emoji."
Kirishima had found the post on his phone, causing a few classmates to look over his shoulder. Midoriya was guilty. He was curious. What did All Might post?
The first picture was as the video said, the two smiling and holding onto each other at the Sports Festival, All Might showing off a lunch that Ryoko brought him. It made sense to Midoriya, now, why she was there that day. The second was of the singer perched on All Might's shoulders. All Might was mid laugh as Ryoko was clearly yelling something. Then there was an image of All Might lifting Ryoko in the air. She was posing, lying long ways with her tongue out as All Might smiled. The image after that elicited a few laughs. It was All Might, heavily embarrassed as Ryoko was dressed as him. Based on the people in the background, it was Halloween. All Might was in just a t shirt with a pumpkin on it, while Ryoko was flexing, dressed head to toe as All Might, much like the music video they watched moments ago. Kirishima swiped on his phone, bringing up the next image which caused more laughs. Ryoko was still posing as All Might, Present Mic and Midnight fake fawning over her. The next image was of Ryoko, swimming in one of All Might's white shirts. The last picture was of the two hugging, both dressed in formal wear. Ryoko in a black, sequin gown while All Might was in a tuxedo. They were looking at each other, lips pursued at one another, but not actually kissing. With one final swipe, Kirishima came to the end of the post. It was a video of Ryoko, playing an acoustic guitar while she sat on her bed. All Might was clearly the one recording, as Ryoko sang her song Calling You.
"The singer herself took to Twitter later in the morning, creating a long thread of tweets regarding the post made by the number one hero. "Let's just get this out of the way real quick - Hi my name is Ryoko, I just dropped a new single called I Want It and I'm dating All Might. Today is our eight year anniversary." The rockstar continued her Twitter thread, going so far as to even come out with information regarding which hero agency she works for. "I met All Might at a coffee shop. No, I do not work for his agency, I work for Endeavor's Hero Agency. I've worked for Endeavor for ten years, going on eleven. No, it's not weird that I work for the number two hero and date the number one hero. Literally no one cares." After many of her fans tweeted at her, asking varying other questions, Ryoko took back to Twitter. "I'll answer a lot of questions but I'm still not going to tell you guys my quirk. Put up a good fight against me to figure out my quirk."
"One fan even went so far as to tweet at her, saying "is now the right time to do this ? All Might and UA are being heavily pursued by villains right now." The singer responded to the tweet, with what appears to be lyrics to a new song, called 100 Bad Days, that Ryoko and Present Mic are about to release. "100 bad days made 100 good stories. 100 good stories make me interesting at parties. No, I ain't scared of you. No, I ain't scared of you no more." The singer finished up her long tweets with one final tweet, "And with that I'm going to stay offline. Gonna celebrate my anniversary. See ya in a couple when Present Mic and I drop that new song tho."
The video ended with the creator asking the viewers to leave their thoughts and opinions of the new couple in their comment section. Midoriya wordlessly went to his desk and sat down, as did many others. They didn't have anything to say. For once, all of Class 1-A was completely speechless. Midoriya didn't know what he could say. It was a lot of information to take in with just a four minute video.
The students weren't able to think about it much longer, however, as the door to their classroom opened and their newly healed homeroom teacher entered. Once he informed the students about their internships and picking their hero names, it appeared that everyone forgot about the latest gossip that the media was talking about. But no one did, not with the way every media outlet was now covering All Might and his secret girlfriend. For the time being, the students went through with their class, picking out their hero names and where they would be interning. No one mentioned their teacher or the red headed singer, too focused on the next step in becoming heroes.
Disclaimer: I only own Ryoko Iwasaki. All other characters belong to their respectful creator, Horikoshi. The songs I Want It, Overweight, and Calling You belong to Blue October. We Don't Have To Dance and The Void belong to Andy Black. We've Got Soul belongs to Chapel. Cut The Cord belongs to Shinedown. 100 Bad Days belongs to AJR.