Izuku sat on his couch in shock, looking at the news in front of him. The headlines were reporting that the hero, Ingenium, had been attacked by the hero killer and was currently in critical condition. Izuku felt sick to his stomach, thinking about Iida taking off after the Sports Festival. At the time, he had been enchanted by his victory; but thinking about it now, he should have looked for him or said something.
"So today is probably one of the last chances we'll get to try and put your new technique together. So, let's try it again." Maki requested, breaking him from his thoughts to begin their training session.
Izuku nodded as he began to condense his flames inside of himself. It was something they had spent the time off after the sports festival working on. Izuku practiced condensing and heating flames within himself without heating the surrounding area. The hardest part was continuing to increase the temperature without releasing any flames from his body.
"Remember once you release that heat from yourself, it must be continuous in order to operate within the expanded universe." Maki mentioned as she continued to watch him. Over the past few days, they had begun to train together again like when they were younger. It quickly became comfortable and nostalgic.
Izuku focused on the temperature. After countless times of watching Maki release her quirk, he began to figure out just how far off he was and began training harder to adjust the strength of his flames. Suddenly, Izuku released the stored heat and saw something amazing. It seemed like for an instant everything around him froze completely and suddenly Izuku was exhausted. He fell to the ground as the world around him began to move once more.
"Are you ok?" Maki asked as she strolled up to Izuku's kneeling form. Izuku nodded as he smiled in her direction.
"I got it. It's not usable yet, but I have an idea for how it works. I can't call it stopping time yet, but I see the light at the end of the tunnel." Maki smiled proudly. Izuku had taken to training well when they were kids, but this was completely new territory. To change the nature of how he used his quirk to be able to mimic her own, especially so quickly, was beyond impressive.
Izuku attempted to stand and found himself laying stretched out on the ground. "Forget unusable. I literally can't move anymore." Izuku chuckled.
Maki sighed as the picked Izuku's body up and headed towards the town. Despite his impressive work ethic, he was always overdoing it. As Maki reminisced, she felt Izuku's head lull to the side and some light snoring. Maki followed the path she remembered back to Izuku's house and walked through the front door. She dropped Izuku off in his room, which for the most part had not changed since they were kids.
As Maki turned to leave, she felt a hand grab her. "Did you hear the news about Ingenium?" Izuku asked suddenly. Maki was shaken by his sudden awakening, but she focused to nod her head at the question.
"I don't know if you've heard, but one of my classmates is his little brother. He looks up to him a lot, and I feel like I'm letting him down." Izuku said.
Maki sighed, "You're the softest idiot I know. Only you could hold back to avoid injuring people who are intentionally trying to hurt you and still blame yourself for something that isn't your fault. There's only so much you can do. The best thing you can do right now is be there for your friend."
"I'm not an idiot, but thanks." Izuku said as he rolled over to rest. He would be leaving later tonight to be back on campus before class tomorrow. Maki took this as her cue to leave and got her things ready to go. She had recently become famous in the business course because of her performance in the sports festival and would need to dedicate extra time to her work.
Izuku awoke a bit later feeling more rested than before. 'That technique was worse than Recovery Girl's healing and it only lasted for as long as a blink.' Izuku sighed as he went to get his travel bag. He was had to leave soon to meet Maki at the train station on time.
Izuku and Maki arrived at the station at the same time. After boarding the train, they played games to pass the time. Entirely different from their previous trips together to the campus. Usually it felt like a train ride with a stranger. However, this time the ride was comfortable and quick due to their newly rekindled friendship.
That night Izuku arrived at the dorms to find them as rambunctious as they usually were though the expressions of some of his classmates were strained.
Izuku nodded as he headed up to the dorms and dropped his bag off in his room and headed for Iida's room. He knocked on the door and waited patiently for Iida's response. When none came, he knocked harder. "Open up, it's the class rep." Izuku called through the door.
Izuku waited patiently yet again and the door cracked open and Iida finally came out. Although he tried to put Izuku at ease with his expression, Izuku could see that it was fake. "Listen, I'll keep it brief. If you need anything, let me know." Izuku said as he locked eyes with Iida. Iida hesitated for a moment, starting and cutting off several sentences.
"I appreciate your concern Midoriya, but- "Iida finally concluded on but was quickly interrupted.
"If you're gonna tell me you don't need it, save it for someone else. For now, just know your classmates care about you." Izuku said as he walked off down the hallway and back down the stairs to his own dorm room. Izuku knew that Iida was trying to lie to him, but for now there was nothing he could do except let him know that he was there for him.
Izuku's once restless thoughts of Ingenium were slowly beginning to still. And the next morning, Izuku was back to his usual routine of morning exercise. However, he had made some slight changes to his training schedule. Instead of working through all of his forms, he reworked from square one practicing only a single form to make it more fluid.
He also saw Iida going through his own morning exercise routine, though his movements didn't look nearly as energetic. Despite that fact, both Izuku and Iida were promptly present for class well before it started, followed by Yaoyorozu and then Todoroki surprisingly enough. Eventually, the entire class filed in and they were only waiting on their teacher.
The conversations were loud and rambunctious, but they quickly quieted down as a giant yellow caterpillar entered the room. Eventually, emerging to reveal their teacher Mr. Aizawa.
"Good work on the sports festival everyone. There were a lot of pro heroes watching and you each managed to give it your plus ultra. At this time, I'm going to show you everyone's internship offers for next week. You will fill out a form informing the school who you'd like to intern with; and then for the week after that, you'll work with them instead of coming here."
This seemed to spark some of the class' excitement until Mr. Aizawa activated his quirk to silence the class. "Also, for those of you that did not make much of an impression; for now, we have heroes who have agreed to take on students who have yet to show themselves during the sports festival. Now if you'll look towards the board, here are your offers."
The distribution of offers was skewed from the top of the list to the bottom of the list. Bakugo looked furious despite having about 3,500 offers. Todoroki just barely beating him out with a bit over 4,000 offers. Izuku, on the other hand, had received nearly 6,000 offers. After that, the rest of the class could not reach 500 offers. Some of the class was proud of their offers, but others were determined to close the gap between themselves and the top.
"How did I receive fewer offers than some of you who didn't even make the final tournament?!" Mineta squealed. Though it was drowned out as Mr. Aizawa came around the class delivering packets with all of the heroes who applied to them listed in order. Izuku looked through the first few names on his list before he was interrupted by Mr. Aizawa clearing his throat.
"Because of the nature of hero work you will be picking codenames that you will be known by in the field. Take this seriously. If they stick, that's what you'll be known by for the rest of your career. And to help with this process we have-" Mr. Aizawa continued.
"ME!" Midnight exclaimed as she suddenly entered the room. Her sudden appearance was a welcomed sight for the class as she swiftly handed out boards and markers for the class to write down and present their hero names. The class quickly got to work with some of the class thinking very carefully having never considered this and others having thought of this since long before.
Asui introduced herself as Froppy which was quickly accepted by the class and gave way to a series of creative heroic names while others made their hero name the same as their quirk name. Eventually, the class came down to only about a handful of people left: Izuku, Bakugo, Iida, and Todoroki. It was Todoroki that broke the stalemate as he came forward and introduced his new hero name Shoto.
Izuku thought to himself quietly and remembered his journey up to this point. Though, he may have shown his strength in the sports festival, he would always be that same scared kid who burned down his house. And he thought his hero name should remind him of that. Instead of his destination it would tell the story of his origin.
With that in mind, it was simple to take a note from his old friend and decide on his hero name. He walked to the front of the room with his sign held proudly. "I'll be the Demolition Hero: Deku." The class seemed to appreciate that as Bakugo brought another name forward to be rejected. And eventually Iida settled on his own first name Tenya. And time ran out for the hero name selection process.
In the meantime, Izuku made his way down to the support studio to meet a certain mad scientist. Opening the door to the studio, Izuku was immediately put to work extinguishing several of Hatsume's experiments at work. Finally, once the support studio came to a calm, Izuku found Hatsume getting lectured by Powerloader at the front of the room.
"Hey Powerloader, can I borrow Hatsume?" Izuku inquired.
"I guess since you just saved me the time and effort of cleanup. What did you need her for?" Powerloader responded.
"I need the status on my tools and that costume upgrade if that's ok?" Izuku replied feral grin mounted on his face.
Hatsume matched that with an equally feral grin and Izuku was taken deeper into the support lab. Looking around, Hatsume pulled the case with Izuku's class number out and shoved it into his hands excitedly. Izuku opened it and could not believe his eyes.
Throughout the school, a pair of maniacal laughs could be heard from the support studio along with the rushing sound of flames and the clicking of dress shoes on a linoleum floor.