Kacchan strode rapidly towards the gates, pointedly not meeting Izuku's gaze. He'd been delayed barely fifteen minutes by his conversation with Mr. Aizawa, but it must have been an intense fifteen minutes.
"Kacchan?" Izuku asked.
"I don't want to talk about it," he said vehemently, not quite snapping.
"Oh..." The temptation to demand "are you okay" was overwhelming. Izuku quashed it and the pair set off together to the train.
The silence lasted for two blocks before Katsuki apparently couldn't take it anymore. "I am different, aren't I?" he demanded.
Izuku blinked at him dumbly. "Uh... different?" "From middle school."
"Like... you're taller now?" He was. "And I think maybe your hair is spikier than it used to be and--"
"Not like that! The... the shit I used to do to you in middle school, and not just you, and the shit I used to say to you." Izuku still didn't understand what was being asked of him. "If I tried to pull that crap on you now, you would be shocked, wouldn't you? You would... you wouldn't expect it of me."
Pawing back over recent months' memories, Izuku couldn't find a single example of Kacchan attacking someone--physically or verbally--without significant provocation. If Kacchan told Izuku to jump off a roof or slammed someone into a locker, once upon a time that would have been status quo, now it would stun Izuku speechless. "Or," a traitorous part of his brain whispered, "it would
just be the end of this phase and back to business as usual. What's a few months of good behavior in the face of years of cruelty? What should you really expect?" That wasn't what Izuku said. "N- no. I wouldn't expect that of you. I... would be shocked."
Katsuki folded his arms protectively over his chest. "It's... I knew in middle school everyone expected that of me, even after I stopped being the bully I didn't really stop being the bully . What other role would I have? And I thought at UA, finally, no one would know me 'cept for you and you forgive like a saint so..." He paused as if considering leaving it there. Izuku had a good idea of what this was about now, but couldn't be sure, not unless Kacchan finished that sentence. "But Aizawa knows me from when he was looking for you, and he knows what I did and what I said."
"Oh," Izuku said, realizing at last exactly what conversation had occurred between student and teacher. Most likely, Aizawa had given Katsuki the "thin ice" speech. Aizawa had said, that first time Izuku met the underground operative, that someone like Katsuki didn't deserve to go to hero school, that if he was the sort to suicide-bait his classmate he ought not be given a license.
"He said that he's giving me the benefit of the doubt, that was what he said when I read between the lines, anyway," Katsuki said with his head bowed. "That he won't look for a reason to throw me out, not more than anyone else, but if he sees me doing things like that again I'll be sent home and blacklisted from every reputable school."
That had to hurt, having it all dragged out in the open like that when he was trying to change. "But it doesn't matter because you won't do anything like that," Izuku said, putting every bit of faith and confidence he could dredge up into those words. "I would be shocked."
Kacchan blinked at him and, ever so slowly, the hint of a grin spread across his face. "Thanks, nerd," he said. "You don't mind me calling you nerd, right?" he added hurriedly.
"'Course not. Nerds get straight A's. Why would I object to a complement on my academic prowess?" he said with a playful grin.
Kacchan really had changed, not to the point of seeming like a different person entirely, but something fundamental had shifted. If Izuku hadn't disappeared, Kacchan would have come to UA acting the way he did in middle school. Would Aizawa have tolerated that or expelled him for it? Hard to say... Maybe Izuku's disappearing act really had been the best thing for everyone... but what would Katsuki's fate have been if Izuku had never returned? If the greenette had vanished from the face of the earth with Katsuki's murderous taunt forefront of everyone's memories? There weren't any neat words to describe the look Kacchan gave Izuku when they met in the hotel room, when the blonde told him "I thought I fucking killed you." Izuku took a moment to thank the anonymous powers that ran the universe for sparing them all the pain of that timeline.
For all Kacchan made fun of Izuku's fidgeting when nervous or excited, the blonde did a fair amount of it himself. Ojirou, Shouji, Katsuki and Izuku lingered together in the upper right hand corner of the blob that constituted class 1-A and not one of them could claim any moral high ground on the fidgeting front. "What do you think we'll do for our first heroics course?" Shouji
wondered.
"W-well," Izuku began after Kacchan just shrugged, "some people have probably never sparred with another person before, not with quirk use anyway, so probably something really simple? They don't want us hurting each other on the first day."
Izuku's comment had, apparently, been overheard by Yaoyorozu and Asui (call me "Tsu") who nodded in agreement with him. "Or maybe we'll jump right into it, plus ultra and all that," Kirishima suggested. "We all took the entrance exam at least and that required plenty of fighting."
"But no restraint," Ojiro pointed out. "Fighting another person for practice is not at all the same thing as destroying a robot." Kaminari nodded his agreement as more people were swept into the rushing torrent of the conversation.
"Who is even teaching this class, kero?" asked Asui.
"I'm..." Iida turned the syllabus over twice. "I am not sure, but the course description suggests that we will begin doing battle simulations immediately."
"That does seem a bit much for the very first class," Yaoyorozu said.
"I am coming through the door like a normal person!" exclaimed a very familiar voice.
Well, first off: no. Normal people do not enter rooms like that. Second off: that's All Might. Oh my god that's All Might. Izuku hadn't even realized he'd been hired at UA. When had that happened? Clearly some of his classmates had known but hadn't expected to actually see the number one pro teaching classes.
"Don't pass out, nerd," Kacchan muttered in Izuku's ear, although it was clear the blonde was plenty excited himself.
"Welcome to your first heroics course!" All Might said. "This is my first time teaching a full class, as you may have guessed, so please do not hesitate to ask questions as they arise!
"Now, UA likes to jump right into the thick of things, but it seems the traditional first exercise is a scavenger hunt of sorts!"
It was? Like on the Ketsubutsu entrance exam? "Four of your classmates will be chosen as "villains" and will be given ten minutes to hide this "bomb,"" he showed the prop, "somewhere in your sectioned off area of training ground beta. Groups of four will then attempt to find the villain and weapon. The weapon must be placed upright whenever it is stationary but moving it is legal. Four heroes will seek each "bomb." The goal is to find the weapon as quickly as possible and claim it by touching it. There is not to be any fighting in this first exercise, with quirks or otherwise," he continued, "but you may use your abilities as you see fit. There is no rule whatsoever about how heroes search for the bomb or how villains hide it save that no one behave in a way liable to cause injury to anyone involved or excessive property damage. Villains may attempt to obstruct heroes with quirks or otherwise, but again, no direct attacks, nothing liable to cause injury or excessive damage. I will keep an eye on all of you from here and after the exercises we will return here to analyze the outcomes."
A few hands shot up. The first was Iida wanting to know, "how is this exercise assessed?"
"All other things being equal, the first heroes to locate the weapon can expect the highest scores, as can the villain who avoids heroes for the longest period of time," he laughed, "of course, all things are not equal. Creativity, responsibility, efficiency, all of these things will be assessed.
However, this being the first day, there are many things you cannot be expected to know." Izuku hadn't known what to expect from All Might as a teacher... he seemed about the same in person as on TV, so optimistic that the sun seemed to shine more brightly in his presence. All Might handled the other questions fairly well, better than Izuku would have expected from a teacher on his first day.
"Alright. Villains, as randomly selected, will be Todoroki, Ashido, Uraraka, and Midoriya." Oh. He hadn't planned on that... how was he going to do this? He'd been silently scheming about how to find the weapon, somehow sure he would be a hero. "Todoroki will be pursued by Jiro, Kirishima, Bakugou and Mineta. Ashido will be pursued by Asui, Yaoyorozu, Kaminari, and Ojiro. Uraraka will be pursued by Shouji, Sato, Tokoyami and Hagakure. Midoriya will be pursued by Aoyama, Iida, Sero and Koda.
"Now, the support department has a surprise for you!" All Might gestured behind him to a long row of briefcases. "Your costumes are ready today. Change and have heroes return here. I'll meet villains out on the training grounds to give them their props and show them to their sections."
When Izuku filled in the costume request form two weeks previously, he'd discovered--much to his consternation--that not only did he know exactly what materials he wanted for his outfit, he had preferred -brand names. SILVR was the company he wanted to do business with for body armor and knives. ACMX was the vendor from which he wished to purchase impact-absorbing combat boots. Izuku had long known about SILVR--they were a Japanese company despite the odd name and quite prominent in hero circles. To the best of his knowledge, however, the student had never heard of the Amercian support company ACMX before he asked UA to acquire boots from them. Izuku was well and truly accustomed to that kind of bull--sorry, that kind of thing by now and it didn't even seem worth mentioning.
Izuku's work outfit--for some reason calling it a costume seemed silly--had a grey-blue-black camouflage pattern. Completely black clothing wasn't that useful for staying unseen at night. The goal was to be the color of the city, so mostly gray. Black in the dark looks different from gray in the dark. Izuku wore a layer of flexible body armor beneath the camouflage. Thicker plates guarded his torso. Izuku had not asked for anything special as far as gloves were concerned, but immediately recognized the ACMX mascot, a checkered whiptail, on their packaging. These were "gecko gloves," apparently, perhaps a package deal with the boots. They wouldn't actually allow Izuku to climb on glass, but they would provide a firm grip on even the smoothest of surfaces while protecting his hands from heat, cold and "moderately forceful stabs." They also provided wrist support with a similar impact absorbing design to the company's boots. When falling from a great height, then, Izuku should try to land on all fours. He would be most likely to avoid injury that way by spreading the force of the impact.
Sleeve sheaths provided easy access to an octet of thin throwing knives. Other weapons, including the two quazi-short swords he had requested, could be holstered on his belt. The staff would be more cumbersome as it didn't collapse ; it wouldn't be an easy weapon to stow , but it should be possible to secure it to his back if he needed both hands free. He would keep this in mind for future modification requests. Izuku checked all of his weapons before putting the blade guards back on and returning all knives to the case. There wasn't to be any real fighting today so he didn't need or want them.
"You look... scary," Kacchan told him as Izuku headed out to meet All Might. "Thanks! You look... intense?"
"You do look intense," Sero agreed before Katsuki had a chance to respond.
"The hell does that even mean?" Kacchan wondered.
"Lots of... like loud colors," Kaminari tried to explain as Izuku stepped into the hallway and let the door to the changing room drift closed.
By the time Izuku arrived on the training ground, there were only two prop bombs left. Well, Izuku had several layers to don, so it took him longer to dress than some of the others.
"Good morning, young Midoriya. This "bomb" is for you," the hero gestured. Izuku squeaked an acknowledgement. It was all he could manage above the din of several trains of thought yelling "oh my god All Might is talking to you! Oh my god it's All Might!" The fanboy wondered, briefly, if All Might remembered their first meeting, remembered the day Izuku had forgotten. Probably not. The number one hero was constantly busy after all.
Izuku got a grip and forced himself to listen carefully. The "bomb" was almost as big as Izuku but light enough for him to lift easily with one hand. "This is your section," the hero showed him a map and pointed out the corresponding locations above ground.
"There's a sewer system," Izuku realized with a start as the brief information session came to a close.
"There is indeed," All Might agreed with a chuckle. "I believe you are the first to notice that. Your section will be marked off below ground by yellow tape."
"Koda's quirk is going to be a lot of trouble," Izuku mused, "he has all those eyes helping him..." Did Anivoice allow Koda to have intelligent conversations with animals or was it just a form of mind control? The former would be far more difficult to overcome, as certainly some animal would see where Izuku was going.
"Indeed. Good luck Midoriya! Ah, young Ashido! There you are. Let me show you your section..."
Izuku hefted the bomb in one arm and took off running down streets at random, circling back and taking wrong turns intentionally, attempting to confound any animals that might see. Izuku checked his watch--he had five minutes left. Alright. That was enough running aimlessly, then.
The student slid into one of the larger faux-buildings through the front door, exited through the side door, yanked up a manhole cover and dropped into the underground, sealing the path behind him.
The "sewer system" was merely a network of huge, concrete pipes with a bit of murky water flowing through them. Izuku had hoped for something like this.
The student set off running again. Four minutes left... he needed to find a good place to leave the bomb and then he needed to get above ground and find a decent building to make his hiding place. Hopefully the other students would search for Izuku rather than the bomb. After all, it didn't matter if Izuku were caught.
Izuku came across a significant hole in the pipe wall. It did not appear planned; something (or someone) had been thrown through the concrete here during a previous battle simulation. This was as good a place as any. Izuku stowed the bomb in the hole. It was not hidden in the sense that someone walking past would not notice it, but it was hidden in the sense that if someone standing at either neighboring junction glanced down this section of sewer, the prop would not be visible.
Alright... three minutes left. Izuku took off again, running for another forty seconds and taking several turns at random before choosing a manhole and ascending into the city. The sprinting was
starting to take its toll. He'd be glad to find a hiding spot and rest a while.
Dragging the cover back into place, the student chose a five story building across the street and leapt through the shattered window in its side. He would have liked to run further from the manhole he had exited, but time was running out. The greenette sprinted up the stairs to the top floor and, discovering a coat closet with a legitimate door and actual coats inside, hid himself.
Hiding in a coat closet... it felt like a child's game of hide and seek. Another dose of adrenaline surged through his veins and Izuku bounced up and down on his toes . This was so exciting and maybe a little frightening but mostly just exciting! There was no pressure, nothing to fear, no consequence when Izuku was caught, no reason for the nerve and yet... the static fizzing in his blood refused to fade.
A few minutes later, Izuku heard Sero shouting, although he could not make out what his classmate said.
Izuku took measured breaths, trying to get rid of some of the electric energy. It didn't work. He really wanted to have a good, long fight with Ojiro right now. That would get rid of this feeling...
The door flew open and Koda threw the coats aside. The tension evaporated because the ruse was over but it had worked , hadn't it?
Izuku's capturing classmate wore a look of profound amusement--and, well, yes, Izuku was in the closet but come on , grow up--and triumph which rapidly turned to confusion. The small bird on Koda's shoulder chirped happily and Izuku allowed himself to grin.
"Nope, bomb's not in the closet with me, good luck," Izuku waved, taking a seat on the floor.
Sero had seen Koda's approach and arrived about a minute later. Koda was long since gone, following other animals in an attempt to retrace Izuku's steps. "Where is it, villain scum?" demanded Sero.
"I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about, hero," Izuku could play this game, too. "Mwahahaha!" Sero jerked back. "Too much?"
"Your evil laugh is... I don't know, just wrong. Now where is it?" "I'll never talk," Izuku said just as Iida finally joined them.
"Oh, I see," the speedster said, "you thought to waste our time by having us seek you out when your weapon was concealed elsewhere? What a dastardly scheme! How truly villainous! But rest assured, the heroes shall be victorious! Sero?"
"Yeah?" Sero asked.
"If we work together, we can clear the zone more quickly. I can search the streets and lower floors, you can search the rooftops and upper floors!"
"Well... I guess that's allowed? You'll call me if you find the bomb and wait to claim it so we tie?"
"Of course!"
"Alright, let's go!" the two took off and the greenette walked to the nearest window to keep an eye on their progress. It was good to see them cooperating. Really, they would have been best off
working together form the start.
Huh. "Well, this all went rather well," Izuku decided.
Fortunately for the heroes, their assigned training ground section wasn't that large. It only contained a few dozen buildings and most of those were only a single story and completely unfurnished. Still, it took Sero and Iida more than ten minutes to complete their search even with such useful mobility quirks.
"Koda's probably found it by now," Izuku mused. At that moment, Koda emerged from a manhole, a brown mouse perched upon his shoulder.
Iida, who had zoomed around a nearby corner moments before, stared at Koda in consternation then began to yell for Sero.
Five minutes later, All Might's voice crackled over Izuku's communicator. "All the heroes have at last located the weapon! Please return to the viewing room now!"
Izuku couldn't help but feel tempted . He could walk down the stairs... or he could jump to that neighboring balcony and then to the ground... he really wanted to, but that would just be pointlessly reckless. If he were only on the second story it would be alright, but Kacchan would glare at him later if Izuku jumped from a window this high, even with a plan to get down safely.
Fine then. Izuku took the stairs.