Chapter 32: Incoming Exam, Suspicious Bird, Late Visit

The week ended on a high note even though most of it was spent in the hospital to recuperate from the injuries. Manual told both Iida and Izuku that if they wanted to return without any plans of murder, he would be happy to teach them more.

And Dabi didn't need to push on Shoto since the entire family had done enough by burying him in worry and smothering. Dabi already promised to catch him up on new moves when he had enough time.

Either way, school came quicker than they all thought as they passed through the gate together after spending most of their internship recovering.

"I wonder how much our class learned from the time away," Iida said.

Shoto hummed in response with a shrug. "I'm sure they learned more than we did. But that's a given."

"I think Uraraka learned the most since she got lessons on physical fighting. So her fighting style I think has changed the most," Izuku recounted from the messages of the group chat he skimmed through the night before. A lot of their classmates got experiences in even the smallest ways in each of their internships. "Tsuyu had a very intense mission compared to other smaller missions. Ooh, Momo also had some lessons from Auntie Midnight."

And if his explanation wasn't enough, the sight of walking into a classroom with Sero and Kaminari laughing at Bakugo's gelled back hairstyle while Uraraka displayed a fighting move against Ojiro had to be.

Shinso was in the back of the classroom talking with Tokoyami with a scarf similar to Aizawa's around his neck. Jiro was casually chatting with Momo who had her hair down.

The three friends didn't have enough time to chat before Eraserhead walked into the room, making everyone settle down in their seats. He cleared his throat. "After classes today, you should all keep in mind that since the sports festival is over, the next thing on our agenda is the exams. Both written and physical portions."

Eraserhead paused as he took in the shocked and worried expressions across some faces. "You will need to start preparing now because these tests will not be easy. So be logical and schedule your time accordingly."

With that, Eraserhead left the class to talk as he kept himself occupied at his desk before classes officially started.

"Ah man. I completely forgot about it," Kaminari groaned. "I think I'm in the really low ranks. Since I'm not really good at literature stuff."

"Same here," Sero wearily added. "English is kicking my butt right now worse than Ojiro did in quirkless training with Mr. Yagi."

Sato pouted as he contemplated his own ranking in class. "When I get stressed from homework, I just start baking. Which makes me start baking so much I forget about studying. Then I get stressed about not studying which makes me start the cycle over again."

"I would be more than happy to help," Momo commented, her dark eyes sparkling with determination, "Anyone who needs help with tutoring can come to my house. And we can have tea while we study for our written exams!"

Kirishima jumped at his chance to head over to Bakugo who was staring at him like he was daring him to try and ask. And despite the menacing aura radiating off of him, Kirishima slid an arm over his shoulder to cheerfully ask him to become his tutor.

There was a pause before all three friends looked at each other from their seats.

Even when Shoto and Tenya had tests to study for at their own school, Izuku would host study sessions at his own home for all three friends to study together. Izuku would study from his father's appointed studies and homework while his friends would look over their notes from their academy.

Izuku scooted closer to them, getting out of his seat to get in the middle.

"My house?"

"Like always," Shoto nodded exaggeratedly like Izuku didn't even need to ask to confirm the fact. "Snacks?"

Iida pushed up his glasses, making them shine from the lights above them. "I can get some variety that will provide the perfect combination of sweet, savory, salty and healthy for us to enjoy,"

"Hmm. I could get some drinks for us. And maybe bring some of Fuyumi's shortbread cookies," Shoto responded. He brushed a piece of hair out of his face as he said, "She made a huge batch recently for her class to celebrate their good behavior."

"Sounds perfect," Izuku smiled, rushing back to his seat when Aizawa looked up. He flashed a guilty look his way, making his uncle roll his eyes at him before the bell rang.

The crunchy fried chicken skin taste was still lingering on his tongue with his hand cramped up from signing autographs. Yet here he was again after an uneventful visit last time.

UA still stood as strong as Hawks last saw it before the Sports Festival. And now he was there again because the hacker attacked the Commission again. And they still weren't fast enough to stop it before the hacker got into his own program's folder. They weren't there long before they left the server again, but it was enough to have everyone on edge.

The head of the commission was already talking about moving everything off the old server and just making a whole new system that could be locked down from any outside source.

Yet ever since he learned that, his feathers have been on edge. Someone out there knew what he was and who he used to be.

And he couldn't live with that.

He marched through the halls when he knew the rest of the students were having lunch. At least he thought all of the student body would be at lunch. The one outlier to his original thought was currently walking down the hall with several places in his whirr shirt torn with a few burnt edges.

The familiar freckled face glanced up at him then waved at him.

"What are you doing out here? Shouldn't all the UA students be at lunch?" Hawks asked.

"I help my friend in support class during lunch sometimes. I think you met her before the last time?" The green-haired kid answered. What was his name again? Midoriya? "I get her snacks when she forgets to eat and she lets me use her prototypes that don't explode. So I feel like it's a pretty fair deal."

The kid leaned forward with a smile, "What are you doing here? I thought you would be on patrol already, Chicken Wing."

Hawks barked out a laugh. "You got that from the DJ Mouse show yesterday night, huh?"

"Yeah. I think it's pretty fitting," The kid replied.

"Well, I'm on a secret hero business that I don't need any students poking their head into." Hawks lowered his voice as he walked with the kid following after him. "Some missions I'm part of are too dangerous for the untrained eye."

Midoriya looked down the hallway and back to him. "Did you need help getting to the principal's office again?" His tone dropped lower yet still held a more humorous tone. "For this super secret important hero business?"

"I'm sure I have the route by now." Hawks hummed as he walked with Midoriya trailing behind him. "Hey, the work studies happened last week. Were you part of one?"

"Yeah I was," the green-haired kid shrugged. "I was with Manual in Hosu with one of my friends. It could have been a bit better if I wasn't in the hospital for most of it."

"Ooh," Hawks said with a wince. The Hosu attack was bad with nomus all over the place and Stain somewhere in the middle of it all. The casualty rate was relatively low compared to the amount of property damage in that area. "That attack was pretty bad since it really came out of nowhere. Are you feeling better?"

"Oh yeah. I'm all healed from that. I got a little too close to the action when I shouldn't have," Midoriya turned his gaze away from him and to the floor. "But I had to help out my friend, so he wouldn't get hurt."

"I get that," Hawks nodded. He could appreciate a hero student who looked out for others. "You were looking out for your partner in the field which is a good trait to have. No one wants someone who would abandon them in the fight."

"Now I should get to my meeting with Nedzu. You should head on back to lunch and hang out with your friends," Hawks grinned, placing his hands behind his neck. "Do whatever youngsters your age do."

Midoriya snorted, "You're barely older than me."

"Yes. And I am wiser because of it." Hawks smiled and waved the kid towards where he thought the cafeteria should be. He only got the kid laughing at him as an answer. "Now shoo."

"Alright," Midoriya shrugged with a smile. "Have a good day, Chicken Wing Hawks."

"Right back at you, freckles," Hawks added as the student jogged back in what he assumed to be the direction of the cafeteria. Or maybe they were heading back to that support girl.

Either way, he navigated his way back to the principal's office where Nedzu was waiting with a steaming cup of tea on his office desk.

"Hey, Nedzu. How's it hanging?" Hawks greeted casually as he walked up to the seat across from Nedzu's desk.

"About as well as it could be since the last time we met," Nedzu responded with his signature smile. "I'm sure you're here again because of your ongoing investigation into the stranger in the Commission's servers?"

"Yep," Hawks replied in English, popping the 'p'. "Have you collected any information on your end? Or do you have any clue as to who they may be?"

"The person you are trying to track covers their tracks very well. I'm sure I could catch them if I wrestled the hacker into a game of online chess," Nedzu replied with an easy tone like the threat of a hacker didn't faze him.

Hawks glanced behind Nedzu's chair to see a sculpture he didn't see before the last time he visited. The sloppy painting job of the clay was unmistakably done by a child.

"Hey, what's that behind you?" Hawks saw Nedzu's paw ticking upward just a bit. "You got a little fan?"

"Yes. It seems like I do. The gift gesture was thoughtful," Nedzu turned his chair to allow Hawks to see more of the small sculpture on the bookshelf behind him. It looked like a long mouse with a crown on their head.

"So what did you need from me on this lovely visit?" Nedzu continued on without pausing, sipping at his tea. "Next time, you should give me more time to prepare. I could have set up some snacks."

After an inconclusive questioning, Hawks said goodbye with a smile towards Nedzu and kept the grin until he walked through the gates. That's when he finally let his expression drop as he took off into the sky.

The words from a conversation he overheard two weeks ago rang through his head.

'I heard Rock Lock got a basket from Nedzu for his kid.'

'That's... nice of him.'

'Yeah I'm pretty sure it's because he has a bit of experience with that.'

'Nedzu has a kid?'

'That's the age-old rumor. But I think it's more of a personal student thing. It's like how you call your interns' your kids sometimes.'

With Nedzu being as smart as he is, he is not the type to slip up. He still remembers how the principal was caught off guard only for that half second before recovering seamlessly. Anybody who wasn't trained on those minuscule expressions wouldn't have seen his hesitance.

Maybe he needs to visit a bit more because reporting back to the Hero Commission on his findings.

That way he can actually figure out if Nedzu has a personal student or an actual kid he has been keeping a secret from the Hero Commission. And where they are hiding.

And if Nedzu was as smart as he is, he would hide him right in plain sight where no one would suspect it. All Hawks had to do was find him.

The grass was greener than any other park he had been to before. Bouquets of flowers, fresh and dead, lay at the feet of the stones carved with names and memories. The smell of burnt incense still lingered in the air with one of two people kneeled down in other areas.

"I'll be in the car for a few minutes to give you some time alone," Nedzu said in a softer tone which made it sound more like a whisper. Izuku nodded at him and gently shut the car door behind him.

The teen turned back to the cemetery with a determined expression. The grass crunched under his feet as he walked the exact path that Aunt Mitsuki had listed down on paper in the album he received.

It wasn't like until he found the familiar name etched into stone he was looking for.

'Midoriya Inko

A loving wife, mother, and friend. A gentle life gone too soon.'

Izuku breathed in as he kneeled down to his mother's grave. In silence, he lit a stick of incense and breathed in the vapor from the smoke rising into the air.

With a deep, steady breath, he said, "Hi mom."

The voices of other visitors at the cemetery were muffled as he focused on the site in front of him with the stone looking more pristine than the darker grey stones around him.

"I'm sorry for not showing up for fifteen years, but in my defense, I didn't know much about you. And I've never been to a cemetery before so there are two firsts for me happening today," Izuku tried to smile to brighten the mood only to let it slowly drop back into a calm line. "I'm not sure what to talk to you about. Should I tell you about my day? Or my life? Where do I even start?"

Izuku's words were rushed as he tried to come up with anything to say to the grave in front of him. He came prepared for this day, he planned out the entire event. His father would drive him to the site, he would pay his respects and talk to her for a bit before going to dinner at one of the places his Auntie told him about. A place that his mother used to love.

God, what could he tell her...? 'I'm a DJ.' 'I'm a hero in training.' 'I have a family filled with heroes.' 'I started to watch your favorite movies that Auntie told me about in the album.' 'I'm pouring through this album to see what we would have in common.' 'I'm trying to find out if you would even like the person I turned into' 'I'm trying to see if we are so alike as Auntie thinks we are since why would I be compared so much to you if that wasn't true?' This is so hard. Why is it so hard?

"This is so weird." Izuku admitted out loud as warmth spread over his cheek, dripping off his chin into the grass below his hands. "I never have met you before this but I'm crying. Why am I crying so much?"

The stone didn't reply.

He sniffled, "I heard from Auntie that it was titled the Midoriya tears. Did you cry as much as I do? Even when everything is going fine, did you still cry? Because I do."

"You know, I have been hesitant to use Midoriya as part of my name. I thought it belonged to the one who abandoned me. It wasn't until Auntie told me more about you that I found out that it belongs to you," Izuku smiled at the stone, brushing his hands over the carved name. He traced the kanji of Midoriya and said, "Maybe now I can use it with more confidence."

He took a long moment to recompose himself in front of the stone. The time passed slowly until the incense stick was close to burning out. Izuku waited until his tear stopped for him to start talking again. "God, I want to tell you everything. I was raised by my dad who didn't hesitate to take me in and raise me with all kinds of love and support. I have two best friends that mean the world to me. I have a big family of heroes that were around me growing up.

"I'm training to be a great hero that others can count on and my family can be proud of," Izuku grinned as the last of the incense stopped smoking. "I hope you would be proud of who I am becoming if you were here."

With that, Izuku bowed low to the grave stone in front of him and whispered his promise to return into the earth. He walked back to the car where his father was patiently waiting for him.

He stifled a laugh at his father's disguise. It was normal when his father was outside to put something around his head to stop anyone from recognizing his familiar face. But the floppy black beach hat was a bit too funny to not stifle a laugh at.

Izuku climbed inside the passenger seat as his father looked up from the thriller novel he was reading. He hummed as his father placed his bookmark between the pages. "Is this one any better than the last?"

"Worse. I can tell the sister has been setting it up from her introduction," Nedzu slid the small novel into the middle console. "Authors nowadays put no real effort into making a plot twist worth my time."

Izuku gazed at the cemetery as his father started the engine again and rolled up his window. He looked up at the security cameras set up on top of poles and felt himself lean back away from the window. "Hey dad."

"Hmm?"

Izuku rubbed his hands over his mouth, making his words muffled through his hands yet covered his lips as he said, "When Hawks saw it, you hesitated, right?"

"Just enough," Nedzu confirmed as he pulled away from his parking spot. His mother's grave waved goodbye to him from the rear view mirror as his father asked, "Shall we have some fried chicken for dinner?"

Notes:

Next chapter should be the exams. All of the exams will be taking place at the same time so from Izuku's Pov he would just hear people winning or losing while trying to deal with his own teammate.

Unseen Scene from the Rescue Retake from the OVA*

(I deleted the scene since I forgot to write the rest of the chapter... Because I scrapped the OVA chapter. But have this small scene of the teachers berating All Might for his plan. To anyone who doesn't know the context, in an OVA All Might thought it was a good idea to dress like a villain and scare all of them into thinking another villain attack happened during a regular hero exercise)

"Just bring it up to Izuku not as a student, but as your help. Nedzu and all of us have taught him many things. Hound Dog taught him about certain things that he may encounter as a hero like trauma," Midnight answered. "So either go straight to Hound Dog or have Izuku or Nedzu of all people give some advice on how to handle the situation in the correct way."

"I will give my own advice here," Thirteen remarked. "If you want to stick with your villain plan, you must be upfront with the students about you taking on the role of the villain in the exercise. Don't let them believe that an actual villain broke in again."

"Thirteen's right."

They turned to see Hound Dog marching straight towards the coffee machine with his spotted mug. He growled, "You don't want kids to experience something like that especially so quickly after an event like that happened."

Toshinori nodded to himself, "I admit it made more sense in my head. But the way you all broke the plan down, I can see that it would probably cause more harm than good."

"I have no doubt that the teens will try and fight you afterwards if you try to pull that on them," Thirteen joked. "Izuku wouldn't even participate but he will give you the most disappointed look that makes you wish he would fight you instead."

"Don't remind me of his disappointed look. It's even worse than Nighteye's."

Toshinori coughed, gulping down the water in his large mug.