Jpx0999 - You'll get a bit of an outside look through the Warlords during the Summit and then through Book Two events :P
TheGreatBubbaJ - Perhaps.
Detrametal - Nice ;)
Shahryar - Yagi and Aiko are fun.
Guest - The only question here is mostly about whether they count as 'clay'. What exactly gets reformed into magisters in the process?
Adrianmmgc - I'm doing fine, but yeah. FFN is really pissing me off ocassionaly. Most of my writings here are published way behind AO3.
Kurokawa Kazunari - Funny you've asked, since we're just entering Uraraka Confession Zone.
(***)
They return to school the next day, acting as if nothing has happened. Izuku is accompanied by Himiko and Ochako, who appeared to have been… mostly ignoring each other's existence, to be honest.
Himiko stayed for the night on the couch, except Izuku still found her in his own bed in the morning, snuggling to him from the opposite side to the one where Ochako was doing the exact same thing, so things were clearly the same as always.
On a side note, Izuku is looking forward to the moment when they'll officially proceed past third base and into the fabled land of the home run, because… yeah, he is starting to get hornier and hornier again.
Too much teasing.
His somehow still virgin heart can't take it forever, although at least for now he remained much more clear headed than before Ochako's tongue was literally a single hand gesture away.
So, yeah, progress.
He even sends Himichan to the horny jail when she starts being way too suggestive in public, which in this particular situation means 'no third base for the next twelve hours'. He then - because he dislikes seeing her being actually slightly hurt over that - explains to her that she has to tone it down in public a bit, because it's making a lot of people uncomfortable.
Like Kacchan.
And that he'll help her find a way to act in public that isn't 95% composed of lines borrowed from whatever 18+ things she was reading/watching in her free time.
She appears to be greatly cheered up by the prospect of spending time with him. Which is nice. Crisis averted, no one gets to die today.
Of course, the stares that he keeps getting from people in black school uniforms observing him from a distance are still distinctly unnerving.
Kacchan enjoys himself by flipping the bird to whoever shows even the smallest degree of hostility. Izuku should be surprised, but he isn't. Actually, hell, he shouldn't be surprised, so he isn't, that's a better way of assessing the situation.
Shoto showed up at school wearing large, star-shaped plastic glasses that covered most of his face, all while slurping cola loudly at almost regular intervals. Izuku, honestly, has no idea what is going on in his head.
He would probably have it easier to figure out what Aiko is thinking.
He is going to visit her after school ends. After, well, he'll visit and headpat the Frog of the Lake first.
Hopefully, no one will try to assassinate him during those activities.
"How long do you think it will take for the faculty to calculate our Contribution Points?" Izuku asks Shoto while the both of them are sitting on a bench in the 'normie' section of the school, Todoroki is only there to keep his Warlord alive.
"Yes," Shoto replies flatly, while staring at the phone screen in his hands.
"I hate you too, Shoto." Izuku replies dryly.
"Will you stop if I give you one of my spare coca colas?" Shoto asks, pulling a said coca cola can from his pocket (how deep are they, really?).
"Sure," Izuku replies and gets a free soda. Nice.
(***)
"Yagi," Aizawa says flatly after reading the report. Other teachers are finishing theirs in the background looking, to say the least, flabbergasted. "This isn't the report we were promised. This is a very wild fanfiction based on the Principal's announcement of the SEZ discovery."
"God, I wish," Yagi replies calmly, before letting out a supremely pained sigh. "I met the Outsider in question. All of that happened, and if you don't believe me, wait until the Principal sends you a message of confirmation."
It's like leaving something to a higher power, except on UA it actually works. Aizawa is staring at Yagi almost completely emotionlessly for a solid fifteen seconds before all the phones in the room start vibrating (or otherwise announcing that a message arrived) in unison.
What Yagi gets out of it is a single, flat 'what' from Aizawa before a riot starts.
(***)
"Ba… Kacchan!" Uraraka practically pulled him into the empty class during the break. With the intensity that, well, if Bakugou didn't know that she was magically hardwired to unquestioningly love Deku (and Deku only) for the rest of her existence, he would start getting suspicious. "I n-need your help!"
Bakugou hoped for a simple, normal day. Because he has a double date scheduled for the evening and he doesn't want any further drama. Alas…
"What is it, Round Cheeks?" Bakugou asks. It's his job to be the sane one, and he is going to do it to the best of his fucking abilities.
"Err, I think that I might be a bit of a dumbass about it, and…" Uraraka starts speaking. Almost oddly lacking in stuttering.
"Correction, Round Cheeks." Bakugou cuts in. "You're a complete dumbass." She actually looks at him in something resembling shock. "Alright, alright, why exactly are you being a dumbass right now?"
"Well, I…" Uraraka looks to the side, her fingers fidgeting. "I want to come forward to Deku-kun about, well, everything, and…"
"Then do it." Bakugou cuts in. "Done. Anything else you want to talk about?"
She stares at him in shock.
"It's not that simple, and…"
"And that's where you're wrong, Round Cheeks." Bakugou fires back. "It's exactly this fucking simple. You leave the room, you find Deku, you ask him for a face-to-face talk and trust me, he'll know immediately that you aren't inviting him to some romantic tete-a-tete but for a Serious Talk. Then you fucking tell him the whole truth."
"But…"
"Don't 'but' me, 'butt' him." Bakugou cuts back. He's hilarious, sue him about it.
Uraraka stares at him with a combination of shock, guilt, and… honestly, he has no idea what the fuck else is there. He isn't a fucking shrink, despite everyone acting like he was one and fairly fucking successful at that.
Also, his blinding sense of humor is lost on those dumbasses that he surrounds himself with nowadays.
"Alright, I get it." Bakugou sighs. "There are circumstances that I don't know of. Run them through me first, if you're this scared. I'll tell you what Deku will think about it in his stead." Contrary to popular opinions, Deku wasn't THAT complicated to read.
It takes her a while. And she stutters a lot. But eventually, she tells him the whole story.
It's… not what Bakugou Katsuki expected. Hell, it's not what Shoto Todoroki expected. They massively misread her past, and… in a way that explained her reluctance to share everything with Deku.
What a fucking mess.
"So, n-now you know." She looks down. "And I-I'm sorry t-that…"
He karate chops her in the head, Uraraka actually jumping back a step, looking at him in shock.
"Round Cheeks, you're a fucking dumbass." Bakugou announces with the entire smug authority he is capable of. "We could have solved this on day one if you fucking came to tell me all of that."
"E-eh?" She blinks at him.
"It's fucking Deku we're talking about." Bakugou replies. "The bleeding-heart idiot that I'm 100% sure is going to hear your fucking story, then either cry with you, hug you or both. Just… fucking… go and tell him."
He is so fucking tired of this bullshit, to be honest.
"Y-you're sure?" She seems she is still severely lacking anything even remotely resembling confidence.
"Yes, yes I'm fucking sure about it, Round Cheeks." Bakugou replies. "If anything, seeing your backstory, I'm slightly fucking surprised you didn't know that yourself."
She looks down.
"I-I knew that the D-Deku-kun I knew w-would react like that." She lets out. "But… Deku-kun right now is a bit… d-different? I-I still l-love him and I know it's him, j-just…"
Right, so she noticed that as well.
"Yeah, it's not just the whole horny, but…" Bakugou sighs. "It's like seeing two or three very similar people wearing the same face, sometimes. Don't quote me on that, but I think that him getting initiated brought all that supernatural influence into activity, and he is still unconsciously patching himself up to find a middle ground between them. But what's clearly common to him in his entirety is him being a self-sacrificial idiot with a bleeding heart. And that's what fucking counts. Got it?"
"Y-Yes!" She actually looks like she made her resolve. "I'll do it after school! T-thank you, K-Kacchan!"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, now fuck off before my good will ends." Bakugou snarls back. Uraraka practically runs out of the class, and Bakugou groans loudly.
A moment later he almost jumps up when he is suddenly surprised by a loud slurp coming from behind.
"Are you fucking kidding me, Library Freak?" Bakugou asks, glaring down at Shoto in his ridiculous glasses, drinking soda through a straw. Through a straw but from a can, that absolute heathen. "Since when were you hiding there?"
"I wasn't hiding." Shoto replies, his slurping is finally interrupted. "You just didn't notice me being here. You should work on your situational awareness. Especially while you're exchanging confidential information."
Regretfully, Bakugou can't exactly punch him in the face for this. Because, well, Shoto has a point.
"I still think…" Bakugou retorts. "... that not listening in to your friends' conversations is a basic fucking savoir vivre."
"You're dating my sister and a cousin for a bit more than a week…" Shoto replies, tilting his head a little. "... and you use so many French words already? First tete-a-tete, now this? You must be really in love, Bakugou."
"First of all, fuck you," Bakugou replies calmly. "Second of all, yes I probably am, but it has no influence on my fucking vocabulary. Also, fuck you again."
"There is a queue for that, apparently," Todoroki replies dryly and… yeah, now Bakugou wants to punch him in the face even more. "Thanks to you I found out what made Uraraka such a unique case of a stalker, and it has improved my understanding of her kind greatly. In response to that, will you drop the issue you have with me over spying on you if I tell you what are Moe's and Fuyumi's plans concerning the second date with you?"
"If it's useful, yes," Bakugou replies, his face unmoved. Love is war, after all. Only a fool denies themselves an informational advantage over their enemy.
"I overheard them talking about you," Shoto replies calmly. "They are interested in sharing, but are planning to act like they don't, in order to test how far your romantic conviction goes."
…
"Is polygamy even legal among the Initiates?" Bakugou asks back. Because, honestly, he kind of didn't remember to ask earlier.
"Terms 'legal' and 'illegal' do not exist in my vocabulary." Shoto replies without batting an eye. "For as long as the relationship emotionally ties you with the well-being of the other family, most established Initiate houses do not care about most of the details. If it can produce children to cement your ties further while perpetuating your family line, it's seen as better, though. Just be aware that trying to break the relationship later on tends to carry much more severe consequences than among the non-initiates."
That's about as much as Bakugou expected.
"Alright then." He nods. "Library Freak, if it works, you'll live."
"Also, they believe that the second date is a good moment for the first kiss." Shoto helpfully adds.
Oh, this is just getting better and better in Bakugou's opinion.
(***)
The day was rather nerve-wracking, Izuku thinks, especially with the whole 'your ass is suddenly worth a lot' thing.
To be honest, the main thing that stopped people from randomly murdering him was the fact that nobody knew if his death wouldn't lead the Special Exclusion Zone to vanish again. They needed to know how to access it before sniping him.
Which would start a regular war between the Warlords for control over the SEZ. But, well, the winner would earn a lot.
He meets with Ashido (who is clearly kind of nervous about meeting with Midoriya now), hands her the plants they got from the mental hospital, Ochako (bless her for this) somehow holding onto them the whole time.
Izuku admits that it's less than he hoped for to seal the deal, but he's ready to negotiate allowing the entire cabal to move onto the Special Exclusion Zone for some larger scale open-air farming if they are willing.
He also ensures that this option will be seriously considered by telling Ashido to relay to Shiozaki that there is an option for a certain bonus payment that she appeared interested in, if the deal goes through.
His charm is an asset that Izuku will need to survive, so he is going to be utterly shameless at using it when needed.
Izuku then spends an hour petting and feeding Tsuyu while teaching her some vocabulary - she doesn't have to leave her preferred environment, but this doesn't mean that she couldn't benefit from improved ability to communicate.
Then he wandered into the Special Exclusion Zone (Uraraka and Toga still followed him as bodyguards).
Aiko was standing there, in literally the same position they saw her stand when closing the door behind, staring at the distant end of the Zone.
Kind of freaky.
After more than an hour of feeding her snacks and talking about various things (while explaining those she didn't understand to her), they bid her goodbye and went home.
Himiko was there as well, but he must have missed some silent agreement between her and Ochako, because right behind the apartment block where Izuku lived Himiko suddenly announced that she was only walking him home, because she had something to do at school.
Then she leaves.
Uraraka appears entirely unsurprised by this development, hence Izuku's suspicions that he missed out on some agreement between them.
Izuku has some rather 18+ suspicions about the reasons, at least until Uraraka stands in front of him in the living room and he gets to see the look on her face.
Uh-oh. She decided to finally come forward with whatever was bothering her so much yesterday, hmm? That's quite a quick change of mind, and… wait, Kacchan made her do it, didn't he?
"D-Deku-k-kun, I…" It's clear that he is struggling with that. Hopefully actually letting it all out will make her nervous a bit less.
"I think that we should both sit down," Izuku replies, as delicately as he can. "Do you want me to get you some tea, or…" He adds while holding her hands and pulling her towards the couch.
Her hands are shaking, but she follows him.
"N-no, but t-thank you f-for asking." She lets out, sitting down. He sits right next to her. He opens his mouth, still thinking about what exactly he wants to say, but that's when she pushes her phone into his hands. "P-please, r-read this."
So, he does.
Stalkers. Not the 'normal' type of stalkers, either. A type of an undead shapeshifter, that could pass off as normal humans when in their 'masked' state, normally looking like themselves but almost entirely devoid of colors.
It was slightly creepy, to be honest, especially the part where becoming yanderes is a bit of a standard thing for them.
"I read it, why did you want me to…" Izuku says, pulling his eyes from the phone. His words are strangled out of him when he sees Uraraka's face, her eyes clearly avoiding his.
Uraraka's face is entirely devoid of colors,
So many things suddenly make sense. Uraraka wanting to get close to him despite just meeting him. Uraraka headbutting with Toga so much over who gets closer to him. Chibi not reacting to her with hostility, glyphs not working on her or, well, working but so weakly that Midoriya didn't notice it despite standing right next to her.
Stalkers, according to the article, were beings of love. Dogs, cats, and so on picked up emotions, but not to the point of being able to tell healthy love from unhealthy. The same mechanism allowed them to fool most threat detection magic, because they mostly picked up hostile intent.
Stalkers, in the meantime, loved their bonds.
Even the glyphs were only putting in a rote effort when stalkers were in their masked state.
While it made many things make sense, it also made some things make no sense.
"You're my…" Izuku tries to say it. Uraraka nods, looking even more to the side. "But… how?! We didn't even talk in Rozaryu, so how did you…"
Another thing is shoved into his hands. A picture. A picture of Izuku attending a birthday party that he didn't remember attending.
Censor.
"I-I was bullied." Uraraka is shaking clearly, on her face something akin… to guilt? Is it over lying to him? He told her he was alright with waiting for the truth and… "B-badly. B-because m-my family w-wasn't doing a-alright, and s-someone s-started p-picking on me and t-they were p-popular so o-others did a-as well and…"
Ah. SPSC is, honestly, a beneficial organization to the world. Because Izuku, despite being a nice guy as far as initiates go, is suddenly overtaken by a desire to commit a bloody murder, and he can do that in a way that leave the police completely stumped.
"T-they t-toned it down a-after the f-funeral f-flowers, b-because t-teachers p-pushed b-back a little…" Uraraka looks down, and Izuku's wish that murder was legal grows. "... s-so they s-started i-ignoring m-my e-existence completely. F-for m-months I w-was c-completely alone, e-everyone a-acting like I d-didn't exist. I d-didn't tell m-my parents, b-because t-they w-were in f-financial t-troubles and I d-didn't want to w-worry them and…"
"Ochako…"
"I-I know it was s-stupid." She replies quickly. Did she mention that to Kacchan? "T-then I met you, and…"
"And I decided that I was going to be your friend." Izuku can imagine his reaction to all of that. "Kacchan probably scared off whoever would even consider bullying you actively again, didn't he?"
She nods. That sounded like something that Kacchan would do. Especially when Izuku asked him to.
"I t-thought that y-you were j-just a-acting like my friends, at the beginning," Uraraka says, betraying trust issues the size of Kacchan's ego. "B-but you didn't. I w-was happy f-for the f-first time in y-years, and then…" She inhales deeply, trying to steady her voice a little. "Something attacked us at school, I don't r-remember what, I o-only remember lying on the class floor, not feeling my body, you trying to drag me out of the classroom, Kacchan shouting at you that it was too late and…"
The car crash in Rozaryu. Two students died, Kacchan was badly hurt, and Izuku was an inch away from ending up as a paraplegic, or simply dying. It must have been… wait, class floor?
Oh, no. Oh nonononono.
"Y-you woke up as a stalker." Izuku cuts in, Uraraka's facial expressions twisting into those of fear, guilt and pain. "You came back to us, because we were still on the school grounds. And since you were in the unmasked state and we weren't initiates, we acted as if you weren't there."
Love and hate were close by… and so were stalkers and revenants. And discovering that your love was false, could…
"I'm s-sorry!" Uraraka shouts, tears beginning to stream down her face, her hands grasping onto the edge of her uniform, mangling it unconsciously. "I d-didn't know, I thought… I w-wasn't thinking clearly, and… one of the passersby was an initiate, h-he managed to push me back, he s-somehow figured out that I was a s-stalker that for some reason bonded to someone who wasn't Initiated and explained everything to me, pretty much shouting all of that at me while I kept attacking him, and… then I r-realized what he meant, that you weren't ignoring me like everyone else, t-that I attacked and almost killed my best friend and my crush and…"
Izuku… he bluescreens for a moment. He didn't… he didn't expect that. But when he imagined what she had to go through… So many, what, months if not years of being bullied, then waking up after some monster attacked you just to discover that your best friends were actually lying to you the whole time (or so she thought), and…
Could revenants (because she technically became one for the time being) actually think clearly? What sort of person would Izuku be if he tolerated Toga's ghoulish antics and then pushed Uraraka away for something like this?
No. No, that's not the sort of a person he is. He still has a lot of questions to ask, and this isn't the end of the talk, but…
He extended his hands. Uraraka freezes, her voice strangled out of her with fear, looking like a deer caught in the headlights. But instead of attacking her or pushing her away, Izuku pulls her into a hug.
The dam breaks completely, and Uraraka starts crying into his shoulder. Izuku has a feeling that it's going to last for a moment.
He'll give her all the time she needs.
Izuku Midoriya, in Shoto Todoroki's opinion, is the biggest mystery he ever saw or heard about.
He was like a walking treasure trove of occult knowledge. You simply needed someone competent enough to properly appraise said treasure and make sense of it. Because while thus far it appeared ridiculous, Shoto Todoroki was skillful enough to realize that he was just missing a big - but slowly shrinking - part of the image.
Uraraka was a satellite mystery of Midoriya. One that was just mostly solved, giving him clues to the main plot. Another piece of the puzzle that fell into the right place.
Her story didn't add up, although she remained blissfully unaware of it, lacking knowledge and experience with the magical world.
If she went after Bakugou and Midoriya, why did two other people die? Why would they put themselves between two random people and a rampaging revenant?
They had to be initiates, but what were the chances of such an anomalous stalker to be born right next to a person of such an odd parentage like Midoriya, with two initiated classmates that he apparently wasn't close to, and yet they were ready to die for him?
Solution - someone was keeping tabs on Midoriya. Because Shoto Todoroki believes in coincidences, but not in a random appearance of a passerby initiate with skills to hold back a revenant while talking them down.
The 'classmates' were probably buying time for said 'passerby' arrival. And didn't Midoriya's mysterious father prove to have access to powers allowing him to travel through dimensions? Teleportation was, comparably speaking, much easier, if still taking a minute or two, even if you knew exactly where to go.
Shoto Todoroki was aware that he was playing a dangerous game. But it was a high risk high reward situation, and for that he was ready. And he knew what to do right now.
"Hagakure Tooru." Shoto says, surprising the student in question, the girl looking at him with a sudden fright on her face. Is she afraid that Shoto suspects her of knowing too much? "I've come to bargain."
(***)
... truly, you didn't think that Uraraka stayed quiet for so long because she was shy about it, right now? Also, as I said, 'ya lot greatly misread the clues about what exactly happened to Uraraka (and, well, Izuku too) in Rozaryu. And no, it's not over, because the entire next chapter is going to be Izuku and Uraraka talking about it, and, well, things happening.