Chapter 14: Ojiro Fucks Around And Finds Out

Ojiro had left (kind of) quietly, but apparently he wasn't planning to take his expulsion lying down. He clearly knew arguing with Aizawa wouldn't get him anywhere so instead, he hit the school with a lawsuit. He'd hired some sleazy lawyer that had lost to Izuku's mom in court several times and still insisted on representing bigots. Then he'd reported suspected criminal activity and accused Aizawa of covering it up.

Maybe if he hadn't expected this, Izuku would have been tripped up. But he'd spent years learning how to read people so he knew when to expect harsh words and when to expect a fist in the face. Izuku had set up a program that no one would ever find in the police servers that alerted the Network admins if any known Zero was mentioned in a police report. The number of times a Zero had been sitting in interrogation while a cop tried to pin a crime on them only for Inko to show up was far too high.

So the minute Izuku's name was saved in their system, he stayed after class to let Aizawa know his friend had seen Ojiro going into the station. Izuku gave him the cover story and Aizawa, while hesitant to lie to the police, understood that there were enough people in the force that should never know that quirkless people dare to gather. The building had been specifically picked so that any investigations into their activities didn't fall under the jurisdiction of the precinct with the lie detector detective, because that was the last thing they needed when they were covering their steps.

So now Izuku sat across from a detective while the man asked questions to determine what big crime a fifteen year old hero student could be involved in. The sweaty looking man slid a photo of Izuku across the table. "Why were you trespassing on private property?"

Izuku cocked his head to the side, confusion on his face. "I wasn't"

"You were seen entering this building. A witness took this photo of you entering this building belonging to a Mr Tenko Shimura. They also informed us that several other sketchy characters entered the building as well. So, I'll ask again, why were you and these people trespassing on private property? You're already going to be charged with trespassing, make it easier on yourself. If you tell us what was going on we can talk to the judge for you."

Izuku sighed and took the candy offered to him by his lawyer, a man who worked with his mother on several occasions. Sucking on the caramel he said, "Did you even bother to call Tenko before you asked me to come down here? You can't threaten me with trespassing if you haven't spoken to the owner of the building to see if they want to press charges and I guarantee you they don't."

The cop's face was turning a bit red, not expecting a quirkless kid to call him out like that. "We aren't going to bother Mr Shimura until we know exactly what you were using his property for."

"Their."

"Excuse me?" The man was quickly losing patience.

Izuku huffed. "You called Tenko Mr and said his. Tenko is nonbinary so the correct pronoun would be their, also they prefer Mx. And that's how I knew you didn't talk to them, well that and you think I was trespassing. Tenko is a friend I play online games with, so is everyone that was there that day. We get together in the building Tenko renovated to play dungeons and dragons."

Izuku had never seen a more ridiculous look on someone's face as the officer processed that. "You expect me to believe that you and a bunch of shady guys go to a warehouse to play some nerd game? Do you think I'm an idiot?"

The way Izuku arched his eyebrow probably answered that last question sufficiently, "You know Aizawa Sensei is waiting to give his statement, ask him. He saw us playing. If that's not enough, call Tenko and they'll tell you the same since they were there."

The officer slammed a hand on the picture of Izuku, "If you were just playing games why did you feel the need to disguise yourself?"

Wide, innocent eyes looked up at the officer. "Sir, it was everywhere that people hated me. Everyone knows my picture was released and my apartment was burned down. I wasn't supposed to go out on my own, but I wanted to see my friends and everyone was busy so I thought the best way to avoid anyone jumping me was to cover up my hair and try to hide my face."

He opened his mouth to argue with the boy, but Izuku's lawyer cut him off, "Look, my client has answered your questions and you have the ability to corroborate his story. Since all the accusations against him have been addressed and you aren't charging him with anything, we'll be taking our leave. If you have any further questions, here's my card you can call me and I'll contact Mr Midoriya to set up any future interviews."

They left the room and took a seat in the waiting area until Aizawa was finished giving his statement. Ten minutes later the pissed off teacher collected Izuku, they said goodbye to his lawyer, and Izuku slid in the passenger seat of Aizawa's car. They sat in silence for a few minutes before Izuku got up the nerve to speak. "I'm sorry for causing all this trouble for you, Sensei."

Aizawa's grip on the steering wheel tightened. "You didn't cause problems, Midoriya. You were just trying to spend time with your friends and a quirksist asshole decided to use any reason he could find to take you down. This is all Ojiro's fault, don't take the blame for someone else being a dick." He reached out and ruffled Izuku's hair. "I'm just mad at myself for not kicking him out sooner."

Izuku smiled at his teacher. "Don't be mad at yourself, Sensei. You thought you could teach him to be a better person. If someone had done that sooner maybe things would have been different. If I can't blame myself for someone being a dick, you can't blame yourself for the world teaching him to be a dick."

"Stop making good points when I'm trying to beat myself up, problem child." Izuku laughed at his teacher's grumbling and changed the subject to trying to get Aizawa to get him an ice cream from McDonalds. He didn't get it, but he had to try to hide his grin when they pulled into the parking lot of an ice cream shop.

Izuku was sitting between Shouto's legs on the couch, playing some shooter game with Kaminari while Shouto scrolled on his phone and pressed kisses to Izuku's hair occasionally. His boyfriend laughed, "Look, Izu, seems like Ojiro got stuck with community service."

Izuku looked at the picture of the blonde in a horrible yellow vest picking up trash at the top of an article about the lawsuit against UA. The team of lawyers UA hired to tear the boy's case apart had revealed that Ojiro had actually followed Izuku from his house that day. Apparently, he'd been the one leaving threatening notes in their mailbox for the last few weeks before the whole thing went down. They'd thought it was a neighbor, but the cops wouldn't do anything and Izuku hadn't been worried enough to have someone from the Network stake out his house. The notes were vague and clearly meant to intimidate, there were no indicators that the person writing them would turn violent anytime soon.

Ojiro happened to be leaving one when he saw Izuku leave his house and followed him. Izuku blamed his excitement at seeing his friends for not realizing he was being followed, but he asked Aizawa for a few extra lessons on situational awareness anyway. Couldn't hurt to up his skills. The boy was charged with harassment and stalking, but since he didn't take violent action his only consequences were community service and the lawsuit against UA being dismissed. Obviously he hadn't been wrongfully expelled if he was stalking a classmate.

Izuku laughed lightly at the picture. "Yellow really isn't his color."

Chuckles sounded around the room and everyone went back to their activities, the other teenager was of no importance to them anymore. The only good thing (aside from not having to deal with him anymore) that came from all this was his last two classmates getting their heads out of their asses. Jirou and Asui hadn't bothered to apologize, but they didn't send him hateful looks anymore and Sero claimed they were taking their discrimination classes more seriously. They'd even both requested therapy. Things were really looking up for his class.