Disclaimer: This is purely a fan work and I own nothing.
It was Monday morning, and Izuku Midoriya sprang out of bed, like he always did, with a big smile on his face, like every morning. He put on his school uniform, neatly folded beside his bed. As he grabbed his bag, he walked down to the common room, and saw Bakugou waiting for him, like every morning.
"Kacchan!" He yelled, hugging his long time best buddy.
"Deku!" Kacchan shouted, hugging his friend and ruffling his hair.
Just like every morning.
Soon the common room was flooding with the other eighteen students of Class 1-A, twenty in all, and they skipped along the pink sidewalks and purple grass of UA. As Deku opened his locker to change his shoes, he saw those dark figures from the Sports Festival peering back at him. He recognized them from his fight with Shinsou; the spirit-like figures who had snapped him out of...
"Hi ghosts!" He said, waving happily.
"Who are you talking to, Deku?" Ochako asked.
"The ghosts!" He replied, pointing at them in his locker. "See?"
"Nope!" Ochako replied with a big smile, "You're so silly! Let's get to class! I can't wait to take a test for Mr. Aizawa!"
Arm-in-arm, the friends began to skip to class 1-A. They sat down in their rainbow-colored class and cheered as Mr. Aizawa cartwheeled into the room, sprang to his feet, and blasted two airhorns. "Goooooood morning, babies!" He taught class like this every day! There homeroom was the best!
"Good morning Sensei!" All the students sang to him.
"Get out your pencils and do your tests! I can't wait to see what you make for me!" Mr. Aizawa instructed, spinning Stanley the Watermelon on his finger like a basketball.
Deku looked up from his test and saw the spirits from his locker were out the window. He waved to them, but they didn't wave back. He went back to his test; he wanted to draw something great today! It seemed like they were every there though. Maybe they were lost?
"Okay my children, what did you make for your tests today?!" Aizawa yelled after roughly an hour later, blasting his airhorns.
"I drew a Kitty!" Ochako screamed waving her paper around frantically.
"I drew a racecar!" Iida shouted. "Because I'm like a living racecar, and racecar spelled backwards is still Ingenium!"
"I DREW THIS RAINBOW!" Bakugou screamed to the heavens, "IT'S SO DAMN PRETTY! I WANT TO BE PRETTY JUST LIKE THIS RAINBOW!"
"I drew some frogs," Tsuyu said, standing up.
At the sound of her voice, Deku looked over at her, and she was surrounded by the ghosts. Something about her was making him feel funny. The ghosts weren't doing anything to her, so he wondered if maybe they were just trying to get him to look at her. But why?
...
Because that's your girlfriend, idiot!
Izuku blinked and momentarily the colors of the room came back into view, and he glanced around in a panic. Ochako and Iida were drooling and shouting incoherently, Bakugou was pounding a piece of paper against his desk frantically, Aizawa had long since dropped Stanley, smashed against the ground. Tsuyu was staring at her desk, blankly. He turned and looked behind him. Everyone was in a trance like state, staring at blank pieces of paper and scribbling on them. He turned back to Tsuyu; he wanted to make sure she was okay.
"Tsu...?" He called to her, but Mr. Aizawa turned and looked at him.
"Midoriya...take a deep breath and tell us what you drew." He asked.
Deku gasped and...
...everything was fine! The bright colors of the room returned. Everyone was happy again. Just like always.
"I drew All Might, sir!" He replied happily. Oh my goodness, what was that? I must have been daydreaming again!
He looked at Tsuyu. She was smiling at her drawing. He wasn't sure why he was looking at her, actually, but the happy feeling he had felt a lot better when he saw her smile. He hoped those ghosts weren't bugging her.
Mr. Aizawa passed out candy, like he did every day, and dismissed everyone to lunch. Then, after rescue training, it was time to go to the dorms. But the whole day, the ghosts followed Izuku, and he couldn't figure out why! He tried talking to them, but they didn't answer. Then they'd vanish somewhere else. As he went to bed for the night, he threw his uniform haphazardly against the wall.
He looked beside his bed and saw the ghosts by his bed.
Like always?
"Goodnight shadow people!" He yawned, rolling over to his side to drift off to an easy sleep.
It was Monday morning, and Izuku Midoriya sprang out of bed, like he always did, with a big smile on his face, like every morning. He put on his school uniform, neatly folded beside his bed. As he grabbed his bag, he walked down to the common room, and saw Todoroki waiting for him, like every morning.
"Todo!" He yelled, hugging his best buddy.
"Midoriya," Todo shouted, hugging his friend and ruffling his hair.
The rest of the class joined them, nineteen in all, and they all skipped off to class along the yellow sidewalk and blue grass of UA. It was a beautiful day, and they needed to learn!
It was Monday morning, and Izuku Midoriya sprang out of bed, like he always did, with a big smile on his face, like every morning. He put on his school uniform, neatly folded beside his bed. As he grabbed his bag, he walked down to the common room, and saw Iida waiting for him, like every morning.
"Iida!" He yelled, hugging his best buddy.
"Midoriya," Iida declared calmly, hugging his friend and ruffling his hair.
The rest of the class joined them, fifteen in all, and they all skipped off to class along the lilac sidewalk and yellow grass of UA. It was a beautiful day, and they needed to learn!
Izuku tilted his head at the shadow people in his locker again.
Again? Just like Monday. Wait? Isn't today Monday?
Izuku blinked. No. Today was Tuesday...or...Wednesday? He looked around behind him. The rest of his classmates were sitting with their heads against their locker doors. They weren't even in their uniforms, but it looked like they had all gotten dressed blindly, with mismatching articles of clothing that were mostly on backwards. He looked down to see he was still in his pajamas too.
What's going on?
He scanned the halls. People were missing. Bakugou, Todoroki, Mina, Momo, and Sero were all nowhere to be found.
He stepped away from the lockers and headed for the faculty room. The hall floors were smudged up and dirty, as opposed to their normal, pristine nature.
All Might. All Might told me to find him if anything seemed weird. Determined as he was, as he began to move, he began to feel sluggish, and it felt like the whole school was moving beneath his feet.
As he walked along the halls, Tsuyu began walking next to him.
"Midoriya, does something feel off to you? Kero?" She croaked, though her voice sounded strained.
He nodded. "Yeah. My head is all fuzzy and things don't seem...right. What day is it?"
She paused briefly, and a panic overtook her for a split second. "I can't remember."
"Me either..." Izuku muttered.
They trudged their way towards the faculty room, when they were stopped by Iida. "Hey you guys, you're going to be late. You don't want to be late on a Monday."
"It's not...Monday?" Tsuyu said, confused.
"We just want to talk to All Might," Izuku replied, sluggishly.
"Guys, we'll see All Might later. Just take a deep breath with me and relax," Iida said. "Deeeeep breath. Like this."
He put his arms around Izuku and Tsuyu, and inhaled deeply. Following his lead, they did too.
Izuku blinked. The halls were there normal, everyday pinkish hue. "Thanks Iida! I feel so much better!" He laughed. "I don't know what I was thinking."
Izuku laughed and laughed. It was so funny, he couldn't stop laughing. He laughed so much it hurt in his stomach. He laughed so much tears were running down his face.
It wasn't funny.
"Midoriya...?" Tsuyu asked.
Izuku looked at her with a friendly, helpful smile, once he stopped laughing. "Yes, Asui?"
Tsuyu hesitated. Everything seemed good again, but she couldn't shake the feeling about what they had just been doing.
She felt a happiness, but it just seemed out of place. Like her head was fuzzy.
She felt the need to reach out and grab Midoriya's hand, so she did. He did not fight it, but looked at her with an empty, hollow smile, and did not grab it back.
This hurt her. And she didn't remember why.
They sat down in their rainbow-colored class and cheered as All Might cartwheeled into the room, sprang to his feet, and blasted two airhorns. "Goooooood morning, babies!" He taught class like this every day!
So why does this feel like something's out of place? Tsuyu wondered as she began scribbling on a blank piece of paper. Is All Might usually here?
"Tell All Might what you drew!" All Might yelled, joyously throwing candy around the room and blasting air horns.
"I drew a Kitty!" Ochako screamed waving her paper around frantically.
Wait... Tsuyu thought.
"I drew a racecar!" Iida shouted. "Because I'm like a living Ingenium, and racecar spelled backwards is still Tenya!"
This happened already. She observed.
"I drew the ghosts that are following me around!" Izuku said, proudly holding up his drawing.
Deku...something is wrong with Deku. My Deku!
Tsuyu looked around frantically, blinking. Bakugou was missing. Everyone's eyes were glazed over. Flies were swarming the remains of Stanley the Watermelon. Even All Might was in a trance.
How long have things been like this?! She wondered. She sniffed the air; everything stank, and from the looks of her classmates, they were all filthy, as was the classroom itself. And if Stanley had been smashed upon the ground for days, that rotting smell could have easily been him.
Even All Might looked to be in a trance. He turned to look at her, making her jump.
"Ms. Asui, what did you draw for your test?" All Might asked in a triumphant voice.
"I drew some lines." She replied, bluntly holding up her scribbles. "Where did Todoroki go? And Momo and Mina?"
"Don't worry about that, Ms. Asui! Take a deep breath! Everything is fine!" All Might said, raising his hands as he took a deep breath, prompting the students to do the same. Tsuyu looked above him. He was right under the air conditioning vent. If she squinted, she swore she could see some discoloration in the air coming out of it.
Slowly, she stood up, and walked out of the door, no one even bothering to stop and look at her as they copied All Might's deep breathing, as they drooled at their desks.
No one except Deku. The ghosts had surrounded her in his eyes again, and he wondered why they were always following her. Something about Tsuyu seemed familiar to him.
"All Might, the frog girl left the room." Midoriya said.
"Everything is fine, young Midoriya." The teacher replied with a hollow smile. "Just breathe."
"Okay," Midoriya added, not really listening, "I'll go get her."
As he stumbled into the hall, he saw she was already pretty far away.
"Asuiiiii," he called, lazily.
She didn't seem to hear him, as she rounded a corner.
"Excuse me, young man," came a voice from behind him.
He turned to see a tall, six-armed man looking down at him from behind a gas mask. He seemed vaguely familiar, so Deku waved at him jovially. "Hey mister!"
"You want to help your friend, right?" The six-armed man said. "The frog one?"
"Yeah, she makes me feel all weird inside. I like it." Izuku answered with a nod.
"Then come with me, she's looking for something. We'll surprise her with it."
Tsuyu had run to the principal's office.
If someone is gassing the school, my weird frog biology is probably why it's not working all the way on me. So maybe the principal is the same, she reasoned to herself.
Her heart dropped when she opened the principal's door, though. In his chair was a giant, plush mouse. Present Mic was sitting at the desk, chatting away with it.
"I don't know, do you think they're ready for Othello?" Present Mic asked.
The stuffed rodent, of course said nothing.
"Whoa, you don't have to be so angry about it! Everything is fine!" Present Mic laughed.
Tsuyu slowly backed out of the room and tapped her finger to her chin. Well, that plan didn't work.
Her thought process was interrupted as she heard a loud clanging from the air vents. She looked up at the overhead air conditioning vent in the hall, and saw it, too, had some odd discoloration in the air.
I need to get to the main cooling unit in the boiler room, she realized, just need to make a quick stop first.
She began leaping down the hall towards the support wing, opening the first door she saw.
Inside, she was Hatsume hitting a hammer against some scrap metal.
"I maked these!" She crowed proudly, pointing at the dented metal.
"Good job," Tsuyu said, grabbing a gas mask off the wall.
"Gonna build me a robot!" Hatsume declared, absentmindedly.
I'll bring this to Deku, and we can figure this out. She figured as she hopped down to class 1-A. But she froze, seeing his seat was empty. Not only him, but Iida and Tokoyami were missing as well.
She furrowed her brow. If classmates were getting snatched, the best thing to do was stop the source of the gas. As much as she wanted to find Izuku, leaving things as they were was too dangerous. Tsuyu turned on her heel and headed for the boiler room, quickening her pace.
To her surprise, the door was cracked already, and she poked her head inside.
A pink smog filled the room, already making her feel hazy, but she had already begun to build a tolerance against whatever this fog was. Arachnia was inside wearing a gas mask, and lined along the wall were cocooned students; Tokoyami, Iida, Most of class 1-B, and Deku. On top of the cooling unit was a normal looking man, but he was oozing a pink gas, which was getting sucked into the cooling vent by an odd mechanism. He had heat lamps surrounding him, and was sucking down water out of a large bottle.
"We'll have this place picked clean by the end of the week." Arachnia gloated. "Who would have thought knocking this place down would be so easy?"
"Says you," the other man whined, "being forced to sweat all this gas out for hours and hours a day is exhausting."
"Shut up, Gasser."
Gasser? That's the guy my parents saw...Tsuyu realized. How did he get out of jail?
Her eyes darted around the room; she needed a plan. After thinking a few minutes, she put on the gas mask she had grabbed, and waited behind the wall for Arachnia to face the cooling unit. Finally, when he did, she sprang into the room and dropkicked him as hard as she could in the back, sending him crashing into the unit, knocking down all the heat lamps and sending Gasser crashing to the floor. She sprang off the floor, clung to a wall, and then hopped to the ceiling. Arachania sprang himself off the unit, and Gasser pulled out his phone calling someone. "Abort! Abort! We need to pull out!"
Her eyes widened. She hadn't thought that they would try to flee. Shit!
Arachnia lunged for her, and she dodged, leaping off the ceiling towards Gasser. But as she went through the air, Arachnia shot a web at her, and snagged her by the leg, sending her to the ground. He landed on top of her, and held her arms down with two of his.
"Deep breath, Froggy," he growled, ripping off her gas mask.
Just as she figured he would.
"No thanks." She replied, lashing her tongue out, and yanking off his mask in turn. Out of habit, he gasped, and he immediately took on a goofy smile.
"You should get to class," Tsuyu suggested, nervously.
"You're right! Sorry, buddy!" Arachnia giggled, getting off of her.
Tsuyu got to her feet to go after Gasser, but he just gave her a grin as a warp gate appeared behind him - Kurogiri, the Black Mist, was getting him out.
She turned towards the other students to see gates were opening under them as well. Desperately, she lashed her tongue out towards Izuku, just barely managing to grasp his leg and yank him out of the gate before it closed on him, leaving the two of them alone, in the boiler room.
She failed. Everyone had been taken. She felt the tears well up in her eyes. Ashamed, she clung to Izuku's body, fighting back the feeling of failure.
"Tsu...? Tsuyu?" She heard from below her.
She looked behind her to see Izuku starting to wake up.
"You did it..." He said weakly.
She burst into tears.
Within half an hour, the smog had lifted, and people began to come back to their senses. Gasser's quirk was that instead of sweat, he expelled an addictive, hallucinogenic gas that made people euphoric. It usually was only good in short range, but by utilizing the air conditioning unit and heat lamps, they were able to spread it across the school.
In the end, it hadn't been Monday or Tuesday; it was Thursday. They waited two days for the hallucinations to take full hold before they began kidnapping powerful students and faculty. A number of third and second years had been taken already, along with who Tsuyu had seen, as well as principal Nezu, Eraserhead, Power Loader, and Cementoss.
No one had found Arachnia. Tsuyu couldn't help but blame herself for letting him walk right out of the door.
The school was placed in a state of Emergency, and All Might immediately left to report things to the top 10 heroes. The school was temporarily closed, so that all the students weren't sitting ducks in one location; they were being sent home until further notice.
That night, everyone was tearfully packing their belongings, but Tsuyu had vanished. Deku had finished packing, and decided to sneak off to find her; he had a good idea where she might be.
"Cover for me, okay?" He asked Ochako, quietly, in the common room.
She nodded, and bit her lip. "Be careful. And please let her know that no one blames her for this."
Izuku nodded. "Thanks, Uraraka. I'll be back soon."
He took to the east campus, making sure to avoid any patrols. He look a few leaps over the trees, until he found the stream. It was a little bit harder in the dark, but he eventually found the same riverbank where she had confessed to him; it had become a rendezvous point for them. And there she was, sitting by the water, hugging her knees to her chest. Wordlessly, he sat down next to her, and slid an arm around her.
"Tsu..." Was all Midoriya was able to say before she turned and threw her arms around him and sobbed.
"I failed, Midoriya," she cried, "If I had been smarter or a better strategist, I would have caught them before they got away or called for help. Iida and Tokoyami and everyone else is gone because of me."
Izuku's heart broke seeing her like this, and he held her tightly. "It's not your fault, Tsu. They got the whole school." He kissed her forehead, "And you did what you promised me, back on the bus last month, remember?"
She said nothing, but nodded into his chest.
"You saved me." Deku added, gently. "You're my hero, Asui Tsuyu. I'll have to put up posters of you on my wall now, instead."
"As long they aren't the photos I text you." She sniffled.
Deku laughed, "Right, those are private. But I'm serious. That's um...actually a conversation I had with All Might when I started out...sometimes you can't save everyone. But...you always try."
She looked up at him, and he continued, "If it weren't for you, I'd be who knows where, and the school would still be under mass hypnosis or brainwashing or whatever. Who knows how many more people they would have gotten. Please don't be so hard on yourself. I think what you did is just about the coolest thing in the world. You took on two supervillains and disrupted their whole plot."
She sniffled and rested her head on his shoulder. After a few moments, she croaked, "Kero. You should take your own advice. You're your own worst critic."
He gave her a small squeeze. "I'll try."
"Thanks, Kero."
"You're welcome, Tsu."
They sat there and watched the moon for awhile, before Tsuyu ribbited again. "What happens now? When do you think they'll open the school again?"
"I...don't know." Midoriya admitted, "Whatever the League is planning is big. I'm...worried, honestly."
Tsuyu sat up straight and turned to him. "Me too. But, promise me something, kero."
"What's that?"
"We get through it together."
Izuku smiled at her. "Of course. I love you, Tsu."
She booped his nose with her tongue. "Love you too. I guess we should get going."
As she stood up though, he grabbed her hand. "Wait."
She turned and looked at him, and she realized he had a steely determination in his eyes. "I'm ready to tell you now. About my Quirk."
Her eyes widened and she at back down. "Okay. I'm ready."
