"I...must admit, young Bakugou," Yagi said slowly. "This may be the strangest situation you two have gotten yourselves into thus far."

Next to him, Eraserhead had started pacing, expression so constipated that Yagi wondered if he might actually will his brain to implode and kill him on the spot. For what it was worth, young Bakugou looked similarly exasperated.

"Look, I didn't- Okay, I started shit, but I didn't end-!"

"Bakugou," Eraserhead warned, and young Bakugou, bright, resilient, strong young Bakugou, actually full-on sulked at that.

Yagi sighed, turning forlorn to the boy sitting in the bed. Considering the life that usually resonated from young Midoriya's eyes, the sharp contrast of his current thousand-yard stare was making him feel queasy. He didn't blame the boy, and he didn't blame young Bakugou, either, but even if the circumstances weren't as severe as they could be, it was still troubling.

In all fairness, young Bakugou did set off the chain of events that led up to this, getting into some kind of altercation with a general education student that apparently said something about the explosive boy that he refused to let go of. The resulting verbal battle had been so fierce that it almost became physical. Considering the amazing improvements in his attitude that young Bakugou had been making, Yagi didn't even want to know what it had taken to get him that aggravated.

Of course, it would seem that the gen ed student was not one to let things go so easily, because as it turned out, the young man had planned on getting his revenge by use of his quirk. The following afternoon, as young Bakugou and young Midoriya had been returning from an OFA training session, the boy had ambushed them, fully intending to all but incapacitate young Bakugou with his...admittedly powerful ability.

The problem was that young Midoriya was right there, and Yagi knew without context exactly what would happen. The freckled teen had reacted first, shoving his classmate out of the way and taking the hit himself.

In the end, the gen ed student was suspended, young Bakugou had already been dealing with consequences for the original fight, and young Midoriya was now catatonic for the unforeseeable future.

The quirk was a fascinating one, putting the victim into a vegetative state with a strong enough strike to the head. The effects were not permanent, thank goodness, but how long young Midoriya would be stuck like this, fully aware but unable to interact with the outside world, completely depended on how hard he was struck, and there was already an impressive bruise starting to form along the side of his face.

With a click of the tongue, all attention was suddenly focused on Recovery Girl, hobbling into the room with one of the most annoyed expressions that Yagi had ever seen on her. With one swift motion, she gave young Midoriya a light bop on the head, gentle for his condition, but hard enough to not be friendly. She then proceeded to whack young Bakugou hard enough to make him stumble.

"I swear, you two will be the death of the entire U.A. faculty." she scolded. "Anyway, since he's basically comatose due to this quirk, he will be in need of intensive assistance until it wears off. I can't tell you exactly how long he will be stuck like this, but according to what I have on the other student's files, it should be less than a week."

There was a collective sense of relief amongst the group, and Yagi watched in silence as implications started to dawn on young Bakugou. "No."

"Bakugou," Eraserhead drawled.

"No!"

"You are in charge of him until he recovers."

"I-...!" The guttural noises that followed didn't quite sound like any spoken language that Yagi knew of. Eraserhead, meanwhile, looked far too pleased with himself.

"I should note," Recovery Girl suddenly said. "That there is one other option, but I wouldn't call it viable."

Yagi perked up, the other two going quiet as she continued. "Apparently, it's possible to transfer the effects of the quirk by someone headbutting them." One of the other two scoffed loudly, but Yagi didn't check who it was. "Of course, they would go catatonic themselves, but I can't say how long it would last, so it's not the safest course of action, either."

Really not an option, then. Yagi sighed. "Thank you very much, Recovery Girl."

"Just doing my job." she said. "The rest is up to you all. Come find me if anything happens."

For the first three days, things were blissfully uneventful.

Young Midoriya's condition showed no signs of improvement, but Recovery Girl had warned that the quirk's effects would not ebb away, but simply disappear all at once. His classmates had been greatly disturbed by his dead-eyed stare, but were all quick to offer their aid in their classmate's recovery. Yagi couldn't be more proud of how they all came together so swiftly in his successor's time of need.

Despite his situation, young Midoriya's intellect was not lost, as with time, he was able to communicate a strategy on how he could voice his needs until he was himself again. Even though he couldn't move, he could make noise, and effectively, grunting became his language.

One grunt meant he something he considered important had caught his attention, two grunts meant he was hungry, and three was asking to use the restroom. That's what young Bakugou had explained, anyway.

When asked what the one grunt was supposed to indicate, he was given the example of something catching fire in the kitchen and no one else noticing. Yagi wasn't sure how young Midoriya was able to communicate that that's what he meant, or how young Bakugou had successfully figured that out, but he'd long since accepted that the two of them were an enigma.

Every morning, when Yagi would come to Heights Alliance to check on the kids, young Bakugou would be grumbling threats under his breath as he carried young Midoriya down the stairs. Either young Tokoyami, young Aoyama, or young Mineta would be hovering as he did so, while young Satou would just be finishing up preparing his breakfast, either an oatmeal or something similar. Either way, it always smelled divine.

Young Uraraka and young Asui would usually be the ones to feed him, but sometimes, young Bakugou's group of friends would volunteer. Though, from what Yagi heard, young Kaminari was banned from doing so after he tried the old 'here comes the airplane' thing and young Uraraka bodily tossed him out of the kitchen.

The prospect of missing classes had left young Midoriya whining like, not to be rude, a literal toddler, so Eraserhead found himself having to work around that as well. The solution ended up being young Midoriya temporarily taking young Shouji's desk. Meanwhile, young Shouji would take young Ojiro's spot and young Satou would take young Hagakure's. That way, the two of them could catch him, in case he was to fall. Young Yaoyorozu and young Iida took charge of copying notes, though young Bakugou found himself getting dragged into it, as well.

And that became the class's system. Yagi couldn't express just how proud of his students he was, watching as they came together in a comrade's time of need, brought together in the face of adversity. When he mentioned this to Eraserhead, the only response he got was a look that bordered on desperation. Eraserhead was a man at his wit's end and the veteran hero didn't entirely blame him.

But things had been going well, considering. Yagi knew that young Midoriya must hate feeling so burdensome, being unable to take care of himself, but he seemed happy otherwise, and Yagi was happy for him. At this rate, he would be back on his feet in no time at all.

And then on day four, everything went to shit.

"You seriously gave them a test when one of your students can't even move his hands." Present Mic said incredulously. Eraserhead, leaning back in his desk chair, only shrugged, a dry smile on his face that spoke of nothing but ill intent.

"He was exempt." he reasoned. Yagi let it go. Present Mic did not.

Afternoon heroics lessons had gone without a hitch, consisting of little more than displaying everyone's special moves and how they'd created them. Then, they were off to the locker rooms and out the door, young Midoriya hung comfortably over a ranting young Bakugou's shoulders while young Shouji wordlessly stayed close. The class seemed to practically circle around them like a pack at this point, especially after an alleged encounter with young Monoma during lunch period.

Even so, the day was warm, a cloudless sky blanketing the Earth in sunlight. Birds sang to their heart's content as a light breeze blew through the school grounds, the trees swaying with it and leaves rustling soothingly. In short, it was a picturesque day.

And Yagi's hero sense was screaming.

It had been since that morning, and the former number one just couldn't bring himself to relax. Young Bakugou had felt it, too, complaining to Yagi about young Kirishima and young Todoroki badgering him about it all day.

"You feel anything?" young Bakugou had snapped at the boy on his back. "Grunt if you do."

Young Midoriya did, in fact, grunt back.

When Yagi had brought his concerns to Nezu, the school principal had agreed to put the security wall up, despite the media attention it would likely attract. It was better safe than sorry, after all, and Yagi appreciated that.

"Maybe it's someone outside the school." Present Mic thought aloud. "You and the little listeners are feeling it, so none of you are specifically in danger."

"I'm astounded." Eraserhead commented.

"Well, I suppose we can only wait and see." Yagi sighed, a hint of frustration creeping into his voice. "It isn't like there's anything I can do about it."

"Ah, don't put yourself down like that." said Present Mic. "You may not have the brawn anymore, but you still got the brains, you know-"

CRASH!

Eraserhead's head turned so fast that Yagi thought he heard his neck crack. Every other teacher in the room was on their feet within that time. A wave of dust exploded from a wall just off to the side of the gate, crumbling under an unknown force that had alarms sounding in Yagi's head.

Without thinking, Yagi was sprinting out of the room, several footsteps just behind him as he rounded the corner and charged down the stairs. Several students shouted as they leaped out of the way, watching wide-eyed as a parade of teachers pushed past them. Before anyone could blink, Yagi was throwing caution to the wind and bursting out the front doors before he could question his own presence in what was bound to escalate into a fight.

By the time they got there, the students had already sprung into action.

There was a hulking man in the middle of school grounds, looking almost as if he was asleep standing where he was. Behind him, reporters were tentatively peering through the hole he'd created. Hero students from both classes were scrambling to get their non-heroics classmates out of the area while the heavier hitters honed in on the intruder. It was like a bear breaking into a beehive with how fast the students were responding to the crisis.

Young Satou and young Kendou were the first ones to get to the giant, attacking with ferocity as their fists seemed to smash into a rock-solid surface. A brief clash, and suddenly, they were both sent flying back. Young Kamakiri and young Kirishima were met with similar results.

The man didn't even blink at them, let alone move.

Blasts like a machine gun suddenly pelted the man, and Yagi panicked for a moment as he turned to Bakugou, firing with precision and razor focus. He only relaxed when he spotted a bundle of green curls safe in young Shouji's arms.

"It's a mutant quirk, whatever this is." Eraserhead's voice startled Yagi. "Erasure isn't working, even without all the dust."

"Get me in close and I'll subdue him!" Midnight shouted, hand already hovering over the material of her costume.

She went charging in, Present Mic and Eraserhead right behind her, so Yagi found himself shuffling off to the side, where young Shouji was cradling his protege.

"Blunt attacks seem to be useless." young Shouji said as Yagi approached. "How problematic."

"Cocky motherfucker." Bakugou spat. In the distance, Midnight's quirk mixed with the dust, but the beast of a man swatted it away with a single blow. One or two students were unprepared and dropped to the ground while more frontline fighters were thrown back like dolls. "Who does he think he is? He's not even attacking anybody, but he's just barging in like he owns the place!"

"Perhaps he has a point to prove?"

Cement walls blasted up from the ground, growing layer by layer as the man bashed through each one. In young Shouji's arms, young Midoriya whined.

"Yeah, yeah, nerd. Everyone's fine." young Bakugou snapped. Meanwhile, Eraserhead's capture weapon shot out from the dust and snagged the man's arm.

This was the first real reaction that anyone had gotten thus far, the man responding so violently that Eraserhead was flung away, rocketing into the wall just behind Yagi with a powerful crash.

"Sensei!" young Shouji cried.

"Are you alright?!" Yagi asked as he pulled a coughing Eraserhead out of the rubble. At least he was standing, dusting himself off with a wince on his face.

Bakugou had gone quiet, his eyes darting back and forth as the fight continued. Perhaps 'fight' was a strong word for it, since the man was just standing there and so far had yet to be subdued, though to be fair, barely two minutes had passed.

"Direct hits are being repelled." young Bakugou thought aloud. "Bastard doesn't like being restrained, though..."

A sour look marred his face, as if something far too unsavory had crossed his mind. On one hand, Yagi didn't want the fiery teen to do anything that made him so uncomfortable as to make such an expression, but on the other, the longer this fiasco went on, the longer U.A. campus was susceptible to both another break-in and more media scrutiny.

"Fuck it." Bakugou snarled, turning sharply to young Shouji. "We need black whip."

Young Shouji blinked back. "What do you want me to do about it?"

"Put Deku down."

Young Shouji continued to stare, while Yagi was just as lost. Before he could voice his concerns, young Shouji did as instructed.

Before he could lay him down flat, however, young Bakugou was grabbing at the freckled teen's face, forcing him to sit on his knees while he knelt down with him, eyes blazing with murderous intent. "You hear me, useless Deku?! We can't hit 'em, but we can restrain 'em!"

Something clicked in Yagi's mind.

"Apparently, it's possible to transfer the effects of the quirk by someone headbutting them."

Oh.

"So I better not regret this, fucker!"

Yagi and Eraserhead were the first to react. "Hold on-!"

"Do not-!"

BONK!

Everything after that was wrapped up, no pun intended, in just a few moments.

His classmates were admittedly startled when young Midoriya came barreling in without fanfare, black whip surging from his fingers like a spider's web, but nobody questioned him when he ordered young Yaoyorozu to create as much capture tape as she could and for everyone else to follow his lead.

The man's quirk was simply called repel. It was the opposite of the USJ nomu's ability, making all hits bounce off of his body and back at the attacker. It was a part of his body rather than something to be turned on and off, something that young Jirou claimed to have seen in a quirk before, making it technically a mutant quirk and mostly immune to Eraserhead's erasure.

Of course, it only worked on attacks that caused damage, which was why he was quick to swat away Midnight's sleeping gas and break through Cementoss's dome. More importantly, it was why the man reacted so strongly to Eraserhead's capture weapon and young Midoriya's black whip, but the latter and the extra support from multiple cuts of capture tape were enough to restrain him, because apparently, he had not been expecting anyone to figure out his quirk and its loophole so quickly.

It was his own fault for underestimating U.A. so spectacularly, because one whiff from Midnight's quirk while tied up and he was out cold.

Reporters having been escorted off of the premises, all that was left to do was to rebuild the destroyed wall, though Nezu seemed adamant on commissioning a stronger building material to avoid something like this happening again any time soon. The media was already on them about being 'lax' with their construction.

At least all of the students were safe and unharmed, Yagi thought, standing in the middle of Heights Alliance as the students prepared dinner. Though young Shouji had been startled when he'd found young Bakugou collapsed in his arms, and the class had been visibly unnerved by the dead-eyed thousand-yard stare being transferred to the normally fiery blonde's eyes, they knew the drill by this point. As it was, young Kirishima had taken him up to his room, thinking that he wouldn't want to be seen like this, nor pampered or pitied for the state he was in, and upon young Midoriya's agreement, he'd taken young Bakugou and disappeared upstairs.

Young Midoriya, meanwhile, found himself being showered with affection in his stead, and by the beat red dusting on his cheeks, he wasn't sure how to deal with young Uraraka and young Ashido's current, loving badgering.

"This is your fault and you know it." a voice startled him, Yagi whipping around to find Eraserhead glaring at him.

"I'm...not sure what you mean?" Yagi responded, visibly confused. "What did I do?"

"You existed." he said with a huff, and Yagi wasn't sure how to take that, but the underground hero was out the door before he could ask, muttering expletives the whole way.

"Kirishima!" young Sero suddenly shouted, and all attention was pulled to the stairs as the redhead made his way down.

"How is he, kero?"

"Yeah, man. How's our Kacchan doing?"

Young Kirishima smiled. "He went to sleep. If we're lucky, he'll be back to normal soon and we can put all this behind us, yeah?"

"I hope so." young Yaoyorozu sighed, a tower of food resting on her plate. "We don't know if the quirk's effects reset upon transfer or not."

"Er, layman's terms?"

"Will we have to wait an extra four days for things to go back to normal or not."

It was a fair concern, Yagi realized, and he really, truly hoped for young Bakugou's sake that he wouldn't have to. He would have to ask Recovery Girl about it tomorrow.

For now, though, he was content to sit with his students, young Midoriya laughing with a light in his eyes that the veteran hero had found himself dearly, dearly missing.

As it turned out, U.A. campus would wake up the next morning to young Bakugou screaming at the sky again.

Well, all's well that ends well, Yagi supposed.