AN: So it has been a while hasn't it. What can I say, other than 2020 sucks. Here is hoping to 2021 being a considerably better year.

Other than that, I've not got much to say other than I'm now on a writers Discord group. Feel free to join/ / discord . gg /kYCPuAw if you want to chat, discuss ideas or whatever.

If not please feel free to PM me, I am generally good at responding to those.

Hope you all enjoy the long awaited chapter, and thanks for reading.

Disclaimer: I do not own My Hero Academia etc.

( - )

(Last Time)

Glancing around, Izuku saw that nearly all of his class was at his side, at his back or in front of him now. Many of them sending him comforting, worried or cautious looks.

"I'm fine," He replied, his voice a bit curt as he shrugged off a soft hand on his arm. Kodai had at some point grabbed it, either to stop him from doing something he might regret, or as an act of support. He wasn't sure which. "I expected some people to react to me like this."

"They shouldn't though!" Mina cut in.

"Yeah that Bakugo guy was completely out of line!" Hagakure nodded.

"No, he has a right to be angry. No matter how you look at it, I am the one responsible for his parent's death…" Izuku shook his head.

Silence followed these words, as many of the teens around him exchanged awkward looks. None of them seem to know what to say.

( - )

Chapter 9

( - )

(With Izuku)

It was mid-morning and Izuku was in a hurry as he continued to jog down the street and finally arrived at the imposing gates of U.A. that day, half running. His alarm had gone off as usual, and unusually for him he had ignored it and tried to steal an extra few minutes of sleep after having had a bad night's sleep the night before. His altercation with Bakugo in the cafeteria the other day had brought back memories he had rather had stayed buried.

Which of course, as the minutes passed turned out to be a mistake. After all when the alarm had gone off again, he had once again snoozed his alarm again, and then had another five minute doze, and then had done it again, and again.

And now, 'surprisingly', he was running late.

This, he mused, was an unfortunate side effect of no longer being in Asphodel. Out here he was responsible for himself, no longer did he have the scientists and guards waking him up in the morning when he overslept. No longer did he have a strictly monitored routine, one which saw him getting up early, having a balanced breakfast, and then either doing his studies, or training his Quirk, depending on the day.

Instead he was now living independently on his own, with only a government caseworker coming in to check on him twice a week.

It was a very different experience to what he was used to, one that he was even now, still trying to get used to.

Running towards the Hero Academy's large front gates, he quickly tied his tie around his neck as he did so, and tucked in his shirt to make himself at least look neat and presentable. That said as he approached, it didn't take him long to notice the scrum of people already at the gates.

'Looks like I'm not the only one running late.' Izuku thought to himself absentmindedly as he jogged the last dozen of so metres to the gate. Only for him to pause when he realised that none of the people crowding around the gate trying to get in were wearing the school's grey uniform, nor were any of them teenagers. Instead they were all smartly dressed adults, some of whom he could see were carrying cameras, whilst others had microphones and notebooks. 'What the hell is going on?'

Hearing his approach some of the people mobbing the door turned to face him, at once revealing themselves as reporters. A number of them noticeably waving flashing cameras around, even as several men and women rushed him with microphones in hand. They were like sharks scenting blood.

"Hey, hey you boy! What's it like to learn from the Number One Hero, All Might? What have you learned so far this year from him? How many lessons with the Number One have you had?!" The lead reporter, a nosey looking redhead demanded, her camera man shoving roughly through the crowd of other reporters as he did so, before he then shoved the camera in Izuku's face even as the woman got a little too close to him for comfort.

It took him all of a few moments to understand what was going on.

By the sounds of it, it was now common knowledge that All Might was teaching at U.A., and as such the many different news channels and journalists that lurked in the shadows had all descended on the school in mass. All of them probably hoping to be the first ones to get the 'scoop'.

They were like parasites.

Wilting slightly as he felt himself being surrounded and mobbed by the mass of reporters. Izuku fought to stay calm. He still wasn't used to being surrounded like this, or to being in such proximity to so many people. It made him tense, nervous and self-conscious.

There mere presence was stressing him out.

"Hey wait!" One of the cameramen piped up, his brow furrowing as he stared intently at Izuku. "Haven't I seen you someplace before?"

Tensing up even further at this, Izuku put his head down and began to bull through the reporters. He didn't bring too much of his strength to bear, but he used enough to start shifting and moving the reporters gently out of his way. He didn't want to be too rough, but nor did he want to stay here. As Doctor Nakamura had told him, if he was ever in a stressful situation the best thing to do was to count backwards from ten, take a deep breath and then calmly remove himself from it.

"You know, now you come to say it. I do too." Another one of the reporters muttered, their brow furrowed in confusion as they stared at him.

There hadn't been any photos of him published in a long time, not since the accident. But some people had long memories, and the few images of him that had leaked to the media back then, those of him as a child, had likely stuck in their memory. Especially considering what he was associated with.

Izuku had changed a lot since then though, he was naturally much taller, and far more muscled and athletic than he had been at five. But still some of his more stand out features remained the same. His dark, messy green hair, green eyes and freckles, they were not a common combination, especially when you added in his age.

It didn't take a genius to connect the dots, just someone with a good memory and slightly above average intelligence. Especially since it had probably already leaked, or would soon leak, that the Titan of Mustafa was in the Hero Course, trying to be a hero.

"Excuse me." He said bluntly, maybe being a tad too forceful now as he moved through the grumbling and complaining crowd. Thankfully though, most of the people grudgingly moved aside, or back upped. Still some were a bit more obstinate.

"You know." A plain looking, brown haired man mused loudly. His dark eyes narrowing slightly, even as his lips curved up into an unpleasant smirk. The man was standing right in front of him, blocking his way to the school gates. "I heard an unsubstantiated rumour lately, about a new student at U.A., and a famous one at that, or rather an infamous one..."

The man knew. Izuku could already see the gears turning in his head.

"I'm late for classes." Izuku said brusquely a scowl on his face now as he pushed through the last of the reporters and made a break for it.

He could still feel the eyes of the reporters on his back, even as they continued to shout questions at him, or obnoxiously demanded a statement.

Keeping his head down, Izuku barrelled across the last few metres to the main entrance.

"You're late." Cementoss, the cement using Pro Hero stated bluntly as he allowed the green haired teen to slip past him, even as he continued to stand sentinel; stopping any and all reporters from getting past him.

"Sorry." Izuku said softly, pausing only long enough to give Cementoss a nod, before he jogged passed the bulky grey skinned Pro Hero and as far away from the reporters as he could reasonably get.

"You better hurry to class, if you run you might make it there before the bell!" Cementoss called helpfully after him, even as he burst through the front doors of the main building and full on sprinted up the staircases and to Class 1A's form room.

He wouldn't put it past Aizawa to dish out a punishment, even if he was only a few minutes late.

Crashing through the doors at the end of the corridors a few moments later, Izuku was just in time to see Aizawa slowly walking towards the classroom door a bored look on his face as he looked up and glanced over at Izuku, his dark eyes boring into him for a moment.

Not pausing for a second Izuku ran, and sprinted the last few metres and burst through the front door of the classroom surprising all those inside, even as Aizawa entered, probably only thirty seconds later, slowly ambling his way into the room. A bored look still on his face, as he ignored Izuku's antics.

Likewise ignoring Iida's shouting and reprimanding, and Mina and Toru's giggling, Izuku quickly made it to his seat only moments before the still bored looking Aizawa came to a stop behind his desk at the front of the room. His head down and his fac slightly flushed as he tried not to draw any more attention than he already had, ignoring some of his classmate's sniggers and snorts.

Thankfully though, most of them were in jest, and were not maliciously aimed at him.

"Good, you're all here." Aizawa said dully, his gaze lingering on Izuku for a moment before he looked away and forged on, not saying a word about what had just happened.

Probably it was because he just couldn't be bothered with the hassle of not only telling Izuku off, but also organising some kind of acceptable punishment. Not when he could avoid that and just accept that, despite being late to class, Izuku had been in his seat when he started the form period and so was not technically late. Aizawa, from what Izuku, had seen, liked technicalities. Especially when they meant things were easier for him.

"Right so to begin, I suppose I should start off by saying congratulations. Most of you did a just about acceptable job on yesterday's battle training," Aizawa then continued, looking around at the class at large, some of whom, Izuku included, couldn't help but blink in surprise as they heard the otherwise bored and depressed looking teacher complimenting them, sort of. "I looked over the generous grades and evaluations All Might gave you. It wasn't bad, though there were a couple of people who need to grow up a little and mature, but for the most part you weren't terrible."

Again, the gathered students looked at one another in surprise. Since when was Shota Aizawa, the guy that often threatened to expel them, ever nice and supportive?

"That said, Kirishima, Midoriya, I heard you two nearly brought the building you were fighting in down," Aizawa continued, his words causing Kirishima to redden slightly and then stare down at his desk, and Izuku to blink slightly before he too looked down at his desk frowning. "A bit more situational awareness wouldn't go a miss. Analyse your surroundings, and adapt accordingly. Todoroki, you need to learn some self-restraint and be more careful too. By freezing the entire build like you did you could have endangered both your teammates and any hostages or innocence that may or may not have been in the building, and potentially caused the villain to pre-emptively set off the bomb!"

Todoroki scowled at that, but didn't reply.

"Yaoyorozu, you need to be more creative with what you build, and how you strategies. Your method although it worked was simplistic and could have been easily foiled by a halfway competent villain. Kodai you need to be more assertive, the same goes for you Koda. Shiozaki you need to remember that the aim of this was teamwork, it was not just an opportunity to show off." Aizawa pressed, dishing out short but brutal observations of people's flaws. The respective students either looking down in shame at the comments, or nodding in grudging agreement, or in some cases, frowning in confusion and anger.

Soon enough though he had roundly criticised and poked holes in everyone in the class's performance in one way or another. There were no exemptions to this, and no one was singled out. Everyone had weaknesses, and everyone had things they needed to improve on.

"Now, onto other homeroom business," Aizawa sighed a few minutes later as he looked around at the rest of the class before signing again. Most of them had taken the criticism as it was intended, in a constructive manner. Some though seemed to have taken in personally. "Alright, so today we have something important to get out of the way..."

The entire class all tensed up as they heard their form room teacher's words, all of them looking at one another nervously.

Aizawa was a bit of a sociopath of a homeroom teacher, not a single person in the room knew how he thought, or what he might be planning for them to do next.

The man was a mystery, a very grumpy and depressed looking mystery.

Drumming his fingers on his desk nervously, Izuku, still out of sorts after what happened at the gates earlier, tensed. Neither, he nor anyone else in the class knew what Aizawa was going to say; would it be another Quirk Assessment test, with the threat of expulsion hanging over them again? One of their number had already been culled and replaced. Was he going to do the same again, and then keep doing it until he was satisfied that only the best and most worthy remained?

"… You'll be picking a class representative." Aizawa continued, finishing his statement and catching the entire class by surprise as he did so.

"That's such a normal school thing!" Several people started muttering in response, before after a few moments, the class fully digested what he had just said.

Moments after this realisation, noise exploded from every corner of the classroom as people raised their hands and shouted that they'd like to be the one picked. That or they stood up and started trying to convince others that they were the best choice for the job.

Out of all of them, the entire class, Izuku was the only one to not immediately put his hand up and or volunteer. Instead he remained quiet, and instead looked around at all of the other shouting and screaming students, a curious look on his face as he looked from student to student, pondering as he did so just who would be the best choice for rep, and whether that person would actually get it.

In a normal high school, he had learnt, the position of class rep held no real purpose other than for a student to be lumbered with some mundane tasks that the form teacher didn't want to do.

For that reason, very few people ever wanted to do it. Things like class rep, and student body president, and all of that nonsense. It was far more trouble than it was worth, and held very little in the way of benefits, both in the school, and even less in life outside of school. They were meaningless titles.

But, in a hero course things were slightly different. Being a class rep at U.A. signified that that person was the leader of his or her class, the stand out amongst them. It showed that that person was 'respected' by their peers, and was capable of leadership and responsibility. It was an attractive commendation for any wannabe hero to have on their Curriculum Vitae.

It was a position for a top hero-in-training.

For that reason even the quieter members of the class like Kodai and Shoji put their hands up and volunteered. Becoming Class Rep might be completely at odds with their personality, but they were here for a reason just like the rest. They were ambitious and wanted to become pro heroes, the hardest and most difficult of careers to excel at, but also the most rewarding. As such they, like the rest of the class, were obviously more than willing to step outside of their comfort zone to get every advantage they could to make their dreams come true.

The last anyone in the class wanted was to be stuck as C list heroes for the rest of their careers, or even worse, as sidekicks.

Continuing to look around as the classroom descended into chaos, it ended up being Iida, not Aizawa, was the one to create order, as the tall bespectacled boy suddenly stood up and called out loudly, and stridently, to the class, "Quiet down all of you! The position of Class rep is one of great importance and responsibility. It will take more than just willingness to succeed in this task! Willingness doesn't equate directly to ability! No! This position requires the trust and support of the rest of the class! If this is to be democratic, then I put forward the motion that we choose the class rep by election!"

"You clearly just want to be class rep!" Kirishima accused loudly, several of the other students nodding or muttering their agreement as he did so.

"Yeah, besides we've all only just met, we haven't known each other long enough to know who to vote for yet!" Mina chipped in next, standing up behind her desk as if to emphasis her point.

"Besides, everyone will just vote for themselves!" Kaminari chipped in.

"That's precisely why!" Iida shot back resolutely. "Anyone with multiple votes is best-suited for the position! Sensei, will you allow this?!"

"Wait!" Izuku called out suddenly a frown on his face as he raised his voice, speaking over everyone else now. His sudden exclamation drawing the rest of the class's attention to him as he did so, most likely due to him usually being one of the quieter and more softly spoken of the student. "That sounds stupid to me. Why don't we just say that no one is allowed to vote for themselves, and that those that do, and we'll know who if we have everyone sign their names at the bottom of their vote, will not be allowed to be rep?"

It honestly didn't make sense to do otherwise. Why would you let people vote for themselves, surely that was completely at odds with the point of an election?

The class was silent as they heard this, some of them digesting his words and then nodding appreciatively. Others however didn't look to sure.

"Think of it this way then, do we really want a selfish class rep; someone who would vote for themselves? We're supposed to be heroes right, and heroes are supposed to be humble at times." Izuku forged on, talking over Iida when the bespectacled boy looked like he was going to protest. He honestly didn't understand why they were even considering letting people vote for themselves. Was that a thing they did at regular schools when choosing class reps? To someone who had a 'private' one on one education without any of the usually trappings of a normal school life, it sounded bizarre.

"Makes sense to me." Shiozaki said softly, a soft smile on her face as she looked over and met his gaze. "Midoriya makes a good point. For someone to represent us, they should also represent what it means to be a hero. They should be selfless and generous, and above all should put others before themselves."

The class nodded and muttered to each other at that. Though a few of them did Izuku saw, did noticeably roll their eyes at the vine haired girl's somewhat 'sanctimonious' words.

"It might be even fairer if those that are nominated for the position by their classmates don't vote, and only those that aren't running for the positon, vote, like in a real election." Yaoyorozu tagged on, nodding her head resolutely. The taller girl seemed to be warming up to the idea.

"Sounds like a hella manly idea to me!" Kirishima nodded, before with a grin he loudly called out. "And to start with I nominate Yaoyorozu for the positon!"

Yaoyorozu flushed at this, especially when several of the others nodded their agreement like Jiro and Asui.

"Hey what, why didn't you nominate me!?" Mina shouted, turning to look at Kirishima, a betrayed look on her face.

"Ah ha ha well…" Kirishima flushed, scratching his spikey red hair as he avoided Mina's gaze.

Izuku frowned at this, he didn't know the two of them were friends, or even had history for that matter. But by the looks of it they did.

"Hey Izuku, nominate me!" Mina called, looking over at Izuku now.

Her words quickly catching his attention as his frown melted away and he instead gave her a flat look in response. His point was obvious, even if he didn't verbally say it.

"Oh shut up." Mina muttered, looking away now her already naturally pink cheeks somehow becoming even pinker.

"Don't worry, Mina!" Toru chirped up from just along the row from her. "I nominate Mina, because she's friendly, cool and will do a great job at it!"

"Aw Toru!" Mina grinned widely at the invisible girl, before she then turned and stuck her tongue out at Izuku.

"Hey wait, we haven't agreed on this yet! Aizawa Sensei!" Iida called out, a look of consternation on his face as most of the class started nodding along to Yaoyorozu's suggestion A few more calling out their own thoughts on the candidates, or talking about who else should be nominated from amongst their class.

"I don't care, as long as you do it quickly and quietly," Aizawa sighed in response, the dark haired man already getting back into his yellow sleeping bag as he spoke. "Go with Yaoyorozu's suggestion."

"Then we're agreed, you can only run if someone nominates you, and if you've been nominated then you can't vote." Jiro concluded, looking around as she did so at all of the other students, all of whom nodded, or agreed in some way.

At that the class quickly devolved into a discussion as people started deciding on nominations. With things continuing in this vain for the next few minutes until all the nominees were eventually decided on and called out, the nominees being; Momo Yaoyorozu, Mina Ashido, and Shouta Todoroki. Much to Iida's visible disappointment, as well as the disappointment of a few others.

Following on from that, everyone voted, all of those who were not nominated writing who they were voting for on a slip of paper and then handing that over to Izuku, for some reason, to read out the results.

With, in the end, when the results were tallied, Yaoyorozu winning with eight votes, and Mina coming in second with seven, and then finally Todoroki, with just two.

"Well then, looks like that is that. Yaoyorozu is the class rep, and Mina is the vice rep, and Todoroki, I don't know, the secretary…?" Izuku called out, shrugging his shoulder as the class muttered and cheered all around him. Yaoyorozu noticeably going a bit pink as the class cheered her on, and Mina grinning widely as she waved around at people. Todoroki meanwhile just scowled.

Either way, Izuku was just glad it was over. He didn't want any part of that nonsense. He would become a hero on his own, he didn't want to rely on trivialities like being class president or rep or whatever it was. He would let his actions and the power and control he had over his Quirk speak for him not some fancy positon he won in school.

"You all finished then," Aizawa said, standing up out of his sleeping bag. "Alright fine, your rep is Yaoyorozu, and the vice rep is Ashido. Now all of you shut up, the rest of class is study hall." He then continued, even as he curled back up his sleeping bag and went back to sleep behind his desk, as if it was the most normal thing in the world. His rather blunt wording and odd actions leaving a wave of confusion in his wake.

( - )

(Sometime Later)

Later on that day, after the morning lessons had finished, Izuku, along with the rest of his class filed into the school's cafeteria. With the green haired teen awkwardly grabbing a tray and helping himself to an excessive amount of food.

Unfortunately due to his healing factor and superhuman strength he had a high metabolism, and needed to eat considerably more food than a normal teenager his size and age normally would. Similarly he needed to drink twice as much water due to his much higher internal body temperature.

Ignoring some of the amused looks being sent his way by his classmates. Though thankfully he was not the only one that required a specialised diet due to their Quirk. He then looked for a spare table, before, after a cursory scan of the large busy hall, he then found one and grabbed a free table for himself and those who were eating with him.

The last time he was in here, he had had the misfortune of running into Bakugo. He didn't want to do that again if he could help it. Especially since the cafeteria this time around was far busier than before.

This was something that those who joined him seemed to realise as they joined him at the small, out of the way table. With Mina, Yaoyorozu, Jiro, Toru, Kodai, Sero, Kirishima and Kaminari all sitting down with him as they started to eat and chat. The rest of their classmates all spreading out into their own groups and cliques and filling up other tables as they did so.

Looking around as he settled down, Izuku could see that the school's cafeteria was rapidly filling up as the students from the other courses, general education, business and support, all started filtering into the room too.

Amongst them Izuku spied a scowling Bakugo. The spikey blonde haired boy scanning the cafeteria for a moment, before eventually focussing in on Izuku, his lip curling upwards into a snarl, and his red eyes flashing menacingly. He looked like he was on the verge of coming over.

Fortunately before he could storm over and make another scene. The orange haired girl with the ponytail grabbed his arm and pulled him away, dragging him over to where some of his other classmates were sitting. Including the other blonde haired boy, the one whose name he hadn't got. The one with the smarmy, malevolent smirk that he even sent his way.

"So class rep, eh," Mina's voice suddenly distracted him. A bright grin on the pink haired girl's face as she started off the conversation, her gold and black eyes focussing in on, Yaoyorozu. The taller, well-developed girl going a little pink at the attention that was suddenly on her, even as the rest of the students at the table looked over at her too.

"Yes, well, honestly, I didn't think so many people would vote for me." Yaoyorozu replied modestly, a genuine smile on her pink face as she looked around at the rest of the table, some of whom had voted for her. "I hope I don't let anyone down. I mean I will definitely do the best I can, and prove to everyone that they weren't wrong in supporting me!"

"You'll do fine!" Kirishima waved her off, a grin on his face as he started getting stuck into his meal. "You already proved yourself smart, competent and super manly during the Quirk Assessment Test and Battle Training. Besides you were the best choice for the job!"

Yaoyorozu's smile twitched slightly at the manly comment, but she otherwise took Kirishima's words in stride as the compliment he had almost certainly meant them to be.

"Yeah, besides like Mina said before, we don't really know each other that well yet, but still, out of all of us you made the best first impression." Jiro tagged on, a smirk on her face as she clapped the taller dark haired girl on the back.

The girl with the rocker style, and the proper, prim heiress, he had noticed, had very quickly struck up a close friendship since the start of the semester. This being in spite of the sheer contrast between the two in terms of style and personality.

Yaoyorozu's cheeks went a darker red at this support, even as the rest of the table weighed in with their own enthusiastic support and cajoling.

"Well Midoriya scored top in the Quirk Assessment Test, and collateral damage aside, he performed admirably enough in the Battle Training too." Yaoyorozu replied, her face still a little red as she quickly tried to foist some of the attention off onto him. "I'm sure if you tried you, Midoriya, could have become the class rep as well, and you would've have done a good job at it too."

"Yeah man, that reminds me. Why didn't you go for it, I'm sure if you made it clear you wanted to be class rep people would have at least nominated you?" Sero chipped in. The tape using teen looking curious as he eyed Izuku over the mountain of food he was rapidly making his way through.

Around the table the rest of the teens looked over at him curiously too.

"It's not for me." Izuku replied bluntly after a few moments of thought. He had to choose his words carefully as he didn't want to upset anyone. "Besides if I was picked it would have only been for the same reason Todoroki was almost picked. It would have been because I have a flashy and powerful Quirk. I didn't want to be picked for that reason. That and I wasn't comfortable with the attention and responsibility that comes with it!"

"Yeah I can see why that might bother you." Yaoyorozu acknowledged, a slight frown on her face as she looked away from him and over in the direction that Bakugo was sat.

"Does that kind of thing happen often?" Mina tagged on, a slight frown on her face too.

"Does what?" Kirishima asked, before he followed Yaoyorozu's gazed and let out an 'ohh' of understanding. "Yeah that shit yesterday was out of line. It was not manly at all."

"They were upset." Izuku shrugged helplessly. "And I can't blame them for that."

"Yeah well you were also a child at the time." Kaminari unexpectedly piped up, drawing a few raised eyebrows at his unusually sensitive words. "What? I had a similar problem as kid. Whenever I got upset I shocked those around me. I ended hospitalising, and even nearly killing, more than a few people by accident before I got control. Nothing fatal you know, but still getting zapped with 50,000 plus volts is still not good."

"Yeah I had a similar problem." Mina acknowledged, her smile dimming as she spoke. "It took me a while to properly get control of my acid, especially its potency. After one really nasty accident when I was six I had to be taken home and home-schooled there for nearly a year whilst I tried to get my Quirk under control."

"Damn, it's sometimes easy to forget how difficult some people have it." Kirishima muttered, looking down at his plate now a frown on his face.

"Ha, well try being constantly invisible." Toru sighed, her clothed arm leaning on the table now. "I can't even remember what I look like, it's been like ten years since I've even seen my reflection, and the baby photos aren't that helpful. I just look like a potato in them. I've even tired putting a wig and makeup on to try and work it out, but, well it's not the best…" Toru let out a bitter giggle at that thought.

Jiro winced as she heard this, absentmindedly playing with one of her extended earlobes as she did so. "That must suck."

"It does." Toru groaned.

"You know, you could always ask Aizawa Sensei to use his Quirk on you. Maybe he can turn off your invisibility for a bit, and you can see what you actually look like?" Sero suggested, a crooked smile on his face as he rested his blocky elbows on the table.

Toru got noticeably more animated at that suggestion.

Wincing at the way the conversation had gone. Izuku couldn't help but blame himself for bringing down the previously euphoric tone. That said, he also felt a little grateful to the others too. He had already known that he wasn't the only person who had had problems with his Quirk when he was younger, the other inmates in Asphodel were evidence enough at that. But he hadn't realised how hard a lot of other people had it as kids as well.

Horrible though it was to say, it was nice not being the only one who had it rough when he was younger.

Fortunately before Izuku could say anything to that effect though, a finger unexpectedly poked him in the cheek.

Looking to the side he saw Kodai's emotionless blue eyes gazing at him. "Smile." She then said, the smallest, faintest of smiles playing around her lips as she poked him in the cheek again. "You always look too serious."

Smiling slightly in spite of himself at that, Izuku looked around at the rest of the table. All of whom were now chattering to one another, complaining about their Quirks, and complimenting others on their Quirks as they did so.

This was nice.

Even Yaoyorozu, it seemed, had had problems with her Quirk when she was younger. Apparently she had gained an eating disorder due to not being able to, or maybe being willing to, eat enough food to balance out the amount she was lipids using up with her Quirk during training. Which in turn had led to her being anorexic and suffering from malnutrition and all that entailed for much of her preteen years. Apparently the problem had been exacerbated by her Quirk not being fully understood at the time either.

Still despite this, they were all still able to joke and laugh about their struggles as they bonded as classmates.

Unfortunately however this short but sweet bout of comradery was swiftly brought to a close by a loud alarm that suddenly cut through the noise of the cafeteria like a hot knife through butter.

"SECURITY LEVEL 3 HAS BEEN BREACHED. PLEASE EVACUATE IN A CALM AND ORDERLY FASHION."

In response, most of the students in the hall; general education, business, support, and hero course students began to stand up as panic began to rapidly spread like wild fire throughout the cafeteria. With many of them immediately standing and fleeing the cafeteria and dashing for the exit. With the sheer number of students heading for the doors and the corridor outside creating a large scrum in the doorway.

"SECURITY LEVEL 3 HAS BEEN BREACHED. PLEASE EVACUATE IN A CALM AND ORDERLY FASHION."

"Hey, what's going on?" Kaminari called out over the noisy sound of the alarm and the roar of the crowd, the spikey haired blonde looking around nervously as even the older students were getting caught up in the ensuing panic. "What does the alarm mean?"

"SECURITY LEVEL 3 HAS BEEN BREACHED. PLEASE EVACUATE IN A CALM AND ORDERLY FASHION."

"Hey you," Izuku called out, grabbing a fleeing older general studies student by the back of his collar and dragging him back with his strength. "What's going on?!"

The brown haired, bland looking older boy's eyes widened at Izuku's blunt demand, but his confusion and nervousness didn't stop him from responding. "Someone's invaded the school! This hasn't happened in years! We all need to evacuate now, it could be villains!"

"Damn," Izuku muttered, releasing the other teen and letting him run off, even as he turned to the others in his group. What did they do now, should they get ready to fight, or get ready to run?

Most of the students were panicking, though by the looks of it some of the hero course students, mostly the older ones, were trying to calm things down and were shouting for order or for quiet.

From what Izuku could see however, this was just exasperating matters and was inciting more panic.

"SECURITY LEVEL 3 HAS BEEN BREACHED. PLEASE EVACUATE IN A CALM AND ORDERLY FASHION."

All the while the alarm over head continued to ring out, and demand that they evacuate.

"Don't panic, we don't know what exactly is happening yet!" Momo cut in, her expression nervous, even though her voice was firm.

Izuku nodded curtly at that, even as he, and the rest of his group got caught up in the mass of students that were being forced out of the room and into the corridor.

A hand quickly clutched onto him, drawing his attention as he saw Kodai was sticking closely to him, Kaminari, Jiro and Yaoyoroza.

Mina, Kirishima, Sero and Toru meanwhile were all sticking together as another group, as they were caught in the crowd and swept away by the mass of students.

It was loud and sweaty, and chaotic. He was being buffeted around.

"SECURITY LEVEL 3 HAS BEEN BREACHED. PLEASE EVACUATE IN A CALM AND ORDERLY FASHION."

And all the while the alarm continued to sound out, adding to the confusion and panic.

Already he could feel himself losing his cool. His heart was beating faster, and his breathes were coming out shorter.

He needed space.

He didn't like being surrounded like this, it made him feel claustrophobic and trapped.

Clenching his hands into fists, he grunted as his face was suddenly slammed against the window. Growling at this, he started to pull on his strength and pushed away from the window, displacing some of the other students around him as he created a gap in the crowd through sheer brute strength. A gap his fellow classmates took advantage of as they slipped into the space he had created.

"SECURITY LEVEL 3 HAS BEEN BREACHED. PLEASE EVACUATE IN A CALM AND ORDERLY FASHION."

Looking back through the window that he had just been knocked into, his eyes widened as he saw a gaping hole in the large wall that surrounded U.A. and a swarm of reporters scrambling through it, even as a number of teachers began to arrive on the scene and moved to intercept them.

"Dammit." Izuku grunted turning to the others now as he continued to use his strength to retain a gap around him. With all of others, like him, being jostled and shoved about by the crowd of students as they joined him in forming a huddled circle. "It's not villains, it's just the reporters from before!"

"Reporters?!" Kaminari shouted.

"For fuck's sake, this is all because of the press!" Jiro grumbled. "Bloody parasites."

"SECURITY LEVEL 3 HAS BEEN BREACHED. PLEASE EVACUATE IN A CALM AND ORDERLY FASHION."

"Yaoyorozu can you make one of those loudspeakers? We need to get everyone to calm down!" Izuku muttered to Yaoyorozu who was stood opposite him, even as he was suddenly shoved close to her by the jostling of the crowd, the two of them literally face to face now, mere inches apart, as more than three hundred students tried to shove and force themselves down the corridor and through the two metre wide doorway at the other end.

"I-I can do, can you make me some more room?" Yaoyorozu replied, her face going a little pink at his proximity, but her mind thankfully staying on the matter at hand.

Looking around, Izuku, could only think of one thing to do, aside from going full Titan and crushing or broiling alive everyone around him.

"Climb up on my shoulders." He said, beginning to kneel down now, and lower himself so she could climb on. The others seeing this, moved to assist by making more room around him.

"What?" Yaoyorozu gasped out, her face going very red now as she both saw what he had planned.

"You need to make yourself seen and heard, and with the amount of people around us I can't create enough space without potentially hurting people, this is the only thing I can think of." Izuku shot back impatiently. His temper was beginning to fray now, not because of his classmate though, but because of the whole situation they were now in.

"SECURITY LEVEL 3 HAS BEEN BREACHED. PLEASE EVACUATE IN A CALM AND ORDERLY FASHION."

"O-Ok fine, but don't l-look up!" Yaoyorozu choked out, her face nearly as red as a tomato as Izuku shifted lower, and she used his bent knee as a platform to climb up and onto his broad shoulders, a megaphone already forming in her cupped hands as she then stood on his broad shoulders, with him standing up and bracing her ankles with his hands for extra support.

"Woah, Yaoyorozu!" Kaminari cried, looking up as the class rep now stood nearly six foot higher than most of the other students around them.

"Everyone, calm down! It's just the press!" Momo shouted into her megaphone, her boosted voice sounding out over the sound of the panicking students and the load alarm that still intermittently called for the student to evacuate in a calm and orderly fashion. "Everyone! The breach was caused by the press only, and not villains! It is nothing worth panicking over!"

Almost at once the crowd of milling students began to calm down, the sound of shouting decreasing as, Yaoyorozu once again repeated her message and called for calm, her elevated positon, loud voice, and calming words, easing the tension and unease in the packed corridor, even as the alarm was suddenly, thankfully, switched off.

"And there I was hoping for a more relaxing lunch this time," Izuku muttered to Jiro, as he continued to allow Yaoyorozu to stand on his shoulders and shout out to the crowd of calming and slowly dispersing students. With the other girl meanwhile, along with Kodai and Kaminari continuing to push outwards and give Izuku space he needed to remain stable.

"Eyes closed, Izuku." Jiro shot back, her eyes narrowed as she saw him looking over at her.

"What, it's not like I am going to try and look up Yaoyoroza's skirt," Izuku grumbled, his words still audible, both to those around him and to Yaoyorozu herself, who in return went a brighter red than before, even as she continued to talk down the crowd.

( - )

(Sometime Later, Elsewhere in the School)

"Principal, what do you think happened here?" Cementoss asked Nezu quietly, a slight frown on his grey, blocky face as he watched the Pro Hero, Power Loader, inspecting the broken latch on the door to the HR department.

"I'm not sure." Nezu replied softly, scratching his white furry chin thoughtfully as the eccentric support hero continued his inspection. "There was definitely a break in, but I'm not sure why. It could have something to do with the damage to the wall and the journalists, it would make a good enough distraction for someone to infiltrate the school. But if that was indeed the case why break into this room in particular?"

The Human Resources office was simply that, a plain and bland office. There was nothing of particular value in there, even the computers were not cutting edge but the basic kind found in any inner-city office.

"Maybe they were after the data on the computers?" Cementoss asked slowly. He was not an expert on computers, but he was aware that hacking was a thing, and that these computer ran on an internal system, ones that mean that in order to break in they needed to access the system from a port within the building

"Possibly." Nezu mused. "There is technology out there on the black market that would allow a sufficiently dedicated person to hack into the system and copy a lot of data in a short space of time."

There were people with Technopathic Quirks out in the wide world, and ones with intelligence quirks too, and these people, although not having flashy rationally powerful Quirks, could be many times more dangerous than even the most physically powerful of villains. In a digital age, people with those types of skills did very well for themselves.

"But even if that was the case, they should've have known that we have software specifically designed to counter direct attacks, and that each of our departments run on a different system." Nezu pressed on, his beady black eyes narrowing. "If they were truly trying to steal data from us, be it financial data, data on heroes, or on our students, then they would've known they would have to hit the server rooms. Then again, those rooms have far more protection that a simple office."

"Maybe they thought that this room was easier to break into, and that the tech, whatever it was they had, was good enough that they could get at our main servers regardless?" Cementoss asked, his brow furrowing as he tried to make sense of the techno babble he himself had just spouted. He didn't know himself whether it made sense or not.

"It's difficult to say. But if they were skilled enough, and bold enough, to sneak into U.A. then they must've have surely done their research. They can't have been foolish enough to think that we had such a glaring flaw in our security?" Nezu muttered. "No, it doesn't make sense. They must've have been deliberately targeting this room and the data on these computers."

"What information is even on these computers?" Cementoss asked.

"School timetables, sickness notes, records of student detentions, staff timesheets, expense sheets, the staff's car registrations and mileage claims reports, and a basic register of the students and staff at the school. There was nothing of particular value, nothing that would necessitate the effort of breaking into the school." Nezu muttered, tapping his foot on the floor absentmindedly. "Have you found anything Power Loader?"

"The lock's mechanism is not damaged or scratched, so they didn't even try to pick the lock. This has just been forced open with blunt force. There is nothing here to narrow down who did it, and I've already looked for prints. There are so many on here that find even one clear, useable set would be impossible, and that is if they even bothered to use the door handle an didn't just kick the door open, or wear gloves." Power Loader said as he stood up and stretched. "I can't tell you much more than that. Anyone could have done this."

"Maybe a student that was trying in vain to change their records?" Cementoss offered. It was unlikely but possible, there was a lot of pressure on the General Studies and Business Studies classes due to the prestigious and competitive nature of the school, not just in heroics, but in general academics too.

"Maybe, but I don't believe a student would go this far. They even broke the cameras in the hallway so they couldn't be identified, this shows a suspicious amount of forethought and planning, for something with little apparent value." Nezu frowned.

"What do you want to do then?" Cementoss asked.

"I'll check through the system and see if I can identify what they were after. I'll also check for worms, viruses and malware." Nezu said. "Other than that I'll have to think more on our next course of action, and whether changes need to be made to the school's defences, computer systems or curriculum. This break in is unusual, and definitely needs investigation."

Power Loader and Cementoss both nodded their agreement at that.

( - )

AN: So not the most action packed of chapters, but important I think all the same. That said if you like action, then I've got some coming up for you soon in the next couple of chapters. Suffice to say I've ideas for how I want the next arc to go, and for those that have read my other stories, you can probably imagine what I have in mind.

I tend to enjoy messing with canon events, and changing them to match and follow along form other changes I've made to the story. Actions have consequences and all that, and there have certainly been some changes so far. The most obvious of which is Izuku's Quirk.

Other than that, thanks for reading, and please do leave a review. It is useful from a writing and planning perspective to hear what people think. It helps me going forward, and I do in fact read every review I get, even the nasty ones.

Thanks for reading.

Catch you all later and stay safe out there.

Greed720.