Chapter 7: What Do You Need?
Everyone acted a little differently around Midoriya now. But it wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been. They didn't avoid him or back away the moment he appeared. Instead, they looked upon him with this newfound respect – which was definitely not something he'd ever experienced before.
Out of everyone, it was mainly Iida who changed mannerisms. It wasn't much. Someone other than Midoriya may have not picked up on it. It was just the way that he didn't even tell him off for not eating anything last night – or only smiled and nodded when they first saw each other that morning, instead of his usual, animated greeting.
Other than that, however, everyone was exactly the same. At first, perhaps a little hesitant, but before long, Uraraka was going on about the minor inconveniences of her Quirk with him – Yaoyorozu was making morning tea for everyone – Tsu was on Mineta-watch – and Shoto was as quiet and stoic as always.
They had an entire day off lessons, but they still apparently needed someone to keep an eye on them. On Sundays, Mr Aizawa would usually hover about the dorms, appearing and disappearing and occasionally doing paperwork on the table in the corner. But Mr Aizawa obviously wasn't around at the moment, so they needed a substitute.
And the word substitute, mixed with class A – was never going to be a good combination.
Their alarms had all gone off early in the morning as usual, accompanied with what had become the daily morning scream – where everyone would wake up and make more noise than the alarm clocks in their unwillingness to get out of bed.
Midoriya felt awful, and his shoulder ached more than ever. He struggled getting dressed, every twinge of the muscle sending electric-like shocks down his arm. But he still had to make it to homeroom. Even without lessons being held, they had a busy day ahead of them – most notably, in terms of the interviews with the police after what had happened at the USJ.
But none of the happenings listed above took the prime space in the minds of most of Midoriya's classmates. Instead, they were watching him – waiting to see what he'd do. For he'd promised he would get Mineta expelled, and quickly. He didn't have much sleep last night, considering he'd been up thinking of a plan for a good three hours at least. And although he didn't ever say it out loud, his personal target for expulsion was twenty-four hours – which meant he had until midnight.
Speaking of which –
"Listen up!" Miss Midnight slammed her hand down on the teacher's desk, tapping her long, red nails against the wood. "Because of the security breach, we're going to have to keep an even closer eye on you than usual, meaning you'll be spending most of the day in here."
There was a chorus of disappointed groans across the classroom.
"Complain and I'll give out detentions!" she snapped, pointing her support item, a whip that she obviously had no plans on actually using, at them. "The support course could do with some help testing out prototypes."
Usually, Midoriya would have been rather interested by the prospect, but the way she said prototypes made it sound like a good thing to avoid.
"Consider it a study hall," she finished, and finally sat down – in Mr Aizawa's chair. Well, it wasn't like she had anywhere else to sit, but Midoriya wasn't the only one who found this… wrong.
Mineta, sitting behind Midoriya, was the only one who didn't seem to mind.
Midnight was one of those heroes to blame for the poor hero costume taste of class B. Her Quirk was incredibly useful for heroics – a fragrance emitted from her skin would cause anyone who smelt it to immediately fall asleep. But due to the added affect that it would work best on those who could actually be attracted to her, so, mainly guys, she dressed in a very 18 manner. But at least she had a reason, unlike a lot of other over-the-top heroes. She also had to have a lot of exposed skin for her Quirk to work effectively. Her original costume was so extreme that Japan completely modified its regulations on the matter. But her current costume was just… stupid. She exposed hardly any skin, and instead wore a thin, white fabric over her arms and legs, that she could rip to release her fragrance. Just… why? The amount of maintenance that required was ridiculous. There were plenty of other ways to design a costume that fitted her needs, wasn't too extreme, and didn't need fixing every single day.
But again, Mineta didn't mind.
Gosh, maybe, if Midoriya ever got out of this class, he would try and transfer to the support course. They designed hero costumes, support items and basically got to tinker and invent whatever they wanted if they had a good enough reason behind it. It sounded pretty fun, and Midoriya would get to yell at stupid heroes whenever he wanted! And they wouldn't be able to do anything about it because they relied on him too much.
Midoriya blinked and realised he'd been sitting there and daydreaming for at least ten minutes in utter silence. Midnight was marking some work from her other classes, and the rest of class A were either doing their own work, also staring blankly at the front of the room, or staring at him.
Midoriya heard his phone beep.
Midnight glanced up for a moment but didn't tell anyone off for using their phones. Midoriya took this as permission to use them.
[Hagakure - 18] What are you going to do today?
It was an innocent question, but Midoriya knew the meaning behind it.
He pursed his lips – how could he answer this so that she understood, but any teachers reading their messages, wouldn't?
[18 - Hagakure] Staying in this room all morning wasn't exactly what I had in mind.
What did he have in mind? Plenty of time in the dorms.
Midoriya had been thinking – a dangerous thing. The rest of his class had filled him in on what the Detective had said outside the USJ, when Midoriya was unconscious and with Recovery Girl. There was a traitor to UA amongst either class A or B, someone who had leaked information regarding when class A and All Might would be together. But neither class knew about their trip to the USJ until that very morning, and the villains would have needed much more time to organise such a massive invasion force.
And then he remembered the press attack, as so it had been nicknamed by his class. The school had panicked – the gates that usually protected them from such people were completely disintegrated.
And who did they know who had a disintegration power?
So, there was a traitor in the school, who had contact with Shigaraki to organise the event – and in the distraction caused, had time to sneak into the staff room, find the information they needed, and report back to the League of Villains.
To do that, they needed something for communication, i.e. a phone or some other electronic device. None of class A could access the internet. They weren't even allowed near the ICT suite without supervision, and there were cameras everywhere. But all of their belongings had been searched before they were even allowed access to UA. No one had such a device… right?
But in a class of villains, it would be foolish to assume that no one had managed to sneak something in.
Of course, there was still the possibility that it was, in fact, someone from class B. But everyone knew that was unlikely. More than one of Midoriya's classmates were here specifically for being thieves for hire. If Midoriya had been asked to steal the information before entering UA, and given the means to do so, he'd probably consider it at the very least. He owed nothing to the school – and hated All Might, not that whoever did do this necessarily knew what was going to become of it.
Anyway, out of everyone in the class, there was only one person who ever seemed to consider siding with the villains to get out of there – and it wasn't Shoto.
It had been Mineta.
If Midoriya could prove that Mineta was the one who leaked the information, he'd be failed for sure. All he needed to do, was to find his means of communication with Shigaraki. Fortunately for Midoriya, Mineta's room was right next to his.
Unfortunately for Midoriya, they weren't going to be back in the dorms until after the interviews with the Detective now.
Of course, Mineta wasn't actually here for being a thief, at least, not to Midoriya's knowledge. It would be far more likely they got someone like Uraraka or Hagakure to steal the schedule, only Uraraka was eating lunch with Midoriya at the time, so it couldn't have been her. He couldn't account for Hagakure though, and being invisible, the security cameras probably couldn't either.
Plan B was, after failing to find proof in Mineta's room – search Hagakure's –
– and frame Mineta.
Rude – but hey, Midoriya didn't care. If it really were Hagakure, he didn't want her to fail for it – she obviously didn't know what would happen and did help during the USJ. Mineta suggested getting someone killed, so he's not as easy to forgive. And, Hagakure would have just been doing what she'd always been doing – it was just another job, she probably didn't think it through.
But that didn't matter because Midoriya couldn't search either room.
Hagakure didn't send any other message for a moment, so Midoriya decided to bring the rest of the class in on the action.
Class 1-A Group Chat
[18] So, who else would rather be at the dorms?
[Mina] I think EVERYONE
[Yaoyorozu] It would have been more beneficial to continue with ordinary lessons
[Iida] At least take this opportunity to catch up on your work!
[Jiro] We could have done that at the dorms
[Mina] This is so boringggggggggg
[Mina] We could have SLEPT IN
[Sero] I vote we just sleep here
[Mina] On the desk?? No thanks
[Shoto] Midoriya, how badly do you need to be at the dorms?
There was a moment of silence where no one typed a word, and all turned to Midoriya with understanding.
[18] Well, if I want to get my work done –
[18] Quite badly, yes
[Kaminari] Midnight doesn't have any good WEAKNESSES, does she?
[18] She won't be as easy as Present Mic
[18] But if anyone can do it, you lot can.
Knowing glances were exchanged across the classroom, paired with grins worthy of any good villain.
[18] You should probably bury these messages before Midnight tries to read them though
[Kaminari] Hey 13
[Sero] What?
[Kaminari] Beep
[Mina] Beep beep beep
[Kaminari] Beep bop
[Sero] bop. Definitely bop.
[Kaminari] Beep beep beep – then bop.
[Hagakure] Beep-ity-beep!
And that went on for the subsequent five minutes, until they were told off for giggling too much, and the silence returned.
"Miss?" Hagakure suddenly called out, raising his hand.
"Yes?"
"Can I go to the bathroom?"
"…Quickly, yes."
"Thanks, Miss!" And she disappeared before she could change her mind.
Midoriya was generally curious as to what was about to happen, but the silence returned for another five minutes before something changed.
"Where is she?" Midnight murmured to herself, standing up to leave the classroom.
This was when Mina cried out and jumped up onto her chair. There was a sizeable hole in her desk. "Ah! I'm so sorry!"
"It's ok!" Midnight replied, hurrying over to access the damage.
It was in this moment, that the door creaked open, and carefully closed itself again – which was obviously a certain invisible girl's doing.
"Have you got something to neutralise the acid?" Midnight questioned, oblivious of what was going on.
"No! I didn't bring any – I didn't think we'd be here for long!"
"Right – I'll hurry to the support lab to find something," she sighed. "Try not to move far or activate your Quirk anymore."
Mina sniffed back tears, "I-I'll try."
And Midnight left.
Laughter erupted around the classroom.
"Please tell me that's you, Hagakure," Ojiro, sitting at the front of the room, sighed.
"What? No! I'm a ghost – duh," sounded out, very obviously, Hagakure's voice. If you looked carefully, you could just see the thin, metal band that was her tracking anklet, floating just off the ground.
Then, of course, Mineta spoke up, "Does this mean that you're naked?"
Everyone stared at him.
"Hey, Midoriya?" croaked Tsu.
"Hm?"
"Can you open the window?"
Midoriya was the one sitting closest to it. He sighed and leant over his desk to open it wide.
"Wait, no!" Mineta called out, "We were all thinking it! And we're so high up!"
"Yeah… you probably shouldn't throw him out up this high," Midoriya hated to point out. "Unless Uraraka agrees to help."
"Oh, sure!" she beamed. "Midori! What's the fancy word again?"
Over the sound of Sero ripping a long piece of tape from his elbows with his Quirk, Midoriya replied, "Defenestration."
"Defenestration! Yay!" Uraraka exclaimed.
Which was why Mineta was slowly floated to the ground, wrapped in Sero's tape, past several windows, through which other students gawked, and then was dropped about a metre above the ground.
"How immature would it be if I asked for a whoopee cushion?" Hagakure giggled to Yaoyorozu.
She gave her a look, "Very –" and passed one over.
"Actually, can I have two?"
"I would just like to point out that I do not approve of this behaviour!" Iida exclaimed, standing up to shout at them all.
"Yeah, we know, Iida," Sero sighed. He got up too, walked over to the window, and used his tape to climb up and out. Midoriya seriously doubted he'd be seen again for the rest of the morning.
"Are you ok, Mademoiselle?" asked Aoyama, who sat in front of Mina. He didn't talk much at the beginning of term, and Midoriya was quite sure this was because he was terrified of them all, but he'd slowly began to loosen up.
"Oh, yeah, fine!" Mina replied. "18 gave me some tips for my Quirk and they actually worked really well!"
"Oh, really?" Midoriya blinked.
"Yeah! About like, exercising it – try to neutralise strong alkalis in the evening and stuff. So, not only do I have more control, I'm now better at chemistry than all you losers!"
"Don't leave me behind!" Kaminari whined, referring to the fact that him and Mina were the bottom of the class in nearly every subject.
"I could tutor you! Because I'm like, that smart now!"
It was a dramatic mood swing, when Midnight returned, and Mina was suddenly balling her eyes out. She was a surprisingly good actor.
The lingering acid was quickly dealt with, and Mina, still sniffling, pulled her chair up to the other side of Aoyama's desk to work there instead.
Midnight retuned to the front of the room and put the pot of powder she'd used to neutralise the acid down. She narrowed her eyes as she scanned the room, and then pointed her finger at each desk as though she were counting the students behind them.
"Why are there three missing?" she murmured under her breath.
"Hagakure hasn't c-come back from the toilets yet, M-Miss," Mina reminded her, wiping the water from her eyes.
"Oh yes, I needed to –" Midnight had walked over to the door, likely about to get Hagakure back, when she hesitated, and glared back at them. The remaining seventeen faces blinked back at her innocently.
She marched back over to the teacher's desk. "If you're playing games with me, you will all be in a world of trouble."
She was about to sit down, but stopped, and with a sigh of immense disappointment, she held the inflated, red whoopee cushion up to them all. "Very funny," she snapped as they giggled. "Mature – really. I expected better of you all, especially after the seriousness of what happened yesterday. This isn't preschool."
Which is when she actually sat down, and invisible Hagakure slid the second cushion onto her seat.
Now fuming, her long nails pierced the second whoopee cushion when she slammed it onto her desk. Most of the class was laughing uncontrollably, mainly because Hagakure had drawn a mini chibi drawing of Midnight on the board behind her, looking just as angry as she did now.
"I know you're in here, 15 – that's detention!" Midnight yelled.
Shoto raised his hand.
"NO, YOU CANNOT GO TO THE BATHROOM!"
He blinked at her, "Miss, I'm student 15."
Midnight cried out in frustration, "Whatever number Hagakure is then!"
A few people gasped, "Midnight knows our names!" Mina clapped; crocodile tears long gone.
Midnight's eye twitched.
Midoriya heard Hagakure shuffle past him to stand by the window. She emitted a bright flash of light from her hand – something Midoriya didn't know she could do (but it made sense – because invisibility would mean light passed right through her body, so it wasn't too much of an extension of her abilities to be able to do the opposite for a split second and redirect all light back – how often could she –). It, of course, caught Midnight's eye.
"18!" she exclaimed, "What are you doing?!"
"…Writing in my notebook?" Midoriya frowned. This was the truth – he was updating Mina's page.
Hagakure shone her light again, expertly staying out of sight despite the floating tracking anklet.
"Then what's the light, huh?" Midnight snapped, resting her hands on her hips.
"The… sun?"
"Midoriya doesn't have a Quirk, ma'am," Yaoyorozu reminded her. "It wasn't him."
"17?!" Midnight guessed.
Bakugo snarled at her, "I didn't do freaking anything."
"Then what – why is the window open?!" she marched over and stood before Midoriya.
"Tsu asked me to open it," he replied honestly.
"It's warm in here," added Uraraka. This was unrelated, but also true.
Midnight sighed and leant over to it, "I would rather have the window –" This was when, reaching for the window to close it, she looked down, and probably spied Mineta in the bush, far below – "How the actual hell –"
"– Oh, hi, Miss!"
And she looked up. Although Midoriya couldn't quite see it, he could hear what was going on – and he was quite sure Sero was sitting either on the roof, or on a windowsill a few floors up.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING UP THERE?!" she shouted at him.
"Enjoying the view!" he yelled back.
"GET DOWN HERE!"
"What's that?! I can't hear you!"
"Oh no!" Mina gasped melodramatically, "What if he's stuck?!"
"Nah, Sero's fine," Kaminari retorted, "Midnight wouldn't be if she tried to follow him."
She gave him a look.
"No offence, Miss, but no one's going to be as agile as someone like Sero at your age."
"AND WHAT'S THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN?!"
There was a moment of silence, "That you're old?"
"I AM NOT OLD!"
"Besides, that outfit's not going to be much help," Jiro scoffed.
"Aren't you a little old to be wearing something like that?" Mina blinked innocently.
Jiro raised an eyebrow, "Doesn't it chafe?"
"The handcuffs are a little tacky…"
"So are the heels."
"THAT'S ENOUGH!" Midnight cried, stomping her foot like a child.
Midoriya looked back up from his notebook and sighed, "Miss, you know they're not going to stop until you let them go back to the dorms. What difference does it make anyway? And look, it's almost that ten-minute break between lessons."
It wasn't – Hagakure had changed the clock.
There was a tense moment of silence whilst she stared at him and pursed her lips, narrowing her eyes and trying to think of an ulterior motive behind this option.
"Don't try and fool me – I know what you're all doing. You will be staying here until Detective Tsukauchi is ready to interview you all," she insisted.
Oops, perhaps Midoriya said something too soon.
"At least let me plug my phone in, Miss! I can try and text Sero to come back down," Kaminari offered.
"Yes, thank you – there's a plug behind the teacher's desk, under the board," Midnight sighed. But then did a double take, for she'd only just spotted Hagakure's drawing of her.
"Do you have a spare charger, Yaomomo?" Kaminari asked Yaoyorozu, hurrying over to her.
"Oh, sure." She handed hers over. Midnight was busy wiping the drawing away when Kaminari whispered something to Yaoyorozu, who passed him an extra something which he slipped in his pocket.
"Where's the socket again, Miss?" asked Kaminari.
"Just over here," she explained, gesturing towards it. "I can see you moving the chairs!" she yelled at Hagakure, marching over to the back of the room.
When with a bang and a flash of light, Kaminari shoved a small, metal rod into the socket, and the power went out.
Midnight stood in the middle of the class, "…FINE – Just go back to the dorms!"
There was a cheer, and everyone immediately grabbed their stuff and left the classroom at record speed, various people taking Sero's stuff too, and leaving Mineta's behind. Kirishima steered Kaminari away, who had short-circuited his own brain with his electric Quirk, and the door swung shut behind them.
In fits of giggles, everyone hurried down the corridors, ignoring Iida's exclamations about not running in the halls, or waiting for Miss Midnight. They met Sero outside, gave him his bag, and Hagakure reappeared a few moments later, after retrieving her clothes from the bathroom. They left Mineta behind, laughing when Miss Midnight hurried to rescue him. To be honest, he was probably quite pleased by the deal.
"That was brilliant!" Mina laughed when they reached the dorms. She kicked off her shoes and collapsed onto the nearest sofa.
"Good luck, Midoriya!" added Hagakure, skipping past towards the kitchen for the cookies that Sato had made the night before.
With a grin, Midoriya turned and ran up the stairs – he didn't know how long he had to search Mineta's room. He tossed his bag onto his own bed and opened his neighbour's door without hesitation.
He flicked the light on. Mineta's room was a mess. There were clothes all over the floor, overflowing from his drawers. His walls were covered in hero posters – well, heroine posters, like Mt. Lady and hey, even Midnight. For a room that started out as a carbon copy of Midoriya's, it sure was different now.
He didn't even know where to start. But he had to begin somewhere, so he went straight for where he would have hidden a communication device that could get him into serious trouble if it were found – inside a book. But Midoriya didn't keep looking there long, because it was very clear that Mineta's mind was not the same as Midoriya's. He hated to think about what might have been there had any contraband not been confiscated on the first day, and if this mysterious phone was somewhere in this pig sty of a room, Mineta would have had to prioritise hiding that upon entry to UA.
Mineta was far from dumb – he ranked quite highly in a lot of classes. He must have hidden it somewhere well.
Downstairs, in a chest of drawers filled with mainly dusty board games, was a section that had been repurposed for a different use. When everyone slowly figured out what Yaoyorozu's Quirk was, she started having little requests for things to be made. They were always very clear that she didn't have to do it, which is probably why she was so keen to. She'd found a new group of friends that she didn't have to pretend to be someone else around, and she was eager to please. The drawer was filled with various items that Yaoyorozu had made across the last few weeks. Including, but not limited to, numerous marker pens (including a certain, permanent, pink one), two mini whiteboards, a few Russian nesting dolls, spare chargers, another TV remote, a windup toy mouse, an array of colourful pompoms, and a set of novelty sunglasses.
On the front of the drawer, was a piece of paper titled Yaoyorozu's Drawer, which had a tally mark of how many times someone had asked for something, beside their student number. It was Iida's idea – showing that each person owed that many favours to her. Despite his protests, Midoriya's number had been scribbled out long ago.
Anyway, at some point, two separate people had requested a zip-lock sandwich bag (which had been concealing stolen cookies for a while, before being cleaned out meticulously by Iida, and for some reason, put in the drawer rather than being thrown away), and a pair of white gloves (which Hagakure had been using during a game of charades).
Midoriya had taken both from the drawer earlier that morning, and now intended put them to good use. The gloves would prevent leaving his fingerprints all over the phone if he were to find it, and the bag was to put the phone inside, obviously. Maybe he was being a little extreme, but sue him, he didn't want to be blamed for owning the phone himself because his fingerprints happened to be all over it!
But that didn't matter because he could not find it anywhere.
Maybe he'd been right – maybe it was in Hagakure's room. She was very eager to see Mineta gone – maybe she had an ulterior motive.
Midoriya's brick phone beeped.
[Uraraka - 18] Mineta incoming!
In a hurry, Midoriya slipped his phone back into his pocket and hurried towards the door about to leave – when his phone beeped again.
He checked it – no messages.
Wait…
If he were Mineta and had a secret phone on him that he needed to check the messages of constantly, he would change the ringtone to match that of the brick phones that refused to be put on silent. That way, no one could guess that it hadn't come from the phone the school had supplied to him, and he wouldn't miss the messages from a crazy villain who might turn him into a pile of dust if he ignored him.
Where did the sound come from? The bed? Under the bed?
Midoriya could hear footsteps drawing near – or maybe that was just his heartbeat.
Where is it – where is it?!
He tossed the covers around, peered under the mattress, used the dim light of the brick phone to glance under the bed, checked under the –
It was under the pillow?!
Maybe Midoriya overestimated him.
How could someone be so smart in some departments and so lacking in others?!
Not wanting to hide under the bed (if Mineta came in and found out the phone was missing, the first thing he'd do would be glance under the bed to see if it had dropped down), Midoriya cut his losses, and risked stepping out of the room.
He'd only passed his own door by the time Mineta turned the corner and saw him.
"Hey," he said as they passed.
Midoriya didn't reply. He reached the stairs and smiled, glancing down at the smart phone in his gloved hand.
Dropping it into the sandwich bag, Midoriya shoved it and the gloves into his blazer pocket and went to see what Miss Midnight would say (hiding upstairs not long before the Detective's interviews might be suspicious).
See? Midoriya had thought this through. He thinks everything through – every detail of every plan, meticulously planned out.
Except err, the outcome that landed him in class A, but that's not the point.
Midoriya leant up against the wall and listened politely whilst Midnight spoke and generally told them all off for being pains, during which they all just stared at her, and it somehow never became clear that no one other than Iida cared the slightest bit about what she had to say.
Everyone just kept glancing at Midoriya from the corner of their eyes, especially when Mineta reappeared and wandered past him.
Midnight turned and glared at Mineta for a moment, and then to Midoriya, who just shrugged and mimicked Mina's legendary innocent blink.
The class giggled and Midnight just sighed, muttering about not knowing how Aizawa deals with them all, before announcing that she'd be sitting over here and marking their art history work, in a slightly ominous tone.
Soon enough, Midoriya disappeared once more. Midnight would look up from her work, only to find he might as well have evaporated. He was in fact, already back in his room, once again sporting white gloves, and examining the surface of a smart phone under his bedside light, with his curtains drawn and main lights turned off.
Of course, it wasn't Mineta's original phone – not the thing he would have owned before going to UA. This had to be something given to him. It was far more advanced than the brick phones but was most certainly not the newest model.
Midoriya was just thankful he only had to tackle a four-digit password, and the fingerprints Mineta left behind on the screen gave him the numbers. It only took him two tries to get the right combination, in a familiar pattern, which he tapped in cautiously with the corner of his little finger.
It was very clear that Mineta had been using the phone for far more than just messaging – from social media to internet and even games, but Midoriya wasn't here to frown upon his classmate's usage of something everyone else had been deprived of.
He smiled at the messaging app. No contacts were named, but that didn't matter, because he'd only spoken actively with one person. Midoriya saw a picture of a neat, staff schedule for class 1-A, and that was all he needed.
"A truth Quirk?" Midoriya whispered in reply to Shoto.
"I know him," he said in an equally hushed voice. "When I was captured, he was one of the first people to talk to me – trying to figure out where Dabi was, and what happened to me."
All of class A were sitting back in their classroom now. One by one, they were escorted from there to an empty room the next floor up. The Detective started in number order, but the system was soon lost.
Midoriya hesitated. Whenever Shoto brought something up about his past, he was always keen to ask questions about it. But Midoriya knew that the moment he started interrogating him, Shoto would close himself off again. The more he left the topic alone, the better it was.
"So, um, what kind of truth Quirk is it?" Midoriya asked. "As in… does he force you to tell the truth?"
"No, he knows when you're lying," Shoto explained, "even if you're composed – he always knows."
Midoriya nodded, "That's an extremely useful Quirk…"
"And difficult to work around."
The door to the classroom opened, and Detective Tsukauchi, in the beige trench coat and matching hat, smiled at them all, "Ok, so can I speak with… Izuku Midoriya, please?"
Midoriya sighed and stood up, "That's me."
"Good luck," he heard Shoto whisper, giving Midoriya a jarring reminder of the USJ.
Right… he still needed to talk to Shoto about that.
First things first – this interview…
"Take a seat, Midoriya," said the Detective once they reached the classroom that he'd set up in. It was rather small. Most tables and chairs had been pushed against the walls, so only one remained, right in the centre, with two chairs, facing opposite to each other. There was a police officer standing outside, with the face of a cat, and Midoriya found himself thinking about the nerve-wracking experience that was going to the police with evidence of his bullying.
He sat down, and nervously started to twiddle his thumbs.
The Detective noticed and smiled, "No need to be nervous – I just have a few standard questions to ask, that's all."
Midoriya nodded and met his gaze. His eyes were grey but… somehow warm – Midoriya could tell he was a kind and genuine man.
He asked him questions which Midoriya thought were obvious, and which he clearly already knew the answers to.
"When did you first realise something was wrong?"
"I… was talking to Kendo, the hero student I'd been partnered up with – a-about the pointlessness of having a fountain in the middle of a rescue training facility," he laughed nervously, and the Detective did too. "Then um, I saw this weird, purple light. I pointed it out and everyone stopped. Then the villains came out of it – it was a portal. They… asked where All Might was, and when they realised that he wasn't there, said that they were there to liberate class A."
"How did you react to this?"
Midoriya bit his lip, staring at his hands, "I was… confused. I don't know – it's hard to explain. I… obviously didn't want to go with the villains. But I can't be the only one in this class who feels trapped in class A. The League was offering us a way out, and everyone hesitated."
"Did you ever consider leaving?"
Midoriya met his gaze for a moment, eyes flickering towards the notebook in the Detective's hands. It didn't matter what he was writing down – the whole conversation was being recorded anyway.
"It's ok," he insisted, "You won't be in trouble for saying that you did consider trying to leave."
After further hesitation, Midoriya shook his head, "No… I knew it was a bad idea. I saw everyone else hesitating and told them that we needed to run – so they did."
The Detective smiled, "Your classmates seem to have a lot of trust in you."
Midoriya shrugged, "I don't know about that. I'm just one of them. It's easier to listen to someone like me, than a hero; someone that most of them have been working against for so long."
"Don't feel down on yourself. I've talked to nearly all of class A and B now, and every single person who has mentioned you, has spoken very highly of you."
He rubbed his head, "Well, you haven't spoken to everyone yet…"
Tsukauchi laughed, "I have been told that the warp villain, Kurogiri, proceeded to split you all up. Can you tell me what happened to you?"
"Oh, I was taken to the shipwreck zone. I think I almost drowned – twice."
He told him all about Tsu and Honenuki saving his life, and his trick against the villains. He'd gotten so into the story, that he almost forgot to mention Mineta. Luckily, the Detective had spoken to Tsu before Midoriya, in fact, just before. So, he had something to follow up on.
"And when on the boat, when you were thinking up plans to escape, did the villains try to convince you to join their side then too?"
"Oh! Y-Yes, yes, they did. Me, Tsu – A-Asui, that is, and Mineta, all wore PE kits with the red bands below the shoulders, whilst Honenuki was in his hero costume. It was really clear who was in class A and who wasn't. O-One of the villains said that they'd take us to dry land if we tossed the hero in first. And then… well… Mineta said it was three against one…"
There was a moment of silence before the Detective continued, "And what did you think of this?"
"That it was a horrible thing to suggest? I-I'd never do something like that. And Tsu wouldn't either. She, err, might have slapped him, kind of. A-And Honenuki practically saved my life a few minutes later, so… yeah."
He nodded slowly and added wrote something else down. "What happened next? You said you split up with the other three to lead the villains in the water away."
"Right, um – yeah. They went directly towards the exit, where everyone else seemed to be, and I tried to go the long way around…"
Midoriya was incredibly careful about the information he spilled about Shoto. He skirted over almost the entirety of their interaction, jumping quickly to when Midoriya had realised Mr Aizawa had been injured. The Detective didn't seem to think it was suspicious.
"So, you picked up the sword, and jumped in between Shigaraki and All Might?"
Midoriya gulped, "Y-Yes…"
Neither spoke for a moment, the sound of a ticking clock filling their ears.
"Midoriya, we are aware you know of All Might's weakened abilities."
Midoriya stiffened, "Oh…" Well, of course, they knew. It was stupid of Midoriya to ever think otherwise. He just supposed he wasn't quite as good at remaining calm under pressure as he'd realised – he needed to work on that. At least this was good practise. He had a strong feeling he'd need to use those skills again someday.
"Yes, well, I could see how much fighting Nomu had taken out of him," Midoriya admitted. "There were all sorts of signs, but I suppose I only saw them because I knew they'd be there. There was so much dust and smoke around him – it obscured him a bit… And then Shigaraki just lunged, and I knew he had a disintegration Quirk – I knew All Might had run out of time – I knew there was backup on the way. I-I just thought… if I could hold him off, even for just a little while, I could…"
Save him?
"That's very heroic of you."
Midoriya stared at him. Heroic? But he wasn't… "Sir, no offence, but I'm not exactly the hero type."
The Detective just smiled and shook his head, like he didn't believe him. "And then you were injured."
The comment quickly drew Midoriya back to the matter at hand. He clutched his injured shoulder, suddenly aching and protesting again, "Right… yeah…"
"What happened, in your opinion?"
"Err, I think the hero Snipe tried to shoot Shigaraki – but Kurogiri had seen them entering. He escaped, and blindly redirected whatever was sent in Shigaraki's direction the best he could, and… one of the bullets hit me."
"So, you don't blame the heroes for this? That bullet could have killed you."
Midoriya hesitated, gripping the bandages, just visible under the collar of his shirt.
"All Might reports that you reacted quite aggressively to him trying to calm you down."
"Well!" Midoriya started, startled at the volume of his own voice. "Well… I'd stepped in to help. And I just got shot in the back – shoulder – whatever. Just like always…"
The damned ticking of the clock filled his ears again.
"– And then I passed out, so…" Midoriya shrugged, which sent a spike of pain down his spine. He grunted and held his injury with a wince. "So, there."
The Detective nodded, "Thank you very much for your time, Midoriya. We may have to speak again but know that it is unlikely." He reached towards the recording device, about to press stop –
"Wait!" Midoriya exclaimed suddenly, reaching forwards to stop him. "I-I err… I think I have some information that might be useful to you. O-On top of what I've already said."
Tsukauchi blinked, pulling his hand away from the recording device, leaving it on, "And what would that be?"
Midoriya gulped, this was when he had to start being careful about this truth Quirk that Shoto had warned him of, "My friends said that you thought there was a traitor to UA amongst our class."
"Not necessarily," he insisted. "We're just covering all corners, just to make sure."
"Right, well, the thing is, I agree. T-That there's a traitor – I mean."
"…Ok?"
"Well, you see – no one from class A can have contact with the outside world after entering UA, unless they go through a teacher first. This supposed traitor, would have stolen a copy of class A's timetable to give to the League of Villains. But neither class A nor B knew about the USJ until the morning prior – that's not nearly enough time to organise the attack! The traitor must have leaked this information way before. And the only time that's feasible, is when the press broke onto the grounds. You probably noticed, but the main gate was disintegrated – and that's Shigaraki's Quirk. In the confusion that the alarm caused, it must have been easy to slip away and take the information. Plus, someone could have disabled the security cameras remotely, sneaking in with the press to access the system. It's not hard – you just have to be close enough."
Midoriya soon realised that sounded awfully suspicious, but he kept going, stumbling over his words in a slight panic.
"B-But even if you g-got the timetable – you still need to get it to Shigaraki a-and the press was in the way and no student seemed to go anywhere near them – so they had to have done it wirelessly – l-like through a phone – sent a picture or something. B-But class A only has brick phones supplied by the school…"
He took his own out of his pocket to show the Detective. And then, slowly, pulled the sandwich bag containing Mineta's smartphone out too. He pushed it across the table, and the Detective frowned.
"Is this yours?" he asked, and Midoriya knew this was a question that the truth Quirk would have caught him of guard with, had he been guilty, or perhaps framing Mineta.
"No," he answered surely. "No, it's Mineta's."
His eyes narrowed, "The same Mineta who suggested pushing your hero course friend into the water at the USJ?"
"Yes – exactly. See, err… my room's right next to his. I was… upstairs earlier today – Mineta wasn't around… We all carry our brick phones wherever we go, right? Mr Aizawa said to do so, in case of emergency. Then I heard a ringtone in Mineta's room – but I knew he had his phone on him. I-I was curious, so I looked. I found this under his pillow and thought you might want to take a look at it. I didn't want to get my fingerprints on it, so I wore old gloves and put it in a sandwich bag. Oh, but I did touch it when trying to figure out the passcode – it's 2-5-8-0."
The Detective stared, "Well then… I'll be sure to take a look at this."
"Ok," Midoriya nodded with a cheerful smile. He felt a little more comfortable now that he'd gotten this bit out of the way. "Oh, and just so you know, me and my classmates spoke last night. Mineta makes all the girls really uncomfortable, and them and everyone else is kind of frightened by how he essentially suggested getting Honenuki killed."
He stood up and pushed the chair under the table, "I assume that's all?"
"Um, yes," the Detective agreed, also standing up. "Yes, let me… take you back down to your class! I do have to speak to Mineta now, and I'll be sure to have a long conversation with him and your teachers."
"Thank you very much, Sir!" Midoriya beamed. Practically skipping, he left Tsukauchi behind to turn of the recording device. By the time he'd caught up with him, Midoriya was already at the door to class 1-A.
Everyone stopped what they were doing and stared as Midoriya wandered inside, happily humming to himself.
"Err, Minoru Mineta?" the Detective asked.
Midoriya noticed the way he tensed up when his name was called out – and how suspiciously he glared at Midoriya as he passed him by.
"Why do you look so happy, 18?" asked Midnight, who sounded rather worried.
"Is it a crime?" huffed Jiro.
And not another question was asked about it.
Mineta didn't return after his interview with the Detective. A few other people had their little conversations with the man, like Kacchan and Shoto, but they didn't stay for long. The class was told to go back to the dorms, and lunch would be taken to them. The sudden increase in security was frightening for some. But they only needed to glance in Midoriya's general direction to realise that this was probably his fault, and so nothing for them to worry about.
At some point, Midnight left too. In fact, class A was left entirely to their own devices until after dinner, when their substitute teacher finally reappeared.
It was the first time she managed to gain the undivided attention of the class. Everyone was in the common room, having just finished dinner, and quickly pretended to not be looking for the mouse that Koda accidentally released (his Quirk was something to do with animals, Midoriya had sussed, and no one had figured out why the gentle soul was in class A at all).
Midnight glared at them all for a minute, and then simply sighed, now knowing better than to involve herself in class A's mischief.
"We want to give you all a chance in life," she began, her tone suddenly serious and almost sympathetic, "that's why you're here. But you have to give us a chance too. In the cases of a large majority of you, failing this class would be devastating to your future. However," she paused for a moment, glancing at each of them in turn, "endangering the future of others – endangering their lives, is not tolerated, not for a second. Class A, class B, your teachers, other heroes – so many lives could have been lost yesterday; one of your classmates was shot."
Midoriya instinctively reached for his shoulder and rubbing the aching muscle tenderly – perhaps he should go back to Recovery Girl and talk to her about it. It still hurt a lot.
"We couldn't take the business of a traitor to UA lightly," Midnight continued. "We had to set an example – to you, to the rest of the school, and the rest of the world. This is why, after extensive discussion, Mineta has been failed, and will leave the school, effective immediately."
There was no reaction – not a gasp nor word uttered. No one broke their gaze with Midnight; no one moved.
"There will be some activity around the dorms when someone comes in to remove Mineta's belongings, and the police might want to search his room. We're not permitting you to say goodbye to him, I'm sorry."
Another moment of silence.
"Lessons will begin again as normal tomorrow. 18, Recovery Girl would like you to visit her so she can check over your shoulder in the morning."
Well, that solved that problem.
"See you then," Midnight nodded, and with that, she turned and left, her high heels clacking against the wooden floor, and fading into the distance once the door shut behind her.
The class erupted into cheers.
"You did it!" Hagakure exclaimed, jumping up and down.
"You actually got him expelled," Sero gaped. "And in less than a day!"
"That was so amazing!" Mina clapped.
Midoriya flushed red whilst his classmates gushed over him, "W-Well, he made it so easy."
"What, did you frame him or something?" asked Jiro.
"N-No! No, He actually was the traitor – I thought he might be."
"Of course, he did!" Uraraka said, punching the air, "Midoriya knows everything!"
"Just remind me never to get on your bad side," laughed Kaminari.
"I can't believe the villains got Mineta to steal the schedule rather than me!" Hagakure huffed.
"Or me!" nodded Uraraka.
"Yeah! All the skill sets they had available and they go for Mineta? Seriously?!"
"Exactly. What does he have that we don't?!"
Jiro suppressed a laugh, "A poorer sense of morality?"
"My morality is corrupt, and you know it!" Hagakure retorted.
Midoriya was showered in praise. People laughed and told stupid stories – the name by 19 on the board was changed to Squashed Grapes – and Sato gave Midoriya the last of the cookies, hidden somewhere even the master thieves couldn't find.
Iida was still up and about, trying to maintain order – insisting it was someone's turn to wash the dishes, another's to dry them, and Midoriya's to take the overflowing bin bag outside.
"Aw, but Midoriya's been so helpful today!" said Uraraka. "I'll take it out."
"No!" Iida snapped, dragging the bag out of her reach, "We cannot change the system! We've had this conversation already!"
"Yeah, Ochako – no messing with the system!" Jiro giggled.
"Take out the trash, Midoriya!" yelled Sero, tossing the bag over everyone's heads.
Kirishima caught it and tossed it to Tokoyami, whose shadow monster Quirk, Dark Shadow, took it the rest of the way to Midoriya.
"Thanks," he grinned at Dark Shadow, who gave him a thumbs up.
Midoriya pulled on his shoes and hurried outside. The communal bins for all the dorms weren't far, but the shed with the food bins inside stunk, so he was sure to not stay there for long.
He wandered back much slower, pausing for a moment and gazing at the skyline, when he was just behind the dorms – it was blocked by the wall that surrounded UA, a seemingly impenetrable fortress, that he was trapped inside.
"What do you want, Kacchan?"
Midoriya turned around and there he was. He knew him so well, that he could identify him from his footfalls. Loud, heavy and confident, like he expected the very ground to give way to him if he so wanted.
They stared at each other for a moment.
Midoriya fought against the urge to back away as he stepped closer.
"You think it's funny, huh?" he snarled, "Stealing, lying, cheating – to get what you want?"
"I've never done any of those things," Midoriya retorted.
Kacchan was far too close for comfort. "Right. Did you not stop to think about what's going to happen to Mineta now? You just ruined his life."
Midoriya glared at him, "And why do you care? He deserved it. And if this is somehow to do with you again – because everything has to be about you – well, you deserved what you got too."
And suddenly his back was against the wall, Kacchan's hand gripping his bandaged shoulder.
Midoriya gritted his teeth, biting through the pain. It hadn't been much – Kacchan hadn't even done anything yet.
"You don't care about the lives you've destroyed," Kacchan hissed. "The teachers who lost their jobs – their livelihood! The kids in our class who will never have the opportunities in life they would have had otherwise –"
"But you don't care either!" Midoriya dared to speak up, which only resulted in Kacchan pressing harder on his shoulder.
"You ruined my life! This place is a death sentence. I will never get where I deserve."
"This is what you –" but he couldn't finish that, because Kacchan had figured out where it hurt the worst. Midoriya hissed and kicked him away, which was a bad idea, because seconds later, the back of his head hit the wall again.
"You're a villain," Kacchan leered. "And I will stop you."
Midoriya grabbed Kacchan's wrist, trying to push him away from his wounded shoulder, "F-From doing what?!"
"Whatever the hell you're planning! I know you're up to something."
"I'm not a villain, Kacchan! I'm not like those people at the USJ! That's not me!" He felt Kacchan's palm burning through his T-shirt, and tears pricked at the corners of his eyes.
"Yeah, right. You're –"
"YOU'RE THE VILLAIN – LOOK AT WHAT YOU'RE DOING!"
And he was dropped to the ground.
Midoriya shuffled away, clutching his shoulder. Kacchan cast a shadow over him, but he… just stared, hand still outstretched, eyes wide.
"…You seriously think you deserve to be a hero, when you act like this?" said Midoriya, blinking back the water in his eyes.
He stayed silent, just… staring at him.
Midoriya got to his feet, "Kacchan, you don't deserve it – n-not now. B-But you do deserve a chance. And that's why you're here."
The wind whistled past them, the sun setting on the eventful day. Still gripping his injury, Midoriya started to make his leave.
He hadn't gotten far before Kacchan spoke once more, "You've become a monster."
Midoriya stopped.
"Maybe that's something we have in common."
