Ties that Bind

by Mirrond

All Might left his home that evening hoping to find a successor. Instead he found his old lover (that he thought died years ago), discovered that he has a son, offered him his quirk... and adopted a few additional children. After all, the best answer to All for One being a stepfather to your son is becoming a stepfather to his children, right? [Dadmight or Dad for One? Yes.]

8. Chapter 7: New Classmates

I wish to announce that I have begun to publish my stories on the archiveofourown. I mean, eventually, I had to. I also threw one chapter of completely unrelated fanfic of mine, but I dunno if I'll publish more rn. I like having a backlog of chapters before I start publishing.

This time no 'answering reviews' section because most of 'ya lot asked for the Pomeranian, and... well, the text will be am answer enough for that.

(***)

Izuku put forward a simple (if rushed) plan. He suspected that the villain team was probably going to split. Inasa was too hot-blooded to stay in one place, while Tenya was too focused on the objective to not stay to guard the bomb.

So, the hero team was going to stay together. They would continue looking for the bomb (after all, Inasa might have as well missed them entirely, leaving them to deal with Tenya alone), but if Inasa found them, Izuku would engage him while Uraraka would continue to look for the bomb.

She would, preferably, not attack Tenya. Instead she would wait for the resolution of the fight between Inasa and Izuku. If Izuku would make it clear that he isn't going to make it, she would do her best to win the fight on her own.

All Might decides that it's a solid tactic. Fighting Inasa alongside Uraraka is an alternative, but what if they did it… only for Inasa to stall them long enough that they would fail to find the bomb before running out of time?

He and Eraserhead are observing the battle through the monitors, together with the rest of the 1-A. Eraserhead's opinion on the events is unreadable. Some of the kids are clearly looking forward to some action.

They get it when Inasa runs into the heroes on the third floor of the building. The gust of wind he generates is strong enough to tear paint off the wall. Izuku notices the attack in time to push Uraraka into the side-corridor, before he is sent flying by the air current. He manages to stop himself by using One for All to ram his fingers into the floor, but it's clear that he is immobilized.

"YOU KNOW, I'M LOOKING FORWARD TO SEEING YOUR SKILLS!" Inasa speaks while slowly walking down the corridor towards Izuku. Intimidating slow-walk is one of the skills he certainly mastered, All Might decides. "YOU TOOK THE FIRST PLACE IN THE NORMAL EXAM, WHILE I TOOK THE FIRST ONE IN THE RECOMMENDED STUDENT EXAM! LET'S SEE WHO IS STRONGER!"

"Wow, that's a strong wind." Denki says.

"That's a fraction of what Yoarashi can do, young Kaminari." All Might comments. "If he went full out, he could generate a tornado capable of tearing the building down completely!" Some of the kids look at him, with surprise and maybe a bit of fear.

The hero himself looks forward to seeing how Izuku deals with this obstacle. Because Inasa will certainly be one of the highest ranked heroes in the future, unless something tragically unforeseeable happens.

Izuku takes a look behind him, as Inasa gets closer and the air current grows in intensity. Yagi Toshinori has maybe a second or two to shout a mental 'IZUKU NO' before his son lets himself go and is thrown back by the raging tornado of air through the window at the end of the corridor.

He trained with Inko how to move around for a few years. He managed to position his body perfectly for the meeting with the window. It's already busted open by the air, now he flies through what's left, somehow grabbing the window's frame mid-flight and stopping himself.

Then he just starts scaling the outside wall. Inasa seems to be actually taken aback by this development, but after a second or two of staring, he uses his winds to propel himself forward. By the time he gets past the window, Izuku has already sneaked into the building through another set of windows.

"Wow, that was super agile!" Ashido Mina comments. "Did you all see this? Was it his quirk?"

"Had to be, right?" It's Denki this time. He is clearly taken aback by the mobility as well.

"No, it wasn't his quirk." All Might decides to clarify. "He did use his quirk to anchor himself to the floor, but the rest of it was just physical training."

"That's awesome!" Mina is clearly agitated by it. "Do you think he will teach me if I ask? I want to move like that."

"Midoriya, I found the bomb." It's Uraraka. "Iida is there, but he is… uhm…"

"What is he doing?" Izuku promptly replies. He is still running away from Inasa, who is relentlessly pursuing him through the building. Despite that, he doesn't sound fatigued or out of breath.

"Doing a really atrocious but earnest villain monologue." Uraraka replies. All Might is surprised that Iida is STILL doing it. There is a reason why he silenced Iida's comms. There are limits to cheesiness. And that's mister "FEAR NOT FOR I AM HERE' speaking. "But he prepared for me and cleaned the whole room, I have nothing to use my quirk on!"

"Which room?" Izuku asks, while deftly dodging another powerful gust of wind by propelling himself off the wall and jumping into the side-corridor.

"The middle one of the fifth floor! Ah damn it, he spotted me!" They can see it. Iida isn't attacking her yet, but he is clearly taking tips from Inasa's school of intimidating slow-walk. He is also saying something, but his comms are still off (they are recorded by the system to be reviewed later, but… too much cheese).

"Keep him occupied." Izuku says back. "I'll try to get there, but I don't think that I can shake Inasa off."

"I expected him to stutter." Momo comments. "But he sounds rather focused." She is observing everything rather closely and attentively.

He isn't the only one to notice how much Izuku changes when he is serious, isn't he? He remembers his old dentist, back during his UA times. He was normally a very old man with his hands shaking a bit, but when he saw an open mouth in front of him and had to do something with it, his shaking vanished instantly.

A bit of an odd comparison, but All Might saw a lot of similarities between his old nemesis and his son.

Momo Yaoyorozu might have gotten in through the recommended student exam. But the written exam was shared between that exam and the normal one. She is probably curious about the boy who managed to score an equal number of points in the written exam as she did.

Uraraka tries her best to lunge for the bomb, but Iida moves too fast and the bomb slips away from her grasp. Ingenium's brother is clearly trying to buy time, doing his best to not expose the bomb by going after his opponent. Wise.

Inasa is slowly shortening the distance between him and Izuku. Izuku doesn't have enough of a grasp on his quirk to try to fight the living whirlwind - if he goes all out, he might actually kill someone. And if not, then his two or three percent Full Cowl isn't enough to even approach Inasa.

"JUST STOP RUNNING AWAY!" Inasa shouts. "WHERE IS YOUR PASSION! COME AND FIGHT ME!" He doesn't add 'coward' at the end, but it's clearly implied.

"Uraraka, plan B." Izuku says through his comms. Finally, he sounds slightly winded. But only slightly. "I'm going to blow up the floor of your room. Get ready to use your quirk and go for the bomb."

"You wh…" Uraraka tries to say, but then she figures out what he meant, and grabs the nearest support pillar.

All Might has only now realized that Izuku is in the room beneath the one with the bomb. Did he purposely get there while avoiding Inasa?

Izuku stops. Inasa grins, looking forward to having an actual fight. He doesn't expect Izuku to suddenly yell PLUS ULTRA SMASH - and jump up, ramming his fist into the ceiling with enough strength to make it partially explode.

Uraraka steals the weight from the pillar and uses it like a baseball bat, propelling the debris towards Iida in an improvised super move. While he is distracted, she bolts towards the bomb and manages to latch onto it, winning the match.

"Sorry, Yoarashi-san." Izuku says (they can still hear them through the comms, despite the match being called). "I really wanted to fight you, but doing it like this gave us the biggest chance of victory. I didn't want Uraraka to lose simply because I wanted a fight."

Inasa, to All Might's notable surprise, laughs loudly.

"YOU BEAT US FAIR AND SQUARE!" He says with an additional laugh. "WE'RE HAVING A REMATCH NEXT TIME, AND I'M GOING TO WIN IT. ALSO YOUR SUPER MOVE NAME'S AWESOME!"

They actually give each other a fierce handshake and start walking towards the control room, merrily talking about the events of the battle. A room above them, Uraraka does the same with slightly saddened Iida, although it's much less vocal due to Iida moping a bit.

"This is so manly!" Kirishima shouts in the background and All Might agrees.

(***)

"So, whose performance was the best during this exercise?" All Might asks loudly. Normally he would just state it, and then let the kids figure out the reasons. But this time his son is among the group, and he doesn't want to risk suspicions of favouritism. Eraserhead can help him when it comes to punishments, but he isn't going to say anything positive about a student's performance. Just. No. Way. "Young Uraraka?"

"Uhm, that would be Midoriya." She replies, and All Might wonders if he is looking at his future daughter-in-law. Because, frankly, she spends a lot of time with his son and they seem super friendly with each other. Almost right off the bat. Which is especially shocking because Yagi Toshinori didn't expect Izuku to start gathering friends so fast. "He made a plan that worked, and managed to keep Yoarashi occupied while moving to the right spot to shatter the floor under the room with the bomb."

Izuku is blushing furiously. Someone isn't used to hearing nice things about himself from girls his age. All Might finds this adorable and regrets not having a camera on hand. Inko would love that picture.

"Young Yoarashi?" He moves over to the tall whirlwind kid that seems to have taken the page from All Might's school of loud speaking and then took it up to eleven.

"THAT WOULD BE MIDORIYA!" Inasa, despite losing the fight, beams at him with an enthusiastic (and slightly maniacal) grin. "I MESSED UP BY NOT LISTENING TO IIDA'S PLAN AND GOING OFF SOLO. IZUKU EXPLOITED THIS BY LEADING ME AROUND UNTIL HE WAS IN THE RIGHT POSITION TO ASSIST HIS TEAMMATE IN CAPTURING THE WEAPON, WHILE ALL I COULD DO WAS STARE AT HIM."

Well, at least losing doesn't make him mope. All Might remembers that one classmate of his who was super enthusiastic but went all down to being super depressed when something didn't go his way. He ended up dropping the school because of failing a hero provisional license exam and that was, frankly, rather pathetic. Instead of going that way, Inasa is probably already thinking how to be better next time.

This kid is going to be a frightening hero in a few years.

"I see. Young Iida?" All Might moves over.

"Well, I didn't see the fight between Midoriya-san and Yoarashi-san." Tenya says. "But if it's true that Midoriya-san planned the encounter that way and held Yoarashi-san at bay for the whole time, that's certainly enough to consider his performance as the best one."

"Young Midoriya?" His son is, at this point, clearly distraught with praise. All Might's experience with kids is very limited, frankly speaking. He is doing his best, but at least partially relies on what Inko tells him.

Only in moments like this he realizes how correct she was in her assessment that their son has self-esteem issues. He is so unused to praise, that he doesn't know how to deal with it. Yagi is doing his best to alleviate this problem (although his best is praising when praise is due AND involving Hound Dog), but they are still far away from getting there.

The only question that the Number One Hero has in his head is who his son will choose as the best one in that fight. Because he certainly isn't going to take the praise and accept it as something he earned.

"Th...that would be Iida, sensei." As All Might expected. But it still catches the other three (especially Tenya) off-guard. Together with most of the people in the room. "He created the correct plan for combat that I'd struggle to counter, which didn't work only because Inasa decided to fight on his own. He took correct precautions against Uraraka's quirk, and stuck to defending the bomb. He managed to keep Uraraka at bay, and was only taken off-guard by an attack from a completely unexpected direction, which only occurred because Yoarashi failed to keep me pinned down. Sorry for that."

Inasa, magnanimous in defeat, gives him a thumbs-up gesture and a bright smile. All Might really likes that kid. He'll be a great and incredibly popular hero if he keeps acting like this.

"I in the meantime failed to shake Yoarashi off, and I was forced to use a last-resort tactic." Izuku continues. "I had no idea where exactly the bomb was, so there was a risk that I would destroy it. Destroying, uhm, a nuclear bomb isn't a good idea, I think? Worst of all, there was a chance that I would wound Uraraka, despite warning her in advance. But I was forced to risk it, because Iida kept her pinned down, and Yoarashi was gaining on me and I couldn't shake him off to join Uraraka. It was a desperate tactic."

All Might curses All for One for teaching his son to be so smart. Public self-deprecation sessions shouldn't be so well argumented and hard to dismantle. He ends up looking at Eraserhead for help.

"Both assessments are correct." Eraserhead decides to save him. "Both Iida and Midoriya crafted rational plans for the fight and acted their parts accordingly. The difference between them is, in the end, that Uraraka played her role in Midoriya's plan, while Yoarashi ignored Iida's."

All Might isn't even surprised when Inasa headbutts the floor while apologizing to his teammate for making them lose.

Momo still looks at Izuku strangely. She is either unused to having her intellectual equals around, or Uraraka isn't going to be the only girl pursuing All Might's son in the future. Or both.

(***)

A few days have passed since the battle trial, and the press found out about All Might picking up a teaching career. It was, frankly, a fairly boring time. Nothing shocking happened, that's for sure.

Okay, save for Uraraka discovering that Izuku has some undefined private lessons with Principal Nedzu himself. She heard the tales. They all heard the tales. She actually found out by chance, since she ran into him walking towards the Principal's office and he kinda blurted it out without thinking.

She promised to not tell anyone. But she was still impressed.

Then the fateful day came.

"Today's homeroom lesson will be a bit special." Aizawa-sensei announces. The class in front of him shivers with dread. "Two things on the list. First one is choosing the class president and TWO vice-presidents." Someone shouts 'finally something normal' and Aizawa sighs painfully. "Since our time is precious, and I know how things tend to go, you'll be voting for the president. Who will then choose whoever he or she wants for the vice-presidents. You have fifteen minutes."

Izuku Midoriya's face goes adorably vacant in shock when he gets four votes and gets elected as the class president. If Uraraka's suspicions are correct, he voted for himself (like two thirds of the class), but also got votes from Uraraka, and most likely Iida and Yoarashi.

Yaomomo (as she wanted to be called) is in second place, with two votes. The rest, as already stated, voted for themselves. She looks personally saddened by it, though not as much as Tenya who was absolutely super-fierce about getting elected only to ge votes.

"Great. You're done with that." Aizawa-sensei yawns. "Choose your vice-presidents."

Izuku clearly doesn't handle standing in front of the class well. But he does his best, and manages to straighten up properly.

"Th… that would be Yaoyorozu-san and Iida-san." He says (just slightly officially and formally and she finds that cute) and Uraraka nods to herself. She expected as much. Momo and Tenya, clearly, didn't. "Yaoyorozu-san is the only person other than me to receive more than one vote, which means that there is someone in the class who believes that she has what it takes. Iida, in the meantime, uhm…" He glances at Aizawa-sensei, who groans slightly. "... well, having someone around who actually remembers the rules and guidelines might be useful, even if we, uhm, end up ignoring them." He tries to smile, just enough to prove that it was a joke.

There are some chuckles throughout the class. Tenya is still too taken aback by being chosen to actually complain about the joke.

"Great. Now back to your seat." Aizawa-sensei says and Izuku quickly flees. "This is going to be a bit of a shock to you, but Principal Nedzu decided to introduce something completely new to the Heroics Course this year."

Uraraka's eyes might have been glued to Izuku just a bit, and because of that she notices him slightly perking up in his seat. It isn't about Nedzu, she figured Izuku out enough to know that. Does he know what it's about?

"The television tends to offer the public an oversimplified image of villains and vigilantes." Aizawa says. His face is, as almost always, dead. "This is something that we tend to introduce our students to at a slightly older age. Many villains are also victims, and it is the opinion of Principal Nedzu that the system doesn't give many of them the second chance that they deserve."

Waitwaitwait, Uraraka thinks to herself. Judging from the stares she is seeing on her classmate's faces, she isn't the only one to start arriving at the same conclusions. She glances at Izuku… and he, as the only one of them all, looks OVERJOYED.

"As a result, Principal Nedzu decided to create a special addition to the Hero Course." Aizawa continues. "He has personally chosen eight villains, vigilantes or otherwise… problematic individuals with sufficiently powerful quirks, that he decided to be redeemable. They are all of the same age as you. Unlike you, they all live in a separate building on the UA grounds and aren't allowed to leave the school grounds unless attended by one of the teachers. These limitations are going to continue until they are either expelled or successfully graduate from the Hero Course, thus proving to us all that they were successfully rehabilitated. If they prove to us that this idea has potential, the school will probably officially open an entire, class-sized Villain Rehabilitation Course."

Villains? They are going to be attending the Hero Course with actual VILLAINS? Sure, probably small-time, due to the whole 'redeemable' part and being their age, but…

"The reason why each class will have two vice-presidents is because you are all supposed to be part of the test drive of the new rehabilitation program." Aizawa-sensei continues. "The class president will be tasked with making sure that the new additions to the class are neither victims nor perpetrators of bullying or any other type of discrimination, and that they feel genuinely welcomed. He and the vice-presidents are also expected to make sure that the new arrivals are more influenced by you than the other way around. Report any suspicious behaviour and negative influences they have on you." He sighs. "Any questions?"

Yaomomo is the first one to raise her hand. Most of the class is still stunned by the announcement and clearly can't form cohesive sentences.

"What sort of villains are these new students going to be?" She asks formally. "I mostly refer to the crimes they committed."

"All that you need to know is that Principal Nedzu and the UA's legal department are in agreement that there are major attenuating circumstances that justify their admission." Aizawa replies calmly. "The crimes themselves range from bullying, illegal quirk usage and suicide-baiting to first degree murders." There is an audible 'gulp' throughout the class. "However, to avoid stigmas, we have opted to keep their crimes hidden. If the students decide to reveal them, it's fine. In the meantime, only the faculty and the class presidents will be made aware. The class presidents are, however, forbidden from sharing this knowledge without the rehab students' agreement. As a result, if any of the other students notices something odd in the behaviour of our new problem children, report it to either the faculty or talk it over with your new class president."

Izuku, clearly, knew about it already. This makes no sense. He was just voted in, right? Yet he clearly was aware of what was going to happen. Uraraka is going to get to the bottom of this, no doubt about it.

"Well, no other questions, at least for now." Aizawa-sensei yawns. "If you have any, take them to your class president. Just wait until tomorrow, so he gets the answers to them. And now, let me introduce to you, the four Rehab Course students assigned to your class."

He doesn't even make any louder sound, but whoever was in the corridor next to the class heard him well enough. The door opens and four kids in UA uniforms walk in.

First is a really gaunt boy with messy, light-blue hair. The skin on his face looks really, really dry (odd thing to notice at first, but…), and he is wearing an expression of complete indifference. After him is a petite girl with pale skin, ashen blonde hair styled into two really messy buns, and a face that looks quite enthusiastic. Then another boy with messy hair, but this time indigo in colour (he also looks like he missed a nap or two from his schedule), who seems to fight the first boy for the position of the most outwardly disinterested boy in the room. And then, finally, another boy with spiky ash blond hair, and an expression of barely restrained rage.

It grows slightly more when he and Izuku lock eyes for a few seconds. It's odd. Do they know each other?

"Going in the order of entering…" Aizawa announces. "Tenko Shimura, Himiko Toga, Hitoshi Shinsou and Bakugou Katsuki." Their teacher sighs painfully. "Have fun."

(***)

"I think that Izuku knew what was going to happen beforehand." Uraraka announces during the lunch break. She is at one table with Tenya Iida, Inasa Yoarashi and Tsuyu Asui (whom she recently began to befriend - which is nice, because she certainly needs some FEMALE friends).

"Really?" Tenya appears to be intrigued by the idea. "How exactly? I am aware of his connections with the school staff, but it's still a notable lapse in security if a student knows something like this. Especially as I came to believe that the UA did its best to hide the Rehab program from the world." He goes silent for a second. "I checked the internet on the way here, and absolutely no media reported something like that being prepared."

"Is it that surprising-ribbit?" Tsuyu asks. "I believe that the media won't take it face-down. The Principal of the UA letting hero course students intermingling with teenage villains and so on. The press will be out for blood."

"THE PRESS IS STUPID!" Inasa says and immediately heads are turning towards them. There is a reason why Inasa tends to not say a lot during lunch. He acknowledges the need of others to eat in peace, but his voice is always over the top. So instead of making his voice less loud, he simply says as little as he can.

Odd. Then again, which one of their classmates isn't odd?

"Can't fight you there-kero." Tsuyu says with a nod. "The press is the worst. Then again, it's the UA. And it will most likely be presented as a test of the program, with an option to roll the changes back if it fails. But I'm slightly worried about being associated with villains, though."

Oh, yeah. Complex mutant quirks stigma. Uraraka can understand that much. It's now two stigmas for the price of one to her.

"Can they even do that legally?" Uraraka is mostly confused about this. "Shouldn't that be run through a court or something? Can you keep something like it hidden?"

"They do, yes." Tenya says, while fixing his glasses. "This is relatively easy to achieve, although it requires some time and effort. People do not realize that hero agencies can theoretically take in vigilantes and small-time villains for rehabilitation purposes. My brother's agency has a few former vigilantes as sidekicks, actually. This doesn't happen very often, but there are a few agencies that specialize in this. They can transfer such wards to other agencies if they decide them to be better suited to their needs. If my suspicions are correct, Principal Nedzu ran the candidates through such agencies, before having them immediately transfer their wards to his agency. The rest, namely connecting their rehabilitation program with the Hero Course, is theoretically in his right as the principal."

"Your brother's agency?" Uraraka asks, and Tenya immediately beams.

"Yes! I don't exactly like it when it's brought to attention, but my brother is a pro-hero." He says. For the first time in, like, ever, Uraraka sees a genuine smile on his face. "His hero name is Ingenium."

"You don't like it-kero?" Tsuyu's head tilts a bit. "But you look happy to be able to mention it."

"That's true." Tenya nods. "I'm extremely proud of my brother and I'm looking forward to working alongside him. However, I wish to earn my position with my own merit. Abusing my connections would give me an unfair advantage over students who didn't get born in a family like my own. This is the reason why I refused my brother's offer to receive his recommendation and attend the recommendation exam."

Inasa pauses stuffing himself with food and gives Tenya a thumbs up gesture before returning to the feast. Uraraka kinda expected him to react like that. Competing fair and square and having a goal to strive for sounds like a very Inasa thing to do.

"Midoriya told me the same thing before our fight." Uraraka adds. "That he doesn't want to use his connections, and instead wants to earn everything fair and square. "Tenya beams just a bit. Inasa does the thumbs-up gesture again. "I'm still going to dig into it, though." Uraraka decides to return to the initial subject. "I was observing Midoriya when Aizawa-sensei announced the Rehab program. Everyone was shocked, but he looked like Christmas came early. And I'm something like ninety-nine percent sure that he and at the very least Bakugou know each other."

"So while everyone was watching Aizawa-sensei, you were focused on studying a boy's face-ribbit." Tsuyu asks, her finger on her lips. "How bold."

Uraraka starts stuttering (because it's certainly not what Tsuyu implies! She is just concerned about it as his friend!). But that's when they both see Izuku approaching and… he has company. Two rehab students, actually. Huh.

(***)

No one expected Tenko Shimura in this threat, huh? Well, let's just say that unpacking what happened to him will take us a while (unpacking what happened to Bakugou will take us a while too, just smaller). Also Ochaco's still in denial, huh.