Alright, people, it's time to begin season 2! Which means the Sports Festival, Stain, The I-Island Incident, and finally-the finals. It's gonna be much more chaotic than season 1 seeing how there wasn't much they did in it. As you can imagine, I'll be adding to the plot and removing some events here and there as they won't be important to the overall story, others will still happen but off the screen. It's also my pleasure to announce that the number of satisfied readers has grown as the number of following members of this site has grown to 539 with favorites increased to 442, that's double for the latter and more than double for the former. Please keep up the support and I'll do my best to keep this interesting and engaging. Now, onto the request, I asked in chapter 11. I like the fact some of the reviews were legitimately good suggestions while others had arguments that made me stop and think about those individual characters and their roles in the overall plot.
UnlawfulGentleman: Hagakure would certainly do well with the spotlight that OFA would grant her since I'm one of those who believe she craves positive attention due to her quirk making her invisible all the time, having the power of the current number one would certainly help her to achieve this. The fact one of the super moves she had currently developed-(in anime)-allows her to refract all the light waves hitting her back to blind her opponents makes her quite literally a shining hero that the holder of OFA should be. Combine that with her bubbly, can-do, friendly attitude would certainly make her approachable like All Might.
Kendo is a good successor to the big man in Imperium42's story 'Entropy'-(You should all check it out, it's a great read)-so I don't think I need to list most of the reasons for that other than the fact we know she had a heroic heart after seeing what she did during the summer camp raid and because she has a calm, level head on her shoulder as the class rep for 1-B-(Think about it, she has to keep people with personalities as varied as Monoma, Tetsutetsu and Ibara in line, that shows skill and patience)-The sheer power of OFA alone would make her a living wrecking ball.
Shoji doesn't strike me as the type of hero that would even like the attention that OFA would give as he might do down the Edgeshot/Eraserhead route and become an underground hero. Also, how would he explain where this extra power comes from? As much as I hate it, we gotta be a little realistic here so unfortunately, not everyone can get OFA without having to answer some serious questions as with Midoriya in cannon, people either believe that:
(A) He was an extremely late bloomer as in the intro for the season, we see images of people in their teens to early adult years developing quirks out of no-where so if he frames his argument right, it's not impossible for people to believe his quirk came in extremely late in life.
(B) Don't know he was diagnosed as quirkless and assume he never really trained with his power like most other kids, which is why he breaks bones for the first 3 seasons.
(C) Don't know he was diagnosed as quirkless and assume that his quirk is just one of those which just has a steep price for using it in the manner he does. I mean, Aoyama could only fire off about a dozen lasers before his stomach pains got too bad in season 2 and can only hold each blast for a second or 2 till season 3 were on the summer camp, he trains to correct that.
Monoma would certainly make good use of it seeing how his body might even have an easier time adapting to the power than anybody else-(bar AFO)-why? His quirk allows him to copy the abilities of others just by touching them, even their hair counts, he can also hold onto those abilities for up to 5 minutes-(season 2) at a time. As far as we know, the only one I don't think he can copy is mutation types such as Shoji's or Ojiro since that would require him to grow a lot of muscle and bone within seconds. The point being that his adaptive body would be able to adapt itself to the massive power gain quite fast, maybe a month or two would be needed. As you said, he could then add OFA boosting properties to the quirks he copies so that the effect is greater than the original ones or even use it to increase how long he can hold onto abilities or increase the number of abilities he can already stockpile. Lastly, what's to say that the abilities he copies aren't also added to OFA itself? Which would mean if he copied about 200 quirks in his hero career before passing it on then the tenth user would have 209 quirks, plus their own. Add in his intelligence and you got yourself a future OP hero. The only problem is that he…as an ass. Yes, most of that inferiority complex stems from his quirk only allowing to copy others but the fact remains, he is always starting something with 1-A for seemingly no reason and quirk to mock others, All Might would never pick someone like that-(especially if he knew that he likes telling Pony to say rude things to 1-A, he spent time in the US so he must know the struggle of not knowing the local language and how it can be frustrating at times) he got some serious growth to do before he would be worthy of such power.
Kisame Hoshigaki: Yes, Tomura will lose his shit at that since he doesn't seem like the kind of guy who thinks quirkless are still equal to everyone else since he mocked Aizawa for his quirk in season 1. AFO would certainly be interested as he was born in a time where the quirkless were still the majority and treated those with quirks like how most mutants are treated in Marvel's X-Men comics, really I'm surprised that AFO didn't turn out like Magneto-(who btw, would love the world that My Hero has created since mutants are the dominate force on earth on both power and number.)
And yes, Endeavor and Fuyumi have the right to punish the boy, say what you want about his desire to spite his father by not using his hot side, he could have died, his classmates could have died because he was holding back. Besides, he's still doing what Enji wants him to do by becoming a hero to become number 1. I don't think Enji would mind too much in the long run if Shoto does this with only half his power, if anything it'll make him happy as he will be able to say that the child he 'made' performed exactly as he intended him to do by becoming the number one hero in his place, hell the fact he did it with half his strength might just boast the man's dangerously high ego even more as it would mean no challenge or villain was strong enough to get the boy, his greatest creation to use all his power.
tacktician: Yes, you're right about that. Midoriya is gonna need villains similar to those that Batman and Iron Man have to deal with in their respective universes. We don't know all that much about the doctor currently working for the LOV but that doesn't have to stop me, the problem however is Tomura is petty, like petty enough to unleash Nomu's on a city just cause Stain pissed him off. So the good doctor will certainly be his adversary in the league but not the archenemy due to the fact Tomura would never let anyone other than himself have the pleasure of defeating and/or killing the boy, especially with what I have planned for season's 2 material, Midoriya is gonna give a lot of reasons for Tomura to hate his guts, I can tell you that. Someone like Riddler would work too since Midoriya is gonna take on more of the actual investigative work and work alongside police more so than most heroes. The Stain fight will still happen but as you already know, it's going to play out differently than cannon because the Stain arc will be different as well.
Sepherif: Yes grammar and spelling is an issue that I have been trying to deal with but I'll try my best and be slow and more careful with this chapter. As for the main pairing, I know it's odd but that's why I appreciate all those who stuck with the story anyway and realized that despite that, they enjoy reading it. The pairing was chosen to be a unique one as there as many other stories where he's paired with Uraraka, Tsuyu, Mei, Momo, Mina, Kendo, Tokage, or just plain harems. They aren't necessarily bad but they a dim in a dozen as they say, too common. But if you think my pairing is odd, check out 'Magic Exists' by ChronoQuantify, it's a great story with a great premise, world-building, development, and use of characters but that main pairing is certainly a hurdle to deal with when you start it but believe me, it's more than worth it. Another thing I found when choosing the pairing was how Uraraka, the girl we'll all sure will end up with Izuku, was originally supposed to be Mt. Lady but it was changed and the two were made different characters and Uraraka was reworked to have a zero-gravity quirk instead of size augmentation type.
Guest: You're not wrong, we know next to nothing about most of 1-B besides their quirks, appearance, and some basic personality traits. As for Melissa, I got plans for her as is and she will start to have a role in the story in season 2, let me assure you of that.
HavcOLtye: He isn't stupid enough to only rely on his tech so, like Shouta, Kendo and Ojiro, he took up martial arts to help increase his bag of tricks and skills. Projectile wings were already on the drawing board but they came down the line so please be patient. Also, I think Hawks would be mighty proud of himself knowing that as young as he is, he helped to inspire the next generation of heroes.
Anyway, this went on longer than I thought it would so let's get to the actual chapter.
Chapter 13: What we all strive for
"This is a follow-up report on yesterday's incident at the UA rescue training facility where hero course students were attacked by villains." A news reporter stated as she relayed the events from the following day to the public, at present those watching the broadcast were people moving around the city center who happened to stop and look up at the jumbo screen on the building. "According to the police investigation, the criminals call themselves the 'League of Villains' and have been plotting to kill All Might who has been a teacher at UA since spring of this year." The reporter said as the screen changed to show a bird's eye view of the UJS at the time, the video showed both the UA staff and police moving about as they secured the facility as villains were lead to buses. "The police have arrested about 80 villains but at the moment, do not know the whereabouts of their ringleader." She finished as the news station switched over to sports.
(Meanwhile elsewhere)
"Greetings. It feels like summer is just around the corner. As for you, sir, I hope that this letter finds you well. As you may already know, I've been a teacher here at UA high school since spring and have joined those whose task it is to train, mold and guide the next generation. I thought to find someone worthy to inherit my power among the most promising students aiming to become heroes.
However, before I took up my post at UA, I met a young boy. He may have no quirk to call his own but he works hard and strives to become a hero that protects the people and saves those in need. He reminded me of myself like I was all those years ago as you probably remember. You wouldn't believe what this young man has created to help in on his quest, it was like watching Dave in one of his creative fervors back in the day, he has this…drive to help people the likes of which that you only see once or twice in a generation, however, I've decided that he isn't a candidate to inherit my power. Not because he isn't worthy but because he wants to prove that even those without a quirk can still do good in this modern world, he wants to prove himself to the world and as his teacher, I cannot help but want to help him to achieve this goal.
And he already started to do so, his performance during the entrance exam was something none of us teachers expected as even though it was set up as a contest, he still took the time to assist others whenever possible without hesitation and charges on into danger to protect someone he didn't even know. He had made a place for himself here at UA and has done nothing but prove that his goal isn't as impossible as we and the rest of the world thought it could be. He will be a great hero someday, of that I'm sure.
However this brings us to my current dilemma, as a man who spent his life-fighting evil and saving people, I have little knowledge and experience in teaching these skills to the next generation. I know that I'm asking a lot of you but it would be of great help if you could impart some of your own teaching experience onto your former student. Please take care of yourself as the seasons change. I'll continue to keep you informed of the events happening here to the best of my ability.
Sincerely, Toshinori Yagi."
"A boy acknowledged by Toshinori, huh? He must be something then." A small elderly-looking man in a white and yellow hero costume said as he put down the letter All Might had sent him. 'Hmmm, maybe I'll call in that favor for this one. These young fools don't respect their elders as they should.'
(Later that day – UA main building)
"We have investigated the group calling itself the 'League of Villains and," Detective Tsukauchi read out his report to the UA staff. It had been a full day since the incident and he decided it was best to inform the staff of what they were dealing with, this was also one of the few times he wore a full suit with no trench coat whatsoever. "There does not appear to be anyone registered with the name of Shigaraki in his 20s or 30s with a quirk that allows him to disintegrate whatever he touches." He reported, keeping his tone level and head straight. "We hit the same results with the villain going by Kurogiri with a warp gate-type quirk. They are most likely aren't using their real names or they aren't registered citizens at all." He continued as he flipped the page of the report he was reading. "In order, these are people who have unregistered quirks that are current members of the underbelly of society."
"You mean that we know nothing of substance about them…" Vlad King said, displeased with the lack of results.
"We are currently running their quirks through the national quirk registry database to see if we can't find citizens with quirks similar is not identical to theirs. We hope that we can identify a possible family of the two to learn more about their backgrounds." Tsukauchi said as they had already thought of alternative ways of identifying their suspects. This way, they'll have to a hit somewhere if these people are even Japanese, to begin with.
"Nonetheless, time isn't on our side, we must hurry." Snipe spoke up for the first time. "Once their leader, Shigaraki's gun wounds heal, they try again, no doubt. It'll be a pain." He finished his thought as both Nezu and All Might listened to his opinion of the matter.
"Ringleader, huh?" Yagi said to himself as he picked up the briefcase he brought with him and put it on the table.
"What's the matter, All Might?" The white-furred principal asked, bring everyone's attention to him. "Are you…upset that you couldn't go to the USJ?" He asked the number one.
"No, I've come to accept that was because of my faults in not leaving the hero work to others but," Yagi replied as he dug through the briefcase for a second till he found what he was looking for and pulled out some stapled together papers. "I spoke with young Midoriya about this Shigaraki and what he to say was…revealing." He said as he quickly turned over the first page to look over the contents.
"How so?" Alfred asked any info on the suspects would help design security measures against them.
"He said that attack itself was bold, extremely bold to the point where most would give up before it starts but it was also well planned, all those incidents around town were meant to wear us thin. The attack itself was aimed at the UJS when there would be a full class but only 3 teachers. We discussed it in length that whoever planned that assault…wasn't Shigaraki." Yagi said. The first part wasn't too hard to believe as they had already come to that same conclusion but the second part of that statement was surprising.
"Why not." Midnight asked him.
"From the way he carried himself. Midoriya noted that Shigaraki was too mentally unstable and immature to plan such a complex attack. He would monologue like some TV villain, bragged about the abilities of his…Nomu," Yagi had to pause for a moment as, like everyone else present, he couldn't believe someone would do such a thing to another human being. "And although he didn't say much about his quirk, it wasn't needed as it wasn't subtle. And when things didn't go his way, he would become visibly upset and complain and in Midoriya's own words 'started to bitch and whine like a child who was told to go to bed'. And although the choice of language is crude…" Yagi started a bit of chuckle as it was clear Midoriya wasn't happy when he wrote that last bit.
"It's foolish to throw away the advantage of an unknown quirk or in this case, quirks like that. More so when fighting seasoned heroes such as is the case with the teaching staff here." Nezu finished as a part of fighting villains was not knowing what type of quirk they may have, true there were cases where it was obvious but not so much on others such as Tokoyami, whose avian features would pull one to the wrong conclusion on the nature of his quirk.
"'He made immature and wild statements with as straight a face as one could have made with a damn disembodied human hand for a mask. Bragged about his possessions and allies like some playground rich kid bragging about having the latest or most expensive toy. He thought everything would go his way and as a result, didn't bother to have backup plans. From my limited interactions with him and my own experience with 'assholes', my impression of the villain known as Tomura Shigaraki is that he is nothing more than a grown man who hasn't gotten rid of his childish sense of omnipotence, a man child in every sense of the term.'" Yagi finished reading the page as he set the papers down. "I think it's safe to take young Midoriya's observation and opinions as he has shown to be quite intelligent." Yagi said as it wasn't a bad assessment by any means, far from it as it.
"A child with power? That never ends well." Vlad King said as the cases of such were always a pain to deal with.
"Could it be that he never received quirk counseling that every child is required to receive in elementary school?" Midnight asked as all children were required by law to put placed in counseling for the first two years of elementary school to prevent this very type of incident.
"Well, what does that have to do with anything?" Snipe asked the skinny form of the number one pro.
"We arrested 80 villains the other day at the UJS but they were all nothing more than small-timers, violent drug addicts, and street thugs that normally hide in back alleys." Tsukauchi said as he watched as most of them were loading up and transporting to a holding facility till further notice, it didn't take too long for all their records to be pulled afterward.
"The problem here is that they all agreed with this Shigaraki person enough as to follow him in an attack on a top hero school, knowing that pros and police would ascend on them if word got out." Tsukauchi went on, hinting to them that something much worse was afoot.
"Our modern society is saturated with heroes, now more than ever with 1,000s more joining the workforce every year which means that the villainous parts of society that traditionally have been oppressed will be drawn to that kind of simple-minded evil." Tsukauchi finished, getting everyone to pause as the implications of such madness begun to sink in. "It wouldn't be the first time such numbers of villains have risen under the leadership of one insane madman." Tsukauchi said as he covered the power part of his face with his report, the temperature of the room dropping as the event he was implying wasn't one that was taught in schools for a reason. Yagi reached for his old wound as he recalled the face of someone…
…a monster he never wished to see again.
"That is true." Alfred said as he recalled when Great Britain had to deal with a similar menace 30 years prior…central Manchester was devastated by the event.
"There are certainly plenty of people with quirks they don't know what to do with." Snipe added as most low criminals were made up of such individuals.
"This is alarming, though…"Midnight said but paused at the end.
"Yes, traditionally such a large build-up of the negative aspects of society are more…detectable. But this time it has been happening right under our noses without any of us the wiser." Nezu stated, bring all attention back to him. "I believe that Midoriya was right when he stated Shigaraki didn't plan this, he may have a role in it but he's no mastermind." He finished as he was in agreement with Midoriya on the matter, a puppet master was controlling the underworld, one they needed to flush out and defeat.
"Well thanks to you heroes, we have been able to devote more time and resources into this investigation. We'll expand our search network and continue to aid you in arresting these perpetrators." Tsukauchi said as he put his report away. "Also, All Might would you have more of Midoriya's thoughts on this? First-hand accounts are always useful in investigations." He asked, he wanted to see for himself what this kid had to say.
"I do, Midoriya wrote a 17-page report about the UJS incident based on the points of view of himself, young Bakugo, and young Todoroki." Yagi said as he passed the papers to him allowing the detective to see that they were written with a pen, not printed. Another thing that shocked those in the room was the fact the kid wrote an after-action report 17 pages long. "The funny part was that he said he'll pass on the main one once he can interview the rest of his classmates and get their experiences for future study purposes." Yagi's remark didn't do much to calm them down as even Nezu was surprised at the details the boy was going to put into this.
"That kid's through, he would have made a great detective…or investigative reporter" Snipe said after a couple of seconds.
"A man-child," Nezu said to himself before he turned to look his staff in the eyes. "In some ways, he is very much like our students. He still has room to grow. Which makes me wonder…" he said, getting all of them to lean forward in their seats. "If there is some mastermind behind all this and he or she is trying to cultivate that malice…" Nezu asked them all, the mere possibility of such a thing scaring them more than most would admit. Though Alfred kept his thoughts to himself on the matter.
"If that is true, this nation will have to gear up for the worst." Yagi said as that wasn't an event he was looking forward to, not one bit.
(While this meeting was happening – The Midoriya household)
'The Day after the attack on the USJ, the school was closed temporality but it was hard to take it easy.'
'Recovery girl wasn't lying about calling our parents, we weren't even off school grounds before our parents showed up to scold and/or hug us before we were basically thrown into the cars and carted home,' 'While not all our parents, Endeavour was a no show, don't know why so Todoroki's sister picked him up.' Midoriya thought to himself as he laid on his bed, his real bed in his actual bedroom. His mom had also decreased the amount of time he could spend in his lab till he got better. Currently, he was on the phone with a friend of his. One he didn't get to see all that often.
"And now I'm been prohibited from physical exercise for a week." Midoriya said over the phone. If anyone was present in the room with him, they would have heard him say that but unlike most times, Izuku was speaking in English.
"Don't feel too bad about Izuku, it just shows she cares." Melissa said over the line, sounding like she was making something but going by the time-zone difference, it must have been 4 in the morning on I-island right about now.
"Yeah I know but…" Midoriya started he always hated being idle when his hands could be doing something.
"How about we take your mind off that? You wanna hear some good news?" Melissa asked him as she took another spoon full of breakfast.
"Sure, fire away blonde bombshell." Midoriya shot back with a chuckle.
"Hahaha, I wonder how your girlfriend would react to that?" Melissa replied though Midoriya was able to catch how she sounded very displeased, to say the least.
"Probably laugh since she knows how much you hate it." Midoriya said as he laughed at that one, knowing he won that round.
"Touché," The American girl relented. "Anyway, we just got the sample you sent." She said as she got the notification about his package arriving in her lab.
"Good, I was lucky the police didn't confiscate both gauntlets." Midoriya said as he was kinda pissed off them they took the gauntlet as 'evidence'.
"Oh yeah, because this is so much better." Melissa stated as she finished off her cereal.
"It isn't illegal if that's what you're saying, and yes…I checked." Midoriya answered as he figured that would be a concern of hers.
"Still, I feel uneasy about this." Melissa said as she stood up and went over to the kitchen sink, looking out at the dark Los Angeles sky.
"If there's anywhere that can identify those different DNA strands, it's I-island." Midoriya stated, absolutely confident in their skills and equipment.
"Well yeah we can but my father would first need to speak with the UN human records department before we could match it to anyone." Melissa said with a small frown as she started to wash her bowl and place it on the drying rack.
"And he will get that approval, your dad's a good man. Once they hear about this, they'll agree." Midoriya said as he got up and moved over to his computer to search up on the UN human's record department. The department itself wasn't too old as he learned in middle school it was founded around 55 years ago.
"And about the other…matter?" Melissa asked as she came to a stop by the kitchen table.
"I'll keep quiet about it for now, at least until I get my hands on more information." Midoriya answered as the topic they were discussing was his assumption on the spy, he had told her earlier as he figured he needed to tell people he trusted…and were safe from the reach of these villains.
"Be safe over there, you're not even a pro yet so don't do something stupid." Melissa asked of him as she looked at a family photo hanging from the wall, it was with her deceased mother, it had been almost a decade since she passed on but it still hurt to think about it.
"Me? Do something stupid? Name one time." Midoriya asked with a fake offended tone, getting a laugh out of the girl.
"Would you like that list in order of date or alphabetical?" She asked him as she returned to her room to get ready for her early morning jog, she had to keep in shape somehow.
"Oh ha-ha, I spill wasabi on my shirt one time." Midoriya conceded the victory to her as he recalled that fun New year's party in the states.
knock knock
"Izuku…?" Inko asked her son through the door.
"Hold on," Midoriya said as he moved the phone away from his ear and placed it to his chest. "Yes, mom?"
"Supper's ready." Inko informed him through the door.
"Okay mom, I'll be right there." Midoriya said as he heard her walk away, most likely to get seated for dinner. Once he was sure she was moving away he returned to the call. "I gotta go…yeah…you too, talk to you soon." And with that, he ended the call and threw his phone onto the bed before collapsing into his desk chair, still feeling tired from the previous day's events.
"[Sign]" He let out as he massaged his forehead as an idea come to mind. 'A spy? In UA? I don't like the thought of it but if it's a possibility….' He thought to himself, worried what this could mean…
He would need to bring this up with Aizawa as soon as he could.
"Today, I decided we deserved some more tasty so we having port cutlet bowls!" Inko said with a smile as she waved her hand over the prepared meal for two as the two sat down to eat.
"Thank you." Izuku said as he reached over the food with his good arm. His other one was still in a cast since Recovery girl said it'll only come off in a few days.
"So how is Mellissa, is she doing okay?" Inko asked as she sipped some water.
"Yes mother," Izuku replied as he took a bite out of some meat. "She and Dave-sama are visiting some family in the states right but they should return to I-island in a few days." He explained further.
"Goodness, it must still be early morning over there." Inko replied as she could only imagine how early it was on the American west coast.
"4:21 am if you want to be specific." Izuku added as he had already done the math. "But she's awake since she does those early morning jogs." He finished as he knew his mom would ask why Melissa was awake so early.
"I hope she keeps safe, the crime rate in the states is no joke." Inko said with a frown as the crime rate in the US hadn't changed since the days before quirks, of anything it got worse.
"Well she has a Doberman, a golden retriever, and that pepper spray I got her, I think she will be just fine." Izuku said to cheer her up, remembering how she introduced him to her dog…and how they nearly bit his head off for trying to pet them.
"Of before I forget, your father called earlier today," Inko said as her frown disappeared and a smile replaced it. "He said that he'll be able to come home for a couple of weeks." She relayed the good news as she could finally see her husband again after so long.
"It's been over 7 months since he was last home." Izuku cheered, his father always had something new to talk about. It could be a new plant or a new species of animal he helped to document.
"You know your father, always working." Inko said, sure he stayed away for so long but she knew it was both his work and passion, plus most of the countries he worked in were relatively safe from frequent villains attacks. Though he had been journeying to I-island more and more these days to place his research into their databanks.
(The next day at UA – with class 1-A)
"Hey, did you guys see the news last night?" Hagakure asked her classmates Shoji and Ojiro who both happened to be seated near her.
"Yeah." Ojiro responded weakly, he wasn't too used to talking to girls.
"Did you see how everyone in the class was on-screen for like a second?" She asked them, from the movement of her uniform they could tell she was rather excited about it. "Well everyone except Todoroki, Bakugo, and Midoriya, they had already been taken to Recovery girl by then." She corrected.
"Yeah, my folks had questions about that." Shoji answered simply, not one for conversation.
"I didn't stand out at all." Hagakure complained as she leaned into her seat in apparent sadness, it was hard to tell with her as you only had her tone to go on.
"That's true…" Shoji said, not offering anything.
"Well its kind of hard to stand out when your…you know," Ojiro said as he recalled one of the news broadcasts from the other night and although the girl was in front of the group, her invisibility made that a moot point. "Looking like that." He finished delicately.
"But man," Kaminari said as he looked back towards Kirishima. "All the big channels made a big deal out of it." He finished with a small smile as he was kinda excited about all those people who were asking him about it on the way to school.
"It was a little surprising." Kirishima agreed with him only for Jiro to debunk that.
"Can you blame them?" She asked the two of them as he played with her left earphone jack. "The hero course that keeps on pumping out some of the best pros was attacked." Jiro finished as when she put it that way, it made sense why this was so big.
"Who knows what would have happened if the teachers didn't show up when they did." Sero added as he did exactly what he said he'll do and went home, cried like a baby in his mother's arms, ate a whole tub of ice cream, and passed out on the couch.
"Stop that Sero!" Mineta cried from his seat, looking scared out of his mind. "Just thinking about its making me wet my-!" he would have gone on if not for a very angry retort.
"Shut up and be quiet you shitty grape stain!" Bakugo yelled at him, making him even more scared as he fell into his seat. "Even scum has more balls than you!" He added with a sneer as he turned around to face the front.
"As brutal as ever, Bakugo?" Midoriya asked him as he read through one of his notebooks.
"What's it to you Deku!" Bakugo yelled as he turned around again, this time to face his eternal rival and life-long annoyance, at least in his opinion.
'And here we go again.' The rest of the class thought to themselves as they saw the two about to start another argument. Lucky for them, Sato decided to speak up and break the tension.
"But man, too bad All Might wasn't there, he would have sent them all falling with a single punch." Sato said as he would have paid good money to see that.
"I believe he was decided that he had to remain on the main campus in case of ruffians had another attack planned." Tokoyami answered as all though he would have liked to see the pro in action, he was already busy with another equally important duty.
'Almost time.' Midoriya thought to himself as he looked at the class clock. "Alright, everyone to your seats, homeroom's about to start." He announced as he stood up to get everyone's attention.
"We're already seated man." Sero said as he wasn't wrong, just about everyone was in their seats.
"Mineta?" Midoriya said without even turning around, getting the boy to pause as he reached for Momo's desk, only for a long-ranged tongue slap to knock him back into his eat. "Now we're all seated, thank you, Tsu." Midoriya said as he turned to the frog girl and gave a small bow and smile before sitting down himself.
"Kero." Was her response.
"Hey Tsu who's…" Ashido began to ask as she leaned back but nearly fell if not for the girl she was talking to holding up the chair for her. "Gonna teach homeroom today?" Ashido asked.
"Don't know, Aizawa-sensei should still be in the hospital recovering from his injuries, kero." Tsu started to respond but was interrupted when the classroom door slid open and standing right there was someone they weren't expecting.
"Good morning." Aizawa said like he wasn't wrapped up in more bandages than an Egyptian mummy.
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"Aizawa-sensei, you're back too soon!" The whole class yelled at the man.
"I heard about loving your job but this guy takes being pro to a whole new level!" Kaminari yelled, his opinion shared by more than a few of the others.
"Sir!" Iida asked as his arm shot up. "Should you not be resting up?" he asked the man who just walked over to the teacher's podium right in front.
"He doesn't look all right to me." Uraraka said to herself, worried about his health.
"My well-being doesn't matter right now," Aizawa shot down their question on his health with his usual tired, no-nonsense tone. "Especially when the fight isn't over yet." He added cryptically at the end.
"Fight?" Bakugo asked.
"Don't tell me…"Midoriya said as he rubbed his forehead.
"The villains?!" Mineta squeaked in fear.
"The UA sports festival is drawing near." Aizawa said to them with a straight face.
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"That's a supernormal school event!" Everyone said at the same time.
"The Sports Festival?" Kaminari asked as he wasn't expecting things to just continue.
"Oh yes, that just a normal school-!" Kirishima started to cheer but was silenced when Kaminari pushed his face away.
"Wait a minute." Kaminari said before Jiro took over from there.
"Is it okay to have the sports festival so soon after the villain snuck in like that?" The punk rock girl asked their teacher.
"What if they try to attack us again during the festival or something like that...?" Ojiro added his concerns to that as well.
"Those were my as well as Vlad King's concerns that we raised at the teacher's meeting but it was decided that such a showing would show the world that our crisis handling management is as solid as a rock." Aizawa informed them before he continued. "Still, the security in and around the venue will be increased to five times that of previous years just in case the villains try and pull something." He finished to assure them things would be like the USJ, not with all those pros and cops around.
"However there was another reason for this." Aizawa said as he eyed every student. "Above all else, our sports festival is a huge change for your students." He informed them all.
"But is that a reason to keep it going?" Mineta asked. "It's just a festival of sports."
"Just a festival?" Now Midoriya spoke up before he turned to face the shortest member of their class. "Mineta, you have watched the UA Sports festival before, haven't you?" He asked him, wondering if the boy spent all his time with smut.
"Of course I have. That's not what I mean." Mineta defended himself, you would have to be either an idiot or hero hater to not watch the US sports festival at least once.
"Our sports festival is one of the biggest events of the year here in Japan and to some extent, the world. In the past, the Olympics were called a festival of sports and the whole country was crazy about them. As you know, with reductions in scale and population, they're now a shell of their former glory." Aizawa explained to them the facts of the matter. "And now for Japan, what has now taken the place of those Olympics is the US Sports festival." He went on as all of them could recall how large the crowds watching the sports festival could get.
"There's also the fact that almost every pro hero in Japan will also be watching our performance." Yaoyorozu added on. "Scouting us for potential sidekicks." She finished as she vowed to make sure she did her best.
"That I know and understand." Mineta said after a moment as that little dib bit sunk in.
"She's right you know, it's typical for hero course students to join other pro hero agencies as sidekicks once they graduate." Kaminari explained since the success rate for those who started their agencies right off the bat was like 10%. Only the extremely lucky or talented could so do.
"A lot of people miss their chance to be independent after that and become eternal sidekicks, though," Jiro said before she turned to her friend with a straight face. "Kaminari, I feel like you'll be one of them. Since your dumb" She told him, leaving him to cry his heart out at her cruel jabs at his pride as a man.
"Of course, joining a famous pro-hero agency will get you more experience on the job and popularity, time is limited." Aizawa told them the truth as having connections always goes a long way in building your success.
"If you expect to go pro, then the path to your future will open at this event." He told them seriously as he looked them over. "One chance a year." He looked over to Bakugo who will no doubt make great use of this. "A total of just three chances." His gaze turned to Iida and Uraraka, both had good quirks to work with but were too rigged in Iida's case while Uraraka had little combat experience to help her. "No aspiring hero can afford to miss this event." Finally, his gaze landed on Yaoyorozu, Todoroki, Tsuyu, and Kirishima, all of them too hard-working to not take this chance.
"If you understand that, then don't you dare slack off on your preparations." He finished his lecture to the class as he went over to his desk.
"Yes Sir!"
"Homeroom is dismissed." And with that, everyone got up to head over to their next class.
(Lunchtime)
"Even though all that stuff happened, I'm getting excited!" Kirishima yelled with a smile, he could feel his blood pumping.
"If we put on a good show and stand out, we'll have taken our first steps to become real pros!" Sero agreed with him.
"It was worth coming to UA." Sato added as he pumped his fists together, this would be a great chance for them.
"Ojiro, I'm getting kind of nervous now." Hagakure said to the tailed boy as she stood in front of her table. "I need to stand out at the sports festival!" She said as she started to cheer.
"Yeah, but the pros might not notice you unless you try hard…" Ojiro said as he kept his thoughts to himself. 'And wore a bright neon outfit.'
"Of dear, what shall I do?" Aoyama asked…no-one in particular. "I stand out just by standing still, so the scout won't be able to take their eyes off me." He asked as he did his usual poses.
"Maybe if we cover you with mud, they'll look elsewhere." Ashido snickered while covering up her smile with her hands.
"Tu n'oserais pas!(You wouldn't dare!)" The blonde pretty boy yelled as she covered his hair with his hands as if she had the mud on her.
"Man you lucky Shoji," Kaminari said as he looked over the silent giant. "You brawn stands out on its own."
"There's no point if I cannot show them my usefulness." Shoji denied the praise.
"I think you'll stand out too. But for all the wrong reasons." Jiro said as she could imagine him overusing his power.
"When will you let that go?!" He yelled as he fell out of his seat.
"Everyone sure is getting into the swing of things." Midoriya said as he walked over to Iida's seat.
"And you not?" The assistant asked as he got up from his seat. "We enrolled here to become heroes, so of course we would get fired up." Iida finished as he started to swing his fist in and out like some kind of boxer…who had to use the bathroom real bad.
"Iida, you have a unique way of showing you fired up. It's weird." Tsuyu said as she and Mina grabbed their lunches and got ready to head out.
"Midoriya, don't you feel the same?" Iida asked, completely ignoring the girl's honest but brutal jab.
"Of course I do…"Midoriya started but paused when he saw Tokoyami looking at his phone in the corner. The boy didn't display much emotion but Midoriya liked to think he could recognize the looks of concern and frustration in his eyes. "Hold up a moment." Midoriya excused himself from the conversation as he walked over to his friend.
"Tokoyami," He called out to get his attention. "Everything okay?" He asked the boy, now up close he didn't look all that hot. Something must have come up.
"[sigh] it appears that the hands of fate are not my ally this day. I have to attend to…matters." Tokoyami said, purposely leaving out any details as he had no intention of sharing with the rest of the class, though Midoriya picked up on what he was hinting at.
"Sure man, I'll tell our next teacher you'll be a bit late." Midoriya told him as he patted his shoulder in a show of support.
"My gratitude is yours Midoriya, I shall make haste." Tokoyami replied with a small, thankful smile as he gathered up his things, school bag included, and left the class.
"What was the issue with Tokoyami?" Iida asked as he had walked over to see what the issue was but only caught him saying he'll be back soon.
"It's not my place to say but he has some…things he has to deal with." Midoriya told him, keeping his friend's private life, just that. 'At least he was able to make it this long without incident. I'll have to take to him after class.' He thought to himself as it was surprising that nothing had happened sooner.
"Hmmm, normally I'll be very upset about a student leaving school before the last bell but if the class rep believes this a warranted case, I shall follow your lead." Iida said after thinking about it for a moment and decided to follow the shorter boy's lead, he hadn't led them astray yet after all.
"Thank you, Iida, this is a rather delicate matter as is." Midoriya thanked him as they both went over to the class rep's seat so Midoriya could fetch his lunch as Iida already had his in hand.
"Midoriya…Iida..." A classmate called out to them. "Let's do our best in the sports festival." Uraraka said to them both, an air of determination and fury around her that was honestly, quite scary.
"Uraraka! Y-your face! It's…" Iida pointed out as he didn't think the girl was capable of such a thing.
"What's with her? You don't look carefree at all." Ashido asked as she peaked over Midoriya's shoulder. "Even though that's what your name means." She added. Mineta was gonna made some lewd comment about it but he found himself once more slapped by Asui's tongue.
"Not even." She croaked without even turning to look at him.
"Everyone! I'm gonna do my best!" Uraraka yelled with a fire in her eye as she pumped out her fist into the air.
"y-Yeah…!" Iida and Midoriya said as they hesitantly did the same.
"I'm gonna do my best!" She turned to Sate, Jiro, and Sero and did the same.
"Yeah…Sure" Sero said with a weak smile as he joined her.
"What's with her?" Sate asked Jiro as he did the same.
"Don't know, her personality is all over the place." Jiro said as she just went with the flow to make things easier.
"Come to think of it, I never asked her…" Midoriya thought to himself as he looked towards Uraraka as she cheered for herself.
(Lunch Rush Eatery Cafeteria)
"Uraraka." Midoriya called out to her as they walked over to the cafeteria.
"Yes, Midoriya." Uraraka said as she turned to face him and Iida.
"Why did you decide to attend UA and become a pro hero?" Midoriya asked her, he was curious why she chose this career path.
"Huh? Um…because…" Uraraka stuttered as she looked for a proper way of voicing her thoughts.
"Is it embarrassing or something?" Iida asked her as she didn't look all that comfortable saying it aloud.
"It kinda is…promise you won't laugh?" Uraraka asked them with a pleading look in her eyes.
"Of course we won't, we are not only your classmates but your friends as well." And of course, Iida had to do some weird arm movements as he said that but they knew he was honest, just sort of hyper.
"Well…" She hesitated but decided to rip the band-aid off quickly and get it over with. "I'm doing it for the money."
"What?" Iida stopped as her response registered in his head.
"Money?!" Midoriya had also stopped as that wasn't an answer he was expected. "So you want to become a pro hero….for money?" He asked her, just to be sure he heard that right.
"To boil it down simply, yes." Uraraka confirmed as she furiously rubbed the back of her head in awkwardness "It's such an unwholesome reason I know. You two have such admirable motivations and I'm just here for the pay-check, it's embarrassing." She tried to downplay it whole bowing in shyness at what she thought was a shallow goal.
"Why? Why would it not be admirable to have a goal to support your livelihood?" Iida asked her as he rose his arms above his straight. He may come from a family that valued heroics and good deeds but that didn't mean he wasn't realistic, living was expensive and many pros did this kind of work for the pay-check, there were even a couple of his brothers side-kicks who admitted that.
"He's not wrong, it's just unexpected." Midoriya said in agreement with their speedster friend, he already knew that not everyone had 'pure' goals in pursuing the pro hero career but that didn't mean they didn't go well for both the populace and society.
"My family owns a construction company, but we haven't gotten any work in a while so we're flat broke." Uraraka began to explain, not looking like she enjoyed thinking about it. "This isn't something to tell others though…" She said feeling blue at the thought of her family's…less than an ideal financial situation.
"Construction." Iida said as both he and Midoriya took on identical thinking poses, if she didn't know any better, she'll say it was planned.
"Oh! With her quirk, she'll be able to keep cost low once she gets her license." Midoriya said as it thought about all the good she could do for them.
"She could make any raw material float, eliminating the need for heavy lifting machinery." Iida added his two cents as it made perfect sense, she would be the best asset for construction.
"Right? That's what I told my dad when I was little!" Uraraka said as she pointed towards them, happy they came to the same conclusion she did years ago.
"But…" She lost that vigor as she went on to explain what her parents told her when she told them her plans. "I'll become a pro hero and make money so that my parents can take it easy." She finished though in a confident note, at that moment the light from outside striking her just right so that she looked more assured of herself.
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(sniff, sniff)
"Midoriya, are you crying?!" Uraraka asked as Midoriya started to cry in the middle of the hallway for crying out loud! They were lucky they were the only ones present.
"Bravo! Uraraka Bravo!" Clearly, he wasn't the only one having odd reactions as Iida…praised her as he did some overhead claps to go along with the praise.
"I'm crying because that was one of the most sincere and pure-hearted reasons to become a pro hero that I've ever heard." Midoriya explained as he wiped away his tears with his sleeve. "Truly a woman among girls!"
After that little session, the small group continued it make their way over to the cafeteria to have their lunch.
'I guess that when you factor in everything, we all have our reasons to become heroes. Sure some do just cause it was a childhood wish and nothing more but…' Midoriya thought to himself as he looked out the windows as they walked. 'We all have something that we strive for in life. I want to be able to help as many people as possible. Bakugo has always wanted nothing less than perfection so he seeks to become the number one hero, Iida wishes to honor his family legacy and add on to their good name and now we learn Uraraka wants to ease the burden on her parents who she loves so much.' He continued the thought as he smiled at every mental image that traveled through his mind's eye. However, another thought went through his mind and caused him to frown deeply.
'And Fumikage….'
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'He wants to power to be able to escape the darkness with some precious to him…' He finished off the thought, at the same time Tokoyami had just boarded a train taking him home. His focus was only on his phone as he read over the text he had gotten during class.
'Just a little bit longer, I just need a little more time.' Fumikage begged as he felt dread pouring into his veins.
'There's been an accident with you sister, please get home as soon as you can – Uncle'
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Okay and that marks the beginning of season 2 and all the goodies that come with it.
As the chapter name implies, I try to flush out the characters' reasons for wanted to be heroes, don't worry Tokoyami's past and family details will be similarly explained in time, like our shadowy edgelord.
I also used this chapter as an info block for all of you wondering when the Shields will make their appearance because yes, we'll see them before the I-island arc and yes, we'll see Izuku's father for the first time and because he has no canon appearance to go off, I can practically do what I want with his appearance and personality.
Also, I removed the scene where All Might asked Izuku to join him for lunch for three reasons. The first being that he wanted to give Midoriya that prep talk which Aizawa already covered. And the second, he wanted some time alone with his successor, a moot point in this story. The third and final one is so Todoroki has less reason to suspect any connection between All Might and Midoriya as we see he approached Midoriya thinking he was All Might's secret love child which when you look at it from the cast's POV, makes some sense as they both have similar power sets-(and for the first 2 season and Summer Camp Raid arc of season 3, Izuku like All Might favors punches rather than kicks and likes to scream 'smash' whenever they land a hit, hell Izuku went so far as to use some of the same names for his attacks as All Might)-All Might's takes a liking to him pretty quirk as it was clear to clear that those two had a bond going one between them and to make matters worse we are yet to see Izuku's real father so it might come out that not even Katsuki knows what Hisashi looks like, he also takes after his mother in just about everything so it not like you would know from looking at him.
Also, before any of you start asking, All Might still has the full 3 hours of hero work in had at the beginning of season 1 for two reasons as well.
1 – He hasn't passed down OFA therefore still has the figurative 'torch' rather than the 'embers' we see in season 3 when he fights All for One.
2 – He has yet to do any of the cannon things he did which shortened that time such as taking down the sludge villain for a second time or pushing himself against Nomu.
The next chapter will continue on this flow and will have more moments you would want to remember so please, follow favorite and leave a review. I enjoy reading them and seeing your input.