'Man, I've been up to a lot this weekend,' Izuku thought to himself. Heck, this whole week really; it'd started with trying to help Bakugou against Neopolitan, then to getting CRDL off his back, and his friends, and just yesterday when he helped Weiss investigate the situation with the Dust that had been taken up by The Monochrome League.
In short, he was feeling a little overwhelmed after such a dramatic week... he felt like he might've gotten behind on his studies too! Sure, maybe he didn't and that was just him getting worried over not having everything done ahead of time, but still, to him, that was getting behind, especially with how much time he had to dedicate to training. Now was the time to start making up for that! He was going to get past the kitchen, he was going to the library to study and he was going to... to finish... his...
'Oh wow, that smells good.'
Izuku was distracted from studying and getting back ahead of the curve when a smell hit his nose; meat being cooked and prepared, and a whole small collection of herbs, spices and just the finest hint of flavorings dashed across his nose. It smelled 'really' good. On a gut instinct, perhaps quite literally, he ended up in the kitchen, one of the main ones for the dorm, and found himself with quite an interesting sight; a huge pot of what he assumed was rice was simmering on top of the dorm's stove, steam was escaping here and there. A cutting board with some remains of meat and fat having been left on it to be discarded and cleaned later along with a handful of knives. Several bowls with various amounts of vegetables, mixtures of spices and salts and even the remains of some oranges. Kneeled by the oven, taking a quick look inside with her tongue slightly out was none other than Tsuyu Asui, the frog girl watching the progress of her meal very precisely.
"Ah, Tsu?" Izuku asked, a little surprised to see her here, as Tsuyu's head jerked a bit at the sudden interruption. The young woman looked back and, seeing Izuku, offered him a nod of her head as she maintained her usual even expression.
"Oh, hello there Izuku, coming by to cook more pancakes for Nora, ribbit ribbit?" Izuku chuckled a little as he scratched the back of his head; did he do that so often that it's what people expected every time he walked into a kitchen?
"Ah, no, not this time anyway. I just smelled something really good and thought I'd come in to see what was cooking." Tsu nodded as she waved him in further, allowing Izuku to come up to the oven as she stood up.
"Ah, I see. Well, it's nothing special; I'm taking care of cooking for the Team today so I thought I'd go ahead and cook up a family recipe that I got acquainted with after the reunion. It's nothing special and... well, I had to change out the meat in question because of how expensive the stuff is here but I think it'll turn out good." Izuku nodded at that, a curious tilt to his head as he looked into the oven.
"Oh, that's nice Tsu! What are you cooking, precisely and what did you change out?"
"Well, ordinarily it's supposed to be roasted teal over wild rice served with mushrooms and bell peppers mixed in. I got most of the recipe down but the teal was way too expensive for me to justify so I just went with some slices of chicken. Ordinarily, they'd use the whole bird back home but that seemed a little ostentatious, ribbit ribbit." Izuku blanked a bit as Tsuyu said that, blinking in confusion.
"Teal?"
"Oh, it's a kind of duck that you see pretty often in the Wetlands."
...
"Holy woah, yeah that'd be expensive Tsu! Duck is pretty fancy food to just serve up as part of dinner. Your family must go all out for this family reunion!" Tsuyu blushed, two round circles of red on her cheeks as she scratched at them.
"Ribbit ribbit, I mean, that's true they do go all out for everyone... but duck, fancy?" Tsuyu looked at him, her expression still even despite how disbelieving her voice sounded. "Come on, it's just a duck. The morning before the big day my relatives would just go out into the Wetlands, find some ducks, kill a few and bring them back to dress them. That doesn't seem all that fancy to me."
"Well I guess when you put it that way it doesn't sound all that great but... well, most people around here aren't going to walk to a duck pond to kill a couple of ducks, if you see what I mean?" Izuku tried his best to explain what he meant and, as Tsuyu thought for a moment, she just kind of shrugged.
"I guess. Living in Vale I sort of see that but... well, I guess I grew up around my folks enough and have gone to enough of these reunions that it just doesn't seem like that big of a deal to me? Then again, it's kind of weird that people consider any kind of food to be 'high class' or anything. I mean, food's food, right? Just because you serve up something in a small portion or with some vegetable on the side doesn't make it anything special. You can serve a crepe and call it a fancy breakfast but it's technically just a pancake folded up over some kind of filling, right?"
"That's probably how Nora would see it... huh... would Nora like crepes? I'll have to think about that..." Tsuyu offered one of her rare smiles at that train of thought before her even expression came back.
"You ask me, it's less about the food itself than about the money people spend on it. Like a lot of things really; a restaurant isn't fancy because its food is good, it's fancy because there's a lot of stuff they surround the food with to make it look better than it otherwise would be. Seems like kind of a waste when you compare it to some good home-cooked meals." Izuku nodded before he brought his hand up to his chin and took a moment to think.
"Hmmm..." He started by tapping his chin as he deeply considered Tsu's point, bringing out his notebook and a pen as he recorded his thoughts for future reference. "Well... it sort of depends, to be perfectly honest. I mean yes, there are certainly restaurants and stores that actively attempt to fleece people of their hard-earned money by making them pay for what is essentially window dressing, but there are also some other factors to consider, a big one is availability, it may be easy for you and your family to go out into the wild and grab a fresh duck, but it might be considerably harder for someone in Vale, and what if they don't just want any duck, what if they want a really good duck, not all animals are created equal, otherwise people would just eat whatever they could grab, you also have to consider supply and demand, if there's only one store that sells good duck and everybody wants it, they get to set the price as high as they want, and so long as it's cheaper than importing would be from somewhere else people pretty much have to buy from them-"
"Uhh... Izuku?"
"-there's also various cooking techniques, some of which can take hours or even days worth of labor depending on what you do, what kind of specialized equipment you have, and how many people you have helping, cooking 'fancy' is about more than just appearance and atmosphere it's also about indulgence; eating only the finest ingredients, cooked with the very best techniques, to create a truly unique and outstanding meal that the customer in question will be sure to remember like going to a theme park actually; you're paying for an experience as much, if not more, than the actual meal itself, thing is, all of these things are expensive, and people don't like dropping a lot of money on food without a darn good reason so even for restaurants that focus on the food they're strongly encouraged to spruce things up a bit, make them look nice, so that people can justify to themselves it's okay they just spent a bunch of money on food, because this food was special, it was a special occasion, and therefore it's okay to indulge themselves just a bit-"
"Izuku, hey, can you even hear me right now, ribbit ribbit?"
"-fancy cooking is really just an outgrowth of the kinds of foods people used to eat at big parties and celebrations. Decadent indulgences that cost an incredible amount of time, effort, and resources to prepare, and so when people have the opportunity to enjoy them they savor every bite. People with lots of wealth and power could afford to eat like that more often, and so-"
...
THWAAAAAP!
For a moment his head snapped sideways and he felt a distinct, stinging sensation in the back of his head. 'Holy crap, that might not've gotten through my Aura but that really hurt!' He blinked as he rubbed the back of his head, looking to Tsu with a surprised expression as he watched her tongue slink back into her mouth. What? Why would Tsu... wait. He looked down at his notebook and saw pages full of notes that most definitely hadn't been there before. He flipped and flipped through them and...
Eventually, he slapped his hands over his mouth; 'oh no, I did that creepy muttering thing again!'
"Sorry, Tsu! I must've just gone off into my own world there!" His apology was muffled by his hands as he offered Tsu a polite bow. The frog Faunus just stared at Izuku for a moment and, he knew, despite how hard it was to tell what Tsu might feel at any given time, he could swear he could see she was creeped out by his display. Not a surprise, that was most people's reaction. Still, despite that, Tsu seemed to do her best to take it in good humor as she just shook her head.
"Nah, it's okay Izuku. Old habits right? At least you're doing your best to break those habits, unlike Yang, ribbit ribbit." Izuku saw that there was no malice behind Tsu's words, more or less poking fun at Yang's tendency for puns. He just chuckled nervously again, fully aware of Yang and her capacity for punning it up and how he might've been involved in enabling it.
"Yeah well, I mean, my muttering is a little more creepy and out there than her puns, so I should work harder to push it down right? N-Not that I'm discounting your efforts or anything, but it does seem like it's harder-"
"Relax Izuku, I've already tongue-lashed you once. I'm not gonna do it again just because you enable Yang's puns when it's just the two of you, ribbit ribbit." Tsuyu's blatant accusation had left Izuku frozen for a moment before the full sentence caught up.
"... How do you know, anyway?" Tsu croaked slightly, a bit of a weird sound, as she gave him a rare smile.
"You kidding me? I'd be able to tell just from how freely Yang drops them after hanging out with you."
'Darn it, Yang…'
"Well... sorry about that. I know it bothers you but, well, it is..." Don't admit to it being fun to Tsuyu of all people. He couldn't do that and he knew it!
"Well, she seems to enjoy herself after the fact so I guess I can't be too upset, right? Ribbit ribbit." Tsuyu said, giving him a look for a moment before turning back toward the oven. "Oh good, they're just about done." With that, Tsuyu went about doing some more work around the stove; the young frog Faunus getting ready to prepare the rice as she slipped it off the hot burner. He smiled and watched, the smell reaching his nose as he sat back and just took it all in. It did smell quite delicious. "As for the point you were making in the middle of all that muttering, Izuku... I guess I understand what you're saying. Gotta hand it to you though, you've gotten into cooking if you're already talking like that." Izuku chuckled nervously as he scratched the back of his head, Tsuyu turning to look at Izuku. "So were you always a cook or something?"
"... Huh?" Izuku asked as Tsuyu shrugged her shoulders.
"It just seems like you're really into it these days and... well, I was just wondering if you were because you were into it before. Take Yang and me as an example; I understand why we're good at cooking. Yang was the one who mostly cooked for Ruby growing up and I cooked for my little siblings while my parents were busy at work. So it's natural that we'd have our acumen coming into Beacon. You though... you seem to be really into it if those notes are any indication. So I'd wager that meant it was a hobby before coming here, right?" Well, he couldn't fault Tsu's logic, as it seemed like a pretty reasonable assumption.
"Well... actually, I suppose I did kind of have an interest." Tsuyu blinked at that, tilting her head to the side as she waited for more information. "Well you see, my mom was the one who always cooked my meals for me when I wasn't at the Combat School, so I got to see her work in the kitchen a lot when I was home. She was good at it and her food was really good so... yeah, I'd say I got a little interested in cooking before Beacon."
"Alright, but I was asking if you pursued that hobby... it doesn't sound like you did though, ribbit ribbit." Izuku nodded softly at that.
"Well... I didn't. Not before coming to Beacon. I just really didn't think I had time to try something like that back then since I was trying so hard to get into Beacon despite thinking I was..." Tsuyu's eyes widened for a moment with slight realization, the frog Faunus appearing, in her way, sheepish as she looked back forward to the oven.
"Sorry, I guess I should've thought about that." It was weird to hear Tsu apologize for being so forthright. It wasn't something she did often... she must've felt bad for tripping over that accidentally.
"It's okay, really. I've put it behind me now; after all, I'm at Beacon now, right? So that stuff about thinking I was Broken... it doesn't matter anymore." It really didn't. Sure, it mattered in that it had put Izuku behind and forced him to need to catch up to his peers but... well, it didn't define him anymore.
He was a Huntsman now... in training, sure, but a Huntsman nonetheless.
"That's a good way to think about it, ribbit ribbit." Tsu offered as he grinned at her, the frog Faunus keeping her even expression as she just continued to stare at the oven. Finally, a little bell rang as Tsu offered a quick grin, pulling out some gloves so that she could open up the oven and pull out the chicken she'd placed inside...
"Holy smokes! It smells amazing Tsu!" Izuku said again, the young Huntress smiling for a brief moment, full of pride as she nodded in agreement. Izuku took a good look at the food as she set it on the counter. "Man... listen, I know it's a family recipe but... would you like to trade recipes? I'd like to try it myself sometime; maybe one of my mom's recipes would be good for a trade?" Izuku saw Tsuyu pause for a moment, the frog Faunus looking over her shoulder at him. She seemed to take a long moment to think about it, a slight croak echoing in her throat to signify it. After a moment, Tsuyu spoke.
"What kind of recipe are we talking about?" Izuku chuckled a little as he tapped his chin, thinking over it carefully. In the end, he ended up sharing his mother's recipe for an interesting little dish; a pork cutlet that was breaded and then deep-fried over a pan of oil with a variety of spices though, with the current dish in question, it was usually spiced up with ground chili peppers to go with some curry rice that the pork cutlet was served over. According to his mother, and to some restaurants of Mistrali origin that were in and around Mountain Glenn, this was something called Katsu Curry and, while others did make it, he always did find his mother's little twists and additions to be the best.
It was hard to tell at first but as Tsu brought out her Scroll, Izuku got the feeling that she liked the sound of it.
"Well that sounds like a good trade to me, I'll send you the recipe over your Scroll, ribbit ribbit." They both smiled, as they quickly exchanged the recipes through their scrolls, and then returned to some small talk.
Soon enough though Tsu's attention was drawn more fully to the dish she still had to prepare and, wanting to leave her to it, Izuku decided to part ways after sharing their recipes, feeling pretty excited to eventually test it out.
xXxXxXxXxXx
Okay, so that had been a distraction. However fun it was to talk to Tsu over stuff like that, it had taken some time away from studying. Sure Izuku wanted to relax, needed to relax, but after the last week just sitting in the library and doing a bit of studying rather than getting mixed up in more crazy stuff seemed relaxing enough. So now all he needed to do was keep walking and-
"Ah... Izuku..." Izuku stopped, a whisper emanating from nearby. His head turned about as he looked for the noise before he'd met with the sight of... Tenya? Hiding around the corner of a hallway he'd just passed? Izuku blinked in confusion as he turned to face- "Don't make obvious moves in this direction Izuku!" Izuku paused from turning to face Tenya completely, a slightly worried expression on his face. "Listen... could you do me a favor?" Izuku continued to blink, thoroughly perplexed by Tenya's obvious apprehension; it was so bad that he hadn't even wildly gestured like he normally would! "Just... go down the hall. Check it for me, alright? Just make sure nobody's there..."
"... Tenya, are being bullied-"
"Shhh, be quiet Izuku... and no, I'm not! Just please check for me, alright?" Izuku stared oddly at Tenya but nodded regardless; he was one of his friends and, as strange as the request sounded, Izuku decided to help him out. So without further ado he faced back forward and continued to walk down the hall, eyes glancing about as Izuku scanned for... something? Maybe someone more like it. He was a little bit worried; even if Tenya said he wasn't being bullied, he sure was acting like it. As Izuku continued to glance around the hallway looking for any sign of someone, he figured that he'd try to get Tenya to speak up... maybe it was CRDL again? He'd like to think that Cardin and the others finally learned their lessons but, if they hadn't, then Izuku was all too willing to... to...
'Gosh did it get chilly in here all of a sudden? No, it didn't I think, but it just... feels like I got a chill up my spine all of a sudden. As if-'
"Oi." Izuku tensed up as a voice spoke up behind him, a slightly low-toned voice having suddenly sprung up behind him. "You do know that you aren't allowed to loiter in the halls right? No classes or no, students shouldn't just be hanging around... people might think you're up to some serious trouble there, First Year." The voice continued to speak behind him, a serious intonation having echoed through it as he heard a book flip open along with the click of a pen. "What's your name? Gonna check here to see if we've already got you on a record..."
A record?! Izuku swallowed nervously, the sheer gravitas of the voice behind him having left him a little more flustered than usual. Still, Izuku managed to swallow his panic as he stood up straight.
"I-I'm Izuku Midoriya, Leader of Team MNVW, First Year!"
...
"Izuku Midoriya, you say?" The voice spoke as he nodded. "... Turn around." A sheen of sweat formed on his forehead but, whether out of fear or because of the commanding tone of the voice, he obliged. Izuku slowly spun in place to face the source of the presence behind him and, at first, he flinched back. Not because of the sight of the person, but rather, to avoid having his eyes poked out. On top of this person's hair are a pair of large, curved horns that he had previously found to be 'just' a little too close to comfort for him. Following them down he found that they led to a very dark brown, almost black, hair of hair that had been combed back into a ponytail to keep any hair from falling into the face of the person in question. Continuing to look down he saw a pair of red eyes...
Looking at him with a pleasantly surprised expression.
"Oh hey, you are Izuku Midoriya! Nice to finally get a chance to meet you!" Izuku was a little bit surprised at the sight before him; a girl who was a little bit taller than him with a surprisingly warm smile given the eerie tone of her voice. While the intonation hadn't changed too much, still sounding very much adult, it was more clearly a woman's voice now that he got to connect it to a face. She wore a school uniform, which was surprising considering it was the weekend, but it was customized to have a belt wrapping around her hips. One part of the belt had an obvious pouch meant for the little book she had flipped open and, on the other side of her hip, hung what you assumed to be the folded-up form of her weapon. A large rifle that, if he had to guess from the other design elements, would've mechashifted into a large, two-handed ax. This... ox Faunus? Ox Faunus, looked at him with a friendly expression as she closed her book for a moment.
"Been hearing a lot about you; you've been a pretty big help with keeping these halls orderly, especially from those goons in Team CRDL. Gotta say, do appreciate it; it's nice to find someone else who has an appreciation for the rules that Beacon sets forward for us." Izuku nodded slightly at that, feeling more relieved that the girl seemed to be more calm and casual than before.
"Oh, well, it was nothing. That's just what a Huntsman's supposed to do right miss... uh..." Izuku blanked, not knowing her name, as the girl just smiled.
"It's Pan." He nodded at that as the girl, Pan, looked him up and down. "Gotta say, you're a little short, even compared to some of the other First Years. Would've thought someone with your rep standing up to Cardin Winchester would be taller." Izuku chuckled a bit sheepishly.
"Yeah, I guess. So... uh, I take it you're a hall monitor, then?" Pan just gave a quick grin as she reached back and gave her hair a flip.
"Not just 'a hall monitor' Mr. Midoriya. 'The Hall Monitor'... er, mostly because I'm the only one, not because I'm anything too special; you'd be surprised how few people want this job in this school." Izuku considered things like Mirio for a moment... no, he actually was not surprised at all. "Anyway, about your loitering-"
"Oh, uh, sorry about that, I really shouldn't have, I-"
"Yeah, you shouldn't have... but I'll give you a pass." Pan smirked as she gave him a wink. "Consider it me paying your services to Beacon forward. Good deeds shouldn't go unrewarded, after all."
"Oh wow thank you! I guess I should get going then!" The ox Faunus gave him a quick nod as he turned around. Well, he didn't know what Tenya was so worried about, this turned out to be-
"Just... one thing, Mr. Midoriya." Izuku paused as she speaks up, hearing her flip through her book again. "You're the leader of Team MNVW right? That means you're teammates with Nora Valkyrie, correct?"
...
Gods it suddenly got cold again.
"Uh... yeah, that's right," he intoned slightly as the hairs on the back of his neck stood up.
"Oh, good! In that case, would you mind giving her a message for me?" He nodded as he turned around, expecting to see the same friendly visage as before...
Instead, he was met with a pair of red eyes; simultaneously alight with the sort of fire that would threaten to burn his soul to a crisp, denying him even the opportunity to have an existence in the afterlife and instead damning him to an eternity of emptiness, burnt away by the sheer forces of entropy while, at the same time, cold and hard, robbing him of the very warmth of his soul, leaving him feeling as cold and helpless as the days and months and years he was Broken...
None of this was literal, of course, even he was distantly aware of that... but Gods, he still felt it right in his bones.
He couldn't help but start screaming.
"YOU TELL HER THAT IF I KEEP FINDING RANDOM BITS OF THE HALL SPLATTERED WITH WHATEVER CRAP SHE KEEPS EATING WHILE IN TRANSIT OR FIND OUT THAT SHE'S CONTINUED TO CAUSE HAVOC BY RUNNING THROUGH THE HALLS AND KNOCKING STUDENTS OUT OF THE WAY THAT I'LL NOT ONLY GIVE HER DETENTION BUT IT'LL KEEP HER LOCKED UP IN THAT ROOM FOR SO LONG THAT SHE'LL FORGET THE FEELING OF THE SUN'S WARMTH ON HER SKIN! DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR?!"
Izuku couldn't stop screaming. No matter how raw his throat got or how red his eyes became from the tears that spilled from them and streamed down his cheeks, he couldn't stop. No amount of pain, no amount of discomfort, was going to make it stop. Not so long as those eyes, those red eyes were glaring directly into him. The fear, the sheer mind-numbing fear, rolled through him. Something unknowable and terrible given the form of a Second Year student who was just a half a foot taller than he was looking him dead in the eyes... and despite knowing that this was probably all just an affectation on her part, some charisma she was pushing through to the surface to terrify him, it didn't stop the fact that it was 'working'. So he did the only thing he could think of doing to make the fear stop.
He folded.
"OKAY, OKAY! I PROMISE, I PROMISE I'LL TELL NORA TO STOP BEING SUCH A MENACE IN THE HALLS, PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF THE GODS JUST DON'T HURT ME!"
Pan kept those eyes on him for just a moment longer, letting him taste the fear for what felt like an eternity longer before she blinked... and a kindly smile was back on her face.
"Wonderful! I really do appreciate that you've been such an upstanding student this semester Mr. Midoriya! Please, keep it up! Until next time~!" With that the girl twirled her pen around a couple of times before depositing her little notebook into the belt around her hip, walking away from him with a slight hum as she did so. He stood there, utterly frozen in shock and awe, before he snapped his head around.
"H-Hey! Wait a moment! You just... I was so scared! You made me cry! Don't you think that's a little excessive?" He asked, utterly blown away, as Pan stopped for a moment. She turned to face him, a coy grin on her face, as she chuckled.
"Mr. Midoriya... you poor, naive summer child." She shook her head, confusing him with the turn of phrase, before she waved her hand around, indicating the halls. "These are the Halls of Beacon Academy, the best Hunter's Academy in all of Remnant. Only the best of the best come here... and that means the best of the best Hunters. People like Mirio Togata or Coco Adel... perhaps my means are a bit much and 'perhaps' they're a little scary-"
"A little?!"
"-but given quarry like that, I can't afford to be soft or be anything else but the best damned Hall Monitor in either this school or anywhere else! So I must strike terror into the hearts of even men like Mirio Togata so that these halls may remain safe for all students, not just the powerful!" With that Pan turned on her feet again, the ox Faunus walking away as she kept her eyes peeled for any wrongdoing or violation. He stood there, completely blown away, as a few empty rattling sounds escaped his throat, the excess terror still slowly draining from him as he finally felt like he was not going to faint from sheer terror.
"Goodness, Izuku, are you alright! I'm so sorry, if I had known that you'd be exposed to that I wouldn't have sent you ahead, do forgive me!" He was vaguely aware of Tenya's voice at first but, after another moment to snap himself out of his stupor, Izuku turned his head over to his fellow Team Leader, a look of terror surely on his face.
"Tenya, what was that?! Who was that?! Why did you send me ahead to face that!?" He couldn't help but belt out those questions, Tenya seeming quite sheepish and remorseful as he nodded understandingly.
"That, Izuku, was miss Pan Minos, Beacon's sole Hall Monitor." Tenya readjusted his glasses as he spoke. "She's... well, she's quite frankly terrifying. She's the only person in the last ten years who has willingly taken up the job of being the school's hall monitor and... well, as you can see, she's very much effective at her job." Izuku nodded at that, finding Tenya's statement, even with his hand gestures, to be an understatement. "As for why I sent you forward... well... you'll have to forgive me, Izuku. Do you remember some weeks back when Team CRDL had been blowing up restrooms around Beacon Academy?"
"Yeah of course I do Tenya."
"Of course, right. Well... let's just say I found myself in a sorry incident where I had... need of one of the facilities but it was on the other side of the school from me. In that time I had been in a... a rush let's say and came across Miss Minos. She had attempted to hold up my progress so she could give me... a ticket... and I may or may not have done something... that may have been questionably... sort of... kind of... outside school regulations to continue without her stopping me. So she's probably quite cross with me." Tenya spoke with a lot of pausing and, well, a not-so-subtle amount of shame laced through his voice as he finished up this story...
Izuku's jaw hung open as he looked at Tenya. Did that mean... there was no way...
"Tenya... did you... break the rules?"
...
The silence hung heavy in the air between the two. Finally, after moments of silence, Tenya bent forward, his arms drooping as the young man let loose a small sound of anguish.
"Yes Izuku, yes... I... I broke the rules! As much as I might try to speak around it, that's the truth of the matter! I broke school regulations, knowingly and willingly, and now one of the enforcers of this school's law seeks me out to make me answer for my brutish behavior!" Izuku was honestly stunned, the blue-haired Huntsman whipping his hands about. Of all the people he would've figured to break Beacon's rules, he would've never, in a thousand years, have guessed it would've been Tenya.
"So... you sent me ahead to make sure she didn't find you?" Tenya bit his lip slightly, the man bowing before him before long.
"Yes! I'm so sorry for dragging you into this Izuku! Please... I know that this was a terrible way for me to abuse our friendship, but do forgive me for this transgression and 'please' don't tell my team!" Izuku flinched a bit at Tenya's show of remorse and his pleas, the young man standing back up only to bow again. "Gods, if Tsu or Blake figured out that I, their Team Leader, broke the rules so flagrantly they'd be incensed! Those two are prim and proper Huntresses and they would not take my transgression well!" ... Well, he doubted Tsuyu would be too put off, after all, it was a pretty minor thing all told. It was just a surprise to hear from Tenya of all people... and Blake? Well, Blake would be way more forgiving than Tenya might think. "Then there's Yang. Gods, I'm supposed to be her team leader, I'm supposed to set an example! Yang can be a bit of a loose cannon and it's my job to show her that following rules and regulations can get one where they're looking to go! That's true of my entire team! Furthermore, if they were aware that I used you in such a manner, they might very well be incensed!"
"Izuku, please, I ask for your forgiveness and that you 'please' do not tell my team about my troubles! I'll find a way to handle Miss Minos and suffer for my crimes, but I need to be able to keep my standing as a Team Leader in the eyes of my team!"
...
'You know, I don't think Yang, Blake or Tsu would be that upset with all this. I really should just accept his apology and promise not to tell.'
'Although…'
Hmmm... maybe it was a little mean to approach it like this. After all, he knew full well that he was keeping one 'huge' secret from his team in the form of One For All that would've dwarfed Tenya's little hallway infraction... but in the end, he knew it was the kind of thing that'd get Tenya going for a moment. It was just a gag, he had to figure that after spending so much time around Yang he'd probably be used to it by now.
"I don't know Tenya... aren't you setting an even worse example by doing this?" Tenya blinked as he looked at Izuku for a moment, the shorter huntsman doing his best to look thoughtful and contemplative as he rested his hand on his chin in a manner he'd seen Toshinori do time and time again. "I mean, if the Team Leader of all people is keeping secrets from his team... then why shouldn't they think that it's okay for them to keep secrets from you or everyone else? That's a bad example too, right?" He asked, sighing a bit to try and sell it.
...
"... My Gods..." You see Tenya's body practically crumpled, shame very evident on his face as he shook his head. "I... you're right Mr. Midoriya!" Oh boy, he fell back on calling Izuku by his last name. "How could I possibly think that 'this' was the right thing to do? As a leader I'm always setting examples; what's the worse example to set in this case? That accidentally breaking the rules is okay from time to time or that keeping secrets from your team is perfectly fine!" Tenya's hands went wild as they gestured, the young man leaning his head against a nearby wall dramatically as he continued to speak. "What was Ozpin thinking, making such a lowlife criminal such as myself a Team Leader?! Not only have I broken Beacon's rules, but I've honestly thought about hiding my transgression from my team to try and keep my name from being sullied! Greater the fool I am for not realizing that such an act would greatly tarnish my name, whether or not people would know it-"
"Tenya."
"I need to make amends! I must tell my teammates immediately and then I must report to Ozpin!"
"Tenya!"
"I need to tell him of my wrongdoings... I... I can't face that girl again, she may very well tear me limb from limb, but Ozpin, the Headmaster, would surely think of a punishment fitting my odious behavior and-"
"TENYA!" he stopped mid-rant as Izuku let out a shout, taking deep breaths as he tried his best to keep from chuckling. "I was kidding!"
...
"Huh?"
"I was just joking! Of course, I'll keep your secret! You only accidentally broke the rules right? I wouldn't tell on you about something like that! I just wanted to yank on your chains a little..." Izuku muttered, feeling a little embarrassed, as he coughed into his fist. Tenya just fixed him with a look for a moment, as he was still catching up on this information before he blushed a bit and sheepishly scratched at the back of his head.
"O-Oh! I see! Yes, of course! Perfectly understandable... that would be a bit much over such a small infraction, wouldn't it?" Tenya continued to blush as he glanced off to the side. "Izuku-"
"I won't tell your team about your reaction either."
"You're a good friend," Tenya said as he readjusted his shades. They both stood there awkwardly for a moment, letting the moment slide on by while he got one last bit of amusement from Tenya's reaction out of his system before Izuku looked back at him.
"You know, that being said Tenya you really should see her even if it's scary and take whatever punishment she'll give him for running in the halls." Tenya froze up a bit, while Izuku just tried to smile reassuringly at him. "After all, you're one of the most straitlaced and by-the-books people I know. Pan seems nice if ... intense so I think that once you make it clear to her that you don't intend to break the rules again then the two of you will get along great..." Izuku coughed into his fist following that, a weak 'probably' escaping out as he tried to bury that little bit of doubt then and there.
"... On a logical level, I realize that you're correct, Izuku. Miss Minos does seem like a forthright individual most concerned with upholding the rules of Beacon Academy, someone very much in my line of thinking. It... would probably be better for me to go and approach her but... well, you tell me Izuku; would you look forward to seeing her again if you were in my position?"
...
Izuku immediately felt a chill run up and down his spine as, for a moment, it felt like all happiness left his body, replaced only with existential terror.
"... You wanna just hang out for a bit, Tenya?"
"I think I'd like that very much, Izuku."
The two of them quickly grouped up and, with no words, walked in the 'exact' opposite direction of where Pan had run off to. His plans... well, they could wait for a bit. Hanging out with Tenya did sound like a good time...
Plus he wanted to give as much time as possible to make sure that Pan wouldn't be where he was headed.
xXxXxXxXxXx
'Okay.'
'So that was horrifying!'
'No more distractions! No more bumping into people in the hall or on the way to the library! Just... no more! I'm not sure if my heart can honestly handle it, especially after that last one! I am going to the library and I am going to…'
'Oh hey, it's Mirio-'
'No! Library, don't get distracted by-'
'The people he is talking with in the hall that looked to be around his age... maybe they are his teammates?'
...
Izuku sighed to himself as he changed course, heading on over to see his senior by two years. As he approached he started to get a better picture of the two people that Mirio was currently speaking with; one of them was a very excitable, very happy looking young woman, a sort of warmth and energy just basically radiating off of her as she nodded while Mirio spoke, hanging whatever he's saying even as her feet as moving around a bit, as if they're trying to burn off her excess energy. Her hair and eyes kind of reminded Izuku of Weiss though both hers are a darker shade of blue than Weiss' white hair or her light blue eyes, coming in with both light blue hair and darker blue eyes. At this point, considering it was Beacon, he was not even surprised that she was pretty cute.
The other guy was a bit... well, scary looking, Izuku thought the right word might be. He looked uncomfortable being out in the open and his expression looks like he's constantly in a bit of pain. His dark blue, pretty much, black hair hung over his face which made it pretty difficult to see his eyes, in addition to the fact that his posture, hunched over as he was, brought his hair even more into his face. Getting closer Izuku could vaguely tell that he had a dark pair of eyes, though with how pinprick-like his irises were that could be a little hard to tell in and of itself. The guy seemed like he'd rather be anywhere else but out in the open.
That impression only got worse as he noticed Izuku's approach, a grimace appearing on his face, while the other girl just gaped as she looked past Mirio to look at her junior.
"Oh wow! Would you look at this; seems like we've got a little visitor coming on by!" The girl moved with surprising speed toward him, practically popping up right in front of Izuku which, no surprise, caused him to flinch back and away. The fact that a, again 'very' pretty, the girl immediately put her face up in his, breaking his personal bubble, certainly didn't help with his embarrassment. "Let's see here... green hair, green eyes, freckles... ooooh!" The girl exclaimed in a way that wouldn't have seemed too odd coming out of Nora. "You must be-"
"Izuku, hey!" Izuku heard Mirio call out as the young man waved at him, a wide smile on his face as he approached. "Wasn't expecting to see you around here today Izuku, what's up?" Mirio intoned, smiling as his teammate, presumably, backed away slightly, giving him just the slightest amount of breathing room as Izuku tried to relax.
"W-Well I just noticed you guys in the hall here and I thought I'd come by to say hi and introduce myself to your team... I wasn't quite expecting the... warm welcome." Izuku phrased it as politely as he could as the young woman just smiled.
"Well, I'm glad you found it so warm! I do try to be friendly, especially with any friends of my friends. Mirio's said a lot about you, and-" The girl's energy and her positive, upbeat attitude was practically washed over him with how strong it was, which caused him to blush and try to take a step back to not be overwhelmed by it. He didn't want to say anything because he thought it might be rude, but-
"He's being polite when he calls it a warm welcome; you're being a bit too forward again and it's making him uncomfortable. Give him some space..." The other guy in the group, who Izuku just noticed had some pointed ears, a Faunus trait perhaps, spoke up for him, causing the girl to tilt her head slightly.
"Oh, is that true Izuku?" The girl asked and, while Izuku felt sheepish, he did give a slight nod. "Oh, I am very sorry! I just get really excited when I meet new people, and especially when I see how different and neat they look! I don't think I've ever seen someone with a combination of hair and eyes like that, usually, they're a bit more mixed and matched, but your color combo's kinda like mine!" She said, pointing out her own eyes... and hair... which, well, she was not wrong. They both had hair and eyes that are different shades of the same color. "Still, sorry for making you uncomfortable."
"No, it's okay, I just got a little overwhelmed... though I do appreciate your help." Izuku turned to face the other guy. "It can be a bit overwhelming to be around my seniors in the first place, so I appreciate that you gave me space like you did."
...
"I see, you would've been uncomfortable with me being right next to you." Izuku blanched a bit as, suddenly, the guy had placed his forehead against a nearby wall, his posture having drooped 'even more' as he just stared at the wall. "I understand, I can be a pretty unpleasant person to be around, so don't feel too bad about it. It's natural..."
"That's... that's not what I meant, I was just thanking you for being-"
"Hah, don't worry Izuku, Tamaki's been like this ever since we were kids! Just give him a moment to sulk it out and he'll be fine." Mirio said with a hearty chuckle as he scratched the back of his head. "Oh! Speaking of, I should probably actually introduce you to them! They already know your name so, hm, Izuku this is Nejire Hado, one of my teammates, and that over there is Tamaki Amajiki, he's my partner and my best friend."
"Hello~!" Nejire spoke up with a smile as she waved her hand, enthusiastic to meet Izuku, while Tamaki just offered up a wave and a quick 'yo' as he stuck by the wall. So Tamaki was his partner huh...
"So this is Team MHA, huh?" He asked, blinking as Izuku took all three of his seniors in. Mirio just nodded vigorously at that, along with Nejire, while Tamaki just sighed against the wall. Hmm... that reminded him of something that he'd been curious about ever since figuring out Mirio's team makeup and especially during Leadership Council meetings...
Having a three-person team was... well, it was downright weird all things considered, especially for a group of students who were still in school. Tamaki was Mirio's partner, as said but... where was Nejire's.
"Hey... do you all mind if I ask you guys something? I mean, feel free to not answer if it's too personal, I'm just curious..." Izuku mutter to himself as he rubbed at his arm, causing all three members of the team in front of him to look at Izuku.
"Oh, sure Izuku, go right ahead!" Mirio responded without hesitation, Nejire seeming similarly positive even as Tamaki seemed a bit wary, based upon how you'd started.
"Well... it's just that your team structure's a little bit unusual, isn't it? I mean, three people to a team instead of four, that's not something that generally happens in a Hunter Academy." Mirio and Nejire's expressions dropped ever so slightly, Tamaki turned back to face the wall along with that, as Izuku flinched a little. "You know what never mind maybe this wasn't such-"
"Oh don't worry Izuku, it's okay! As you said, it is unusual and a lot of people notice! It's okay to ask." Nejire responded with a chirp, the girl still somehow keeping up her pleasant demeanor as she looked at Izuku. Who was glad that she, and Mirio for that matter, didn't look offended. "As for our missing team member, well, it isn't all that bad. It's still kind of a sore topic but it isn't tragic." Nejire offered up as Tamaki heaved a sigh.
"I don't know. Being abandoned by a teammate after a rough mission because she didn't think we were worth staying around as part of a team anymore feels pretty tragic..." Tamaki muttered, clearly more distraught than the others. For a moment he was right there with him before Mirio shook his head with a laugh.
"Come on Tamaki, that's not what happened and you know it. It wasn't personal, she said as much herself. She just..." Mirio hummed to himself for a moment before turning back to Izuku. "You see... Nejire's partner was always a little bit rough around the edges with being a Hunter. She was good, no doubt about that, but... well, even if her head was in the game, her heart seemed like it wasn't most times. She said she wanted to be a Huntress and that she wanted to do it with us but... hmmm, the enthusiasm wasn't there to back up her words most of the time." Nejire nodded, a smile on her face.
"Yeah! We were all pretty good friends, so it's not like she quit because she was sick of us! She was also, like crazy good! " The blue-haired girl chirped in that tone of hers again and, while Tamaki seemed to scoff at that, Mirio looked far more certain of that fact. "But like Mirio said, when it came down to it, she wasn't all that 'in' to it, or at least, she wasn't after a while. During our second semester after we were allowed to start taking missions... well..."
"I screwed up. I wasn't doing the job I was supposed to be doing half as well as Mirio ordered me to and-"
"What Tamaki means is that we were all a little inexperienced and we got into a bit of trouble during the assignment," Mirio spoke up, frankly, as he smiled over at his friend. "We all got through, thankfully but... I guess that the mission was the last straw for her. After spending half a year kind of pushing through Beacon and getting tired of it, the mission just kind of convinced her that it all wasn't worth it and she declared she was dropping out and moving on. From that day on our Team dropped a letter and we became MHA." Mirio said flatly as Nejire just gave a slight nod.
"We keep in contact with her when we can and we still talk of course but it seems like she's moved on pretty well with her life. Which is pretty great; that just means she gets to experience more new things!" Nejire said with the utmost sincerity and happiness, which just caused Izuku to smile.
"At any rate... we were supposed to have a new member added next year once other teams dropped members but... well, no one did, or they didn't in a combination where it just left one member free. It continued like that throughout the year and, eventually, we went into our Third Year just still being MHA. By now I'm pretty sure they aren't even looking for new members now; adding someone new now would just upset the dynamic we've built up over these past couple of years..." Tamaki spoke up from the wall and... yeah, he nodded in understanding. That seemed to make some amount of sense.
"It's still a little sad of course but it wasn't anything too personal Izuku, so don't worry about that. I just hope that wasn't too much of a bummer for you." Mirio said with a slightly abashed grin as he scratched the back of his head.
"Well... to be honest, that probably sounds like the right thing for her to have done," Izuku said casually as he scratched at his arm, causing Mirio and Nejire to look a bit surprised even as Tamaki nodded.
"Yeah, you're probably right... if your heart's not in it then it won't matter how good you are, right?" Izuku frowned a little bit at that, before looking back at all three of them.
"That's not exactly what I meant. To a degree that's what I think: if your heart isn't in something then it's probably not something you should spend your time doing or dedicating yourself toward. However, it's not because she shouldn't bother, necessarily, but because there's someplace else for her to find something to be passionate about." Izuku thought honestly to himself; he wasn't good at being a Huntsman when he first was trying to get into Beacon. He didn't even have One For All. But... he stuck through with it and he found a way. Sure, it was through luck mostly... but it was also because Toshinori saw his passion. Saw how much being a hero and saving people meant to him.
"It's not that she shouldn't do what she's not passionate about... but that she 'should' do what she is passionate about. Regardless of whether they're good at it or if they're good at something else. Things can change, people can improve... they can get better. She shouldn't settle for something she doesn't believe she wants, she should go out and find something she feels strongly about. Just because she didn't find her passion here in being a Huntress, doesn't mean she doesn't have it... it just means it's out there for her to find. So... she did the right thing, I think. It gave her the chance to find something she wanted to do."
...
At that Nejire gave Izuku a big, wide smile as she chuckled, looking over at Mirio. "Gosh Mirio, you were right! Izuku here is such a sweetie!"
...
"Sweetie?" He asked, confused, as Mirio laughed good-naturedly.
"Nejire's phrasing, not mine. I didn't call you a sweetie; I said that you were cool."
...
'HOLY WOAH ONE OF MY SENIORS THINKS I'M ACTUALLY, HONEST TO GOODNESS COOL!?' His face went an even deeper shade of red at that, threatening to spill down to his neck as having someone so close to being a Huntsman themselves call him cool of all things! Nejire cooed a bit over his reaction, laughing a bit herself as Mirio's more boisterous laughter filled the halls. A glance over at Tamaki, with the hope that his cool attitude might help bring the situation down a bit... revealed by that point he'd joined Mirio at his side, actually taking a moment to look Izuku right in the eye.
"... Yeah, yeah that's true. Gods know Mirio knows more than enough about that. So do I."
...
'Was that…'
'Was that respect?!'
Mirio just grinned as he reached over and wrapped an arm around Tamaki, giving him a wide smile. "I knew you'd warm up to him once you got the chance to meet him!"
"Please don't touch me..." Tamaki practically wilted under the overwhelming power of Mirio's personality, the blond young man just chuckling again as Tamaki grimaced. "Plus... shouldn't we be talking about our mission?" Mirio gave a quick 'oh', reaching his hand around while keeping his arm wrapped around Tamaki's shoulder to pound his fist into his palm.
"Ah, that's true, we should! Forgive me if this seems sudden Izuku, but-"
"Oh, I understand. I just wanted to stop by and meet your team! I figured they'd have to be pretty interesting people." At that Nejire perked up as Tamaki continued to struggle against Mirio.
"Would you say that we were?" Izuku smiled a bit at his seniors, giving a firm nod of his head.
"Definitely." With a series of grins, save for Tamaki who looked about as miserable as ever, Team MHA bid Izuku goodbye as they continued with their conversation. He left them to it, looking to finish up his studying and... well, who was he kidding, he didn't have much time to sit down and study like he thought. Not with everything else he needed to do. He had Aura and Full Cowl training to get to help push his soul and those were some pretty time-intensive and energy-demanding exercises to get through. If he didn't start now, he might not have enough time before the day's through...
He didn't feel too mad though as he turned heel to head back toward his dorm room; after all, while he did encounter a few distractions, he couldn't say that he didn't enjoy himself. Which was... probably more than could've been said for how this weekend started.
E/N: Hot Damn, Haven't done any editing in a while, so apologies if I missed anything.
-Shovern