03.07.2020
Hi guys and girls, how's 2020 treating ya? I hope good, because it has pretty much died down in Poland, so I have to work full 8 hour shifts again... yeah not very excited about.
You know what I am excited about though? The comments!:
CarEnthusiast - Didn't see you around these parts in a long time, glad to have you back even for a moment ;D Your theory on the Flesh is Weak option is solid, but not solid enough, so in return, I will leave another clue at the end of this chapter. Also, Endeavour being a better father earlier than in cannon was a strategic decision, since I wanted Shoto using fire from the start to clear the Sports Festival Arc for Shinso. It conveniently played into the vs The Hero Killer Arc too xD
RandomReader867 - Have you read 'Class 1A Dad' by ? It's a story with Izuku becoming a dad for his classmates and Itsuka in their story is 1-B's mom so... I just like making them a bit alike, also I think that Midoriya and Kendo share this protective spirit and want to keep their friends out of the harms way, as with Itsuka tracking down Mustard instead of regrouping at the lodge. Thanks for the comment!
GunBlade2020 - Yup, he likes Momo and she likes him to, very much so. It's somewhere in this chapter ;D Anyway, thanks for the wishes and the comment!
Also, before I release you - I recently had someone PM me only to tell me that they enjoy my story and that they can't wait to read more. I live for those moments, y'know. The feeling of making someone's day is just the best in my opinion. Just to be clear, I have (self-diagnosed) self-esteem issues, so don't worry about inflating my ego ;D Just remember, that I appreciate all of you coming here. Whether you read, review or just look around ;D
Anyway, sappy shit out of the way, let's get on with the action!
It was bad. Real bad. It was Thursday already and they still haven't decided what they will do for the School Festival! And to make it worse, whilst the Hero Course students were away on their internships, all other Courses already started preparing their performances for the Festival!
"They really make us go Plus Ultra…", Midoriya muttered to himself while staring straight at a piece of paper laying on the table in front of him.
It wasn't that they didn't have any ideas, quite the opposite actually. Almost everyone threw an idea to the pile, with some people throwing multiple. The difficult part was deciding which option to choose.
The greenette groaned and slammed his face into the table. He heard a slight gasp from someone nearby, but chose to ignore it for the time, he had some Class Rep stuff to do.
Midoriya lifted his head off the wooden surface and his emerald eyes locked with teal ones that belonged to the Class Rep of 1-B. She somehow managed to sit down in front of him without him noticing.
"I wonder how long has she been there?", he thought to himself before smiling at Kendo politely. "What's up?"
"Why did you slam your face into the table?", she asked and tilted her head ever so slightly, which was adorable in Midoriya's opinion. However, her question reminded him about the piece of paper that was the cause of all of his problems for now and he had to stop himself from slamming his face into something again.
"I'm just frustrated that I can't choose what our class will do for the School Festival…", the greenette groaned and looked at the list in front of him.
There were instantly rejectible options like maid cafe and pretty much anything that Mineta came up with. Making it an athletics show probably wasn't as fun for everyone and their performance should aim to entertain all kinds of people.
"Oh, what a coincidence…", Itsuka hummed, which prompted Midoriya to once again look in her direction. "I came here for the same reason and now I think we can help each other!", she exclaimed happily.
"Well, I'm all ears", he smiled hopefully and she started explaining.
"My class thought about staging a play and Yanagi came out as an amateur writer"
"Convenient…", the greenette hummed.
"But we don't have enough people to even start thinking about it. With the scenography, special effects and music busying most of our class to the point where we can't form a full cast without drawing people from other teams", Kendo laid out the problems she had to face and Midoriya's eyes widened in realization.
"You want our classes to stage the play together?"
"Yes! Think about it, if we join forces then it will surely end up being awesome!", her enthusiasm must've been contagious, because Midoriya found himself grinning along with the redhead.
"I'll run that by my class and give you an answer tomorrow okay?", she nodded vigorously and stood up, leaving Midoriya alone with his opponent. "Looks like you win this time paper sheet…"
"You alright? You just shit-talked a piece of paper…", Nana questioned his behaviour, but didn't receive an answer.
Midoriya arrived to their homeroom extra early the next day. He waited patiently for everyone to come in and with a few minutes before Aizawa was supposed to enter, he told his classmates about the deal that Kendo proposed to him yesterday.
Everyone listened to his explanation and saved their questions for later. There weren't many he could answer at the moment, since Itsuka didn't really fill him in yesterday, but he tried to say as much as he could.
The class fell silent for a few moments as they weighed their options. They had only two weeks remaining to prepare everything, so they decided to join forces with 1-B. They voted on the idea of course and with only a handful of them abstaining or being against, the deal was sealed.
The classes met on the same day in their dorms' common room. They struggled a bit to keep everyone seated, so some of them had to stand, but they knew it was for a bigger cause.
"I'm pretty sure that Midoriya already told you what I told him yesterday, so I'll just cut to the chase. Yanagi has two plays that she is comfortable with sharing and we need to choose which one we want to stage", Kendo said from where she stood, with Tokage and Yanagi on her left and Midoriya on her right.
"The first one is called 'Romeo, Juliet & the Prisoner of Azkaban: The Return of the Kings'. It's a fantasy, romance story telling about a coup-"
"Woah, woah, woah… Slow down, slow the fuck down!", yelled an agitated Bakugo. "It smells like some kind of crossover fanfiction that nobody asked for!"
Reiko almost didn't hold back the yelp that was trying to force itself out of her mouth at being called out in front of almost forty people. She decided to play it off like it was nothing and proposed her second work.
"There's also 'Saving a Cold Hearted Princess', though the name is something to change", the girl waited for someone to object before continuing. "It's also a fantasy story with romance, drama and action. It's about a princess that does not have any emotions due to a curse that her father, the king, is trying desperately to lift. And so he sends out his most trusted knight and sorceress to find a way to heal his daughter"
"Sappy, but okay", Bakugo commented in normal volume, which made Yanagi sigh in relief.
"Now that our critique extraord-nance approved the general idea, I think it's fair to assume that most of you will follow in kind and vote for the second script, am I right?"
In response, he heard a few snickers, a grumpy sound from Bakugo, who seemed unimpressed with his little joke and a lot of voices agreeing with his reasoning.
"It's settled then. Yanagi, we are in your care from now on", Midoriya bowed slightly in front of Reiko, which surprised her, and very much so.
"W-w-what do you mean?!", she exclaimed in panic.
"Well, you're the only one that has read the story, so we can't exactly do anything without your guidance", Kendo pointed out.
"I know, I know, but I can't do it alone!"
"I may have a solution to the problem", Momo interjected as she walked up to the trio in front. "How about we split the biggest tasks between few groups that will each focus on one part of the play?", the raven haired heiress proposed and waited as Midoriya's brain weighed their options.
"I think that Yaoyorozu's idea might be our only way to get everything done before the Festival", the greenette announced after a few moments. "And it's pretty straightforward too. We will obviously need some scenography and costumes"
"Me! Me! I wanna do the decorations!", shouted Mina as she raised her hand into the air.
"I think that we all agree with the simple fact that nobody here can match my sense of fashion", stated Aoyama as his… everything sparkled.
"Great, now onto the next point - music", as soon as the last word left his mouth, almost forty heads snapped in near perfect sync in one direction.
"What?", Jiro questioned nervously. Why nervously? Because for some unknown, at least to her, reason she suddenly became the center of attention.
"What do you mean 'what'?", wondered Ochaco, voicing everyone's thoughts.
"You're the only one capable of being in charge of the soundtrack", spoke Kirishima.
"B-but, why me?!"
"Erm, isn't it obvious?", Sero stated as if it was indeed obvious.
"You are the only one here that knows anything about music and instruments", Midoriya said and walked up to his purple haired classmate. "As awesome as we are, we are completely terrible at creating and playing songs", he joked with a smile.
"Oi, nerd! I've been playing drums since I was 8!", Bakugo exploded at being overlooked.
"And I'm a badass bassist!", Kamakiri joined in and the two aggressive teens looked at each other.
Somehow they managed to stand side by side and avoid conflict until now, but as it seemed, the peaceful atmosphere was about to jump out the window, do a flip and land on its head.
"We are going to kill it Sharp Face", the explosive blonde extended a hand in what Kirishima would describe as a manly way and Rin mumbled something about a Jojo reference, whatever that was supposed to mean.
"You better believe it", the Razor Sharp Quirk user said back and shook the blonde's hand, as various Chinese characters appeared around them.
"What did we just witness?", wondered the rest of the room.
The initial shock quickly wore off after the duo started threatening each other into doing their best and the Hero Course students returned to the previous task, with Jiro coming to terms with what her life has become.
"So, we have music, costumes and scenography dealt with, is there anything else we should take care off right now?", Kendo questioned and waited for anyone to voice their ideas.
"Shouldn't we promote our play? Like hang some posters or give out pamphlets?", Kaminari proposed after a few moments of thought.
"That would require someone with some pretty good art skills…", the Class Rep of 1-A mused and scratched his chin in thought.
"I shall offer you my services then", Ibara said as she got up from the couch where she was sitting next to Koda. "Painting and art in general has been my passion for as long as I can remember and I would be honored if you bestowed me with this blessed opportunity to present my talent to the world", a sudden ray of light appeared from the ceiling and illuminated her as she spoke.
Most of class 1-A looked stunned, while the members of their sister class were almost completely unfazed. Kendo turned to look at Midoriya, who was looking at her with a questioning expression.
"She does that all the time", the orange haired girl explained, to which the greenette only nodded and catalogued the information in his near endless archive of a brain.
"Now that that's out of the way we can get to the last part of our meeting, establishing the main characters"
"How many people do we need in general?"
"I'm… not sure, that's why I only want to get the main cast sorted out at the moment"
"We obviously need the princess and the king, right?"
"Yes, we also need the knight, sorceress, prince and a main antagonist"
"I vote for Monoma to be the bad guy!", Setsuna shouted as soon as Reiko finished her sentence.
"It should be obvious that the role of a thug should be played by someone from the clearly inferior class 1-A! They are joining our project afterall, so they should leave the best roles for us!", the blonde ranted as Kendo stalked behind him with her right arm already raised.
"Actually, I thought that Monoma should be the prince", Yanagi spoke just in time to save her classmate from being karate chopped by their Big Sister.
"Of course that it should be me who- wait, really?", Neito was as surprised with the revelation as the rest of them, judging by the silence that followed. Though he was back on his feet faster than the others. "I mean, really now, who could play the part of a prince better than yours truly?", he grinned wider than normally possible and Reiko already started cursing herself for inflating his ego.
"What about the other main characters?", Midoriya asked as they slowly came back to reality. (Something about gravity, something about rabbit that choked and is so mad)
"Funny that you would ask"
"Why funny?"
"I want you to be the knight", this declaration however surprised nobody. Hell, some people would insist on him playing the role even if Yanagi had other plans.
"Midoriya would make a great knight"
"Didn't he say something about training swordsmanship?"
"That's fair"
"Well, I think that I have no choice in this situation", the greenette smiled and accepted the offer.
"Splendid. Yaoyorozu, you are the sorceress", the ghostly teen stated.
"W-why me?", the heiress stuttered in surprise.
"Well, you are the most mature looking girl we have at our disposal, besides I read a great book recently that featured a sorceress with dark hair and I liked it", she explained and didn't wait before assigning another role. "Yui, you're the princess", the girl in question only hummed in response. "That leaves only the king's seat open"
"You mean the throne?", Kaminari asked, not really understanding why it was so important to have someone sit right now, when they could help with preparations.
"She meant the role you dumbass", Jiro answered as she smacked him with one of her jacks, though a small smile crept onto her face.
"I think that Iida would make a good king", Midoriya spoke up after everybody stopped chuckling at Kaminari's expense.
"Four Eyes is way too stiff to be a king!", Bakugo immediately commented.
"Aren't kings supposed to be a little stiff?", countered the greenette and the explosive blonde actually seemed to ponder about it for a moment.
"Ah fuck it, Four Eyes you're up", he finally relented and shoved his hands into his pockets.
"I'll do everything I can in order to ensure that I play the role of the king to the best of my ability!", Iida promised with some high end hand gestures to accent how committed he was.
"Hmm, if Iida is the king then Ochako should be the queen!", Mina exclaimed a few moments later after this little fact made itself known in her head.
Both teens became instantaneously embarrassed, though it seemed like Iida finally started gaining some immunity to Ashido's teasing, while Ochako almost floated towards the ceiling, if not for Tsuyu's tongue holding her grounded.
It was time for 1-A to laugh at their antics while the members of their sister class just looked on in confusion. Midoriya turned his head to look at Kendo, who was already staring at him as if he had answers to all the questions in the universe.
"They do this all the time", the greenette explained and they both laughed quietly as a feeling of deja vu hit them.
The students didn't realize how much time they spent with assigning each of them to a team that would benefit from having them and by the time they were done, the sun has already started setting, painting everything with various shades of red and orange.
The two classes collectively decided to call it a day and relax in the evening, so they split up and went their separate ways.
Until they remembered that thanks to Setsuna joking around about Monoma being the bad guy, they completely forgot to choose someone for the main antagonist!
The students quickly rushed back to the common room and pondered who should play the bad guy. In the end they decided to give the role to Todoroki, who seemed to fit the too-cool-to-have-emotions theme that the story was supposed to have.
This time, they double checked if everything was indeed thought out before they departed for the day. When the excitement of doing something so cool and ambitious died down, the students realized one very important thing, the following two weeks will be very, very busy.
They were right, unfortunately. Having to find time for their studies, preparations and individual training was a task that not all were able to handle on their own. This in fact led to the situation at hand.
"And why exactly can't you deal with this yourself?", Yaoyorozu asked the deeply bowing Mina, that decided to interrupt her and Izuku's studying of their respective scripts.
"Sato got an extra assignment that he has to do today if he doesn't want to upset Mr Ectoplasm", the pink skinned girl answered.
"I guess it can't be helped", Midoriya sighed and put his papers down before getting up. "I think that we reviewed enough of our scripts for today anyway, so it's a convenient time to stop", he said to Momo and she only nodded in response.
The duo was about to leave before a genius, in her opinion, idea struck Ashido like a thunder. She told Midoriya to go where they would stage their play and she would catch up. She then turned around and quickly made her way back to Yaoyorozu. The mischievous grin on her face already told Momo that she was about to be teased.
"Don't be sad, I'm only borrowing your boyfriend for a few hours. I promise that I'll return him before you go to sleep so you two can get some fun today", her grin almost doubled in width, something that was quite frankly impossible, but Mina wouldn't let that stop her.
Momo only huffed in annoyance, but the furious blush on her face betrayed that she did in fact understand what her friend was hinting at. And the worst part of it all?
She may have liked the idea of cuddling with her crush throughout the night.
The wind was blowing loudly outside the tent they shared. It was of a similar size to the one that their Princess was occupying, but she had it all to herself. They however had to somehow put up with sleeping back to back. It was only their second night, but the Knight and the Sorceress already had enough of it.
The green haired man decided to take the matters into his own hands and crawled out of the tent, startling the woman in the process.
"Where are you going?", she asked in a voice that showed she was not entirely awake.
"I'll sleep outside, it's not that cold, so I should be fine", he asked and walked over to his equipment that was laying in an orderly fashion on the ground.
The Sorceress' eyes followed every move of his chiseled body that was clearly visible thanks to him sleeping shirtless. The bulky man grabbed his enchanted claymore and walked over to the nearby tree, before sitting under it and placing the sheath on his knees.
The woman crawled out of the tent as well and soon joined him under the tree.
"What are you doing?", the Knight asked with a genuinely curious expression.
"It's not fair for you to have to sleep outside, what if it starts raining?"
"I'm not made out of sugar, I'll manage"
"I don't want you to manage"
"Excuse me?"
"I mean… I don't want you to go out of your way to make me comfortable", she explained and looked at the man next to her.
"I'm afraid that nothing you say can change the fact that it's not right for a noble and a villager to share a large bed, much less a small tent", he retorted and turned away from the woman in front of him.
"What did you want as a reward for lifting the curse off of his daughter?", the Sorceress asked after he refused to look at her for few moments. "Did you ask for a noble title?", he shook his head. "To change the marriage laws?", another shake. "Then what DID you ask for?"
"I asked for happiness", the Knight answered in a somber tone and finally turned to look at the woman who seemed to steal his heart right under his nose.
"Now kiss!", an obnoxiously loud shout shook the actors from their professional trance.
"W-what?!", Momo jumped back as if struck by lightning and Midoriya would've done the same if not for the carton tree behind him.
"T-there wasn't anything about k-k-kissing in my script!", the greenette opted to voice his confusion.
"I know, but I guessed that it would be better to start your romance earlier", Reiko explained as she walked onto the stage.
The Deco Squad, try and guess which pink skinned alien lover came up with the name, was keeping itself occupied with moving and setting various props that they managed to create in the last four days. They knew that they were doing a good job so far, but they still had a lot to do and only a week to complete their preparations.
Jiro and her band were somewhere else, practicing their songs and instruments, while Aoyama and his team were putting the finishing touches on the costumes. That's why Momo was practicing in her school uniform and not some fabulous nightgown that their French classmate was tasked with creating… yeah, she was already terrified and she didn't even see it yet!
Still, the whole situation costume didn't explain why Midoriya had to practice the scene shirtless. Yanagi said something about getting used to be half naked on stage, but the greenette wasn't dumb and thought that she had some ulterior motive, though he decided to keep the conspiracy to himself.
Being half naked wasn't the worst thing however, oh no. The worst thing was turning around to randomly lock eyes with Tokage who was sporting quite a wide, dopey grin with a drip of saliva in the corner of her mouth and a small blush. The blush doubled immediately after she got caught and she quickly split herself into approximately eleven parts and flew off.
Ekhem, back on track.
"What romance?! Wasn't it supposed to be a story about an emotionless princess that gets saved by a charming prince?", Yaoyorozu questioned while trying desperately to stop her cheeks from setting themselves on fire.
"That's the main plot, but I also want to picture a love that conquers all adversity!", Reiko exclaimed with a smile.
"I… I don't think I can do this Yanagi…", Midoriya said quietly as he stood up from the ground.
"R-really?", the ghostly 1-B student turned to look in his direction, all of her earlier excitement gone. "Well… I can always try to rewrite your characters, but… it will take time. Too much time I'm afraid…"
After hearing this, Izuku knew there was only one way out.
"Okay, we will do this!", his pumped his fist into the air, a determined look on his face as he turned towards Momo. "Am I right Yao-", his enthusiasm quickly vanished however, when he spotted her laying on the ground, face almost as red as her hero costume and a blissful smile on her face.
"He agreed to kiss me…", that was the only thing going on in Yaoyorozu's catatonic mind.
Despite Monoma trying his best and Bakugo constantly picking fights with Kamakiri, the whole 'staging a play' operation the two classes had going on was doing marvels to interclass friendships.
Tokoyami finally had time to familiarize himself with one Kuroiro Shihai, they hit it off real good and were currently discussing their future hero team's name.
Mina and Toru found themselves a new partner in crime in the form of Setsuna Tokage who turned out to be even more of a schemer than the two 1-A girls put together.
Even Bakugo and Kamakiri started finding even more things in common with one another, like their shared love for spicy food, which they liked to show that, and I quote, 'it ain't shit'.
But, something even more interesting happened amongst class 1-A.
"Okay", Midoriya put down both of his hands on the table in order to gather attention of his fellow classmates. "Has anyone else noticed that Jiro and Kaminari started hanging out together ever since they joined the band?", the table went dead silent.
Mina's face transformed through so many expressions that it could be mistaken for a shapeshifting Quirk.
"How could I not see this?!", the pinkette exclaimed with a face palm.
"W-what are you saying all of a sudden?!", a very scared Jiro yelled and stabbed Midoriya with one of her jacks, at least she tried to. Turns out, having metal plates on your body makes you… impenetrable. "I hate your metal arms…", she pouted as she massaged her jack.
"How did you notice them hanging out Midoriya?", Toru questioned him as if he was a guru of rumors and shipping.
"He is literally sitting next to Jiro", the greenette deadpanned and motioned towards the blonde with his chopsticks.
"Yes, I am sitting here and it hurts to hear you talking about me as if I wasn't here", the blonde confirmed that he indeed was sitting with them. "Also, way to rat a brother out… What happened with the Thunder Duo?"
"It wasn't, isn't and won't ever be a thing", Midoriya retorted and sat a bit straighter, getting ready for the verbal battle in front of him.
"What about Lightning Lads?"
"No"
"Thor's Bros?"
"No!"
"Hammering Hotties?"
"What does it even have to do with us?!"
"We are hot?"
In the meantime, Jiro caught Mina giving her THE look, which meant that she was going to be a total pain in the ass until she hears and explanation as to how Kyoka managed to snag herself a guy before either she or Momo did.
If everything went well, she would be able to turn it around and accuse her pink haired friend of looking for pointers.
"Okay, okay, last one. Jamming Jock-Aaaah!", Kaminari's last offer was cut short as his girlfriends jacks stabbed his neck.
"Let's go Sparky, I still have to get you ready for tomorrow's exam", she said while grabbing him by the ear and dragging towards the dorms.
"Well, that was… interesting?"
Nobody knew who said it, but the whole table agreed.
Midoriya was observing as other actors played some scene near the epilogue, when the phone in his pocket started vibrating. He quickly excused himself out of the room and took out his phone.
It was an unknown number, which already alerted the greenette, seeing as he didn't have his personal number posted anywhere. He cautiously answered the call.
"Hello, this is Midoriya Izuku speaking", he introduced himself, thinking that someone might've gotten the wrong number.
"Mister Midoriya, I am delighted to be able to finally talk to you! Even if I prefered to talk to you face to face", the voice belonged to a male, no doubt about it, but there wasn't anything… characteristic about it.
"May I ask what's your name and where you got this number?"
"My name is David Sarif, I am the CEO of Sarif Industries, a developing company that designs prosthetics for amputees. I got your number from my old friend, doctor Richards", the man, David, paused for a moment, probably giving Midoriya time to digest these new informations before continuing. "My company is on the brink of a great breakthrough you see, but there's one issue that's stopping our progress"
"You have my attention, please continue", Midoriya was curious as to why Richards would give out his personal number, he would have to call him later and ask him about that.
"As you probably know Mr Midoriya, the scientific progress was halted for almost two hundred years with the emergence of Quirks, no one wanted to go to space anymore, nobody cared about developing clean energy or new materials… Until you decided to tamper a bit, am I right?"
"I may have tried playing god to create a new material, yes"
"And from what I heard you succeeded"
"I would be glad if you cut straight to the point Mr Sarif, I am kind of busy right now"
"Creating prosthesis is not an easy task. You need to create the circuitry, programming, coding, wiring, find a way to connect the man and the machine together and there are only a handful materials capable of this enormous task. My goal is to create a prosthesis that you don't have to say your kidney for and drachmium is what I need to make it happen. Lightweight and durable, probably conductive or heat resistant for example after a bit of tinkering. I heard that you are a UA student, with a great dream of helping people. I want to help people too. But I can't do it alone… What's your answer Mr Midoriya?"
"Where is Midoriya?! We can't start without him!", an agitated Reiko shouted. She turned into a yandere while working on her play, so if Midoriya didn't want to wake up with her on top of him, knife in hand, than he had to skidaddle on the double.
"Mr Midoriya?", ah fuck it. People's future's are at stake!
- Bonus -
"Okay Momo, you can do this! You trained hard for this day and it's going to pay off right now!", Yaoyorozu thought to herself as she walked onto the stage in her costume on the final day of preparations. "You are going to walk up to him and kiss him right then and there!", she hyped herself up and walked up to the greenette.
"Oh, it's you…", he said softly and turned around, very much shirtless and very much attractive.
His chiseled body moved like a giant machine, his muscles working in perfect sync as he faced her with his bare chest. The subtle move of his lips as he spoke his line was enough to make her blush.
"I can't do this!"
I decided to make this chapter out of little scenes with humor and some plot. I've recently decided to dive into Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, since, you know, I'm kinda drawing the inspiration for this fic from Deus Ex series without having... played any of the games etc. Now I'm making up for it. Hence, lo and behold, David Sarif. Also... why would I introduce someone that can produce prosthesis in an !augmented Midoriya fic? You will have to wait and find out.
One last thing before I go - remember that you can always realize that your Flesh is Weak or you can become More than Human ;D
Also - What's the maximum safe heartrate for a person, how the students of UA react to the play that as of right now doesn't have a proper name (gimme suggestions plz) and can Momo do it?
Come back in the next chapter, where I'll hopefully try to stick to what I wrote in this teaser so that my misleading teasers stop being misleading!