Chapter 22
.:. Montage of Doom .:.
The atmosphere in homeroom the day after the field trip could best be described as awkward. As more students filtered in, the empty desks belonging to Midoriya and Bakugou stood out starkly. Though not many people had been present for their fight the previous afternoon, everyone obviously knew about it since they ended the rescue training early. They'd only had half an hour left before they were supposed to return anyway, but the bus ride back had been incredibly tense with Aizawa's death glare.
As class drew closer Kosei kept glancing at his friend's desk anxiously, especially as more kids from the dorms showed up. Uraraka had already texted him that Midoriya got grounded by his mother and spent the whole night in his dorm, even during dinner. She said she hadn't seen him that morning, though that wasn't too surprising since from what he gathered the dorms didn't have a formal time to sit down for breakfast or anything.
Kosei wasn't sure the green-haired boy would want to see anyone even if he hadn't been grounded though. He had been one of the few people to witness the fight, having strolled over just before Midoriya slapped Bakugou and started his whole tirade. It had been pretty shocking for a lot of reasons, since so far the other boy seemed more likely to cry than get angry. After a display like that, he couldn't blame Midoriya for wanting to avoid people.
When Shinsou entered just before class Kosei quickly went over to him, getting a wary look from the other teen. "Hey, Shinsou," he greeted, making sure to keep his voice a bit low so no one would eavesdrop. "You and Midoriya live on the same floor, right? Did you see him this morning?"
"Kinda?" Shinsou said with a shrug, also whispering. "I heard someone in the hallway while I was waking up, and there's no one else on our floor." Kosei frowned, glancing at Midoriya's desk again. Clearly he hadn't come to class. And with Bakugou's desk still empty too, he doubted either of them would show up.
Before he could dwell on it too long Aizawa appeared at the door, and just like that any dawdling students all but teleported to their desks, Kosei included. The ever-grumpy man seemed to be more irritated than usual as he stalked to the desk, turning to face the dead-silent class.
"I know you have questions, so I'll get straight to the point," he said bluntly. "Midoriya and Bakugou have been given a one-day in-school suspension after yesterday's events, and will be back in class tomorrow. UA has a strict stance on fighting with Quirks, but since it's so early in the year we're being lenient." Kosei wouldn't call in-school suspension "lenient," but he wisely held back on saying as much.
As if sensing his thoughts Aizawa continued, "In the future though, any other fights that involve Quirk usage will receive severe punishments, up to removal from the hero program and expulsion from UA entirely." Oh right, that was Aizawa's usual go-to threat so far. He'd dismissed that possibility pretty fast since Midoriya was still at the dorms and not packing to move out. Judging by the way some of his classmates slumped in their seats though, they'd definitely worried about that.
"I will not say anything else, and I won't answer any questions about it. If you want details, you can ask them tomorrow when they're back. But if they don't want to talk about it, do not push any further. It is entirely up to them what they share. That's all." With that he sat down with his coffee, leaving the students to talk for the remainder of homeroom. Given all the tension following his threat, it was pretty awkward.
"Why did they fight, anyway?" Sero asked with a frown from the seat in front of Kosei's. "I mean, I can get Bakugou fighting, he's obviously pretty hot-headed, but Midoriya doesn't really seem like the kind of guy who'd go all out like that."
"Well, he was pretty mad," Satou piped up, crossing his arms with a frown. "I only showed up towards the end with Aizawa-sensei and Gran-sensei, but Midoriya was going pretty hard. Hard to say which one of them looked more mad."
"Woah, seriously?" Sero replied in surprise. "Bakugou always looks mad, but Midoriya..."
"I can't see it," Komori muttered sullenly, and the others nodded in agreement.
"Hey Tsuburaba, you were already there," Satou said, turning to face Kosei. "You got any ideas?" The others turned to him, including Jirou, Kodai and Yaoyorozu who all sat closest, and Kosei frowned.
"I'd uh, rather not say," he replied with a shrug. "I know they went to the same middle school so it sounded like they had some baggage from then, but it seemed pretty private." Namely the fact that Midoriya had been Quirkless up until last year.
Honestly, Kosei had already kinda picked up on the fact that Midoriya got his Quirk through the boom from some of the comments he'd made. He hadn't ever outright said as much, but some of the stuff he mentioned just gave him the feeling that it showed up recently. Kosei just hadn't realized it manifested that recently. Really put his skill with it in a whole new light.
Still, it wasn't his place to talk about it to their classmates without Midoriya's consent. Kosei didn't actually know anyone Quirkless, but it probably made people a bit of a target for bullying. He didn't think any of their classmates would hold that against his friend, but it was hard to say that for certain. Seemed like Bakugou hadn't been the most supportive before he got a Quirk, and judging by his responses to Midoriya, his opinion on that topic hadn't fully changed.
That kinda made him worry about how they'd probably be spending the day together. He had no idea what the in-school suspension would entail, so hopefully things wouldn't go too wrong.
By the time lunch rolled around, Izuku felt exhausted. "I think that's the last of it," he said, knocking the metal spatula against the rim of a trashcan so the dried gunk would fall off.
"Thank fuck," Bakugou groaned, tossing his own spatula onto a tray with the other tools they'd been given. His nose wrinkled as he stomped towards the door, grumbling, "I don't even want to know what this gross shit is." Izuku could only moan in agreement as he followed behind, glad to be finished.
They'd arrived at UA a half hour before first period to report to the principal's office for their punishment. They knew that they'd be given an in-school suspension, but Izuku thought that would just entail them working on massive workbooks to occupy them all day. Maybe write some hundred page essay or something.
Instead, they'd gotten sent to the Support Department, where Power Loader had put them to work cleaning the dedicated testing chambers under the supervision of a rotating cast of teachers. The chambers had been sorted by grade, so they started with their fellow first years. Those hadn't been too bad, mostly involving scrubbing away scorch marks and picking up the fragments of various failed inventions and targets.
The second year rooms had been mildly more difficult, since they had a more solid idea of what they were doing and had been assigned more projects. Apparently Cementoss had helped make a giant target (or three), as giant chunks of cement had been scattered all around one of the rooms. Carrying those out took more time and left them more tired, having to work together to lift some of the bigger pieces.
Then they got to the third year's testing rooms, and opened one door to find everything covered in some kind of dried purplish-green gunk. A color combination Izuku hadn't really thought possible, but it seemed to alternate between the colors depending on how it caught the light.
Izuku did not know why the walls were covered in that gunk. He did not know what created that gunk. Power Loader also did not know how that gunk came to coat the walls, as apparently none of the students had been working on something that could conceivably create it. He at least knew it wasn't toxic and not harmful to them, so they were put to work scraping it off the walls, floor and ceiling.
It might not be toxic, but the second they scraped it, a horrible stench came out. Not bad enough to make them gag, but still enough to make them regret having functional senses of smell. The supervising teachers had largely kept out of the room for that reason and worked on paperwork in the hallway, leaving the door open so they could hear if the boys started fighting.
Honestly, they were so busy they hadn't had time to fight or even talk about yesterday. Even after finishing and getting sent off to lunch, they still felt exhausted from all the heavy labor. And also struggling to find their appetites since phantom traces of the stench still haunted them.
As far as punishments went, this was much more effective than a long-winded essay.
"Seriously, the hell would they even use that goop for?" Bakugou grumbled as they sat in a classroom with an Ectoplasm clone, half-ignoring their lunches. "Is it supposed to take down people with strong noses or something?"
"Maybe it's supposed to be sticky when it's not dry?" Izuku suggested meekly. "But wait, the way Power Loader talked, it sounds like that goop wasn't the main use for... whatever was tested in there."
"Then what the hell was it supposed to do?" Bakugou asked. Izuku had no answer, so he forced himself to take a bite of the sandwich that UA had provided them. Well, at least the lingering smell didn't make it taste bad like he'd feared. It just tasted more bland than anything. He wasn't sure if that was lingering effects of the goop's stench or not.
They lapsed into silence as they focused on eating, both a bit too tired to carry on any real conversation. Without any distractions Izuku found his thoughts naturally wandering to yesterday's events, but not to the fight itself or even the argument that kicked it off. His mind went to the inciting moment that had worn what little self-control he had, when Bakugou had shoved him.
For a second while lying on the ground, Izuku had felt the holes in his palms open. It had been so brief and instantaneous, only noticing because he felt hyper-aware of his body at the time. They had closed swiftly enough, not even present for a full two seconds, but the fact it happened at all bothered him.
It had clearly been an instinctive reaction to being attacked, but why? He'd been attacked by other people (namely Gran) without the holes surfacing. And they didn't really do anything on their own; Graft only worked if he touched someone. However, Izuku didn't think he'd used it enough to have that instinctual reaction. He could still count the number of times he'd actually used it on two hands!
He still wondered about it when they reported to Power Loader at the end of lunch, still a bit sore but more rested after spending an hour sitting down. "Good job cleaning the testing chambers," he told them with a nod of approval. "I was expecting it to take longer. I figured that last room in particular would take most of the afternoon."
Izuku and Bakugou both groaned at that. It probably would've taken longer, but the desire to finish and escape had made them work much faster than usual. "So do you not have any other tasks for them, then?" Ectoplasm asked. And here... Power Loader hesitated. Something about that gave Izuku a sudden pang of foreboding.
"...No, there's something," he said after a beat, and yeah, that sounded very ominous. He turned to glance over 1-H, the students all hard at work tinkering with various inventions and support gear. "Alright everyone," he called. "If any of you have prototypes ready for testing, we've got two kids from the hero course you can use."
Izuku felt part of his soul wither as several students turned to look at him and Bakugou. Those weren't normal stares, but something more predatory. Especially the pink haired girl wait when the heck did she get right next to them!?
Even Bakugou jumped back in surprise as a girl with pink hair and steampunk-esque goggles seemed to materialize right in their personal space. "Ooh, test subjects?" she asked eagerly. Her yellow eyes trailed over both of them, and maybe it was because the irises had crosshairs, but Izuku weirdly felt even more like prey than when he'd faced down the Sludge Villain. She then nodded and smacked a fist in her palm. "Yes, you'll both be perfect!" She grabbed their wrists and started dragging them towards a table, saying, "Come on, I have so many babies!"
"Babies?" Izuku sputtered. Even Bakugou stopped his attempts to yank his wrist free from her grip to stare at her in disbelief.
Fortunately, she did not mean literal babies, but support gear she'd made. Which was a lot of prototypes. Many more than the other students. They just boggled the pile of inventions and tools littering her table as she started pulling things out, trying to decide what to use.
"Hatsume's really set her sights on them, huh?" someone nearby muttered.
"Guess we won't get a chance to have them test our stuff," someone else said, which, given the number of inventions littering the table, was probably true.
The girl—Hatsume, apparently—spun to face them. "Alright, first up, this!" She held up what looked like a gun with a megaphone attached to the muzzle. "A Capture Gun!"
"Capture Gun?" Bakugou repeated skeptically. In response she aimed the gun at him and pulled the trigger, making him shout as a net shot out with enough force to knock him down. He shouted as he fell, struggling to untangle himself from the net. "WHAT THE FUCK!"
"Hmm, internal springs might be too high if the force is that strong," she murmured to herself as she inspected the gun.
"Hatsume, don't test gear with projectiles in here!" Power Loader hollered. "Go to the testing chambers, or use the stuff that doesn't fly everywhere in the back room!"
"Okay!" she replied enthusiastically, and then grabbed an armful of inventions to head to the back of the room where a "lighter" testing area had been set up behind a glass wall. "Come, guinea pigs, we have much work to do!"
Izuku knelt next to Bakugou to help untangle him from the nets, and for once the blond didn't try to turn away his help. "Hold on, these nets feel... sticky," he realized, having to yank his hand to pull them away from the ropes.
"Those are my soon-to-be-patented sticky-nets!" Hatsume called from the back. "They're coated in an adhesive that sticks to whatever touches them, making it that much harder for villains to get away!"
"Then how the hell do I get out of them?" Bakugou roared. In response a spray can came flying across the room, nearly beaning him on the head. Izuku managed to catch it just before it could hit the trapped blond, only managing it due to well-honed reflexes from a year's worth of training with Gran Torino.
"Use that!" Hatsume called.
"Hatsume, no throwing anything!" Power Loader ordered irritably. Izuku proceeded to spray Bakugou with the can, using up half its contents as he spent another two minutes untangling him from the net. By the time they headed to the back the blond looked incredibly irritated. Izuku couldn't blame him. The residue from the nets and spray still clung to his skin and clothes, which couldn't be comfortable.
Hatsume seemed unbothered by his silent death glare, waiting for them with a grin. "Now, let's begin!" she announced.
"Here's a super-basic baby: the grappling hook!" She held up what looked for all intents and purposes to be a standard grappling hook from any spy movie.
"Grappling hooks are basic?" Izuku mumbled.
"This one is. It was one of the first projects of the year. Power Loader wouldn't let me add any of the extra features like the shock or super-heating function."
"Why would a grappling hook need any of that?"
"But what he doesn't know won't hurt him!"
"Wait, did you actually add that stuff!?"
"These are thermal goggles that can see heat signatures!"
She thrusted the bulky goggles at Izuku's hands, and he stumbled at the unexpected weight, barely remaining standing. "They're, uh, kinda heavy," he grunted. "And also feel... warm?"
"Are they smoking?" Bakugou asked warily, and Izuku realized: yes, yes they were. That had Hatsume pausing, before turning to grab a thick plastic container.
"Okay, you should put those in here then!" she declared, lifting the lid to reveal heavily insulated lining. Izuku felt a sudden sense of foreboding and threw the goggles inside, and Hatsume placed the lid back on just in time for a small explosion to sound inside. The two hero students gawked at the bin as she put it down. "Okay, fire contained! Onto the next baby!"
"You're way too casual about this!"
"And here's my electric muscle relaxer!" Hatsume announced, holding up a bunch of wires and sticker-like pads. "Perfect for sore muscles, like you'd get from the recoil of an explosive Quirk!"
"I am not letting you put anything electric on me!" Bakugou roared, rearing back.
"It's only week two, are you guys really working with electrical stuff already?" Izuku asked incredulously.
"Nope! This baby is pre-UA! I just need someone to test it!"
"Hatsume, I already told you, you are not using that on people until I can check it over!" Power Loader hollered from the front.
"Then check it over now so I can test this baby!"
"Hatsume, no!"
"Hatsume, yes!"
"Behold: the Sticky Spray Pen!" Hatsume brandished a pen-like device. "You press the end, and it sprays an adhesive goo-like substance that requires a special solvent to break down, making it perfect for capture!"
"You've actually tested that the solvent works, right?" Bakugou asked.
"That's what we're doing now!" she replied, aiming it at him and making him startle. He barely dove out of the way as she pressed the button, sending a spray of sticky green goop that clumped onto the wall behind him. Izuku and Bakugou stared in horror, minds flashing back to the chamber they'd had to clean earlier even if it wasn't the same substance.
When Hatsume aimed the pen again, they both dove for cover.
"Okay, let's try the magnetic handcuffs next!"
Izuku looked at the bulky metal bands curiously as she snapped one around each wrist. They didn't have any links to connect them. "Huh. So they connect with magnets, then?"
"Yep!" She waved a remote as she said, "I just hit this button on this handy remote, and they'll snap together!" Hatsume pressed the button in question, and the cuffs instantly snapped together.
...And so did the button of Izuku's pants. And Bakugou's as well. And also several other nearby metal objects, including some of her inventions.
There was a long moment of silence as they all stared at the handcuffs, now covered in an array of small objects. Izuku and Bakugou's faces grew steadily redder as their pants fell to their ankles, and after a long moment Hatsume clapped. "Okay! So having all sides be magnetic is a no-go! Next baby!"
"GET US SOME FUCKING PANTS FIRST!"
"HOVER BOOTS!"
Izuku and Bakugou just stared at the bulky silver boots, which reminded Izuku vaguely of rockets. "Where did those things even come from?" Bakugou asked, which was a good question. Izuku swore those hadn't been outside with the rest of her inventions.
"Unimportant! Now, I've been working on these since middle school, but with all of UA's resources I finally got the materials to make some amazing progress with them! And you, Crash Test Dummy, are the perfect crash test dummy!"
"Hatsume, stop smuggling stuff into UA!" Power Loader called irritably.
"NEVER!"
"Oh my gosh. That laser pointer just put a hole in a metal sheet."
"Fantastic!"
"Dammit, this one's fucking smoking!"
"You'll be fine Blasty!"
"My Quirk doesn't make me fucking fireproof!"
"How does a fire extinguisher catch on fire!?"
"Just because my Quirk's called Crash doesn't mean I'm a crash test dummy!"
"KACCHAN! YOUR EYEBROWS ARE ON FIRE!"
"FUCK!"
At one point, there was a brief break. Hatsume finished testing the latest round of inventions she'd brought to the back, and headed off to retrieve more from her desk. Izuku and Bakugou just sat on the floor in silence, taking a moment to breathe. Their bodies felt sore and tired, their minds frayed from the anxiety after the second to last invention exploded. And two more before that.
"...How the fuck is this stuff so terrifying?" Bakugou whispered, breathless and sounding both awestruck and horrified.
"I knew support gear was versatile, but this is insane," Izuku murmured back. "With stuff like this, who needs Quirks?"
They fell silent after that, neither willing to waste precious energy on conversation as they waited for her to return.
Ochako absently tapped her pencil against her leg as she tried to figure out the next step in breaking down the complex polynomial. Clustered around the dining room table with her were Yanagi, Komori, Yoarashi, Mineta (eyes firmly fixed on his worksheet), another boy from 1-B named Kuroiro, and Kendo. Nominally, this was a study-group that Kendo had organized for the members of 1-B as their class president, but since they all had Ectoplasm-sensei for math anyway they'd been nice enough to let the 1-A students who needed help to crash it.
A small commotion caught her attention, and she turned towards the front of the dorms to see Midoriya slumping his way through the front doors. Honestly, she'd like to have been charitable and said he walked in, but 'slumped' was a much more accurate descriptor. His skin and uniform were smudged with grease, ash, and at least one or two other things she couldn't identify. His hair was much frizzier than normal, with the exception of the patch on the side that looked very firmly slicked down by some sort of goop?
Worst of all, though, were his eyes. Those were the eyes of someone who had seen things and been forever changed by the experience.
Note to self: don't get on Aizawa-sensei's bad side.
Her eyes flickered towards Shinsou who also sat by the front of the dorms, sprawled out on one of the sofas with the TV on. He also had clearly seen Midoriya come in, now sitting fully alert to watch Midoriya's entrance. As the boy shambled past him, the movement had Shinsou naturally glancing in Ochako's direction, their eyes meeting.
She ducked her head at the rest of the study group and silently excused herself, heading over to him. He clearly caught on, because he was halfway out of his seat by the time she made it over. "Wait," she said, and he froze. "Help keep an eye on him, please? Even if you're not big on this whole friends thing, he still considers himself yours."
"...Yeah," Shinsou sighed. "Yeah, I'll be doing that."
She felt a swell of relief and smiled at him, not that he returned it before heading off. He'd still been steering clear of her outside of classes pretty heavily since the start of the year. Since then, he'd used his quirk a few more times in exercises, so at least now she had an idea of what he'd done. If she was still a little irked about the way he'd gone about it, she'd at least done her best to make clear she wanted it to be water under the bridge going forward. Whatever had him avoiding her was apparently bigger than just her.
But in that moment, the two of them exchanged a silent agreement. Even if they didn't have all the details, something was up with Deku, and they were going to get to the bottom of it somehow. Nothing to bring people together quite like concern for a mutual friend.
Thank you to everyone who suggested ideas for potential inventions! The montage of doom was fun to write. There probably shouldn't be this many inventions by week two, but this is Hatsume we're talking about. And she's not afraid to smuggle in stuff she worked on before. Also, Kuroiro is now confirmed in 1-B!
Not much else to say today. Hope you all had a good week!