A/N: Hello everyone. I'm sorry this chapter took a little longer to make. I actually went back through every single chapter and did my best to correct all the mistakes, I even added little bits and pieces here and there ;3. But now is Chapter 10 and I'm going to keep up this clear and complete writing to the best of my ability. They may take a little longer to upload since I'm going to start reading through every chapter and correcting mistakes I've made, but this is just so you only get the best product. Enjoy!
Tuesday. After their time at the Leisure centre, it was safe to say that class 1-A were feeling much more energised and ready for the grind that was the run-up till the Final Exam. Izuku was quite happy to see that, after having a little personal time as a class, everyone was feeling refreshed and had returned to their normal selves, Mina especially. She was no longer spacing out or looking like she'd just been to a funeral, but rather she was just as smiley, carefree and lovable as she was when Izuku first met here.
However, the only one who wasn't feeling themself today was Izuku. Everyone had noticed that the Greenette looked completely downtrodden when coming into school today. Mina wanted to greet him at the start of the day; run up to him, hug him and embarrass him to get her morning going well, but she had to stop herself. His face was stern, almost like he was scalding some invisible child and his fists were clenched tightly.
It unsettled her slightly; compared to yesterday, he was a completely different person, and it was needless to say that she was worried. Obviously, everyone has their down days but, how sudden this was is what worried her most.
Was there a reason for this though? When she messaged him this morning, he seemed perfectly fine, so what had happened in that short space of time that had completely reversed his person now? She wanted to ask, but by the look on Izuku's face made her feel like he just wanted to be alone. It was a little hurtful to Mina; Hurtful in that she was feeling intimidated by the person she was closest too.
That was this morning however, lunch was now just beginning and all she was able to think about was her greenette friend. She had spoken to Kirishima, Toru and a few other students about this and they had all noticed too and had made a few of their own suggestions. It seemed Izuku hadn't made any communications with any of them or had even attempted to talk to them.
Toru suggested maybe he'd gone mute, which everyone agreed was a foolish assumption. To add to this, Izuku had spoken to Aizawa towards the end of the third period and left early without a word to anyone else. And so, that was the only person she could as about what was happening. Mr Aizawa.
"Mr Aizawa." Mina spoke up once Kaminari and Kirishima had followed the rest of the class out.
"Hmmm?" The blank-faced homeroom teacher hummed to show he was listening.
"It's about Midoriya..." She added a little cautiously. She hadn't thought about it at first, but there was a chance that whatever Izuku was going through was strictly private, and the last thing she wanted to deal with was shouting at from Aizawa for butting in.
"What about Midoriya?" He asked curiously, pushing his hands into his pockets, and turning away from the door to look at her.
"Well... You see, ever since he came in this morning, he's been acting really weird." She muttered, rubbing her arm uncomfortably as the erasure quirk user loomed over her like a conscious shadow.
"Mmmm... I must admit, I noticed that too." He replied quietly, a thoughtful tone in his voice as he scratched a small scar on his cheek. "Have any of you spoken to him today?" He asked, still sounding somewhat careless, although not as much as usual.
"No." Mina replied with a small, disheartened head shake.
"If ya don't mind me asking... What was it he said to you?" She asked courageously. To this, Aizawa lightly sighed and frowned at her a little, clearly contemplating whether it was any of her business, friend of his or not.
"He said he wanted to use the training equipment in the school gym." He said after a few seconds of uncomfortable silence.
"The training equipment? But we've only just been to the gym yesterday." Mina replied, her mind becoming overtaken by confusion and concern.
"I know, I heard you all planning it." Aizawa grumbled, looking down at the floor. "I don't know what's wrong with the boy. He's told me nothing else." He added with a sigh, shrugging, and standing aside assuming Mina's next course of action was to run out of the class and go look for him, which she did.
"Okay, thanks, Mr Aizawa!" She called, putting on her usual smile and skipping out of the door and down the hallway towards the gym.
He'd gone to train again. Izuku was known as one of the harder. No, hardest working students in the class, but this to Mina was taking it a step too far, especially after what had happened as of recently.
He'd almost permanently incapacitated his arms at the Sports Festival, he battled one on one villain Melodyne, he was almost killed by Hero Killer: Stain, he'd done his internship and trained to wield his powerful quirk and finally he'd trained yesterday with the others. He'd been pushing himself so hard recently and Mina couldn't understand by any means why he was still working himself so harshly.
He had a powerful quirk, he'd gained control over a small amount of that quirks power, he was able to really hold his own in a lot of situations and yet he still found it necessary to work himself as hard as this.
There had to be a reason for it, something that ensued this attitude in him; this blank, cold, and stern attitude that he'd had since coming into school this morning. She was really worried about him even though there was a chance it was nothing serious, but recently it was almost like the world had decided it wanted to target the boy for everything and anything he did. Maybe that was an overreaction on Mina's part, but that's how it was beginning to feel to her.
Down the stairs, around another corner and the School Gym was before her eyes. She could see Izuku through the small window, stopping to watch him a little before she went in. He was in his P.E uniform but it was soaked with sweat. His hair was sticking to his face and even from here, he looked like he was flopping around with fatigue. How hard had he been working himself in here to the point he looked that bad?
She did not want to stand and watch him any longer. No, she couldn't stand here watching. Clearly, he needed help, and she would be the one to give it to him. Knocking on the door she pushed into the room and quickly he snapped around to look at who it was that had come in.
"A-Ashido." He said in surprise, too tired to exclaim it like he usually did when she scared him.
"Midori... What the heck are you doing in here?" She asked, her voice full of concern as she slowly made her way towards him. He didn't try and get away from her like she'd expected him too, but rather stood there waiting for her, a look of guilt on his face.
"I... I was just... Training." He replied nervously, slowly looking down at the floor but glancing up at her every so often like a child who was being told off by their parent.
"Why? You literally just trained with us yesterday, and you've been in fights. If anything, you should stop training for a while. It's not fair on yourself to push this hard." She explained, a little sternness in her voice as she stood only about a foot away from him now.
"I...I-I..." He stuttered before a single small tear began to roll down his cheek.
"Come on Midori, what's wrong? This isn't like you and it's kinda scarin' me. I know you like to push yourself to achieve and you do it really well, but this is almost dangerous. Look at the state you're in. Come on, sit with me and have a drink, I've got water in my bag." She smiled, slowly reaching out and resting her hand on his shoulder, cocking her head with a cute smile as he desperately tried to suppress his tears.
She took his hand and led him over to a wall that was out of sight of the door so they wouldn't be interrupted. It was clear he had a lot on his chest he needed to get off it. She sat down first, holding her skirt as she did, before patting the floor beside her. Without a sound, he sat down close beside her, bring his knees up to his chest and resting his head on them.
"Talk to me man." She muttered, making herself comfortable and preparing to listen.
"I... I just... I heard some of the teachers... In the staff room, talking about Melodyne. They said he was a weak villain that was just deranged." He started, not taking his eyes from the padded floor.
"So? That's alright ain't it?" She asked curiously.
"N-No, it's not alright... I-I fought so hard against him and I... I struggled so hard to beat him. It made me realise... Just how weak I am compared to all of you. T-Think about it; Everyone has such incredible quirks, like your Acid, Kacchan's Explosion, Tokoyami's Shadow. A-All of you are so powerful and you all have stories, resolves and reasons to be fighting. Uraraka wants to help her parents, Todoroki wants to prove himself to his parents after what they did to him, Kacchan wants to be everything he believes he can be... T-Then there's me. I don't have a story or a resolve like them, the only reason I'm here is that I wanted to be like All Might... I wanted to... To save people with a smile..." He explained, doing his best not to cry the entire time he spoke.
"So? I think you have a good reason for fighting. I also think you're incredible for takin' on a villain like Melodyne and even Stain! I'll bet ya tried to fight against him too, even though he is so much stronger than you; he'd be stronger than everyone in our class. It takes a lot of guts to do what you do." She complimented, slowly reaching over to him, and taking his hand in hers, holding it tightly.
"T-That's not it though... I have a quirk that I've had... My whole life... and still I can't control it. I hurt myself every time I use it." He explained with a heavy sigh, not seeming too bothered that she'd taken his hand.
Mina listened intently, hanging onto everything he was telling her and feeling nothing but sympathy for him.
"Not anymore you don't. Ya have your new fighting style, right? The one where you can use ya quirk without doing any damage to your body and I've seen that it's just as powerful as you were when you didn't use that style." She complimented again, keeping her smile on her face to try and cheer him up.
"I-I... What I'm getting at is that I had to limit my quirk to be able to use it. Everyone else is pushing their quirks to be stronger but... Here I am trying to limit mine... I'm too weak and I... I don't know why." He explained. He was clearly still motivated; Mina could see that; there was passion and determination burning in his eyes that showed he wanted to work hard and overcome anything that was thrown at him.
The issue now was that he'd only ever worked hard, and he never stopped to take a break. He was human too; he had probably been dealing with these feeling like everyone else had for a while. If anything, they were probably worse for him because of what he expected of himself.
He was a strong guy with an incredible quirk, all everyone spoke about when he wasn't around was how they wanted to be like him. "What would Midoriya do?", "If only Midoriya were here!", "I want to push myself just as hard as Midoriya does."
He was the anchor point for the entire class; he was the engine that powered the whole thing, but it looked like he was running out of fuel. She wanted to give back the kindness he'd given her, that he'd given everyone in class 1-A.
"That doesn't matter, none of it does. Your one of the strongest people in our class by a long shot. Everyone admires ya and, I myself, think your incredible in every way. You knew you couldn't use your quirk at full power, so you spent time developing a limiter for yourself. That's a really hard thing to do ya know." She began, scooting closer and putting her arms around his neck, pulling him back to lean on her and resting her head on his.
"You keep all of us going. Nothing about'cha is weak and nothing you've done is bad. I never want you to change anything about you, I met you and... Ya opened my eyes to so much. You showed me what it really means to be a hero, you showed me what it takes to be a candidate to a pro and... You showed me so much and I could never thank you enough for.
You're my best friend. Best, Midori. I would do anything for you because I know you'd do the same for me." She explained, nothing but honesty in her voice, finishing what she was saying and planting a little kiss on his forehead.
"Ashido. I-I honestly don't know where I'd be without you." He replied, moving away from her and smiling. She'd said something that was purely from her heart and it had made him so much happier. He looked like he used to now, it was like she'd told him exactly what it was that he needed to hear. Something that might seem so small to others but to them, was huge.
"I don't think you'd be anywhere without me honestly. We're kinda nothing without each other." She replied with a laugh, secretly hoping he would agree with her. She wanted to tell him now how she felt now because she felt like this would be the best time to tell him. But she couldn't, not here, not now.
Then, he pulled her into a hug which shocked her from her thoughts.
"Thank you." He whispered, holding her as if he were about to lose her.
"That's okay. Remember I'm always here for ya." She muttered, gently resting her hand on his green hair, and beaming into space.
"You too." He replied with a chuckle. He knew he'd not replied in the right way, but he also knew that she'd understand what he meant. It was touching to know that she cared about him just as much as he cared about her. He knew that already; that she cared about his wellbeing, but it was nice to be told.
"The main thing I'm tryna get across to ya though, is that you shouldn't be pushing yourself this hard because it ain't healthy. So, get up and come to lunch with me; everyone's worried about you." She smiled, letting him go and resting on her knees with a small smile.
"Okay." He replied simply. Following her in getting to his feet and leaving the gym with a much lighter weight on his shoulders.
"There is something else I want to ask you Midori." Mina piped up as they headed down the hall again towards the changing rooms. "Why do you push yourself so hard?" She asked, raising an eyebrow at him.
"I... I don't really know... I just didn't feel like I was doing enough. I feel like I'm not living up to the expectations everyone has of me." He replied honestly.
"Well, you are doing enough. Actually, I think ya doing too much, so give it a break. Come out to the town with me again after school." She offered, a smile plastered across her face and he made his way into the boys changing rooms.
"That sounds like a good idea." He replied. His expression looked much lighter than it had before, and it brought a feeling of ease to her heart. With an even wider smile and a satisfied nod, she watched as he turned and disappeared behind the door.
She knew he wouldn't consider their meetings this way, but since they went out to Caspers she liked to think of their times together as dates. Getting to know one another well enough until she felt confident to admit her feelings.
It was exciting to think about; that she was preparing herself to admit how she felt. But she would be lying if she said she was more excited than she was scared. On the contrary, she was terrified. Would Izuku reciprocate these feelings? What if he didn't? It made both her heart and mind race. She knew he loved him now, it was obvious because it was all she could ever think about.
Before meeting him, she was distracted by almost everything, and her mind could wander anywhere because she'd always been a bit of an airhead. But since Izuku had come into her life, he was the only thing on her mind most of the time. She wouldn't mind this too much if it wasn't for the fact that, every time she thought of him, she wasn't able to do anything else. It was like a virus in her brain; he never affected her that badly at first but now he was all she could think about.
"O-Okay, I'm ready." He announced with a smile, his backpack slung over his shoulder and his hair looking freshly washed.
"Did you shower?" She asked, laughing and giving him a puzzled expression.
"Yeah... I shower really quickly, it's bathing that I'm slow with." He replied awkwardly before making his way over to her and the two continued towards the lunch hall. "I'm sorry for keeping you Ashido..." He muttered with a guilty look on his face.
"It's fine don't worry. There's only one problem I've got with you now though." She started, firing him a serious expression. His face quickly fell, and he looked as white as snow.
"Please... Please, stop calling me Ashido. Mina is fine but, I can't take you treating me so formally, it makes me feel distant from you." She explained, half-joking, half-serious.
"I-I... Okay, Mina." He replied quickly, although he fumbled on his words quite a bit.
"That's better. It's not that hard right?" She asked in a mocking way, although inside being addressed as such made her feel buzzy.
"I guess..." He stuttered, not looking up to her as they headed into the hall and into the canteen
"Deku!" Uraraka exclaimed as soon as he and Mina entered the dining hall. The brunette girl quickly got up from her seat, startling Iida and some of the other Class 1-A students in the process and dashed over to Izuku.
"Are you okay? I've been worried about you." She said, a small smile still on her face as she held Izuku by the arms and gazed up at him.
"I-I-I'm fine!" He blurted, backing his face away from hers a little, shocked by the sudden contact from someone who wasn't Mina.
"What happened earlier? You weren't yourself at all." She said, a sideways expression on her face.
"I agree with Uraraka, you weren't yourself at all Midoriya." Iida piped up, his expression soft and happy, but also slightly concerned.
"I know, I'm sorry if I worried you. J-Just had some stuff on my mind." Izuku replied with a sombre tone.
"Worry not! It's just good to see you're okay?" Iida exclaimed, getting up from his seat.
"Aaahahaha... Y-Yeah..." Izuku chuckled awkwardly before a real laugh made its way from his mouth. "Thanks, guys." He muttered before Mina wrapped her arms around his waist and rested her head on his shoulder.
"Can we eat now! I'm staaaarving!" She complained in his ear.
This sudden action not only startled Izuku a little bit but also Uraraka, who quickly let go of her nerdy friend and stepped back with a surprised look on her face.
"You don't have to wait for me before you start eating..." He stuttered, a shaky smile on his face and a small blush on his cheeks as he tried to ignore the eyes of the rest of his class that were now on the pair. He was getting better at ignoring others when Mina did stuff like this and everyone was noticing. However, it was clear that it still slightly bugged him, so she never pushed it too far if she could help it.
"I know." She replied, playfully squeezing him before skipping over to a free seat between Jiro and Koji, with Izuku taking his place between Uraraka and Bakugo, who hadn't even acknowledged the greenette's existence since he'd arrived. This was much better than being yelled at or wished death upon, however, so Izuku didn't have any complaints.
"Has anyone actually started studying for the Final Exam yet by the way?" Kaminari spoke up, staring down at his plate with a slightly perturbed expression. Everyone on the class A-1 table froze and exchanged unsettled glances.
"I haven't, it completely slipped my mind!" Momo exclaimed, running her fingers through her hair as she mentally scolded herself for forgetting; Even Tsuyu looked slightly concerned.
"I didn't forget, I just can't get my head around any of it." Mineta added, looking down the table at Kaminari, who changed his gaze from his food to the Pop-Off quirk user.
"I have an idea!" Momo exclaimed suddenly causing everyone to avert their attention to her. "What about we do a whole class study session at my house! I know some of you may not want to come or will necessarily need it." She began explaining.
"That's a great idea Momo! I'm sure it'd benefit everyone to study together, that way with our combined knowledge we'd easily be able to cover all the topics each of us is struggling on. That's put us at a huge advantage in the final exam-." Izuku smiled before going into a muttering word-vomit spree.
"Midori." Mina interrupted. More than just her eyes focused on the freckled, top of the class teenager again. Quickly he looked down at his lunch box, a blush appearing on his cheeks and a slightly unsettled feeling in his stomach.
"Yes... Buuut I think it could be really good for all of us. Even for people like Midoriya, Todoroki and the others." Momo continued with an enthusiastic smile.
"Sounds good to me!" Mina exclaimed again, getting up from her seat with a passionate fist clenched.
"I wouldn't mind..." Izuku commented timidly.
"I will also attend." Todoroki perked up, surprising everyone a little, although Momo looked more over the moon than surprised. Normally he would turn down an offer such as this one, but he seemed somewhat keen this time around.
"Is that everyone then?" Momo asked. A wave of nods came over the group and even Bakugo gave a subtle nod which brought a small smile to the greenette's face. Izuku knew why this was though; Bakugo was probably going to do what he did when they were kids and just copy what Izuku was doing, but it would be nice for him to spend a little more time with the class anyway.
"Brilliant! I look forward to having you over! I was thinking we could all have some sort of pizza party a little later in the evening to make it a little more exciting! Of course, we won't start today because I need to discuss a suitable study day with my parents, but-." Momo began, ranting on and on a lot like Izuku did when he thought out loud.
"Calm down Momo. Continue like that and you could be the new Midoriya." Shoji cut in, one of his arm ends taking the form of a smiling mouth.
"Oh! S-Sorry." She muttered, quickly falling silent and looking at the floor which gave Izuku a small chuckle. She was a little bit like him now he thought about it.
It was now the end of the day. Most of their time in class was used to study theory and do more than enough written work. Izuku didn't mind this, besides the fact that he struggled to write with his crooked hand a little bit. Every so often through the classes, Mina would look over her shoulder and fire him an encouraging smile before going back to her own work and it was almost like fuel for him.
He felt a little bit better every time he saw the pink-skinned girl's toothy grin. Now though they were free from the hard work of the classroom, and Class 1-A were saying their goodbyes before filtering out of the room one by one.
"Ahhhh, that suuuucked." Mina complained, throwing her arms above her head, and leaning over the back of the chair at Tsuyu, who was packing her bag with a small grin on her face.
"I found it rather interesting actually." She commented with a quiet croak.
"What about you Midoriya?" She turned to Izuku with light-hearted expression, to which he smiled back at.
"I-It was alright." He replied simply, swinging his bag onto his shoulder and tucking his chair in. "How do you get home Tsu?" He asked, making his way over to the two girls as Mina picked herself up and began messily shoving her things into her own backpack.
"I walk. I don't live very far from here." She replied with a shrug.
"Do ya wanna walk with us? You live pretty close to the train station we have to go to." Mina offered before Izuku could offer himself.
"I don't mind, although it'd be nice to have someone to talk to." The frog quirk user replied with a shrug, also getting up and moving her bag to her back.
"Awesome!" Mina finished clapping her hands as she got up and nodded towards the door. "Come on, let's get the hell outta here. We always seem to be last to go anywhere" She sighed before leading the two green-haired teenagers out of the classroom and down the hall.
"S-So, do you have any plans for the rest of the day Tsu?" Izuku asked, turning his attention to the greenette girl beside him.
"Not really. I never usually do much after school." She replied with another shrug. "What about you two?" She fired back, glancing between Izuku and Mina, who'd begun walking close beside her freckled friend. Not quite sure what to tell her, Izuku turned to Mina. He remembered her mentioning she wanted to hang out after school, but he wasn't sure if that was still going to happen or not.
"We were going to head into town for a few hours. D'ya wanna come?" The acid quirk user replied with a smile.
Tsuyu was quiet, thinking for a moment before shaking her head.
"Nah it's okay. I don't want to third wheel you." She replied with a careless tone.
"Are you sure?" Izuku asked, just to make sure she wasn't just saying that. Tsuyu was like him in that she wouldn't want to go out somewhere with someone if she thought she was going to get in the way.
"Yeah I'm sure, don't worry Midoriya." She replied with a flattered smile. This brought a content feeling to the One For All quirk user and he gave her a smile back.
"Well... I'll meet up with you sometime. Message me when your free and I'm sure we'll find something to do." He offered. Tsuyu looked a little surprised by this offer and turned her gaze down at the floor with a grin on her face.
"Thank you." She replied simply with a timid croak, even though she probably felt like saying more. Mina felt a little stirred up by this, which she quickly scalded herself for. She knew she liked Izuku but that wasn't an excuse to feel this way towards someone like Tsuyu; the Frog quirk user was a close friend to the both of them. Izuku cared a lot about her too, Mina knew that as well as anyone else and it would be wrong of her to try separating the two friends.
"You okay Ashido?" Tsuyu asked, startling the pink-skinned girl from her thoughts.
"Huh? Oh yeah, I'm alright." She replied quickly, putting on a smile and cocking her head a little. "So Midori, whad'ya wanna do today?" She asked, striking up some conversation with her timid friend whilst Tsuyu answered a phone call, probably from her parents.
"I don't know... I'm don't mind what we do... I'll be happy with anything." He replied with a crooked smile, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly.
"Oh damn. I was hoping you'd have some ideas cause I don't have any." Mina laughed, holding up her hands as the neared the train station.
A/N: So how about that? A little more of a relaxed chapter than usual but I think it was enjoyable all the same. The next chapter will be another day completely focused on Izuku, Mina and the shenanigans they get up to.
What about Izuku's offer to Tsuyu though! I wonder if she'll take him up on it? Hmmmm. Anyway, support on this story has been amazing and so many people seem very keen on the new chapter, so I hope you enjoyed it and that it lived up to your expectations. If you did enjoy it then send me a review, follow the story and maybe even favourite it! I love you long time! Have a good rest of your day and I'll see you in the next one. Take care!
-ElliottChap