UNEXPECTED BONUS CHAPTER FOR THE STORY JUST HIT 1000 KUDOS ON AO3.
(***)
TheGreatBubbaJ - The darkest thing in this fic, yes. Until Shie Hassaikai Arc, khe khe.
Dragonjek - Fuzziness and existential horror are one hell of a marriage ngl.
The Archivist of Nyx - I'm actually writing (11 chapters done) what's pretty much a fanfic based on this story, where Midoriya... well, things go bad. And then they went worse. It's actually full-blown grimdark, Entropy-style. Let's just say that after hitting rock bottom he is somehow more terrifying than Overhaul. Although I'm not going to start publishing that fic [Exiting the Stage] until Aiko's quirk is finally explained here, because the ETS' first chapter actually explains it as well. And yes, she is a full-blown villain as well.
SmokyGhoul - He is honestly somewhere on the fence between Chaotic Good and Neutral Good.
Trixuny - He had good teacher...
Detrametal - Look, I somehow made Endeavor, Bakugou and Mineta somewhat likeable in one fic. It's really an achievement, ngl.
Guest - yes.
GunBlade2022 - Yes :D
Chips - Oh don't f_king remind me. I wrote Cure to Evil with Captain Celebrity being the American Number One Hero like a chapter before Star and Stripe was revealed, then I mentioned old name for Thirteen in Dead on Arrival literally a week before her actual name was revealed, then this. I WANT TO FUCKING KILL SOMEONE RIGHT NOW
(***)
Two days after Touya Todoroki returned to the world of the living (and Endeavor burned the divorce documents before vowing to not escape his problems ever again), All Might officially announced his retirement.
Endeavor has become the Number One Hero. People were deeply conflicted over that, although none of them even remotely as much as Endeavor himself. Unfortunately, for as much as Hawks and Best Jeanist were popular figures, they simply weren't powerful enough to serve as a deterrent.
Thunderbolt might have worked as well. But he was gone, and no one knew what happened to him.
Two days after that Nedzu summoned the faculty to his office to announce to them that the UA is switching into a boarding school.
He also offered All Might let his family move into the school grounds for the time being, for protection. In fact, Nedzu was willing to offer every faculty member and every student an option to move their families (or parts of that) into a separate part of the UA grounds.
Even with guaranteed high quality education to children of all ages, Nedzu didn't expect a lot of the parents to be willing to (temporarily) abandon their lives to move to another prefecture entirely. Regardless, the option was on the table.
All Might was tasked with accompanying the homeroom teachers on those outings. After all, he was a figure enough to make the parents realize that Nedzu was serious about it.
They were also going to offer some proper updates on the behaviour of Villain Rehab Course students. Or, at least, those that had family members that weren't supervillains.
(***)
Eraserhead waits until they leave the building to scream in abject terror at the clouds. To All Might's surprise, Vlad King does the same thing at the same time.
Then he understands.
All of their problem children. Living together. Under their - not their parents' - supervision. And this year's problem children are the worst set of those ever. Both in case of their tendency to redefine the rules and their extreme creativity in application of their quirks.
He actually ends up joining them in their vocal expression of despair and terror.
It's too late to come back and beg Nedzu to call the whole thing off, isn't it?
(***)
"Be honest with me." Mitsuki Bakugou says to All Might. Somehow he feels kind of intimidated. That's a dangerous glare. "Did he get better?"
How to put it so that she understands how far her son got during those months? Because Bakugou is close to being the Villain Rehab poster boy. A proof that sometimes you find a diamond after breaking the chunk of dried-up mud.
There is also the part where he now knows that the woman in front of him is an old acquaintance of his wife. And that she actually designed Mischief' outfit. Oh, the shock. They only split off over their children's feud, although neither side liked that fact.
Personally, All Might hoped that they would manage to fix their relationship. After all, their children seemed to be on their best way to do it.
Hold up! He has an idea. Izuku told him about something that happened on their class chat. It should work well enough as a picture of Young Bakugou's improvement.
"A girl from his class told him to shut up." All Might says. Eraserhead almost chokes on the coffee. "And he shut up as ordered." Izuku was absolutely beaming when Uraraka was mentioned for the next few days.
"Oh my god." He can see tears welling in Mitsuki's eyes. "He has grown up so much."
Yeah, that's one way of saying it.
(***)
Eraserhead enters Midoriyas residence and immediately realizes that he stepped into hell. Naturally, he is alone in this… adventure. All Might visiting himself would be… well, they are still trying to maintain the image that he and Yagi Toshinori, the father of Izuku Midoriya, are two separate people that just accidentally occupy the same body.
He looks to the left.
He sees Yagi Toshinori, Izuku Midoriya and Akaguro Chizome, watching a film about All Might's face off against Venom Chainsaw. Judging from the raised voices and vivid gestures, they aren't enjoying the film and are very busy pointing out where the film got everything wrong.
He looks to the right.
He sees Inko Midoriya, Danjuro Tobita, Manami Aiba, Ms. Compress (he still didn't learn her name) and, oddly enough, Nemuri Kayama, having a tea party. Inko and Danjuro seem to be rather aptly reviewing whatever new and foreign brand of tea they got this time.
He looks to the front.
Aiko Midoriya and SECOND, IDENTICAL AIKO MIDORIYA, both wearing identical outfits (old looking faint blue dresses), are standing at the end of the corridor. Staring at him in silence. He is acutely aware that there was no such corridor in the house during his last visit three days ago.
No, fuck this. Nedzu isn't paying him enough.
He leaves the papers on the shelf, sends All Might a text message where to find him, and then he leaves.
(***)
All Might stares at the legal caretaker of Tenko Shimura in silence over the coffee table. Why? Why did he even come here? What sort of devil possessed him? And why did that man go so far as to use a false name and false address (did he rent this apartment for that?!) in order to fool him into this?
To make him feel curious enough about the caretaker's identity to come in person? To fall into the trap?
"So…" Gran Torino gives him a malicious grin. "How's your life going, Toshinori?"
All Might begins to shiver with existential dread.
(***)
Mochi: Izuku, can you come over
Katsudon: Uhm, now? I can't, I'm helping Denki with his homework through the videochat
Mochi: my parents are here
Katsudon: … I think I recognize the meme, but you got it backwards
Mochi: what
Katsudon: NEVERMIND
Katsudon: why do you want me to come?
Mochi: … to introduce you to them finally?
Mochi: mom just found that picture of ours that we did to celebrate passing the exam
Mochi: and, well, my phone wallpaper
Katsudon: oh
Katsudon: oh I'm so dead
Mochi: Hey, it's just us in our hero uniforms, stop making it sound like something weird!
Katsudon: wait, wallpaper?
Katsudon: I TOLD YOU TO ERASE IT
Mochi: The picture of you with the Pussycats is the most adorable thing I ever saw and I'm not changing it until you get me something more adorable.
Mochi: also c'mon, they want answers and they want them now ;_;
Katsudon: I'm coming!
Mochi: Yeeee
Mochi: also wear a normal shirt for a change, alright?
Mochi: Izu, you're there?
Mochi: -censored-
(***)
In all honesty, it was less horrible than anyone expected. Uraraka's parents were mostly curious (although her father did welcome him with an accusative but also rather analyzing stare).
He got bombarded with questions, was promptly hugged by Uraraka's mother (who decided that he was a nice boy with serious intentions for her daughter), and then asked if they could meet his parents.
The funniest part of the whole day was the reaction when they recognized his father.
The least funny part was the shiver of dread when he saw Uraraka's mother and his mom have some really secretive talk in the kitchen. With Aiko suddenly patting his head and telling him that everything will be alright, right after it was concluded. And of course she refused to elaborate and left immediately.
(***)
The dorms building was built quickly. Someone (Nedzu?) decided to call it Heights Alliance. Eraserhead has no idea why, it sounds dumb and completely non-descriptive in his personal opinion (that nobody seems interested in knowing).
It should be called 'Demon Containment Site' or something like that. Oh yeah, that would describe the situation perfectly. Albeit it would have to be Demon Containment Site 02, since the first one (the one in the family sector of the UA, housing All Might's family - including Aiko) was elsewhere.
He has all of his problem children assembled in front of him. Including the Villain Rehab Course students. Their behaviour was good enough that the school decided to let them move in with their classmates.
"I'll be frank with you." Eraserhead announces. He can see that they are on the verge of ignoring him and running inside to start picking their rooms. "You are the worst assortment of problem children I ever had to deal with."
That doesn't seem to produce any reaction. It's not the first time he said that to them.
"And now, you're going to live together." Eraserhead continues. "I already dread to imagine the horrors that this will bring. So I'll just inform you that I don't care what you do within this building or its surroundings. For as long as no one gets wounded. But if you destroy something, you are going to have to replace it. And no, Yaoyorozu, you can't simply pay for someone to do it, because we aren't going to let any outsiders come here and do your job."
The class vice-rep looks actually shocked by this.
"Other than that, have fun." He almost deflates, in a very All Might way. Is it infectious? The kids take that as a sign that the dam broke and start running inside.
Ugh.
(***)
He left the kids to do the unpacking and moving in. Eraserhead himself decided to return to the teacher's lounge to drink coffee. Or take a nap. He hasn't yet decided on that. Somehow Hizashi and Nemuri appear out of nowhere to accompany him on his solitary trek to the one and only safe haven he has.
"This is going to be…" Hizashi says. "...a pure horror, isn't it?" He is probably thinking about Aiko being allowed to wander throughout the campus site. Where she might run into the English teacher. Who was still attending the mandatory therapy sessions with Hound Dog to get over his… problems with her.
"At least Izuku's uncles won't be showing up anywhere near him for a moment." Eraserhead replies. Hizashi looks saddened by temporarily losing contact with his unofficial muse and inspiration. Which just happens to be one of the most wanted people in Japan.
They got way too close due to that whole 'Midoriyas' house being a neutral zone' thing, now didn't they?
He opens up the door to the teacher's lounge. And, just like he did during his visit to the Midoriyas', he immediately realizes that he just entered his personal, ironic hell.
"Hello there, fellow teachers!" Saku Atsuhiro (wearing a business suit, with exactly nothing on him reminding them of his villainous person) announces, while giving them a heartfelt thumbs-up. "I sure do love doing teacher's things. Like breathing oxygen. And hiding from students in the teacher's lounge."
Hero Killer Stain (wearing yellow suit - did he raid All Might's wardrobe? - and a very convincing prosthetic nose) nods scarcely, while slurping a strawberry smoothie.
There are no strawberries involved.
Eraserhead realizes the true horror of the situation. It surely can't be it, right?
"Please, tell me that you are here to rob us." Eraserhead deadpans, while Hizashi (still behind him) realizes what's happening and squeals in happiness.
"Tempting, but no." Mr. Compress replies. "Principal Nedzu decided to expand the faculty and the curriculum a bit, and offered to hire us. We're kinda part-timing, though." Teaching hero students half the time, robbing or beating up the heroes the remaining time. Oh, joy. "Akaguro is here to teach people how to fight without using their quirks, while I'm here to help them escape binds, organize a good diversion, and generally be tricky."
It's not said aloud, but they are also probably interested in hiding from the PLF's attention. The Front probably realized at this point that they helped mess up their grand master plan and was out for blood.
The intercom springs to life. Eraserhead is treated to ten long seconds of maniacal Nedzu's laughter, before it dies down again.
He really, really wants to retire right now.
(***)
The night came, and the moving in has concluded. Some of the girls proposed a room showcasing competition. It was met with a combination of abject horror and determination from the boys.
Midoriya's room was filled with books (on heroes, quirks, and villains), with two whole shelves dedicated to his own analysis notebooks. There were also a lot of figurines that he enjoyed making in spare time (mostly heroes, villains and, to his slight embarrassment, his classmates).
Plus, of course, hero merch. Including All Might's. Although it was significantly more tame on that field than they all imagined his room to be before the reveal that the Symbol of Peace was his father.
Tokoyami was trying to act all cool, pointing out how trivial this whole thing was… with his back resting on the door to his room. Moving him away was a chore (but a one that Hagakure and Ashido managed to succeed in). The insides turned out to be…
Grim.
Midoriya has also sighed painfully when they all saw the shrine to his sister in the corner of the room, including her small figurine (slightly crude, Dark Shadow must have carved and painted her on his own). But he decided to not comment on this.
Aoyama's room was extremely, extremely dazzling. And bright. No one was surprised by that, in all honesty. What certainly was surprising was how extremely tame and almost ascetic Mineta's room was.
(when asked about it by Kaminari, he promptly replied that he has a computer and this frees him from covering his living space with things that might freak the girls out - Kirishima at this point concluded that Mineta is getting better, but in a weird way).
Ojirou's room was rather simple. Iida's was full of books (had more of them than Midoriya, actually) and an entire shelf of spare glasses (a view that almost made Uraraka fall to the ground in laughter). Kaminari's was colorfully and artistically messy.
Kouda became a solid contender for the first place in the competition when the girls noticed his pet bunny.
Todoroki's room was a perfect image of a traditional Japanese bedroom. When inquired on how he managed to remodel the whole thing in a few hours, he deadpanned that he worked hard.
Kirishima's room was manly. That was all that could be said about it. The girls weren't particularly amused at that. Kirishima didn't seem to mind. Yoarashi's room was actually very similar, except for a lot of posters of sufficiently hotblooded heroes.
Sero's room was distinctly asian, and it seemed that the girls at the very least enjoyed the aesthetics. Shouji's, in the meantime, was very minimalist. Then again, he needed space to move around without damaging anything.
Satou's room was very ordinary, but it had a cake. That was cheating, just as much as Kouda's pet rabbit. In all honesty, one of those two was going to win it, no other way. Probably Satou, guessing from how tasty his cake was.
Bakugou's room was full of more aggressive heroes' merch, and books. Including a small shelf of culinary books about the world's most spicy cuisine. Midoriya looked physically sick at this discovery.
Shinsou's room was rather grim, but not as much as Tokoyami's. And also rather ascetic, but not as much as Mineta's. He also had posters of Ms. Joke and Eraserhead, both that he naturally had to order on his own (as they had no official merch).
Tenko Shimura's room was, honestly speaking, looking like a gamer's hideout. At least until Midoriya approached the wall filled with some grimdark RPG game posters, found the well-hidden mechanism, and pressed it.
Somehow, within a few seconds, the large space above it was replaced with one covered with posters of cat, wolf and rabbit girls from various much more lighthearted fantasy or sci-fi games. Including one that was actually about magical girls.
"You're dead to me." Tenko deadpans as the laughter starts.
(***)
Jirou's room was filled with instruments, and very fitting her image as a music fan. Attempts to call it non-ladylike have resulted in Kaminari and Aoyama getting promptly punished with her quirk.
Hagakure's room was girly. Ashido's was cute (although according to her, the jury was split on that). Uraraka's was dull, except for some rescue hero posters. She didn't take her Mr. Compress merch with her to school, obviously!
Asui's was rather… froggy. And cute. A bit childish (especially that rotating seat made to resemble a cartoonish-looking frog). The girl herself looked a bit out of it, and asked Uraraka and Himiko to visit her afterwards.
Yaoyorozu's room was high class and very, very crampy. The bed was, especially, a beast. In the meantime Himiko's room was almost as cute and cartoonish as Tsuyu's, except it was mostly bright colours. And a large poster from some manga about a girl that was secretly a vampire.
(***)
Satou won first place. Due to the cake. Kouda took second place. Due to the rabbit. The complaints that it wasn't the room decor that won were left unanswered.
Then again, it was a very tasty cake. And a very petable rabbit. And they were technically within the rooms when the jury entered, making it a part of the room's decor to be reviewed. it counted, right?
Few minutes later Himiko and Uraraka entered Tsuyu's room.
(***)
Despite everything that happened, Tsuyu expected to be admonished for what she did. To be socially exiled from their small circle of friends.
She betrayed them. She betrayed everyone. She entered the UA with an intention to help bring it down. She… wasn't thinking clearly back then. Not so soon after what happened to Habuko. Only to discover that it was the place that she belonged to the whole time. Despite that, they had the right to turn their back on her.
They didn't. They listened to her guilt-ridden confession until the end. Then they suddenly hugged her closely.
Uraraka apologized for not noticing how much pain Tsuyu was in at the beginning of their joint school life. She admitted that she knew that the 'UA traitor' defected back after hearing Izuku explain his master plan to Nedzu. That they helped trap the PLF and rescue the kidnapped students.
And that Izuku trusted them enough to not tell anyone who they were, even Nedzu - and that this was enough to make her give Tsuyu a second chance.
Himiko laughed and told Tsuyu that if she's ever caught, she should apply to the Villain Rehab Course with her, because she'll be studying with some very cool people. She, of all people, realized very well how hard it was to be too different. And she knew how many times she felt close to turning into villainy herself.
She was also happy that she was in the list of reasons for Tsuyu's to defect back. She said that it made her feel like Zuku. Perhaps correctly so.
Tsuyu cried. She also vowed to become the best hero she could. With them and for them.
(***)
Midoriya ended up being promptly kidnapped by 1-B students the next day. They wanted answers as well. He (however horrible he felt being in the center of attention) ended up spilling the beans, and explaining to them that yes, All Might is his dad.
No, he didn't admit it not because it made him feel better than them (what the hell is this line of reasoning, Neito, get a gr… Kendou, stop it! He can't hear my answer if he isn't conscious), but because it meant way too much attention and he isn't yet doing very well with that.
Yes, he wants to be the Number One Hero. No, he doesn't want to be the sole Symbol of Peace. Losing All Might should be a good sign that they need a lot of very powerful heroes ready to work together when needed rather than one almighty one, one or two notable weaker and then a chaos of people working on their own. And very rarely teaming-up.
Yes, he looks forward to working with them once they all graduate. They should totally train together more to become better heroes as a group. Yes, he is willing to drop them some tips on how to get stronger (except for Tetsutetsu, just grab Kirishima and go ask All Might for workout tips, does Izuku look like a bodybuilder to them? Sheesh.)
They finally let him go. He is almost at the dorms when Ayako Nakahara and a few of the 1-C students kidnap him. Of course she connected the dots as well. Except, she only saw him interact with All Might a few times. Just in both forms, and she got suspicious of it all. But she knew their quirks.
What the hell is wrong with this day?
(***)
"Your next objective…" Aizawa-sensei announces to the class. He looks more tired than average, and it's saying a lot. "... is obtaining the provisional hero licenses. Mostly due to the fact that I won't have to be constantly afraid of some of you going on a rampage… yes, I'm talking to you, the Hosu Four… and falling into possible legal problems."
Well, at least he's honest about his motivations. That's quite… heroic? In his own way, that is.
"Normally, I'd announce that you're going to receive special training." Eraserhead continues. "With some of our teachers. In order to obtain super moves. But I was explicitly told that you're already doing just that, only with Midoriya."
They all do. And, honestly speaking, they would probably like doing this with regular teachers. Sure, they would learn much less, but… Izuku Midoriya is rather demanding and particular, even if in a fuzzy and encouraging way.
Tenya called his teaching self 'Gran Torino and All Might wearing a trenchcoat', and from what they knew about those two people, it was a very correct assessment. Then again, they are learning a terrifying amount of things about their quirks almost daily.
(Izuku spent years learning things from a man as old as quirks who had an obsession about quirks and funded mad scientists to learn more, of course he was a walking encyclopedia of cryptic knowledge and actually correct conspiracy theories about their functioning)
"So, before we actually start doing anything with that, me and a select few teachers…" Cementoss, Ectoplasm and Midnight enter the room, looking positively hyped-up about the prospect. "...will take a look into what constitutes your standard training regime. So that we'll know what to work with."
Eraserhead has a dawning suspicion that they are making a horrible mistake. Alas, they had to.
If only he knew how much of a mistake that was.
The twenty-four demons in front of Eraserhead gave him a combination of wry smile, looks of pity, hyped-up determination and what looked like PTSD-style flashbacks, just seen from the outside.
What exactly - and how - was Midoriya teaching them?!
(***)
The next chapter is the source of some very weird AO3 tags, as I decided to test how much pure crack I can put in this fic while still logically explaining why it's not crack. Let's just say that Eraserhead is never going to emotionally recover from chapter 38.