Hey guys, I'm back. Sorry for taking so long, I was experiencing a lot of burnout and various other things. But I'm gonna try and start writing for this again, so we'll see how that goes.
Considering how much has changed in the manga and anime since I started writing this, I feel that I should say that while it's still going to follow some plot lines that have been established in the canon, this is, for obvious reasons, heavily canon divergent.
On the bright side; With this arc now actually done, I can move onto the fun stuff! So I hope you're looking forward to that.
I started writing this forever ago, but never got around to finishing it. I'm going to keep the beginning portion because it's easier, so if you see a drastic change in writing style, that's why. I'd also like to apologize in advance if this seems at all sloppy, or rushed.
—
Ochako was.. nervous for her fight against Shiozaki. That much she could say at least. She saw how the girl could use her vines, and Ochako could do nothing against them without making it even easier for Shiozaki to maneuver them. Unless Shiozaki went for the defensive game.. which… Actually, she might. And if she doesn't, Ochako will need to think on her feet. The announcement went out, and Ochako got up, walking out into the stadium to face off against the vine-haired girl of Class 1B.
Yaoyorozu was leaning sitting next to Midoriya, watching as Ochako and Shiozaki entered the ring from opposite sides. She noticed the tightness in Ochako's stride, the unsure twitches of her hands. She had made a pair of Binoculars, after all, to observe these small differences. She realized quickly that Ochako was unsure if she would win. Midoriya must have noticed this too, along with Iida.
"Uraraka!" Their class president shouted, catching the brunette's attention.
"You can do this!" He and Iida told her. The entire class noticed, how could they not? They all decided to add in, shouting things to the brunette to hype her up.
"Give them a show, like moi!" Aoyama added, posing with a random spotlight coming out of nowhere and shining down upon him.
"You better win, because I plan on making a victory cake!" Sato shouted, much to the delight of Class 1A. No one could resist what he made, not even Shoto. Or Bakugo.
"H-HAI!" She shouted back to her classmates, a nice warmth forming in her chest and stomach. It was really nice, having people cheer her on like this. She couldn't disappoint them.
Shiozaki had this in the bag. Or, she thought she did. When she looked upon the Brunette after getting the motivation from her classmates, Shiozaki felt like something was wrong. She ignored it, of course. All she had to do was push her out of the ring, what could she do to stop her?
And then Midnight called out that the match started.
Shiozaki was forced onto the defensive as the brunette rushed her suddenly. She hadn't been expecting it, nor was she ready. She tried slamming one vine into her leg, only for her to hop over it and then duck the next.
Shiozaki's next move was to encapsulate herself in a vine ball, the ultimate defensive move. There was no way she'd be able to beat her this way.
Uraraka touched the vineball with her finger tips, before pushing it out of bounds. The girl, who had been expecting more, was rather let down. But she was happy with the victory anyways.
Class 1-A was cheering their classmate on as she won, and congratulated Uraraka when she returned, further boosting her confidence but also flustering her. Shiozaki was embarrassed, but her classmates were there to support her, even through such a loss.
Kendo hopped onto the wall, looking at 1-A crowding around and cheering for their newest victor. She smiled softly at seeing Ochako look like she wanted to just disappear, clearly flustered, yet grateful. It reminded her of her own class. Whether someone lost or won, both classes were there.
Monoma, also on the wall, saw it too. If briefly, if for a moment. He saw it too.
Before proceeding to call 1-A a bunch of arrogant pricks and getting chopped in the neck.
The next round.. Was Jirou vs Fumikage.
The two classmates met in the middle of the arena. And then the battle began, and was over nearly as quickly when Dark Shadow slammed into her, forcing her out of bounds.
Midoriya winced, knowing that the battle wouldn't be the best, but he had hoped it would be.. at least a little drawn out.
When Jirou returned, she was met with condolences and an awkward smile from Midoriya. Fumikage was congratulated for his win.
The Battle between Sero and Shoka was very, very short lived.
As hard as he tried, he knew he was outmatched, and accepted that he was likely going to lose. He was trapped in an small iceberg attack, and simply hung his head, trying to ignore the cold.
"Can you move, Sero?" Midnight asked.
"N-No."
"Sorry.." Shoka said as she walked up and began heating the ice around gim up, to which Sero just shook his head while forcing a small laugh.
"Don't worry about it.. Just.. try turning down the output for guys like me..?"
"I'll.. try."
Finally, they had entered a rest period before the next rounds started up.
Midoriya was resting in the lunchroom with headphones over his ears, and a few of his classmates and Class 1-B were around him, talking about various things. Ochako was sitting beside him, chattering with Iida, and Hagakure was at his other side, chatting with Mina. Jirou was across from him, wearing headphones and listening to music. The Todoroki Twins were beside her, eating soba.
Sato showed up out of what could be assumed was the kitchen, and held up a cake he had somehow managed to make with the ingredients present. He had made sure to make it large enough for both classes present.
"What's this? Class 1-A mocks us—?" Monoma said, before being kicked in the shin by Tetsutetsu. Crumpling from the pain of iron meeting shin, Monoma was knocked out. Both classes proceeded to enjoy their break time. Ashido ended up making a betting ring for the upcoming matches, and when Iida tried to crack down on it, he was convinced that it was perfectly fine because they were betting using "Sato cooking favors".
Iida ended up betting as well.
The next match-up was Ochako vs Fumikage.
Ochako managed to move out of the way of Dark Shadow's attacks, and Fumikage saw what she was trying to do, but was unable to do anything to stop it.
"Come on!" Dark Shadow complained, right before the rocky heavens descended upon him and Fumikage. He had formed a pretty effective shield, thankfully, and the darkness temporarily gave him enough strength to ignore the rubble and break free of it. Ochako would collapse moments later from exhaustion, meaning that Fumikage won.
Midoriya excused himself to check in his friend, and was followed by Iida. The rest of the class awaited their return.
Midoriya stopped Iida from continuing when they got near the hospital room, hearing her talking to someone— Her parents, from how it sounded. She sounded upset..
Slowly walking to the door, he knocked on the door. He heard her tell her parents she had to go before he heard her tell them that they could come in.
"Come in!" Uraraka shouted, then winced as Bakugo shifted in the bed on the other side of the curtain.
Midoriya and Iida entered, carefully and quietly.
"We were worried about you!" Iida told her bluntly. Ochako giggled, wiping at her face.
"Ah, you guys, don't worry about me. I'm fine, promise!"
Midoriya shook his head slightly, sitting down next to her.
"Are you sure you're alright?" He asked her, to which Iida tilted his head. Uraraka opened her mouth in an O shape, before closing it again. Then she spoke after a moment of silence.
"I'm just tired, guys. Seriously, I'm fine!" She reassured with a smile. Another groan from Bakugo made her zip up her mouth, though.
"Fuckin'.. Deku.." Bakugo spoke, before his hand shakily moved the curtain. Speeding to the other side of Uraraka's bed to help Bakugo, Midoriya moved the curtain out of the way for him. He winced at the almost completely bandaged Bakugo. Bakugo's red eyes met his own.
"You.. are a.. dick."
Midoriya only smiled in return.
"I'm glad to see you're awake too, Kacchan."
"Mmph.. Fuckin'.. staying like this for at least three days," He told Midoriya, and he nodded. Uraraka and Iida watched on in fascination at the calm interaction between the two.
"I'll make you spicy food for the week to make up for it?"
"Two weeks."
"Fine, two weeks."
"Now get the fuck out, and YOU!" Bakugo started, turning his head towardsa very startled Uraraka, "Quiet the fuck down."
And with that, Bakugo turned his head back and closed his eyes, conserving his energy.
Midoriya and Iida quickly made their way out, Midoriya giving a small 'sorry' to Uraraka, who only gave a small laugh and thanked him for checking on her.
Monoma and Kirishima faced off against each other next, which led to a lot of clashing due to the copier copying Kirishima's own quirk and prolonging the fight. It got to the point that Midoriya wasn't even interested, and half the stadium was asleep, before Kirishima finally managed to kick Monoma's legs out from underneath him and then out of the ring.
Aizawa nudged Present Mic, startling him awake.
"Is- Is it over, Shota?" He asked, slicking his hair back before hurriedly grabbing the microphone.
"It's done," Aizawa confirmed.
"WOW!" Present Mic said, waking up most of the stadium with a startle, "That was a long, long match. LET'S MOVE ON TO THE NEXT ONE!"
He leaned back, putting his hands on his face.
"They definitely got enough rest," He said, not realizing the microphone picked that up until a second later. Realizing there was nothing he could do, Hisashi simply announced the next match.
"ALRIGHT! SHOTO TODOROKI AND HITOSHI SHINSO! Please make your way to the ring! Or.. Square. Why did we make it a square?!"
"Focus, Mic."
"Right! Just— Make your way to the field."
The fight was almost over immediately, with Shoto throwing a glacier at Shinso. Tetsutetsu shivered.
"Can you move?" Midnight asked.
Shinso simply stared at her.
"… Right."
"WOW! WHAT AN ANTICLIMACTIC BATTLE!" Present Mic shouted, to which the audience had to agree. Looking down at the matches coming up, Present Mic smirked.
"WELL NOW, FOLKS!" He began, "LOOKS LIKE OUR GOD OF DESTRUCTION IS GOING AGAINST THE QUEEN OF ICE AND FIRE! WE'LL BE RIGHT BACK AFTER THIS BREAK!"
"So, bets on Midoriya?" Mina asked, to which the entire class, and even Class 1-B raised their hands. Mina's face became sour.
"Oh, come on you guys! We can't-"
"I'll bet on Todoroki!" Mineta shouted.
Both Classes stared at Mineta, before a single thought was shared between all of the students.
"You're an idiot."
Shoka shifted on the field, waiting for Midoriya to come out. This was, admittedly, making her nervous. She knew she had little to no chance of winning against him, but she still wanted to try. But given what he's shown he can do..
She stopped her train of thought as the verdette finally came onto the field.
"Hey, you ready?" He called out to her, to which he got a solid nod in return. He gave her a nod, and then he just waited for Midnight.
"Alright, START!"
Shoka started off with a heavy wave of Ice, a Tsunami of it shooting forth and towards Midoriya. Midoriya crossed his arms, taking the hit of the ice as best he could. He found himself being pushed back, and stamped his feet into the ground as he kept one hand on the barrier and pulled the other back. Slamming his fist into the ice, Midoriya was surprised when only certain parts of the ice shattered. It was segmented ice..
Continuing to push his way through the ice, Midoriya finally clapped his hands together and completely shattered the ice, just in time for a torrent of fire to be spewed towards him. Midoriya's eyes widened as his upper half was engulfed by flames.
Shoka cut the flames off with a strangled gasp, which was followed by the audience reacting just as well to seeing someone get set on fire—
A burst of wind, and Midoriya was in front of Shoka, mostly fine other than his shirt burning and some light burns on his head and arms. Startled, the half-n-half quirk user threw both elements at him simultaneously, pushing him back with an explosion from the two very different temperatures. Midoriya skid on the ground before regaining his footing, and attempted to fly towards her, only to start falling instead. Ignoring that setback, Midoriya caught himself and continued to charge towards Shoka. Sidestepping a torrent of ice, Midoriya ended up behind Shoka, grabbing her arm and tossing her out of the as carefully as he could.
She hit the grass, and managed to correct herself so she ended up on her back.
"IZUKU MIDORIYA IS THE WINNER!"
"Hey, isn't that the kid that punched the slime villain?" Kamui Woods said to his teammates, to which Mt Lady immediately turned around, almost glued to the screen. Scowling as she looked away, Death Arms only raised an eyebrow.
"Oh, hey, it is. Wait.. isn't that also the kid that got injured at the UA attack?"
"Huh, looks like it!" Kamui said, looking closer, "Hey, Yu, why so pouty?"
"That brat is just— Just look at him! What are we supposed to do to compete against that?"
"Uh, how about we worry more about the saving lives aspect?" Kamui asked, to which she huffed. Death Arms felt his phone buzz, so he took a moment to look at his phone. He then gave a loud and triumphant laugh, causing Mt Lady to turn around and look at him with squinted eyes.
"What's so funny?"
"Well, the damages you've caused by growing too big in bad areas has finally caught up to you, and someone is willing to pay for it, but.." He handed his phone to her, and Yu felt her soul leave her body before she turned back to look at the TV screen.
"No…"
"Yep!"
"NO!"
"What are you two even talking about?" Kamui asked. He would receive no answer.
Mineta could feel the stares of everyone into the back of his head.
"Well..?" Kaminari said, staring at Mineta with crazed eyes.
"You better pay up, Mineta," Sero added, coming in from his other side.
Mineta gulped nervously. He didn't have enough Sato-favor slips.
Sprinting away faster than any of the students knew he could, Sero and Ojiro, and was returned, and taped to his seat.
"This must be karma.." Mineta thought.
The next break was short, and it felt like no time until Kirishima and Fumikage met each other on the field.
"ALRIGHT! LOOKS LIKE OUR LIVING SHIELD FACES OFF AGAINST THE LORD OF DARKNESS!" Mic excitedly introduced the two to the audience, to which Fumikage shook his head at the nickname. Kirishima stifled a laugh at his expense.
"START!"
Kirishima hardened as he took on an attack from Dark Shadow, before he grabbed the physical darkness and threw it out of his way. He rushed forward, and was slammed from behind by Dark Shadow, which only helped him reach his target faster. Slamming into Fumikage, Kirishima and him were sent over the edge with the boy with the bird head hitting the ground first.
"Kirishima wins! Next matchup will happen after a small break!"
Iida was curious when he felt his phone buzz. Stepping away from his class, he picked up his phone, seeing his Father's number, and answered. His face went into shock, and he felt a need to leave. Informing his classmates, Iida left swiftly, missing Midoriya and Todoroki's match.
Midoriya and Shoto Todoroki stepped onto the field at the same time, looking into each other's eyes with deep conviction. The tension between the two was palpable enough that the observing students felt it. Up in the stands, Endeavor scowled at the realization that the green haired brat had managed to slip past him somehow.
"I thought they solved their problem?" Shinso questioned, to which Shoka shook her head.
"This is something different." She stated, to which the rest of the class only reacted with interest.
"I'm pretty sure Midoriya is about to have a Midoriya moment," Kendo informed them, looking down at how her friend was standing there.
"What makes you say that?" Ojiro questioned her, knowing exactly what the other martial artist meant by a "Midoriya Moment".
"Look at his stance. He's not taking this seriously— Or just, not really preparing himself for many moves. Even with the other rounds he readied himself a little."
"Huh.." Ojiro acknowledged, leaning in close and squinting his eyes, "You're right. Nice eye."
"So, we're just calling him being relaxed a Midoriya moment, now?" Shinso asked with a raised eyebrow.
"No, just moments when it's obvious he's about to give some kind of speech," Kendo replied, to which Shinso shrugged.
"He is kinda obvious when he's gonna give one of them, huh?" Kirishima added on, to which multiple students gave a hum in reply.
Down in the field, Todoroki's right side bristled with ice. Midoriya sighed, relaxing himself, but making sure he was ready to moved.
"READY?! START!" Mic's voice came over the speakers, and unlike his sister, Shoto started off with sending his ice through the ground, forcing it to take the shape of jagged ice pillars as they shot out of the concrete. Midoriya dodged the attacks, breaking a few that got too close for comfort, but remained on the defensive. Some of the audience noticed, and started talking about it.
Todoroki growled as he sent a wave of ice towards Midoriya, to which Midoriya tanked it. Another wave, and Midoriya managed to tank it again.
Todoroki scowled at Midoriya, feeling the emotions from earlier build their way up and—
He stamped his foot down and somehow shot out an iceberg larger than anything he or his sister had ever created before. It stood, monolithic in size, as Midoriya was simply gone from sight for a moment.
For a few moments, the audience was confused. As was Shoto. He was wondering if he had completely covered Midoriya—
"Look! Up there!" An viewer shouted, pointing towards the sky as the Iceberg reflected light perfectly.
Up in the sky, with light framing him in a spectacular fashion, was Midoriya, floating once again. Midoriya found he wasn't able to do much more, but he was slowly learning the feel for floating, instead of running on instincts. It felt.. different, though. It was weird.
Ibara watched him, fascinated— No, amazed. She felt her face go into one of shock as she bare witness to something she never believed herself to have such luck seeing.
"An angel…" She muttered, to which Itsuka gave her a weird look.
Midoriya stopped floating and dropped onto the ice, sliding down it as Todoroki shouted at him in confusion and a bit of anger.
"Why won't you just take me out already?!"
"Because I refuse to go until I see you use your left side!"
"I already told you!" Todoroki shouted towards his friend, "I won't use his quirk! I will win with my right side alone!"
"It's not his quirk, Todoroki! It's yours! Don't you understand that?! The only way a hero can save people is if they give it their all— And you haven't done that yet!"
Todoroki stopped for a moment as Midoriya stood on the higher ground of ice. Memories of his mother telling him he could be a hero.. that his quirk was his own…
Todoroki's left side began to spark.. then it began to blaze. Fire poured off of him as his right side gained feeling again, having gotten dangerously close to losing feeling altogether due to the cold..
"I.. You asked for this, Midoriya," Todoroki told him simply, before letting all his restraints go.
Midoriya only smiled as he threw himself down, pulling his arm back as a small amount of power began to pool up in his arm. Todoroki's quirk fully powered up, a flash of light surrounding him as fire and ice clashed and worked together.
"Thank you…" Todoroki mumbled to himself, feeling a burden he held begin to lighten.
Midoriya threw his punch and Todoroki's quirk fired off, clashing and exploding against each other.
As the dust cleared, they saw Todoroki on the other side of the arena completely, smashed into ice that prevented him from hitting the wall, and Midoriya slowly standing back up, but stumbling just a bit, before falling to his knees. His upper body had burn marks on it. Raising a fist slowly, Midoriya stood back up.
"Todoroki is out of bounds, MIDORIYA IS THE WINNER!"
Shoka rushed away from the class to check on Shoto and Midoriya, followed by a worried Hagakure, and a curious Shinso.
Bursting in, they were met by a shout from Bakugo about noise, a greeting from Midoriya, and a simple turning to from Shoto.
"Hey, We're fine!" He assured them, to which Shoka ignored him and went to her brother's side, looking down at him, before slowly nodding.
"Hm. Yes, he is fine.. How?"
"Recovery girl," Shoto replied.
"Ah, whatever would we do without Recovery Girl?" Shinso asked, to which Midoriya paled.
"I don't know, but.. that was intense, guys!" Hagakure said, hitting Midoriya on his shoulder, "We were worried about you!"
"Will you PLEASE SHUT THE FUCK UP?!" Bakugo roared, "I'M TRYING TO FUCKING SLEEP HERE!"
"Aw, is the pomeranian not getting any beauty rest?" Shinso asked.
"NO THANKS TO YOU FU-"
"Go to sleep."
And Bakugo was out like a light. The visitors left, followed by Midoriya, who only needed some help with the burns.
"ALRIGHT, THE FINAL ROUND IS BETWEEN MIDORIYA, OUR UNSTOPPABLE CHAMPION SO FAR, AND KIRISHIMA, OUR IMMOVABLE SHIELD!"
Kirishima stared at Midoriya, before hardening his body as much as he could.
"I won't go down that easily, Midoriya!"
"Yeah, let's do this, Kirishima!"
"START!"
Midoriya blitzed forward, landing a well placed punch into Kirishima's arms, causing Kirishima to go flying out of bounds.
"Kirishima is out of bounds, IZUKU MIDORIYA GETS FIRST PLACE, AND WINS THE SPORTS FESTIVAL!"
Midoriya only scratched the back of his head as he went to help Kirishima out.
"Maybe I should start holding back a lot more..?"
"More?! You're already holding back?!" Kirishima asked, genuine horror in his voice.
"Y.. yes?"
"… Midoriya. I love you bro, but that's.. Well. You're the manliest man I know! But you're an even scarier monster at that."
"Thanks?"
"You're welcome, buddy."
The awards ceremony began, Midoriya, Kirishima, and Todoroki being raised on their respective podiums. All Might arrived, and after a little verbal mishap where he didn't say "Plus Ultra", the top 3 got their respective medals.
"Nice work out there, kid!" All Might whispered to Midoriya, with Midoriya giving a nod and a smile.
"And here you have it, folks! The winners of this year's Sports Festival!" All Might announced, turning around and motioning towards the three on the podium.
"I'm surprised Kirishima managed to get that far," Shinso said bluntly.
"I think he lucked out with his match ups— Jeez, we have so many powerhouses!" Kaminari commented. Sero only stared at him, still shivering from the phantom cold.
"Never doing that again," He decided. Never getting on the twins' bad side, never facing them. Nope.
"Someone needs to go get Bakugo," Jirou said, crossing her arms, "And I'm not it."
"Why don't we just send Midoriya to get him? Or Kirishima? Someone who can.. Oh, I dunno, handle sparky sparky boom boom?" Sero said, making a mock motion of Bakugo's quirk.
".. You're probably right."
Later that night, the students finally returned to their dorms. Or, most of them. Midoriya was pulled aside by All Might, being told he needed to talk to him urgently about.
Sitting in the teachers lounge, or one of them, Midoriya sat across from Toshinori as he explained the story of One For All. He explained All for One, and how he had somehow managed to exist since the dawn of quirks, how he had a quirk that allowed him to give and take quirks. He explained how his brother was weaker than him— Quirkless, and how All for One held his brother prisoner. How he eventually gave him a quirk— A power stockpiling quirk.
"—His brother, however, did have a quirk. A quirk that could be passed onto others. The Stockpiling quirk that All For One gave him merged with it, creating—"
"One For All.." Midoriya finished, leaning back into his chair just a bit more than before. This.. this was a lot.
"Yes, correct. And his brother has been trying to get it back ever since. Or, was. You see, young Midoriya, All for One is supposed to be dead."
"H.. How did he die?" Midoriya asked, terrified by whatever power house could—
His scar.
".. You..?"
"Yes. Yes, I killed him. Or, so I thought. Recently.. I've been thinking that he isn't as dead as previously thought. The USJ attack, for example. Do you truly believe that Shigiraki could have organized that?"
"What?! No way!"
"Exactly, Midoriya. And that Nomu.. It was designed to fight me, Midoriya. Kill me, as the villains said. It would have even killed you if you didn't do whatever you had done."
"H-Hai.." Midoriya responded, feeling.. unsure of himself. That thing.. it reminded him of something but he just couldn't place what. He knew it was obvious , but it felt so obvious he couldn't figure it out.
"I should have told you the story before giving you the quirk, but my desperation for a successor.."
"N-No, All Might, it's fine. It's a lot, but it's fine. Just.."
Wow.
".. you should go back to your dorm, it's late. I'm going to assume you probably want to enjoy the rest of your break, too."
"Yes, sir," Midoriya said, standing up and making his way to the door as All Might sighed and put his head in his hands. Just what had he gotten his boy into..?
Toshinori blinked to himself. There he was again, calling Midoriya his boy. His son. Then again… He shook his head at himself, realizing just how attached he had grown to the boy, and vice versa.
"Like Mentor, like successor, eh, Nana?" Toshinori asked himself mentally, before getting up and deciding he needed to get to his dorm as well. He would think more about this later.
When Midoriya returned to his dorm, he found it mostly the same, other than his bed being slightly messy. He assumed he forgot to make his bed before the festival, but he was also too tired to care. Moving over to his bed, he flopped onto it, ready to sleep ex—
"EEP!"
Midoriya shot off his bed, staring at his bed, and the bundle of blankets with a distraught look. Turning his lights on, he saw— A little girl with white hair and a horn.
"W- What?" Midoriya asked confusedly, and the girl only cowered into his bundled up blanket more. Midoriya's heroic side kicked in, forgetting just how exhausted he was and how weird this whole situation was.
"Hey, hey, whoa, it's okay. I'm not gonna hurt you— What're you doing here? How did you get in?"
The girl only continued to shake for a few moments before responding.
"T-the big door.."
"The UA Gate?" Midoriya clarified, seeing a small nod from the girl, "Okay, did you get lost? Do you have any parents?"
She shook her head, and Midoriya frowned.
"Okay.. It's going to be okay. My name is Izuku Midoriya… what's your name?"
"M-my name is Eri.." She forced out. He could see her looking around the room, looking for any exit. He was worried as to what that entailed.
"Ok, it's nice to meet you, Eri.. have you eaten anything recently?"
"N-no."
"Ok.. If you follow me, we can get you a snack, and then I can try and see if I can get my Sensei to see what we can do, okay?"
"Please don't send me back," Eri choked out, a round of tears threatening to spill out. Midoriya's blood froze from the sheer desperation her voice held. The possibilities of her circumstances were drastically dropping into a few that he did not like. That's when Midoriya would make a promise to her, one he intended to keep.
"I promise, we won't send you back. Let's just get a snack, okay? Some water. Do you need any help?"
Eri shook her head and slowly moved out of the blanket, and Midoriya had a hard time keeping his laser vision deactivated as her bandaged arms were revealed, and her clearly torn and dirty gown came into view.
"I promise.." He said, mostly to himself.
He led her downstairs, and opened the fridge, retrieving an apple and handing it to her. He then asked her to wait there while he went to get Aizawa, moving quickly. When Aizawa asked what he was doing, he carried him to Eri. Aizawa simply sighed at the sight of the girl.
"Problem child, explain."
"She was in my room, Sensei. I don't think she ran away from home. Look at the bandages— Her gown."
Aizawa pinched the bridge of his nose with his fingers, exhaling a breath he didn't realize he was holding.
"I'll.. talk to Nezu about this. Maybe he already has several ideas, but.. until then, she's in your care, Midoriya."
"W-WHAT!?" Midoriya shouted, before receiving a pointed glare from Aizawa and a startled look from Eri, who seemed to be enjoying her apple, "Sorry, what?"
"You found her, and she seems to trust you."
"Sensei I literally found her ten minutes ago."
"She's also already used to your room."
"And?"
"Midoriya. I'm tired. I'll help, but right now, the most we can do is just make sure she's comfortable as Nezu investigates— Because I know you're listening—" A gentle laugh could be heard following the wind, "And comes up with a plan. That, and I trust you enough to handle her until tomorrow.. Preferably without anyone else finding out."
Aizawa didn't believe for a single second that this temporary plan would hold up.
Midoriya sighed.
"Hai, Sensei. I'll let her know."
"Thank you, Midoriya. Oh, and, if you need anything, let me know.. in the morning."
"Hai, Sensei."
"Thank you," Aizawa said, before making his way back to his dorm. Midoriya walked over to Eri, and sat down next to her.
"Alright, Eri. So, you're gonna be staying with me for now, okay?"
"Hhkay.." She responded with a mouth full of apple.
"Alright.. finish up, then we gotta get to bed. It's late."
She would finish up her apple, and Midoriya would lead her back to his room. He let her have his bed, and he just got into his chair, put a pillow on the back of his head, and called it a night. He was unaware of the gentle, but slightly unsure smile that Eri fell asleep with.
