Chapter 24: Follow the Contingency Plan for Murder, Iida!
The whole school has been granted a few days off after the sports festival so the students could recover from their rooms.
And Izuku was mostly at home with his father while talking with some pro heroes about potential interns and even recommending some to them depending on their fighting style.
When he wasn't helping out with heroes or spending time with his father, he was visiting the hospital to check on his uncle. And he was not surprised to see Tenya at each visit whether his friend was sitting straight up by Tensei's bed or using his shoulder as a pillow.
And things weren't easy for Shoto either since he had woken up in the middle of the night for three nights in a row to Touya screaming out. Izuku had woken up from his text notifications and continued to talk with Shoto until they both fell asleep on their phones.
Time flew by quickly and before he had noticed, the school had opened back up from the short break. The day was rainy as Nedzu drove to school with only the pop station playing. Izuku watched out the window for the duration of the ride, enjoying the bright colors of advertisements on the stores before they faded into the white-bricked building of UA. Nedzu pulled into the faculty parking lot with perfect precision.
Since Nedzu arrived early since he was the principal, Izuku never had to worry about getting to class late in his life.
So before his class, he would often do what he did during the day when he was younger. Spending time in the principal's office.
When it was finally approaching class time, Izuku approached the nearest vent with a spark in his eyes. Nedzu called out behind him, "Good luck in class, little mouse."
"Thanks," Izuku called back, sliding himself into the office vent and crawling his way through the vent system.
Izuku crawled through the vent system with no problem while humming a little under his breath. It was always funny to hum right as he passed through the hallways, especially if someone was walking since they would gasp and shout out, 'Oh my—UA is haunted!' Which made him laugh. Which made whoever heard him sprint away.
It didn't take long to reach his classroom vent. And as he slowly took off the vent to prevent a loud crash of metal, he heard his peers talking about their short break.
"This felt so cool. It's so different from when they just broadcast the matches on TV since we were part of them," Ashido said as he silently crawled out of the vent in the back. He met the gaze of one of Shoji's appendages while he crawled forward on his arms to his seat by the window. "And a lot of people recognized me!"
"Yeah, me too," Kirishima exclaimed with a sharp grin. "It was pretty cool."
"Oh my gosh, people were staring at me all morning. It was kind of embarrassing," Hagakure admitted, her sleeves bouncing as she talked.
Ojiro blinked back at her, "But isn't that normal for you, Hagakure?"
"Man, after the sports fest, we've been thrust into the spotlight," Kaminari commented as Izuku passed by his desk.
"The sports festival was fun," Sato added right as Izuku made it to his seat. He could see Shoto glance back at him while Tenya stared down at his desk.
Before anyone could comment about anything else, Aizawa walked in without the bandages covering his body. Izuku frowned at the sight of the scar under his cheek while the teacher walked in. "Morning."
Izuku cheerfully called out, "Good Morning!" Along with everyone else. His loud voice made some of his classmates jump in their seats and whip their heads around to stare at him.
"I didn't even see him come in!" Ashido gushed in a loud whisper to Hagakure.
"Everyone here is going to have a special informative hero class today. This special task will be code names. You'll be coming up with hero names that you will used in the future," Aizawa explained to the class as they all attentively listened. "This near future will be sooner than you may think. Normally, pro heroes will choose second or third-year students for internship offers. But your class has gained the attention of quite a few pro heroes interested in your future potential."
"So we have to prove ourselves if we get picked?
"That's correct," Aizawa replied, clicking on a remote to show the students' names in a bar chart on the board. "The offers have been gathered these past few days. As you can see, the offers are spread out to a lot of you, but the most are aimed towards Fukuyama and Bakugo because of their performance."
"Woah, that's a lot of offers,"
"Revelry in the Darkness."
"Bakugo must have impressed a lot of people,"
"And so did Fukuyama with his ice," Jirou said, staring at the large numbers that exceeded one hundred. "I mean, he had so much control over it."
"Wooh," Ashido celebrated when she saw her name on the board with 35 offers.
"Hey, Izuku got a lot of offers too!" Hagakure pointed out
Sera nodded along with her words, "Hey, you're right!"
"Hmm, it might be just because I have met some pro heroes already. So they might be asking to have me just because of my family relation," Izuku waved them off when he saw his name in third place. Not the same amount as the top two, but he was close in number to his friend, Tenya.
"At the USJ, you already got experience in combat with real villains. But these offers will still be meaningful for you to see pros at work firsthand," Aizawa explained as he gestured towards the board.
"So that explains why we need hero names!" Sato added with a huge smile.
"These hero names will still be temporary since you are only first year. But if you're not serious about it..." Aizawa trailed off right as the door slammed open revealing the R-rated hero waiting on the other side.
"You'll have to pay for it later!" Midnight announced. "Because a lot of hero names used by students become recognized by society, and they end up becoming professional hero names!"
"So don't try to call yourself anything funny or use jokes to fill in your hero name," Aizawa explained.
Izuku watched as the assignment began with whiteboards, erasers, and markers being handed to each student. He wrote down his name quickly, knowing exactly what to write down.
Aoyama went up first with a grin on his face. "Shining Hero: I cannot stop twinkling!"
"You might need to get rid of the 'I' and shorten it up a little bit," Midnight advised.
"Shining Hero: Can't Stop Twinkling! Ooh, it sounds so perfect," Aoyama said.
Tsuyu came up to the podium right after him. "I've had this name picked out since elementary school," Tsuyu said as she flipped over her board. "Rainy Season Hero: Froppy."
"That is adorable," Midnight commented.
Ashido slammed her sigh on the podium with an excited grin, "Alien Queen!"
"Ooh, maybe not that name. It is based on those scary movies and might expose the children to it when they search your name out," Midnight advised, making Ashido pout and head back to her desk to brainstorm a new one.
"Sturdy Hero: Red Riot!" Kirishima announced.
Midnight tilted her head at the sign, "Based off of Crimson Riot?"
"Yeah, I'm a huge fan of his work!" Kirishima said, rubbing the back of his neck.
One by one, each of the students went up to show their hero names to the class and get approved by Midnight.
"Hearing Hero: Earphone Jack."
"Tentacle Hero: Tentacole."
"Taping Hero: Cellophane."
"Martial Arts Hero: Tailman."
"Sweets Hero: Sugarman."
"Pinky!"
"Stun Gun Hero: Chargebolt!"
"Stealth Hero: Invisible Girl!"
"Everything Hero: Creati."
"Jet- Black Hero: Tsukuyomi."
"Control Hero: Mindjack."
"I picked out Uravity."
'Petting Hero: Anima,' Koda said nothing and just flipped over his board to show the class with a flush of pink across his cheeks. They said nothing about the two little birds on his head.
"King Explosion Murder!"
"Nope," Midnight disapproved of his hero name, making an 'x' with her arms. "You shouldn't use something like that. It sounds too scary and more villainous."
"Why the hell not?!" Bakugo yelled But was quickly shooed away from the podium by Midnight.
Izuku walked to the front of the room with a calm expression. He stood behind the podium and slowly flipped his board around to show the writing. "I would like to be known as Nezuku. It's a mixture of my name and the word 'Nezumi'."
"Aww, your father is going to find it as amazing as you are," Midnight said as Izuku went to return to his seat, Shoto stood up from his desk and started to walk to the podium. "Ah, Fukuyama! What do you have?"
"I wrote down Frost Fire," Shoto answered, flipping over his board to show off the name. "Because of my quirk."
"Tenya," Iida stated quietly, his board portraying his name. In the silence of the room, Shoto glanced back at Izuku while Tenya kept his gaze to the wood of the podium.
Midnight asked slowly, "You're using your first name?"
"It's just temporary," Tenya said, which made Aizawa lean forward in his desk chair.
With that, Tenya returned to his seat while Bakugo drudged up to the podium with his revised name. "Lord Explosion Murder!"
"That sucks too," Ashido complained loudly.
"What do you know?!"
"Wow, there are a lot of paper stacks," Kaminari pointed out as he looked down at his thin stack of papers that felt more like a pamphlet. He glanced to see the top three in the class with significantly larger stacks.
"I received one from Uwabami," Yaoyorozu spoke up quietly, picking up the paper from her decently sized stack. "It might be good to learn from a female pro hero."
"Ooh, Uwabami does great rescue work," Izuku said, which got Momo's attention. "But if it is not a busy week, then you might be there to learn more about the advertisement side."
"Hmm. I will keep that in mind," Yaoyorozu replied before looking down at her stacks of offers.
He looked around the room to see Koda getting flustered over the offers he was sent along with Shoji inspecting the short stack on his desk as well.
His classmate didn't need to know that a line of pro heroes contacted him to find out which students in the hero course would work well with their style. He made sure to include Class 1-B since they didn't get much attention at the Sports Festival. And he is glad that each of his peers got at least two offers on their desk.
"Hey, Bakugo, who are you picking?"
"Best Jeanist," Bakugo responded with a harsh furrow in his brows. He was probably still upset at his hero names not being approved. "He's one of the top heroes, so I want to learn directly from him."
Izuku bit back on his lip since he knew exactly why Best Jeanist would pick Bakugo.
He hopes that Bakugo can deal with the intense styling and additional jeans added to his outfit. His dad was a fashion designer, so maybe he was used to that kind of work.
Izuku looked down at his own decently sized stack. He only saw one or two names he hasn't heard of before, but the rest were pro heroes he has come across before.
"I'll just go with Dabi," Shoto said, pausing while he flipped through the stack and picked out the form with his brother's hero name on it. "Maybe I can hound him to finally teach me how to do that flaming fist move."
Izuku glanced to where Tenya was sitting and saw his friend being silent as he looked through the forms at the very top. He looked down at his papers to see that the top had the name of each hero along with the location.
'He wouldn't..., would he?' Izuku thought to himself as Tenya was more quiet than usual, not even bothering to help the class quiet down from their chatter about who they would decide to do their hero study with for a week.
The day flew by fast with everyone getting back to the regular schedule after settling on what places they would go for their hero studies.
"Ten-Chan! Tenya!" Izuku called after Iida who was steadily walking ahead of them at a brisk pace. Silently, the blue-haired teen turned around to face his friends.
"Tenya, what's going on?" Shoto questioned, both of them watching Tenya's stiff expression.
At first, the teen reacted with a soft smile and tried to brush off their worries. But after looking at their worried faces, Tenya's expression fell. Tenya looked around them before gesturing for them to follow him. They all walked to a far corner of the UA campus where no other students were around.
"...Tensei admitted to me that he can't feel his legs," Tenya admitted quietly, clenching his first tightly.
Shoto breathed in deeply as Izuku gasped. "No..."
"He wants me to take on his name, his legacy," Iida continued. He bit down on his lip before saying. "But I can't live up to his name. Not yet. Not when he had so much more of his legacy to live out."
Izuku asked, "Then he would want you to continue with his name, right?"
"I can't," Tenya shook his head.
"Why?" Shoto stepped forward with Izuku.
"Because I want to avenge him," Tenya admitted quietly, the presence of his friends allowing him to answer honestly especially since they were away from any ears on the far side of campus. "And I can't ruin his legacy by using his name when I take matters into my own hands. I can't soil the legacy that he worked so hard to make."
"So we are planning a murder?" Izuku asked. Shoto shrugged at his words, looking back at Tenya for confirmation.
Tenya shook his head, "This is between me and Stain for what he did to my brother."
"Yeah, along with us. Tensei is our uncle from how much he spent time with us," Izuku answered. He knew that Tenya would be the one out of the group to try and be the peacemaker to the very end. He knew from endless nights of Tenya promising himself that he would try to dissuade them from murdering without considering other options first. And yet, here he was trying to take it all on by himself. "Plus, we've been over this before. Haven't we?"
Shoto nodded, "We have had this pretend conversation before. Many times in different scenarios."
"I can't let you——"
"Shhh," Izuku closed the distance between them, slightly slapping his hand over his friend's mouth. It would be better to go with a more emotional approach to help this situation along. "Ten-Chan. Tenya. All I need to know is if you are planning an attack on him. Then I can do a more in-depth plan of attack to help you out to take him down. I can get papa to cover for us. It's not a problem."
"What?" Shoto questioned, walking closer with a confused expression.
"What? You need to match my energy right now. If Tenya wants to be homicidal, we need to match the hostile tone," Izuku frowned.
"Oh, this is Plan C scenario. Sorry, I thought we were going directly to Plan E where we instantly denied anything," Shoto apologized. "If that is the case, then my family will have no problem with constructing alibis, especially since my mother doesn't go outside very often. She could just say I was spending time with her."
"And Tenya," Izuku turned back to Tenya after Shoto finished his explanation. His hand was still muffling any noise escaping from their mouth. "Do you think I was joking around when I said that I would kill for you, either of you? Are you doubting my loyalty right now?"
Tenya picked his hand off his face, "I'm not doubting anything. But this is more of a personal mission to avenge him with my own hands."
"What happens if something goes wrong?" Izuku insisted. "We made contingency plans for this. You know you would act the same if our family got hurt. Would you not?"
"I— Yes. I would," Tenya nodded slowly.
"Just like I know you two would hurt my father if he ever came after me and my family. We are here to help you just like you would undoubtedly help us."
"Please. If you want to do anything like this, just promise us that you will call on us for backup at least. At most, I can help set you up for a better route or a plan to fully take him down with only the minimum amount of maiming," Izuku responded, watching Tenya's expression relax even further from how it looked at the beginning. "Whatever you need, I will do it. That I can promise."
"Alright, I promise I won't make any risky decisions..." Tenya started to say despite the hesitancy at the beginning. He cracked a more genuine smile despite how small it was. "Without you two."
"Oh, right. Before I forget, I got you something," Shoto
"You what?" Tenya asked while Izuku turned his head in surprise.
"We already brought enough gifts for Tensei. But I saw this candy in the window and bought it because I felt like you would like it," Shoto explained, digging into the inner pocket of his school bag. He pulled out an ice-covered ball and slowly melted it inside his hand until the gold foil was exposed. "It's orange-flavored chocolates that are shaped like orange slices."
With that, Tenya finally let more of his tears slip down his fast as he slowly took the foil-wrapped candy. He unwrapped the ball of chocolate to find perfectly sliced chocolate wedges with orange sliced details.
The trio sat with him in the wet grass as Tenya ate from his sweet gift, gifting them each one to share.
"Papa!"
"I heard from the security cameras. If you need permission to act accordingly, I will give it to you when the time comes," Nedzu's voice echoed through his office as soon as the door was closed. "And whatever you do, act like ending it was the only option left."
Izuku's face softened before stretching into a knowing grin, "You always know just what to say."