Disclaimer: I do not own My Hero Academia/Boku No Hero Academia, or any other property in this work that I did not make myself.
Vlad King's Green Bean
Chapter five: Moving on
It was the day of the memorial assembly to honor those who had lost their lives in the villain attack on the USJ. Izuku, who was leading his class through UA to get to the auditorium (Kan-sensei was there a head of time for unspecified reasons) felt somber as he thought about the five students in Class 1-A who had been killed. Five persons he'd never get to know, get to try to befriend, to see get to become pro heroes as they same as him were also working towards that goal.
"Hey, I heard that Aizawa-sensei is going to be given his pick of first year students here at UA not already in the hero course to transfer into 1-A," Yui Kodai whispered to Reiko Yanagi, although Izuku was close enough that he was able to hear, "Something to do with how the hero course classes here need to be at max capacity or something."
"Don't you think that filling spots like that so soon might be a bit too soon for some folks?" Reiko whispered back, "Especially the surviving 1-A students. They lost five classmates, and now they're going to get five new ones as if it's nothing. How would they feel about that?"
"Can't say," Yui said, "But what I can say is this. It'll be Aizawa-sensei making the picks. He's known to have very high standards. So you can bet your bottom yen that those he picks will be the cream of the crop."
"Who the hell uses the phrase 'cream of the crop' anymore?" Togaru spoke up, making both Yui and Reiko jump a bit.
Turning to look at the mantis boy, Yui scolded, "We're having a private conversation here, Kamakiri!"
"Yeah, no eavesdropping!" Reiko added.
As Izuku gently shook his head, Itsuka who was helping him lead the class said to him, "It's rather surprising that they're acting as casual as they are, as if we aren't going to a memorial assembly over in the auditorium."
"I'm sure they're trying to deal with schoolmates dying in their own way, Kendo," Izuku assured his vice rep, "Everyone mourns differently."
Itsuka nodded in agreement. "Yeah, and I saw some of how Tokage was coping with how five of our peers were killed." Itsuka gently shook her head. "...And yet people wonder why I sometimes ask with all due respect how Tokage was able to get into UA on recommendation."
As Izuku gently laughed off Itsuka's wondering, Juzo, Yosetsu, and Nirengeki came jogging up to follow him. "Yo Midoriya," Yosetsu said, "We gonna find seats in the auditorium together?"
"Yeah sure," Izuku said, "Although we'll have to make room for Iida and Uraraka from 1-A. They're wanting to sit with me, partly because there are going to be large portraits of those who were killed, and Iida and Uraraka are going to identify them to me."
Juzo nodded in understanding. "Yeah, those Iida and Uraraka persons seem like cool folks. I also gotta give props to that Tokoyami guy." The mention of Tokoyami reminded Izuku that the girl who Tokoyami was crushing on, one Tsuyu Asui, is one of the five students who were killed in the USJ attack. Izuku would probably be able to identify Asui first out of the portraits of the dead students as she's the only girl out of those five.
The green haired boy felt his heart reach out for the surviving 1-A students; after all, they had lost five of their own, five classmates and friends. But Tokoyami was feeling a unique pain that came with Asui having died. He had romantic feelings for Asui, and yet now he'll never be able to ask her out, or even enjoy a first kiss. Izuku knew that he'd feel similarly as lost if the girl that he had a crush on had died in the violence at the USJ.
Seeing Uraraka alive, therefore, brought some measure of relief to Izuku's heart.
Soon enough, Class 1-B made it to the auditorium. Izuku and Itsuka led their classmates inside, and soon enough saw that there were plenty of seats. The 1-B students more or less spread out, but Izuku and the guys in 1-B he was friends with spotted Iida wave them over; they also saw that Iida was accompanied by Uraraka and Tokoyami, who had Dark Shadow sitting on his head this time.
Izuku and his friends sat down in the seats directly behind Iida, Uraraka, and Tokoyami. When he was seated, Izuku looked ahead and saw the large portraits of the fallen on stage, the kind of large portraits that you see at funerals. Each of the six portraits were adorned with simple funerary portrait ribbons.
Going from Izuku's left to his right, he saw a woman wearing a bulky white astronaut outfit, a girl with long dark greenish hair, a blonde haired boy with his hair combed neatly, a boy with short brown hair and somewhat thick lips, a shy looking boy who looked to have a literally rocky complexion, and a short boy with purple balls for hair. Izuku pointed to the portrait of the girl next to the astronaut woman.
"...Tokoyami," Izuku began, "I take it that's Asui?"
Tokoyami nodded grimly in confirmation. "...Yes, that's her alright. The blonde one next to her is Monoma, then next to him is Sato, then next to Sato is Koda, then next to Koda is Mineta."
"Yo 1-A guys," Yosetsu began, "How are you all dealing with the deaths of your classmates?"
Uraraka sniffled a bit. "...Our classmate Jiro," Uraraka began, "Who had been the most vengeful out of all of the girls in our class towards Mineta's perverted behavior, said she's actually somewhat glad that Mineta won't be bothering us anymore. She did however clarify that she would have preferred that Mineta be kicked out of UA and arrested for said perverted behavior rather than be killed, though."
"Monoma was less troublesome," Iida said, "Given he wasn't perverted and preferred to boast a lot. It still got on the nerves of some of us, Bakugo especially so, but it certainly wasn't anything that any of us would have wished the fate Monoma got onto him."
"Didn't he die killing the villain leader?" Dark Shadow asked, "I mean, it sucks that the blonde hysteric holler monkey died regardless, but at least he got one hell of a way to go out."
Iida nodded in agreement. "...A truly heroic way to go, I suppose." Continuing on to Izuku and the other 1-B boys who were there, Iida said, "Sato and Koda were generally agreeable fellows who had never gotten on anyone's nerves, unless you count Bakugo being steamed they died before they could 'give him a proper fight'."
Izuku looked curious. "What to do mean, Iida?"
"Bakugo, along with our classmate Kirishima," Iida began to explain, "Fought and defeated Sato and Koda when we did a Battle Trial exercise. Bakugo felt that he won too easily, and more or less demanded to Sato and Koda to get better and give him a proper challenge in the future. Kirishima had no say in anything here, by the way, and I doubt that Kirishima cared enough to want a rematch with Sato and Koda."
Izuku smiled a bit, not surprised by Bakugo taking the deaths of two of his classmates in that fashion. "...How are you all taking Asui's death?" Izuku asked.
Uraraka and Tokoyami both looked downcast, although Iida looked somber but able to explain. "All of the girls in class," Iida began to explain, "Uraraka included, are still upset over Asui's death. Our classmate Ashido even remarked that she loved it when Asui showed photos on her phone of her two younger siblings."
"Fumi here and I actually met Asui's little bro and little sis," Dark Shadow said, "They were both devastated and crying their eyes out when Fumi and I brought them and their parents the bad news." The sentient quirk hung his head. "...I especially hated seeing Asui's little bro cry like that. That kid's a rare precious little bean, and seeing him cry because he was told someone who meant the world to him was killed, it... it just pierces your heart, ya know?"
Izuku turned to look at Tokoyami. "...How are you dealing with Asui's death, Tokoyami?"
The bird headed boy let out a resigned sigh. "...I feel as if Asui had taken a significant piece of my heart with her when she had been lost to the void. It will be, I believe, quite some yet before I'm back to the point where I was at before said piece of my heart began inching towards Asui."
Soon after that, everyone in the auditorium came to hush up when a number of UA staff members, led by Nezu who took to the podium on stage, walked onto the stage. Izuku saw Kan-sensei, along with Inui-sensei, Aizawa-sensei, Yamada-sensei, Kayama-sensei, and a few other teachers he was too zoned out to recognize, stand side by side behind where Nezu stood. The animal principal gave a forced cough to clear his throat before he began.
"...What happened at the beginning of this school week," Nezu said, "Was something that never should have occured. But because of the vile cruelty of the very fiends you all stand against as UA students, five of your peers and a teacher had lost their lives. There is nothing that can be done to replace what was taken from us, what was taken from six different families. All that we as UA can do now..." Nezu paused, took a breath to steady himself.
He held a paw out, facing upwards, before clenching it tightly into a fist. "...Is work harder than ever to ensure that such a tragedy never happens again." Nezu lowered his clenched paw, unclenching it in the process, back down onto the podium. "Now, there are some announcements that have to be made in relation to this tragedy. First off, the rumored plans of constructing on site dorms, which I can confirm now are true, will be sped up. This is being done to increase security for everyone at UA, student and staff alike."
Hearing Principal Nezu announce the expedition and confirmation of the on site dorms surprised Izuku in more ways than one. The announcement not only confirmed that the rumors of said dorm buildings were true, but it told Izuku that he and his classmates were now going to be living on UA grounds. UA was already the dream school that Izuku wanted to go to, and now he was actually going to be living there.
Holding up a paw, Nezu went on, "Second, as I'm certain some of you might object to this, but due to the security risk that was made apparent in the attack at the USJ, the staff of UA and I have all come to the full agreement that the UA Sports Festival this year has to be canceled. This is due to how-" Even before Nezu was able to get a quarter of the way through his explanation, many of the students in the auditorium began objecting.
Izuku, although he wasn't among those objecting, was still surprised; another reason why he wanted to go to UA was due to how he had wanted to compete in the UA Sports Festival. This year would of been his first go at it, but now that wasn't happening because the Sports Festival was cancelled for this year. The green haired boy, although he wasn't happy that he wouldn't get to compete in the UA Sports Festival, saw the reasoning behind the announcement of said event's cancellation; UA had suffered a massive security breech that claimed half a dozen lives.
Looking around, Izuku saw that Bakugo was among the (many, many) students vocally complaining about the cancellation of the UA Sports Festival. Izuku wasn't surprised by that, Bakugo was the kind of guy who loved proving himself. Hell, Izuku could see himself under different circumstances joining Bakugo in jeering out over how the UA Sports Festival this year had to be cancelled. But the word of the UA staff, Principal Nezu especially so, was final.
It took Yamada-sensei using his quirk to amplify his voice to be louder than the jeering students to yell at the audience to zip it for them to settle down. After the audience was quiet did Nezu go on to explain why the Sports Festival was cancelled, as well as how pro heroes would be able to swing on by to pick out who to take on as interns. A lot of the students were still unamused with how there's not going to be a Sports Festival this year, but the ones in the hero course at least were appeased as they could still be scouted by pro heroes.
That was something that Izuku was looking forward to, being scouted by a pro hero so he could learn the ins and outs of the pro hero business, not to mention maybe even get a better handle on the One For All quirk that All Might had passed on to him. It made Izuku feel blessed that things had more or less already happened for him to be scouted by a pro hero to be their intern, given that he was set to learn under All Might's old teacher, Gran Torino.
And since he already had a pro hero to intern under, Izuku didn't necessarily have to worry about training to prove himself to train under a pro hero. But he remembered that not everyone was as lucky as him. The others still aiming for internships had to work to prove themselves. Izuku prayed that they all succeeded in getting a pro hero's attention and are able to learn the ropes of the pro hero business. He owes that hope to them.
They all owe it to those lost to be able to move on.
At the beginning of the following school day over in the 1-A homeroom, Uraraka looked over at the desk in the classroom that used to be occupied by Tsuyu. Sure, the gravity girl was sad over all five of the deaths her class had suffered, but she was particularly sad over Tsuyu's death. Uraraka really felt that she and the late Frog Girl could have become the best of friends. Uraraka was even going to ask Tsuyu for help to find 'the plain looking boy', to see if he made it into UA.
Well he did, and his name is Izuku Midoriya. The only thing is that Uraraka didn't find him until after Tsuyu was killed. She had lost a friend that she felt she was growing close to, but had found the boy who saved her in return. Was it too much to ask to have more than one person at UA that she could be close with? Uraraka gently shook her head, banished that thought from her mind. No, she should not be thinking like that. Tsuyu wouldn't tolerate Uraraka being down in the dumps on her count.
Looking around, Uraraka saw some of the others in class talking. She saw Sero and Shoji try to cheer Tokoyami up. She saw Hagakure, Yaoyorozu, Jiro, and Ashido talking in a group, and half-expected one of them (probably Ashido) to try to drag her into the conversation. Curious, Uraraka was about to get up, but she stopped short when Aizawa-sensei walked into the room, followed by five random students who had all caught the attention of the remaining 1-A students.
The first one was a boy with a tired looking expression, similar to Aizawa's own, and he had purple hair that stood up on its own. The second student was another boy, equally as tall as Shoji, with a slender build and long, pitch black hair. The third student was yet another boy, with chin lengh black hair and a slight scar under one of his eyes.
The fourth student was a girl who had brown hair in a bob cut like Uraraka, but the fourth girl had pointy cat like ears rather than normal human ears, and she had a proportionately long cat like tail. The fifth student was also a girl, and she had pale light pastel purple hair that was in long spikes worn down, and she had long pointy ears like elves in fantasy works. The fifth student seemed to Uraraka to be energetic and friendly as well as a little on the silly side; she'd probably get along swimmingly with Ashido.
Gesturing to the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth students in that order, Aizawa said to the surviving 1-A students, "Class, these here are Hitoshi Shinso, Shinra Mahou, Omono Gomu, Sakaki Yamamaya, and Osana Kurata. As per Nezu's rule, these five will be joining as members of this class as of today."
The surviving original 1-A students were unsure how to react; they did get the feeling that this might happen, but they weren't expecting it so soon. Uraraka was especially concerned, considering that Tsuyu and the boys haven't been dead for more than a week before now. But Aizawa-sensei did say that this was at Principal Nezu's prompting. Uraraka saw the five new Class 1-A students go claim seats; the cat girl Yamamaya ended up sitting down in Tsuyu's desk.
Despite how she didn't feel entirely sure about new classmates being added so soon, Uraraka owed it to them nonetheless to give them the benefit of the doubt. After all of the new students were seated, Aizawa said, "Now under normal circumstances, I would today announce that the UA Sports Festival would be coming up soon, and how it's an opportunity for you all to be noticed by a number of pro heroes you can intern under."
"But the Sports Festival for this year had been cancelled," Yaoyorozu said as she raised a hand.
Aizawa nodded in confirmation. "Right you are, Yaoyorozu. Despite the cancellation of the Sports Festival, you all won't be allowed to slack off. On the contrary, you all will be made to train both your quirks and yourselves in addition to your normal school studies more than normal. Each of you will be examined for various scores, and a list will be compiled from that data and submitted to various pro heroes looking to employ some interns."
One of the new boys, Shinso, raised a hand. "Would it be fair to say that Mahou, Gomu, Yamamaya, Kurata, and I will all have to work especially hard since we were literally added to class just now, Aizawa-sensei?"
Aizawa pointed commendingly at Shinso. "I can't fault you for thinking that, Shinso. You and the other new students in class ought to put an especial amount of effort into your work, at the very least in order to catch up to your new peers here. Now, I have-" Aizawa was cut off when Hizashi came practically barreling into the room. "Ah! Hizashi, couldn't you knock?" Aizawa scolded, "I was in the middle of going over-"
"Yo Sho," Hizashi interrupted, "You and I are needed by Nemuri! Apparently someone broke into her house and, while stealing nothing, left a young child behind!"
"Criminals broke into Nemuri's home just to leave a young child there?!" Aizawa said. Sighing, the underground hero turned to his students. "Kids, stay here. I need to go help out with what's going on here. Use the opportunity to get to know your new classmates, I guess." Aizawa and Hizashi then left to go help Nemuri with the break in and reverse robbery at her home, leaving the Class 1-A students to their own devices.
Getting Iida to follow her, Yaoyorozu went to the front of the classroom and said, "I think that we ought to get to know our new classmates like Aizawa-sensei suggested." Gesturing to Yamamaya and Kurata, Yaoyorozu went on, "Let's start with the girls." At Yaoyorozu's beckoning, Yamamaya and Kurata came walking up to the front of the class. "Okay," Yaoyorozu said, "Let's sta-"
"Hey-ho, new crew!" Kurata greeted in an a happy, excitable, energetic manner, "The name's Osana Kurata! I go by many titles!" Listing off of her fingers, Kurata said, "The crazy purple haired elf girl, the person who literally everyone is friends with, the bane of every introvert's existence!" Gesturing to the class, Kurata said, "You name it! Here's to working with you!"
Pointing at Kurata, Ashido said, "I feel like we're going to like you, Kurata!"
Gesturing to Yamamaya, Yaoyorozu went on, "Umm... you're next, I guess. Even though I wanted you to go first."
Nodding in understanding to Yaoyorozu, Yamamaya said, "Very well." Turning to look at the class, Yamamaya said, "My name is Sakaki Yamamaya. I... wasn't quite expecting to be in the hero course, as a matter of fact I wanted to get into UA to take the business course that's offered here. But rest assured I have my reasons for accepting the transfer into the hero course."
Turning to look at Jiro, Kaminari said, "Although it sucks that Mineta's no longer here, one good thing about that is how he's not here to bother the new girls. They seem too nice to be bothered the way Mineta had bothered girls while he was here."
Jiro nodded in agreement, offered Kaminari a small smile. "It's good that you're learning well from what I have to say, Kaminari."
Yaoyorozu then had Yamamaya and Kurata sit back down, then beckoned for Shinso, Gomu, and Mahou to come up to the front. "Okay, now you boys are next," Yaoyorozu said. Gesturing to Shinso, Yaoyorozu went on, "We'll start with you."
Shinso turned to look at the class. "...I'm Hitoshi Shinso. The practical portion of this school's entrance exams is rigged in favor of quirks that can be used more directly in combat. That's why I got stuck in Gen Ed initially. I wanted to prove myself in the Sports Festival this year so that I could have a shot at transferring into the hero course normally. I'm... not exactly thrilled that I got into the hero course the way that I did. Regardless, I aim to prove that I can be just as good, even though my quirk isn't useful in attacking and destroying a robot."
Yaoyorozu nodded understandingly, then gestured for Omono to go next. He understood the cue, then turned to face 1-A. "I'm Omono Gomu," greeted Omono, "I also wanted to get into the hero course but ended up landing in Gen Ed instead. I actually sort of settled for it, I mean the Gen Ed course here is still top high school education in our nation, but then I was given the offer to transfer to the hero course." Shrugging, Omono said, "So, umm, here I am, I guess."
Yaoyorozu nodded once, then looked to Shinra. "Okay, you're next," the class rep of 1-A said.
Shinra acknowledged Yaoyorozu's prompting, then turned to look at the class. Right away, he could tell that some of them looked at least mildly unsettled by his appearance, even though he wasn't doing anything to deliberately unsettle folks. He scowled in unamusement at this. Finally, after a bit of time, he spoke. "...If someone's sole offence," Shinra began, "Is merely looking like they'll be bad, do you automatically assume that they're bad? That they're set to become bad if they're not so already?"
Some of the 1-A students looked surprised by what Shinra was saying, relaxed from their prior apprehension if only out of curiosity. Shinra jerked a thumb to himself. "...I've had to deal with such discrimination in my life, simply because people think I look scary to some. It... doesn't help that my quirk helps fit the theme of me being bad." Shinra gently shook his head. "...But that is not the case. I aim to prove myself just as noble as any of you, to prove that I'm not a villain in the making solely because I merely look like it. The name's Shinra Mahou, and I'm aiming to become a hero."
Everyone remained silent in class, right before Kaminari began to clap slowly, drawing attention to himself. Once enough eyes were on him, Kaminari stood up to continue applauding Shinra, and was joined by a few of the boys from the surviving original 1-A students as well as Shinso. Uraraka even smiled, small but sincere, over the speech that Mahou gave about himself, which basically boiled down to him saying that he doesn't want to be judged by his cover.
She still had her apprehension about the five new students being added so soon after the deaths of Tsuyu and the boys, but Uraraka was willing to give the five of them the benefit of the doubt. The first thing that Uraraka thought of, in fact, was seeing what Izuku over in Class 1-B had to say about the new students that were added to 1-A. The gravity girl was willing to bet that the green haired boy would love to meet them.
END, CHAPTER FIVE
Author's notes;
Here the whole of UA, students and staff alike, come together to mourn those who were killed in the USJ attack. There was the obvious displeasure that many had with the cancellation of the Sports Festival, but they were made to settle down soon enough. And then Class 1-A is introduced to their new classmates; Shinso, three from other works of mine (two having slight to full name changes and one having their physical appearance altered), and a new one first appearing here.
Some are still unsure about the new classmates being added so soon after the deaths of five classmates back at the USJ, but they are willing to grant the benefit of the doubt to their new peers. Anyway, the next chapter will see the hero course first years train, with Izuku beginning his work under Gran Torino. I might also be able to fit in how the changes to the story as a whole have had an effect on the plans of a certain group of villains.