This time Izuku and Hitoshi start putting together their adventuring party and the tank keeps boosting mood stats with a permanent passive area of effect ability.
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Proofread by 3DPhantom
Chapter 60: Tenya Protection Squad
Izuku snuck out of the house with Shoto and Eijiro. They met the car several hundred meters away just to make it harder in case someone tried to follow it after picking up Tenya. The three quickly got in with a somewhat confused Tenya. Izuku had to summarize the night's events before he could lean back and doze off. The workout had helped him wake up, but that did nothing to the fact he had missed even more sleep than usual.
Except when his eyes were half closed, they happened to point at Tenya who was no longer distracted by Izuku's explanations. The taller teen had also been tired, but as he thought they weren't paying as much attention the darkness snuck onto his face. It started around the eyes and spread as tension on his face. He squeezed his fists.
What really made Izuku worried was that tension. He knew it well; anger, supressed anger, even more than before.
"Tenya, what happened?" Izuku asked, silencing even Eijiro who had been keeping Shoto distracted. Tenya grimaced.
"Tensei had another surgery last night, something they missed before. They say it will be okay now, but that is what they said before." His arm shook and Izuku was surprised his nails didn't make his own hand bleed from how hard he was squeezing his fist.
Izuku reached out to put his hand on top of it; Shoto and Eijiro soon mimicked the gesture.
"He didn't deserve this," Tenya said through gritted teeth.
"The world rarely cares what people deserve," Izuku whispered. "We can only do our best to manage with it."
"The world didn't do this," Tenya muttered more quietly than before. His tone sent chills through Izuku who had to check Shoto to make sure the other hadn't suddenly decided to play air conditioning again without realizing.
The drive continued with a tension in the air that even Eijiro couldn't fully crack. When they picked up Hitoshi the brainwasher took one glance at Tenya and gave Izuku a knowing look. Izuku gave him the summary of the night like Tenya and Tokoyami had gotten but avoided topics that might have made the tension worse until they got to the school. Walking to the class, Tenya was naturally at the front of the group so Izuku hung back with Hitoshi.
"You think he will be okay?" Izuku asked. "It feels worse than before."
"Probably. I'm not sure if he is feeling worse, or just failing to pretend he's better than he actually is. Neither is good. I'm worried he might do something stupid. You of all of us know people might act without thinking if someone close to them is hurt."
Izuku nodded slowly.
"Tenya might not be as… explosive as you," Hitoshi tilted his head as he said that, but Izuku gave no opposition, "but all that… pressure needs to be released somewhere, and I don't think punching Eijiro is going to do it for him."
"Sorry," the redhead walking in front of them whispered. Izuku could only shake his head before responding.
"What do you think he is going to do? Rush out to look for Stain alone?"
"I guess he might, but we are talking about Tenya. Even if he is pushed far enough to break the rules, he would approach it in some organized way, and he wouldn't have much time considering he trains with us after school and during weekends. Not that he would be likely to find Stain even if he tried. All of the heroes in the country have not yet done so. That's good, but might frustrate him more."
"You have really thought about this," Izuku commented.
"And you haven't? I'm surprised you didn't start muttering as soon as Tenya wasn't listening."
"With stuff like this," Izuku said, "It's better for everyone to leave that to you."
"No pressure," Hitoshi rubbed the back of his neck. "Best I can think is to keep a close eye on Tenya while Tensei recovers. He might never be back to normal, but Tenya might be more able to process that once he is out of the hospital and not in actual danger, or at least we can ask for Tensei's help then."
"So, keep him busy," Izuku muttered, "I guess we are going to train later than usual today."
"Yes~" Eijiro cheered semi quietly, for him, then suddenly looked meek. "Sorry."
Izuku tilted his head towards Hitoshi. "Are you sure punching-Ei-therapy wouldn't work?"
"I doubt it, but it shouldn't hurt either, except for his hands."
Hitoshi shook his own hand as if it was still sore after his most recent session with the walking stonewall.
"My biggest worry is the internship and how the hero he picks is going to handle him, but that isn't something we can help."
"Yeah, I'm not even confident about managing our internship."
"So, are we still going with the Best Jeanist?"
"Yeah," Izuku responded. "I'm still suspicious, but we can put in our acceptance for his offer today. Besides that, keep an eye on Tenya, and Shoto. They're both on the knife's edge in their own ways."
"I will… When did you switch from Todoroki to Shoto? I think this might be a record time."
"When he showed up at my door at night with a cold front in tow and was afraid to sleep alone."
"I see."
They entered the classroom for their first class and kept to more common school topics in discussions during the morning. Izuku and Hitoshi headed to the teachers' office once the lunch hour started to confirm their internships. Tenya joined them but didn't say anything on the way. Izuku and Hitoshi gave Aizawa their picks first. The man looked at the data with tired eyes.
"Best Jeanist, congratulations. He might actually be able to deal with you two."
Izuku rotated his eyes and stepped aside so Tenya could step forward to handle his business.
"Hmm, Manual? That is a surprising choice," Aizawa said. A dark feeling crept under Izuku's skin as he felt there was something important about that hero.
"Are you sure this is your choice?" Aizawa asked, sounding calmer, but as suspicious as Izuku. "There doesn't seem to be anything in common between him and you and I am quite confident you had offers from higher rated heroes."
"I did not choose based on rankings. Those are mostly popularity polls that don't tell if someone is a true hero worth learning from," Tenya responded in a monotonous voice. Izuku would have been so proud of those words if they were said in a different voice at a different time, but now…
Aizawa glanced at Izuku while Tenya spoke.
"Manual might not be most famous or powerful, but he is a decent hero who helps people. T… Te… My brother has worked with him sometimes."
Aizawa looked at Tenya long enough in silence to make his student squirm, but eventually he nodded.
"I'll let him know. Make sure to listen to the heroes you intern with and keep close to them on the field."
"Yes, of course," Tenya said as Tenya would, except lacking his usual enthusiasm for following rules and orders. He gave a little bow and escaped from the room past Izuku and Hitoshi. The former had practically frozen still until Hitoshi pulled on Izuku's arm, getting him to move further away from Aizawa. They leaned close to each other to talk, backs towards the teacher.
"He is planning something," Hitoshi whispered. "I don't yet know what."
"I do," Izuku said in shaky voice. "Manual operates in Hosu, that is where Stain was last seen, it's where he maimed Tensei. You were right that Tenya would find an 'organised way'."
"I see. So what are we going to do?"
"If he does something stupid during the internships it is difficult for us to do anything, unless we can talk him out of it before then."
"I doubt that is going to work," Hitoshi shook his head. "I have never seen Tenya this serious about something or this careless of risk or rules. If we both tried before I can't see us succeeding this time, especially concerning the situation with Tensei and their family."
"He might get himself killed," Izuku whispered, feeling cold shadows around his life reaching over himself.
"Or he might spend his internship chasing shadows. We don't even know if Stain is anywhere near Hosu anymore, let alone interested in students."
If only Izuku could have shared Hitoshi's conviction. His conviction said that Stain was still very much present in Hosu. That's what Shirokuro was already counting on. Maybe if he could find the killer before the internships…
"We could see if we could switch to internships that are closer. I think I had an offer or two around there, not sure about yours."
Izuku's head perked up and he frowned deep in thought.
"No, they were all more distant heroes, except…"
Izuku pulled out his phone and did some quick research. His frown got darker.
"Maybe… Gran Torino."
"The…"
"The 'All Might's old teacher' hero, yes," Izuku said with venom in his voice.
"You shouldn't…"
"No," Izuku said, "but it seems I need to. I didn't really care about Jeanist anyway. You are the one who shouldn't miss the opportunity to intern with a top ten ranked hero."
"We were both going to go with him last I checked, and since when do you care about the rankings? I would rather choose an internship where I can help someone. I hope we can if he needs help. Do you think the two of us can do anything?"
"Maybe. At least we can alert more help if we find he is in trouble, though…"
"Though what?" Hitoshi asked.
"We should ask the others where they are going. See if we can have more eyes in the area."
"Right. We should talk to them before they lock in their internships. How about the teachers?"
"If Tenya doesn't listen to us, teachers won't change his mind either," Izuku paused. "I can't believe I just said that."
"He has gotten a bit more relaxed with authority since hanging out with you," Hitoshi noted. "But you are probably right. At best telling teachers gets them to force him to take a different internship, but that won't improve things overall, and it feels a bit like betraying his trust. There are a lot of things between us that people would think we should tell teachers or someone else."
"You mean with me," Izuku corrected.
Hitoshi remained silent.
"I agree," Izuku said finally, looking at the floor. This was one betrayal he could still choose to not do. "I think… we have to keep this within the group."
"The group," Hitoshi muttered. "You know for someone who could barely deal with people you have attracted quite a…" He twisted his mouth looking for the words. "… squad around you."
"You talk like we're a military unit."
"We'll we have already seen battle, and we are planning an escort mission right now."
Izuku blinked. "Was that a video game reference? Not you too..."
"What do you mean 'me too'?"
Izuku cursed himself internally and had to tug on Calm Mind just to not stutter.
"I knew someone, in the past, who was really into videogames and talked about many things like they were in a game."
There was several seconds of silence after Izuku's explanation and every second something squeezed his insides a little harder. Then Hitoshi smirked.
"So, let's go get the tank, the elemental sorcerer, and the guy who can summon a shadow demon, and we got our party ready. We should think about finding a healer to balance out our ranks."
Izuku wasn't sure if he should grin or facepalm so eventually he just nodded slowly.
"We should change our internships right away before Aizawa sends them forward."
The duo turned around towards where their teacher was still sitting behind his desk. The headache he was already getting was visible on his face.
"What are you planning, problem children?"
By the time they figured out alternative internships and got the more-than-a-little suspicious Aizawa to change them, a good chunk of the lunch break had already gone as Izuku and Hitoshi reached the table where rest of their adventuring party was finishing their meal next to two empty seats. Well, most of them were finishing. Tenya's plate looked like he had barely started, and he wasn't lecturing to Eijiro who talked with food in his mouth. Dark Shadow popped out of Tokoyami's back as the duo approached.
"Hey, where have you been?"
"Just sorting out our internships," Hitoshi responded.
"Oh right, you got Best Jeanist and got to go together," Eijiro cheered.
"Well actually…" Hitoshi started. "We changed our picks. Best Jeanist was…"
Hitoshi looked at Tenya. He did so openly, noticed by everyone except Tenya himself who was staring at his food.
"…too far. We got better located options. Have you thought about where you will be going?"
"Too far?" Eijiro asked. "But he is…"
A single stare from Hitoshi silenced the redhead. Now there was a quirk worth calling a superpower.
"So did you have any really good offers?"
"Fumi did," Dark Shadow responded. "He got an offer from some Hawks guy. He is supposed to be some big deal. I don't see why Fumi would need another wingman besides me."
"Wingman?" Hitoshi raised his eyebrows.
"Yeah, I can fly Fumi now. He doesn't need anyone else with wings."
"Oh, but isn't it still good to intern with a hero that can keep up with you if you can fly?"
"Oh right, I didn't think of that."
"You might be able to learn some flying tips and tricks. And if there is an emergency somewhere you can both get there quickly to help," Hitoshi added. "The rest of us would have to be a lot closer to get there in time."
"Yes, I know I am amazing."
"How about you Eijiro, To… Shoto?"
"Eh, I don't really know," Eijiro said. "I got a bunch of offers but I don't really know a lot of details on many heroes. I was thinking of Fourth-Kind. People have called him the Chivalrous hero. That sounds right."
"Of course you would choose based on that," Izuku muttered, but mostly amused rather than judging.
"Well, I haven't made the final choice yet," Eijiro glanced at Tenya, before returning his eyes to Izuku. At least he was starting to understand there was more at stake in the conversation. After a moment he lightly elbowed Shoto.
"How about you?"
"I don't know," Shoto responded, giving Izuku a pleading look. "I don't know what to do?"
"Don't worry, it is just an internship. You only need to consider what is most useful right now, and what's safe. Whoever you consider, we need to check their relationship with Endeavour. We can talk about it more at a good time, maybe with Eijiro too."
"Izuku probably has notes on everyone you could consider. I would check those before locking anything in," Hitoshi said.
"Heh, I almost forgot that," Eijiro said. "Hey, Tenya, did you pick a hero to intern with yet?"
Izuku wanted to facepalm. Maybe Eijiro hadn't quite realized the situation from simply a few looks.
"Umh, yes. I already put in my acceptance to Manual."
"Who?"
"He is… He is a hero, not very well known, but decent."
"Oh, wh-"
This time it was Hitoshi's turn to elbow Eijiro's side with enough force to catch his attention and silence him.
Tenya sighed. "Izuku, Hitoshi, I can tell what you are doing. You don't need to avoid talking because of me. After everything we've done together things aren't going to change if you get careless with your words."
…
"Fine," Izuku said. "We know what you are planning, why you opted to intern with Manual and what you think you can and want to do. Can we talk you out of it?"
There was a tense moment of silence.
"… No," Tenya finally responded.
"Then you should know we aren't going to be far. I and Toshi changed out internships to be closer to Hosu. Hopefully you are at least willing to call us if you try to bite off more than you can chew."
Tenya looked at him for a moment, but the look Izuku gave back told Tenya convincing Izuku to change his mind was at least as impossible as doing the same to him. He looked at his plate and picked it up.
"I should go now. Don't want to be late from the lesson and… I think I'll need to go to the bathroom before then. Sorry."
He left in a hurry. Izuku looked after him until he left the room. Old Izuku might have watered the floor.
"The shadow over him has grown darker," Tokoyami said. "Can we do something to help?"
"Yes," Hitoshi said. "Welcome to the squad."
"What squad?" Dark Shadow asked.
"In this case," Hitoshi said, "the Tenya Protection Squad."
In the remaining minutes of the lunch break Hitoshi and Izuku somehow managed to explain everything to get everyone on the same page and still finish their food. Eijiro even had them all fist bump together to make their common mission. Unfortunately he also unknowingly stabbed Izuku's heart.
"Tenya can always trust his friends."
They got to class just in time. Tenya was already seated but did not say anything.
Izuku squeezed his fists when All Might stepped inside as the heroic's teacher of the day, but kept his mouth shut. He didn't even comment on the instruction for the day's combat training.
As they got changed into their costumes and headed out Izuku hung back to be behind Tenya. He wasn't going to do anything in the middle of the school day, but Izuku didn't feel like not keeping an eye on him and Shoto too had already dressed into his simple costume. Unfortunately that made Izuku the last to leave the classroom and there was a giant blonde gorilla standing by the door.
"What?" Izuku asked as he walked past, not even turning his head. "I have bigger worries than you, if you believe that."
Izuku tried to walk away, but they were going to the same place and All Might followed.
"I… I heard you accepted Gran Torino's offer after all. I was wondering…"
"Don't, it doesn't work for you."
Izuku could feel the large man's frown aimed at the back of his head. At least there was a silver lining with having to deal with the gorilla.
"What made you change your mind? Considering how… suspicious you were of him…"
"Am of him, and it has nothing to do with him, or you. Leave me alone. My All Might quota for this decade is already full."
"Then why?"
"Because there are more important things than you or whatever you are plotting with Gran Torino. It better not get in the way."
"In the way of what?"
Izuku actually paused for a moment, but if Tenya wanted All Might's help he would have asked for it, also the so called unbeatable hero had yet to stop the killer. No, Izuku wasn't going to talk, and especially not to All Might.
"None of your concern. Don't you have class to teach?"
"Isn't that where we are going?"
He got Izuku there and Izuku wanted to tear open his throat. He settled with frowning all the way to the training grounds. They were last to arrive, though most of the class didn't even notice, all of them had grouped together around something. Something was moving on the ground. Izuku peeked past them trying to forget the large man that stepped next to him, much closer than he really needed to be.
Eijiro was on the ground with Sato and Ojiro. They were doing push-ups.
"Aand fifty!" Eijiro declared, pushing himself to his knees, then up on his feet. Sato and Ojiro followed right after. Hitoshi stepped next to a grinning Eijiro and raised an arm like he has just won a boxing tournament.
"The winner," Hitoshi declared. Some of Eijiro's grin must have jumped on Izuku as his face didn't feel like it was tensing in a frown as it had during the walk. A shadow touched him. He glanced at All Might looking at him, making Izuku instantly scowl. They stared at each other only for a second or two.
"Hey, Midobro, what took you so long?" Eijiro called and started pushing through the class towards him. "You missed the first round of the competition."
"First round?" Izuku asked, smiling.
"Yeah, first push-ups, then sit-ups and pull-ups, except we don't have a good place for those, so I thought arm wrestling. We usually spend most of the lessons like this watching others go trough the exercise so I thought we could have a little training competition on the side."
"Of course you did. Always taking the chance to train."
"Of course. So, want to join the contest? Hitoshi is trying to keep score, but he has nothing to take…"
Izuku had a pen and notebook on his hand.
"… notes with."
Izuku handed them to Hitoshi.
Just use the last page, and don't show the rest to others or we'll go through your pages in front of the class."
"His… pages?" Ashido asked. Hitoshi waved the closed notebook in front of her teasingly.
"First step of getting on Izuku's good side, be someone worth taking notes on," Hitoshi opened the notebook and flipped through pages before closing it again. "Even if it's not really a high bar to pass, congratulations."
Ashido tilted her head, looking confused.
Izuku started wondering if it had been a good idea to entrust Hitoshi with the power of the notebook, even the most benign and general one with none of the dark knowledge of Shirokuro's notebooks.
"Ahem," All Might said, calling for attention, "we came here for combat training."
He looked around the students in front of him. As his eyes got to Izuku, Izuku made sure to turn back towards Eijiro, only being on good enough behaviour to somewhat lower his voice.
"How about this? Whoever in our training group does best in your contest gets a treat, real wagyu steak, a big one, next weekend."
That made Eijiro's smile stretch so much Izuku wondered how his face didn't split. All Might made an increasingly irritated sound trying to get attention back onto himself. He surely wasn't used to not being the centre of attention. Given the situation even that wasn't enough to bring Izuku's frown back.
"Make sure to tell others too or it's not fair," he said before giving the buffoon the attention he so wanted. All Might kept staring at them for a long moment before proceeding with the lesson, though he didn't look just annoyed.
In the end the wagyu prize was too much for Eijiro to lose his private tournament, though Izuku and Shoto made it a close call and a few others came close too even without having the opportunity for the prize. Tenya never felt like participating.
All Might kept looking at them repeatedly with side-eye. The contest attracted more of the students' attention than watching the exercise itself. Hitoshi returned the notebook to Izuku with both hands while bowing like he was giving away a holy relic. Izuku did his best to hide his own grimace.
As they walked from the training ground of the lesson to the sports field Izuku was focused on typing on his phone while Hitoshi and Eijiro kept the mood up, or tried to in Tenya's case at least. At least Shoto seemed satisfied and happy listening to Eijiro talk about having a rematch later. It was Dark Shadow who paid the most attention to Izuku and stretched out too peek over his shoulder.
"What're you writing?"
"Negotiating for a new quirk."
"For yourself or planning to give it to someone else?"
Izuku stopped for a few seconds. The quirk that had been ready to kill him for his quirk might have been the first one to recognize that side of his quirk in such a manner. After the initial rush of happiness Izuku got a very Hitoshi-esq devious smile on his face.
"Why are you asking? Worried I'll get Tokoyami something other than you?"
"No, that might not be so bad if it helped keep him safe actually."
"At least you got your priorities clear."
"So what kind of quirk are you going to get this time?" Hitoshi asked.
"It's called Sleep Deprived."
Hitoshi raised his eyebrow. "Since when is that a quirk? If you wanted that you could have just asked me."
Izuku shook his head.
"It's not like that, but you might get jealous for this. It's a quirk that can stockpile tiredness, almost three days' worth apparently, so I could stay awake that long before starting to get significantly tired.
Hitoshi whistled impressed but, after a few seconds of looking at Izuku's face, quickly moved to a frown.
"What's the catch?"
"Well, it doesn't remove the need for sleep, only delays it, so if I stayed awake for three full days I would have to spend one sleeping, or even more actually, though it should help catching up with sleep after a point. Also if I stayed up too long, probably somewhere around four days, I would simply collapse and be impossible to wake up for a while, or at least that was the maximum for the current owner."
"That sounds amazing," Hitoshi said in an almost dreamy voice, "mostly at least. Why does the owner want to sell?"
He stared at Izuku and got an even more serious frown than before.
"Izuku?"
"He overused the quirk, poor single parent with several children using his quirk to work around the clock. He has already had two heart attacks in his forties, second because he went back to work and using his quirk after the first one. He's trying to get enough money to last until all his kids are adults and finish school. Honestly, I think he would give it away for free since he can't trust himself to not overuse, or even use it at all, again."
"Izuku," Hitoshi said more sombrely, "can you?"
That was a question Izuku hadn't thought about much, but Hitoshi also didn't know about regeneration. It would probably negate any negative effects from staying up late.
"It's okay," Izuku started, "working four days straight and collapsing is one thing, but if there is even a risk of a battle, I couldn't risk waiting to reach the limits, and there are likely individual differences. If I keep healthier and fitter the risk should be reduced."
Hitoshi's face remained on unconvinced setting. Izuku gently elbowed his side trying to break the tension.
"You are just jealous and hoping I'd give it to you, aren't you?"
Hitoshi's stare didn't change. Izuku's shoulders slumped.
"Okay. You aren't wrong, but I'm still getting the quirk."
Hitoshi sighed. "When?"
"Today, I'll stop at the hospital on the way home," Izuku paused to look at Tenya. "It is the same hospital where Tensei is. I'm sure Tenya is planning to go there after school anyway. Might have to change plans on that extra-long training, unless you want to join Ei and Shoto at Ei's place."
A bunch of red hair bounced up behind them.
"Sure, my hands are hurting already."
