Chapter V: A Very Productive Day
"All right, Class 1-A! Today was a very productive day! You all learned a thing or two about your classmates, and most importantly, yourselves! Think of what your classmates and I have said about your performances, and apply them to our next exercise!" said All Might, standing proudly in front of his class.
"Yes, Sensei!" chorused 1-A, and then they all went back to their locker rooms to get changed back into their uniforms before heading home.
As the boys were walking back together with the girls tagging behind, Midoriya felt someone tap his shoulder.
"Green. Let me tell you something," said Bakugou, sounding rather tame compared to his usual self.
"Yeah, what's up?" asked Midoriya, who was then whisked off by Bakugou to somewhere a bit farther from the boys.
"Remember what Aizawa-sensei told us about grapefruit?" whispered Bakugou, leaning in a bit closer so fewer people could hear him.
"Oh yeah, that. Did he do some whacky shit? I remember he was paired with Uraraka-san or something," replied Izuku, the thought of this random midget sexually harassing one of his rather closer friends making him feel revolted.
"Yeah. Fucker tried to grab her ass like, four times. Good thing she was kinda aware of it, I guess?" said Bakugou, noticing the girls pass by the two of them, with the one they were just talking to wave to them. Bakugou answered with a glare, and Izuku nodded towards her direction to wordlessly greet her, as he was still focused on the conversation that he and the blonde were having.
"That's that, then. Do we give it to him straight or do we warn him first?" asked Izuku, who probably asked that question to look a bit more merciful.
He knew he was going with the first option.
He knew that Bakugou was too.
"Nah, people like him don't stop until they're forced to. Here's how we're gonna bash this guy's skull in," said Bakugou, gesturing for Izuku to come closer so that he could tell him the plan he came up with more discreetly.
"I like the way you think, Bakugou-san," replied Izuku, who then proceeded to continue walking back to the locker rooms.
"You bet. Bait him in good, alright?" said Bakugou, following suit.
"Sure, no problem."
"What were those two psychos up to?" asked Jirou, hands resting on the back of her head.
"Did you really have to call them that?" sweatdropped Mina, who was right beside her.
"Well, maybe Bakugou's the psycho between the two of 'em. Midoriya-san seems like he's a good guy," replied the punk girl, pulling out a lollipop from her pocket.
"Oh, he is! He saved my life in the Entrance Exam from the zero-pointer! That was the only time I saw him, so I didn't expect him to be really strong!" commented Uraraka-san, overhearing their conversation.
"Well, I guess he let his score speak for itself. Midoriya-san doesn't have a quirk as flashy as Bakugou-san or Todoroki-san, but he looks like he always knows what to do with it," commented Tsu.
"Tell me about it. I wonder how Midoriya-kun thought up a way to deal with three of our strongest fighters in class in just five minutes and make all his creations and set them up so quickly. If I was in his shoes, I wouldn't even be sure what to do," sighed Momo, remembering how the green-haired teenager took her classmates out with zero to no effort.
"I know, right? I don't know if Aizawa-san did this on purpose to see what he'd do, but I'm kinda excited to see what he does next in a fight!" exclaimed Mina.
"Maybe you could learn a thing or two from him, Yaomomo-chan. He's hot too, so after you get better at fighting with your quirk, you can try learning about him instead, eh?" teased Jirou, nudging Yaoyorozu-san with her shoulder.
"H-hey! It's the second day of class, let's not think about things like that yet!" exclaimed the girl in question, trying to use her hands to cover her very red face.
"Not yet, huh, Yaomomo? Maybe tomorrow or next week then?" added Mina.
"N-no, I didn't mean it like that!" replied Yaoyorozu, even more flustered than before.
"Chill, Yaomomo, we're just teasing. Although, I think you should actually get some help from him. Maybe you'll learn a thing or two from each other, right?" said Jirou.
"That does sound like a good idea. Maybe during some free time, or something like that," thought Momo, her face starting to revert to its natural state.
As the girls reached their locker room, they continued their conversation about today's classes while getting back into their uniforms.
They were cut off short after they heard some suspicious things from the other side of the wall.
"Oh shit, boys, look what I found!" exclaimed Mineta, pointing to something on the wall.
"What? What is it?" asked Denki, getting closer to the grape-headed teen.
"Look! There's a hole in the wall! This is a blessing from our senpais!" he exclaimed, basking in the ambience before putting his eye on the hole.
Unfortunately, that was the closest he could get to actually seeing anything.
He felt a hand on his shoulder turning him towards the guy behind him, and lo and behold, in all his rage, Bakugou Katsuki.
"Dumbass. That's a fake hole. Green put it there so that we'd catch you live," said the blonde, cracking his knuckles.
In an attempt that was vain, Mineta tried to look through the hole, only to be met with the paper-like texture of the "hole".
Turns out, he got all excited over a mere sticker.
"We got you now, dumbass," said Bakugou, picking up the little runt from the hem of their shirt. With not-so-surprising strength, he dragged Mineta off to god knows where, with the purple boy being able to do nothing but scream for help.
"Alright. Well, don't go trying to peep on anyone now, alright? You gotta deal with that Aizawa-sensei, and worse, that guy," said Izuku, pointing his thumbs towards the door, where they could hear the echoes of Mineta's wails.
The remaining boys (and the girls that overheard the interaction) sweatdropped at the two teens' behavior.
'Scary...'
Taking Uraraka to the teachers' parking lot (she was surprised, too) to fulfill his promise to give her a ride home, the two of them got on the bike and rode off.
The two of them tried talking to each other about today's class in the short time that they were audible to each other, such as in between traffic, or when Izuku couldn't really speed around as fast as he wanted to.
After the rather long ride, Midoriya dropped Uraraka off at her apartment.
"Thank you! Take care on the way home. You were really cool today!" said Uraraka, standing at the door to her apartment.
"Sure, no problem. And thanks, you were pretty cool too," replied Izuku, giving her a small smile.
"Teach me some of those moves sometime, alright? Bye!" she waved off, closing the door behind her.
Shaking his head a little while chuckling, Izuku got back to his motorcycle, and then he decided to walk around Uraraka's area, which was quite far from the center of town, to get some fresh air.
He sat in a patch of grass for a while, admiring the scenery.
The sunset painted the horizon with shades of orange and purple, which had all blended in together perfectly, despite their contrasting nature.
The falling leaves of trees adorned the air, acting like a million falling stars that tainted the sky's hues with bits of green and yellow.
A small sparrow perched itself onto one of Izuku's fingers, letting out a few joyful chirps before flying off into the distance.
'Sometimes, it's nice to be alive.'
Once it was dark enough, much to his chagrin, he stood up and went back to his motorcycle, deciding to stop by a convenience store for some groceries. He was running out of stuff to drink at home, and he had this random urge to go and eat instant noodles for tonight.
While he was picking out some drinks from the store's refrigerators, his eyes met the familiar onyx gaze of one of his classmates.
"Good evening, Yaoyorozu-san. What brings you here?" asked Izuku, wondering why the well-off heir of the Yaoyorozu Industries was outside shopping for her own groceries.
"Oh! You startled me, Midoriya-san. I'm just here to buy something to eat. Class ended a bit late, so when I wanted to head to the supermarket, it was already closed," replied Momo, explaining her current situation.
"Cool. You live nearby?" he pressed.
"Yeah. I've told my parents that I've wanted to become a bit more independent, since, y'know, new school and all, so I live in an apartment close by," she answered, proceeding to grab some cola from the fridge while maintaining eye contact.
"Good to know. I live close by, too, so if you ever need anything, just tell me, alright?" said Izuku, reassuring tone and all.
"Likewise," she said with a cheery tone and a small smile on her face.
As the two of them lined up at the counter to pay for what they wanted to buy, two gunshots rang out from the outside the store, causing everyone in the building to duck.
The civilians around them let out panicked screams, which only stopped once the robbers had stated their demands.
"Everybody get down on the ground! Now! Hands on your head or we'll blow it off! Clerk! We want all the money in that register!" they threatened, entering the store with their guns out.
There were two of them, which didn't seem like they'd take much effort to take down.
Luckily enough, Izuku managed to drag Momo and himself behind a shelf close to the counter before the robbers could enter the store.
Izuku saw that Momo was hyperventilating, and he began to try calming her down.
"What do we do, Midoriya-kun? T-they have guns! What if they start shooting more peop-" breathily said Yaoyorozu, up until Izuku put his hands on her shoulders.
"Calm down, Yaoyorozu-san. Deep breaths. Take it easy," whispered Izuku.
The girl nodded in response, trying to stay as quiet as possible to not attract the robbers to their position. Her breathing slowed down little by little, and after a while, she was in a better state.
Once Izuku could tell that she was composed enough to stay still, he left her there, and he began to slowly stand up.
"You'll be fine. I'm here."
Standing up, he threw a marble at one of the robbers, which got their attention.
"Ow! What the hell?" said the robber, the side of his head now bleeding.
The freshly thrown marble then popped out into a grey bloom of smoke, covering the area around the robbers along with themselves.
Once the robber that had been had looked towards the direction of the projectile, all he saw was a boy lunging at him, his fist, adorned with brass knuckles, mere centimeters away from his face.
Once the fist had connected, Izuku instantly turned to the sounds made by other robber through the smoke, who was still shocked that this random high school student had taken out his partner so fast.
Trying to shoot the boy once the he had a glimpse of him, Izuku kicked the gun downwards predictively, causing the robber to shoot himself in the foot instead. Crying out in pain, the robber took a similar punch to the face from the same set of brass knuckles, the pain from both the upper and lower halves of his body too much for him to bear. Falling to his knees, he tried to desperately resist Izuku, who was pinning him to the ground.
"What the fuck! Who do you think you are kid? I'll fuck you up!" shouted the robber to Izuku, which was answered by a needle plunging in to his arm.
"Ow! What the fuck was that?"
"Quirk suppressor. Just in case you try anything funny," replied Izuku, who was now forming some rope to tie the two robbers up.
Sighing, Izuku stood up and took a look around him.
Man, he just wanted some noodles and a good night's sleep.
Damned villains, always ruining his plans.
Getting to the center of the store where he was sure everybody could hear him, he began to talk to everyone involved in the incident.
"Hey, everyone. Calm down, situation's under control and the police should be on their way soon. Let's get you out of this place safely, yeah?" he instructed, to which the people agreed to.
No way in hell were they disobeying someone who had just saved their lives.
Soon enough, the police had arrived to take statements from the witnesses and take the villains into custody.
As expected, Detective Tsukauchi was there to greet Izuku.
"Thank goodness you were here, Midoriya-san. Judging from the criminal records of these villains you've apprehended, I wouldn't like to imagine what would've went down if you weren't here," said Detective Tsukauchi.
"Shit, really? I didn't think they were like that. Were they that bad?" asked Izuku, looking over the folder Tsukauchi was holding.
"Yup. The other guy has been in-and-out of jail for a while, and the guy that shot himself in the foot has a few cases of murder under his belt. I guess they didn't use their quirks because they didn't expect anyone to stop them," explained Tsukauchi, pointing towards their details in the file.
"Makes sense. Are the people done giving out their statements? A classmate of mine got roped into this, and I think I have to take them home now," asked Izuku, trying to peek through the crowd.
"Oh, you must be talking about Yaoyorozu-san. Yes, she's done giving her statement. She's a little bit shaky, so please, take care of her for a while, alright? You're the only one she knows who's here," said Tsukauchi, putting his hand on the boy's shoulder.
"I know. I'll take care of it," said Izuku, walking towards the girl, who he finally saw among the crowd.
She was close to one of the ambulances, rubbing her arms as if she was cold.
She hadn't gotten back to her apartment yet, judging by the fact that she was still in her school uniform.
"Hey, Yaoyoruzu-san. Are you feeling better now?" asked Izuku, a look of concern all over his face.
"Y-yeah, I feel a bit better. Thanks for calming me down earlier," she replied, her eyes scanning the green-haired teen all over.
He didn't seem to have any injuries, but from looking at his eyes, she could see that he was really tired from today's events.
Well, she was too, but she wasn't the one that fought a three on one against other promising hero hopefuls and then some random criminals who wanted to rob the store he was in.
"No problem. It's what heroes do," replied Izuku, giving her a small, soft smile.
She couldn't help but smile back.
"I think I should get you home. The police are done with the stuff here, and we have classes tomorrow, so I think we should just rest and call it a day, yeah?" offered Izuku, to which Momo could do nothing but nod at.
She couldn't exactly head home by herself.
Not in that state of mind.
She knew it, and he probably knew it too.
Getting on Izuku's bike, she told him her address, and the two of them silently rode there. Momo clung to the boy in front of her more tightly than she should've, not really caring about anything but the security that his presence had made her feel.
When they got there, Izuku escorted her up the apartment complex, and when they got to her door, he stood outside.
"Here we are. I think you should just order some food and sleep as early as you can, yeah?" suggested Izuku.
"Can you maybe, stay, just for a little while?" she shyly asked, not wanting to lose the momentary comfort that he offered.
Izuku could understand.
While the two of them barely knew each other, since it was just the second day of class and all that, he couldn't really turn her down.
They were two exhausted and drained students who had just undergone something no student should ever encounter during their lifetime.
Well, apart from Izuku, but he chose this life.
And he'll do his best to enjoy everything it offers.
"Sure. I'll be here for as long as you need me," he answered, which made the girl faintly blush.
Faint enough to not be noticeable.
As she let him inside, the two of them sat in silence, waiting for their food to arrive.
"Midoriya-kun, isn't using your quirk in public with no authorization illegal? Why'd the police let you off the hook?" asked Momo, breaking the silence between the two of them.
"Oh, well, long story short, I used to be a vigilante. Some hero caught me after a few years, and told me that I could do great things if I just came with him for a while," he replied. She then noticed the familiar flash of blue form on his palm.
"They trained me for a bit, and now, they sometimes take me on missions that happen around town. Here, look at my provisional license," said Izuku, handing her the freshly formed card.
She read the contents of the card, and then handed it back to him. He then snapped his fingers to make it disappear.
Suddenly, everything made sense to her.
'So that's why he's good at everything he does.'
It wasn't just an insane amount of talent that had held Midoriya Izuku up so high.
It wasn't his quirk, either.
It was his hard work and his experience.
'Well, Jirou-san, I guess you got your wish. I got to know a bit more about him.'
"You've been nothing short of impressive the more that I get to know you, Midoriya-kun. I'm sure you'll make a fine, proper hero one day," said Momo, giving him a sweet, congratulating smile.
"I know you will be too, Yaoyorozu-san. You're in U.A. for a reason, alright? Make all of us proud," he replied, smiling back while ruffling her hair, which was currently not tied into her usual ponytail.
At a loss for words, all she could do was hug him, and he gladly returned the gesture back.
The two of them enjoyed the wholesome, carefree atmosphere for a while, forgetting all of their responsibilities as practically the nation's future.
Then, at probably the worst timing, the apartment's doorbell rang.
The two of them broke off the hug, both of them quite flustered, knowing that the deed was done.
"I'll get it!" said the boy, leaving Momo alone for a few moments.
Paying for the food, Izuku brought the food down to the closest table he could find, and the two of them ate in peace.
They could only get fast food, since those were the only places left that were open at the time, but at that point, they'd take anything they could eat.
After they had finished, the two of them cleaned up, and Izuku began to make his way to the door. She followed suit, wanting to see him off.
"Thanks for having me, Yaoyorozu-san. I'll keep in touch. Rest well, alright?" he told her, standing outside her door.
"I will. Thank you, as well, for everything. Take care on the way home," she replied, a small, very genuine smile present on her face.
"Don't worry about me," he replied, returning the gesture.
As she waved him off, Izuku ran back to his bike, and he drove home as fast as he could.
Finally getting to his own place, he threw his backpack to the side, changed into whatever clothes he could, and then he fell face-first into his mattress.
He was tired as hell.
He just wanted to sleep away all the shit that happened today.
Maybe All Might was right.
Today was a very productive day.