Unlike last time Aizawa had saw Izuku faint, he had not woken up again a few moments later. He had stayed unconscious pretty much the rest of the day actually having to be taken to Recovery Girl.
Of course, it was to be expected. Sometimes even his best students had fainted during their first training exercises, having not yet gotten used to the adrenaline pumping through them and such.
And they were teenagers who were going in fully expecting practice scenario's. Izuku had been younger, with no idea what was about to happen and shoved into an actual genuinely dangerous scenario so fair enough, he had every right to faint once it all caught up with him.
Inko had worked out the kinks for her son in his absence, while he slept away the excitement and now it was the start of a new week. A few days had passed and it was now Wednesday.
After a fairly peaceful day of classes, both him and Midnight were waiting in gym gamma, sitting silent as they waited for the greenette to show up.
"Hello? Aizawa? Nemuri?" Izuku called out, walking in and getting their attention, the scruffy man shooting his colleague a questioning look at the child calling her by her first name.
"He was too cute to stop, when he didn't notice he was doing." She said quietly at his look, before smiling brightly as she turned to the quirkless boy. "Hiya, Midoriya! Do you know why you're here?"
"Um, sort of? Prinicpal Nezu told me you had special class schedules for me?" He said, biting his thumb as though nervous and Aizawa found it very annoying. Not because there was anything wrong with it but because he liked his heart as a cold dead black lump, not melted by cuteness.
"Well, that's mostly right." Aizawa drawled, reaching into his pockets and pulling out a folded up sheet. "This is a timetable for your classes for each day of the week, which you have at least two classes for each. If you want to be a hero, you'll have to follow this for the next six years. It took a bit of convincing for some of the teachers, but even if some of them are nervous about the idea of a quirkless kid, they all want to make sure you have as much knowledge as possible. So don't let it be in vain, alright?"
"Yes sir!" He nodded, bowing lightly and taking the time table, unfolding it to read while Aizawa began to list it off from memory.
"Monday's classes will be weaponry training, in two parts. Firearms in the morning and melee weapons in the evening. Of course, you won't be wielding an actual gun for a good few years but you will be holding fairly close safe approximations, at which point we'll let you decide if you want to abandon them. Understandably, not everyone is comfortable with them like Snipe is. We just want you to have a good understanding them even if you don't use them, as it could come in incredibly handy." The scruffy pro explained, readjusting his capture scarf. "As for melee weaponry, that will remain necessary through all your years as it will more than likely be a major foundational aspect of your potential hero career. Ectoplasm will be teaching you, as he is perhaps the most talented with such weapons thanks to the limited nature of his cloning quirk. It will be hard work though, as to quote him 'You will not be done with those lessons until you could beat King Arthur himself wielding Excalibur with naught but a spoon'"
"That's… a very high standard but I will do everything I can to reach it!" Izuku nodded determined, pretending to slice through the air as If trying to imagine the scenario. The he began to mutter. "Would have to aim for the fingers, and smack them hard enough eh loses his grip…"
"Oh my god he's actually working on it…" Midnight snorted, grinning like a mad woman. "Hey Izuku?"
"Yes miss?"
"Who gave you permission to be so cute?" She asked, smirking which only got more pronounced as the child blush and started to stutter over his words. "You're too much sometimes. So Shota? What next?"
"Tuesday will be rescue training in the morning and First Aid training in the evening. The rescue training will be overseen by Thirteen, who will be teaching you the fundamentals and intricacies of saving people during disasters and other such situations." He smirked, seeing the greenette's eyes light up. 'Should of known rescue training would be the most exciting part for him.' "First Aid training was practically demanded by Recovery Girl, she wants you to be able to assess and treat any injury that might happen on the field. And between you and me, I think she also just wants a helping hand because of the amount of patients she ends up with."
"I bet it's a lot, if last Friday could happen to just support students." Midoriya muttered, missing the amused smile of the underground pro. 'Just support students? I think they go there the most…'
"Today, and every Wednesday going forward will be spent with us." Aizawa said, and Midnight let out an audible squeal as the greenette smiled one of his unnecessarily bright smiles at the reveal. "Unlike the other days, you won't be split up from the teachers. Instead both of us will be teaching you. Stealth and combat training. There will be more of a focus on combat in the morning and more of a focus on stealth in the evening. These will be two of your three most fundamental classes going forward, so you better internalize everything you learn."
"Yes sir! I won't let you down, Aizawa!" The greenette said, balling his fist and giving another determined nod.
"Thursday has only one practical class in the evening. Support and workshop training with Powerloader. This is the other most fundamental class you will be attending, gadgets are what I believe will be your greatest asset to offset your quirkless nature, and so you better be prepared to learn everything you can about them." He said, very seriously as he pulled off his scarf and laid it to the side. "In the morning, you'll have your first standard class with Present Mic. You'll be learning multiple languages though the main one will be English, which will let you communicate with everyone around you more effectively."
"Friday will be your last day of classes. In the morning, you'll be catching up on maths and Japanese lessons with whoever is available. In the evening, you'll be doing a special class with principal Nezu."
"Principal Nezu?" Midoriya questioned, cocking his head to the side. "What will he be teaching me?"
"He'll be helping you hone your already impressive analytical skills." Midnight said, clapping her hands together excitedly. "In his words, he knows you're a smart kid, but you can always be smarter. He'll also be helping you with some other basic mental things such as improving memory and such. Might sound tame but you'd be surprised how much it might help."
"But now we've wasted enough time explaining. You're here for class, and while we'll normally be focusing on stealth seeing as this is the very beginning of your lessons I want to first make sure you are capable of basic self-defence. Once you're good enough that the average school bully wouldn't be able to fight you, we can move onto more stuff." Aizawa explained, crouching down so he'd be eye level with his young student. "So, rationally, the best place to start is making sure you can throw a punch. I want you to sock me right in the face."
"Uh, are you sure sir?" Midoriya asked, surprised by the request. The scruffy pro just tapped his cheeks as an invitation.
"Yes. We all takes hits all the time, we will be fighting one another regularly one day so don't worry about it. Besides, I've taken hits from super strength villains, I think I can handle a kid-AHHH!"
Without warning, Midoriya winded up and striked true, smashing his small fist right into the man's cheek and throwing him off his feet onto the floor.
"Uh, are you ok, Aizawa?!" He asked worried as the man groaned on the floor and Midnight began to cackle.
"Who… the crap…. Taught you how to punch?" The pro asked, holding his cheek and standing up. "You're not in trouble, but… what the hell kid?"
"Um, I just did what my mom taught me. Get faster once you're actually close so the momentum carries and make sure you have the element of surprise." He said, tilting his head to the side.
"Remind me to never get on your mothers bad side." Nemuri laughed, walking up beside them. "That's totally going to bruise. Well done Izuku!"
Aizawa just grumbled as his colleague and student high fived. Maybe getting the kid caught up on self-defence wouldn't take that long after all.
"Powerloader sir?" Izuku called out as he walked into the mostly empty workshop studio, before a clattering pulled his attention towards the back of the room where the teacher was fixing up one of the robots. "That one's not also going to come alive, is it?"
"Fortunately no, and even if it did it has no weaponry that's functional." The support teacher commented, turning and walking to the greenette with a smile. "I hope you're ready to brainstorm by the way. I'll be teaching you what I can about engineering and inventing, but before that, I have a special lesson."
"Sir?"
"Come over here please." The teacher asked, and Midoriya obeyed, hurrying over to the desk and seeing his quick five minute creation flame thrower waiting. Beside it, there was three different bits of paper. "So, you obviously know you made this. It's what Is given us true confidence you can be a hero. But, it's crude and quick, with limited functionality and at least one major problem."
"The burning." Midoriya said quietly, getting a nod as the child scratched at the wrist that had suffered said burning. A few moments more and he'd likely be left with a permanent mark. Powerloader pushed the papers forward and a sharpened pencil.
"So, you're a smart kid. I want you to make ideas for improvements. I want you to do this before you learn the in's and out's of making stuff so you have a reference point from your currently… fantastical viewpoint, for lack of a better term." He ordered, as he picked up the creation and began to walk away. "And try to start small with just fixing problems before jumping onto bigger ideas!"
"Yes sir!"
"Then get started, while I go talk to Nezu for a minute. I want to check something with him. Oh, and did you have a name for this thing by the way?" Powerloader questioned from the door and Izuku cocked his head to the side, giving it just a couple seconds of thought.
"'Wrist shooter' should do for now, right?"
"Works for me."
With that, Powerloader took off and Midoriya was left to focus on his ideas. The pencil touched the paper and he sketched out the initial design, listing the components and problems.
'It fits just fine on my wrist, surprisingly secure as well but could maybe be less wobbly. Obviously need to find a way to eliminate the burning. I could just wear something that offsets it but I should be able to use it at all times so… OH! I could offset both the burning and wobbling with a case!'
He began sketching out a black box, pondering for a moment before marking it as a metal casing. It would need to be one with a high melting point, so in brackets he put the word 'steel' down with a question mark. If it was metal it would have to be rounded to avoid cuts. Of course, there would also be foam near the bottom to absorb any heat and protect his skin.
'There, if it's in the case it can't move around the actual lighter as much and will protect the cartridge, though it might need more straps. Speaking of cartridges, aside from only having fire, its also very small amount. I can't magically increase the size of the cartridge… but I can increase the amount of them! And that gives a desirable reason to use more Velcro! If I use well designed straps in place of glue and make sure to use refillable lighters, I have reusable cartridges! I can just swap them out on the fly from my wrist!'
Quickly he sketched in the idea for the strap, managing to fit four extra 'cartridges' by his estimation. Now his remaining issue was lack of diversity, only being able to do one specific thing, but now his brain was working overtime.
"They're literally cartridges. They're just containers." He began to talk aloud, smile bright and wide on his face. "It's happenstance that they have the components to make fire in them. They have to get the butane and liquid in there somehow which means there is definitely a way to replace it with other gases and liquids. So, what else counts as a gas- Midnights quirk! If we find that way to trap her pheromones, then we could even put them in these. A quick spray under the nose and instant knockout! Then there's water as well, probably won't do much without a lot but good to keep in mind. Will need to remove the wheel thing though for that, so maybe I should find another way to use the fire instead of the current way?"
Outside, Power Loader was smirking before he went off to the principal, having stayed behind out of curiosity.
"Let's see, the fire only appears because of the spark, but there's got to be a way to ignite it without the wheel right? The switch is what sends out the actual gas… Ok, I might need to find a way to create a ignition from a switch instead of a wheel, but if I can do that… OH! I could also add triggers! All together that should make it one handed, stable, relatively safe and multi-functional! Thinking, I just need a way to get them on a hinge so they come down and press the switches and that's enough to cause a release." He worked out, still sketching all the while. His grin never faltered. Looking at the near finished design his mind began to race again as he had a thought and estimated the size of two cartridges put together. "Ah! I can glue two together and store them on their sides on a bigger strap! On their side they take up as much space as a single cartridge and have two so double the amount available! If I do that and have two, then I just need to figure out what to store in each cartridge and I could have… up to 20 possible combinations!"
If his classmates could see him now…
Well they'd probably laugh and say he's delusional, but if he managed to actually do this… he'd have jumped from the weakest of the class to at least mid-level in no time at all!
With that, he finally set his pencil down and waited for his teacher to return.
Classes with Nezu definitely seemed like they were going to be a favourite for the greenette as they watched the most recent training footage of class 2-B from the day before.
They had been doing a combat exercise in teams where one team guarded the exit as heroes and a group of 'villains' tried to make their escape from the scene. As they watched, Nezu was having Izuku verbalize all his thoughts and idea about what they should be doing.
"-And she shouldn't be using her quirk so flagrantly like that right now. If one of the villains comes around, in a real scenario they could be killed which is not what you want to happen." Izuku pointed out, frowning while Nezu nodded along, suitably impressed.
"Correct, it is rather reckless. I would also direct your attention to this 'villain' here. He is using a quirk with a time limit still even though he is no longer fighting. That is a bad idea for obvious reasons I believe."
"Yes sir!" Midoriya nodded, crossing his arms. "Why doesn't the blue skinned girl use her water quirk to move around? It would cause almost no property damage and let her get to higher ground easier."
"Ah, you did pick up on that, good. I've been wondering if it's possible myself, I'll have Vlad King drop the suggestion to her at some point certainly."
A few more observations where made before finally the 'villains' won and the tape ended. Izuku turned back to his new principal who clapped his paws together with a smile.
"So, do tell me please mister Midoriya, what has been your opinion of your classes so far?" He pondered and was happy to see a massive bright grin directed his way.
"It's been amazing! It's fun AND useful! And I got to punch Aizawa in the face!" He said cheerfully, before his mind caught up with him and he blushed at that last part. "Uh…"
"An understandable enjoyment." Nezu commented nonchalantly, not even batting an eye. "I'm glad it has been going well so far then, and I hope it will continue that way from now on! If your school life has improved then we are doing well. Now, I believe your mother is waiting to finally take you home at the front gate."
"Ok sir! But uh... what will I do from now on then?" The greenette wondered, getting a chortle from the mammal hybrid.
"Ah, just come up at regular school hours and have your mother take you to recovery girl. We'll give you proper passes to bypass the school gate. You might get a few odd glances at first from the students but they'll get used to you with time." The principal explained, waving away the issue. "Now, don't keep Inko waiting, you know your mother worries."
"Yes sir!"
With that, the child finally went to leave U.A., leaving Nezu behind with his computer, where his smile turned the slightest hint more malicious as he moved through his computer files and found an MP3 one that was a recording of him and Powerloader talking.
He wanted to be sure it was right before he set his plan into motion, so he pressed play to listen to it just in case.
Rustling could be heard, and a door closing before footsteps, and then…
"Principal Nezu, sir!"
"Ah, Powerloader, good to see you. What's that you have in your hand?"
"Huh? Oh this. Just a gadget one of my kids cooked up. Smart kid, shame he had to go to Aldera's middle school."
"Oh my, you mean that place with the bullying problem?"
"Yeah, you know the one. Teachers who do nothing good for their kids, and just are all around kinda crappy. Principal is a bit on the off side…"
"Now now, just because it's a dumpster fire disguised as an education centre doesn't mean we should be rude. Still it's a shame, I almost feel bad just for having heard it's name."
"Tell me about it. Remember the student last year?"
"Of course I do. It was only because of their strong argument to the contrary I didn't push for a lawsuit. I still regret not going through with it, though if I find out another of my students suffered I'll be sure to reverse that decision…"
"Well, anyways-"
The file then very deliberately cut off as they went into a regular conversation. Satisfied that it would be just fine for what he needed, he pulled up Yotube and posted it as a black screened video to a false account posing as an employee of U.A.
'Would hate for an "accidental" leak to ruin a school's reputation and force them to clean up their whole act. Especially one with such a desire to have a good outward appearance.' He thought, paw hovering over the publish button, which he clicked in without a thought. 'Whoops.'
Not even slightly remorseful, he shared the video to all of his employee's with clear instructions to guarantee it went viral and to ask questions.
Once that was done, he leaned back and took a sip of tea which tasted more glorious than usual.
Sometimes, hero work isn't just punching villains and rescuing people from burning buildings.
Sometimes, it was just giving karma a guiding hand in the right direction. Within a week, the mammal predicted half the parents of japan would be against the school.
In a month's time, it would be one of the lowest rated schools in japan, and all would be right with the world.