Author's notes
I have arrived! And a month earlier than when I said I would!
Tbh, I just forgot that October existed (・_・;)
In all aspects, All Might was huge. From his height to his muscles to his smile and to his laugh. Everything about him screamed "Look at me!" It was almost too much for Ritsu to take in. This was the man he came all this way to watch?
Today was their second day of school and their first day of Foundational Heroics Studies with All Might as their teacher. His presence alone had everyone riled up. Everyone but Ritsu, who was still tired from staying up last night doing homework for UA and online school.
The entire class was gathered at Ground Beta, suited up in their costumes with some of them looking better than others. They were going to be doing a "trial of battle" that had yet to be explained.
"Kageyama!" Midoriya called out to him. "Your costume looks so cool!"
The compliment was a welcome one but not one that Ritsu entirely deserved. In actuality, Teruki had done most of the designing. Albeit Ritsu was heavily breathing down his neck, making sure that his costume didn't come out looking like a colorblind unicorn had barfed on it.
He wanted his costume to first and foremost protect him. So that meant gloves, knee pads, and elbow pads. It also had to not draw a lot of attention. He was going to have it be all black but Teruki practically fainted at the thought. "You're not going to go out there looking like an edgelord! How about we add some blue?"
So there he stood. In long black cargo pants to carry various items and a blue jacket with elbow pads stitched into it, worn over a tucked in black turtleneck tank top. He had thick black gloves on his hands and combat boots with blue soles on his feet. A black domino mask with blue edges finished off his look.
Teruki didn't do too bad of a job on the design of his costume but Ritsu would be eternally grateful for UA's costume subsidy. The material they used felt sturdy while not being too heavy and was flexible enough for him not to feel completely restricted.
"Thanks Midoriya," Ritsu smiled and gave Midoriya's costume a once-over. "I like your costume too."
Even though he liked Midoriya's costume, he couldn't help the deadpan that came onto his face whenever he looked at it. Uraraka thought it looked like a bunny but the parallels between Midoriya's costume and All Might were clear. The green "ears" at the top were an imitation of All Might's eccentric hair style and the wide smile plastered on the helmet might as well have been ripped off the hero's own face. Ritsu knew that All Might was number one but what was so great about him that made Midoriya design his costume like that?
"You will be doing an indoor battle trial!" All Might's strong voice boomed throughout the area. "Despite what you see out on the streets, most acts of villainy are committed indoors. Any intelligent villain will work in the shadows.
"So for this test, you'll be split into 'hero' and 'villain' teams. And you will face off in a two-on-two team battle!"
"What about foundational training?" A frog-like girl asked.
"This is foundational training! In this exercise, some 'villains' will be guarding a nuclear weapon they intend to deploy! The heroes must stop them and their nefarious scheme before it's too late!
"If the heroes are able to capture the villains or reach the nuclear core before time runs out, they win. If the villains manage to keep the core or capture the heroes, they win." All Might went to go grab a small box and turned back to the class. The box was labeled 'Lots'. "Your teammates and opponents will be decided through lottery!"
"Is that really how we'll do it?!" So it was Iida inside that robot-esque costume.
"Well, pros often have to do impromptu team ups with other pros that they may not know," Midoriya said. "This training is probably to test our cooperation!"
"Exactly right my boy!" All Might agreed. "So let's start this!"
Team A: Midoriya and Uraraka
Team B: Todoroki and Shouji
Team C: Hagakure and Yaoyorozu
Team D: Iida and Bakugou
Team E: Ashido and Aoyama
Team F: Kouda and Satou
Team G: Kaminari and Jirou
Team H: Tokoyami and Asui
Team I: Ojiro and Kageyama
Team J: Sero and Kirishima
Ritsu couldn't help but feel sorry for Iida. Bakugou would surely be a terrible teammate. They were literally arguing with each other on the first day of school. Bakugou's brash attitude would not go well with Iida's by the book personality. As for his own teammate...
'Who's Ojiro?'
Now don't get him wrong, from what he's seen of them, he respects all of his classmates. Just not enough to learn their names. It was only the second day of school anyway so who could fault him? The only names he knew were those of his maybe-friends, Bakugou's, Sero's and Hagakure's. Because if you manage to destroy enough robots to get into the top hero school in Japan when your only ability is being invisible, you deserve to have your name known.
"Looks like we're partners eh?" The voice came from directly behind Ritsu and scared him to death. He turned to see a tall boy smiling softly at him. So this was Ojiro.
"Yeah," he said, still clutching his rapidly beating heart. "Looks like we are."
From what Ritsu could remember, he was the guy with the tail. Well then he also deserved to have his name known. Ritsu didn't know much about him other than that he was more athletic than probably anybody else in the class. Which would be really helpful for this exercise.
"That's enough chit-chat!" All Might's voice cut through the various conversations going on. "Our first match up will be—" he reached into two boxes labeled 'hero' and 'villain' and, at a painstakingly slow pace, pulled out a ball from each—"Team A as our heroes versus team D as our villains!"
Ritsu looked to Midoriya who looked ghostly white. The boy was staring at Bakugou who was glaring at him. Ritsu couldn't help but wonder what the deal was with them. If Midoriya seemed so frightened of Bakugou, why did he try to defend him on their walk to the station yesterday?
"The villains will be going in first and the heroes will follow after five minutes. This will allow young Iida and Bakugou to get into the mindset of real villains. Of course this is a training exercise so go all out without fear of injury!"
Without fear of injury? With the suffocating tension between Midoriya and Bakugou, Ritsu doubted so.
It was midday and Teruki had just finished walking Ikeda's 13 cats. Ikeda was a sweet old lady who lived on the upper floors of the apartment complex. Despite her being a widow, her cats gave her plenty of company. But due to the excessive amount of them it was hard for her to take care of them by herself. However, she was adamant about not letting some random person take away her 'precious babies'. So imagine her luck when Teruki got ambushed by her cats the other day on his way back from the grocery store.
She shuffled over to where he lied on the floor and simply told him, "You're hired" without providing any sort of context. He could barely see her between the cats that crawled over his face to reach the fish he had inside of one of his paper bags but he was just able to catch a glimpse at the hefty stack of yen she held in her hands.
"Does ¥10,000* an hour sound like a good starting rate?"
Teruki had to resist opening his mouth in shock lest he get cat fur in it. With money like that, it didn't matter what she wanted him to do. He could finally stop searching the city for a bunch of odd jobs. This was perfect!
And that was how he got the job of Ikeda's personal cat sitter.
Walking all of her cats had taken three hours at least. Weren't cats supposed to be the lazy ones? His heels were aching by the time he got back to the apartment but he couldn't go rest just yet. He had his first hero agency tour scheduled for the next day and needed to get this invisibility thing down before then.
Ritsu had said that the boy from Claw had warped as he disappeared. People don't usually warp but things, on the other hand, do. When Teruki thought of things that warped he imagined the noise that a sheet of metal would make as it wiggled in the air. But how could metal allow someone to become invisible? It had to be something else.
The boy seemed to be able to do this no matter where he was so the thing that he was bending had to be easily accessible. Something that was always around him.
Teruki looked out through the window of his room and to the billowing trees. Could it be air? No, that wouldn't make sense. He looked to the sidewalk. The way the sun reflected off of it almost blinded him with its brightness. But that same blinding light gave him an epiphany.
Light! The answer was to bend the light around him! Light was almost always accessible. If the white sidewalk could reflect the light from the sun then he should be able to do so too.
He opened the widow up fully and let the light seep into the room. The framing of the window only allowed the light to hit a certain section of the room but that should allow him to visualize this better.
With the lights off, the parts of his room that didn't face the window were cast in darkness. He stood to the side of the window and stared at the fine line that separated the light from the shadows. His aim was to bend some of that toward himself.
Light isn't tangible so it wasn't like he could grasp it with his powers but there were things that could bend light. Like the lens of glasses. So, if he created a small barrier and formed it into a curve he should me able to get this down.
He moved this small barrier into the light and bent it this way and that way. He changed its size and angled it at different degrees. It had almost been a good five minutes of doing this when the light finally snapped toward him. It was so sudden and rapid that he had to make sure his eyes weren't deceiving him.
Smiling, Teruki slowly tilted his barrier lens and watched as the light moved with it. So he could move the light but he still needed to get the invisibility part down. He wracked his brain about what needed to happen in order for an object to be invisible. If he remembered the notes he borrowed from the girl with the brown bob correctly, the object had to do two things: bend light around itself so that it created no shadow and produce no reflection.
He quickly removed his sequinned letterman jacket.
Teruki thought that it was a shame that clothing so fabulous could not be worn but he would have to make due without it. He turned on the lights and stood in front of the floor length mirror he had bought for himself a while back. His reflection stared back at him and then bits and pieces of it began to disappear. He had decided to start off small. Bigger and bigger bits of his reflection disappeared as he curved and contorted his barrier to reflect the light until his reflection vanished.
Unfortunately for him, so did his eyesight.
All he could see was nothing. Not even black. It was like closing one eye and trying to look through it. There was no way that he could go around snooping if he couldn't even see. How did that redhead do this? Would he have to find another way to get more information?
No. There was no way that Teruki's psychic ability was less than a kid who barely reached his nose. He might not be the strongest but he was better than that. He could figure this out.
In order for him to be able to see, his eyes would have to be uncovered. Floating eyes would definitely raise some eyebrows, even in this weird world. But if he could create a small window of sorts for his eyes, he should be fine.
Teruki removed the portion of his barrier covering his eyes. Then he slowly began to cover them again and watched as the uncovered portion shrunk to a smaller and smaller size. Smaller. Smaller. Smaller.
The small portion split into two smaller portions until the only part of his body not covered by his barrier were his two pupils. He watched the two floating black dots in the mirror and covered them even more. By the time he was done, he felt as though he were looking through a piece of paper with two tiny holes poked into it.
He looked down at himself and could still see his neon blue and green shirt. Then he brought his irregularly shaped barrier closer and closer until he could feel the slight pressure of it against his skin. He looked down at himself again and this time saw nothing. Perfect.
Teruki did a little twirl in front of his mirror. He now had a new ability to add to his arsenal. Sometimes he amazed even himself. But as his twirl came to an end and as he started to face the mirror again, he saw a glimpse of his back being reflected on the mirror.
'What?'
He looked over his shoulder and had to resist the urge to groan out loud. While his front was perfectly invisible, his back was exposed for all to see. Not so perfect.
'What. The. Fuuuuuuuu—'
"The hero team WIIIIIIIINNNS!"
Midoriya was knocked out with a broken arm, Uraraka looked queasy, and Bakugou looked like a statue with how still he was. Ritsu knew that Bakugou was insane but he didn't know that Midoriya was too. He had already seen the animosity between them but he didn't expect it to go this far! Iida was the only one who came out of that exercise okay.
Oh, and the most insane of them all? All Might! Why didn't he try to stop the fight until the last second when it was already too late? Literally everyone in the class could tell that it was going too far the moment Bakugou set off a literal grenade inside the building but All Might let the fight continue! What kind of teacher, let alone hero, did that?
Midoriya was taken to the infirmary while the other three participants were more or less dragged to the surveillance room by All Might. They all lined up in front of the hero for evaluation. Ritsu thought that they stood out like a sore thumb the way their beaten looks contrasted so sharply with the cleanliness of everyone else.
"I'd say—" All Might rubbed his chin in thought— "that the best in the match was young Iida!"
Iida's eyes practically popped out of their sockets while the rest of the class, including Ritsu, looked on in confusion.
"But weren't the heroes the winners?"
All Might smirked at the question. "Hmmm," he said in faux confusion, "I wonder why I would possibly pick Iida? Who knows why?"
"I know why, All Might-sensei," a girl with an incredibly spikey ponytail spoke up. "From watching the fight, Bakugou's motives were clearly based off of some personal grudge. Plus, setting off a large-scale attack like he did inside of an enclosed space was purely idiotic. The same can be applied to Midoriya.
"Uraraka's game broke halfway through when she revealed herself by laughing and her final attack would've been far too reckless if the nuclear weapon was actually real.
"Iida was the only person who adapted to his villain role and devised a counter strategy against his opponent because he correctly assumed that the match would revolve around the weapon. Although he was slow to react to that final attack, the hero team's 'victory' can hardly be called that even though this is 'just training' because that strikes the spirit of the rules."
Silence ran throughout the class as they all stared at the girl. Even All Might was left speechless by her answer. She seemed sensible enough to Ritsu, maybe she should be running the class instead.
"We...Well young Iida might also have been a little bit too stiff but that is the correct answer young Yaoyorozu!" All Might gave her a shaky thumbs up.
She stepped forward and put her hands on her hips, holding on to the attention of the entire class. "We should always start our studies with what's familiar! And if we don't cheer each other on wholeheartedly then we'll never become top heroes!"
"All right then!" All Might said while reaching into the hero and villain boxes again, "The next match will be in a new arena with team B as our heroes and team I as our villains!"
Great, he was up next. Ritsu looked to Ojiro who was looking off to the distance. Following his line of sight, Ritsu saw that he was looking at two boys. One of them had eight webbed arms and a mask covering his face. The other looked more like a villain than a hero with his ice covering one half of his entire body and his left eye glowing.
They must have been Todoroki and Shouji. He still didn't know who was who but he should be fine. Hopefully.
Earpieces in, Ritsu and Ojiro made their way to the top floor of a new building. The room they were in was just like the one from the first exercise; not too much space but enough pillars to provide protection and make the fighting more interesting.
Ritsu walked up to the nuclear weapon that stood at the back of the room near the windows. It was taller than Ritsu by about two heads but, considering it was only paper mache, it should be easy to carry. He could work with that.
"Ojiro," Ritsu beckoned the boy over, "You seem fit and if your costume is anything to go by you're probably well adept at fighting. So here's my plan: We'll do a game of keep-away. I'll focus on keeping the weapon away from the hero team with my telekinesis while also holding the heroes still so that you can tie them up. If they fight back you should be able to deal with close-range combat, am I right?"
Ojiro nodded his head in affirmation. "You're pretty good at this Kageyama."
"Thank—"
The sudden drop in temperature was their only warning.
Before they knew it ice came into the room. Crawling up the walls and getting closer and closer to them at a rapid pace. Quickly, Ritsu grabbed onto himself and Ojiro with his telekinesis. Ojiro looked at him in relief before calling out, "The weapon!"
Just before the ice started to encase it, Ritsu grabbed the nuclear weapon off of the ground and up into the air with them.
That was not what he had had in mind.
"This feels so weird," Ojiro said while looking between himself and the floor. "And strangely warm."
"Listen up, I don't know how well this will work but I have a new plan." Ritsu pulled Ojiro closer to him and whispered his plan into the boy's ear.
Ojiro pulled back from him and side-eyed the frost covered window. "Is that even allowed?"
"He never said that it wasn't."
"Welcome hero! Congrats on making it to the boss level!"
This was not what Shouto had had in mind.
Shouto had expected this match to be a quick and easy victory. He was so confident in that fact that he even had Shouji stay at the entrance. And yet, despite everything, where the nuclear weapon should have been, Kageyama stood. His shoes not encased in ice and a cocky smile on his face.
"At least, that's what I would have said if that were the case," Kageyama remarked. "Unfortunately for you, Ice Boy, you're on the wrong floor. The weapon's not here."
Moving the core was a smart move, he had to admit, but Shouto would be lying if he said that he didn't find this guy annoying. Ice Boy? He was so terribly dramatic that it was almost hard to look away.
Shouto's previously lax demeanor tensed. Maybe dramatic wasn't the right word. The word 'theatric' would fit Kageyama much better. Where was Ojiro?
"I bet you're wondering—" Kageyama put his finger to his chin in faux confusion—"Where's Ojiro? Not here that's for sure." He then put the back of his hand to his forehead as if he were about to faint and wailed, "Alas, my partner in crime has left me and gone off with the weapon!"
Definitely theatric.
But at least now Shouto knew he was lying. "Ojiro went off alone? Then your 'partner in crime' has already been trapped by my ice." He raised his eyebrow at Kageyama, "Unless…he's still here?"
Kageyama scoffed at him. "I pity you, Ice Boy. Surely you know that jumping exists right?" Then his theatrical expression fell flat and he pinned Shouto with his gaze, "I have full trust in the abilities of my partner."
Why was he looking at him like that? It's not like he knew that Shouto had left Shouji behind. But Kageyama sounded so confident in Ojiro. Was he truly not in the room? If that was the case, Shouto thought, maybe Kageyama wasn't trying to distract him but rather stall him. He didn't want him to get to Ojiro.
Fine. Kageyama might as well call him 'Fairy Godmother' because he was getting his wish.
Mind set and ice at the ready, he began to run towards Kageyama. "There are other ways to win this you know. First, I'll capture you—" with a wave of his right arm, he sent out a wall of ice to stop Kageyama from running—"and then I'll capture Ojiro." He then sent out another ice wall to Kageyama's left, blocking his second attempt at escape. The only way he could move now was forward.
Shouto kept on running toward Kageyama and kicked his legs out from beneath him. It was an embarrassingly easy thing to do and Shouto almost felt bad for Kageyama as he stared down at him. But for someone about to be captured, he sure didn't look worried. In fact, Kageyama's irritatingly fake smile from before morphed into a much realer one. As Shouto looked at it, he slowly yet quickly realized: He had been tricked.
His eyes left Kageyama's smile and he frantically looked around the room. Ice walls flanked his sides so no attack could come from there and when he spared a glance behind himself, no one was to be seen. Then where in the world was Ojiro?
Kageyama started to chuckle below him and Shouto failed to keep his previously internal irritation from showing on his face. He looked down at the shorter boy and saw that he was holding out one finger to him. Was Kageyama telling him to wait a second or—shit.
'Above me!'
He was too late.
Just as he looked up, Ojiro came falling from the ceiling, rope in his hands. Shouto tried to use his ice to stop the assault but his right arm was pinned to his side. Why wouldn't it budge?
As Ojiro finally came crashing down on him and as he fell to the floor, Shouto saw Kageyama. A much real smile on his lips and glee in his eyes.
"We got him!" Ojiro exclaimed as he tightened the bonds around Shouto's arms, torso, and ankles.
"Perfect," Kageyama let his smile drop and massaged his face. "Acting like Teruki is almost as annoying as being around him."
Who was Teruki? Actually, Shouto concluded, that didn't matter. He had been captured. Even worse, he didn't know when Shouji would come looking for him. And if he did come, Shouto doubted that he could take on two people by himself.
"That was an amazing plan, Kageyama," Ojiro smiled at his partner. "You're a quick thinker."
"Thanks," Kageyama responded. He then crouched down to Shouto on the floor and smiled. "How the tables turn, Ice Boy. Do you want to know how you ended up like this?"
Shouto, thoroughly pissed, couldn't be bothered to dignify that with a response. From the looks of it, Kageyama would tell him his plan regardless of what he said anyway.
"Normally, I don't do this sort of 'grand reveal' thing but, in the spirit of still playing as Teru—I mean as a villain, the plan was simple." Kageyama gestured around to the room that was still covered in ice from his initial attack. "First of all, you're way too overpowered for a straight up fight. Like wow. So, we moved the weapon (I won't say where since Octo-Man could be near) and then I used my powers to hold Ojiro up to the ceiling." Why was he called a boy while Shouji was called a man? "The whole plan rode on one thing." This time Kageyama once again held up one finger. "You expected me to glow, didn't you?"
He had him there. But, Shouto would never give Kageyama the satisfaction he would undoubtedly get by saying yes.
"Oh yeah," Ojiro said. "What's up with that?"
"I can control my aura," Kageyama replied. "It can be around me, the object I'm moving, both me and the object I'm moving, or nowhere at all. As you can see—" he pointed down at Shouto— "It's very helpful in situations like these." He then looked up to a corner on the ceiling. If Shouto's memory served him correctly, there was a camera there. "You see All Might?" he bit out, "All of these things, plus Ojiro's outstanding tackling skills, resulted in a capture 'without fear of injury'."
How odd. Never before had Shouto met a person who wasn't his father nor a villain who didn't like All Might. Especially someone his age. They all grew up hearing and seeing All Might's amazing feats of strength and bravery. He was everyone's idol. So what did Kageyama have against him?
Kageyama stood up and dusted off the imaginary dirt from his costume. He looked towards Ojiro with a smile. "Let's go get the other one."
Ojiro nodded to him, determination in his eyes, and then looked back down to Shouto. "Where is Shouji anyway? He ought to have reached here already."
"Ah, so that's his name."
The two 'villains' stared at Shouto in silence, waiting for an answer that he would never give them. He might have been captured but there was no way he was going to let them win. Especially with how condescending Kageyama was being.
"Come on, just tell us,"
Speak of the Devil.
"Time's running out for you heroes so we might as well hurry this up." Kageyama looked at him as though Shouto were a stubborn toddler. Then, he started guessing. "Is he still on the first floor? Is he hiding somewhere? Or maybe—" he looked at Shouto's face for a reaction— "he's outside?"
The moment Shouto shifted his eyes away from Kageyama, he knew he had given himself up. The peculiar thing was that rather than looking smug, Kageyama looked worried.
Ojiro dashed to the window and Kageyama followed in pursuit. Now, Shouto was beyond confused. They looked through the frosted window and Kageyama cursed.
"Dammit."
So that's where the nuclear weapon was.
"We need to get down there befor—"
"VICTORY FOR THE HEEERO TEAM!"
"Double dammit."
Both Kageyama and Ojiro said it that time.
Shouto couldn't resist the smile that formed on his lips. Suck it, Kageyama. He watched from the floor as the two turned away from the window. They made their way back to him and Ojiro got to untying him.
Kageyama stood in front of him. All traces of his villainous character left him and his face took on a bored look. It was such a striking change in behavior that it almost gave Shouto whiplash. He was a good actor.
Once he was finally released, Shouto made his way to get up but was stopped by Kageyama's outstretched hand. When Shouto did nothing in response, Kageyama looked down at him with his eyebrows raised, asking a silent question. Begrudgingly, Shouto took his hand and let himself get pulled up off the floor.
"You did a really good job."
Based off of his currently short history with Kageyama, the last thing Shouto expected from him was a compliment.
"I mean, you were really efficient. If you had been up against somebody else, I'm sure that you would have won quicker."
"Uh, thanks."
Kageyama nodded at him before giving him a small smile and heading toward the door where Ojiro was waiting. Shouto was quick to melt his ice away and make his way back to the surveillance room.
As he walked down the stairs and out if the building, he thought of his classmate. At first glance, Kageyama looked like an impassive person but he was a surprisingly good actor. He was snarky too and Shouto had a feeling that not all of it came from this Teruki person. And despite how easy it was for him to be deceitful and snide, he was rather kind.
Overall, Kageyama was just weird.
As he walked into the surveillance room, he was given congratulations from people like Uraraka, Iida, and even a boy with bright red hair who described his quick mind as 'manly'. But despite these small compliments, he could feel the eyes of his maybe-friends and classmates boring into the back of his head. No one looked at him in a menacing way but they looked at him as though he were an outlier. They weren't wrong.
He, along with Ojiro, stepped in front of All Might. Shouji was already there and Todoroki walked in seconds later. They all stood side by side and waited for their evaluation.
"Congrats to the hero team for your win," he said. "but it is clear that when it came to performance, the villain team simply outplaced you!"
All Might shifted his attention to Todoroki. "Young Todoroki, your mistake was leaving your teammate behind. After you had frozen the building, you should have had young Shouji go in with you. Your hubris was your downfall today but I am confident that you will only improve from here!" He then gave Todoroki a face-splitting smile with a thumbs up and turned to Shouji.
"However, not all the blame can go onto young Todoroki's shoulders. It's important that we back up our teammates, young Shouji! In real team ups, it's not uncommon to get a partner who believes that they can take on everything themselves. But as their partner, we can't let them go off alone or else they can get into real danger! You staying outside this time was advantageous for your team and I saw that you never let down your guard which most likely allowed you to hear the window being popped out. Your sharp senses gave your team the victory!"
"As for you two," All Might then turned to both him and Ojiro and, somehow, his smile managed to get wider. "Your teamwork was astounding! Especially for first-timers!" He then turned to the rest of the class, "Listen up ladies and gentlemen! This is the perfect example to learn from! I hope that you will all have this match in mind when it's your turn to go up.
"Now let me evaluate you two individually," he focused his attention on Ojiro. "Young Ojiro, your tackling skills are indeed outstanding! You were like the perfect ninja! Blending into walls and keeping deadly silent. Once you got the drop on young Todoroki, you didn't dilly-dally in tying him up. It's always important for a hero to be efficient in their work. Excellent job!"
Then All Might faced Ritsu and he could see the same look that was in the rest of his classmates' eyes in the hero's. But his look was mixed with something else. It almost looked like...embarrassment. He could hardly look into Ritsu's eyes. Was All Might like this because of what Ritsu had said to him earlier?
Good.
He deserved to feel ashamed. Honestly, what in his mind told him that letting the fight—because it definitely stopped being an exercise—continue was a smart idea? Maybe all that muscle was compensating for his lack of a brain.
But no, that wasn't the case. All Might knew that he had to stop the fight. Ritsu saw it in the way his grip shook as he held the microphone. He knew he should've stopped the fight but he didn't and that was even worse.
With his opinion of All Might thoroughly in the gutter, Ritsu listened to what the man had to say about his performance with bored eyes. "You have a sharp mind young Kageyama!" he said this with the same vigor he used to give the others their evaluations but Ritsu could practically feel how tight that smile was. "The way that you catered to your partner's strengths and devised not one, but two different plans of the spot was nothing short of spectacular! And the way you declared your trust for Ojiro almost moved me to tears!" All Might, seemingly forgetting Ritsu's clear disdain for him, smiled a real smile as his eyes began to water. Ritsu, not new to praise, was unimpressed.
"Your villainous acting was thoroughly condescending and you used your opponent's irritation for your benefit. Not only that, you also used the lack of familiarity your classmates had with your quirk to your advantage; such a smart move! You are clearly one with your quirk my boy! Great work!" At that, Ritsu's face turned red. Please understand that his opinion of All Might hadn't magically changed because of an evaluation. However, when it came to compliments on his power it was like his body took over and decided that his only emotion would be flustered. It took a lot of willpower to keep his face stony even if his cheeks betrayed him.
All Might once again faced the rest of the class and clapped his hands together. "Thinking about how the rest of your matches will go has got me really fired up! I'm sure that you'll all turn out to be excellent heroes!" His excitement fueled a similar reaction in the rest of the class who all started fidgeting with energy.
Making his hand into a fist, All Might punched the air and shouted, "Go Beyond!"
Ritsu knew that something was to be said after that but he just couldn't remember what. Fight on?
"Plus Ultra!"
Ah, that's what it was. He'd be sure not to forget.
And so the rest of the matches went on. There were a lot of smart decisions and a lot of tears (mainly from All Might). Foundational Heroics Studies finished and everyone headed back to class in their regular uniforms. Well, almost everyone.
Midoriya didn't come back until the end of the day. His arm was wrapped in a thick cast and he was walking around without his shoes. Once he stepped through the door, he was greeted with excited cheers and frantic worries. While the rest of the class flittered around him Ritsu stayed back and watched.
He watched how Midoriya tried to quell everyone with a wave of his hand. How he blushed under the attention he was receiving. How he never really answered any of the questions like What was that all about? Why did you go that far? How his eyes kept on flicking back toward the door that Bakugou just stormed through. Ritsu watched how Midoriya's eyebrows furrowed with determination.
So when Midoriya suddenly turned and left the classroom, Ritsu got up and followed him.
For someone who had been so thoroughly beat up earlier, Midoriya was a fast walker. But Ritsu wouldn't let him get away that easily. How many times had he seen his brother come home with tears on his clothes and scratches on his skin only for him to receive no explanation as to why they were there? Ritsu respected Shige too much to say it out loud but people like that really pissed him off.
Ritsu pushed through the front doors of the school to see Midoriya standing at the base of the steps. He was ready to give the freckled boy a piece of his mind about how he can't just brush off a fight as serious as that with no explanation but Midoriya called out first.
"Kacchan!"
Bakugou stood a few meters in front of Midoriya. Although he didn't turn to face his caller, Ritsu could see how his body tensed up at the sound of his nickname. He slowly started to turn around and Ritsu, panicking, jumped behind a pillar that stood next to the doors.
"What is it?" Bakugou bit out.
"I have something important to tell you," Midoriya gulped before steeling himself and saying, "I got my quirk from someone else!"
'Huh?' Ritsu thought.
"Huh?" Bakugou said.
"No matter what, I can't tell you who," he sounded grave, "but I swear it's the truth! Even if it sounds like something out of a comic book." When Midoriya was given no response, he continued on, "I still can't use it the way it's supposed to be used. It's a borrowed power that I haven't made my own yet. That's why I wanted to beat you without it! But in the end, I still couldn't win and relied on it anyway! I'm nowhere near strong enough and so—" he looked into Bakugou's eyes—"One day, I'll make it my own, and then I'll surpass you with my own power."
Midoriya let out a shaky breath and stayed looking at Bakugou. Bakugou, in turn, was now fully facing Midoriya and staring at him as though he were an idiot. Ritsu couldn't help but have that same look on his own face, just without the malice.
"Wha—" Bakugou started—"What the hell is a 'borrowed power'? I don't get what the hell you're trying to say. Did you come here just to make an even bigger fool of me!? Did you!? Even if not," his face became filled with rage, "Then so what!? Today you beat me, you assclown! That's all there is to it! That's all—
Did you see that ice guy!" he cut himself off with his own confused anger. "At first I thought he was nothing but then he froze the whole fucking building! Even worse, fucking Porcupine was still able to beat him! FUCK! What that ponytail bitch said really sunk in!"
He grabbed his face. Ritsu could be wrong but it almost looked like he was—
"SHIT! GODDAMMIT! EVEN YOU DEKU!" Bakugou removed his hand from his face to reveal hot tears threatening to spill down his cheeks. "FROM HERE ON OUT! I...! FROM HERE ON OUT—ARE YOU FUCKING LISTENING DEKU? I'M GONNA BE NUMBER ONE!"
Ritsu suddenly felt really out of place. More so than he had ever felt during his time here in this strange world. He could always scold Midoriya another day. The rest of this conversation didn't need to be heard by him. This was personal.
Ritsu Notebook 3
All Might? More like All Might-be-mentally-ill
We had an exercise today and I did well. Too well. I need to stay back.
If someone says "go beyond", respond with "plus ultra".
Midoriya has a borrowed quirk [scribbled out]
Quirks can be borrowed.
Midoriya, Uraraka, Iida, Bakugou, Sero (smiley), Hagakure (invisible), Ojiro, Shouji (Octo-man), Todoroki (Ice Boy). Only 10 more to go.
Omake #3
4 Months till entrance exam
For today's training, they were in Black Vinegar's dance room. Hanazawa was definitely not a dancer and the thought of it almost made Ritsu buckle over in laughter. But then how did he get access to this room?
"We will be focusing on hiding our aura today," Hanazawa said and then gestured to the wall covered in mirrors, "Which is why we must be able to easily see ourselves. The big mirrors here make this room perfect!"
"Hiding our aura? Do you mean in the way that Shige-nii's shady boss claims he does?" If it turned out that espers could indeed hide their auras, Ritsu would have to properly apologize for how much he (mentally) insulted Reigen.
Hanzawa rubbed his chin in thought before his eyes lit up. "Oh! You're talking about that old man in the dingy grey suit and fading pink tie from the Scar attack right?"
Ritsu exhaled loudly through his nose. Yeah he might insult Reigen on the regular but Hanazawa was just so specific about it. Even better was the fact that the blond didn't even process what he said as an insult!
"Yes, that shady boss."
"To be honest, I never would have guessed that he was an expert before he went to fight that tiny old man. He conceals his aura so well! I guess that's what makes him fit to be Kageyama-kun's master. What I'm going to teach you is nowhere near as advanced as that.
There's not much here to lift so we will be carrying ourselves" he began to float in the air. "Try to remember how you feel as you carry yourself."
Ritsu watched as Hanazawa drifted around above the floor. His yellow aura was like a spotlight that demanded your attention. Ritsu soon followed suit and floated into the air with his own blue aura surrounding him.
Hanazawa had told him to focus on how he felt. Well, he felt strangely warm. He had expected the opposite based off of the cool color of his aura but he was happy to be wrong. The warmth was like someone had turned in a heater in the middle of winter. It was nice.
"When you do anything regarding your psychic powers, your aura starts within you and then spreads to the surface of your skin," Hanazawa explained. As he said this, Ritsu watched as their auras danced on their skin. "In order to hide your aura, you must pull it back into your body. Think of how you extend your aura when you use air whips just that this time you're retracting it. Take the outer warmth you feel right now and bring it in."
Hanazawa's aura slowly thinned out and disappeared. Or rather, it went back into his body. He then broke off from Ritsu's side and flew around the room. Ritsu watched through the mirror as the blond danced with himself. There was joy in his movements and Ritsu had to come to terms with the fact that maybe Hanazawa was a good dancer.
But what about hiding his aura made Hanazawa feel like dancing of all things? Would Ritsu feel the same?
He hesitantly retracted his aura. It was a slower process than Hanazawa's but the moment his aura settled beneath his skin Ritsu felt unbelievably warm. The warmth he felt now wasn't like the one from before. It wasn't like a blanket over his shoulders or the heat from the sun in the early morning. This warmth was like drinking hot soup after playing too long in the snow. This warmth was like receiving a compliment from Shige. This warmth was—
Hanazawa looked over to him and smiled. "How does it feel?"
"Really nice."
Author's end notes (aka, where I stop proofreading)
I just realized that I've been writing "Kacchan" as "Kaachan" and I feel like crawling in a hole and staying there (╥﹏╥)
But "Kaachan" makes more sense than "KaCcHaN"! Is his name Bakugou Kacuki? Should I say "Kack-chan"? The nick name is a conflation of his first name and the ending -chan. -chan doesn't have two C's! I knew that the nickname had two letters repeating but I thought "Kacchan doesn't make any sense, so it's probably Kaachan. Like how little kids like to stretch out their syllables".
Apparently, I was wrong.
┻┻︵ヽ(`Д´)ノ︵┻┻
~Rant over~
This chapter was a lot longer than I expected (~7,000 words)
I plan to write Teru with some genuine asshole tendencies, because reformation is a hard thing to do.
In the manga, Mido is legit walking around in socks and I find that hilarious.
Paper mache is the informal spelling of papier-mâché
Not much interaction between Teruki and Ritsu in this chapter but there is Ritsu and Shouto. My goodness, Shouto was so hard to write. And when I finally got the motivation to write his section fiction press was updating so it didn't save any of my writing :( My favorite line of his was the 'Fairy Godmother' one.
If you guys had any problem with my characterization of Shouto please point them out in the comments/reviews and I'll keep them in mind as I continue to write.
My inspo. for the whole hiding your aura thing was the scene where Teruki takes a bunch of knives out of a cabinet. From his fight with Mob
I have Ritsu as a good actor because he had fooled both Mob and himself for most of his life.
Ritsu doesn't like All Might. That's all I have to say on that for now.
Ritsu 100% respects Hagakure the most
*¥10,000 = $95
Quick grammar lesson!
Earlier in this chapter, I used () in the middle of dialogue. The words in parentheses are like a side comment you might make while talking about something. It's rare to see it but it's not improper grammar. Writers don't really use it because readers don't usually know how to interpret them. An example of parentheses being used in dialogue can be found in Edgar Allan Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart
For my fiction press readers: Feel free to ask questions in the reviews and I'll pm you the answers :)
Favorite, follow, review and I'll give your favorite character a stupid nickname (This part is usually retorical but I would actually do so if you guys asked).
