Surprisingly enough to myself, I can't think of much to say this time around. Took me almost a month to get this done around work, family and some personal stuff, but I'm happy to have it done on time, before I'm in LA for a day and half and unable to do much without my two friends with me on that trip.
Sadly, I did not pass the length of chapter 10, falling about 2k words short of matching it in word count. Either way, it's now officially passed 150k words total, excluding these little messages I type just to chatter away. Hopefully you'll all enjoy 27k words in a single sitting, or more if you need a breather from it. I know I do with the length of some stories' chapter like these. Even then, I hope what I've put in here is enough to satisfy you for the time being. To all you who have followed, favored and commented on this, thank you for your continued support. To me, it means the world.
Toshinori had not expected the grading portion of the exam to be as slow as the overviews of his calendar at his agency were. The staff of Yuei were a far brighter and livelier bunch than the assortment of men and women he had hired to funnel his schedule and keep him on a well-regulated pace each day. If anything he had expected the hero high school's teachers and professors to chatter and clamor during the review process of the examinees' performances, getting the job done but spending far more time bounces off one another with anything they could think of with or without relation to the exam.
To his surprise, those quips were far and few between during the scoring process.
"Examinee 8255," Nedzu began for the table, his paws tapping a button to shift the screen before them to the image of a blond boy throwing his body wildly from one robot to another with explosions from his hands, "Bakugou Katsuki. Quirk: Explosion. He ended the practical exam with the highest amount of combat points; 77. Bakugou shows a good use of his quirk in overpowering the robots and tearing through them with ease, and his own endurance to keep going from bot to bot with little hesitation. Aside from avoiding the zero-pointer as the other examinees in his testing block, he didn't avoid or leave behind a single enemy."
"Probably made plenty out of his other examinees," Midnight commented as the screen skipped from photo still to photo still of the blond in action. "Plenty of his points come from indirectly shoving other examinees out of the way to take them for himself. He attacked lone robots before other examinees could land their own blows and make a score of their own. His explosions nearly harmed two other kids just to take down a small wave of them near the end. I'm surprised Nedzu doesn't want his score demoted for that rowdy behavior."
"Because the kid didn't target anyone intentionally or actually cause harm," Vlad King chimed in. The screen showed another still of Bakugou blasting down a robot, a thirsty look in his eyes and a sadistic smile across his mouth. Reminded Toshinori of Miruko for the moment, but the blood bending hero continued, "He shouldered his fellow examinees and went on fighting the robots without batting an eye at anyone else. He didn't help any injured kids from fighting robots, but he didn't shove them aside to take down the bots they couldn't. Kid has a single mind and that was to get as many points from the bots as he needed."
The number one hero could see it in the stills, as the boy flew across the streets tearing robots apart but leaving other kids to eat his dust all the same. He was far too dismissive of everyone around him, more than any other hero All-Might had seen before. Even Endeavor and Miruko, with their hot heads and attitudes, only ever directed it such towards the criminals and villains they fought instead of the heroes by their side or the civilians behind them; par Miruko in her escapade for self-empowerment and working alone more often than with a team. The Bakugou kid would make a great hero, but with an attitude like that he wouldn't get high enough in the rankings or eyes of the public to be considered for much outside of taking down criminals.
Toshinori couldn't saw he was as surprised with the room voted unanimously on his rescue points. "0 rescue points," Ectoplasm announced while Power Loader clocked it into his computer. "Kid's currently in the running for top of the exam. I have five hundred yen he keeps it."
"Two thousand," Present Mic threw in his own chips, which in that case was just his grading pen, across the table. Midnight was quick to swipe it and tuck it behind her ear opposite from the vocal hero. Mic gave her a half-hearted glare before he looked around the room. "No. 13 hasn't reported a single kid with combat points close to his, and while the kids were helpful and all, those rescue points haven't gotten anyone close enough. Current second place is a recorded 68 total. Unless there's a standout kid with both, I don't see it happening."
"Funny you should say that," Nedzu chuckled, clicking his button again showing a shot of a green-haired kid with a baseball bat booking it across the streets of the testing towns. "Examinee 8256. Izuku Midoriya." Toshinori shifted back in his seat and dropped his hands to his lap. From the side he saw Vlad do the same, clamping his jaw shut at the sight of the boy on screen. "Scored only 15 combat points in the practical exam while scoring the highest in the written exam tied with only seventeen other students this year. Quite a differing outcome between the two, I would say."
Midoriya was truly a smart lad, Toshinori wouldn't deny that. He had only seen the questions on the exam without any answered to them but he knew quite a few of them could have been considered trick questions to get the students to think. The number one hero wouldn't be surprised to see a gap in the scores because of them.
"You say that knowing full well what does at the end," the heroine across the table commented, her lasso's hilt twirling in her hand. "Two thousand yen he places first. Kid got off to a rough start but he's responded faster than any other examinee to help another one out. He even got another kid to help him help that girl. And burying that thing into the ground to keep them safe? Automatic ten from me."
Nedzu nodded as he clicked quickly through the photos of the boy in action, ripping through robots with the swings of his bat until he lands on a photo of the final moments. The boy is drenched in his own blood, staining down his torn open tracksuit. Dirt and grime blotched all over his body and hair. The only part untouched by dust and color were his eyes, squinted to the behemoth of a machine in the exam and punctuated with the smallest snarl of the boy's red-coated teeth. "Midoriya's showcase was a slow build to quite a marvelous crescendo. The first examinee in decades to take the zero pointer head on and effectively defeat the giant even if it remains mostly intact. I would be lying if the scene didn't leave me excited."
Present Mic strained a smile as he scooted his chair further from the principal until he was barely leaving Cementos with enough leg room of his own. "As long as the kid stays in one piece, be our guest," the blond hero gestured to the photo on display. "Even I admit, watching it myself from the roof and seeing a zero pointer stall and bounce when the boy hit it was a wicked sight. Kid gets a nine from me."
"Eight here," Cementos graded the boy, draping an arm over the other hero's chair. "The boy showed a tenacity to power through his wounds and keep fighting but I'm concerned he strained them more than he needed at the end. Continuing to help the girl escape with that amount of energy and effort he put into stopping the zero-pointer's approach would have not pulled his wounds wider than he did."
Power Loader clicked away on his computer absentmindedly and looked at the photo of the boy. "I want to knock him for causing damage to the one robot that needs the most work to build but the boy had more reason to it than trying to show up the other kids. Kid gets a nine."
"Nine as well," Ectoplasm chimed in after the mechanic. "Only one less because he kept giving me a heart attack. I'll make sure the kid becomes more mindful of his own health down the line. Powering through the pain is one thing; pushing yourself to bleed out is another. He shouldn't fall victim to that mindset."
"Ten," Snipe declared without further comment from his chair, lounging his feet on the table.
Toshinori took a long stare at Nedzu – who shined back with a smile coated in fake innocence before he looked over the table again. The process of grading was quite quick, thanks to the sheer abundance of examinees forcing them to stay whole days to grade even with the help of the second and third year staff. These first year teachers were no different, breezing by one another thanks to the computers having clocked in their combat scores for them. But they were doing it without the shared knowledge of the boy's quirkless status; or at least, most of them were. The number one hero wondered if Nedzu held that information to himself so closely all these years for more than having the teachers build a biased profile to grade. They could still access them, sure – sometimes that information would be important to have close for any staff to report in if there was danger – but it was always advised against reading up on them.
The only two left to grade of the staff were himself and Vlad King, and the blond knew the cloud white haired hero had yet to forget about the kid on screen. They both knew the kid was at the very least advertised to be quirkless. Neither he nor his family had moved to get his documents changed at any point prior, and he had yet to hear of any information pending over the three days since the exam. Why there was such silence after a showcase of power like that only confused Toshinori more than it did worry him, but that worry was still there.
"Ten." Vlad's scoring was quick to cut into the moment of silence. The hulking man crossed his arms as he leaned back in his seat, casting Toshinori a glance for a second before looking to Nedzu with a gruff expression. "The kid showed the heart of a hero, even if he was running the risk of his own safety to do so. No doubt the kid's already getting in with this score, so we'll all make sure he and every other student is aware of their own safety and health on the job. It isn't something worth the risk."
Toshinori couldn't help but feel that version of Ectoplasm's comment jab his already sore wound, but he didn't linger on the thought. Because the room was looking to him to finish off the scoring process, what he was offered to do as their only other teacher for the job was currently out on a mission. He knew Midoriya was quirkless. He knew Vlad knew the kid was quirkless. He knew Vlad was completely serious with his score; for all the blood the hero pumped out of his body for standby use, every meeting they had told Toshinori the man wore his heart on his sleeve. Honesty and compassion were priorities for a hero with a quirk so many deemed grotesque. They looked to the boy the same way he did when he first met him, putting the thought of a child's safety over having him fight.
He knew the way he looked at it was wrong.
Toshinori looked to the principal staring him down from across the table. "Ten," he scored the boy.
"Wonderful," Nedzu cheered as Power Loader tapped the score next to the boy's name on his computer. "75 rescue points added atop his 15 from combat placing him at 90 already. Been a while since we've had a student near the one hundred marker in our exam since you tested" – he singled out Toshinori from across the table much to the hero's digression – "but it's quite the show to score that close nonetheless. He may be the one who tops the scoreboard after all."
Midnight curled her hand into a fist of victory while Mic slouched over on the other side in defeat, grumbling about his own haste to bet. Nedzu carried on, "Any case, I believe the boy is already a definite acceptance to our rosters. It'll be wonderful to appoint a quirkless kid into our heroics program."
The room had dropped into an obvious silence as the tapping of Power Loader's keyboard came to a halt with most everyone's breath in the room. Present Mic's chair creaked as he turned around slowly, Toshinori noticing quickly the fake smile he had as he looked around the room and surveyed the other teachers' expressions – the number one hero's included – before he turned back to the principal. "I'm sorry?"
"Izuku! Are you all ready?"
The green-haired teen scoffed as he untangled his fingers from the cloth around his neck. "Almost," he shouted back down the hall. His hands dances around his collarbone again, tossing the flat fabric back and forth until his work ended in a jumbled knot at the base of his neck. He could only growl a sigh and yank it apart back into a straight strip of fabric. Aldera never made him wear a tie for their uniform, but Yuei made it a requirement. Izuku hated them and it was only his second day in the school year. "Ah forget it."
Izuku was quick to stuff the tie into his pocket and sling his lemon-colored backpack over a shoulder before pacing his was out the room. He tapped the hilt of his bat as he exited, muttering, "Good luck," before he sped down the hall and into the kitchen.
His mother gave a surprised yelp as he bumped into the wall to stop himself, just at the same time the toaster dinged in front of her. "Oh! There you are!" She pulled the toast out with her quirk and dropped them on a plate as she scurried over to her son, and he met her half way to take the plate and gulf down the bread. "Don't eat too quickly; I don't want you choking so soon into the new school year."
"'ll be fie," he muffled through a full mouth. He slapped the plate between his hands and tossed it into the trash as the rest of his breakfast found its way down his throat. "It's just food. Nothing to worry about."
"That doesn't mean you can't chew first," his mother mumbled as she closed the gap again and looked him over. "At least you're all dressed for today—where's your tie?"
Izuku patted the stomach of his uniform's vest to answer. "It was being difficult so I'm just not going to bother with it. I'll try tying it at school. I" – his eyes snapped to the clock on the microwave – "gotta go. I'm sorry. I love you." He planned only to give her a light kiss on her head, but found himself trapped in a hug as well and returned it in kind.
"Good luck," she wished him, patting his back gently as they parted. A small smile graced her features, and he mirrored the same. "You're going to do great."
"I know." He gave her arms one last squeeze and his body as a whole a small bow. "Thank you." He turned on heel and darted out the door. "I'll be back. Love you!" He didn't wait for her to respond as he rushed to the elevator but he could hear her faintly before the door slammed shut behind him. His legs were bouncing on the ride down and bounding down the street when the doors opened, carrying him along to the rail station so he could get to Yuei.
Izuku was lucky to make it to his train on time, darting between the closing doors and collapsing on an open seat before it dashed down the line. He should have set an alarm for the day, one to get used to for the school year. Going in an hour early the day before had messed up his clock all on its own, gave him false confidence he would be fine. Then he remembered that the world around him had its own clock to move to, and he would have to work with it if he wanted to have his own day go along without a hitch.
He ignored the brief stares and glances that went his way on the train. Maybe because he was in a uniform distinctly for Yuei students. Maybe it was because they thought they recognized someone else when looking at him. Maybe it was because he was almost lying in his chair and catching his breath after spending two minutes to book it down five blocks to make it on the train. He didn't know, he didn't care, and he wasn't going to acknowledge any of them.
No one bothered him or got in his way when the train reached his stop and he shot out the doors, almost stumbling down the following stairwell before his feet were back on the street. From there Yuei was but a straight path along the road, its gates bustling with other students he didn't recognize from different departments and grades he could slip right by, before nearly colliding with someone he did recognize when he got through the doors.
"Oh, hey there!" The red head with shark teeth spun out of the way as Izuku did, the two twirling around each other a moment before the green teen finally brought his momentum to a halt. It took him a moment to recognize him, but he was definitely one of classmates from yesterday; one of the first he had met that day, in fact. He remembered that, and the other boy seemed to remember him too. "Guess there's the speed we didn't get to see yesterday. You got somewhere to be, Midoriya? And where's your tie?"
"Uh…class?" Izuku hesitated, still skirting around the other boy verbally. Even after the quirk assessment tests, he hadn't exactly spoken out with the people he didn't know going in. He was writing down what notes and recognition he could of his classmates' quirks at his homeroom teacher's requests, and Kirishima was one that stuck around in his mind only because of his close resemblance in quirk to Teashishi. Their personalities were a far cry from one another; his junior high classmate was far more shut in and hushed than the loud and animated high school boy bouncing around conversations during their assessment test. But he could never be too safe. "Almost missed my train ride over. And...it is in a better place. Didn't want to be late."
His classmate nodded and turned to face down the hall, shouldering the comment he made of the piece of attire. "Yeah, I feel ya. Our teacher is a bit of a tough guy, isn't he? I'd rather not get detention for being even a second late." He pointed to the staircase down the end of the hall. "Should we head on over? Ashido's already beat me to class, I was just trying to catch up. You got anyone to wait on?"
Izuku wanted to answer yes, that he was waiting for any of his friends or Yaoyorozu or Uraraka to hurry behind him and accompany him to class, or in the case of Mei just to the same floor before the pink hair girl zoomed off without him to her own homeroom. But the truth was he didn't know where they were; he hadn't texted them all morning and the ones he had the number of hadn't even texted him. For all he knew, they were already in class just waiting for him and whoever else to get in and the bell to ring. Besides, even he understood he wouldn't be able to hold his classmates at arm's length for the whole three years. "Nah, we should probably just hurry. I'd rather not stay on Aizawa's bad side."
Kirishima took the opportunity without question to lead the way down the hall, and separate themselves from the traveling herds of other students they didn't know. "I wouldn't say you're on his bad side," the red head commented over his shoulder. "With the no-funny-business of an attitude he had, I'm pretty sure he would have forced you through the assessment test again with the rest of us. Sounds a bit kind to me."
That or it was just pity to keep you all from showing me up, Izuku chided to himself. But Kirishima was right; it could have been worse than being singled out and forced to be quiet on the sidelines. "I would have rather been treated like part of the class," he admitted instead. "Doesn't say much to segregate me even for just an exercise. Not like my scores would have blown anyone away anyways."
"You sure dude? Thought for a moment he was just pulling you aside so we'd feel better about our own scores. Still thinking that's why he didn't show them. Why else wouldn't he?"
Izuku wondered that too. "Well, I don't know why he would have to. This is the hero's course; you're not gonna learn many things about being a hero from tossing a baseball. I get it's because the better you are at the bare bones of these things the better you'll be applying it where it matters, but…actually showing them side-by-side so the lower scorers feel the pressure to do better and work to match the higher scores as closely as possible probably would have been good. Why didn't he?"
Kirishima shrugged as the ascended the step. "I mean it's not like we can all catch up to each other. I can be fast but I'll never be as fast as the guy with engines in his legs or shooting blasts from my hands or stomach to launch myself forward" – he waved a hand out and tightened his hand until the skin had turned to stone – "by making my skin harder." That was true, Izuku agreed. "Hopefully we'll get to do some actual heroic practices and stuff to show what we can really do."
Izuku only nodded silently in agreement. He had no doubt a school for heroics was going to throw him into many premade circumstances that would force him and his classmates to act as real heroes. Yuei was known to be a crazy place just on the news, and he believed it was only that and then some behind their closed doors where they polished their students into some of the biggest names in the world. He'd have to be ready to act and then some alongside the rest of his class. He couldn't afford to fall behind just because he was quirkless. Whatever Yuei would throw his way, he'd be sure to knock it out of the park.
Izuku would cite lunch as being the moment when he decided the day was going to be normal. In comparison to the school years prior, it's not like the day was anything to scoff at for what it was; being taught by a bunch of iconic heroes. He got to see Ectoplasm again when they were taking Mathematics and finally got his autograph after class ended, got to see Present Mic up close as their teacher to the English language (of which they had one foreign student already fluent in), and got to watch Yaoyorozu gush more than any of the boys could over having Midnight for their art history teacher. Having Cementos for their literature class and Lunch Rush as the school's head chef were equally cool; they were just less public heroes on the news, doing more good in the background than the foreground. He went for as many of their autographs as he could.
For as fancy and iconic as the heroes were, however, the studies themselves were as plain as Izuku remembered them from junior high. There was more personality stemming from the heroes and heroine that taught them compared to the bland attitudes of his previous teachers, but the subjects themselves were the same as always. Their methods of instruction were equally as normal as ever. He couldn't really complain about it, though, because it at least meant classes would go by without having to worry about just being pestered by his classmates to introduce himself.
Lunch was oddly the best showcase of that safety. While he was fast enough to get his food and hide away only to be followed by the four people he knew (only short Mei but she didn't respond to his text of where she was during the break), the rest of his class had already sectioned themselves off with each other into their own groups just like he and his friends had. He had even seen Katsuki off at a table with the red head boy and the pink skinned girl flanking him and bugging him with their chatter.
The blond boy was the strangest of his class, by far, and he couldn't figure out why. For a guy who hated his whole existence – a feeling he was beginning to return mutually as the time ticked by – the boy had uncharacteristically shrugged him off. Maybe the threats Mitsuki held over his head were a leash more than a pressure. Maybe there was actually a semblance of begrudging respect sent his way and not bothering him was the other boy's way of showing it. Either way, it didn't stop the glare he would get when their eyes crossed paths before they would both turn away from one another and go along with the day from there. Izuku would take not being bothered by the boy if it meant having to be in the same classroom as him.
That left him with the last class or two of the day, sitting in their homeroom and writing away notes he'd have to add to older books on the heroes he had as teachers. His classmates idled away with one another, even Uraraka and Kirishima beside him more engrossed with the people beside them than with him. The period might have been labeled Heroic Basic Training, but Izuku wasn't going to hype it up for something more elaborate than a syllabus-like day similar to those before it in the day.
"Uh, hello," a voice beside Izuku pipped up, getting Izuku to peek away from his notebook to the horned girl seated beside him. Her shoe-covered hooves tapped mindlessly under her desk as she turned just enough to face him. One he recognized she was, he turned his own body a bit more to face her. The girl gave a wobbly smile in greeting. "Hi. I Pony Tsuno—Oh!" Her hands shot over her mouth a moment before she collected herself. "Sorry. Tsunotori Pony. Have to speak other way. Sorry."
She was the English foreign student, Izuku recognized. She spoke adamantly the sentences Present Mic had wanted them to try out, at least when others weren't speaking up so she could be the best example of how to say the English words properly. But she was stuttering through her Japanese. "Hi," Izuku greeted back in English, noticing immediately as the girl perked up at the pronunciation. "I am Midoriya Izuku. Family name first. It is…pleasure to meet you, Tsunotori." He converted back to Japanese as he said her name, but the sparkle in her eyes didn't die.
"Y-you don't have to English speak if you no good yet," she told him, hands waving in front of her as she spoke. "This is Japan. I should be sure I know to speak correctly."
"It's alright." Izuku kept up in English as best he could. "I know some English from dad and we are learned it here anyways. Good practice?"
He couldn't keep them at arm's length, but he'd rather start with an extended hand alone than the whole limb.
Tsunotori bowed her head kindly and mumbled, "Thank you," in English. "That's very kind of you. Sorry I'm not good at speaking it yet." A hand shuffled behind her head, ruffling her hair over one of her horns. "I only spent the last year studying it. Yuei was a last minute choice for me because of how far but I couldn't pass the chance to study somewhere like here."
Well at least he understood most of that, even if somewhat drowned out by the more vocal of his classmates waiting idly by for class to start and their next teacher to appear. "Good job getting here," he congratulated her in her language. "Exam is tough. But you made it. You are from America? Their schools…great hero schools in America. Why come here?"
"I'm from the Southern parts back home." She nodded her head and tapped her fingers together. "And the schools there are great and all, but" – her head dipped further and muttered only barely enough for Izuku to still hear her over the ringing bell – "this is where All-Might went to and I want to follow in his footsteps."
Izuku's pencil dragged along the pages slowly. He shouldn't be surprised she was an All-Might fan; he was the number one hero in the world, after all. Japan wasn't the only country he was a big name in – hell, his real debut was in the Americas to begin with, taking down a masked bank robber and a giant mutant the former rode around the city. But the last he had seen of the hero was the far less meaningful posters and figures of the hero in his room. He had never forgotten how big of a fan base the hero had, but he knew he was slowly slipping out of it as the days go by. "Sometimes this feels like the place everyone is from," Izuku told her in Japanese. Tsunotori didn't look to be struggling to follow along. "And I think he knows how many people go to this school because of him. He would…probably be happy to know you're one of them—"
"WE ARE" – the room around them came to a hush as a voice boomed out in the hallway and their classroom door through itself open – "COMING THROUGH THE DOOR LIKE NORMAL PEOPLE!" Into the room lunged the number one hero, cloaked in his Silver Age uniform with the lights of the ceiling shining off his iconic smile. And in front of him, posed in the same lunge, was probably a miniature of the hero decked out in a pristine white bodysuit, a red cape, and the one million number in digits across his chest.
Izuku drowned out the room of murmurs and cheers and even Tsunotori gushing over the sight of the number one hero to just stare at the man in silence. All-Might, the number one hero in the charts, the man that graduated from Yuei – the man whose last words to him were to think realistically and give up his dream – was showing up at their school in place of a heroics course teacher. Wait, was he their teacher? Was All-Might hear to teach? Was the guy who entered the room with him supposed to be their teacher; he looked pretty young compared to the other heroes teaching them, like someone who had just graduated and started the profession right out of high school.
All-Might surveyed the room with his hands on his hips as he stepped before the podium, the shorter man with him hopping behind the short pillar and mimicking the hero's pose. His trademark smile stayed plastered over his face as he looked over the students before him, even as his gaze landed over Midoriya. The teen saw the hero's body shift a moment before it was hidden by a deep breath before he looked straight forward once again. Guess he never forgot.
"Welcome students, to your Hero Basic Training Class!" The number one introduce, slapping a fist over his chest as a salute. "The class that will put you through all sorts of special training to mold you into heroes! Alas, there's no time to dally!" The hero's hand shot behind himself, under his cape, and pulling out from it a card he flashed to the class. "Today's activity is this! Battle Training!" The room clamored more at the sound of that, and Izuku could see the sneering smile Katsuki was forming from across the room, the blond's hungry eyes directed his way. First real sign of emotion from him all day.
"And for that" – the young man behind the hero continued for him, garnering attention back to them – "you'll need these!" His hand shot to the side holding a remote, and his thumb came slamming down on the lone button. Suddenly the wall on the edge of the room, and the orange strips Izuku was convinced were just decoration pushed out the wall, showing the pillars of numbered boxes they hid. "Like every Yuei heroics student, the school reaches out with its partner designer organizations and the "Quirk Registry" to follow the outline of your request forms from your admittance to bring you your very own costumes!"
All-Might was quick to continue over the constant murmurs of the students' excitement. "After you change, come out and meet us in Ground Beta! My teaching assistant and I will be waiting for you there to give you the instructions proper! See you all there!" The hero struck the class with a thumb up when his teeth flashed with the lights overhead. The young man behind him only flexed his muscles and flashed a smile of his own before they darted out the room ahead of the students stumbling to grab their uniforms and hurry after them.
Izuku stayed behind in his seat and avoided the mess of bodies pushing around each other, the tip of his pencil pressed into the page of his notebook it was threatening to pierce through. He held himself back until his was the last one hanging up. He made a point to turn his eyes away after just a second of sharing a look with Katsuki, the blond stalking out the room between their classmates. He took the time to stuff his notebook into his bag before he even stood up to grab his costume and follow after his class.
He didn't know why he bothered to believe in anything anymore.
Ochako was really happy with her costume design. She had watched plenty of sci-fi cartoons and shows and movies after her parents convinced her that her quirk was space based. She grew up idolizing No. 13 and Silver Surfer and Captain Marvel and threw together a mix of designs more taken from the shows so she could stand out from heroes – real and comic – when she was able to make it big. She wouldn't be able to make the money her parents needed by blending in and being mixed up with other heroes.
The helmet fit really well over her head, and the pink-tinted visor didn't obscure her vision in recoloring the locker room. The bulbous wrist gauntlets and boots weren't all that heavy, and even if they were, it wasn't like she couldn't just pull their weight off with her quirk – at least for a while before her quirk started to take in the side effects. And the spandex itself was just a bit tighter than she had ordered, but the material was comfortable and the colors exactly what she had ordered so it made up in those departments.
"Urarakero," a voice piped up beside her. The brunette turned over to the green-haired girl hunched over towards the lockers. "Could you help me a moment? My hair's gotten stuck in my zipper, ribbit."
The gravity-negating girl jumped to help her, taking ease to pull the other girl's ponytail from the zipper as to not rip any of the girl's hair out. She was lucky enough to do just that and brush the girl's hair aside to zip the suit closed for her classmate. "Your costume looks really neat," she commented as she gave the girl some space. "Reminds me a lot of scuba gear."
"That's intentional, kero," the frog girl replied, lolling her tongue as she fixed her hair back. "Swimming is my favorite activity and a wetsuit feels better on my body if I'm going to be using my quirk." She spent a moment to place goggles over her head. "Yours has some sci-fi designs to it, right? Looks almost alien."
"Oh, yeah!" Ochako scratched the back of her neck as she laughed. "It's kinda what inspired me. I think it fits the look almost as well as yours does."
"Everyone seems to have a look to them." Tsuyu turned her head around the locker room to the other girls topping of their costumes and stuffing away their uniforms. The pink skinned girl plastered herself in a purple and blue bodysuit with a white tuff to match her hair, spending her time chatting it up with the girl with taller horns slipping on her boots and fastening a saddle to her back. The orange haired girl was already walking out the locker room in her somewhat blue costume that reminded Ochako of a short dress, followed by the purple haired girl dressed in near all black.
There were still two other girls in their class, but they had walked off to more isolated and hidden parts of the locker room to change; the girl whose hair was made of vines and the really tall girl that was friends with Midoriya too. Ochako saw no shame in them wanting their privacy to get into their costumes, but she was still excited to see what they would wear no less. She was pretty excited to see what all her classmates would be wearing for the exercise. Most other kids back in her hometown weren't too big on being heroes like she was, so being surrounded by like-minded kids was a breath of fresh air.
"You prepared for the battle training?" Tsuyu kept up the conversation as she walked away, and Ochako picked up a pace to follow behind her, fiddling with her uniform to make sure it's all in place. "I wonder what All-Might and his assistant are going to be teaching us."
The brunette chuckled lightly and tapped her finger prints together. "Yeah, I don't exactly have the most offensive quirk for battling. I'm hoping it's against more robots like the entrance exam. I'll probably be able to show what I can do against them better than people."
She was incredibly lucky the entrance exam was built the way it was. Her quirk to negate gravity was far more defensive than offensive, so having opponents who would stay down after a single hit gave her quite the workout to show her stuff. It had even earned her quite a good amount of rescue points for her one moment helping push the tall Iida boy out of the way of the robot near the end.
"You'll have to fight people eventually. We're going to be heroes. We won't be able to help it if someone causes trouble."
"I know." Ochako fixed her helmet as they stepped outside to the false city of Ground Beta. "But I'd rather be training with all you guys. I don't want to have to fight someone for a bit longer."
Tenya was diligent in changing into his costume when they were given the instructions to. The agency that designed it were the same that worked for the rest of his family, so the dimensions were crafted to the proper scale and fit like a charm when pulled together completely. He was proud his designs were so expertly translated by the design company. He would have to make sure his bother sent a thank you letter to the friend they had working there.
The rest of his class was taking more time to prepare, a few of them acting jovial with one another and stalling longer to connect and banter. A few were procrastinating a lot more than others, and catching Iida's eye as the worst offender was Midoriya, pitted at the furthest end of the lockers while he undressed. The green-haired boy was very careful to hang up his vest and fold his uniform's shirt as he put his clothes in a locker, but he was the quietest of the boys in the locker room; even beating out Bakugou's grumblings in the corner.
Iida took the time to approach and settle down on the bench beside his friend, who gave him a quick look as he yanked his tie from his vest's pocket and threw it over his shoulder. "Your costume looks cool, Iida," he commented, actually sounding genuine in contrast to his stale expression. "Look like a bulkier Ingenium. You sure your bother didn't pitch in on the design?"
"I did my best to keep Tensei from meddling with my designs," Tenya responded, watching as Midoriya unlocked his case and peeled the top open. "Armor like this is tradition in my family, but it is also tradition to design them without help. Using each other's attire for reference is just commonplace in the process. I have no doubt my brother would have pushed for more blue on my uniform, much to my own chagrin."
"I think you'd make for a wonderful hedgehog." Midoriya punctuated the joke with a small smile as he lifted a green shirt from the case and flapped it unfolded to look at it. "At least you had an idea of what to wear before the entrance exam. All the detail of it up to you or was it a designer choice?"
The taller of the boys looked himself down and patted his legs. "Most of this matches my own requests sent in after our admittance. I think only a few liberties were taken with my uniform, but they only have to do with the number of pieces so I can still rotate parts of my body instead of locking them in place for protection. It's far more detailed than I was able to go into, even with pointers from my mother and father on what a costume would need."
Midoriya was popping his head from the neck of his shirt as he slipped it over his body. "Well they did a pretty good job with it." He scoffed and pinched at his shirt. "Think they messed up making mine. I was hoping this would be baggier." He was quick to rip a jacket from the case and drape it over his shoulders as he dropped his pants and pulled out the pair for his costume. "That or this whole thing ends up being a size too small. That is the last thing I would want."
"At least you've finally decided on a costume," Ojiro butt in, plopping down on the bench opposite of Tenya with his tail resting beside him. "I half expected you to just say to hell with it and fight in your uniform. Haven't seen your tie all day." The green teen pulled the untied cloth over his head for the tailed boy to see before he chucked it into his locker. "And now I have."
"Thing was a nuisance," Midoriya explained as he strapped on his costume's pants. "None of the teachers have bugged me about it yet so I might just go the whole year without wearing it if I can. It's a lot more comfortable than having to choke myself for three years or have it look stupid being loose."
The rest of the locker room was shuffling out before them. Tenya watched as the almost all left in pairs, par their classmates with hair split down the middle. "We should hurry on," the tall boy informed the two beside him. "It would be improper of us to keep our class and teacher waiting." The two agreed and followed behind him, adjusting and readjusting their uniforms on their way out.
Bakugou cut in front of them before they could leave, giant orbs of gauntlets on his arms swinging as he passed to cut them off. He sneered their way as he passed, eyes lingering on Midoriya longest before he stomped out the room behind the rest of their class. Tenya was still not fond of the blond boy, knowing him only briefly as the boy in Midoriya's stories as the one he butt heads with the most growing up and who would put down anyone else in the room to claim his superiority. He had only known the boy for three different days in person and he looked more like an animal than the rival Tenya was believing him to be. Midoriya sported an equally disgusted look to Bakugou's as they watched him leave, his shoulders stifling closer to his ears.
"Are you positive you're going to be alright with him in our class, Midoriya?" Tenya questioned his friend as they stood shoulder-to-shoulder at the exit. "He hasn't done much to convince me he'll do nothing."
"If we're lucky, then my aunt beat her threats into his head better than I could ever hope." Midoriya's response didn't quell the blue-haired boy's worries, and he was sure it was showing on his face. "Not that kind of beat. Aunt Mitsuki is kinder than that. She's like a step-mother that gave me a god awful step-brother I'm still trying to disown." The green boy's shoulders heaved with a deep breath as he took the first steps forward. "I think it would be better if I just don't give him the time of day in my thoughts. I'm still kinda surprised All-Might's teacher here – and teaching us."
Ojiro followed the green boy out, and Tenya behind him until they were side by side again, approaching the light of day that led to the testing grounds. "I think it's kind of cool, actually," the tail boy chimed. "To be taught by the number one hero who graduated from here too. It was really exciting to see him on the acceptance holograms they sent us, but to hear he would actually be at the school this year was something else."
Tenya agree with the tailed boy; getting to see a hero like All-Might present his entrance exam scores and welcome him into Yuei with the promise he'd be around to teach him was an exciting reveal to what he thought would have been left to a more formal letter. However, even in the joy of agreement, he hadn't failed to notice when his left side was vacant, and turned around with Ojiro to find Midoriya standing still in the hallway. His expression was one of shock and bafflement, and in his state of thought had made no acknowledgement of the two female classes coming up behind him – Tenya recognized the tall girl, Yaoyorozu, that Midoriya had introduced him to and he was only getting himself more familiar with the Ibara girl in their class. The taller of the two had approached the green boy with a hand outstretched to his shoulder, but both girls jumped back startled as Izuku suddenly dipped into a crouch and threw his arms out towards the two boys in front of them.
"You tell me this now?!"
Izuku looked over the image he was given silently. He could almost feel Yaoyorozu's breath on his neck as she awaited his reply, and he did his best not to shudder involuntarily. He had wanted to compare notes on costumes, now that he was officially accepted into Yuei, and the tall girl had offered to share her own designs and concepts first, copies of one she had already sent to the school of heroics. And Izuku had to admit that he was caught off guard with she had given him.
"I" – he looked back over to the towering girl, finding her staring back in anticipation – "don't know what to say. This looks very minimal to what I was expecting. Are there supposed to be more parts to it?"
The tall girl visibly deflated from his words. "No, that's everything," she mumbled. "I was hoping you would have something more to say than that, with how you talk about quirks themselves." Izuku looked away and scratched his cheek. "Is that really all that comes to your mind? Do you think of anything else looking at it?"
The green-haired boy brushed a hand over the drawing. "It's like a V-neck but it's a V-navel and—you know what, I already regret saying that." He looked to Yaoyorozu and immediately regretted the action, finding her just as flustered as he felt. He could not look her in the eye. "I'm sorry, but it looks like a one-piece swimsuit. I'm having a hard time seeing how this is supposed to be practical for heroics."
The tall girl swiped the drawing out of his hands and folded it in her hands. "It's supposed to be for my quirk. The more exposed skin I have the more and bigger items I can create. If I wear too much, I'll only end up ripping apart my uniform when I need to make something big. It's just safer if I leave more of my skin exposed so I don't have to worry about tearing my uniform and causing a problem to constantly need a repair."
Izuku could understand that, even if the image itself was less than friendly for the general public. He could remember the early costumes Midnight had worn on the field for that very reason – along with how her designs were immediately panned by the people and demands for a more proper and modest uniform on the 18+ heroine were made almost immediately. "Sorry," he apologized. "Hadn't even thought of that. Uniforms can be costly. Can't think of having to order a new one every week or day. Wait" – he looked to the girl and tilted his head – "couldn't you just make yourself a new uniform every time your old one rips?"
"And undermine the work of support industries by creating a rift like that? I would never." Yaoyorozu leaned back against the bench and looked to the clouds above. "I don't like thinking of how I could separate myself from industries like that by trying to make everything myself. My family has been a benefactor for years to companies that outfit heroes; I don't think I can find it in myself just to turn away from all that, after all the years they've helped me learn how to control my quirk and how I could best use it to save people and stop crime." Izuku only nodded his head once in understanding before the girl to the paper he had given her, placed over her lap. "Now to figure out where you fit into that."
"Please, make an attempt." Izuku looked over the page with her; he hadn't even bothered to write the notes down in any of his books. He had bulleted all the main ideas he had gone over – baseball, swordsmanship, his favorite color, martial arts, even the delinquent comment Ojiro had made – but he couldn't come up with a design that he actually liked. With all his All-Might inspired drawings chucked into the garbage, he was left with a blank slate and two weeks at the earliest to turn something in on time for Yuei to give him. "I'm still trying to figure out what I can do with any of them. Everything's felt too…tacky. Too caricature and not enough genuine, or anything to me like your leotard is to you." The tall girl gave him a half-heated glare for that. "I will get over it. Eventually."
She took another look down the list of ides and important details, her hums drowned out by the traffic around them. It felt more comfortable for Izuku to be in the city with her than getting together somewhere more isolated. "Have you thought of something for all of them?"
"Somewhat," he admitted with distdin. "And they're all goofy and I hate them."
"Have you tried mixing them together?" Yaoyorozu's question left him silenced. "Taking elements and designs from all of them to see what looks best to you? I had to do it myself somewhat for my own costume, even if it leans more towards one aspect more than the others. Maybe there's something from them all you could implement. It would be a good start."
Izuku took the paper from her gently, reading over the list and imagining what traits and designs he could for each. The images jumbled together, already working out and through several combinations of styles he could think of then and there. Maybe that would work.
And maybe it was.
Izuku had spent a good week of his time doing nothing more than running through design after design following that day. It felt like a hundred ideas were run through and struck down before he made even one he could consider wearing. But through all the sweat and lead, he was able to come up with one he felt worked well for him, and he sent the best artwork and descriptions of it he could to Yuei just in time.
It was simple overall, consisting only of the colors black and green – his and his father's favorite colors. The jacket he wore was reminiscent of his last school's jacket, par the buttons up and down the center. There were two, though, just below the collar of the jacket, and lucky for him the designers had colored it the same emerald green as his long-sleeved undershirt. The pants were really baggy – something he wished the shirt was but it wasn't uncomfortable so he wasn't going to riff on it completely – and probably the design choice he was most proud of, basing them off the Hakama of a samurai's kendo uniform. He had practiced with his bat like it was a sword from the start, even if he had begun to mix other styles with it since, so it was a good way to let him tie those two aspects together. The school's replacement for their heroics class was kinda heavier, though, but he'd find a way to make it work.
There were supposed to be shoes that went with the design but it seemed even his scribbles of notes were a bit much and left him with what were more common flats for a kendo uniform so he ended up keeping his red laced shoes on instead. If anything, keeping them on only punctuated his look more, because it helped him feel more normal. Here he was, in a shirt and jacket and baggy pants and sneakers, standing at the edge of a crowd with far brighter colors and some crazy and bizarre designs that had everyone else look exactly like how heroes were on the media. There was one girl with the earjacks actually close to his own designs just with a salmon undershirt, leather pants, and boots; and a boy with the same but a white undershirt and a box around his ear; refreshing him to see other people consider their costumes with a more normal approach and design.
What could be better for a boy without a quirk?
"Okay, so let me get this straight" – Izuku pointed his bat at the three of his friends lined up beside him – "you all knew All-Might was teaching here because he was presenting your scores in your acceptance letters and you didn't think about telling me this until just now, after he's made himself present?" He waved his other hand to the side, towards the number one hero passing papers with the man claimed as his assistant for the course.
"You didn't tell us you had the principal presenting yours," Ojiro countered, the closest in line to the boy. "As cool as All-Might is, it's not like he doesn't just appear everywhere. You got the equivalent of a shiny encounter for your letter. Why didn't you tell us?"
"Same reason you didn't, it seems." Izuku turned his full body to the two blond men in front of the chattering class. "It's the school's principal, he's signed on the actual letter I got. I assumed it would make sense that he is the one that welcomes everyone to the school, not hiring old students for the job."
"It's more than that he was hired for," Yaoyorozu pipped up between the tailed boy and the boy in armor. "I remember him saying he would be working here as a teacher for the new school year, but it doesn't make it any less surprising to see him here. And to have a teaching assistant with him, no less. I wonder who they are."
"They may be another potential teacher following All-Might along to learn the basics," Iida guessed. "All-Might did say he was going to be teaching for this year, and nothing about the years after. For the number one hero, it's probably best he isn't tied down to one place for long. Even with all the heroes in the world, he's spent most of his career jumping around the world to be a hero. Maybe they'll be replacing him for next year."
Izuku could believe that. The younger man of the two had slapped on a visor in between everyone else getting dressed, but it did little to stop the green teen from guessing who he was. There was something familiar to him, but Izuku didn't know what. Maybe he had seen him somewhere before, maybe it was because he was mimicking All-Might that closely and right by the man's side. Maybe he was supposed to be their heroics teacher, in between anything in the real world that took away All-Might's time, and the number one hero was just taking the reins because of his status or just being a first time teacher.
The commotion of the class was silenced as All-Might clapped, just loud enough to get all attention on the smiling man. "You all look spectacular!" the hero commented, surveying the crowd of students before him. Once again, the hero's gaze rested on Izuku a moment longer than the rest before he turned his head forward. "A costume is always important for a hero – a staple to the memory you'll leave the public with! And now that you look the part, it's time you act the part! Today will be running you through indoor antipersonnel battle training!"
That got the class rustling again. One of Izuku's classmates piped up from across the group, a green-clad girl he could see standing beside Uraraka. "So soon, kero?" she had asked when the hero pointed to her. "What about basic training?"
"This is your basic training!" the man beside All-Might answered. "There's no better experience than practical experience! To learn from yourself and your classmates in a more realistic simulation!"
"Quite right!" The bigger hero cut in after him before he threw an arm over his shoulder. "Future heroes, let me introduce you to my assistant and a senpai of yours; Togata Mirio! He's a third-year here at Yuei, studying to be a hero just like the rest of you! If any of you are familiar with my old sidekick, Nighteye, he's been training Young Togata here as a sidekick, and he's been permitted by Nedzu to help me teach you on becoming heroes! Your upper-classmen are here to help you become heroes as much as we are to help you all!"
Togata gave them his biggest smile and a wave mirror to All-Might's. "It's gonna be great to help you juniors! I have my own classes and homework to do too, so sorry if I won't be available always. But I'll try my best!"
He was very much a miniature All-Might, Izuku noted. He was beginning to remember him; a kid from the Sports Festival a few years back when Togata would have been a first-year student. He had caught his eye only because of what his quirk was doing during the festival, which was more or less stripping him of his clothes. But Izuku could tell the difference of a strength quirk ripping them apart and some weird quirk having them slip from his body like he was slathered in butter. As much as he looked like the number one hero's son, that jarring difference in powers wasn't going to have him believe that train of thought.
"We'll have time for more friendly and in-depth greetings later!" All-Might pushed on. "Now, we have a battle simulation to conduct! For your first heroics class of the year, you'll be running through a training exercise in these buildings right here!" The hero gestured to the street around them, of buildings five to seven stories high. "You may be familiar with villain activity as it is portrayed on the news and how it happens in the street, but statistically they're only a fraction of the battle. More often than not, heroes confront villains inside. The worst of villains like to operate with a roof over their heads and walls to hide their actions from the world; some of you know this better than others." Izuku couldn't miss the brief moment of the heroes blue eyes darting towards him when he paused. He didn't doubt Yaoyorozu felt outed too. "And for this exercise, to let you experience something more proper and comparable to the real world than just beating up robots, you'll be facing each other in a two-on-two indoor battle!"
That was where the class lost it again. Izuku watched on as his classmates starting throwing around their own questions, with Iida and Yaoyorozu having something of their own to say. He could barely hear anyone over one another, and it seemed All-Might was just as overwhelmed by the crowd as he was. Lucky for him, Togata came to the hero's aid to calm down the crowd. "Just give us a moment, everyone," he sweat-dropped at their reactions. "We're almost done explaining everything. Just give us a moment and we'll be getting right into it."
All-Might coughed into his fist as the crowd before him died down and pulled a slip of paper from his belt. "All right, listen up everybody! Here's the deal: the villains will be hiding in the building with a nuclear weapon, and the heroes will have to break in and take it from them! There is a time limit to this exercise, and a number of ways for it to end. For the heroes, they must either come in contact with the weapon or apprehend the villain team before the time ends. And the villains must either capture the heroes or stall them in time for the clock to run out! You'll be split into ten teams of two, each team going once as either the heroes or the villains of the exercise, so we only have enough time for five runs so everyone can get a turn!
"And to decide the teams" – the number one her continued, spinning around quickly to pick up a box and hold it in front of the students – "you'll all be drawing lots!"
The man beside All-Might dipped in his demeanor a bit before turning to the pro hero. "Didn't Aizawa write out a list of partners for everyone?" Togata wasn't attempting to keep himself quiet for the crowd of students before him, and Izuku felt as confused as the old boy sounded.
"He did, but after reading it over and taking into account what all of you young kids showed yesterday" – the taller blond gestured to the class – "it seemed your teacher had made a heavily biased set of pairs for the exercise. This was a last second decision after he handed the list to me during the lunch hour. If I had more time, I would have worked out a more unbiased and varied set listing for this exercise. At the very least, putting you all through a mock system that puts heroes together on the spot whether your quirks mix together or not would be a better example than forcing you to intentionally work outside of your element."
Izuku could both understand and agree with the number one hero's response, to an extent. He was far more familiar with heroes having to work with the people around them on the field than who they're familiar with; it was how he had met Yaoyorozu, ironically enough. Raiding villain hideouts and cracking down on crime syndicates would more often require planning and collecting specific heroes nearby for the job, but even then not everyone was always on call. He did wonder what Aizawa had planned for them had All-Might chose to stick to their homeroom teacher's layout, but a nagging voice in the back of his head told him the man would have paired him with Katsuki out of spite. The man never looked like he cared for him, what better to do than pair him with an old classmate who all but hated his guts?
He only hoped – watching his class line up to pull letter from the box – that luck would keep him away from the blond for the exercise.
Not only was luck not on Izuku's side but it was also deliberately striking down his hope like a game of skeet shooting.
The idol who shot down his dreams was his heroics teacher, his best friend was on a team with the guy he could not stand, he was chosen to be in the first match-up of the exercise, and the team he would be facing against was of his friend and goddamn Katsuki. If he had it his way, Iida would have not been subjected to "working" alongside the explosive blond; hell, he would have volunteered to be on his side just so no one else had to. He didn't hate anyone that much other than maybe Katsuki himself, and as funny as the notion was of having to force Katsuki to work with himself – not by himself – there was little a safe option that was also feasible.
"The building blueprints," Uraraka muttered to herself as she fiddled with the paper in her hands. "Better memorize these."
The only thing he had going for him was being paired with Uraraka for the exercise. It wasn't something he could actually find a complaint about; of all the people in the class he knew best, she was the one he knew the least, and that was probably the only thing going against her. She was a kind person so far, so while he would have rathered Ojiro or even Yaoyorozu, Uraraka would be just fine as a partner.
Izuku did as his partner, reading over the blueprints All-Might and Togata had handed them before they took off with the rest of the class to observe the battle trial from elsewhere. A simple six-story building they had to break into and scout through to find the bomb their opponents were hiding with. A few different spots were already marked beforehand as potential entry points. The problem wasn't deciding how to enter the building and go from there, it was how they were going to win the exercise. Izuku had no qualms sparring with Iida, with how little they had prior making the possibility be filled with surprises for an outcome, but fighting Katsuki…
"Are…are you alright, Midoriya?" The green teen looked away from the blueprint to his partner furrowing her brows at him from under her visor. "You've been looking kinda antsy since we got paired. Is something the matter?"
Oh, she noticed, Izuku sighed as he folded the blueprints away into his pocket and twirled his bat into his hand. "Yeah, I'm fine, just…getting myself ready. Not sure how we're going to get through this."
"Oh, this 'fight' is worrying you too?" The blueprints in her hand rose to her mouth as she try to hide the smile he only caught a glimpse of. "I was actually just talking with Tsuyu while we were changing about having to fight you guys. I'd rather we were all just working together against bots again. I don't know if I'm ready to…'throw hands' with anyone yet." She giggled as she mock-boxed the air in front of her, but Izuku could see the wave to her smile and how it was breaking.
"Yeah, I think I would have rathered that too," Izuku admitted, looking up the building before them. "This is not what I wanted to do either. Guess I don't really have a choice, though. I'd rather not try to give them more reasons to expel me by skipping on the second day."
The girl's laughter only ensued. "You do kinda look like you would. Your costumes and the way your hair's all over the place makes you look like a yanki. But that's really cool!" She worked course correction, faster than he could react to what she said. "It makes you look really tough and intimidating! Goes really well with how strong you are!"
"…Thank you." Of course the delinquent style stuck around and out the most in his costume to the girl, but at least she didn't turn it into a demeaning connotation. And saying how strong "he" was and not how strong his "quirk" was; well, that was putting points in her favor. "Your costume looks pretty cool too. Reminds me of the Tron costumes. Just hand you some Frisbees and you'll be good to go for Comic-Con." Least his attempt to lighten up kept her giggling.
"Yeah, they were one of my inspirations, actually. I don't know about using a weapon like theirs, though. My quirk can make things float and basically means they don't interact with gravity, but doing it too much will still make me queasy. I need to train myself some more before I can start using more things with my quirk." Her body shook in delay with her head. "We need to focus on this first. We've only got a few minutes to plan. You know Iida, right? Do you know what we can do to win against him, at least?"
Izuku sighed out his nose and looked up the building again. "I know them both, actually," he admitted upfront. "Iida's my friend, so he knows me about as much as I do him. And Katsuki…is a classmate before coming here. I think I know him a lot better, but really only with his quirk." He chewed his lip and winced. "He's not exactly a friend. Just too loud to tune out."
He didn't doubt the blond boy was absolutely bouncing off the walls in his chest getting to fight him, and so early on in the school year too. Literally the second day of classes and he's given an excuse to fight freely. Izuku just couldn't feel surprised at the revelation that not even whatever letter Aunt Mitsuki left the school with about his behavior had warranted any action to separate them in an exercise like this. But there wasn't much he could about it now, not without catching eyes and raising questions he didn't want to answer.
"Bakugou placed right below you on the entrance exam, did he?" the brunette questioned. Izuku knew phrasing it that way would be dangerous to do in front of the other boy. "He was doing really well on the assessment tests yesterday with that explosive quirk of his. That's gonna be pretty scary to fight—"
"You won't be fighting him." Izuku was quick to cut her off, not moving to meet the look she had snapped to him. "If I know one thing that's going to happen in this, it's that I'll be fighting him." A first between them, the boy noted. The past skirmished would pale in comparison, that's how the blond would want it; Izuku had to accept it. "That means it'll be your job to get the weapon. I don't think I'll be able to slip by with you. If I can, I'll try to help you. If I can't, try moving sideways; Iida isn't the greatest with sharp turns, not unless he takes the time to pivot. It'll give you some time to think your next move."
"Oh." The girl's voice was shaky in her breath, the job he was giving her probably sounding as heavy as it did to him. Izuku knew the blond would come looking for a fight with him, and it was more likely than not. Whether it would actually be a fight – one whose quirk could sear his skin at close enough contact against someone with mostly self-defense knowledge and a big metal stick – was something he had to question. But it would at least keep him off her tail, hopefully long enough to let her confront Iida and outsmart him for the weapon and the win. "You don't think we could…fight him together?"
Izuku chose to look over to her then. "If I'm being honest?" The girl nodded her head. "I don't want you to be there. You shouldn't either…I'll be fine dealing with him myself. I know I can grab his attention for you. I'll make sure he doesn't hurt you. I think I know a way to keep him looking for me."
"Then he'll just hurt you."
I know, Izuku told himself. "…I'm used to it at this point. His strength lost its novelty for me. I've got no reason to worry about what he can do." He had done it all before.
Toshinori had spent hours reading over the class registry before the school day had begun. It was his first time teaching kids officially – with only little experience in the past volunteering at camps and schools for demonstrations and to pass on what knowledge and experience he could – and he wanted to make sure he did it right. He had asked his old sidekick, Nighteye, if he was interesting in shadowing the first day with him, but it seemed their years apart had put them a farther gap apart than he knew how to cross. Lucky for him, however, Togata was that bridge and became that replacement as an assistant for the class at the approval of Nedzu.
The rodent principal had thought it "brilliant" for Toshinori to have his successor join him in tutoring the new freshman year of students; both to help the third-year student learn more from All-Might that he needed to about attitude; and for the first-year students to befriend their upper-classmen through the most appropriate student the principal of Yuei could think of. Toshinori could only agree, that having his successor around for the classes he taught would only be beneficial. Of course, the kid still had his own third year to finish, so the heroics classes would probably be the only time he would be drawn away from his own year to participate in what Nedzu was counting as credits for the boy's graduation. A win-win, in the number one hero's eyes.
"Watch closely and try to learn something, everyone," Toshinori told the class behind him as the screens of the observation room flickered to life. On the farthest right screen was the villain team of the exercise consisting of the heir of the Iida family and "the explosive boy from the boonies" as Togata had joked the day he read the kid's profile and test essays; on the farthest left screen was the pink-and-black clad girl paired with the wonderboy of Nedzu's eyes forming the hero team. The screens between them consisted of every camera within the test building, set up in a way to show the progression of each team by the floors they climbed or fell down to, a clear format to show how far the heroes were from reaching their goal and how well the villains could hold them back.
It was the match-up that bothered Toshinori. He had read the profiles of all the students to his best memory and surveyed the list of match-ups and teams Eraserhead had handed him over lunch, and could tell almost immediately that something was wrong. Not too many of the students in this class were connected with one another before, but there were to pairs of students that attended the same schools prior to entering Yuei; Midoriya and Bakugou were one of those pairs. Young Kirishima and Ashido were not paired to compete or team up with one another in their homeroom teacher's plans, but the two boys of Aldera Junior High were scheduled to team up for the exercise as villains.
Had he focused on any other students' name on the list, Toshinori would have thought nothing of it. But this was a pair between the first listed-quirkless student in Yuei's heroics classes, meant to fight alongside the only boy in the class who would feasibly know of that genetic detail, designated as villains by the only teacher in the school with the reputation for expelling students as he saw fit and both looked and sounded exasperated at the mere mention of Midoriya's name. Add on top how visceral the boy was in the entrance exam, the small note his family had left about the boy's attitude going into the school, and how he acted and looked at the seated Midoriya during the assessment test just a day ago as Toshinori shadowed the class from the side; Toshinori was sure it was an intentional recipe for disaster. How that boy was going to keep quiet on Midoriya's secret to the rest of his class, he had no idea; same went for what Aizawa thought would come from putting them on the exercise together. He scrapped that entire list and cornered Power Loader for a quick and simple lottery box instead; he trusted chance better than his or Aizawa's judgement.
But then luck decided to pull one under him and placed the two kids together.
He wanted to redo the draw, act like he had pulled the same letter from both boxes, but the class had seen the letters the instant he pulled them out; no one would have believed him for making a mistake. And he couldn't find the strength to pull them apart and say the match wouldn't happen, because the green boy did not want eyes on him. He was trying to hide his genetic identity, Nedzu was going to keep quiet about it and the rest of the staff had agreed to do the same. Forcing the boys apart in front of the rest of the class would only have them pestering why in the worst case scenario. So he worked off the seat of his pants and conformed to what must have been the gods transpiring against him and had the class go on as plan.
"Hero team, can you hear me?" Togata spoke into his hand, pressing the piece in his ear.
"Yes sir, we can!" Uraraka chimed back over the radio. Midoriya was completely silent, but Toshinori could see the boy nod his head over the camera.
"Good." The teen clicked a pair of switches on the table in front of him. "Villain team, can you hear me?"
"Loud and clear, sensei!" Iida had responded loudly, with only a grunt from Bakugou following after him. It troubled the hero to see both teams having distance between their own members. Maybe Aizawa's plans would have had them working together.
"Wonderful," Toshinori piped in for his successor. "You should all be able to hear me and Young Togata but not the other team, so don't worry about your opponents hearing in on your plans. Only expect to hear our voices in these or over the intercoms built into the building when someone is captured or a team wins! For the most part of the exercise, you should only have your partner to hear over these earpieces, so make sure to use them to your advantage if you can! You have one more minute before the battle begins!"
Togata clicked off their mics before Toshinori could, and the young man kept his voice low to the commentary from the students behind them: "What do you think is going to happen?"
Toshinori blinked at the sight of Togata's somber expression. "What do you mean?"
"I mean what do you think's going to happen between them?" Togata did his best to gesture to the green teen and blond boy on either side of the pile of screens. "Top scorers in the exam, old classmates, both know about it." The late teen was smart enough to play his words safe. "How do you think the match is going to go with them pitted against one another?"
If what Bakugou's profile said was true, he was already on warning for how he had acted prior to his enrollment at Yuei. He was a diligent kid already, given how he tore through the entrance exam for points. And his exam score was exceptional, scoring far higher than one would assume of a kid who acted like a delinquent outside of the battlefield. Whether or not Bakugou would continue to follow the rules and understand the consequences of wrong actions remained to be seen.
The same could be said for Midoriya, in Toshinori's eyes. The boy was slower to lash out in the entrance exam, but when he did he came out swinging (he could feel his master and teacher boring down on him for the pun.) He was equally vicious against the bots as his old classmate, and his scores were even higher than the blond's on the written, if only barely due to his short essays. While he had a more defined demeanor and acted proper, Toshinori had noticed how he was short the uniform's tie when he finally got to their class, and to an extent the boy's hero costume reminded him of a delinquent's design. That had to be intentional, Toshinori was convinced.
"I expect sportsmanship from these students," he answered his successor. Now wasn't the time to assume the worst of the boys. He had already done as much with Midoriya, but with Nedzu throwing so much contradicting information into his lap those fears were dying fast. He had to be a teacher now, and a pessimist later. "I trust the students to know their limits and to hold themselves back from causing each other real harm. For their sake and our own, they'll follow that rule."
The watch by Toshinori's side buzzed on the table, and the hero quickly clicked it silent before flicking the speakers around the test building on. "Indoor Antipersonnel Battle Training: Start!"
Katsuki glared over his shoulder to the kid he was stuck on a team with, surveying the papier-mâché weapon and the floor they – he – had put it in. The blond didn't understand why he had to be put on a team with one of Deku's followers of all people, but it was a random choice from the box All-Might wouldn't let him change and apparently that was that. And against Deku, no less, but he would make sure he was the only one that went after that quirkless punk. Those two buddy buddies would only make it a pathetic excuse of a spar in front of the number one hero.
"Oi, four eyes!" Katsuki called back over his shoulder to the armored blue-haired teen. "I don't know what the fuck Deku told you to act all kindly with him, but stay the hell out of my way! I don't need you and the nerd dicking each other around instead of actually fighting. If you want to sit here and twiddle your thumbs, fine by me. I don't give a damn about what you do as long as it doesn't get in my way—"
"No." The armor-wearing student was quick in his one-word response, but he was assertive in his execution to catch Katsuki's ears and have the boy turn around his way.
"The hell you just say?"
"I don't think you should go and seek out Midoriya for a fight," the blue-haired boy elaborated. "I don't think you should be fighting him at all, for that matter. It would be unwise for you to go searching for either of them."
"Who the fuck are you to say what I can and can't do?" The blond stocked towards the other boy, trying his best to stare down a guy taller than him. "The best you're at is running in a straight-fucking-line with your quirk. This whole building is a goddamn hazard to you if you're going to go after them. I can actually turn down these corners without skipping a beat and I actually know how to fight. I can take Deku and that pink bitch down before they can each reach this floor! The hell is some quirkless shit going to do to stop me?"
"There's plenty he could do." The taller teen kept his head high, not backing down from the other boy's approach and staring him down through the eyeholes in his helmet. "Midoriya's only told me snippets about you and his time around you but it's plenty enough to know you shouldn't be near him at all. You are far more a brute than an actual fighter, and we're supposed to protect the weapon, not seek them out for a fight."
"The hell would Deku know about fighting? The quirkless shithead's only been in one real fight and he ended up getting shot, and he just bullshitted his way through the practical with barely any real points! I'll be able to take him and Round Cheeks on myself before they even get a chance to see the third floor!" Katsuki had thrown his hand up beside their faces and popped sparks from his palm, only for the taller boy to bat it reflexively and back away.
Katsuki ignored whatever else he had to say and he grumbled and stalked back across the room. That bifocal-wearing fuck had the gall to call him ineffective at fighting? He was the only one in their whole district who knew how to! Not a single other kid down the blocks had shown his same knack and knowledge on how to use their quirks in combat; not even those who kept crying about wanting to be heroes showed they knew how to square up. Even Deku, the worst offender of the neighborhood, didn't know how to fight despite being the only other kid in their school who held on to the idea of attending Yuei. Katsuki felt his nose scrunch up in phantom pain. Didn't spend a day of his life showing he knew how to actually fight until just recently, apparently, the blond boy sneered.
And the taller boy didn't even budge at the mention of the green teen's quirklessness. He had brushed the comment aside just as easily as Katsuki threw it into the conversation. The explosive teen doubted it was the other boy's hearing problems or having no actual opinion on those without power; no, he fucking knew Deku was quirkless before they were even admitted into Yuei. He was one of the nerd's posse at the entrance exam, he remembered that. Deku had somehow convinced him and that tailed nobody and, hell maybe those two nameless chicks following him around, that he belonged in a school of heroes when he had no real power.
Katsuki sneered at the voice of All-Might over their ear pieces. He could look past the third-year tailing the number one for clout, because he didn't matter. What mattered was that the number one hero had to know Deku didn't have a quirk and was letting him participate anyways. The greatest hero in the world should know better than to pit a quirkless kid in a combat situation. Even if he knew how to throw a punch and even if he had a baseball bat to make up for his genetic disability, he wouldn't hold a candle to Katsuki's skill and power. All-Might was sending Deku on a suicide mission as a mock-hero, when heroes were supposed to be the people who won and lived through it fine. All-Might never fell to his knees, Endeavor never fell to his knees, Hawks never feel to his knees; no one in the top ten even fell in battles like Deku did every time he was in a "fight." He should have been in that role for this, not Deku.
So when the bell above them rung and the hero's voice called over the speakers that the exercise had begun, Katsuki shot out the room and down the stairwell without even blinking. He had left the doors on each floor open for a reason. His "partner" called over the earpiece for him to stop and that "they were supposed to protect the weapon or capture the hero team, not go picking unnecessary fights." But this was necessary, Katsuki told himself as he stopped on the first floor, finding the front entrance door still closed and untouched. Deku needed to be reminded to stay down, and Katsuki wasn't going in to take hostages. The nerd would listen to him as he had before; by showing him why he should have given up on his impossible dream.
The explosive teen scoured around the first floor for any signs of the two sorry souls pitted against him but the whole floor was completely empty par himself. Katsuki doubted they were still stationed outside, knowing the nerd's persistence to act, and stormed quickly back up the stairs to the next floor. The results were the same, but he wasn't going to give up his search. Not when the third floor was so close by and he could hear their footsteps as he ascended the staircase again. He could hear them tapping away at the floor, knocking on the tiles and alerting him their way as the sounds grew louder. All until it was right around the corner.
Katsuki bounded around the wall and fired an explosion from his hand before he himself saw what was there. He had hit one of them for sure, hearing the faintest grunt past the ringing of the boom. The blond turned his gaze down the hallway it had come from, but only found it barren of any second life. "Where the hell—" He had little time to think before a line of silver came swinging at his head and he leaped back to dodge it before it was even close to hitting.
Deku scoffed as he pushed himself off the wall and rolled his shoulders, patting the smoke and debris off his shoulders. "Knew you'd be coming after me," he mumbled. "Guess you are still the same person."
"Deku," Katsuki sneered. "The hell are you doing here alone? Your partner ditch you already?"
"She went on without me," the green teen answered. "She got me up here before going on her way. Can't say I know where she is." His bat tapped against the floor, ringing the same sound Katsuki was following just moments ago. "Told her I'd look for you myself."
Katsuki could hear his own fingers pop in tandem with his quirk. "You think you can take me on without a quirk? You think a stupid baseball bat's gonna help you?"
The scoff Deku gave him was unnatural. The whole way his face morphed into a scowl looked unnatural on the boy he'd only ever seen clenching his teeth in fear. "You think I can't?"
He wanted to – and did – laugh at the green teen's false confidence. He never had it before, he wouldn't have grown it in a day. Guess he got so good at swallow his fears he learned to put up a new face when he was scared, Katsuki chided. "You couldn't beat me before, you still can't now. Nothing's fucking changed. Hell, you're wearing a shittier copy of our old crappy school's uniform."
"Says the guy who put fat grenades over his arms and genuinely thought it made him look cool," Deku countered dryly, throwing his arms lazily to the side. "And a lot has changed, if you haven't noticed. I got into Yuei, just like you told me I couldn't. I scored the exam better than you, just like you told me I shouldn't. I'm on my way to being a hero, just like you told me I wouldn't." His arms dipped back to his side as his head did straight downwards. "Then again you were never one for paying attention to me; of course you wouldn't notice—"
Katsuki was getting tired of his shit, and fast. His words only pissed him off and fueled his quirk, launching him forward and throwing his hand back to swing it forward at the green teen he zoomed in on. His hand shot to the other boy's head, sparking in preparation to blast him point blank; and blast it did, just not in the other teen's face. Deku had spun out of the way, his bat flying around and knocking his hand aside with a whack and putting the boy aside as Katsuki flew by.
Right in place for Deku's fist to come up into his stomach.
Katsuki stumbled across the floor with a hand over his stomach before he caught himself inches away from colliding with the wall. He grumbled and spat out what saliva had found its way in his mouth before turning his glare on Deku, standing where he was left and staring down at Katsuki. Down on Katsuki.
"But I paid attention to you," Deku began, eyes wide and boring down on the blond. "I remembered how you always opened with your right hand. Every time you picked on somebody else for having guts. Every time I stepped in the way of you. I remembered how you boasted that you could fly with your quirk. I remembered you always held your hands away and left your body wide open, even if no one could ever hit it." That look he imposed on Katsuki stayed as the blond picked himself from the ground and snarled. "And I remember you always claimed you were the best, but it doesn't look like you are anymore."
That set Katsuki off.
Mashirao was not happy siting off to the side having to watch his friend. He remembered enough about Bakugou from Midoriya's stories to know the boy had no good in his attitude, and the first day of class had shown far more of that than the entrance exam did in their brief moment crossing paths. His default expression was an ugly sneer and vocabulary seemed only to include grunts or the word "die" whenever explosion erupted from his hands. What Bakugou really was, was rough around the edges; worn and chipped, what could have been a model student deformed into what Mashirao would risk calling a disgrace to the art of heroics.
Heroes were always kind in Mashirao's eyes; even the tough ones knew how to show their heart. For as rough as Endeavor was in his fights and how much damage he could cause to take down the strongest and persistent of criminals, he was mindful to keep civilians out of harm's way and willfully protect other heroes when he felt he had to. As tough as Miruko was on criminals and her opinion on hero teams, she never threw insults to other heroes and minded her strength so she didn't break people or valuable belongings to civilians when on the job. As stiff and uniform Best Jeanist was in his performance and style, he took his job of protecting the people and apprehending the criminals and villains one hundred percent serious. All Bakugou did was throw his shoulders into others and glare down anyone he could when he wasn't throwing one-line insults someone's way; not a soft side in sight.
The screens were devoid of any audio, which left the whole class to watch the ordeal of a practical exercise like a black-and-white film. All-Might and his assistant Togata were the only ones with the ear pieces connected to the teams, but Mashirao didn't know if they had access to their dialogue outside of what they would shout over the mics. Bakugou's actions were loud enough to the tailed boy, though; how he squared up to Iida – his own partner – in some sort of pre-game argument and hunched away to the corner of the screens afterwards; how he propelled himself forward with his quirk and darted his way down the stairwell in less than a minute until he was down to the first floor, scavenging for the hero team of the exercise; how he didn't hesitate to blast Midoriya at point blank the instant he rounded the corner of the hall.
Mashirao wished he could have said better for Midoriya. Months as his training partner let Mashirao learn who he was and how he acted, and he knew for a fact Midoriya was far and away a kinder and better person than Bakugou was. But he was distant with his partner for the exercise, Uraraka, and kept her away more than arm's length during their preparation phase; and Mashirao knew she was nice too, with how she talked on the way to school yesterday and how she fawned over the green teen for stepping up to help and save her when she was down a working foot for the practical. Sure, she wasn't in on his secret – she was the only person in the exercise who didn't know Midoriya like they did – but he wished his friend would be a bit more open to befriending another even with a lie between them.
And then there was their plan to split up as the exercise started. The girl had lifted Midoriya up two flights with her quirk and let him climb the building through the window while she went around to the other side. They were doing as the villain team did and Mashirao did not think that was a good strategy. The room around him thought the same; several other students he was still learning the name of remarking on how their headcount would probably be better for taking the villain team on one at a time, and with the audio mute to them, there was no knowledge if they even had a plan to make their solo missions work. But that first assault from Bakugou had given the room a lot to reconsider.
"He's quite fast," the tall girl seated beside him remarked as Bakugou jumped back from the cloud of smoke he had kicked up. Mashirao had taken a back seat in the room to watch while most others took to crowd around on their feet and watch over the shoulders of the number one hero and his assistant. "I was surprised to see such an offensive quirk be used for mobility yesterday."
Mashirao spared her a look for a moment before moving his eyes back to the sea of screens. He wasn't completely sure how he felt about Yaoyorozu's costume but he could at least do his best to hold his composure and questions. "Well explosions can propel things, if movies haven't completely been lying to me. But with how he acts, that use probably plays second fiddle to its offensive uses." It was like an old western showdown on the screen, Bakugou's hands chambered by his side cackling with sparks while Izuku stepped out of the smoke with a big iron bat on his hip.
Yaoyorozu shifted uncomfortably beside him. "I know explosion quirks better for that," she had mumbled. "It's not a comparison I'm happy with making about another classmate, even with how brash and aggressive he's presented himself."
Mashirao wished he knew what comparison she was making, because he probably would with whatever she would say. He thought he had good reason to think less of Bakugou until he could prove himself otherwise. At least now, he could feel some joy as Midoriya punched the blond in the stomach to start their fight. "I don't think anyone would mind if you thought of him in any way. Midoriya would probably encourage it."
"I…didn't take Midoriya for someone to think poorly of people." Yaoyorozu shot Mashirao a confused look. "I understand not everyone is exactly how we would want them to be, but I had thought Izuku would feel more pity for people like that than hate them. He's been nothing but kind when I've talked with him."
Mashirao shrugged as Bakugou rose from the hit, glaring down at Midoriya as the latter shared something on his mind. "Maybe he does, most of the time. But for Bakugou?" The blond launched himself towards the green teen, his explosive limbs coming into contact with the other's weapon. "I don't know why he would."
If there was anything Izuku could do to keep Katsuki trained on him and off of running off to take down Uraraka, it was digging under his skin. No kid in the past had every really landed hit on Katsuki, at least not ones that would send him sprawling across the floor. No, was really got to Katsuki was words, intentions, beliefs, opinions; the only time he showed anger instead of glee was when someone else could sting his heart and mind. All it would take were a good few insults and jabs at his pride and he'd have Katsuki focused on him and only him.
It wasn't until he was in the line of fire that Izuku fully comprehended what he was getting himself into.
He raised his bat to tackle Katsuki's explosion head on, holding both ends to keep it from launching back into his face. The heat and smoke still blew past and into him, but it wasn't scorching him. Then Katsuki had decided to grapple the bat and yank it towards him, pulling Izuku along to skid across the ground in objection. He took an explosion to his side, sending him down the adjacent corridor with his bat still clutched tightly in his hands. He rolled across the floor before moving with it and kicking himself back to his feet, only to be met with a flying kick he barely blocked in time with his forearm.
He stumbled back from the hit, but didn't take a trip down to the floor again. He kept himself up as Katsuki continued to assault him, blocking explosions he could with his bat and throwing his attacks aside and damaging the building around him. But Katsuki was Katsuki, continuing his assault despite his failed hits and succeeding in several others and singeing Izuku's jacket and hair in their scuffle.
"Stop running away and face me!"
"Stop being so slow!" Izuku was quick to bat away another explosion. He was playing defensive for a reason, and it was slowly finding itself before him as Katsuki continued to swing wide. He could see it; the wipe space between his hands as one swung back and another came forward to replace it, where his body was wide open as it was at the start. And those giant grenades on his arms were large and heavy and Izuku could tell he wasn't moving as fast as we used to, while all he had was a bat he was getting use to swinging after a year.
But Katsuki's hand didn't come for him; it went for his bat. And it was an explosion that sent it back and digging into the wall.
Izuku tugged at the hilt, but the bat wasn't loosening from its place. It had been implanted deep into the wall, not budging an inch at his request. He heard Katsuki cackle before he saw the boy's hands coming flying his way, and only then did Izuku give up and leave the bat in its place in the wall. He threw his own arms across and into the other boy's, the following explosions only singing him from the side of the main blasts. His mind worked fast to make up for lost ground, playing out what his sensei and Ojiro and Hunter had passed to him to throw Katsuki's heavier arms away from direct contact with his body and face.
The heat hurt his eyes, but he could tell his actions were hurting Katsuki's pride. Izuku knew he didn't have to throw a punch. All he had to do was stay close or far and keep Katsuki's arms directed anywhere else than himself. Hold out for Uraraka to find the mock weapon and/or Iida and do her best to capture him or it to secure a victory before Katsuki could catch on and chase after her.
His earpiece broke into static as he slapped his hands against Katsuki's chest to slap him away. "I found the weapon, Midoriya," Uraraka's voice cracked over the static. "Iida's with it on the fifth floor, and he's already spotted me, sorry—"
SMACK
Izuku went reeling as Katsuki's hand whacked him across the face – propelled forward by an explosion – and sent him planting against the wall. Uraraka's voice was ringing in his ear, but he couldn't exactly make out her voice. He felt a grip on his chest as he bounced off the wall, and an explosion ripped his shirt before he could tear the hand away himself. He coughed as the floor slammed violently into his back, patting his chest where it stung from warmth.
"Stay down, Deku," Katsuki commanded as he stalked forward. "I can't trust your fucking 'friend' to protect the weapon and not lose this shit. I gotta do all the fucking work around here. Make my job easier, will ya?"
Izuku grunted as he struggled back to his feet, feeling the hole singed into his shirt and where it burned beneath the cloth. Katsuki sneered at him, and he sneered back. Of course he wasn't going to hold back on him. What the hell did he care about anyone's health and safety even in a school exercise? He would have just done the same to Uraraka, or Iida if their partners had been swapped. The hell was heroic about him?
Ochako wasn't sure how well she thought Midoriya's plan would play out. Splitting up to counter a team that was splitting up felt like fighting fire and fire, but the fire was real and the counter fire was also real and all that happened was losing a rainforest. She was more confident that, if they stuck together, they could stand a chance to take them out one at a time. Especially with his strength quirk, she doubted anything Bakugou would throw their way would stop him. But he was keen on going their separate ways and fighting Bakugou on his lonesome. How he knew the blond would be roaming the building was beyond her, but he seemed to know both boys on the other team so it wasn't unbelievable.
After dropping him on the third floor, she took to climbing the rest of the way. They both doubted the bomb would be closer to the ground floor, especially since Midoriya didn't know Ochako could make herself float; Bakugou would probably overlook that detail and Iida may have taken it into account already but with their luck wouldn't know how to counter it.
She found the armored teen and the bomb stationed on the fifth floor of the building, and she sneaked her way through a window on the side to enter out of his sight. He paced beside the weapon with a hand under his helmet and mumbling a storm she could only barely understand until she got closer.
"—it's unbecoming how harsh Bakugou is acting, but there is the chance he's only upping the drama to fit in the role of the villain for this exercise," she heard him ramble as she ducked behind a pillar. "That would be appropriate for this test, wouldn't it? To act in place of our roles for the exercise? Is that what All-Might would want, for us to take in our roles and truly pretend to be villains?" The tall boy exhaled as he came to a stop and looked up to the tip of the weapon. "Though it would be unbecoming for a member of the Iida family name to dabble in villainy, it would only be for this exercise. It would only be right of me to commit to the role and perform as our teachers would want us to."
She watched his body shake a moment and bat his head between his hands, hiding a snicker of her own behind her hands. "He's really so serious."
But in the end he only grumbled and dropped his hands to the side. "Bakugou's tainted the role too much. I shouldn't have allowed him to chase after Midoriya; he shouldn't be trusted with the opportunity to face anyone in combat. He left me behind with the responsibility to guard this weapon, but I should be down there to protect and assist my friend from having to deal with someone so vile." He spun on his heel towards the door faster than Ochako could react, and regretfully found herself caught in his line of sight before he could make his way out of the room.
"Oh no," Ochako mumbled as she took a step back. "I've been caught…"
"Uraraka, correct?" Iida began, taking a step closer himself. The brunette nodded as she shuddered into a fighting stance. "I should have expected no less for you and Midoriya to find this room with a quirk as versatile as yours. Mobility like yours is hard to come by, and it must have proven useful for this exercise alone."
So he did know what he could do, Ochako gathered. It was kinda weird for him to compliment her, with him on the villain team and all. Then again, there were criminals who were that full of themselves that they'd compliment the heroes before trying to one-up the heroes with their own actions.
She darted a hand under her helmet, clicking on her earpiece. "I found the weapon, Midoriya," she whispered over the mic. She continued, not waiting for a response; "Iida's with it on the fifth floor, and he's already spotted me, sorry. Is everything alright with Bakugou?" There was a long stretch of silence in the room as she waited for the response that wasn't coming. "Midoriya?"
"I take it you are informing Midoriya of our location," Iida guessed as he threw his head back to look to the ceiling. "My…partner said he would go searching for you two, but it seems your own may be…holding him up." He sounded doubtful in his delivery. "Well, no matter. Despite what I may think of my partner's decisions, I have to do my part to ensure our victory too! While I may not be capable of countering either of you directly, I have taken precautions to hinder your strengths nonetheless! As you can see before you" – he thrusted his arms to the side and to the barren room around them – "I have removed all unnecessary items and knickknacks from the room to leave you with no ammo to use your quirk on!"
Ochako winced at the revelation, looking around the room to find it sparse of any loose object other than herself, Iida and the weapon. Unless she wanted to disrobe and throw part of her costume at him – which was terrible on paper alone because she did not want to be left fighting in spandex only – her hands were empty. He only options were to somehow capture him or the weapon to be able to win, trying to outsmart him and his speed as Midoriya said she would.
Her smile stretched at the corner of her lips as she inched back to create some ground between them. She really did not want to fight anyone so early, especially someone who was supposed to be a friend of Midoriya's, but she guess she didn't have a choice. Not unless she could reach that weapon before he could her. Maybe if she jumped over him, she could pass him by and steal the win for her and Midoriya.
She brought her hands to her sides quickly as her quirk activated. She had to try something.
It filled him with pride to watch Deku struggle to stand back up after just a few direct blows. Of course he was still weak; no matter how hard he tried to grow, that was a fact that would live on eternally.
"You giving up yet?" As enjoyable as the sight was, Katsuki didn't have time to waste on him any longer. Deku still had a partner idling around and probably fighting Tin Can for hold over the paper bomb. "I don't have all fucking day, Deku."
The green nerd growled and rubbed at the hole in his shirt. He grumbled down towards his hands but he was still loud enough for Katsuki to hear; "The clock would probably go by faster if you just shut your mouth." It was barely audible at all, his voice, but he was clear enough in the blond's ears. And with a statement like that, it was clear Katsuki hadn't showed him his place enough.
"Let me shut yours!" He blasted forward with his quirk, closing the space and throwing an explosion in Deku's face. He fell in the smoke to follow, and threw his head to the side just in time for a fist to nick his cheek as it shot out from the cloud. Deku was in his face now, leering over his arm with his wide emerald eyes staring Katsuki's rubies with an intense aura. The blond's palms popped to blow, but he was too slow to let loose before an elbow jutted into the back of his head and spun him around face-first into the wall. He stumbled as he was shoved, shaking his head and wrinkling away the pain in his nose. Deku had already turned away from him, dashing back to his bat and working to rip it out the wall.
That little shit! "Get back here!" Katsuki launched himself forward again, throwing forward both his hands both forward and shooting and flurry of blasts at the green teen. He kept his distance from closing in as before, squinting as rubble flew past him but keeping them as open as he could for any signs of the green teen. "You better not be fucking dead, Deku. I'm not letting you ruin my reputation and get me expelled because of your weak—"
"SHUT" – there was a foot in Katsuki's face, the rest of Deku above it with his bat raised above his head – "UP!" Katsuki threw up his arm to block the crushing bat with his gauntlet and cried out as he was forced on his back, His arm being thrusted into his chest and near knocking the wind out of him. Deku shot his bat into the air again, and Katsuki used his other hand to reinforce his block before his own gauntlet could crack his ribs. Where the hell did this strength come from, Katsuki shrieked in his mind.
"You self-centered prick!" The bat came slamming down again before Katsuki could even move to blast in retaliation. The blond boy only managed to drag himself along the ground in his attempt to stand up, with Deku towering over him as his bat continued to wail down on Katsuki's gauntlet. "Just shut up!" This wasn't the Deku he knew, pouring tears from his eyes as he tried to stand his ground; this on stole the high ground with nothing but rage across his face.
Katsuki winced as the bat came down again, sending jolts and shudders down his body and rumbling against the ground. His arm felt lighter as the bat was ripped from his gauntlet, the pressure between each strike disappearing, and Katsuki pushed through his pain to turn his palm and thrust his palm forward with sparks. The space between them lit up as Deku came back swinging down, his own eyes widening as the explosion started.
And Katsuki saw it, for the split second he could; as the explosion bloomed from his hand with his arm turned to direct the blast at Deku. As specks of water flew out on the spin and flew past his head. As the crack in his gauntlet revealed itself to him, and the sweat he had been pooling with in spilled freely were Deku had torn it open. As his quirk trailed from his palm down the stream of sweat and the explosion shot out in all directions.
"Young Bakugou, are you all right?!" All-Might yelled over the mic in his hands, surveying the screens in front of him as the middle section was blocked by the smoke of the blast. "Can you hear me?!"
Mirio followed suit, clicking on his mic as he checked the monitors for any signs of the boys. "Midoriya, are you there?!" He spotted the boy upside down against a wall on one of the screens, the edge of the plume of smoke barely covering the other end of the same screen. "Shit, hold on, Midoriya! We're sending recovery bots your guys' way. Just stay where—"
"I hear you," Midoriya groaned from across the line as he rolled over to his side. "L—ow—ud and clear. Fuck." The green teen looked himself over, hesitating on the burns on his arms and the lack of the upper half of his shirt. "Hell, that fuckin' hurts. And I was just starting to like that shirt."
"Midoriya, just hold on and don't move—"
"Midoriya!" another voice cut over the mic between them. "What was that? I could feel it from up here are you okay?"
"Peachy," the green teen groaned through his teeth as he sat up with his back against the wall, a hand tentatively cupped around his ear. "Just a bit burned. Nothing new. Mostly. Somewhat."
Mirio groaned as the teen tried to push himself up to his feet. "Midoriya, those are severe burns on your arms. If you're not careful, you'll be damaging your skin and your muscles before Recovery Girl can reach either you or Katsuki. That could be permanent damage to you and effect your education here." Midoriya flexed his hand on the screen, seemingly drowning out the frantic panics of Uraraka over the mic. He looked perplexed as he gazed on his wounds and burns, eyes looking over to the plume of smoke before him with the same expression. "Recovery bots have already been sent your way. We're cancel—"
"Uraraka, I think I have a plan." Midoriya was now ignoring his voice, dipping his head and staring at the floor as he grumbled over the mic to his partner. "I need you to be ready and keep your distance from Iida. Think you can do that?"
"What? No, Midoriya, stop!" Mirio looked over to the number one hero focused on Bakugou on his side of things, the blond boy hunched over and baring his teeth like a rabid animal. The taller man was arguing the same as he was to the other boy. "You're in no condition to fight! You're only going to hurt yourself more!"
"Then I won't fight," the green boy mumbled to reason. "I…think I know what I can do for us to win this, Uraraka. I just need you to be ready for my signal, all right? Just jump off the floor and make yourself float when I need you to, alright?"
"Midoriya, you're hurt!" she tried reasoning with him in Mirio's place. "If senpai is saying you're too hurt to fight, than you should listen to him!"
"I said I'm not going to fight. I know Katsuki. And I know I can get this to work. I need you to trust me. Do you?"
Mirio moved to speak out again but silenced himself as the pro hero by his side clicked off the mic before he could. The blond teen looked to his mentor in shock, only increased by the wavering smile he found on the man's face. It became apparent how loud the room behind them was, of students clamoring with one another over the brutality of the situation and the tattered state of both boys; he could hear some wonder how the match was going to go now, with the condition both sides of the teams were in during the last few minutes of the exercise.
"The boys are too weak to fight any more than they have," All-Might attempted to reason with his prodigy under the chaos and voices behind them. "The recovery bots will be on them any minute now. Their partners are still in fighting condition; they can end the exercise properly in their place. If the boys try anything strenuous at all on their bodies, they'll be putting themselves out of commission just in time for the recovery bots to pick them up and take them to Recovery Girl for healing and rest. Let them tire themselves out. If it gets too far, I'll call them disqualified for good measures. Let them both know they're done for the day."
Mirio looked back to the screens, watching as the two boys took notice of one another, a shouting match between them brewing, threatening to throw them at each other one more time. He only saw it ending horribly, tables turning either way; as Midoriya succumbed to another blast and was left with third-degree burns; as Bakugou had a whole row of teeth knocked out by a single swing. Each small step the boys took to one another bloated his anxiety, and it wasn't until Bakugou's good hand popped with explosions that he decided he had enough of this.
"I'm sorry All-Might!" He hoped his mentor both heard and understood him as he turned and booked it out of the observation room, activating his quirk to phase through and launch him out of the floor as speeds faster than he could run even with what he could use of One For All. He didn't look back when the number one hero called his name, or the students he was supposed to help teach shouted it either. There were two other students he had to keep from going too far.
He had read the profiles of the class of 1-A just as All-Might had. He was let in on the secrets of Midoriya Izuku, the notes of warning placed on Bakugou Katsuki, and the requirements of accommodation for two others in the class. He and his mentor were told to keep their eyes sharp for danger, for any signs that something was going wrong between the students. To step in and diffuse what they could before anything got out of hand. This was one of those moments.
It wasn't until he was outside the exercise building, zooming past the recovery bots as they plowed through the building's entrance, trembling with the building as it shook from another giant explosion, that Mirio realized he never once heard All-Might try to stop the fight.
Katsuki felt like his whole body was on fire. His clothing was melting off him, his skin was boiling from the heat and he could barely even open his fucking eyes without being overwhelmed by the fire. His throat felt so dry he could only cough out the smoke he inhaled and the world around him was a deafening ringing in his ears. If it wasn't for the cold tile floor beneath him, he would have been convinced that he had died.
But he pressed his good arm and his face into the floor as he pushed himself up. This wasn't the first time he was in pain; not even the first time it was his quirk that hurt him. He could open his eyes fine after rubbing them against his sleeve – watering them up and brushing away the dust – and found he was more than fine, physically. Plenty of cloth to his costume's ride side had burned away, along with the undershirt beneath to show his bare skin red and his arm even scorched from the heat; but the forearm and glove on that same side had not withered away.
He had ordered the gauntlets with his costume; a back-up measure for when foes proved too tough for just his normal blasts. There would always be someone strong enough to take his first few shots, but that's what the grenade gantlets were for, storing excess sweat when he wasn't activating it on his palms and leaving him a reserve of self-produced nitroglycerin to blow down a villain when he had to. To counter that power's whiplash, he had hoped for sturdier gloves around his hands to protect them from the same heat, to keep his arms from melting off since his quirk had only really provided extra layers of skin and muscle in his hands and stopping short beyond his wrists. Whoever designed his costume had done well in providing a thick sturdy layer beneath the gauntlet to protect him as asked.
He wasn't exactly expecting for his plan to most literally blow up in his face, but at least it hadn't taken his quirk with it.
"—kugo, are you—ht?" The world around shifted from ringing to rumbling, and in his ears was a booming voice cutting into the picture, grounding him more to the world around. "Can you hear me?!" He cradled his weaker arm to his chest as he struggled to stand up, failed and stumbled into the wall to hold himself up.
"All-Might…" He recognized the deep voice calling out to him.
"Bakugou, can you breathe? Can you stand?" Katsuki scoffed at how loud the number one was in his ear. "Stay where you are; I'm canceling the match—"
"Like hell you are," the blond teen seethed through his teeth as he struggled his way onto his feet, gripping into the cracks that broke through the wall like streams. "I ain't…done yet."
"Wh-Young Bakugou, you can't fight in that condition! You're only going to cause yourself more harm than good! We need to rush you and Midoriya to Recovery Girl!"
"You don't have to do shit!" His skin was still there, looking down on what was exposed. As plentiful as the burns were, he wasn't seeing any muscle or blood peeking through cuts or holes. And he still had a whole other hand to use. He could keep going. "I need to fucking win. This match isn't over until Deku goes down and stays down." It only clicked in his head then that he wasn't alone in the explosion. "Is he down yet?"
There was still smoke bellowing around in the hall, blocking most of his sight from the rest of the floor or wherever the green teen would be. Was he down for the count in the pile of rubble? Had he just shrugged off that blast like he did the others and run to the bomb? "Deku!" he coughed through a yell, spitting out the dirt caught on his tongue. "You learn your fucking lesson yet?"
"Midoriya's still conscious," All-Might filled him in, over the voices of the extras in his class clamoring behind him. "He's been hurt by the explosion, just like you have. You both need to hold yourselves back and wait for the emergency bots to make it your way. I'm calling the exer—"
"I said I'm fucking fine!" Yelling back at the number one hero wasn't something Katsuki ever thought he would do. Didn't mean he was never going to. "I can see the nurse after this fight's over." He flexed his right hand, bulging the muscles in his arms and pulling on the burns decorating it. It was still functional. "If Deku can't fight just call him as out of the game. Don't call the match because that quirkless nerd can't keep his shit toget—"
Deku was standing, Katsuki could see that now. As the smoke funneled through the vents and down the adjacent hall, he could see the silhouette of the other teen standing stiff as a board at the other end of the hall. As the cloud thinned out even more, he could see the dead, placid, downwards stare on the boy's face as he cupped a hand over his ear.
The nerd's jacket was completely gone from his body, leaving only the green shirt underneath completely lacking in sleeves, minus what tatters remained over his shoulders. The bat swayed idly in his other hand, tapping against his leg gently. His skin was just as torched as Katsuki's, his bare arms tattered in sot and scorch marks, but his head looked mostly untouched; his limbs had probably taken the brunt of the blast on a downward swing. But he should have gone down regardless, Katsuki sneered.
"Oi, Deku." The green teen brushed aside Katsuki's call to him, tapping away at his leg and mumbling into his wrist. "Deku!" The boy's eyes snapped up, peering through the fog and yet Katsuki could see clearly how the green boy's expression soured. "Don't you give me that shit! The hell are you doing on your feet?! A blast like that should have knocked your quirkless ass out clean! You hiding something from me?!"
He could see Deku's lips move to respond but the boy was too quiet to hear over the hall; but with how he darted his eyes to the side, flared his nose and jutted his lip, Katsuki knew it was complete snide coming from the boy. Where the hell he learned guts like that after 15 years of ducking out under his own arms in fear every time they talked, Katsuki didn't actually care. It was more annoying he was acting that way at all, time and time again, since the New Year started.
"You actually got a quirk or some shit you've been hiding from me?!" The burn marks on Deku's arms looked brutal, Katsuki had to admit. Hell, they looked worse than his own, since he probably took the blast directly in that scuffle. "The old Deku would be on the floor bawling his eyes out because he couldn't do shit and stand up for himself! You should be out cold and done for! The fuck you get off acting like you're actually worth something now?!"
"Fuck you, that's what happened," the green teen shouted back across the hall, arm dropping to hang by his other side. "So I'm not kneeling down to your every beckoning call. Is that really pissing you off now? I thought you didn't give a shit about me. What, is it because I'm here now that I'm 'deserving' of your attention? That I should feel 'honored' that you're even giving me the time of day?"
"You don't deserve shit!" Katsuki roared back. "You don't deserve to be at the top of the exam! You don't deserve to be in a hero class or this school! And you don't deserve to act like you're better than me!"
"And why not?" Deku stalked forward, swaying on his feet and letting his head roll with the momentum. "I worked my ass off to pass that exam. I earned my place in this class and this school. I proved that I can do something about who I am and actually be a hero." He stopped with still several yards between them. "And I'm not acting like I'm better than you, Katsuki. I'm not acting like I have the balls to tell to shut the fuck up. I'm telling you to shut the fuck up. I know that I'm better than you; that I'm better than a villain."
Katsuki's left hand exploded in a flurry of blasts that blew fire beside the blond's face. "I'm not a fucking villain! I'm a goddamn hero! I have the powerful quirk! I have people who know what I'm going to be! This exercise is just a cheap fucking act—!"
"And nothing about you is," Deku cut him off. The lamps above them flickered to work again, barely shining a light on the glare Katsuki was receiving. "Nothing you say is part of an act. I know this isn't from some improve classes Uncle Masaru tried to enroll you in. Every word you say is genuine. Tell me to stay down; to back off; to let you do your shit and stay out of your way; you mean all of it, from whatever it is your heart is. And I've heard it all before; not just from you, but from the guy who shot me in the fucking shoulder.
"Do you remember that?" Deku continued his pace forward as he did his monologue. "Me being shot? You yelling at me because I got shot? Because the alternative to not getting shot was letting a goddamn child take the bullet instead? I remember it. I remember the three thugs terrorizing people for shits and giggles. I remember the guy with guns tapped to his hands trying to mow me down. I remember doing everything I fucking could to not let that kid get shot too. Last I checked, protecting people and not blaming the victims of attacks was what heroes did. And would you look at that?" He threw his hands up lazily, grimacing as the burns on his arms stretched in the action. "The universe puts me in the hero roll for a class exercise, and who else deserves to be on the opposing villain team than you?"
Anger was holding Katsuki down from launching himself at Deku's throat and silencing him with an explosion. Hell, maybe it was the wounds, but that shit mattered second to the green fuck in front of him. Who the hell was he to call Katsuki a villain? The only kid in their school and their neighborhood revered as the big and upcoming hero? The only kid in their junior high class who was a dead set applicant for the biggest school's hero class? Deku wasn't supposed to be here at all!
It wasn't until the weight on his shoulders dropped into his only good hand that Katsuki knew what to do, rising his left arm and pointing his gauntlet Deku's way. "It doesn't matter what chance and dumb luck says about me, Deku," he realized, slipping his finger into the ring to pull the trigger. "What matters is what I can do and what you can't. So accept your fucking place, and stay down—"
"Bakugou, do not fire that explosion!" All-Might's voice blasted in his ear again, sending the blond's head tilting in a wince. "You've seen what that does already the first time you fired it; it's too dangerous for you to do it again! Even try to pull that pin and I'll declare it a loss for you and leave you to your homeroom teacher's choice as to what happens to you next!"
The explosive teen scoffed at the threat, finger resting in place hooked around the ring. No way in hell was he going to lose, not to Deku. And their homeroom teacher was a shifty guy, Katsuki would attest to that; wack job probably thought cleaning the bathroom floors with a toothbrush was getting off lightly. No, he wanted to win this. He was going to win this. Deku wasn't going to stop him and All-Might wasn't going to stop him. Nothing was going to stop—
"And you can't even reflect on that, can you?" Deku cut off his internal monologue. "The notion that you are in the wrong is bogus, isn't it? How could the future number one hero ever be wrong? All-Might's not wrong, is he? What he does, what he says; it can't be wrong, can it? He's the number one hero because he is supposed to excel at everything. He is the greatest at his and everyone's job. No one can do what he can. No one can tell him he's wrong. Which means you're not allowed to be, right?"
Katsuki's finger stayed on the trigger, arms shaking in strain of weight and anxiety. Deku only stepped closer.
"The number one isn't supposed to be second to someone," the green teen continued, nose flaring as his teeth bared through lips and groans and pain. "The number one isn't someone you can just boss around and tell him what he can and can't do. And you're supposed to be better than that, right? You, the guy who's supposed to upturn All-Might's place as the number one and prove to the world that you're better than the best? And if you are that good, then you can do as you please; as you see fit, yeah? You can't be bossed around. You don't take orders from other people that don't know you; that don't see what you see; that don't think what you think. Right?"
Katsuki's palm popped as Deku stood barely a foot away from his hand, but the green teen barely acknowledged the blast and blinked through the smoke. The blond growled at blatant disregard for the attack, and Deku returned the look in kind.
"But we've spent years together, haven't we Katsuki? I know you as much as you should know me. I know you can't be bossed around, or told not to do something. You want to do as you damn please, because the number one hero isn't someone you can lead around on a leash and scold for tearing up the couch. Everything you do is supposed to have a purpose and is always justified. No one can stop you; I can't stop you; All-Might can't stop you. So are you really going to kneel over now, after a decade of proving that you stand alone at the top?" The green teen's eyes dropped to the end of the barrel of Katsuki's gauntlet. "I remember when you designed these, back when we were ten. That maybe, if you had more of your sweat at a time, you could blow bigger explosions. All you ever did was blow explosions. You're used to that kickback, and I'm used to that blast. From you, every explosion is the fucking same, because it's just a bunch of loud noise with nothing but a shallow piece of work behind it.
"So do as you please, Kacchan," Deku sneered. "Pull the fucking pin."
Every muscle in Katsuki's body pulled in different directions. He was supposed to be the greatest hero there was, a goal set in place to stand atop the pillar All-Might did and raise the bar even higher than that. And Deku, fucking Deku, was nowhere close to that. He was beneath Katsuki; he had always been beneath Katsuki. One single fight wasn't going to change that. Deku wasn't going to prove him wrong. All-Might wasn't going to stop him. So he ignored the voice shouting in his ear, and he ignored the beating in his chest, and he ignored lack of energy throughout his body, and he pulled the pin.
And once again, Katsuki saw it before he felt it. One moment his hand was pointed directly at Deku's face, the next he was facing the ceiling, the momentum of his flying arm throwing him back as Deku threw his bat above him and covered his face with his arms. He barely had the time to register the hit that threw his hand upwards before the space above them glowed with light and they were again engulfed in an ear-shattering explosion.
Ochako wasn't too happy being thrown around the room by Iida as they basically played footsie with one another for the bomb. Her plan to shoot over him didn't work, as he just grabbed the bomb and pushed it somewhere else, leaving her to fly into a wall with no way to fly around in the air. Maybe some rocket boots when she got used to making herself weightless would be a good investment in the future, she groaned as she picked herself off the wall.
The back and forth repeated itself as she tried every approach she could to throw him off his game, trip him up like a basketball player and Kobe herself at the weapon, but nothing was going to get past Iida. As secluded as he spoke, he was still focused on the task All-Might had given him. She had to do something to upset his balance as twist his ankle just so she could pass him by and steal the weapon.
That's where Midoriya's plan came into play.
The first explosion that shook the building had both herself and Iida struggling to stay on their own two feet. As the blue boy tried to call in his partner, she tried for hers. Apparently Bakugou had nicked him good with a blast, and then some according to the tall guy that was shadowing the number one hero as an assistant. The other boy sounded worried over his wounds, and by his tone she should too, but she remembered the entrance exam. She remembered Midoriya drenched in his own blood, down half a bat with his clothes barely holding on from tearing themselves apart and leaving his skin next; and she remembered how he seemingly brushed all that pain aside to embed the zero pointer into the street. She trusted Midoriya's word about his health above all others. The same trust went to his train of thought, too.
"I just need you to be ready for my signal, all right? Just jump off the floor and make yourself float when I need you to, alright?"
She agreed to his plan and his trigger words, steadying herself on her feet and waiting once more to make herself weightless and take the weapon and the win. She waited for half a minute of silence after his last words before getting antsy at his lack of initiative. What was taking him so long? Was the plan still a go? Had it failed before it even began? She barely had the energy left in her to keep removing her gravity before she had to lose her lunch, she couldn't risk too much of her energy if he was still up and ready to fight.
Then his voice popped in her ear again, more distant than it was before, but she could hear him signal her to move; "Pull the fucking pin."
Shouldering his crass language, Ochako tapped her hands together and jumped into the air towards the bomb as she had plenty of ties. Iida hunched over as he had plenty of times before in their scuffle and revved his legs before lunging forward, reaching for her own legs to catch her and redirect her momentum as he had nearly five time over.
The room around them shook more violently than it did the first time, and Iida was thrown off his footing before he could get a grip on Ochako's boot. The brunette flipped upside down as his hand brushed along her foot and the contact left, and Ochako got to watch as the armored boy tumbled over the floor as it cracked and shook until he was clotheslined by the corner of a pillar and sent spinning the rest of the way with a dent in his helmet. "Iida!"
She spun around again to complete a full circle before she landed on the weapon, gripping to it like a koala as she slid down its side. She didn't announce that she had grabbed the weapon as she deactivated her quirk and hit the ground, nor when she turned on heel and stumbled her way over to her classmate with her hands over her stomach. She crouched down by his side, moving her hands to his own struggling with his helmet.
She helped him removed the dented armor piece, giving her a front row seat to the cut that split his nose and lined the tops of his cheeks. He blinked rapidly as he and Ochako wiped the blood away from his eyes and the brunette helped him sit up against the wall. "Are you alright?" she asked him, doing her best to nurse the wound she didn't know how to treat. "I am so sorry about that—"
"You didn't" – the boy patted her arm as he searched for a pocket in his costume – "kick me into the pillar. It's not your fault, Uraraka. And I can't seem to find my tissue with me. It's just a cut; nothing but the skin broke. I'll be fine."
The speakers above them cackled a moment before All-Might's booming voice blared overhead; "The hero team wins the exercise!"
"Oh, good." Ochako nearly screamed as she jumped into the blue teen's arms away from the voice behind her. Standing just a few feet away from them was their classmate two grades higher, looking up at the nearest speaker with a wavering grin. "Now he calls the match." The boy didn't linger on the declaration long, speeding his way over and crouching down to Iida's other side. "What happened? You sure there isn't a broken bone."
"It doesn't feel like it, sensei," the blue-haired teen sputtered as he helped sit Ochako down by his side. "And I hit my head against a pillar. What shook the building? What happened?"
The older teen put a hand around Iida's back, draping one of the boy's arms over his shoulders. "Uraraka, do you have the energy to help me real quick?" Ochako obliged and followed his lead, draping the blue boy's other arm over here and helping him to stand. "And to answer your question, Midoriya did. And Bakugou. Both, really." The tall blond whistled out the side of his mouth as the moved to the stairwell. "Boy, you new kids really are something and it's only the second day."
"Midoriya?" the two classmates had asked in unison, and Ochako blushed and ducked her head as Iida carried on. "Is he alright? What happened to him? What did Katsuki do?"
"He's fine; they both are. Recovery bots carried the two out on stretchers to Recovery Girl so they can be healed. And Midoriya was still awake when I last saw him." Ochako took note of the smeared dirt all over the arms of Togata's costume. "Recovery Girl's the best at what she does, so I know they'll be in good hands. Probably gonna get an earful from here, though…I might as well. Hope they give me more credits for this." He tried to hide that last sentence under his breath, or at least Ochako assumed that was an attempt. "We'll get you to her too, buddy. She'll clean up that nose in no time so the two of you can get back to your class for the rest of the exercises. As long as we can still hold them. Gonna need another building for the others."
"What about Midoriya and Bakugou?" Ochako asked as the descended the floors. "Are they gonna miss out on everyone else's roles?"
"I doubt Recovery Girl's gonna let them stroll out of her office that easily." Togata laughed as through there was a joke to his sentence; Ochako couldn't find it. "Bakugou was out cold when I got to them, so he'll probably be resting for the rest of today until he has to go home. Her quirk really takes it out of you. And for Midoriya to heal, she'll probably have him stay and take it easy too. Don't need the two of them hurting themselves any more today."
"Any more toda…" Ochako's question caught in her throat as the descended to the third floor. The door in the stairwell was left open as they past, but it gave them a good look into the room near torn apart in seven different ways and scorched as though Purgatory had passed through. She could see all the way down to the other side of the building, where the windows were cracked apart and the building across the alley had its glass shattered too.
She nearly stumbled down the stairwell had Togata not caught her and Iida, lost in their stares. She could feel the tall boy between them quicken his descent and she moved to join him, getting Togata to laugh as he tried to follow suit. She couldn't find it in herself to ease up and do the same. She knew Midoriya had to be safe. She didn't want to think he was otherwise. The heavy breathing of the boy beside her told her he wanted to know the same about the boy. Even with blood streaming down his cheeks like tears, he was trying to rush to the other boy to know he was okay. He was a good friend.
Izuku knew something was wrong; or, at least, he was starting to catch on.
He chided himself for his attitude towards Katsuki. He meant what he said – every word of it – but hell did that first explosion hurt and did that second one nauseate him. He nearly forgot to hit Katsuki's arm to the ceiling so he could help Uraraka win, in the moment of just releasing the stress on his chest. And he accidentally crushed the earpiece in his hand when he had to protect his head from more falling rubble. Those last few seconds were not his proudest.
It frustrated him how similar Katsuki was to a criminal once placed in the role, even for a class exercise. He had always been a dick, Izuku could admit that, but he never thought of him as a villain before. It was off-putting how similar what he said was to the gunman from the man all those months ago, and his attitude reminded him of the man too. How the hell had Katsuki fallen that hard just because he was praised? Aunt Mitsuki didn't act close to that same extreme, and Izuku would feel like shit even humoring the thought.
But reflecting on it, sitting in the nurse's office as Recovery Girl tended to Katsuki's wounds across the room from him, problems were starting to form in his mind. It was a good, long speech he got out of his system, and he did his best to make sure Uraraka didn't hear him, but he doubted no one else tuning in to his speech. Could All-Might have heard him over the mics, even when neither boy left them on to talk? The whole class couldn't have heard him; if they did, they probably would have heard all the times Katsuki pointed out he was quirkless and he doubted the nurse's office would be so barren after that. He'd still bet money someone heard everything.
And he wanted to bet it was All-Might, because Izuku was certain that fight should have ended sooner than it did. When Togata had helped him onto a stretcher before the match was even announced as over, the blond boy was commenting on what was taking the pro hero so long to end it, under his breath. Those gauntlet's Katsuki was given were really dangerous, Izuku could attest to that. He wouldn't act surprised if he was going to be punished for goading his classmate to use his other gauntlet after the first one left them with third-degree burns over their arms.
And that's where his questioning really started.
His arms had basically peeled off the burned tissue after one kiss from the healing heroine had his arms reforming anew beneath the burns. "You boys should consider yourselves lucky," she had commented as the natural color of his skin was starting to overtake the charred patches. "Had you boys gotten here any later than you did, there's a good chance those burns wouldn't be going away any time soon. Too long with a wound and my quirk wouldn't consider it a problem to fix anymore." Yeah, he was lucky, wasn't he? Katsuki was like everyone else with a quirk; their bodies were genetically orchestrated to grow in a way that complimented their quirk, and no doubt the blond's arms were enhanced by birth for him to handle the power of his own explosions. Izuku didn't have that advantage, so why was he still awake after that last blast and why did his arms not hurt as much as they should have?
Izuku remembered well what burns felt like on his skin; growing up with Katsuki gave him front-hand experience on the subject. He doubted his jokes of growing tolerant to the burns were actually serious. He shouldn't have even been able to keep holding his bat after that first blast; he was still trying to figure out how he ripped it out of the wall with his bare hands.
Iida and Uraraka got off lightly, the latter being handed a packet of gummies from the heroine to subdue her stomach pains and ease her weary muscles while the former was given a healing kiss and sent back on his way to class as the exercises continued. Izuku promised them he would try to see them again as soon as he could (or when Recovery Girl let him leave, whichever he forced first) while thanking them both for caring for him. They were ushered out into the halls before his skin would peel off and fall on them.
Izuku gazed upon the clear coating over his arms, what felt like a skin layer he should peel off like he was a reptilian. They were healing quickly, and he was feeling the side effects of Recovery Girl's quirk work to put him to sleep, but it did little to quell his questions. It had barely been ten minutes but Izuku's arms felt as good as knew. As tired as his eyes were, the rest of his body felt fluid and active; hell, he could probably sleep walk back to class.
"Midoriya."
The green teen tilted his head to the side towards Recovery Girl, the short woman seated by the foot of Katsuki's bed as the blond teen snoozed away while he body glowed and peeled away the charring he had caused on himself. "You should get some rest," she told the green teen. "The two of you probably won't get to leave until the day's done, and even then I might have to call your parents so you don't get mugged trying to get home."
"I haven't gotten mugged yet," Izuku responded wearily, swallowing a yawn before it could escape. "Be kinda surprised if someone tried mugging a kid with heroes for teachers. Not the worst idea, but not really better."
"Don't get sassy with me," she chided him, looking over the other boy to see the condition of his reforming body. "Just because it didn't happen before, doesn't mean it can't happen ever."
"Amen to that." Her sentence summed up the day really well, actually. "I'd still rather not be mugged."
"Then you'd do wise to rest—"
"Do" – Izuku cut her off, only humming at the quick glare she gave him for that – "you know? The 'me' stuff?"
"You mean you being quirkless? Yes. I believe most of the staff members were informed of that, though mostly the first year teachers only. The other grades have their own students to look over, so if you meet one that doesn't know you, don't be too surprised."
Izuku hummed again, looking to the window as wind blew in and fiddled with the drapes. "The less that know the better, I guess. No need to make a big deal out of it. Thanks." He could feel the breeze tickle the new hairs on his arms, draped over the covers of the medical bed. They healed up well. And quickly. Did her quirk work that fast? "I'm more surprised I wasn't turned away the instant that word made it to the examiners. Did the principal have to pull strings to get me into the hero class? I'm apparently the only one who got him in my acceptance video, as far as I know. Wonder what All-Might would've done for that."
The tip of Recovery Girl's cane tapped against his shin as she rolled across the room to his bedside. Ow. "Nedzu might be crazy but he doesn't work against the school to do as he wants, especially when enrollment is involved. If you got in, it's because the school agreed you could. I don't know a single teacher here who has something against quirkless." All-Might did, Izuku argued internally. Was that why the exercise didn't end sooner, because he wanted Izuku to fight someone with a powerful quirk? Was the team composition and opposing teams actually decided by random chance? Togata showed the care that he wanted the fight to end sooner than he did; did All-Might try to stop him?
Despite closing his eyes and trying to sleep, Izuku spent that afternoon lying in the bed fully awake as his stomach boiled in frustration. Why did nothing feel right?
"You're distracted today," Mirai whispered to him under the shouts of power bursting from Togata belly.
Toshinori blinked and rubbed his eyes on his wrists. "Am I? Apologies, I've had a lot on my mind recently. Yuei's nearing the new school year, and I'm still trying to prepare myself enough to finally be a teacher—"
"I heard that a quirkless boy made it into the school." Mirai seemed uninterested as he spoke, keeping his gaze forward on the blond teen as he darted around the gym, phasing through walls and the floor to hit all the dangling targets. "For some reason, Nedzu thought to inform me on that tidbit, and I can't say I know why." Toshinori groaned into his hand. Of course the man would have made his old sidekick part of The Know to Midoriya. "He said you could clear things up for me, how a kid with no quirk made it into the hero class?"
Toshinori recalled how the examination room was in an uproar of discussion and disbelief after Nedzu announced that the kid was quirkless. It took them over an hour before the room found peace and stopped shouting to continue the test proctor for the day. "I'll be honest, I don't know," Toshinori answered his old partner. "That's actually kind of the point. Did Nedzu happen to show you the kid's performance in the practical?"
The future-seeing hero looked to the emancipated blond from the corner of his eye. "No, but I take it puts up more questions than it answers, by the sound of it. Is that all there is too it?"
No, it wasn't. "I've met the kid before, actually. Remember the kid I told you about, that I was humoring giving my quirk to instead of Young Togata? Seems he became a student at Yuei without it. Didn't think I'd be seeing him again so soon." It wasn't that long ago since he last looked at the boy. Ever since the day he left him alone on the rooftop and watched him walk home after defeating the slime villain in the eyes of the public, Toshinori did look for the boy's records with some help from Naomasa. He thought the boy too rash and dangerous and dismissive of his own health from the first day, and his history of hospital visits only told him it was an age-old trend for the young kid. He couldn't have given him One For All; burden a kid as thin as a skeleton with power he probably wouldn't know how to control with the blond's own deathbed being run through the dryer. Toshinori couldn't leave a kid like that alone so quickly.
"At least you chose correctly," Mirai commented, pulling Toshinori from his thoughts. "Togata will do well to live up to your name and carry One For All on for the next generation of heroes. The boy seems to have it handled himself already. I'll contact Nedzu again to see if he'll forward me a copy of the exam to see his performance for myself. Until then, keep your head up, Toshi. In one month, his final year of Yuei will start and he'll truly be your successor."
Toshinori watched with his old sidekick as Togata finished the drill in record time and started the exercise up again, barely taking the time to breathe before he disappeared into the floor again. He was fast, nimble, dead-set and excited in his performance in front of the two heroes. But that youthful excitement didn't take away from his effort, or dwindle his timestamp between hitting each target.
It was a strange feeling after five years, to be standing by the man he had parted with over a shouting match as they watched a kid who would be the one to take Toshinori's place by the time he graduated from Yuei. A part of him was happy to find himself in an old familiar setting, but a part of him was dreading each passing day, too.
Toshinori wondered what would have been, had he the time to truly mentor Midoriya and give him a quirk he deserved.