Chapter 6: Time to Blow Stuff Up!
Katsuki didn't question the request his new homeroom teacher had sent to meet with him a few days before the school year started. He assumed the teacher must be meeting with everyone, maybe getting some preliminary facts about their quirks or something. This was UA, after all. They went the extra mile and churned out the greatest heroes.
It was still bittersweet walking up the front steps. He'd always planned to do this with his best friend beside him.
But. Well.
If his best friend couldn't do it, then Katsuki would just have to do it for both of them.
He squared his shoulders and stalked through the doors. The last two and a half years had been hell, but he used all his rage and grief to fuel his training. He'd earned the highest score in the practical exam, and he'd gotten in to the school of his dreams. He'd continue using it, because nothing would stop him from becoming a hero and finding the bastard responsible.
He shouldn't have let his mind wander over this all again as he approached the 1A classroom. It put him in a terrible mood, and he slammed the door open harder than he meant too. Izuku's ghost chided him, Way to make a first impression!
He'd never quite managed to get the nerd's voice out of his head.
The teacher sat at the desk, a grungy looking man Katsuki honestly thought was a lost homeless man at first. Another student stood next to the desk, looking startled at Katsuki's entrance.
Katsuki felt bad for interrupting the previous meeting for point two seconds. Then he recognized the student.
He might be blonde now, but two and a half years had done little else to change those curls or that baby face.
It felt like someone sucker punched him. He couldn't breathe. He wouldn't even blink, because if he took his eyes off this apparition for even a moment it would be gone.
"Kacchan!" Izuku beamed, striding towards him. Those green eyes were tearing up, like they always did, because Izuku's first reaction to almost anything was to cry about it.
He had to force his voice past his throat. "Izucchan?"
Solid arms wrapped around him. Soft curls tickled his nose. Katsuki's fingers twitched, aching to feel and prove that this was real. But if he touched him, and it wasn't real…
"I missed you so much!" Izuku said.
"You're alive?" he whispered. "I thought…"
"I know. I'm sorry. I'll explain everything, I promise."
Izuku was alive. He was here. He was here.
Katsuki crushed Izuku to his chest and sobbed into fluffy curls. He thought he'd never see Izuku again. He'd thought his best friend had been burned to death in a ditch somewhere, crying out for help that wouldn't come. He'd had nightmares of all the different ways Izuku must have suffered, Katsuki always a few steps too slow to save him.
None of it was true, because Izuku was here, in his arms, in one piece.
Once his mind latched on to that fact, the anger settled in. He shoved Izuku away to look at his face, but he didn't let go of his shoulders. "Where the hell have you been, you fucking Deku?"
Izuku rubbed his own eyes, still smiling. "It's a long story."
"I don't give a damn, tell me everything," Katsuki demanded.
So Izuku did. They sat in two of the desk chairs, and Izuku revealed what his father's business had really been and how he'd tried to stop it.
Katsuki had pieced together some of the beginning. About a month after Izuku was first declared missing, Hisashi Midoriya had been revealed as the criminal mastermind Dragon. Puzzle pieces fell into place then. Hisashi had dragged his son into his black market, and Izuku had obviously gotten caught up in something he shouldn't have. He'd tried to run, if the heartbreaking call to Auntie Inko was anything to go by, and it hadn't gone well.
Except, Izuku continued explaining, it had gone well. Really well. So well, he'd completely created another identity for himself as a vigilante until Eraserhead, their new homeroom teacher Mr. Aizawa, had found him.
Katsuki pressed his hands together in front of his face and focused hard on breathing. "You're telling me. That you spent two years as a goddamn vigilante?" Alley Cat had been too far away for news of him to really get to Katsuki, and he'd never cared enough to follow the vigilante.
Would he have realized it was really Izuku if he had?
"I swear I didn't mean to! It just happened. And I couldn't spend all my time looking for my father, I needed something to do."
Katsuki suppressed the explosions building in his palms. He couldn't believe he'd ever been worried about this nerd. "Why the fuck didn't you go to the police? Hell, you could have called me! I would have kept you safe!"
Izuku shook his head. "I couldn't drag you into it. And anything the police did would leave a trail."
Katsuki had to take a deep breath and look up at the ceiling. Izuku had been growing more stubborn and independent before he'd gone missing, ever since "I think my dad's a bad person," but Katsuki had never realized how bad it had gotten. "You are a fucking moron."
The teacher snorted from his desk, reminding both boys of his presence. Katsuki hadn't spared him a glance since he'd come in, too focused on his best friend back from the dead.
Aizawa had one arm on the desk holding his head up. "I was worried you'd share his…concerns about police."
"What, the thing where he hides whenever one shows up?" Katsuki asked. It had been hilarious when they were kids to watch innocent little Izuku dive for the first hiding spot he could find when police walked by, as if there was anything he of all people could be guilty of.
Joke was on Katsuki, he guessed, since Izuku had been up to his eyeballs in illegal activities for years.
"Kacchan," Izuku whined. "I'm getting over that!"
"You'd better. Heroes work with police. You can't run from them."
Izuku wrinkled his nose at that. "Yeah, that'd be weird."
"While we're on the subject of you two being heroes," Aizawa interjected. "You're going to be in the same class. We set up this meeting ahead of time so you wouldn't give away Izuku's identity when you saw him on the first day."
Katsuki nodded. That made sense. His reaction to seeing his best friend back from the dead wouldn't have been much different if there'd been a whole class there to judge him for bawling his eyes out. "What should I call you then?"
"Ryu Sasaki. We're telling people I'm Aizawa's nephew and he's letting me stay with him since my mom lives so far away."
And you know, speaking of mothers, Katsuki had a few questions. When he'd been officially accepted, his parents had had dozens of forms to fill out for the school, various non-disclosure agreements and waivers saying they wouldn't sue the school no matter what happened to Katsuki in training.
If Izuku was also attending UA, who had filled out his forms? It certainly hadn't been Auntie Inko, and Katsuki had a strong feeling they hadn't asked Hisashi.
He reaches out to kick Izuku's shin. "Oi, why doesn't Auntie know about any of this? Wouldn't she have had to agree to something?"
It was Aizawa who answered. "With his situation, he's also in a form of witness protection. I have temporary custody. Izuku himself asked for us not to reach out to her if we didn't have to."
Izuku shrank in on himself, refusing to meet Katsuki's stunned glance.
"Why?" His voice came out a little more strangled than he'd intended but it doesn't make sense to him. Auntie had been heartbroken for years, and Izuku had to know that. The two were cut from the same cloth, always so damn emotional.
"I can't drag her into this." Izuku wouldn't raise his eyes from the desk. "She's safe, wherever she is. If we suddenly reach out, my dad will probably notice, or Mom will demand to come see me, and he'll definitely notice that."
It was one thing for Izuku to feel that way when he was running around playing vigilante like a lunatic, but it was another for him to still be doing it when he had pro heroes helping him. He couldn't honestly believe that these people didn't have a way to get in contact with his mother without alerting his father.
Or was he so terrified of his father now he believed the man could do the impossible?
Also, "wherever she is." Did they not know?
"You know she's not in witness protection anymore, right?" Katsuki demanded.
By the shocked looks on both their faces, they clearly hadn't.
He tapped a foot impatiently. "After a couple months the cops claimed Hisashi wasn't even showing signs of looking for her, so they deemed it safe to let her go home again."
"What?" Izuku hissed. He gripped the edge of his desk until his knuckles were white. "Just because he hadn't yet doesn't mean he wouldn't!"
"I know that, dumbass. That's why my mom forced yours to come live with us. That and…" Katsuki glanced to the side, "there weren't as many memories of you in my house."
Izuku stilled, releasing his death grip on the desk. "Oh."
"If she's not in witness protection, it's probably safe to assume Hisashi definitely knows where she is," Aizawa said. "The fact he hasn't gone after her yet means she either isn't important to him, or she's very important and he's biding his time."
"He's waiting until he knows where I am, then he'll go after her to use against me. It was how he kept me quiet for so long as a kid."
Katsuki did not like that revelation. He'd already repainted his memories of Hisashi with the understanding that the man was a villain, but threatening his own wife to make his son cooperate? It made Katsuki's blood boil. The next time he saw that man, he'd blast him on sight.
He'd already been planning to, but now he had even less reservations about accidentally killing him.
He was starting to understand why Izuku had felt like he had to handle everything by himself. With Auntie being used against him and his weird police phobia, it was no wonder he'd done everything alone.
Izuku should have come to Katsuki, at least, and he couldn't describe the sick nausea in his stomach when he wondered why Izuku hadn't.
"The option is still open for you to reach out to her, kid," Aizawa offered.
Izuku shook his head. "No, if she's not even in witness protection like we thought, then it's even more dangerous to try."
"Hey, idiot, you've got me right here," Katsuki said. "You think I can't pass a message to someone in my own house?"
White-knuckling the desk again, he shook his head. "No, because she'll want to meet, and if he's watching her and she comes here, or if I go there, he'll be suspicious."
"She's one of my extra contacts, I'm sure we can figure out a way to get her here that won't be suspicious." It was like Izuku wanted to drag this out and suffer longer.
Oh.
Damn him, that was exactly what he was doing. He was doing this as some kind of weird punishment for something.
"I can't." Izuku's voice cracked, and tears slid down his face again. "I can't see her yet, I'm not…I'm not ready…"
Sighing, Katsuku pushed his chair closer to Izuku and put his arm around his shoulders again. "Alright, calm down, you big crybaby. We'll wait. But she's going to skin me alive when she realizes we've been in the same class."
Izuku laughed and wiped his face. "She'll be so busy crying over me you'll have time to run."
"Fuck you, I don't run from anything."
That made Izuku laugh harder, but that was better than crying, even if he didn't understand why. It seemed like more trouble not to tell her, and it wasn't fair to her.
It wasn't fair to him, either. He was going to have to go home and look Auntie Inko in the eye and not tell her where her son was.
"We appreciate your discretion," Aizawa said. "The bulk of his disguise lies in the idea that no one will be looking for him here, which is why we want to keep as much suspicion away as possible."
Izuku's 'disguise' consisted of dyed hair and a fake name, and Katsuki really didn't put much stock on that. His freckles and baby face would give him away in an instant if his picture slipped out somehow, and with a school as prolific as UA that was bound to happen sooner or later.
Katsuki would do everything in his power to keep that from happening. He'd failed to save Izuku once, but he had a second chance. He wasn't going to waste it. But the media were crafty bastards and if Izuku wanted to actually be a substantial hero, he couldn't hide his face forever.
"Just tell me you're going to catch his old man soon."
"We're doing everything we can," Aizawa churned out. It was a broken record, a useless platitude that meant nothing to Katsuki.
"He doesn't stay in one place for long anymore," Izuku explained, shooting Katsuki a smug grin. "I've been hacking into the dark web for the last two years and sending cops after him all the time."
Katsuki gave in to the urge to drag his hand over his face. "Of course you have. Doesn't he know it's you?"
"Yep! But some of his men like me and have been misdirecting him for me, and the rest of the time he's too busy running from the cops."
Seriously. All that time worrying about him. So many hours of his life he would never get back, and Deku had been out pulling this shit.
He doesn't know if Aizawa always looked this tired, or if it was a recent development after dealing with Izuku for a few months. Katsuki was starting the feel the same bone-deep exhaustion creep into his skin.
While he wrapped his head around what Izuku being alive meant, he realized he was grateful their teacher already knew everything. Watching Izuku was going to be a team effort, because everything he learned about how Izuku spent the last two and half years made him less inclined to believe that his childhood best friend had a single ounce of self-preservation skills.
He could feel the gray hairs start growing.
They traded a few more stories until Katsuki had to leave. He could only spend so long up at the school before his parents started wondering what was taking so long, and he wasn't thrilled about having to lie to them. He hated lying.
A fact Izuku remembered, and thus had an answer for him already. "You can tell your parents Aizawa asked to introduce you to another student ahead of time to be potential partners in class."
Not a word of that was a lie. They will absolutely be partners in class, but not necessarily for classwork.
It was one of those half-truths whose deception relies on omission, but since they've banned him from telling the actual truth, it will have to do.
He hugged Izuku one last time, threatened him to take care of himself, and then made his way back home. His steps were considerably lighter than when he'd gone in.
Despite everything that happened, he was going to UA with his best friend, like they'd always planned.
Xx
Izuku hated ties.
He stood in the bathroom, futilely slipping the flimsy thing through loop after loop, and never quite managing to get it right. How many times had his father tried to teach him?
He paused, finger caught in the knot he'd created, memories washing over him. His father's chuckle and little shake of the head. The dozen times they stood in front of the mirror together while his father walked him through it, only for Izuku to still make a mess of it.
Izuku tore the tie off and shoved it in his backpack. Aizawa questioned the missing item when they were in the car, but Izuku's flat "I'm not wearing it, and you can't make me," ended the discussion.
He split off from his guardians in the lobby. They went to the teacher's lounge while Izuku looked for classroom 1A.
It was still hard to believe. He'd actually made it to UA. He was going to be a hero.
He was the first one in the classroom, unsurprisingly since he'd come in with teachers. When others started arriving, he happily introduced himself and talked with them. Katsuki was among the early birds, visibly relaxing when they made eye contact and gluing himself to Izuku's side.
"Greetings," a tall boy with glasses said. He stood unnaturally straight, which Izuku put down to nerves about the first day. "I'm Tenya Iida."
"Ryu Sasaki, nice to meet you," Izuku said, shaking hands. "This is Katsuki Bakugou."
Katsuki grunted.
Iida glanced at him, but then his eyes were back on Izuku. "I've noticed you have a slight dress code violation. The uniform includes a tie, as you know, and no students are exempt from them."
Izuku froze, cheerful smile still in place. How the hell could he explain why he didn't want to wear it? He shot a quick look of panic to Katsuki.
Katsuki, thank god, got the memo. "Lay off, four eyes. If he doesn't want to wear it, he doesn't have to."
"On the contrary, the dress code clearly states-"
"Fuck the dress code." Katsuki pulled off his own tie, which hadn't been straight or neatly tied to begin with, and promptly blew it up in his hand. Scraps of fabric rained down on the ground.
The behavior sent Iida into quite the fit, going off about respecting the rules and the sanctity of UA.
Izuku sighed. "Kacchan, that was a little much."
"He's annoying."
"You didn't have to blow up your tie."
Katsuki shrugged, completely unrepentant.
"Dude, that was awesome!" A spiky redhead said. "You can make explosions?"
"You should not be using your quirk outside of approved practice!" Iida went on.
"Give it a rest, four eyes." Katsuki rolled his eyes.
"Sorry about him," Izuku offered. He didn't want to make enemies of his classmates on the first day. "He's always been like this."
"It's a deplorable attitude for a future hero," Iida said. "And now you're both in violation of the dress code."
"Mr. Aizawa already knows I'm not wearing the tie, he didn't care."
"You've met our homeroom teacher already?" Iida asked. Like a switch, Iida goes from reprimanding them to curiously interrogating Izuku about their teacher. "I know all the teachers are pro heroes, but I've never heard of him before."
"He's an underground hero," Izuku explained.
A girl with short brown hair walked in, eyes scanning the room, and she smiled when they land on Izuku before she rushed over. "Hey, we were in the exam together! You totally saved me at the end, but I never got a chance to thank you!"
"Oh, it wasn't a big deal, really, I'm glad you're alright! And you made it to UA, too!"
"Are you kidding, I was a goner until you pulled me out of the way! Your quirk is really cool!"
They would have gone on talking about quirks, but Aizawa decided to make his entrance by sliding through the door in his sleeping bag.
It was an interesting way to make a first impression, and Izuku had so many questions for him about it.
It wasn't as interesting as making them do a fitness test instead of attend orientation, but Izuku couldn't deny this was far more enjoyable than sitting through a stuffy ceremony.
Aizawa was short on patience and harsh with the class. Izuku hadn't known what to expect from him as a teacher, but overall he wasn't surprised to learn Aizawa was the scary "Don't interrupt me unless you want to die" kind. He'd always pushed Izuku during practice the last few months, never accepting anything but his absolute best. With a class full of students he barely knew, that attitude came across a lot colder.
It didn't stop Izuku from having the time of his life. Here were eighteen new quirks for him to watch and learn about all day. In spare moments between events, he couldn't stop himself from asking whichever classmate he was near about the different applications of their quirks.
As curious as he was about them, they were equally curious about him. Anytime he looked up after an event, someone quickly averted their gaze. He started taking solace beside Katsuki, not used to all the attention.
"Oi," Katsuki said. "Don't pay attention to these extras."
Some things never changed. 'Extras' was a step up from 'losers' or 'nerds,' at least. "They're our classmates, not extras."
"Sasaki, you're up," Aizawa called.
Izuku jolted. He wasn't used to the new name yet. Aizawa tossed him a ball and gestured roughly to the circle everyone had been using today.
Izuku turned the ball over in his hands as he approached, trying to figure out the best way to do this. He didn't have the braces Power Loader had made him, and he didn't even have a lighter in his pocket because of school rules. Because of that, he had yet to really use his quirk today. His scores on everything else had been okay, but if he didn't want to place last he needed to do something impressive.
But where was he going to get fire?
He glanced at his classmates and debated asking Katsuki for a little explosion, but those didn't generate a lot of fire, usually. His gaze drifted to a different classmate, with two tone hair and a scar over his eye.
Todoroki Shouto. Perfect.
He flashed Todoroki a grin, which made the boy narrow his eyes in confusion.
"Hey, Todoroki! Can you make a small fire for me?" Izuku asked.
Todoroki blinked. "What?"
"Just a little one," Izuku went on.
"Sure, I guess." He still seemed completely baffled, but he summoned a few flames in his hand.
"Thanks!" Izuku waved his hand, and the flames jumped to him in the circle.
He wrapped the flames around the ball and pitched with his all his might. When the ball started to descend, his used his quirk to keep it going. He'd never tested how far away he could be from his flames before, so he was interested in the result for his own curiosity, not just the sake of the test.
He reached four hundred meters before the flames sputtered out and the ball dropped. He'd been hoping for farther, and he frowned in disappointment.
"Not bad. Nice use of resources," Aizawa said, showing him the little device he used to measure distance.
Izuku nodded and joined his classmates again while Uraraka used her quirk to send the ball into low orbit.
"You have a fire quirk?" Todoroki asked, appearing so silently beside Izuku he jumped and almost punched him.
"Give me a heart attack, why don't you?" he muttered, placing a hand over his chest.
Todoroki did not look remorseful in the slightest. He waited for an answer.
"Yeah, my quirk is pyrokinesis. I can control fire, but I can't make it, which is why I asked you."
"I see." Todoroki shifted his gaze to the field where the balls were landing, lost in thought.
Izuku guessed the conversation was over, then.
When they had the final results at the end of the day, he'd scored lower than he'd expected, barely making it to the top ten. It wasn't his fault his quirk wasn't really useful for running faster or strengthening his grip.
He wasn't the only one in that position; plenty of his classmates had quirks that weren't really suited for these kinds of tests, and he'd scored better than all of them. But they all had impressive quirks, and it got him wondering about the merits of tests like this.
He asked Aizawa about it over dinner.
"I'm not only gathering imperial results with this test. I know it's not fair to the less flashy quirks. But for the kids who can't fight their way to the top with brute force, I need to know how they handle themselves and how good they are at problem solving."
"You're testing their character, too," Izuku realized.
Aizawa nodded. "Kids like you who need an outside source for their quirk; using Todoroki was good, but what would you have done if he wasn't there?"
There wasn't a lot Izuku could have done. He shrugged. "Without going to another classmate, I would have had to throw it normally."
"Why weren't you wearing your gloves from Power Loader?" Hizashi asked.
"I didn't think I was allowed to have them in normal class, so I didn't bring them today."
"Carry them with you at all times," Aizawa said. "Attacks don't happen on a schedule."
Izuku nodded. He had seen one of his classmates with a support belt, so he could have used his gloves today if he'd brought them. It probably wouldn't have changed his score much.
"Oh, and be prepared for tomorrow. All Might is teaching your class."
Izuku froze. All Might. Was doing what?
He'd known All Might was teaching at UA this year, but he'd never connected the dots that that meant he'd be teaching Izuku's classes. He was going to be in the same room as All Might. All Might was going to teach him how to be a hero.
Hizashi chuckled. "I think you broke him, Sho."
"Better he does it now than in class tomorrow."
Izuku continued to freak out for most of the night, and he was only marginally more composed in classes the next day.
Seeing everyone's hero costumes gave him a good distraction. Katsuki's outfit was as explosive and flashy as Izuku expected. He wasn't sure what look Todoroki was going for, but it was certainly interesting. Izuku theorized how the costumes helped with what he knew about everyone's quirks, not realizing he was muttering out loud until Katsuki told him to shut up.
His own costume had been difficult to come up with. He'd gotten used to the simple hoodie and jeans he'd used as Alley Cat, and now anything more than that felt excessive.
In the end, he hadn't strayed too far from his vigilante origins. He'd asked for a dark green sleeveless hoodie, because he had a tendency to let the flames too close to his sleeves and he'd burned holes in several that way, and he didn't want to get in the way of his gloves. The gloves were gray with orange flames spreading up from his hands, and bulky around his wrists and forearms where the fuel canisters were. One of the pouches on his belt carried extra fuel. The hood had a slotted metal visor attached to it that he could pull over his eyes, almost like a medieval knight. He'd stolen the idea from Aizawa's goggles; it freaked opponents out when they couldn't tell where you were looking.
His happiest improvement besides the gloves was the heavy duty boots. Kicking people in the face would be much less painful now, and he'd stop melting the bottoms of his sneakers when he stood on his fire.
"Oh, wow," Uraraka said when she saw him fully dressed. "You went really simple, huh? I wish mine was like yours, I don't think they really understood what I meant…" She looked down at her own costume in dismay.
"You look really good, though!" Izuku assured her.
She blushed, which made Izuku blush, and they awkwardly looked away from each other and chatted with the rest of the class.
Izuku barely paid attention to the explanation of their assignment, too busy fanboying over All Might.
He was only vaguely aware of what was happening when he found himself standing next to Uraraka on an empty street. "Wait, what do we have to do again?"
Uraraka sighed and explained it again. "We're up against Iida and Bakugou. Do you have any thoughts on strategy?"
He put a hand to his chin and thought. The goal wasn't necessarily to fight either of their opponents, it was to get around them and lay a hand on the fake weapon. "Bakugou is agile, he'll be hard to get around. And Iida's engine quirk makes him pretty mobile, too, so we can't underestimate him. What strategy will they use, that's important. Bakugou is straightforward, he'll probably come after us himself and leave Iida on defense."
His muttering continued until All Might gave the green light to start, and then Izuku charged into the building, Uraraka on his heels.
Like he'd predicted, Bakugou met them in the halls with an explosion. Izuku covered Uraraka, barely managing to avoid the worst of the blast.
"I can't say I haven't been looking forward to fighting you," Katsuki said, smirking.
Izuku matched his grin. "Same here. But I don't think we have the time to really do it justice." He lunged forward, ducking under Katsuki's right swing, he still starts with that right swing, and tackling Katsuki.
They hit the ground, and Katsuki flipped their positions before they even settled. Izuku got his legs under him and kicked Katsuki off him. While flying back Katsuki shot an explosion at Izuku. Izuku rolled to avoid it and pushed up to his feet.
Uraraka stood where they'd taken cover, glancing between the boys uncertainly.
Katsuki's focus was on Izuku. Now that he'd righted himself, he exploded forward again.
His explosions didn't make much fire, but Izuku could still steal what was there and lesson the force of his blasts. It brought Katsuki up shorter than he'd expected, and now Izuku had flames dancing over his palms.
Katsuki grinned, feral and wild. "Damn nerd."
Izuku only smirked in return. He sent his fire after Katsuki, dodging around the blasts that tried to block him, and cornered Katsuki against the wall. Using his bracers for more fire, Izuku created a flaming cage around him. "Sit tight, I'll be right back!"
He ran on ahead with Katsuki calling after him, "Oi, shitty nerd, get back here!"
Uraraka caught up to him. "That was amazing! I thought it would be a lot harder to take him down!"
"He's tough, but I've had a lot practice," Izuku said.
"Will your flames be enough to hold him?" Uraraka asked.
"Probably not for long," Izuku admitted. Katsuki was smart, he would figure out a way around the flames soon enough.
The building shook when they reached the fourth floor, and Izuku had a feeling Katsuki had figured it out.
His yelling preceded him, but the pair made it to the fifth floor where Iida waited in front of the weapon. Uraraka glanced back uncertainly.
"Focus on the mission," Izuku said. They just had to get past Iida, and then they won.
Iida was ready for them. He'd removed anything in the room Uraraka could have made weightless, and he kept running between them so she couldn't use her quirk on Izuku. Iida tried to grab Izuku and restrain him, but Izuku was just fast enough to stay out of his way. Fire danced behind him. Every time he tried to make a cage with it, Iida slashed through the flames with powerful kicks. His armor was strong enough to keep him from getting burned, but it made Izuku's life harder trying to get around him.
"The hero team wins!" All Might's voice boomed over the speakers.
"Huh?" Izuku asked, both him and Iida stopping mid-fight in surprise.
Uraraka beamed next to the weapon, palm lying flat against it.
That worked too, Izuku supposed.
Katsuki's angry explosions made the building shake again. He'd almost caught up to them.
Izuku kept several feet between them as all four walked back out and joined the class.
All Might gave them a thumb's up. "Excellent performance out there, all of you! Uraraka, nice job getting to that weapon! Sasaki, wonderful take down of young Bakugou! But don't forget you can rely on your teammates."
Izuku winced. He had forgotten he could rely on Uraraka. He'd been acting like he was the only one who could do anything, and that wasn't fair to his partner. If she hadn't seized the opportunity he'd accidently created by distracting Iida, they would have lost.
All Might gave a few critiques to Iida and Katsuki, and then the next team was up.
Katsuki slipped behind Izuku and slapped the back of his head.
"Ow, Kacchan, what was that for?" Izuku demanded.
Katsuki glared. "We're having a real spar after class, got it, nerd?"
Izuku rubbed the back of his head. "Are you calling me nerd all the time because you can't remember my name?"
Some of their nearby classmates didn't manage to stifle their giggles in time. Katsuki growled at them and jammed a finger in Izuku's chest. "Just meet me after class, dumbass."
"Yeah, sure."
Katsuki glowered and stalked off to the other side of the room.
"If I hadn't just seen you take him down, I'd be seriously worried he was about to beat you up," Uraraka said.
"He's just mad I didn't put up a real fight," Izuku said. "But I told him we didn't have time for that there." If it was just a matter of fighting, Izuku would have stayed and actually fought. But he and Uraraka had had another objective, and they needed time for that.
"You sound like you're actually looking forward to sparring with him," Tokoyami said.
In truth, Izuku was. It had been years since they last sparred, and he was eager to show Katsuki everything he'd learned. He wanted to see how Katsuki had improved, too.
(They fought for half an hour after school, only stopping because Aizawa had had enough. Izuku and Katsuki shared a look, reluctantly called it a draw, and silently acknowledged how much better the other had gotten.)
The rest of the school week wasn't nearly as exciting. Classmates sought him out during lunch and between classes, and he had a moment of nostalgia remembering that this was what friendship was like. He didn't even know how he'd survived two years without any real friends. When he looked back on that time, all he thought was that he'd been so lonely, and he never wanted to be like that again.
The second week of school, they had a field trip to the USJ.