Early Monday morning, Officer Sohma arrived at the Midoriya household to pick up Izuku for this week's assigned post. He was kind of excited for the trip, it would be a nice break from the chaos of the last few months. Maybe the smaller, slower-paced station would be just what Izuku needed.
He didn't know Officer Sohma very well, but the man had always been kind to Izuku. He imagined that his relationship with Sohma was similar to what most people experienced with their grandparents. That said, after a few awkwardly silent minutes, Sohma was able to get Izuku talking. In true grandfather form, he was able to get Izuku to talk about his hopes, his dreams, his interests, even some things that Izuku had never told his mother. When he got started in on quirk analysis, it was clear that he had lost the man, but Sohma still made an effort to understand, which warmed Izuku beyond anything he'd ever felt before.
In turn, Izuku asked about Sohma. He had been at the station the longest - actually, he had started his career at that very station. His quirk was called Icy Gale, meaning he could summon frigid gusts of wind. He credited his quirk for being the reason he met his wife. It had been a particularly hot summer day and she had feigned interest in him to have access to the cold air. He had been fully aware that she was using him, and he let it happen, bargaining for at least one date out of the exchange. Now they had three kids and seven grandkids.
By the end of the car ride, Sohma was ready to adopt Izuku. He admired the boy's resilience, and swore that one day he would find who had hurt the boy so deeply and give them a firm talking to before turning them over to Naomasa.
Izuku's greeting at the new station was… underwhelming. All four of their officers were working that day to meet him, Chief Urushihara, a portly Officer Hanazawa, and the married couple, Officers Abeno. He learned that he would be staying at the Chief's home through the duration of his stay. Urushihara began talking about all the different things that they would do with and teach to Izuku as Sohma bid him farewell, telling him that Tamakawa would be here to pick him up Friday afternoon.
Excitement built in Izuku along with his nervousness as he waved Sohma goodbye. He filed in after the Abenos, the two tripping over themselves to question him about his exploits thus far. They listened to him intently as he told his story and Hanazawa feigned disinterest, occasionally sniffing in disdain.
When he finished talking, Izuku found himself nervously adjusting his fanny pack. He'd brought it on Tsukauchi's recommendation, but he rarely went anywhere without it. For some reason he'd found himself bringing his replacement medical pack, but it gave him some comfort having it near. "So what are we doing today?"
Urushihara settled himself into a chair that was perfectly molded to him - it was hard to distinguish where Urushihara began and the chair ended. "You've already had plenty of excitement today, so we're going to take it easy. Come on Midoriya, put your feet up. My wife will be here shortly with lunch."
Izuku glanced around, surveying the goings on. One of the Abenos was yelling at Hanazawa to finish his paperwork from two months ago while the other organized a file cabinet. His excitement diminished considerably as he realized just how this particular station was run. The chief went on some tangent about the sacred duties and responsibilities of a police officer before settling in further to begin reading the newspaper.
It was clear the station was only running because of the Abenos. Izuku had thought that this particular placement had been to get him away from villain activity for a while, but Tsuragamae might have had some ulterior motives in addition to that. This station was a disaster. At one point the Abenos asked if they could take Izuku to the shooting range to get him started on training, but Urushihara just waved a hand. "Don't overwhelm the boy, he's already had a big day. He needs time to adjust, we'll start his gun training on Wednesday."
The Abenos left a few hours later because they had taken the night shift, and Izuku was left with nothing to do, no direction whatsoever. In fact, he ended up spending the entire day working on his latest analysis.
Minutes before Izuku and the Chief were meant to leave, the station phone rang. Hanazawa made no effort to pick it up, and Urushihara just waved a hand. "It'll be my wife. Just tell her we're about to leave."
Hesitantly, Izuku picked up the phone, fairly certain that it should be an actually police officer taking the call. "Hello, this is-"
"Police, right?" a frantic voice asked. "This is pro-hero Mandalay of the Wild Wild Pussycats. There's been an accident, my nephew fell from a tall wall. He passed out from either shock or pain, and I don't dare move him. Ambulances won't come out this far and we're supervising a class of hero students, so we can't just leave!"
Izuku could clearly hear the panic in her voice, so he interrupted. "I understand. We'll be out shortly, we have a licensed field medic on hand. Just give me your location."
Urushihara and Hanazawa stared at him as he got what information he could and hung up. "Kid, I know you're used to those big fancy city stations, but we don't have any field medics here. Now call them back and tell them to call a first responder or something."
"Oh, they don't have any at Tsukauchi's station either, but I just passed the test. I was trained by Recovery Girl herself. Now let's go."
The chief was the one who ended up driving Izuku. He seemed irritated, of all things, as well as pretty hesitant. Izuku was fairly sure he heard the chief mutter a few times about cleaning up heroes' messes.
Luckily the training camp was only a few miles away - Izuku was quickly finding himself more and more irritated at the Chief's attitude. After all of this he would definitely talk to Tsuragamae about this particular station.
The training camp was deep in the forest, and the road was winding and steep. Izuku's excitement at meeting the Wild Wild Pussycats was tempered by possible injuries the child could have sustained - the phone call was not long enough to give Izuku many details about the kid's well being.
Pixie Bob waited for them, ushering them forward so aggressively that Izuku almost didn't have time to grab his replacement med pack. They were led inside where a little boy was splayed out on a couch. He was unconscious while Mandalay hovered around, unsure of what to do.
"We have a place to bathe here, and there was a wall separating the boys from the girls. We heard that one of the boys could be inappropriate, so we stationed Kouta at the top of the wall to stop any mischief," Mandalay explained frantically. "We only know he fell, the few students that have come to explain what happened all told slightly different stories."
Izuku took his time examining the boy, checking vitals, observing everything he could while everyone in the room watched with bated breath. Pixie Bob was doing her best to console Mandalay while they waited for the verdict.
"Your nephew is very lucky," Izuku finally said. "It seems that he's only unconscious due to shock, probably the shock of falling. It looks like someone caught him just before he hit the ground. You can see the bruise from their hand here, and it looks like the force of it all dislocated his shoulder. Aside from that he may have whiplash, or a minor concussion, but I'd need to observe him a little longer to be sure."
"Oh, can you? We have a spare room for you if you would stay here," Mandalay said.
"Yeah, and we're hosting nineteen hero students right now," Pixie Bob added. "One of them is bound to get injured during this training."
Chief Urushihara looked annoyed. "Aren't you four rescue heroes? Shouldn't you know basic First Aid?"
Izuku, meanwhile, was already on the phone with Tsuragamae. "Hi Chief, it's me. Yeah, there's a training camp out here for hero students and they need a medic. No, not a thing, I doubt that's even going to happen. Okay, I'll look forward to that too. Thanks!"
Once more all eyes were trained on him as he hung up the phone, slipping it once more in his pocket. "Chief Tsuragamae says I can stay, so I'll need my bags out of your car, Chief Urushihara. Send my regrets to your wife."
It annoyed Urushihara that in those two sentences Midoriya had been able to casually muster more authority than he had in the entirety of his life. The brat didn't even deign to look at him again as he firmly grasped Kouta's upper arm, guiding the bone back into the correct place. Izuku felt bad about causing the boy even more pain, but it didn't wake the boy up, so he told himself it was better this way.
Mandalay couldn't stop thanking him, explaining, "We should have stationed one of us up there instead. When no one could agree on what happened, I panicked, especially when he didn't wake up. He hasn't even really been able to enjoy his life yet, find his place in this world."
"I take it his life hasn't been the easiest," Izuku said, gazing sadly at the small boy.
"He's already lost everything once," Mandalay said softly. "His parents were heroes, and they died on the same job. Kouta was too young to understand, and since then he's hated heroes. He tolerates us, but he doesn't really have anyone to be close to."
A question was at the tip of Izuku's lips when the door opened to Aizawa dragging the kid with the weird purple hair. "Mineta is here to explain exactly what went on."
The student looked like he had seen the face of death, and Izuku was finding it hard to feel any sympathy for him. When Aizawa shoved the boy towards Mandalay, his eyes landed on him.
He sighed, a bone-weary sound. "Just what are you doing here, Problem Child?"
"I'm your school nurse for the time being," Izuku deadpanned before the implications of Aizawa's presence sank in. "It's your class here for training? Your… co-workers didn't happen to come as well, did they?"
Panic gripped Izuku - he couldn't see All Might, he might actually break down if he did. Oh please, he couldn't have this dream destroyed too-
"Just me and then tomorrow Vlad King will get here," Aizawa said, interrupting Izuku's catastrophizing. "I told Nezu we would likely need a medical professional, but this isn't exactly what I had in mind."
"Oh, Nezu didn't send me," Izuku said, doing his best to disguise how shaky his voice was. "I'm actually temporarily assigned to the nearest police station. I was the one that answered Mandalay's call."
"Of course you were. And why are you here without an officer?"
"He kind of left me here? Really, Chief Urushihara isn't the most attentive. I'm going to have words with Tsuragamae, that station is-"
"Save it for later," Aizawa said. "While you're here just don't do anything that could potentially kill you."
"I'm here as medical help. How am I supposed to do my job if I need medical help?" Izuku huffed.
"My point exactly, Remember that, Problem Child," Aizawa said, beginning to stride away.
"Wait! Are you going to introduce me to your class?" Izuku asked, thinking of one particular student.
"Along with Class 1-B, we'll need to explain your presence. But I'll do it at breakfast tomorrow, some of my students are already in bed."
"Can… I've been meaning to ask you about this for a while. Can you tell them I'm just some field medic? And everyone else? I know you're an underground hero, and since the whole Stain thing I've been getting some notoriety. It's not common, but some people recognize me on the street and I wouldn't want you to get a reputation as the guy who helped train the quirkless kid. Don't think I'm not grateful, I am! I just don't want your-"
"Midoriya, breathe. If it's what you want, as far as anyone knows, this is the second time we've met," Aizawa said. "Now shoo, go find someone to play with while the Pussycats get a room ready for you."
Izuku nodded, slipping out of the door unaware of the teacher's fond expression as he left. Outside of the house were areas that were clearly training grounds and an outdoor kitchen. Only a handful of students milled around, too exhausted to do much other than sit and talk.
"I wonder how that kid is doing," said the boy Izuku remembered as Kirishima. "It was a pretty long way to fall. We're lucky that Shoji was manly enough to catch him."
"There was a police car here earlier," someone else said. "So something must have been done."
"Maybe Mineta got arrested."
Someone snorted. "The police wouldn't do anything that useful. Honestly, at this point we should just do away with the police, they're just a waste of public funds."
Izuku decided he didn't like whoever that was. But his heart warmed when Ojiro said, "The police force does more than you know. They deserve our respect just as much as heroes do."
Staring at the group of students, he found himself biting his lip, hesitating to join the group of students. Doubts and fears breathed down his neck until a voice exclaimed, "Midoriya, how are you here?"
"Hagakure, you must be practicing stealth! I didn't sense you at all!" Izuku said, placing a hand over his racing heart. "I'm here for medical support."
"Awesome! Hey look everyone, it's Midoriya!" she gushed, hauling him forward.
"What?" Uraraka screeched, lurching to her feet.
"Hey man, what are you doing here?" Ojiro asked.
"I'm essentially the camp nurse," Izuku said with a weak laugh.
"Oh man, I wish Bakugou hadn't already gone to bed, he hasn't met you yet!" Kirishima said brightly. "It's so manly how you help everyone Mid-"
"Are you nerds talking about me?" a voice growled as a figure emerged from the shadows. "I told you all before, don't-"
Bakugou broke off, face contorting in wordless fury when his red eyes came to rest on Izuku. He, on the other hand, felt his blood freeze in his veins, every fiber of his being screaming for him to leave. Instead, in direct opposition to Aizawa's request to stay away from things that might kill him, Izuku raised a hand. "Hi Kacchan."
"DEKUUUUU!"