Authors Note: This is the second to last chapter for this ar. I will be taking a break from this story to work on one that I have been thinking of for a while now. All I can say is that if you want to get a better understanding of what it's about you should watch the first two seasons of Digimon.
fencer29: What do you mean by promotion?
(Line Break)
Izuku awoke the next morning to see Miss Azumi standing over him. "Good morning, Izuku," she said in a soothing voice. Sitting up and wiping his eyes, Izuku responded with a good morning of his own. He looked around and saw that he was the only one in the boy's room. It didn't even sound like there were many kids in the building either.
"What time is it?" he asked, still sounding a little tired. Yesterday when he woke up there were a lot of children around getting ready for school or just waking up.
"It's 10:23," she said.
"WHAT!" If Izuku wasn't awake before, he's awake now. 10:23, he's missed most of the school day. "Why didn't anyone wake me earlier?" he asked, a little panicked. He never missed a day of school if he could help it. The only time he actually missed time from school was because of the fire.
"I felt like it would be good for you to sleep in after what happened yesterday," Miss Azumi said while fixing the blinds. "Are you hungry, I think there is still some fruit in the fridge?"
"But what about school?" Izuku said, ignoring Miss Azumi's question, "I can't miss school."
"Oh, you don't have to worry about school."
"I don't?" Izuku confusingly said. He didn't understand why he didn't need to go to school. He wasn't feeling sick and it wasn't any type of holiday that he knew of. Maybe his wounds were infected and he really was sick.
"I decided to take you out of that school," Miss Azumi said bluntly.
"YOU WHAT!" Izuku shouted in disbelief. "How could you do something like that?"
"It's for the best," she told him, "You weren't safe in that building. You were extremely injured yesterday and the teachers and faculty ignored you. You even told me it wasn't the first time it happened."
"B-But my friends," Izuku lied. He didn't have any friends because no one wanted to talk to the "quirkless" kid thinking that his disability was contagious. And the ones that were brave enough were usually scared off by Kacchan. But he didn't want to tell Miss Azumi that.
"I know you'll miss your friends but this is for your own good. You can't go to a place where you always get hurt."
Izuku didn't like hearing this. He didn't like that he wasn't allowed to put his input on what he wanted. He doesn't like how his life has changed in the past couple of weeks. From gaining a quirk to his house catching on fire, then losing his parents, and having to live at an orphanage. His now-former school was the only sense of normalcy in his life.
"But what will I do for school?" Izuku asked
"Don't worry, we'll be going around to the schools in the area for you to enroll in."
Then there's the fact that the new school that he'll go to is an unknown. What will the teachers be like, will they treat him like every other student or will he go back into the same situation. Then there are the other students, he won't know any of them and they won't know him. Will they treat him like Kacchan treats him or will they just ignore him.
"But how do you know that any of these schools will be different?"
"Don't worry about that. I'll make sure that you'll be treated right at one of these schools," Miss Azumi said with vigor while clenching her fist. "Now get ready then come downstairs for a late breakfast before we head out."
She left the room after she said that. Izuku got out of bed and started thinking of all the possibilities that could come from the day. 'This could go really bad or make my life a little better.' He began thinking of all the positives that can come from the school change. 'I might not be overlooked when I raise my hand, maybe I will be able to make friends' and the best part about this whole thing, 'Kacchan won't be there to torment me.'
After thinking of all the positives he was beginning to like the idea of going to a new school. He put on one of his green shirts and a pair of jeans and rushed downstairs. Nothing could bring his spirit down today.
(Line Break)
His spirits couldn't have been any lower. After a long day of going from school to school and getting rejected from all of them took a toll on his confidence. Well, he didn't really get rejected from all of them, it was more of Miss Azumi figuring out they were lying just by reading their body language.
Every interview felt like it went the same way too. It started out with them meeting the principal and a possible homeroom teacher for Izuku, then they would tell them about how the school is run, then they would tell them that he would be treated like every student that goes there, and it ends with them offering to let Izuku enroll in their school. That's when Miss Azumi declines the offer and drags Izuku away from the building.
And whenever he asked why she declined the offers the answer was always the same. "They didn't look me in the eyes when they said you'll be treated equally" or "They bite their lip/cheek when talking." He didn't understand how Miss Azumi was able to tell they were lying from that, but he was in no position to argue.
So here they were, standing in front of the last school on their list. It was a two-floor brick building with a concrete playground. It wasn't a rich school because it was in a poorer part of the city. Izuku doesn't know how he felt about this school. On one hand, he doesn't know how safe he'll be if he attends this school, but on the other hand, it was the last school on the list and he just hopes that this school would accept him.
"Well, this is the last one, Ono Elementary" Miss Azumi said looking at the surrounding buildings. The buildings surrounding the school were rough-looking homes with some dead grass, leafless trees, and cracks covering the sidewalks. It wasn't the friendliest looking neighborhood but if the faculty will treat Izuku like every other student then they'll have to deal with it. "If they lie to me then we'll have to look into homeschooling or online school."
They walked in and went straight to the principal's office. Sitting behind the desk was a 5'9" pudgy chameleon. He was wearing a blue suit and a black tie. Standing next to him was a woman with shoulder-length blonde hair and also appears to have features of a kangaroo. She had kangaroo ears, legs, feet, and a tail. She was wearing a white blouse and a pair of black jeans.
"Hello, I'm Principal Tetsuya, and here with me is one of our homeroom teachers, Mrs. Yubi," the now-named Tetsuya introduced themselves.
"Hello, I'm Haru Azumi, and here with me is Izuku Midoriya, we are hoping that you will accept him into your school," Miss Azumi said with a bow. Izuku followed her example and bowed as well, hoping that he's making a good impression. He took a seat afterward and looked at both faculty members trying to get a good read on both of them. So far they seem nice but a lot of people seemed nice before and look at where he is now.
"We'll be glad to have him, now we know you might have some concerns that you would like to address."
"The school isn't in the best area, how safe will the children be here?"
"We know it's one of the biggest concerns of our school. That's why we put a lot of emphasis on security here to ensure the safety for everyone here."
So far, to Izuku, the principal seems to be telling the truth but he couldn't read people like Miss Azumi could.
"I would like to know the school values."
"The school highly values education and athleticism. We want to set every child up for success in their future schooling careers," Mrs. Yubi answered for Principal Tetsuya.
To Azumi, every answer seemed alright. Neither of them seemed to be lying but that's what it looked like for the previous schools. Now to know if they're lying she's going to ask the deal breaker.
"Back in Izuku's old school he was getting bullied and the teachers did nothing," Miss Azumi sternly said, looking directly into the chameleon's eyes. "I need to know that he won't be ignored if something like that happens."
Tetsuya looked a little saddened by hearing what happened to the young boy in his old school. "Now I can't promise that Izuku won't be bullied because that's bound to happen to a majority of children, sadly. But we can promise that as long as Izuku goes and seeks help from anyone in the faculty we'll deal with the issue."
Izuku waited for Miss Azumi to take him out of the room and start looking for a tutor. But what she said next surprised him. "Is it alright for us to take a tour of the building?"
"Of course, Yubi would you please?" Tetsuya asked.
"Absolutely, follow me."
Both Izuku and Miss Azumi followed the kangaroo-human hybrid around the school. They saw some classrooms, the nurse's office, cafeteria, and every exit to the building. Mrs. Yubi told them the schedule as well. After their little tour, they walked back into the principal's office.
"I take it you found everything alright?" The chameleon principal greeted them.
"Yes we did and I must say this school looks nice," Miss Azumi complimented.
"Thank you, we take pride in keeping our school neat and proper," Principal Tetsuya cleared his throat. "Now back to business."
Miss Azumi nodded, "Right."
The chameleon principal pulled out a file from a filing cabinet, "If Izuku were to attend our school we'll need him to agree that he'll follow our rules and we also need to know any allergies that he might have."
Taking the file from the chameleon, Miss Azumi got ready to leave. "Thank you, we'll keep in touch."
After leaving Izuku couldn't stay quiet any longer, "Why didn't you reject their offer?"
"They were straightforward with me," the caretaker answered.
And that was that. They were quiet for the rest of the way back to the orphanage.
(four days later)
They ended up agreeing for Izuku to go to Ono Elementary. He was a little nervous for his first day but he decided to look on the bright side since no one knows him yet he has a chance to make a good first impression. Maybe it was a good thing that Miss Azumi took him out of his old school.
Since it was his first day he had to wait outside of the classroom until the teacher called him in. He got lucky with who his homeroom teacher is, . He remembered how nice she was when she gave him a tour of the school. He also remembers how she didn't ignore any of his questions during the tour, but that might be because Miss Azumi was there as well. But he doesn't want to believe that. So he just stood there waiting to hear his name to signal him to enter.
"Izuku, you can enter now," he heard through the door.
'Well, this is it,' he thought to himself, 'No need to panic. They don't know you yet, they can't judge you if they don't know you.'
He opened the door and walked in front of his peers. He turned and was met with a sea of students, a majority of them with mutation quirks. He saw kids with multiple limbs, animal body parts, and some with different colored skin like blue, green, or purple. Now there were some kids that didn't have any mutation quirks but there weren't a lot.
"Children, look at me," the teacher asked for the children's attention. "This is Izuku. He will be joining our class. Let's give him a big warm welcome."
"Welcome, Izuku," the chorus of children said.
Izuku bowed, "Thank you for having me."
"Why don't you take the seat next to Fumikage Tokoyami," Mrs. Yubi told Izuku, "Oh Fumikage, would you please raise your hand."
Izuku saw a hand raised in the back of the room. He walked towards the raised hand and sat in the empty desk. He looked over and saw the kid named Fumikage Tokoyami. Tokoyami had a raven's head, a yellow beak, and red eyes. Even though he was sitting Izuku could tell that he was a little taller than the raven-headed boy.
"Hello, I'm Izuku Midoriya," Izuku greeted.
"Fumikage Tokoyami," he said, keeping his head down.
Then a shadowy figure with yellow eyes and a raven head emerged from the boy's body, "I'm Dark Shadow."
Izuku was taken back a little from the shadow but gained his composure soon after. "Is that your quirk? It's so cool!"
Tokoyami was surprised by the green-haired boy's excitement over his quirk. Other than his parents no one really complemented his quirk. They were either scared of Dark Shadow or thought he was weird because he talked to his quirk. But this kid, he wasn't afraid of Dark Shadow, no, he actually found it cool.
They didn't say anything for the rest of the period, just sat in silence and paid attention to the lesson their teacher was giving them.
(Three hours later)
Lunchtime came fast and Tokoyami did what he always did, sit alone in the back of the cafeteria. It was a normal occurrence for him, no one really wanted to sit with the weird kid that could talk with his quirk. Which was fine, he was used to it but it didn't mean he didn't feel lonely.
He pulled out his lunch which was a plain tuna sandwich his mother made for him. It wasn't his favorite lunch but he wouldn't complain, he would rather have one of his mother's sandwiches than one of the school-made lunches. He was about to take the first bite of his lunch when he was interrupted by a nuisance that's been bothering him in his school life.
"Whatcha eating Tokoyami, meow?" someone said in a mocking voice.
That someone is Yukari Asakawa. Yukari is a girl with orange hair and a cat mutation quirk that gives her the ears, eyes, paws, and whiskers of a cat. He didn't fully understand why she annoys him, maybe it's because he's the quiet weird kid or it's because she has a cat quirk and he has a type of bird quirk and she sees him as her prey. But that's just dumb thinking if that's the reason.
"Just a tuna sandwich, Yukari," he responded.
"Really! Let me try some," she said before snatching away his sandwich. "I love tuna, meow." Yukari took a bite out of the sandwich, before immediately spitting it back out. "Pweh! That was the worst tuna I've ever had," she said with pure disgust.
"I guess the tuna we have at home is going bad. Can I have it back now?"
Yukari didn't even listen to Tokoyami because when he asked for his lunch back she threw it on the ground.
"My lunch!" Tokoyami shouted.
"I am doing you a favor, meow. That sandwich was disgusting," she said wiping her mouth.
"But, what am I supposed to eat now?"
"How should I know, hiss?" she hissed at him. Nails from her paws started to extend. She was getting ready to pounce. Seeing this Tokoyami braced himself for all the scratches he'll receive.
"Am I interrupting something?"
Tokoyami opened his eyes to see the green-haired boy that was interested in his quirk. What was his name again? Izuru? Izuku? Whatever it was he is just confused as to why he's here.
"Get out of here! It's nothing, hiss!"
"It doesn't look like nothing."
"Oh yeah, then what does it look like?" Yukari said in a condescending tone.
"It looks like a house cat is about to pounce on an unsuspecting bird."
"House cat?"
"Well, more like an unthreatening kitten."
That seemed to urk her because she turned her attention to the green-haired boy.
"Are you trying to be funny right now?" The human kitten started to sound annoyed. Who does this kid think he is?
"You asked me what it looked like," Izuku said unnerved by the girl.
Yukari was getting frustrated. No one ever talked to her liked that before, let alone so,e random boy. "You're the new kid, right?" she asked.
"Yeah"
"I get it you don't get how things go around here, meow," the ginger kitten said putting a paw on Izuku's shoulder. "You see, everyone around here listens to whatever I say and never talks back to me. Got It!" she explained hoping to strike a little fear into him.
"Well, I guess I'm not everyone then."
That got on Yukari's last nerve as she pounced at the kid that talked back to her. But instead of standing still and taking her scratches, the kid moved out of the way. She was shocked, no one ever dodged one of her attacks. She decided to ignore that tidbit and attacked him again. But every time she lunged at him, every time she tried to make contact with her claws he moved out of the way. This went on for a couple of minutes before she got tired.
"You know what," Yukari said in between breaths, "forget this." She walked away from the two boys in defeat.
Tokoyami was stunned. No one ever stood up for him let alone against Yukari. "Hey, you ok?" He was brought out of his trance when the green-haired boy spoke to him. "I'm fine, but why did you intervene?" It was a question he never thought he would ask. He had a hard time believing that someone would even come near him during lunch unless it was to torment him.
"It looked like you needed help," the greenette responded.
That shocked Tokoyami the most. No one ever helped him because they were either afraid of Dark Shadow or they thought he would use Dark Shadow as protection. Which he would never do because his parents say he would be breaking a quirk law.
"Was this your lunch?" the boy asked pointing to the now ruined tuna sandwich on the floor. Tokoyami now remembered that he doesn't have a lunch anymore. His stomach growled signaling that he hasn't eaten anything yet. He nodded in embarrassment.
"Do you want some of mine?" the boy raised his paper bag. "It's curry."
Tokoyami didn't really want to be a bother or take some of the kid's lunch but he was so hungry. "Please," he said a little embarrassed.
Izuku sat down at his table and took out a container that held his curry. He split it evenly so there was an equal amount of rice, udon, and bread for both of them. They dug into their lunch and ate in peaceful silence. Tokoyami finished first and not wanting to sit in an awkward silence he asked the green-haired kid a question. "I'm sorry but I forgot what your name was. But also what is your quirk?"
Izuku swallowed the food that was in his mouth and looked a Tokoyami. "My name is Izuku Midoriya and I'm quirkless."
