Hello, earthlings! I own nothing except a dysfunctional computer.
As soon as the sun rose, Izuku was out of bed. He pulled on his uniform, brushed his hair, and ran downstairs. Most of the students were already sitting around the common area. A muscular boy walked out of the kitchen, smiling. "Morning!" he said cheerfully as he handed the green-haired boy a plate of what looked like pancakes. "I made breakfast for everyone! Hope you like it!"
"Thank you!" Izuku grinned back and took the bowl. He was able to find a spot on the floor next to Uraraka and Iida. Kacchan wasn't down yet. He was probably trying to soak in every second of sleep that he could. He'd always done that.
"Are you prepared for the first day of class?" Iida asked as Izuku bit into the delicious pancakes. Whoever that kid was, he was a great chef.
"Yeah!" the brunette girl cheered. "I can't wait to get started! It's going to be awesome! I bet we're going to learn different strategies for fighting and maybe some different languages and I signed up for a spell-learning class and it's going to be awesome!"
Izuku swallowed his bite. "Oh yeah! I almost forgot to sign up for an extra class! I'm taking extra politics lessons." He figured that would be one of the most challenging parts of being a king. Sometimes it required… well, as Kacchan would put it, "For you to grow a spine and tell people to leave you alone, shitty nerd."
Speaking of which… classes began in ten minutes, and his friend was still upstairs. He probably hadn't even eaten breakfast yet. Izuku was about to go wake him up when Kacchan was pulled downstairs by Kirishima, Kaminari, and Ashido. "C'mon, Bakubro!" the redhead said cheerfully. "You gotta eat breakfast at some point!"
"Hate all of you…"
"Great! Get some breakfast!"
Izuku grinned. This was gonna be an interesting year.
A few minutes later, Izuku was at his assigned desk and waiting for whoever the teacher would be to come in. He had ended up in the aisle closest to the window, behind Kacchan, in front of a dwarf-boy who talked a lot about boobs, and next to a normal-looking kid with longish dark hair.. While he'd never admit this to anyone, the boy was kind of excited. He hadn't been in a real school for two years, ever since he'd turned fourteen. That was the maximum age the tiny village school went to. Kacchan had mentally stopped going three years before that. He tapped his friend's and smiled widely. "This is sooo cool!"
"Shut up, Deku!"
"Yes, please, all of you shut up," someone mumbled. Izuku blinked. At some point a dark-haired man had entered the room and was lying on the teacher's desk in a thick yellow sleeping bag. He had not been there twenty seconds ago… right? No one else in the class seemed to have noticed him either.
The man sighed loudly and slowly opened the bag, fell off the desk, and stood up. All of that looked very intentional. "Mr. Aizawa. For some reason, the headmaster has decided you are all possibly worthy of being heroes. Yay. I bet you think it's going to be all sunshine and rainbows from here on out, huh?
"Here's the truth: being a hero is a terrible job. The only money you get is whatever other people choose to pay you. You have to work for a long time in the worst conditions. And most of you will die young. Actually, the fact that all of you look like pathetic weaklings may save you. It'll give me a good excuse to expel you."
With no pause, the man walked to the door. "C'mon," he called over his shoulder at the room full of flabbergasted, terrified, annoyed teenagers.
This teacher seemed lovely.
The students walked through the woods to a small, shaded area with several model buildings. Once there, Aizawa divided the class into five groups. By some weird luck, Izuku ended up with Kacchan, Uraraka, and Iida.
"Right," the man said expressionlessly. "The two tallest people on this team are villains. One of them is casting a spell that will blow up the whole area, including two nearby villages. The other two are heroes trying to take them down without being captured. If the heroes get the spell book and get out of the building, they win; if the villains are able to somehow trap the heroes in a way that will take them longer than one minute to escape from or activate the spell before the heroes stop them, they win. You'll have fifteen minutes. You're first." He gestured at a team made up of three people Izuku hadn't met yet and Ashido. "You'll have five minutes to set up before each match. Don't screw it up."
Kacchan sighed. "Why am I the villain? And why do I have to team up with this extra?"
Izuku high-fived Uraraka. "Short people for the win!"
An invisible horn sounded a few minutes later. The first team had begun their fight.
Each match went by fast. None of them were that great at fighting. Which made sense, since this was their first class, but still. Aizawa looked vaguely disappointed as he watched the magic projection in the air. The only exception to this was a tall boy with half white, half red hair.
As soon as he and his partner- a troll boy whose name Izuku didn't know- the boy quietly cast a spell. Ice flew across the ground almost immediately, immobilizing the two villains. A few seconds after Aizawa announced that he'd won, the boy melted the ice. All of the students were shell-shocked. Were they really supposed to compete against… that?
"He has ice and fire sorcery!" Izuku whispered to himself. "That means that he's a double threat! But does he have limits? What are they? Is he only half as powerful with either side? He seemed to have a lot of control-"
"Deku! You're mumbling again!"
"Right! Sorry!"
"That's the king's heir," Iida said quietly. "Shoto Todoroki. He's supposed to be one of the most powerful sorcerers ever in this kingdom, or at least he will be when he's older."
"Well, whoever the hell decided that hasn't met me yet!"
"You're up Team E," Aizawa called. "Try not to kill each other."
Izuku took a deep breath as Kacchan and Iida ran into the building. As they waited, Uraraka looked like she wanted to ask him something but wasn't quite sure how to say it. Finally she turned to him and started, "Why-"
"Heroes, go in now."
The two teens instantly ran towards the building and stopped just inside. "We need a plan." Izuku looked down the dark, industrial-grade hall. "Kacchan isn't going to just wait near the item, he's going to want to come find me. While that's happening, you can sneak in. Do you have any good spells memorized?"
"Um… yes!"
"Good. Now, all we have to do is get it outside the building without anyone being hurt. You can knock it outside after taking out Iida, and I'll…" The boy faltered. "Um, is this plan ok with you?"
The witch laughed. "Yeah, definitely!"
"Ok! Good luck!"
Uraraka ran off, and Izuku started wandering around looking for Kacchan. He was not disappointed when, a few minutes later, the boy appeared at the end of a hall. But he looked kind of… dangerous.
Normally Kacchan wasn't this intense with him. Rude and to the point, yes. But not dangerous. Something about him had shifted though, and Izuku suddenly knew: his friend was going to treat this like a real fight.
"Um… Kacchan?" he said nervously. "You ok?"
"Nope. Wrong move. Bad guy walks up to you, you punch him. No questions."
"Oh! Um, right!" Izuku got into a fighting position, only then realizing that he didn't have his sword. Because it was supposed to just be a normal day of classes! Not whatever this was!
Kacchan grinned like a maniac and ran at him, fire jumping between his hands. Izuku twisted out of the way but still felt the heat streak past his face. Kacchan didn't even hesitate. They'd trained together a lot on their quest, but this felt… different. A little more intense. Was Kacchan actually trying to hurt him?
He was probably going to die.
Ochako raced through the hall silently, keeping an eye out for Bakugo as she trusted Midoriya to know how his friend would act in this scenario, but it was possible that he'd gotten lost looking for the other boy or something. She really did not want to run into that psycho sorcerer.
She reached the circular room where Iida was standing guard. The tall boy was staring out the window muttering to himself about destroying the kingdom. Wow, he was really getting into character for this! It was a little weird, but cool.
Iida was holding a spell book in his hands and was flipping through it quickly. He was about to start the spell. If he completed it before the heroes stopped him, the book would explode and Ochako's team would lose. She wouldn't let her new friend down.
It would probably be hard to get close to Iida without him noticing. Ochako cast a quick invisibility spell- nothing too fancy, but it could last for a full three minutes if she concentrated. The girl crept into the room and gathered her energy. This would be sooo much easier with potions, but sometimes you have to improvise. She counted to five before lunging forward, grabbing the spell from Iida's hands and racing away.
"Hey! Get back here, you hero!"
Ochako kept running. She sprinted towards the doorway out of the chamber, but Iida threw his sword, knocking it closed. By the time Ochako reached it, she probably wouldn't have enough time to get it open and to get far enough away before the boy got to her. So she switched directions, running further into the room. All she had to do was keep it away for… ten minutes now? Nine?
But the problem was,Iida was better than her. He was smarter and faster and stronger. If Ochako was visible, she'd have been caught by now. She couldn't beat him without many, many potions and more complicated spells than the ones she had. Air magic- which was her speciality- was fun and useful but not always the best for combat situations, especially since this was an enclosed space.
But maybe it could work here.
Izuku dodged another of Kacchan's strikes. He didn't have any weapons. All he had was his brain and his fists. Which, when one is fighting against a fire-sorcerer prodigy, isn't much.
The boys were fighting in the narrow hallway, which meant that by now every wall was covered with scorch marks and holes. It was a good thing they were the last group, because the building likely wouldn't last much longer. Most of the battle was Kacchan throwing a punch or hurling fire and Izuku dodging it. He had gotten good at dodging over the months of adventuring.
Izuku knew he wouldn't win. Kacchan was way too powerful, especially since the half-elf boy was completely unarmed. However, he needed to hold him off long enough for Uraraka to get to the spell book and hide it somewhere. This wasn't a real battle. He just needed to help his team get through the next… ten minutes? Yeah, that sounded right. Just distract Kacchan for ten minutes.
Oh god they were screwed.
"What's the matter, Deku?" Kacchan jeered as Izuku ducked away again. "Are you getting tired?"
"Nope! I'm just getting started!"
"Well, if you're gonna beat me then do it, nerd. I'm getting bored."
Izuku groaned silently. The blond boy was just messing with him now. This was great. Everything about this was great. He didn't want to let his new friend down, but he might end up doing just that.
What did All Might always tell him? Assess the situation. Examine your enemies weaknesses. Did Kacchan have any real weaknesses?
His temper. He didn't think things through when he was mad. If Izuku could think of some way to make him angry and then lure him to…
The walls were already weak enough. A good blast would probably get them down even more, especially if it was in the right spot. It probably wouldn't hurt Kacchan, since he'd be able to blow up any rocks coming towards him, but it'd probably trap him long enough for Uraraka to deal with Iida.
Maybe Izuku could actually pull this off.
"I don't get why you're being so violent, Kacchan," the green-haired boy whined, trying to sound as pitiful as possible as he dodged another attack. "It's just a training exercise!"
"Shut up, nerd!"
"If you ask me, I think you just want to prove to me that you're not as bad of a fighter as I thought." Yeah, that was a terrible insult because Kacchan knew that Izuku knew that he was the best fighter in the village, but it was hard to come up with things on short notice.
The blond boy laughed, though it sounded a little strained. "In your dreams, you damn nerd!"
"Oh, you sound tired! Are you running out of magic?"
"Shut up!'
"Maybe you should calm down a little. I don't want you to run out of magic because you wanted to prove how cool you are in a training exercise."
"I'm telling you, shut up!" Kacchan's next blast was even hotter and faster. Izuku backed up so he was standing right next to the spot on the wall that had taken the most damage.
"Are you sure? It would be bad if you had to go back to being useless in the village with your mom because-"
Annnd this was when Izuku went too far in normal Kacchan interactions. He shouldn't have brought up Mitsuki Bakugo. But then again, it worked for his purposes.
Kacchan's hair seemed to catch on fire as he glared. Pure flames gathered in his hands. "The only useless one here is you, Deku! You're the one who's going to go home a failure! You're the one who's going to disappoint your mother because-" He also seemed to realize he was going too far. The boy looked horrified for a second, but it was too late.
Izuku tried to laugh it off, but it hurt. Was that really what his friend thought? That he would fail? No! Kacchan had to believe in him! But… Izuku was weak without the sword. He realized that. It… might not be that far from the truth.
"Well, if I'm so weak I bet you would've beaten me by now, right? Or are you holding back? It seems like it, because there's no way someone with that kind of power got a dragon!"
Kacchan screamed in rage and ran straight at the smaller boy. The blast of fire obliterated the entire wall, but it wasn't enough to bring down the whole room. Izuku would have to insult him even more, which would be stupid in most scenarios. Plus he couldn't really think of any more insults. The ones he'd already thought up kinda sucked, so they probably weren't going to get any better. There had to be a better way to do this…
The sound of something groaning snapped Izuku out of his thoughts. He looked over at the wall that was at a ninety-degree angle to the one Kacchan had just knocked down. There were huge holes all over it, and the structure was barely standing. Izuku suddenly remembered that this was the spot in the building where the pink demon girl had shown off her ability to melt things using a special acid she created. Apparently she'd released more than she'd thought, and it'd spread almost all over the wall. One good hit and it'd probably fall down. Maybe that would be enough to bring the roof down in this chanber, especially considering the fact that the building had already been completely frozen and quickly thawed. That had to have messed up something.
The problems would be making sure Kacchan would be able to escape the collapse and making sure Uraraka and Iida would be fine. Hopefully they'd be far enough away to escape the hole that would likely open up on the second floor. And Kacchan was extremely capable of blowing up rocks coming at him.
Before he could think any more about it, Izuku smiled at Kacchan. "I think I'm strong enough to beat you." The other boy wasn't dumb enough to fall for the insults and blast fire at him a second time, so Izuku turned and punched the wall as hard as he could in several areas. It shouldn't have been enough. But for a single second, the space was lit up by a green light- the same thing that happened whenever Izuku used the sword. The two boys made eye contact. It was impossible to use the sword's strength without physically holding the sword… right?
And then the wall collapsed, and the roof started plummeting towards the ground.
"Tke Auf!" Ochako yelled, throwing the book into the air as she pressed her fingers together. It rose until it touched the ceiling. There. She'd hopefully be able to make that last until time ran out or she thought of a better plan. For the moment, she skidded to a stop, invisibility fading as she cast the other spell.
Iida stared up at the book, shaking his head. It was in the exact middle, so he couldn't just scale the walls somehow, but it was too high for him to jump and grab it. Even if he got a running start, he'd come up just a little short. Ochako knew her friend's capabilities.
They'd met a little while before the thing in the village with Midoriya and Bakugo. A caravan had been cornered by thieves. The teens had been on their way to the school, so they'd stopped to help. After that they'd just kinda stuck together. Iida was probably the best friend Ochako had. Which made it kinda fun to fight him.
The boy looked at her and nodded, looking almost proud but trying very hard to hide it. "Hero! You've ruined everything!"
"Well, that's what you get for trying to blow up an innocent building!"
Without warning, Iida lunged forward. Ochako was barely able to dodge out of the way in time, and the chase resumed. She needed something to happen. Iida was so close to catching her, unless something-
The building started to violently shake. A long crack appeared in the floor, and Ochako heard the faint sound of someone yelling coming from under her. She and Iida looked at each other before running out of the room, book forgotten.
This didn't feel planned.
The two ran down the very unstable stairs to see that the first floor wasn't too bad, until they got to the rooms which would have been right next to or under the chamber where they were fighting. That part was completely caved in. "What did they do?" Iida muttered, looking at the destruction. "Why did they-"
"Midoriya!" Ochako saw a flash of green from a few feet away- thankfully mostly out of the rubble. She ran to her new friend and made sure he was alive. Thankfully, he was just unconscious. "Where's Bakugo?"
"He can't answer you right now." Iida pointed out as he lifted a huge block off of Midoriya's arms.
"Yeah, I wasn't really asking!" It was only Ochako's first day! She couldn't be responsible for this! The other kids could die, because she didn't know what to do. Oh no. Oh no. This couldn't be-
She felt Iida touch her shoulder gently . "I'm going to take Midoriya out, then I'm going to come back. While I'm gone, you are going to very carefully start looking. Both of them will be fine, but we need to make sure Bakugo is alright now. Can you do that?"
Ochako took a deep breath. "Yeah. Thanks." She walked towards the rubble as her friend picked up Midoriya and carefully ran off. She could do this. Carefully, she lifted a huge piece of cement or brick or whatever with her magic and moved it to the side. She had to be careful or the whole thing could collapse.
Finally she saw Bakugo, who'd somehow ended up in a pocket between two huge blocks that were leaning on each other. That had likely saved him from being completely crushed. He was bleeding from a cut on his forehead and was also unconscious but it was better than dead. Ochako wasn't sure what to do with him. She didn't know any healing spells.
That was when Iida came running back in. Without talking, he picked up Bakugo and ran away again. This time, Ochako followed.
The training grounds were in chaos. Students were freaking out, Aizawa was yelling at some of them, the school nurse was yelling at some of them- it was a mess. Ochako wanted to just slip into the crowd quietly, but a girl with long green hair walked up to her. "Good job getting them out," she said, nodding slowly. "I also admired your plan to keep the book away from Iida."
"Thank you!" Ochako grinned slightly. She was self-aware enough to recognize that the adrenaline was crashing and that she should probably sit down and start taking deep breaths, but she also probably needed to talk to someone. "I'm Ochako Uraraka. What's your name?"
"Tsuyu Asui, but call me Tsuyu." The girl stuck out her hand to shake. "I hope we can be friends."
Ochako grinned. "Of course!"
Izuku woke up in an unfamiliar place. He was lying in a plain bed surrounded by a curtain. Where- oh. The training thing. Kacchan was going to kill him.
At exactly that moment, an older woman pushed through the curtains and glared at him, "So… you're awake. You caused a lot of trouble on your first day."
"What exactly-"
"You blew up the building and are responsible for the injuries of another student."
"What? Who?"
"Katsuki Bakugo."
Izuku gasped. "What? Kacchan's hurt? What happened?"
"Apparently when you came up with your god-awful strategy, he ran and shoved you out of the way. That caused him to not be able to blast the rocks coming at him out of the way. If the other two kids hadn't found you in time, there's a good chance there would have been permanent damage." The woman sighed, shaking her head. "I would tell you not to do anything that stupid again, but I have the feeling that that might not be possible. You're free to leave for now. Aizawa wants to talk to you in his office. I hope I won't be seeing you soon, but…" She shook her head again and wandered off.
Izuku pulled himself to his feet. Everything hurt, but he couldn't really worry about that. He was responsible for hurting Kacchan? He'd been so sure that the blond boy would be able to escape injury when the room collapsed.
In hindsight, that may have been stupid.
Damn, he screwed up. He might actually be kicked out of school for this. Oh god, expelled on his first day? That had to be some sort of record.
All Might would be so disappointed. That was the worst part about it for Izuku. He didn't want to let down his hero.
He groaned as he walked out of the building. Time to go find Aizawa's office and probably die.
Through some kindly god smiling on him, Izuku wasn't expelled. He had detention for the next two months and would have to rebuild the training place- but he was allowed to stay. In fact, Aizawa had even looked (just for a second) mildly impressed. Now, if he could just make it back to the dorms without being yelled at by Kacchan…
"Hey! Deku!"
Too late.
Kacchan ran up to him from the direction of the infirmary, eyes glowing. "What the hell was that, nerd? Were you trying to get us both killed?"
"No! I thought you'd be able to deflect the rocks and get out! I just wanted to distract you until Uraraka won!'
"Well, you did! My first day here was me getting rescued by some round-face witch and annoying knight because of some shit you pulled! They all think I'm weak now, but that's what you want, right? You want me to give up and go home!"
"Wait, I just said that to-"
"Forget it, shitty nerd! I don't need you or anyone else at this damn school! You pull that shit on me again, and I'll tell everyone about how you're just a weak halfling who barely knows how to use a sword!" The blonde boy stormed off, leaving Izuku alone.
That couldn't have just happened. Izuku didn't understand. Yeah, it was stupid and he shouldn't have done it, but was Kacchan really that mad at him? Yes. Yes he was. But why, exactly? Izuku sighed and stared down.
That definitely wasn't normal Kacchan anger. The question was, would the boy stay mad or would it not last very long?
"Midoriya!"
Izuku turned to see Uraraka and Iida running towards him from the direction of the dorms. The brown-haired girl hugged him before quickly tearing away, blushing slightly. "Um, I'm really glad you're ok!"
"I'm glad you guys are good too!" The green-haired boy gasped as something occurred to him. "Was anyone else hurt when the building collapsed?"
"No, you and Bakugo were the only ones." Iida looked at him with disapproval. "Even though very few were hurt, that was a very reckless plan. You should not attempt anything like that again."
Izuku grinned sheepishly. "I know it was stupid. I won't do it again. Unless it's in a real battle and-"
"You have literally no other options."
"Um, yeah. So, did I miss any other classes?"
"Just regular classes like math and language." Even though Iida shrugged like it was no big deal, Izuku still felt nervous. He was behind enough, he didn't need to get further away from his classmates!
After a few seconds of silence, Uraraka smiled and said, "Well, you must be hungry! You should come get food from the cafeteria with us!"
"Oh!" Now that she mentioned it, Izuku was hungry. And tired, even though he'd been asleep for most of the day. Probably a side effect of the healing magic. He did want to ask All Might about the strength that he'd suddenly gotten even without the sword… but that could wait. "Sure, let's go!"
Hey Mom,
I don't know when you'll get this, but today was my first day of lessons! It was pretty cool. Our teacher's a little weird, but apparently he's a really capable hero.
Our first lesson was us being split into teams and having to fight against each other in this big building. My team was me and this girl I met on my Quest, and we were against Kacchan's team. I fought him and actually kinda made us tie.
I think we had a real fight though. I did something really stupid during the battle, and now Kacchan's mad at me, and I don't know how long it'll last until he's not. I'm hoping it's soon.
Anyway, I spent more time with my friends from last night. They're so cool! One of them's a witch who used to be part of this coven and the other is related to a bunch of knight-heroes. I think we're gonna become close friends.
Anyway, I love you and I miss you. I hope you're ok in the village, and that you're selling everything ok. I'll write you again tomorrow!
Love,
Izuku.
I'm not really happy with that but I had to come up with some drama for Midoriya and Bakugo besides their canon one, so that's what my complete lack of creativity came up with. Plus idk how buildings work. Anyway, leave a review with plot suggestions, constructive criticism, and words of encouragement! Later, potaters!