*Beep**Beep**Beep**Beep*Be-*
Izuku quickly reached a hand out and turned off his alarm as he looked out at the rest of his teammates. Nora shifted a bit and there was a slight whine from Weiss but no one seemed to wake up. Izuku smiled a bit sleepily as he looked back over at his alarm.
'Six O'Clock in the morning... time to get up.'
Izuku yawned to himself as he sat up out of bed, stretching his body and popping a few joints as he did so. His first class wasn't until Nine O'Clock, Grimm Studies 101 with Professor Peter Port. He brushed the sleep out of his eyes as he quickly kicked the covers off his bed. Thinking of a quick morning routine for after he brushed his teeth and slapped some water on his face.
He yawned to himself as he got up and got into the bathroom. There would be no point in taking a shower now, after all he'd just end up getting sweaty and need to take one later this morning, but getting the other essentials out of the way would be a good way of waking up. He took his workout clothes into the bathroom with him, just in case the sound of him changing would wake up anyone else... rather not have a repeat of last evening, thank you Nora. As he did his business and got changed he walked out and gave himself a quick stretch, looking out at the other three... it is a bit early and they are sleeping but... well, there was no harm in asking right? Now, how to go about this...
He was very cautious about it. A few shaken shoulders to try to rouse them just enough to ask his question but not enough to knock them out of sleep entirely. If he 'couldn't' wake them up at all then that was probably as good a sign as he was going to get that they weren't coming with him this morning. His attempts didn't go as horribly as he might have feared but they were largely unsuccessful. Starting with Weiss, the Heiress blearily glared at him halfheartedly before turning over in her bed and tucking herself back in, murmuring something about how it was way too early to get started today. Nora was even worse; he counted that as the first time he would nearly lose his hand when, upon trying to lightly rouse her from her sleep and ask her to go running, the girl seemingly reflexively tried to bite his hand, murmuring something in her sleep about a pancake breakfast.
Just as he thought he was about to strike out entirely, he found that his efforts were not completely in vain, as he had gotten Pyrrha to raise her head off her pillow and to blearily look over at him.
"Um, I don't mean to bother you," he waved his hands in panic, seeing how her eyes were a dull void, and that she was seemingly smacking her tongue on the roof of her mouth, "But, well I'm about to go for a ru-"
"Gimmeaminutetagetready..." The drowsy, almost drunken tone of her sleep confirmed to him that she was probably not all the way awake yet herself. He nodded, deciding to give her a couple minutes.
'She's probably going to go back to sleep,' he thought, pensively standing outside the door, 'Not that I can blame her. I'll give her a couple more minutes, and when she doesn't come out I'l-'
The door creaked open, and out walked Pyrrha, yawning while wearing a different t-shirt and a larger pair of shorts, but that wasn't what confused him. No...
It's that she was wearing her normal shoes that slightly threw him. Sure, so was he, but his normal shoes were just pretty standard hunter fair, red shoes that were pretty much thick as boots. Hers had heels...
Then again, she had run around the Emerald Forest in those heels all day yesterday and even performed those jumps with them so maybe he was overthinking this a bit.
"So, how are we going to do this?" He was shaken from his thoughts as he looked over at her, shrugging a bit as he stretched while they both walked down the hall to the exit of the dorm.
"Well, before when I didn't have my Aura unlocked, I'd just run at kind of a normal pace. It'd usually get exhausted at the end of an hour or so and that'd be my allotted time. Now that I'm working with Aura though... I just don't get tired from running like that, even if it's over an hour. So I figured I'd just sprint this morning and see if I worked up a good sweat that way." Pyrrha nodded slowly at Izuku's thinking, stretching herself out as well.
"Then I'll go ahead and do the same. See how it turns out." Izuku imagined she was going to beat the pants off of him, having even more of an Aura than he did and the strength, speed and durability that comes with it, but this wasn't about Pyrrha so much... well it was because she was trying to get a good run in too, but he had to think about getting himself a good work out. So he nodded and eventually they both reached the outside. They agreed to just do laps around Beacon itself for an hour, sprinting as hard as they can for as long as they could, and just jogging the rest of the way if they get tired. From there it's off to the races... well, as much of a race as Izuku could have with someone who has awakened their Aura.
He didn't know how it happened. He didn't even think that he could repeat this result if he ever tried again in his life. When he bent down and got into a stance, ready to sprint for as long as he could for an hour, he wasn't even thinking about how he'd do versus Pyrrha. He wasn't even imagining that he was going to outrun someone who'd had an Aura way longer than he did. Even now as he would try to push his Aura to the very limit, to get as much out of it as he could, he didn't think he'd have what it took. He didn't think he'd be able to outrun someone who had their gifts for longer than he had. He didn't think that his current level of hard work would be enough...
Pyrrha was not sure what to think of Izuku, her new partner and team leader. He was so quiet, and had a stammer besides, that it was a surprise whenever he talked about emulating his hero, Toshinori: his head lifted up, he met people's eyes, his shoulders straightened up from their habitual cringe and the words flowed. It was exactly like a cloud being blown away from the sun. When he got onto Huntsman business, though, they kept flowing, sometimes devolving into a stream of muttering that was one part intimidating and three parts creepy; she'd went on some messageboards devoted to the Mistral Tournament, hoping to connect with some fans - once. Seeing that some fan had mocked-up an entire line of Pyrrha-branded products to 'honour' her was... awkward, and at first she did not quite believe that Izuku wasn't the same.
Yet even through the nerdery, there was an inner honesty that shined out, enough that he could calmly make up a team without him in it because he didn't see himself as that good. (At the time she was impressed by his humility. After the forest, though, she's got a good idea who demolished his sense of worth & self-esteem. If she ever got her hands on Bakugou...) Or make stammered, clunky statements seem real.
'I mean, what kind of boy actually walks up to a girl in her pyjamas and introduces themselves with no other ulterior motive than to make friends? And means it?'
'Apparently Izuku.'
The same person who hung up Toshinori posters... took on three Beowolves and, oh yes, also defeated a giant Nevermore with one punch, then apologised for his performance before she could because his plan put her in danger. The fact that he'd broken his arm in the process had been unimportant to him.
The boy who made that plan with nothing but a quick description of Blake and Tenya's abilities... still called his bully "Kacchan" and considered him a sort-of friend. Admired him, even.
The teenager who had trouble speaking to people, didn't have a gram of guile and fought off tears when happy or sad... came running when anyone was in trouble. She was half sure that he'd do this for anyone or anything - stray cats might not be out of the question.
Her partner for the next four years, who underestimated himself at every turn, and had only just awakened his Aura had just left her in his dust; not because he wanted to beat the Invincible Girl but because he was pushing his limits. Because he wanted to be a hero.
Pyrrha loved fighting. Matching wits with an opponent, reading them, playing off their idiosyncrasies, feeding them fake openings, looking for her own... while she could do without the fame, it was a part of her. She loved the quiet burst of satisfaction when she got a perfect hit in. But going to Beacon was only partially about escaping the fame; becoming a Huntsman was secondary or even tertiary to finding new opponents.
Seeing Izuku, though, was reawakening thoughts she once had of being a figure like Toshinori. She'd run around in the playground when she was little, pretending to be him and slaying mud-Grimm to save the bottle village - who hadn't? - but perhaps... it would be a far greater challenge to be as much of a hero as Izuku wants to be.
She picked up the pace and tried to catch up.
He didn't know until after it was all said and done. He didn't know because of what he was doing. As he pumped his Aura through his body, relieving tired muscles and pushing them on, just doing his best to sprint the whole damn way through this hour, he didn't notice it. His eyes were always ahead, always watching the stretch of campus in front of him, making sure he didn't trip or fall or run into anyone. Perhaps, somewhat distantly, he may have noticed that Pyrrha didn't pull ahead of him. Maybe, distantly, he noticed that Pyrrha didn't lap him. At the time, he was just too focused on himself. On running as hard and as fast as he could to try to get to where he needed to be. Running harder and harder, pulling more of himself into this, as he tried to better himself. He couldn't just run normally anymore, not with Aura... he had to keep pushing himself. He had to work three times harder to make progress, to deserve to be there. He'd do it in all things. Even something as simple as his morning run.
It wasn't until the hour was up. It wasn't until the alarm knocked him out of his trance and found his lungs gasping for breath, trying as hard as they could to pull air into them, that he finally stopped and looked around. It was while he felt his muscles burning in his arms and legs, despite his Aura. It was only then that he noticed that... Pyrrha was nowhere in sight. At first he just assumed that sometime during the run she had pulled ahead of him and just blitzed by, that she was halfway around campus ahead of him and just running to eventually get back to their starting point.
And then she finished her run, and landed right beside him.
She wasn't nearly as winded as Izuku. Even running as fast as she could for an hour straight, he could tell she had a lot more gas left in the tank than him. Sure, a fine layer of sweat covered her brow, but her breathing wasn't nearly as heavy or as labored. He noticed a wide, pretty impressed smile on her face as she looked him over.
When she told him that, from the first moment of their run, he had pulled out ahead of her and just kept on going and she hadn't even seen him for most of the hour, he thought she was kidding at first. Then there was that genuine smile and he couldn't help but laugh himself.
That...
He didn't even know what to think of it, so he just laughed some more.
As they both took a lap to just regain their breath and recover, Izuku started going over the rest of his plans for the morning. He realized that, right around now, his mom was probably getting ready for work. He wouldn't have much time to call her during most of the day today, as she would either be working or he would be in class, so he figured that now would be a good time to get that call in.
"Hey Pyrrha." He finally spoke up, Pyrrha looking down toward him as he reach into his pocket and pulled out his Scroll. "I'm... going to make a call home. Tell my mom about how I passed Initiation. How about you and the others go ahead and use the bathroom while I'm out here. That way you all can get dressed and stuff before I come back and then, after I'm done, we can get breakfast before class."
"Sounds like a plan to me." Pyrrha said with a slight chuckle and a nod as she walked off. "Have fun!"
"I will!" He shouted back, smiling to himself before he looked down at his Scroll. A deep breath and some button pushes later and he found that the phone was ringing. He swallowed a bit of a lump in his throat as he realized he had so much to tell his mom and, before he could think too much of it, he heard her pick up on the other end.
"Hello? This is the Midoriya residence. I'm afraid you've caught me as I'm heading out and-"
"Oh, sorry mom, I didn't realize it was that late. I can call back later tonight if-"
"IZUKU MY BABY! No honey, stay on the line, I have some time!" He winced a bit as his mother shouted for him to stay on but he smiled. It seemed like his mom was really looking forward to this call. She must've been worried, so he was glad he got the chance to actually talk to her before it got too far along. "Izuku, it's so good to hear from you! I was worried when I didn't get a call last night, I thought maybe something happened! Are you okay? Are you hurt? Do you need me to come over to pick you up? Do-"
"No, no, mom! Everything's alright. I'm okay. I didn't get hurt... too much and I'm alright. I don't need you to pick me up either..." Izuku scratched the back of his head a bit as he smiled, speaking into the device. "Mom... I passed Initiation. I've been accepted into Beacon Academy!"
"... W-What?" For a moment, he was really worried. His mom just went quiet for a moment and then, at the end there... Oh Gods, it sounds like she's about to start crying. Before he could move to assuage her though, he heard the crying. He almost thought he'd done something wrong but then he heard it. "MY BABY DID IT! OH MY GOD, YOU'RE GROWING UP TOO FAST! YOU'VE GOTTEN INTO THE SCHOOL OF YOUR DREAMS AND YOU'RE GOING TO BE A HUNTSMAN! IZUKU, I'M SO PROUD~!" It was a weird thing. His mom sounded like she's simultaneously the proudest she had ever been of him and devastated at the same time. So incredibly happy that he was achieving he dreams but also so amazingly and sad that that meant he was, in her words, growing up too fast. She sounded ridiculously happy and ridiculously sad at the same time...
Whenever people asked about Izuku's own mood swings and how he could be so teary but so happy at the same time, he usually told them that he got it from his mom.
"OOOH! You have to tell me about how it's going Izuku! Was the Initiation scary? Did they make my baby fight those horrible monsters, have you gotten a team yet, are they nice?" His mom bombarded him with questions and he struggled a bit under the weight of them all. The last one in particular made him a bit nervous... it was not so much about his team itself, they are very nice even if Weiss was acting a bit odd...
He didn't know how exactly to tell his mom about the fact that he was on a team with three girls.
'Okay, okay. So... mom is going to learn about my team one way or the other eventually,' he thought, 'I can't just keep it from her that I'm on a team with three girls forever, that's just impractical. It'd have to come up eventually or she'd find out sooner or later. There's no way that I'd be able to keep that kind of detail in the dark forever... or can I?'
'...'
'Nah, probably not.'
So he scratched the back of his head as a bit of red tinged his cheeks, trying to think of the best way he could break the news to her. He was not entirely sure 'how' she was going to react but... well, there was only one way to find out.
"It's going pretty well mom! I actually think I'll like it here a lot. Yeah Initiation was a little bit scary but I ended up getting a good partner to get through it with... it made the Grimm a bit easier to deal with but still, they were pretty threatening." He heard a slight gasp on the other end of the line and the sound of his mother getting a bit weepy. "But hey, you know, I passed and I got through it so it's okay! Like I said, I got a pretty great partner during it and yeah, I even have a team now... heck, I'm the leader of it."
"MY BABY'S THE LEADER OF A TEAM OF HUNTERS?! OH MY GOODNESS IZUKU I'M SO PROUD OF YOU!" He had to back away from the phone for a moment as his mother simultaneously shouted for joy and wailed with tears into the line, but he smiled as he brought his ear back to it. "Oh you have to tell me all about them Izuku, I hope they're nice people."
"Oh yeah mom, they're great. They're all really nice and really cool. Like there's my partner, Pyrrha Nikos. She's probably the strongest person in our class right now mom. Like, seriously, she's a really strong fighter and her semblance is super cool. We just got done jogging for an hour and that was pretty fun."
He heard a slight hum of acknowledgement from the other end of the line and he could practically imagine his mother listening with rapt attention as she smiled.
"Then there's Nora Valkyrie, another teammate of mine, she's really friendly too but also... like, really energetic. We're pretty much opposites in a way; as much as I spend time not talking she probably spends time talking. But she's really nice and actually pretty easy to listen to... and she wields this giant hammer of all things! Like it's not even a thing to her!"
He heard another 'hmmm' but this one seemed slightly more... concerned? He thought? It was hard to place it and he didn't want to stop to ask, lest he end up stumbling into something, so he kept on going.
"Then there's Weiss Schnee and yeah, that Schnee. I... I think she's still getting used to the idea of me being the team's leader, but we're going to be talking about team training and tactics today so I hope it'll go well. Plus she was pretty nice and polite before the teams got set up so I'm sure it'll work out. Plus she seems pretty smart, so I'm looking forward to what we'll all think up together. That... that about sums up my team mom."
The line is dead silent on the other end and, for the briefest of moments, he began to worry that something had happened or he had said something that hurt his mom. However, just before he could ask-
"Izuku, honey... it... it sounds like you're on a team with three girls." He swallowed a bit nervously as his mom spoke up. Well, he supposed he had seen this coming and he did throw around their genders pretty freely. He was going to be straightforward with this one way or another... still, he had kind of hoped that he mom wouldn't directly bring it up.
There went that hope.
"Y-Yeah mom, all my teammates are girls... and uh, we're rooming with each other. It's been going alright so far, but-" He heard a thud on the other end of the line and the sound of the phone scattering across the floor of his home. "MOM?! MOM ARE YOU OKAY?! MOM WAKE UP! PLEASE WAKE UP?! YOU HAVE WORK SOON MOM, PLEASE DON'T BE PASSED OUT I'M SORRY!"
A few minutes of worrying later and his mom did eventually come to. The conversation from there took on an almost comical turn; his mom immediately set on to reminding him about how she had raised him, about how to be proper around young ladies and how to always knock before going into their room or bathroom to make sure that no one's in there and that if they say they need their privacy to give it and please Izuku don't rush these things along she's heard about what happens in these teams when it's mixed sexes and honest to goodness hewasnotreadytobeadadandshewasnotreadytobeagrandmaandshewasnotevensureifshe'dlikeanyofthesegirlsand-
When he finally got his mom to stop panicking around the same time he stopped being frozen in embarrassment from his mother's ranting with a rushed of hurried, nearly shouted assurances that no, he wasn't going to impregnate a teammate and that she had nothing to worry about. He was sure that other members of the staff and early bird students who might've been catching this conversation were looking at him like a weirdo but he had to get his mom to calm down. Eventually she did and it was a rather tremendous relief when the two were able to get onto far less embarrassing topics of conversation.
"Alright mom, I think I should be heading back now. Breakfast is starting soon and after that will be my first classes. I promise I'll call you at least once a week to tell you how things are going okay?"
"... Izuku, honey..."
"Yeah mom?"
"... I'm sorry."
The words stopped Izuku dead in his tracks as he heard them, his expression somewhat frozen as he looked at the Scroll in his hand. "What?"
"... When we were told about your condition, I had honestly given up any hope that you'd ever accomplish your dream. I did my best to smile and to support you in your decisions of course, even letting you go to combat school but... there was always a part of me, deep down inside, that felt like it knew nothing good would come of it. That you'd eventually have to stop... that you'd have to give up on your dreams. I didn't... I didn't believe in you. I didn't have faith in you Izuku, and I'm so sorry for that."
"Mom... i-it's okay, really, you didn't... no one could've known I'd end up with Aura and a Semblance..." He felt a bit misty-eyed as he spoke. Yeah, no one really could have seen that coming primarily because, by all accounts, it was impossible. Only Toshinori and the power of One For All made it feasible... and he was still struggling to make it fully his own.
"It doesn't matter Izuku! I'm your mother... if I'm not going to have faith in my son and his dreams them who will... how could I have expected you to live up to any potential you had if I didn't have faith in you." He heard his mom get weepy on the other end of the line and for a moment he felt the tears prick at the corner of his own eyes. "From now on... I'm going to be behind you 100% Izuku. I'll support you no matter what you decide to do or where your life goes... starting with the end of this week." He heard his mom wipe her sleeve across her face, brushing it across the receiver on her end, and could practically imagine the smile on her face. "I'm going to start your allowance back up. Now that you're attending Beacon, I know that you'll need money for things like supplies... it won't be much but... I want to be able to help you Izuku."
"... Thank you mom. This means more to me than you know." Izuku meant it too. Knowing that his mom was in his corner, that she'd had the utmost faith in him... even more than what little money he might get, that was something that would help keep him going when things got tough here at Beacon.
"Okay Izuku well it sounds like you need to get back to your team and I need to get to work. Have an amazing day dear! I love you!"
"I love you too, mom." With that the line clicks off and he removed his Scroll from beside his face. He wiped the forming tears away as he looked out to the horizon with a determined smile, out where he knew somewhere, beyond the forests and mountains, lay Mountain Glenn. With a firm nod he slipped the Scroll back into his pocket and ran back to his dorm room.
Having already woken up Pyrrha to join him on his run, he found that when he got back to his dorm room, knocking and making sure that they were all decent before he entered of course, after his call with his mom. He quickly walked past them after grabbing his own Beacon Uniform, knowing that he probably didn't smell particularly pleasant at the moment, and grabbed a quick shower. Soon enough he was up, dressed and out and ready to go. The uniform was a little bit different from his old school uniform, this one came with a tie, but he found that the change isn't so different as to throw him off. Thanks to his efforts his team actually had a nice chunk of time to go and get breakfast before the first class. Certainly a relief; after that run and talking to his mom he knew that he certainly was hungry and he couldn't imagine the others were feeling much less famished, especially Nora. Going to his first class hungry would've been a pretty huge ordeal, though thankfully one they managed to avoid.
As they arrived in the dining hall after collecting their food, they weren't at all surprised to find that they weren't the first team here, as there seemed to be a gathering of other students that made it for breakfast. They all look tired or wiped out of course, it being the first day of classes, but they're all mostly here.
"I swear Tenya, you're just unflappable aren't ya? Spent the night with three very pretty looking young girls like us and you didn't even flinch."
"Well of course I didn't! As a leader of mixed-sex team it is my duty to show propriety in all things! This includes proper behavior towards those of the opposite gender to my own and ensuring everyone's comfort! Anything less or any behavior that was less than scrupulous would be a deplorable failing on my part!"
Between Tenya's loud declarations and his wild gesturing Izuku and MNVW found his team pretty easily, a smile on his face as he saw the recognizable faces of Blake, Yang and Tenya at their table. Izuku looked at his own team and they seemed up to joining with some familiar faces for breakfast as well, so they all start to walk over there.
"Yeah but... c'mon, it's no fun!"
"W-What? What are you saying Miss Xiao Long?"
"Ugh, please Tenya, I said Yang was fine. And I mean it's no fun teasing you if you're not even going to flinch! I mean, I can't get my kicks out of my awesome puns because Tsu will just hit me over the back of the head anytime I try."
"Justifiably so I'd say." Blake spoke up as she flipped a page in her book. "Your puns are hardly awesome Yang." The blonde of the team just stuck her tongue out playfully at Blake as she said that.
"So I just thought, you know, I could have a little fun teasing our male leader about the situation. You know, liven it up a little bit... but you're so serious Tenya! Where's the fun in teasing someone who just won't react." It was at that moment that Tsuyu noticed their approach and waved slightly. That brought Tenya, Blake and Yang's attention over to his group as well and Izuku saw the team of four smile, though Blake's cooled slightly when her eyes met Weiss', as they all waved at Izuku. Izuku tried to wave back but... well, this topic of conversation felt 'really' awkward for him. Considering what happened last night...
Oh. Oh no... he could feel the heat rushing to his cheeks! He tried to fight it as best he could because he saw that Yang's looking right at him. She stares at him with those lilac eyes of hers and, for a moment, he had hoped she'd forgotten how much of an awkward mess he was when he first met her the day before...
That quickly went out the window when he saw the downright 'predatory' expression that comes over Yang's face. Like a jaguar that's found prey to play with.
"Well howdy there Izuku~" Yang intoned in a sing-song manner as the red finally hit his face. "Did you see anything interesting last night slugger?"
'Okay Izuku just... just stand your ground. Don't run, don't sweat, don't breath, don't even flinch. Girls, they can smell your fear. The second you show Yang Xiao Long that you can, in fact, be 'very' easily teased then that will be the nature of your relationship with her from this moment on. You just have to hold you composure long enough for her to get bored and-'
"Honestly, we saw more of him than he saw of us last night."
...
The silence between the eight of them was 'deafening'. Weiss and Pyrrha's faces almost immediately started burning red, Pyrrha's face giving a hair a good run for it's money in the 'deep red' department, while Weiss' pale features light up like a hot iron. Tsuyu Asui just looked over at the four of them with that deadpan expression of hers only being marred by two round blushes on her cheeks, a slight 'ribbit?' escaping her lips as she looked at them all curiously. Blake has dipped her book down just a bit so that she can look over the top of it at them all and Tenya and Yang are just staring, mouths agape.
...
"So what's greeny packing Nora?"
"Yang!"
"Not as skinny as he looks; fearless leader's got himself some abs!"
"Nora!"
"Seriously? Abs? How many?"
"YANG!"
"Six of 'em."
"NORA!"
"Holy cow, I could tell you were hiding something under there when we were all sleeping in the hall there slugger, but you're rockin' a six pack under that?"
'Oh please, someone, kill me right now.' At that point he'd have welcomed the Giant Nevermore coming back to life, ripping the roof off of the dining hall and then taking him in its talons, carrying him off to sweet, sweet oblivion. Eventually Tenya just slammed his hand on the desk, his own cheeks thoroughly red as he waved his hands about.
"MR. MIDORIYA! As the leader of a team of huntresses I find the fact that you would expose yourself in such a manner to be completely contemptible! I greatly respected you back in the Emerald Forest but to hear that you've acted in such an unscrupulous-"
"No, no, it isn't like that Tenya! I called for help while he was in the shower and he ran in with a towel on! He thought we were in trouble and ran to try to save us!" Pyrrha and Weiss buried their face in their hands as Nora just kept talking, reminding them of the horribly uncomfortable moment from last night and doing so loud enough, between herself, Yang and Tenya, for EVERYONE to hear. Tenya seemed to pause as he took in this information, before rapidly re-adjusting his glasses.
"I must apologize Izuku. I should have known that a man such as yourself who showed such strength of character back in during Initiation wouldn't ever act in such a manner! More than that, I mistook an accident of you attempting to BE a good team leader by protecting your teammates and helping them to be the unscrupulous act of a flashing pervert! Please, accept my humble apologies!" Tenya Iida bowed to him over his stupid, gullible attempt to run in and help his 'distressed' teammate with nothing but a towel on.
Oh God it was even worse than when he was angry with Izuku. At least when he was angry with him, he could feel scared about what he might say or do or the fact that he might lose a friend. Now the fear is gone and his emotions were all circling right back to being completely embarrassed!
"Wow, sounds pretty heroic..."He turned his gaze over to Blake and as she noticed his gaze she quickly pushed her book back up over her eyes. He didn't fail to notice the bit of red that was on her cheeks before she hid behind her book, nor the amused quirk to her lips.
"How embarrassing, ribbit. Sounds like it's pretty awkward for you guys."
"Nah, fearless leader's been great about it!" Nora smiled as she wrapped an arm around his shoulder, his face going even further red. Yang Xiao Long, in the meanwhile, just grinned animalistically as she looked at the three young girls.
"Man, here I thought Izuku was the lucky one for getting paired up with a bunch of lovely young women. Turns out I was wrong; you guys are the lucky ones who ended up with the eye candy! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA~!"
He tried his best to suffocate on his food just so that he didn't have to sit around and keep listening to this conversation. Yang kept poking and prodding, asking for details and just poking fun at Izuku for being eye candy while asking if she could get a show and poking fun at Pyrrha and Weiss for their obvious embarrassment and asking if they seemed to approve as much as Nora. Nora, the cause of this horrible headache, had just settled in to have her own breakfast, a giant stack of pancakes, as she amicably chatted with everyone else. On the bright side at least he wasn't Yang's sole target here... now Pyrrha and Weiss got to join in too.
Fantastic.
E/N: In this chapter the visit into Pyrrha's mind was via acksed's "The Warrior and The Hero", which was the sixth Canon outtake. If you're wondering about the jump from outtake 1/2 to 6, well... With over 160 Canon outtakes, it was decided that some level of culling would be necessary, lest one of the editors(me) breaks into tears at the prospect of Line editing 180K words on top of the 900K in the main body itself.
-Shovern
The other reason is just that some outtakes would have not been useful to the story itself. They were either too silly to really matter, or went down plausible paths that were not explored in the future, or later contradicted. We'll also need to cut some more redundant stuff from the main posts as well, in order to avoid too much repetition.
-Wind-Waker
A/N: The contradictions were, thankfully, pretty slight and I managed to keep the details mostly going in my head. I'm just kind of thankful that, between the game I've been writing and all the material that hasn't been written by me that I've needed to memorize that I haven't made such large errors yet.
I feel like this chapter is also pretty special for those who wrote omakes as the updates in question that made it up, as you can see, included an effect from Preventer Squall's An Indecent Knight. It was proof that the promise of an outtake being made canon wasn't just hot air but that sufficiently well written or fun material could have an actual, tangible impact on the story of the series. Needless to say, this has created a lot of fun stuff that you'll be seeing more of in the future.