Chapter 5

Warning: The later part of this chapter and the story as a whole will be dealing with sensitive topics from here on out.

Izuku shot the beam of white toward the light blue-haired man who dodged easily.

He couldn't move, he was stuck like a deer in headlights.

Fear built up as the man got closer and closer to him before his hand extended out for his face.

At that moment the man's hand had wrapped itself around his face disintegrating it in an instant.

Izuku felt nothing as his entire body then crumbled to dust.

Izuku shot up screaming in fear.

He looked around and noticed he was in his bed.

'Another one, they're getting worse.' Izuku thought as he got out of bed, stretching his legs he looked over to the time and noticed it was 4 in the morning.

It was the first day back to UA after the longer weekend due to what happened.

He wasn't getting any more sleep.

He got up to go eat something for breakfast.

Just picking something out of the fridge he ate it faster than he normally would.

Now it was 4:30 am, he still had 3 and a half hours before school, he thought of something to do and decided to do it.

Writing the note he left it on the table as he put on his gym clothes and put his uniform in his bag and left.

It wasn't the first time he had left in the early morning hours for some training.

Heading over to UA to train his quirk he found himself heading toward Gym Gamma.

He walked in and placed his bag down and made his way to the middle of the room and began working out doing push-ups and sit-ups and jogging around the entire building.

After about 30 minutes of light training, he walked over to near the rock pillars from the other day.

He began shooting flames at the pillars.

"Woah give that pillar a break." Izuku's head shot behind him at the sound of the familiar voice.

His eyes met someone that was missing his sclera.

"Togata!"

"The one and only." He laughed.

"What are you doing here?"

"I'm here for some early morning training!" He shouted while striking a pose. "I saw the light of the flames and thought I should say hi, 'cause you know not many people here at this time and all."

"Well since we're here wanna train together?"

"I'm still not gonna fight you." Izuku deadpanned.

"Dammit."

"But I guess training is fine."

As the two teens stood at other ends of the training area, facing off one another.

'When I walked in on him and the other members of the Big Three training he seemed to holding his own very well as they looked more roughed up than he did. This won't be easy.'

Izuku raised his right hand and shouted "Firebolt!" The flame shot toward him but seemingly passed right through him.

Togata ran up toward Izuku as the teen jumped back to put more distance he shot another Firebolt at the approaching teen.

Only for the man to then fall into the ground.

Izuku looked around confused by what had just happened.

Then suddenly he was slapped on the head from behind.

He turned and he wasn't there anymore.

Bang* Another slap landed but yet again he couldn't counterattack.

Again and again and again.

More and more slaps landed and Izuku couldn't do anything to stop it.

He moved a distance away from where he was before and closed his eyes.

He couldn't see the man.

He focused not on his power, not on himself.

Then he felt it the moment Togata popped out of the ground.

He felt his eyes on him.

Izuku turned around and slammed his hand onto Togata's chest and shot a firebolt into it.

The strike caught Togata off guard so he was blasted away by the flames.

'That quickly. Damn this kid is good not even some villains catch onto that as fast as he did.'

"Your win." Togata said while admitting defeat.

"Huh? I just touched you."

"And that's fantastic I can't wait to see how far you go." He said before picking up his clothes and walking out.

"Cya!"

Izuku looked at the door for a few seconds before continuing his workout.

The start of school rolled around and when Izuku walked into class he got a lot of weird looks.

"Hey Midoriya, I heard you beat one of the Big Three." Kirishima said proudly.

"Huh? Are you talking about Togata?"

"Yeah!"

"All I did was touch him."

"And apparently that's all you need to do."

"Is it really that hard to just touch him?"

"Yep. Though nobody told me why."

The door slid open as a mummified Aizawa walked in. "Sit down."

But Izuku and Kirishima were already sitting.

"Good." He said as he walked up to the podium.

"Umm Aizawa shouldn't you be resting?" Asui asked concerned for her teacher.

"I'm fine, but thank you." Aizawa's muffled voice said. "Now onto the two topics of today's homeroom. The UA Sports Festival will be held in two weeks, therefore use that time as best you can to prepare for it."

A certain pressure-filled the room as Aizawa talked about it.

"What's the next topic, sir?" Iida asked.

"Thank you for asking." Aizawa then turned toward Izuku. "Principal Nezu wants to talk with you, Midoriya."

All eyes shifted toward the young teen.

Izuku got up and walked toward the door.

'What did I do? Why would he want to talk to me of all people? Was this Togata's fault?' These thoughts passed through his head as he walked to the office.

And before he knew what had happened he was face to face with the giant wooden doors that led to the office.

He knocked twice. "Come in." Izuku slowly opened the door to see Principal Nezu on top of his desk with a man Izuku didn't know to his right and All Might on the left.

He closed the door as he walked in.

"Ah, just who I wanted to see. Midoriya meet Detective Tsukauchi."

Both bowed at each other.

After they raised their heads the three men then bowed for Izuku.

"Thank you for helping as many people as you could at the USJ." The animal man said.

"Um, it was no problem after all if I want to be a great hero saving people is the job."

He was met with a massive smile coming off the Principal. "I would expect no less of my students. You may return to class now."

Izuku walked out and made his way back to class.

Lunchtime rolled around rather fast.

"Oh, I've been meaning to ask. Why do you two want to become heroes?" Yaoyorozu asked Izuku and Uraraka.

Izuku looked a bit surprised but decided to share it with the group.

"Well, I want to be a hero to help people, If I can make someone smile then I'm quite okay with that."

"Quite the goal." Yaoyorozu said rather proud of the green bean.

"What about you, Uraraka?" Yaoyorozu followed up.

The brunette girl began scratching the back of her head. "It's for the money."

Uraraka then explained in full why.

"Oh, so it's for your parents."

"Yeah!"

Izuku then turned to face Yaoyorozu. "What about you?"

She looked down for a second before she began speaking. "Well, it's no secret my parents are wealthy, but because of this, they've always had such high expectations of me. They both started from the bottom and built their way to where they are now. And so all my life they wanted me to take over the company, but when I told them I wanted to be a hero it was like all that pressure to take the company vanished. Oh dear, I haven't told that to anyone." She giggled.

'So she has an inferiority complex.' Izuku thought.

'Like I used to.'

Meanwhile in the cafeteria.

A certain half and half student was waiting in line to get food when he overheard a certain conversion.

"Did you hear about that first year that beat a member of the Big Three?"

"Oh I heard about it, I saw him walking around with Midnight during lunch a few days ago."

"Do you think he was getting special training?"

"Probably, damn kid's a filthy cheater."

Todoroki was slightly surprised by this he didn't know Midoriya that well but he didn't seem the type to cheat.

But these two weren't the only ones who felt that way.

As class was ending for the day, Yaoyorozu opened the door and was caught off guard by the abundance of people standing outside.

Yaoyorozu took a few steps back. "What are they doing here?"

"No idea." Uraraka said.

"Scouting out the competition." Bakugo said as he walked toward them.

Izuku and everyone else watched as he calmly walked out of the room.

"Where the hell do you think you're going huh?" Tetsutetsu shouted as he made his way into the crowd.

Bakugo turned to face them slowly. "Some weakling like you can't take my spot so I have nothing to worry about." He said without even cracking a smile.

Izuku saw him and realised something's changed within him.

As class-rep, he stepped up to try and quell their rage.

He walked over to the front door and opened his mouth but was cut off by a shout.

"It's the guy who cheated against Togata!"

Every eye shifted toward him both from his class and from the crowd.

"Huh?" Was Izuku could say.

The students outside began shouting and berating Izuku.

The students of 1-A wanted to say something but couldn't muster up the courage.

A few students took their own lack of courage much harder than others.

The students were: Yaoyorozu, Uraraka, Asui, Hagakure, Jiro, Kaminari and Mineta.

All the students Izuku saved at the USJ.

And now he was under attack and they couldn't do anything to help.

Izuku decided to speak up for himself.

"If you really think I cheated." Izuku's glare intensified as he stared up at them. "Then watch me."

With that, he walked out of the classroom and made his way over to Gym Gamma.

While training the door swung open to reveal two of the Big Three.

Togata and Hado.

"I thought you would be here."

Hado ran over and hugged him. "I'm sorry I didn't think this would happen!"

Izuku then realised that she was the one that told everyone what happened.

"It's okay," Izuku said while he backed away out of the hug. "You didn't think this would happen so it's not your fault." He said.

"I'm still sorry." She said while looking at the ground.

"So what are you gonna do now?" Togata asked.

"I need to get stronger so I can win the sports festival."

"You want help?" Hado asked.

"No that will just make the rumours worse, I'll win this with my own power."

They could see the determination in his eyes.

"We'll leave you to it then." Togata said with a smile.

Izuku then started his workout.

Izuku looked around and saw he was back at the USJ in the plaza but for the first time, he was by himself.

It was unsettling something about it was ominous, every hair on his body was standing.

Even though he was by himself he could feel the eyes of people all around him.

Then it intensified from behind.

He didn't want to turn around, he was terrified by what he would see.

What if "He" was there.

That man, Shigaraki had been haunting him ever since that day.

Swallowing all his fear Izuku turned around to face the myriad of eyes watching him.

And was met with the worse sight he had ever seen.

There hanging from the ceiling was all his classmates.

Yaoyorozu was right in front of him with Uraraka and Bakugo just next to her.

Their lifeless corpses hung on threads mangled and partly turned to dust.

There behind them all stood Shigaraki smiling at him from behind his hand.

"Why didn't you save us." Yaoyorozu's body spoke to him.

"I did!" He yelled at it.

Then they all began screaming at him for not being able to save them or anyone else.

Izuku stood there frozen with fear.

"I-I-I-I tri-tried to help."

"No your quirk saved people." Shigaraki finally spoke. "You just hid behind it like the weakling you are."

Izuku had the urge to vomit, he was going to.

Until he shot up.

Once again he had awoken in his bed, sweat pouring down his face as the urge to vomit was still fresh in his mind.

He looked at his clock and saw it was 6 am.

'The sports festival starts in a few hours. I should probably get ready to go.'

He got out of bed and quickly made his way to the shower hoping his mum hadn't seen him.

As he felt the water clean away all the sweat from around him, he had an urge he hadn't had since before starting UA.

The dreams were getting worse and back before UA when the nightmares got this bad there was only one thing he could do to quell them.

Reaching out of the shower and into the cupboard with all the towels and sink pipes.

He placed his hand around the back of one of the pipes, he pulled it out.

A sharp and clean razor blade.

He looked at it and was reminded of his past.

He placed it up against his upper right arm and saw the rest of the scars.

They were faded, faded to the point if you weren't looking for them you wouldn't be able to find them.

He applied some pressure and felt the blade slowly sink into him.

The pain bringing some form of relief.

But it wasn't enough, he pushed again and again in a bloody mess of cuts.

But stopped as he heard a knock on the bathroom door.

"Izuku dear, you need to hurry or you'll be late for school."

His mother's voice broke him out of the trance he was in.

Quickly he got out of the shower and dried himself off then wrapped some bandages around the wounds, he then put on his school uniform and cleaned the now bloody razor before placing it in his pocket.

After eating breakfast he made his way to school and bumped into Yaoyorozu like actually bumped into her.

When he did the blade fell from his pocket.

His heart stopped.

She was looking at it.

Staring.

Quickly Izuku pick it up placed it back in his pocket and ran.

"Midoriya! Wait!" She shouted but Izuku was gone.

Yaoyorozu now had a lot of questions but because Izuku ran away she couldn't get any answers.

Well, now Izuku had a lot to dread.

First, there was the sports festival.

Second, the dreams.

And third, the talk with Yaoyorozu that was definitely going to happen.

He just didn't know when.

And the fourth problem was about to rear its ugly head.

They were in a backroom waiting for the event to start.

Izuku was keeping his distance from Yaoyorozu.

Yaoyorozu on the other hand couldn't keep her eyes off the teen.

"Midoriya."

All eyes in the room turned to see Todoroki call out to Izuku.

"Yeah, what's up Todoroki?"

After a minute of just staring at each other.

"I'm gonna beat you."

Izuku was slightly taken aback by this, he regained his composure and turned around to face the rest of the class.

"I'd like to see you try."

Todoroki was about to say something before a bell went off telling them all to head outside.

The class walked out and went toward the arena.

Author's note.

Thanks for reading this one.

Woah that was a lot huh.

This chapter has a lot to unpack about it but we'll get into that in due time.

The next chapter will be the official start of the sports festival.

Also, I'll be skipping over the student pledge and announcement of the first event as we all know what happens there.

Thank you to everyone who reviewed, followed and favourited.