Chapter 22

Chapter Text

"Internships," Shota said as soon as he entered the classroom, "are usually chosen after the sports festival. Of course with the sports festival being postponed there are no offers from agencies since no one has seen you fight yet." He turned on the screen behind him. "So this year I have chosen the agency I believe will be most helpful to each of you and approached them on your behalf. Details are on the board."

Shota ignored the soft disappointed sighs—only two if he was hearing correctly—and excited reactions and moved onto the rest of homeroom. If any of them had a big problem with the agency he'd chosen, he had no doubt they'd approach him after class.

It was one of the good side effects of their horror start to the year. Overall this class was much closer to each other and Shota understood them all better than previous classes. Trauma had a way of bringing people together and this class already had plenty of that.

"What about Midoriya?" Ashido asked. "He's not on the list."

"Unfortunately," Shota said, with a grin in the direction of Midoriya's desk, "it's taking far more effort to get his death certificate reversed than we'd anticipated. Providing DNA proof of identity is rather difficult when one is a ghost."

"Bummer," Kaminari said, turning to face Midoriya's desk. "Sorry, dude."

Blackwhip appeared—much more controlled after a few weeks practice. Midoriya really was learning quickly now that he had a way to communicate. Shota held up the whiteboard marker for Midoriya to take so that he could "talk" to the class.

"I'm unofficially doing mini internships with several of the teachers at UA," he wrote.

"He'll also be practicing jumping between people he knows and trying to quickly identify their location," Shota added.

"So you'll visit us at our internships?" Ashido asked in her usual enthusiastic tone.

"I'll try," Midoriya wrote. "We have no idea if there is a distance limit to my ability or not. I'll let you know that I'm there, so…"

"So it won't be creepy," Bakugo said, instead of waiting for Midoriya to finish writing. "And he'll respect your privacy. Won't you, nerd?"

"Of course," Midoriya wrote quickly. "Always."

"That is so manly," Kirishima said, using what he apparently considered the highest form of praise.

Blackwhip wriggled in what Shota had learned was a show of embarrassment from the kid. Even if Shota wasn't aware of the way Aldera middle school had treated Midoriya, he would have easily noticed the kid was not used to being praised. Before UA it seemed the only person who'd shown the kid any support or affection had been his own mother—the same woman who'd assaulted Katsuki and gone back to a life that had apparently included assassination. How was that for irony?

Shota hoped to get some time during his class's internships to get involved in Midoriya Inko's case. He really wanted to bring her in before someone tried to pressure Izuku into finding her and reporting her whereabouts.

"Will our…er…updated hero costumes be ready in time for internships?" Yaoyorozu asked.

"Yes," Shota answered confidently, having spoken to Maijima earlier that morning. Shota, Vlad, and Yagi had tweaked the curriculum a little to allow for sports uniforms to be used in heroics classes, but they'd still gone through an extraordinary number of uniforms. Ironically, the original costumes wouldn't have lasted any longer than a standard sports uniform. They'd been so poorly made that Nedzu had reported the previously respected hero-support company to the HPSC for investigation.

Their hero-support license had already been suspended.

The HPSC's preliminary finding suggested that over the past few years cheaper, inferior materials had been illegally substituted, greatly increasing the company's profits for its already very wealthy owners. Pro-hero lives had literally been put in danger in the name of pure, financial greed. It was even being suggested that the staff—who'd been silenced by their workplace agreements—had deliberately used the lowest quality materials on UA's hero costumes in the hopes that Principal Nedzu would live up to his reputation.

Nedzu, of course, was even more ferocious than his reputation suggested—especially when it came to protecting his students. The major shareholders, CEO, CFO, and board of directors of the support company were all facing some serious questions and possible criminal charges, and Nedzu would no doubt make sure they received the maximum sentence if found guilty. The rat didn't muck around when it came to his student's safety.

It was kind of ironic that the same people who gave All Might a teacher's license without proper training were the ones prosecuting a support company for not using proper materials. Shota wasn't going to be the one to point out the hypocrisy, however.

There were already a number of pro-heroes—Nedzu included—quietly investigating the inner workings of the HPSC. Shota had no need to get involved and would always make his students his first priority.

The moment the bell rang to end homeroom, Mic burst through the door, loudly asking the class in English if they were ready for their English class. Shota almost laughed at the vastly different reactions Mic got from the students in class 1A.

And since he didn't have the energy to deal with his husband's overloud exuberance this early in the day, Shota grabbed his sleeping bag from under the desk and headed to the teachers' lounge.

He deserved a nap.

~*~

Izuku didn't miss the relief in Todoroki's reaction to interning at a hero agency that wasn't his father's. But he wasn't the only one to notice.

The moment English class was over, Izuku wriggled a blackwhip in front of Hitoshi who made an inquiring noise—no need for a full question apparently—and quickly connected them.

"Did you see Todoroki's reaction?" he asked, directly into Hitoshi's mind.

"I did," he confirmed. "Katsuki did too."

"It was kind of hard to miss," Izuku agreed. "Your dad?"

"He was watching for it," Hitoshi confirmed. "I think he suspects the same things we do about Endeavor."

"The papers and Internet are full of accusations against him."

"True," Hitoshi said, glancing at Kacchan, "but you know better than anyone how easy it is to bend or exaggerate the truth."

"Yeah," Izuku agreed, feeling a little sad.

"Besides," Hitoshi said, a smile in his internal voice, "I'm pretty sure Nedzu got involved the moment accusations started to fly."

"Okay," Izuku said, "that makes me feel a little better."

"You talking to the nerd?" Kacchan asked, twisting in his seat and leaning back to see Hitoshi's face.

Hitoshi nodded.

"Tell him the hag wants to see him."

"He can hear you," Hitoshi said, rolling his eyes.

"But I can't hear him," Kacchan said as if his gruff attitude was perfectly reasonable. Thankfully Hitoshi seemed to understand Kacchan the same way Izuku did, and Izuku was glad that the explosive boy had a true friend in Hitoshi. They were already as close as brothers despite only sharing a home for the past couple weeks. Izuku would have been a little jealous if he wasn't so grateful for the support system Kacchan had around him.

"I can go now," Izuku offered.

"He can go now."

"Heh, yeah, I didn't think of that. I was thinkin' some kind of dinner or some shit."

"Dinner?" Hitoshi asked in a deadpan tone that Izuku knew was throwing all kinds of shade.

"Yeah, dinner," Kacchan said, doubling down on the ridiculous. "You know, when a family all sits at the same table and eats food."

"Like last night with you, me, Dad and Papa?"

Izuku giggled, accidentally making Hitoshi grin.

"Stop trying to ruin my stoic reputation," Hitoshi said for about the millionth time. Izuku knew he didn't actually mean it. The connection between them shared far more than either of them was comfortable with, but Hitoshi never hesitated to connect them on Izuku's signal.

"Okay," Kacchan said, unaware of their internal dialogue. "Just let me call Mom so she knows what to expect. Don't need her throwing shit around when a blackwhip pops in to say hello."

"Okay," Hitoshi echoed for Izuku as Kacchan made the call.