Disclaimer: I do not own Hero Academia/Boku No Hero Academia, or any other property in this work that I did not make myself.
What if Deku...
Chapter seven: The truth is made available
The audience that had been summoned by the Realmcrafter Talespinner69 had just finished watching the latest realm to feature an alternative version of Izuku. "Well...well now," Uraraka said, a bit unsure of just what to say, "That was...certainly different."
"Yeah, I never thought I'd see Izuku like that," Tenya remarked.
"Well how do you think I feel?" Tale retorted, "I think I'm going to have nightmares because of that realm!" The realmcrafter let out a troubled sigh, gently shook his head. "...I just hope that the next realm is nowhere near as bad."
Izuku nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I never want to see myself like that again."
Some of the other audiences members were laughing, however. "Did you not see what your alternative self in that realm did to Handyman, Deku?" Bakugo asked, sniffling some laughter.
"Or what you did to All For One!" Gran Torino laughed, kicking his feet a bit. The two villains in question were nowhere near as amused, however.
Kotaro merely rolled his eyes, not that anyone could see it due to how he wore sunglasses. "Yes yes, you two get your kicks in the weirdest ways."
"Is it possible to get a nicer realm featuring my baby?" Inko asked, looking mildly hopeful.
Sighing, Tale explained, "I already told you guys, the remote is set to pull realms up at random. I have no way for sure to predict what gets pulled up, except in certain circumstances like in the show where class 1-A meets the members of their respective families since things in that case can be narrowed down."
"Or in the show where I was shown expelling one of my students per realm," Aizawa said dryly as he raised a hand, drawing an affirmative nod out of Tale.
Clapping his hands together, Kotaro said, "Yes, well, we got the next realm ready to play. Hopefully it will be more tame."
"I hope so as well," Izuku remarked in a mildly worried tone as the next realm that featured an alternative version of himself began to play for everyone in the audience to see.
...
Over at UA, Izuku stood in Nezu's meeting room, in front of the table at which all notable members of the UA staff sat. Izuku's head was tilted slightly so that he was looking right at the floor. He was crying, his shoulders shaking, as he feared the worst.
"So, Midoriya," Nezu began, a hint of troubled concern in his tone, "Is all of what you said really true?"
"It would explain so much of what we have in the records about you," Sekijiro said, sounding likewise concerned. There was also a hint of heartbreak in Sekijiro's tone. Izuku said nothing, merely continued with crying softly while choking back sobs as much as he was able to.
"What's going on here?" Inko in the audience said in a worried tone.
"I think something bad happened, mom," Izuku remarked.
After a few tearful seconds, Izuku finally nodded once in the affirmative. "...Yes."
Aizawa, closing his eyes, let out a resigned sigh. After that, the underground hero immediately turned to face Toshinori and punched him in the face hard enough to break the nose of the former Symbol of Peace. Toshinori sprawled out of his chair as Aizawa got up, grabbed him by the front of his shirt, and slammed him into the nearest wall while keeping him pinned there.
"What the fuck is wrong with you?!" Aizawa exclaimed angrily, "Why did you say NOTHING to ANYONE about Midoriya's quirk?! Me especially! He's one of my students, so that was info that I needed starting from day fucking one!"
"Dudes!" Kirishima in the audience exclaimed, "Aizawa-sensei just assaulted All Might!"
"What does he mean by 'info about Izuku's quirk'?" Uraraka asked, not liking seeing Izuku being so sad.
Tale's eyes widened a bit. "...Oh, I think I can see where this is going. Yeah, this is something that my kind has occasionally touched upon in the realms we craft."
"What concerns me," Hound Dog said, his arms folded over his chest, "Is not only how Midoriya was treated at the schools he went to prior to UA growing up, but how the respective staffs of those schools even allowed said treatment of Midoriya to go on, occasionally even joining in on what I loath to call 'festivities'."
Hizashi got up, walked over to Izuku and gently threw his arms around the troubled boy, gently swaying back and forth. "This precious child has been hurt," Hizashi said, sounding like he might start crying, "Why was this precious child hurt?"
Nezu looked around at the rest of the staff at the meeting. "...Anyone here interested in doing a little bit of head hunting?" Immediately, a bunch of hands went up, surprising Izuku as Hizashi softly cried while stroking the back of his (Izuku's) head, reassuring him that he and the rest of the UA staff will make everything better.
(What if Deku told the UA staff about his past prior to UA)
"Izuku's past prior to UA?" Todoroki in the audience said in a concerned tone, "What could be so bad about that?"
Gently shaking his head, Tale said, "You have no idea."
"Yeah, I can see this realm as being bad, and potentially even get a bit dark," Kotaro said, "But at the same time it's clearly going to have some heartwarming moments if the UA staff deciding to as they say here 'do some head hunting' is any indication."
...
Later, Aizawa was escorting Izuku back to the dorm building for class 1-A. "Midoriya," Aizawa began, "I want you to know that if there's something going on like what you experienced prior to getting into UA, I need you to tell me immediately."
Izuku nodded in obedience. "...Yes, Aizawa-sensei."
"Seriously, Midoriya," Aizawa said, a hint of troubled heartbreak in his tone, "If I had known all that you told the rest of the staff and I a few moments ago, then I would have done things entirely different. What I now know about your quirk explains so much, for starters."
Aizawa in the audience folded his arms over his chest. "...Yeah, I'm still mad that All Might would withhold info like that. Secret or not, I needed to know all of that info since Midoriya is one of the students in my class."
Toshinori looked like he was about to speak up, but Tale cut him off when he saw that the former Symbol of Peace was about to speak up. "Aizawa has a point. Part of why he ended up being an ass for no good reason is because he didn't know any of what he should have known."
The underground hero rolled his eyes. "...Lack of info in certain cases can lead to less desirable outcomes, yes."
Izuku, still feeling vulnerable since he told all of the UA teachers about what he had gone through, nodded obediently once again. "...Yes, Aizawa-sensei."
"And all of the bullying that you had experienced from all of your classmates in middle school, elementary school," Aizawa said, "Hell, even the preschool you went to! No child should ever have to go through ANY of that! Especially what all Bakugo did to you since the two of you had gone to all of the same schools!"
"My brat bullied Inko's son?!" Mitsuki in the audience exclaimed indignantly. Suddenly, a lot of eyes all turned to look at Bakugo.
Letting out a whistle, Tale said, "Oh yeah. But then again an argument could be made that he only did all of that because he's a product of the environment he grew up in. Society in your world allows those in the position Izuku was formerly in to suffer, with some even trying to start up and encourage said suffering. Bakugo is FAR from the only person who mistreated Izuku prior to UA, believe you me."
Gesturing to the big theater screen, Toshinori said, "But...but it looks like the UA staff here will be making things right for Young Midoriya."
Kotaro nodded in agreement. "Those of Tale's kind have occasionally crafted realms where once you UA staff lot know about Izuku's past growing up, you all go out with a vengeance to hunt down those responsible for allowing Izuku's life to be hell."
Going on, Aizawa said, "If I knew what all there was between you and Bakugo, then I never would have pared you with him against All Might in the finals. My plan for that to force the two of you into an enemy mine situation in the hopes of making you and Bakugo drop whatever there was between the two of you was never going to work."
Izuku merely nodded along, still too emotionally vulnerable after he confessed everything to his teachers to argue. "...Actually, now that I think about it," Aizawa said with a strong look of consideration on his face, "I probably shouldn't have used All Might as one of the teachers to test pairs of students for that period. He had no idea how to hold back during that time."
Toshinori in the audience looked like he was about to speak up, but Aizawa caught him and gave him a glare that shut him up. "The me in this realm has a point."
"...W-Well, he is All Might," Izuku stammered, trying to defend his idol, "He is the greatest hero ever, even though he's mostly depowered."
"Still doesn't excuse him for nearly crippling you and Bakugo," Aizawa pointed out, "Or me for not only having the two of you face him but having the two of you together period. Seriously, if I had known of the extent of the history between you and Bakugo, then I NEVER would have paired the two of you up." Looking like he was giving something some thought, Aizawa then said, "...I probably would have instead paired you with, say, Uraraka or Iida since the two of them unlike Bakugo actually care about you, and then have whatever pair that ended up forming in that case face Lunch-Rush or Hound Dog."
"Yeah, I'm surprised that Aizawa never asked me to be one of the staff members testing his class in the practicals of the finals," Hound Dog in the audience said, "I would have agreed to it in a heartbeat, especially since I know how to hold back."
"What if you went wild, like you occasionally do?" Hizashi asked.
"I would still be far easier than All Might for Midoriya and his partner to deal with," Hound Dog countered dryly.
Aizawa and Izuku reached the dorm building and went inside, but when they got in they saw that Uraraka, Tsuyu, Tenya, Todoroki and Shinso were all standing around someone laying on the floor, stomping down on whoever that poor person was. Aizawa made all of them back off, and when they did the underground hero saw that they had all been stomping on Bakugo, who was laying face down on the floor knocked out, his pants and underwear somehow pulled down just enough to expose just his butt.
"Yeah, Hizashi-sensei told us everything, Aizawa-sensei," Todoroki explained to his homeroom teacher with the straightest of faces.
Aizawa didn't know quite what to say, especially when he saw Shinso quickly run over to a flower vase, take a flower out, then run over to Bakugo to carefully insert the stem of the flower into the knocked out boy's butt crack without actually touching the butt directly. Tenya laughed at what Shinso did, and even took a picture of it after Shinso backed off. After a bit of fiddling around on his phone, Tenya said, "And now it's on the internet." Both Uraraka and Tsuyu laughed in clear amusement what the boys did.
"You uploaded that to the internet?!" Bakugo in the audience exclaimed indignantly.
Tenya, with a mildly surprised look on his face, said, "Umm...it would seem so." He wasn't quite sure what to say.
Shrugging, Shinso said, "We probably wanted to make you suffer like how you made Izuku suffer growing up."
Indifferently, Aizawa said, "Well given what I now know the extent of what Bakugo has done to Midoriya, I can't in good conscious hold what you all here did against any of you. Just...try to tell me next time any of you see Midoriya being bullied rather than take matters into your own hands, alright?"
The five students all nodded in agreement to their teacher's request. "Yes sir kero," Tsuyu replied.
Shrugging, Aizawa said, "Seriously, Asui. This is almost as bad as what you, Uraraka here, all of the other girls in 1-A and every girl in 1-B almost did to Mineta. If you girls had brought to me and Sekijiro's attention from the start the extent of what Mineta was up to, then we would have launched that much needed investigation into Mineta far sooner."
"Yeah, where am I in this realm by the way?" Mineta in the audience asked in a worried tone.
"At least you and the rest of the UA staff took action as soon as you all knew what all had been going on, Aizawa-sensei," Tenya remarked.
Nodding in agreement, Aizawa said, "Yes, Iida. We can't do much if we don't have the relevant info, but once we do get it we can get results."
"Like how you and the rest of the UA staff found out about everything in Mineta's past record," Izuku began, "Expelled him from UA because he's basically nothing more than a walking future sexual harassment lawsuit just waiting to happen, and then moved Shinso into the hero course ahead of schedule?"
Pointing to Izuku in a commending manner, Aizawa said, "Indeed, Midoriya."
Throwing his hands up into the air, Mineta in the audience said dryly, "And I was expelled. I was expelled because of course I was."
Pointing to Mineta, Tale said, "Oh don't you give any of us that. Where I come from, if you acted there like you act where you come from, then you would have been expelled and arrested far before the point you're currently at in your world."
Aizawa folded his arms over his chest. "...Yes, I distinctly remember the show with realms where I am shown expelling a different one of my students, and the one with Mineta is rather unique, to put things mildly."
...
Later, as Izuku was walking with his friends, they walked into the homeroom for their class. When they entered, they were immediately greeted by their classmates. "Izuku! Are you okay?" Yaoyorozu asked right away, clearly concerned for her classmate's well-being.
"You got one hell of a raw deal, man," Ojiro remarked, sympathizing with Izuku.
"To think that you had gone through all of that because your past schools allowed it to occur and even occasionally joined in on it," Tokoyami said in a troubled tone, "Truly no greater madness can exist. Their actions even influenced Bakugo, explaining a lot of why he is what he ended up as."
"So Bakugo isn't entirely at fault?" Uraraka in the audience said, sounding suspicious.
Nodding a few times, Tale explained, "Yeah, some of my kind are working with the theory that Bakugo is, at least partly, a product of his environment. I mean, I can see that. He'd be loads worse if all of what he did to Izuku growing up was solely on him."
Pounding a fist into his hand, Dark Shadow exclaimed, "Let's go to his old schools and kick the asses of the bastards that allowed Green Bean to suffer!"
"Now Dark Shadow, we have to let the teachers here cover things," Tenya pointed out, "And since they've proven that they care unlike the schools Izuku used to go to, we can count on justice to be served."
"I got it from Principal Nezu that he fully intends to go against all of the schools Izuku used to go to," Shinso began, "Not just Izuku's old middle school. He's also targeting the elementary school Izuku went to, and even the preschool that Izuku went to as well."
Everyone in the class went wide-eyed at what Shinso had told all of them. "...Wow," Aoyama remarked, at a bit of a loss for words, "Talk about thorough. Not to mention merciless."
Smirking in amusement, Dark Shadow commented, "Principal Nezu is a man after my own heart, I tell you."
In the audience, Hizashi turned to face Nezu. "Would...would you really go that far for real?"
"In a heartbeat, yes."
...
That evening, Izuku was out for a stroll before going to bed. To his surprise, he was joined by Uraraka. "I still can't believe how badly you had suffered prior to UA, Izuku," Uraraka said in a regretful tone, "None of that ever should have happened to you.
Izuku nodded once. "Well at least my life got better after getting into UA. Would you believe me if I told you I literally had no friends prior to getting into UA?"
"That's terrible!" Uraraka said, looking like she might start crying, "Well, you have friends here, as well as others who care about you like the teachers." Uraraka then fidgeted a little. "There's even someone in love with you."
Izuku was surprised to hear Uraraka say that part, and he was about to ask her who it was that she says is in love with him. However, Uraraka answered that question by putting her hands on the sides of his face, pulled hers up to his, then planted a passionate, loving kiss right on his lips. Izuku was surprised at first, but then he relaxed, eventually lowering his arms to gently hold Uraraka, just as she was doing to him after she started kissing him.
What Izuku was told before his stroll by Hound Dog was right; Izuku was loved here at UA.
FIN
"Yes!" Uraraka declared, "Yes Izuku is loved at UA!"
"We will not stand to see him suffer under our watch if we know what's going on," Aizawa said firmly, sure of himself in what he said.
"Let's burn all of Izuku's old schools to the ground for allowing him to suffer!" Dark Shadow exclaimed.
"That...would be going a tad too far, Dark Shadow," Tokoyami remarked.
Izuku was surprised to hear that those he had met since starting at UA care about him so much. He truly felt loved, and it even brought a tear to his eye. He knew that he'd love it if he got into UA, but he never expected to be loved in return, much less to such a degree.
It made his heart feel full.
END OF CHAPTER
Author's notes;
Yeah, I've seen a few instances of UA finding out about Izuku's past and going head hunting as a result in other works I've read. So this is my contribution to that storyline. They are good people at the end of the day when you get right down to it. Anyway, the next chapter should hopefully be out before long.
