The tension in the room was thick, as class 1A sat in their classroom. Waiting anxiously for Aizawa to arrive.

Eventually, Aizawa did in fact enter the classroom, going over to his desk, without looking at a single student.

But everyone's eyes were glued on him, as he settled himself behind his desk, Aizawa could feel their impatient stares, begging for answers.

Eventually, Aizawa turned to face the class. "Let's get straight to the point. I'm sure you're all wondering, what exactly happened, in the lead up to the U.S.J. attack."

No one said anything. Both out of a sense of nervousness, and not wanting to waste any time between now, and them getting answers.

Aizawa sighed. "Alright. Let's start at the beginning. As you are all aware, there was an incident, in which a villain broke into the building, and was taken down by Spider-Man...what you didn't know is that the reason the villain was there was to find All Might's schedule and plan out the U.S.J. attack...Spider-Man informed us of this, before his escape."

Eraserhead looked at the faces of his students. All of them looked absolutely dumbfounded. Which is to be expected. He would be if he had just been told this news after what just happened.

"Our initial plan after that was to cancel the trip to the U.S.J...However…" Aizawa paused. "We received orders from the Hero Public Safety Commission, to not change our plans. And send you all into the U.S.J. facility regardless."

"Why?" Iida was the first to speak. And he looked so...lost. And betrayed. Like a close friend had just stabbed in the back.

Aizawa took a deep breath. "Because of pride."

"Pride?" Hana's confused look changed into one of fury. "We and Spider-Man almost got killed by a monster, because of pride!?"

"The H.P.S.C. believed that backing down, would show cowardice, against something they believed to be no threat," Aizawa explained. "They said that even if there WAS an attack, All Might would be there to make sure no one got hurt or injured. In other words, they didn't believe that the attackers were a threat. Especially not when compared to All Might."

"That still seems idiotic," Tsu said. "They had no way of knowing what kind of quirks the villains would have. Or how much of a threat they are. Or if All Might could be unavailable like he was."

"Exactly." Aizawa agreed. "This is where the phrase, pride comes before the fall."

"Don't act like you're blameless." Shoto glared at his teacher. "For the sake of following orders, you all lead us into a trap. You didn't even tell us."

"We all almost died!" Ochaco shouted. "Spider-Man almost died!"

"If Spidy didn't show up, we'd all be red blotches on the floor!" Jiro added in rage.

"That is so unmanly!" Kirishima yelled.

All the students, having gotten their answers, and not liking what they heard, all started yelling angrily at the teacher.

"Quiet!" Aizawa shouted, activating his quirk, to give him an intimidating edge.

The class quieted down, but many of them still sent glares at Aizawa.

Aizawa turned off his quirk and calmed himself. "Listen, there is nothing I can say to defend our choice. Not anything really valid anyway. We also underestimated the threat posed by the league, and we weighed sending you in there, vs the chance of us all getting fired, and replaced with staff more directly under the H.P.S.C. 's thumb. And if they're this callus with your lives now, how do you think they would treat you if they were more involved?"

That caused the students to pause, and some of them to shudder. As they imagined being taught by those creeps.

"Look, if we knew that there was a bioengineered, All Might fighting weapon, then you wouldn't have been sent in there regardless of what our orders were." Aizawa strictly clarified. "But we didn't. We thought that the combined forces of the teachers, All Might, and potentially yourselves if it came to that, would be able to take care of something like this. We became complacent, and for that, we apologize."

"But there is still one question left unanswered," Momo spoke up. "Why was All Might not present during the majority of the attack?"

"All Might was being attacked by a third party, the same party behind the phantom villain attacks," Aizawa explained. "As such he was held up."

"Wait so at the same time the U.S.J. attack happened, All Might had to fight a fake villain?" Kaminari asked. "That...am I dumb? That can't be a coincidence?"

"It's not. But unfortunately, I can't disclose the details to you. Just know that All Might was being preoccupied for most of the attack." Aizawa told them before his voice became deadly serious. "Now, I know some of you may think of revealing this information to the public or leaving U.A. And I can't blame you...however. The H.P.S.C. is dead set on covering up the details of this incident, for obvious reasons. And they've already told us what the consequences would be if anyone attempted to either reveal information or leave U.A. Whether they be students or staff, let's just say that if you attempt to do either one of those things, then you'd best just give up on ever getting a job as a pro hero in Japan."

"WHAT!?" Shouted the class, almost all in unison.

"As I said. The H.P.S.C. is trying to play down this incident as much as possible. This was a major blunder on their part, made even worse by the fact that if it weren't for Spider-Man, someone the H.P.S.C. hates with a passion, then it would be even worse." Aizawa told them. "So if anyone does anything that could exacerbate this, the H.P.S.C. will either blacklist you, or make your life as hard as possible, if you try to get a job as a pro, or even working under one."

"That's such bullshit!" Hyo cried out.

"This isn't fair!" Mina shouted.

"Life isn't fair. Unfortunately, this matter is out of our hands." Aizawa said. "But what is now in our hands, is your safety. Given their recent blunder, it's unlikely the H.P.S.C. will interfere for a long time. And we can assure you, this won't happen again."

"It really shouldn't have happened in the first place," Asui stated bluntly.

Aizawa sighed. "...You're not wrong Asui. You're not wrong."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

It was finally time for the U.A. press conference, held in front of the gates of U.A. itself.

Nezu was standing in front of a massive army of press, all of them armed with cameras and microphones, with only a podium between him and them.

Power loader, Thirteen, and Ectoplasm were all behind him, standing there as support, while the other teachers were back inside the school with the students.

"Good morning everyone," Nezu said into the microphone. He had to stand on top of a box to reach it. "As you all are most likely aware, this is to address the attack that happened on the U.S.J. facility."

Immediately questions were launched at him by hundreds of voices, and Nezu, being as experienced as he was, didn't even try to listen to any of them, as it was like trying to pull a single drop of water out of the ocean.

"Please hold all questions till the end," Nezu told them. "Now, firstly, I would like to apologize to both the students who suffered the attack and to the parents of those students. For U.A.'s inability to prevent this attack. Unfortunately, the perpetrators had someone with a powerful warping quirk on their side, and so our security measures were inefficient at stopping the attack. Unfortunately, we couldn't have-"

"Couldn't have what!?" Shouted a familiar voice.

Then, suddenly, Izuku appeared in his costume, perched on Nezu's podium.

"Spider-Man," Nezu said.

All the teachers behind Nezu got into a fight stance. They didn't actually attack because...well they didn't stand a chance, and they knew that. But if Izuku attacked, they would fight back.

"I, TOLD YOU! I TOLD YOU! About this attack, when the leader broke into U.A. the first time!" Izuku shouted at the principal. "I told you when it would happen! I told you where it would happen! And you still sent them in any way! I almost died because of you!"

This caused a huge ruckus in the crowd, as shocking information was revealed to the public.

Nezu looked at the crowd, with a neutral expression on his face. "...This is true."

Gasps could be heard among the press, and thousands of questions were thrown at him.

"Spider-Man did indeed tell us about the attack before it transpired," Nezu admitted. "He had no evidence to back his claims, nor did he tell us about the scale of the attack."

"What the heck are you talking about!?" Izuku shouted, pointing a finger at Nezu. "Someone breaks into your school, and the person who took them down said there would be an ambush! Shouldn't that have at least warranted some caution! Maybe a small change in schedule!?"

The teachers behind Nezu looked nervous. Because now they were stuck. Spider-Man was revealing everything, but they couldn't attack him without making themselves look even worse. All they could do was let him speak.

"But what's even worse! Is the H.P.S.C.!" Izuku shouted. "I know you reported this to them. You literally had to. So either they approved of you not taking ANY safety procedures or they TOLD you not to change anything! The Hero Public SAFETY commission everyone! These are the people in charge of the people who are supposed to keep you safe!"

Once again this caused a huge stir in the crowd and caused the heroes to get even more nervous.

"...It is indeed true that I received orders from the H.P.S.C., telling us not to change our plans." Nezu conceded. "I had intended to cancel lessons at the U.S.J. facility that day, however, the H.P.S.C. assured us that the attackers would be no threat to us...they were mistaken."

More gasps came from the audience, as the crowd broke into chaos.

"Being ordered to do it. Doesn't make it better. Because you still did it." Izuku said in a lower, threatening tone. "If I hadn't been there, your students would have been dead. And, those deaths would have been on your, and the H.P.S.C.'s heads."

After leering at Nezu for a few more moments, Izuku jumped into the air and started web-slinging away.

Ok. Hope I didn't make things too hard for him. Izuku thought as he got out there.

But this was what Nezu wanted, he said so during their talk yesterday.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Izuku and Nezu sat on opposing couches, in complete silence for a few minutes.

The green teen was still covered in bandages, but given that he had a whole day to recover, he looked quite a bit better than he did yesterday.

"So, I'm sure you're wondering how exactly I figured out your identity Spider-Man," Nezu said, sipping some tea Inko set for them before she left at Nezu's request.

Izuku flinched. He had a strong feeling that was the reason Nezu was here. It had to be. What other reason could Nezu have to visit HIM, personally?

But hearing it confirmed, made him even more, visibly nervous.

"U-Um...yes." Izuku stuttered. He at least wanted to know how he messed up.

"Well, let's go from the start. When you took down that villain who broke into U.A. I quickly deduced that you had to be a U.A. student. After all, Spider-Man is smart, and while the press breaking into U.A. might have gotten your attention, I doubt it would be enough to get you to jump right into a school full of heroes just to figure out what was going on, and even if that was the case, it would be very coincidental for you to just happen to stumble on the villain, who was a good distance away from the commotion. What's more likely, is that you were already at U.A., and happened to see the villain sneak in. Is that correct?"

"Y-Yes, sir." Izuku didn't see any sense in denying, Nezu saw right through him.

"Of course there are hundreds of students at U.A, so I had to narrow it down." Nezu continued. "First I used quirks. You see, if Spider-Man was hiding in U.A., then he could only hide as someone with a specific quirk. A super strength quirk, a web-shooting quirk, an invisibility quirk, a wall climbing quirk. Or, they were hiding as someone without a quirk at all. And so that's how you ended up on a list of suspects. However that list still contained dozens of students, so I had to narrow it down further, by getting the locations of everyone on that list, at the time of the incident. And all those who were accounted for were off the list. And that only left about a handful of suspects, including yourself, which I could then look into in a timely manner."

He really lives up to his reputation! Izuku was in terrified awe of Nezu's detective skills. He'd be so much more appreciative of them if they weren't being used against him right now.

"My next piece of evidence was when I looked back at your U.A. application. You initially applied for the hero course, however, you suddenly changed your mind and instead applied for the support course. Now at this point, I had already done a bit of a background check on you, and it was apparent that you had wanted to be a hero for your entire life, despite your quirklessness so that sudden change was somewhat suspicious." Nezu pointed out. "Until I looked at the date you decided to change it, and realized that it was the day after the first official sighting of Spider-Man by Aizawa."

Izuku's eyes widened, as he realized how damning that was in retrospect.

"At that point, you became the primary suspect, however, you basically confirmed it, when you called sick, on the day of the U.S.J. attack," Nezu told him. "And now here you are, and it seems like you have something a bit more than a fiver."

"I…" Izuku grit his teeth as regret filled him. He had once again failed to maintain his identity.

"Now now, before you start beating yourself up, I should say that you did a much better job hiding your identity than most would have in your position," Nezu told him. "I don't currently have any intention of arresting you."

Izuku's eyes went as wide as he stood up in shock. "Agh!"

And then immediately sat back down, as his wounds reminded him that sudden, fast movements were not good for him right now.

"Wha-what do you mean?" Izuku asked while clutching his wounds.

"We'll get to that," Nezu told him. "For now, just know that you're safe. Now, I would like for you to tell me how this all started."

XXXXXXXXXX

"Hmmm. Well, that is certainly quite the story." Nezu said, after hearing everything Izuku had to say.

"I-I understand that it's a bit hard to believe." Izuku stuttered out nervously. "But I swear that I'm telling the truth."

"No, no. Everything you said makes sense. I was aware that your powers were unnatural, I just wasn't aware of how you obtained them. And this explanation makes about as much sense as anything else." Nezu told him. "Although, you are aware that you didn't actually need to become a vigilante."

Izuku stared at him for a few moments, before responding. "Huh?"

"Your spider-sense only alerts you of actual danger. Meaning that woman you saved would have been injured or killed, if you had not intervened. You know that for a fact, correct?" Nezu asked.

"Y-Yeah." Izuku nodded.

"Well if you could prove that in court, chances are you could get the sentence reduced by quite some bit, and given that your new quirk wasn't registered it'd be rather easy to prove after your abilities were thoroughly analyzed. And likely it wouldn't have even gone on your record. Not to mention given how powerful your abilities are, I likely would have taken notice, and may have even given you a recommendation." Nezu told him. "Your decision to become a vigilante seems to come entirely from a sense of paranoia, which makes sense when considering that most of your life warranted such paranoia. It didn't help that Aizawa was the one that caught you. He has a tendency to use fear tactics in places where they aren't entirely necessary. And that sometimes comes back to bite him, such as in this case."

Nezu was talking about this all so casually, and meanwhile, Izuku was having a freaking nervous breakdown.

"I-I-I-I-I-I-" Izuku literally had no words. All of this was unnecessary. It was once again, all his fault!

"Don't go giving yourself a hard time. Your upbringing has conditioned you to think that the world is against you, and the world hasn't given you much reason to even consider otherwise." Nezu explained. "And the past in the past. It can't be changed. You've become a vigilante, and until the day you do become a pro hero, we should take advantage of your current position."

"W-What d-do you mean?" Izuku asked him.

"You see Midoriya when it comes to being a pro hero, there is a lot of...red tape," Nezu explained. "And that red tape can become very restrictive, and keep us pro heroes from actually saving people. As a vigilante, you do not have to deal with such issues."

"S-So what you're saying is...you want me to do stuff that heroes can't do, because of red tape." Izuku pierced together.

"That's correct! Very good!" Nezu praised him. "Here's my offer to you. You offer me your assistance, and I offer you mine. You'll do missions for me, and I give you information, cover up your tracts, offer support, and when the time comes, I'll do my best to convince my superior to excuse your crimes, and make you an official pro hero. Sounds like a good deal does it not?"

"I...It's an amazing deal!" Izuku was blown back by this offer. It almost sounds too good to be true. "But...aren't pro heroes supposed to be against vigilantes?"

"I was always more for following the spirit of the law, rather than the letter," Nezu explained. "The reason vigilantes are banned is because they cause damage to themselves, the environment, or the people they're trying to save, as well as other issues. You, don't do any of that, therefore I don't have any real desire to see you captured. If anything I would like to keep you free at all costs. The amount of good you can do is astronomical, and none of it can be accomplished from a cell."

"I...I suppose that's true." Izuku was still a bit taken aback by this.

"Now, Midoriya. I will ask you again. Do we have a deal?" Nezu repeated.

"...Y-Yes sir!" Izuku nodded, rapidly, before stopping because of his wounds. "Of course! I mean...I owe you at the very least for keeping my identity a secret."

Nezu shook his head. "No, you saved my students. That is more than enough to repay me. Now, then, how long will it take for you to heal?"

"Um...I don't know exactly, but at best I should be back to hundred percent in a few more days." Izuku said.

"Hmmm. Do you think you could be well enough to function as Spider-Man tomorrow, even if you're not at one hundred percent?" Nezu asked.

"Um. Yeah, I think so." Izuku said, wondering what Nezu had in mind. "Do you have some sort of assignment for me tomorrow?"

"Yes, actually, I do," Nezu affirmed. "Tomorrow we will be holding a press conference, about the U.S.J. attack. I am expected to act a certain way. While I haven't been ordered not to tell the public that we knew about the attack beforehand, or that the H.P.S.C. demanded that I stick to the schedule regardless, but it would certainly get me in quite a lot of trouble."

"Wait! That's what happened!?" Izuku shouted in shock. "The H.P.S.C. is the reason you guys lead them into a trap!?"

"That's correct," Nezu said, almost sighing. "I wanted to change the schedule, but the H.P.S.C. ordered me not to change a thing."

"Why!?" Izuku looked so confused and frustrated. "Why would they do that!?"

"Pride, and arrogance," Nezu explained. "All Might has this way of putting people at ease. And while this is normally a good thing, it also puts the people who should have their guards up at ease as well. He gives people a false sense of security. And as such the H.P.S.C. didn't take the threat seriously. They thought that backing down because of his threat, was showing cowardice, for no good reason."

"That's….that's dumb! That's so dumb!" Izuku shouted. "I mean, I didn't fully take them seriously either, but even I knew that something could go wrong! How could they just...it's…"

"I know how you feel." Nezu sympathized so much with Izuku's look of anger and frustration. "Which is why I need you to crash the press conference and reveal the truth."

Izuku gave him a curious, disbelieving look. "Huh?"

"I need you to go to the press conference, and call both us and the H.P.S.C. out," Nezu explained. "Expose the truth."

"W-wait! If I did that then U.A. would suffer a massive reputation drop!" Izuku wasn't objecting. He had thought about storming up to U.A. and demanding answers, of course, he never actually thought of going through with that, and he did want to expose the H.P.S.C. for what they'd done, but he was just confused as to why Nezu would want this. And of course, there was the other thing. "And won't All Might be there!? I can barely get away from him at full power, if I'm injured I won't be able to do anything against him!"

"All Might won't be present," Nezu told him. "While you and Asui did good work in weakening the Nomu, it still landed a good amount of powerful blows on All Might, so he'll be out of commission for quite some time. And as for U.A.'s reputation…"

Nezu took a moment to sip some tea, taking a moment to consider his words before continuing.

"We...deserve the hit in reputation...I will be completely honest with you, the only reason I complied completely with the H.P.S.C. was because I too had underestimated the threat." Nezu admitted. "When I said All Might inspired complacency, I was not excluded. While I know All Might is not a solution to everything, it does make me look at villains as less threatening or dangerous. As such, I wasn't worried that the attackers would actually manage to kill All Might, but rather they could potentially harm one of the students if All Might was distracted. I had never considered that there could be a monster capable of matching him, let alone potentially beating him. Had I known what I know now, I would have thought harder of ways to subvert the H.P.S.C.'s orders...U.A. promised to keep their students safe, and we failed at that. So if we take a reputation drop, then it is absolutely deserved. But we also need to make sure that the H.P.S.C. are held responsible for this as well. If the public opinion is against them, then they won't feel as free to take such a risk with the lives of my students."

"I...I see." Izuku took a moment to think. His mind floated back to Asui, Ochaco, and Iida. If it wasn't for him they… "I'll do what I must."

"Very well. Then let us get to business Mr. Midoriya." Nezu told him.

And so the two discussed exactly how things would go down, all the while a little bee watched in the window.

Hmm. Turns out we didn't need to interfere after all. Mysterio will be pleased.

So that was in fact the real Nezu.

Izuku will be working with Nezu, not as an official pro, but rather he's still a vigilante, and Nezu will be taking advantage of that. Which will lead into the next arc. Featuring a much...larger antagonist.

Anyway, please review and have a nice day.