Summary: The entrance ceremony and introductions.
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter TextThe opening ceremonies were...interesting, for lack of a better word. Izuku didn't see Katsuki anywhere, which was honestly a good thing, but it was still kind of worrying. While Izuku wouldn't put it beyond him to just skip the assembly and hang out behind the dumpsters or something, he didn't think Katsuki would pull something like that on the first day! Oh well, if he made a poor first impression, then that wasn't Izuku's problem.
The general muttering of the students died down and Izuku turned to the stage to see Present Mic striding out onto the stage, "Hey, hey hey, everybody! How's everybody doing this morning?"
To Izuku's surprise, Present Mic's enthusiasm was met with a general non-response. He didn't know why, this was Present Mic, the voice hero! He had his own radio show and everything…
"Um, Midoriya?" One of his classmates, the bald one, said softly, "Are you aware that you're mumbling again?"
Izuku slammed his mouth shut and blushed, "S-sorry! I'll, um, I'll try to stop…"
"Ugh, you're all idiots!" The curly haired girl leaned over Mei's lap and shoved a pencil in his face.
Izuku took it hesitantly, not wanting to be rude, "Um, thank you, but ..why?"
She rolled her eyes, "Put it in your mouth. If you start talking, it'll fall out."
Izuku's eyes widened. It was such a simple solution that Izuku didn't know why he hadn't ever thought of it before, "T-thank you so much!"
"Whatever," she settled back into her seat and crossed her arms, "just use your chew toy so the rest of us can hear the damn assembly."
Izuku nodded frantically and bit down on the pencil as he turned back to the stage. Present Mic, having failed spectacularly at getting a response from the crowd, had apparently just decided to move onto the next order of business, "Well everybody, welcome to UA high, the premier hero school in Japan! To our upperclassmen, welcome back and good luck with your next year of studies. To our brand new first years...Congratulations! Not just anybody can walk these halls, and it takes a lotta hard work and dedication to sit where you're sitting. That being said, don't go getting complacent little listeners! You've each got your own stars that you're reaching for and you're each gonna have to work extra hard, got it? So you're all gonna have to go beyond…."
"PLUS ULTRA!"
This time, at least, the students responded exactly how Present Mic wanted, earning a wide smile as he skipped back to the line of chairs across the stage where all the teachers and faculty were sitting, two of which were empty for some reason. Were there more teachers that weren't at the assembly? Or did they set up extra chairs for some other reason?
The next part of the assembly consisted of the faculty all introducing themselves briefly and Izuku dropped the pencil in his mouth twice as he instinctively started to ramble about each hero's quirk. He ended up taking out his own notebook and writing down his observations instead, adding subtle observations that he was only able to notice from up close. He was at UA! He'd be learning from pros! It was still so surreal.
After each of the gathered teachers had gotten the chance to introduce themselves, Present Mic stood again, "Alright, Listeners! Some of you may have noticed a couple empty chairs up here next to us awesome teachers! This is because there are two teachers you all haven't met yet! You upperclassmen know who one of them is, but for the first years, you might be lucky, or unlucky, enough to see our local cryptid in the halls. Aizawa Shouta, pro hero name: Eraserhead, is off hazing his own first year class, so wish them luck. They're gonna need it."
Izuku's eyes widened. The underground hero?! He couldn't beat All Might as Izuku's favorite hero, because All Might, but he was a close second. He fought practically quirkless and could take away other people's quirks at will! And he was a teacher here? What did Present Mic mean by hazing? Was that where Katsuki was?
Izuku felt a brief surge of jealous anger. Katsuki got to learn from one of Izuku's favorite teachers? He wouldn't even appreciate the nuances of Eraserhead's fighting style! Unbidden, an image of Katsuki getting his explosions erased as he was tangled in Eraserhead's capture weapon came to his mind and Izuku snickered quietly. Ok, so maybe Katsuki learning from one of his favorite heroes wouldn't be all bad…
"But that still leaves one more teacher that you listeners haven't met yet!" Present Mic continued. "He's a special new addition to our staff this year! You first year hero students will be in for a real treat because here he is, the number one hero, the symbol of peace, and the newest member of our staff...All Might!"
Izuku's jaw dropped and he knew he wasn't the only one as a booming laugh echoed around the auditorium and the number one hero himself strode out from behind the curtain, "I am here...to help mould the next generation of heroes!"
The auditorium exploded in applause and Izuku added to it wholeheartedly. He was going to be in the same building as All Might! This must be why he was in town! But...how was he going to teach classes if he only had three hours in his hero form? Did he still have three hours? Or had saving Kacchan from the sludge villain cut down on that time? What were the repercussions of him going over his limit?
There was a clatter as the pencil dropped to his lap again, and Izuku hurriedly put it back in his mouth so he wouldn't mutter. Thankfully, no one could have heard him over the applause, but it would still be better to think about that when he was alone...maybe he could come up with some way to counteract or even just minimize the effects of his injury...or maybe Mei could come up with some sort of illusion tech so he wouldn't have to use his hero time to teach? But that would involve telling her about All Might's other form and he couldn't betray the hero's trust like that…
Later. He could think about that later. For now, though, All Might had taken a seat in one of the empty chairs that was almost ridiculously too small for him and Nedzu was climbing a small set of steps up the side of the podium, "Hello students! Am I a mouse? A dog? A bear? What's important is that I'm the principal! UA has a spectacular legacy and…"
Nedzu began to talk about the history of the school and Izuku was on the edge of his seat as he listened...for the first ten minutes. Mei had lost interest after three and began to sketch out invention ideas again. Izuku really tried to pay attention. This man was going to be his teacher! He couldn't just tune him out! His classmates seemed just as bored as he was and eventually Izuku decided that he could probably just apologize if he needed to and turned to fleshing out his analyses of the staff. Occasionally, Mei would poke his arm and point to a particular diagram, asking an unspoken question and he would think for a moment before writing something beside her drawing. It went like that for another fifteen minutes before Nedzu finally stopped talking.
"Ah, but I'm getting carried away!" Nedzu clapped his paws together, waking up a few of the students that had fallen asleep during his speech. "You all have bright futures ahead of you and we are so excited to help you cultivate that light. So, as the principal of UA, congratulations and welcome to UA high school!"
There was a hesitant round of applause that got louder as Nedzu descended the steps and the teachers all left the stage to go retrieve their classes. Within a few minutes, Powerloader was leading them back to the classroom. As they were walking back, the kid in their class with the shark quirk placed his hand on Izuku's shoulder and patted it consolingly, "I'm sorry, Midoirya. I don't know how you're gonna survive being Nedzu's personal student if he's really that long winded all the time."
"He wasn't that way during the entrance exam." Izuku tried. "But maybe that was just because he didn't want to distract me as I was hacking UA."
He ended up running into the girl walking from front of him as his classmates stopped walking in shock, "You hacked UA during the entrance exam?! What the fuck?"
"I didn't get very far!" Izuku defended, waving his hand in front of him nervously, "I think they just wanted to see how I approached unsolvable problems, that's it!"
"Yeah," Mei said, "and I'm sure it didn't hurt that you'd already gotten a head start before the exam even started."
Izuku turned to her in betrayal, "Mei!"
Their classmates kept their distance from the two for the rest of the way back to the lab. When they got there, everyone sat down at their tables and Izuku went back to his room, noticing for the first time that there was a small school desk that had been placed outside the door, probably for when the class had a lecture instead of lab time. Before he could decide if he was supposed to go into his room or sit at the desk though, Powerloader cleared his throat to get their attention.
"We have about twenty minutes until class officially ends." He said. "So, why don't each of you introduce yourselves? I know that the support course has a lot more individual work than the business course or the hero course, but it will still be helpful to get to know your classmates. Who wants to go first?"
The kid with the shark quirk shrugged and stood up, "What'dya wanna know?"
"Just say your name and quirk, dumbass." The curly haired girl griped.
Izuku felt his stomach sink. Yeah, he knew it was coming, but it still would have been nice if he didn't have to reveal his quirklessness right off the bad. Oh well, they already thought he was creepy, now there'd just be pity mixed in.
"Also include why you chose support." Powerloader added. "It'll be helpful to know each other's motivations."
"Alright." The kid with the shark quirk shrugged again. "I'm Ryou Hanzou. My quirk's Great White, and I wanna make waterproof tech. My quirk lets me do anything a shark can do, which means I can breathe underwater, so I spent a lot of time swimming as a kid, and would have totally spent weeks at a time in the ocean, but my phone and video games wouldn't work, so I'm gonna fix that."
Izuku had never realized that would be an inconvenience to people with amphibious quirks, but he supposed that it made sense. Most technology was made to be used by people in air, and even most waterproof technology had a limit of either time or depth. Hanzou would definitely have a niche as an inventor if he could figure out how to move past those limitations.
The class's eyes turned to the bald kid with pointed ears, who was sitting next to Hanzou, "Oh, I'm next? Ok, um, my name is Shin Shiguro and my quirk is called Goblin. I, uh, instinctively know the location of any non-living object I've ever touched. The accuracy goes down with time though, so if I haven't touched something for ten years, I'd be able to tell you the city it's in, but not any more specific than that. I, uh, just like building things."
He sat down almost before he'd finished speaking and the class turned to the next student, which was the girl with curly hair.
"I'm Akane Kohaku and this mess," the girl gestured to her curls, which rattled slightly as they caught the light, "is my quirk. It's called Copper Wire and it's a total pain to cut. Yes, it conducts electricity, yes, I use it in my inventions, no, you can't touch it. Got it?"
The introductions continued like that for the rest of the class until it got to Mei, "Hi! Mei Hatsume, future CEO of Hatsume Industries! My quirk is Zoom and it lets me see up to five kilometers away! My babies are gonna change the world!"
Izuku chucked quietly as he noticed their classmates instinctively lean back from Mei's enthusiasm. He was finally getting used to it himself, but it was still funny to see how other people reacted to her. Izuku noticed that the class was looking at him and he froze as he realized he was next. In fact, he was the last student to introduce himself. Hesitantly, he stood up.
"Um, I'm Izuku Midoirya. I like analyzing heroes and quirks, so I want to be a support analyst and help heroes work smarter and be better." Izuku glanced at the clock. Class should be ending any second now. He could do this. Just bite the bullet. "And I'm quirkless."
The bell rang.
Izuku has some...interesting chats.
Notes: First off, here's some cute fanart of Izuku from Dead in a Ditch.
Also, I am on vacation for the next week or so, and as such, I just wanted to let you know that if I update a little later than I normally do, I'm not dead. I'm just probably busy picking blackberries.
Izuku grabbed his bag and bolted as soon as he heard the bell. A small part of him knew that his classmates might not reject him right off the bat, this was UA after all, but the larger part of him knew that wasn't very likely. These kids were still human, which meant that they would still see him as weak and defenseless now that they knew he didn't have a quirk, just like Katsuki had.
He hadn't even noticed Mei chasing after him until she grabbed him by his arm and spun him around to face her, "Izuku Hacker Midoriya, just what do you think you're doing?"
"Breaking out the middle name? This must be serious." Izuku chuckled nervously. "You do realize I might have a real middle name, right?"
"It's too late to change it now, Izu-kun, your middle name is Hacker." Mei dismissed. "Now, why'd you run away like that?"
"Why do you think?" Izuku couldn't help snapping, but then forced himself to take a deep breath. He wasn't used to letting himself feel frustrated about things like this, but that still wasn't any reason to take things out on Mei. "I...I'm sorry, Mei-chan, but believe me, it's better if I can just avoid...everything that was about to happen. People don't tend to react kindly when they learn I'm quirkless."
"You have to give people a chance to be good, Izu-kun!" Mei stomped her foot. "You can't just run away because you assume people are going to hate you! What if I hadn't forced you to listen after you told me? Would you have run away then too?"
"Yes!" Izuku was only able to hold himself back from yelling because he remembered they were still in the hallway. "Look, you're the exception. All my life, the second anyone has learned that I was less evolved, they've turned on me. Everyone. Even my own mother started seeing me differently. I'm tired, Mei-chan. I don't…Ugh! I just didn't think I wanted to deal with that today, ok?"
Mei looked as shocked as Izuku felt at his outburst. He hadn't really realized that all that was bubbling under the surface when he ran away from his classmates. He'd just thought he was...scared? He didn't know, but now that he was thinking about it, he realized that his frustrated self was probably more honest than he was used to being with himself. He was tired. Sick and tired of the constant betrayal that came with people abandoning him. He didn't want to do it anymore.
"Izuku…" Mei's expression shifted from something almost like pity to a determined glare and he had to take a step back as she grabbed his arm and started dragging him back toward the classroom. "No. I'm not gonna let my best friend run away from potential allies just because he's scared of a little rejection! Any good inventor knows that you can't let a few explosions drive you from the lab!"
"I'm not an inventor!" Izuku dug his heels in and tried to yank his arm back, but Mei had years worth of muscle from hauling around tools and materials, so all he did was slow her down. "I'm an analyst. I use past data to make predictions! And all my data is pointing to this not being a good idea!"
"Your data set is skewed." Mei countered. "Now get back there and make friends!"
"No!"
They were so busy with their modified game of tug-of-war that neither of them noticed Nedzu hanging upside-down from the ceiling until they were right in front of him, "Hello!"
Izuku yelped and Mei stumbled backward. Without her actively pulling against him, Izuku's own momentum was too much and he fell to the floor, pulling Mei down on top of him. His face grew hot as he realized that not only had the principal of UA, and supposedly his new personal mentor, caught him in the middle of a childish fight, but then Izuku had to make things worse by literally tripping over his own feet. Couldn't he catch a break?
"Oh dear!" Nedzu smiled pleasantly. "Well, this seems to be quite the predicament!"
Mei didn't waste any time untangling herself from Izuku, who groaned as she accidentally slapped him in her haste to get to her feet. Well, it was probably accidental, but really, who knew when it came to her? Either way, within seconds she had scrambled to her feet and started shaking Nedzu's paw enthusiastically.
"I'm Mei Hatsume, future CEO of Hatsume Industries!" She grinned. "And you're Principal Nedzu."
Izuku hid his face in his hands, silently screaming in embarrassment, but Nedzu didn't seem phased by Mei's behavior at all as he simply chuckled, "That I am! And I know who you are, Miss Hatsume. I saw your entry for the entrance exam and I must say that I am very excited to see what you'll do here at UA. Do you mind if I steal young Midoriya from you for a moment? I'll return him by tomorrow."
Before Izuku could protest being referred to as an object, Mei grinned, "Of course!"
She grabbed his arm and yanked him roughly to his feet. Nedzu was no help and simply grinned knowingly as Izuku was manhandled by his best friend. Mei shoved him forward, effectively handing him off to the principal, "See if you can get him to stop being an idiot while you're at it!"
Nedzu laughed, "I will do my best Miss Hatsume!"
"You'll have your work cut out for you. He's too stubborn for his own good." She turned on her heel and waved as she started walking away, "Good luck, Izu-kun! See you tomorrow!"
Izuku gulped and turned back to the principal, "Um...hi?"
Nedzu simply smiled, seemingly unbothered by his awkwardness as he started leading Izuku down the hall, "Hello! How was your first day? Did everything go well?"
Izuku nodded, pushing the whole situation with his quirk introduction out of his mind, "It was really good. I, uh, heard that you had a hand in setting up my workstation, so...thank you?"
"Oh!" Nedzu's smile grew a little more excited. "Was everything to your liking? The moment I saw your request form, I thought, this simply won't do at all! You can't learn without the right materials, after all!"
"It just seems like a little much." Izuku said softly. "You really didn't need to go to so much trouble for me, I'm sorry."
Nedzu waved his paw dismissively, "Not at all! In fact, it was rather fun, so you were doing me a favor."
Izuku hadn't thought of it that way, but he supposed that Powerloader had said that Nedzu had enjoyed setting up his little room, "Oh, then you're welcome, I guess."
They had arrived at a door that Izuku recognized from his entrance exam as the principal's office. Nedzu opened the door and gestured for Izuku to go in, "Tea?"
"Y-yes, please…"
Nedzu grabbed a kettle from the side table and poured hot water into two cups, putting the tea bags in before setting them on the desk and inviting Izuku to sit down, "Now, I'm sure you're eager to get home, and you're most likely wondering what this is all about, correct?"
Izuku nodded hesitantly, "Just a little, though I'm pretty sure you wanted to talk about my analysis lessons, right? Powerloader said something about me being your personal student, so…"
"That is partially correct!" Nedzu took a sip of tea. "I do want to talk to you about that. However, there is something else. Powerloader mentioned that the support students work on projects over the course of the semester, correct?"
"He said something about that in my acceptance letter." Izuku confirmed. "But he hasn't said anything else about it."
"Ah, well Midoriya, each first year support student chooses a project to work on every semester and most of your grade is based on your adequate completion of it. Most students in your class will be working on an invention, but I have something a little different in mind for you if you find it agreeable."
Izuku nodded and took a sip of his tea as he waited for Nedzu to continue. Was he supposed to say something? But he didn't want to interrupt the principal of UA! Thankfully, Nedzu took his nod as answer enough and continued talking before Izuku could work himself into a full anxiety attack wondering how he was supposed to act around such a smart and important person. Well, not person, but...authority figure? Izuku hadn't really had many positive experiences with those.
"I would like you to make a full analysis of the first year hero students' quirks." Nedzu said. "They are still young and lack training, so they have a lot of room for improvement. You should focus your analysis on how they can play to their strengths while hopefully minimizing their weaknesses. These will be given to the students for them to use, so you'll be able to see the difference your skills can really make. Is that acceptable?"
"Yes!" Izuku sunk back in his chair sheepishly, "Um, I mean, yes, that sounds like it will be a good project."
"It's not bad to be excited." Nedzu chuckled, making Izuku blush. "In fact, that enthusiasm is probably a large part of why your analysis is so advanced at such a young age. I wouldn't have chosen this project if I didn't believe that you would enjoy it."
"Thank you." Izuku wrung his hands together anxiously, "But, um, I don't think my analysis is really that advanced yet. I still have a long way to go."
"But of course!" Nedzu smiled. "This is a school, afterall. But that brings me to the next part of our chat. You do realize, of course, that as an analyst, you will often have access to sensitive information, whether this is given to you so that you can do your job or whether it is something like a hero's weaknesses that you figured out yourself, correct?"
Izuku nodded, wondering where he was going with this.
"Well, I was planning on giving you full access to the school's camera system so you can easily observe the first years wherever they happen to be." Nedzu said. "But, if you are observing correctly, you might become privy to certain...circumstances, when it comes to one of our faculty. This information cannot be allowed to get out, you understand."
Izuku nodded anxiously. Was he really being entrusted with big secrets on his first day? What if he somehow messed it up? What if he accidentally posted something that exposed the secret and then the staff would hate him and he'd get kicked out of UA and blacklisted from all the other schools and…
A knock on the door startled Izuku out of his spiraling thought. Nedzu jumped down from his chair to open the door, "And here he is now! Welcome, All Might! Come inside!"
Izuku practically deflated in relief as he saw All Might in his skinny form hesitantly walk in the door, "Oh, you were just talking about All Might's other form! I already knew about that, so you don't have anything to worry about."
Nedzu grinned manically and All Might did a double take and spit up a few drops of blood as he saw Izuku sitting at the desk, "Uh, Nedzu...that's a student."
"Yes, that's Izuku Midoriya, my personal student." Nedzu said, almost proudly, if that was even possible. "I thought it would be best to tell him about your injury before he saw you change forms on the cameras, but it seems I had nothing to worry about."
"But...uh…" All Might opened and closed his mouth nervously a few times, "...how?!"
"You…" Izuku's stomach dropped slightly, "You don't remember me?"
All Might looked between Izuku and Nedzu, confused and a wave of disappointment washed over him. He didn't know why he expected All Might to remember him, but for some reason he'd assumed he would. That short conversation had completely derailed his life and knocked him forcefully onto a new path, so it just seemed so important to Izuku, but to All Might, it was just another conversation with a fan. Of course he didn't remember every fan he'd talked to! Remembering one person would be completely unreasonable!
Izuku forced a smile onto his face, burying his disappointment in logic, "It was almost a year ago, so it's ok that you don't remember! I, uh, asked you if I could be a hero and you encouraged me to choose a more realistic path." He chuckled awkwardly. "I did! I, uh, still want to help people, but decided it would be safer if I did that from behind a computer, you know?"
"Oh…" All Might still looked confused, but after a moment, there was a flash of recognition, "You were that quirkless boy."
Izuku smiled and shrugged, "I'm going to be an analyst. If you'd never saved my life that day and taken the time to talk to me, I would probably still be chasing an impossible dream. I'm a lot happier now, though, so, uh, thank you."
All Might shuffled awkwardly, glancing to Nedzu, who was watching the scene with an unreadable expression, "I'm, uh, glad I could help."
Izuku nodded and turned back to Nedzu, "Well, I've known for a while now and haven't told anyone yet, so was that all you wanted to talk to me about."
"For now." Nedzu confirmed. "Anything else can wait. Now, shouldn't you be getting home?"
"Yes!" Izuku bowed to them and grabbed his backpack before running to the door. "Thanks!"
All Might hesitantly started edging for the door as well, "I, uh, should probably be heading out as well…"
Izuku was already on his way out, but he could've sworn there was a slight chill in Nedzu's voice as he closed the door, "Actually, All Might, why don't you stay for a cup of tea? I believe we need to have a little chat."
Chapter 13: Risk and RewardSummary: Izuku sees his classmates again...but this time they know he's quirkless.
Notes: Here's some amazing fanart from Whirl.
Also, I'm starting a new job, so there's a good chance that my update schedule will be up in the air for a few weeks until I get settled into a new routine. I'll still try to get chapters out frequently, but we'll see how things go. Thanks for being understanding!
Izuku intentionally left later than he should have for school so that he wouldn't have to deal with his classmates which was worth the risk of running into Katsuki on the train. He honestly wasn't planning on being as late as he was, but when he reached the station, he caught sight of Katsuki already waiting for the train. Luckily, he was facing the other way so he hadn't seen Izuku yet and he was able to hide around the corner until the train left. It meant that Izuku had to wait for the next train, but he wouldn't have to deal with an angry Katsuki, so it was all good.
As it was, Izuku ended up sliding into the little desk outside his workroom right as the bell rang. Mei was sending him the stink eye, but he resolutely ignored her as Powerloader walked to the front of the room. He knew she was just trying to do what she thought was best for him, but she'd never had to deal with being quirkless before.
"Alright class, settle down." Powerloader said. "Welcome to the support course! Today, you're going to be deciding on and starting your semester projects. These have to be approved by me, and I'll also be looking over them as you work to evaluate your progress and help you improve. I would personally recommend choosing a project that you would be able to use in the sports festival, since you're allowed to bring any support items you want, as long as you made them yourself. It's still a ways away, but it can sneak up on you if you're not careful."
Izuku thought back to the project that the principal had given him. It wasn't an invention, but knowing all the first year hero students' quirks would give him an edge that nobody else would have, so maybe that was why Nedzu assigned him to analyze their quirks. He should try to give each of the students a few suggestions before the sports festival as well, to help them do well. He glanced over at Mei, who was already messing with the materials on her desk in excitement. Choosing just one project would be difficult for her.
Powerloader called his attention back to the front of the room, "You are also allowed to work on other projects for extra credit, if you want. These have to be approved by me just the same as if they were official projects, they just don't have to go as in depth. I will be right up here if you have any questions or want to get your project approved, so don't hesitate to ask."
With that, he sat back down and left them to their work. Izuku immediately bolted into his room so Mei couldn't try to force him to make friends and closed the door behind him with a sigh. Immediately, his attention was grabbed by a non-descript post-it note stuck to the central screen of his computer. Izuku approached it hesitantly, fully expecting some hatred-filled death threat. It wouldn't be the first time, though his desk this morning had been notably clear of graffiti, which was a pleasant surprise. Though maybe Mei had just scared them out of doing something that obvious. Izuku hadn't ever had someone who was willing to protect him like that before.
Izuku didn't even notice himself clenching his eyes shut as he sntached the note off the screen and had to force himself to take a peek, only for his eyes to widen in shock and relief as he realized that the note was actually from Nedzu, not his classmates.
Midoriya,
Here's the password to the camera systems!
Ra+_0verlord
Burn this note.
Nedzu
;)
Izuku read it twice until he was sure that he would be able to remember the password before looking around. Did his room have matches? He checked all the drawers and found every office supply he never knew he needed, but nothing that would allow him to burn the note as instructed. He couldn't just tear it up! Someone could potentially reassemble it and gain access to the cameras and it would all be Izuku's fault and then…
His spiral stopped when he happened to glance out his window and notice Mei hard at work. She made so many things explode that she had to have something capable of burning a tiny piece of paper...right?
But if he asked for her help, she might force him to confront their classmates, unless, of course, she was so distracted with her inventing that she completely forgot about her self-declared side quest. Izuku bit his lip and watched her for another long moment before deciding that it was a safe enough bet.
The noise hit him immediately as soon as he opened the door. Almost everyone was working on something and the happy sounds of drills and power tools seemed to come from every direction as he walked toward Mei's table.
"Mei-chan, Nedzu gave me this note and asked me to burn it. Do you have something that'd be able to take care of it?"
Mei whipped her head around to face him and he leaned back as the crosshairs in her eyes narrowed before she gave him a manic grin, "Oooh! A note-burning baby? I can make one!"
She reached for the note, but Izuku held it out of her reach, "Actually, Mei-chan, I was hoping for something a little faster."
Mei pouted, "You're no fun, Izu-kun."
"Nope." Izuku agreed, "Now, are you gonna help me, or not?"
Mei glared at him for another moment before sighing and turning on her blowtorch. Izuku smiled brightly at her as he lit the corner of the note on fire and let it burn for a few seconds before dropping it onto the floor and stomping out the flames once the note had completely turned to ash. Their classmates seemed to be giving them a wide berth as they watched the exchange, but that was just fine by him.
"Thanks, Mei-chan! Good luck on your project!" Izuku started to walk back to his room, but was stopped in his tracks by Mei grabbing his arm.
"Oh no you don't." Mei's grip tightened slightly as she grinned savagely. "Izuku Hacker Midoriya, you are going to talk to your classmates if it kills you!"
Izuku was honestly convinced that it might, "You're my friend, Mei! Shouldn't you be trying to keep me alive?"
"Oh, shut up, you're not gonna die." Mei waved the hand that wasn't holding Izuku hostage dismissively. "Now, everybody, listen up! This idiot think that you're all gonna hate him just because he was born with an extra toe-joint or whatever, so he needs you to beat it through his thick skull that not everybody is like his old stupid bullies!"
Izuku hid his face in his hands and groaned as it turned red. It wasn't a safe bet. Well, at least he'd successfully burned the note and he could deal with all of his classmates' rejections at once. Small mercies, right?
He prepared himself for the worst when he heard Kohaku scoff, "You're fucking kidding, right?" Izuku uncovered his face to find her looking extremely unimpressed, "If we're gonna hate you, it'll be because of something you did, loser."
Izuku blinked a few times and flinched as someone patted his shoulder heavily. He looked up to see Hanzou grinning at him, something that was really intimidating, considering his three rows of sharp teeth, "Yeah, dude, rejecting someone based on a quirk is totally uncool."
Izuku's eyes widened and he glanced over the rest of the class, looking for any sign that they disagreed with what the other two had said. Most of his classmates just looked like they didn't care either way, which hadn't ever happened before, and the only one who didn't look bored with the whole thing was Shiguro, who was currently trembling, "Um...being quirkless doesn't make you any less terrifying, Midoriya."
Mei gave a shocked laugh and Izuku's jaw dropped, "I, uh...what? I'm not that scary, am I?"
Kohaku rolled her eyes, "Yeah, and my hair's not a pain to brush. You caught the attention of Principal Nedzu, Midoriya. Of course you're scary!"
Powerloader cleared his throat and the class all turned to him, "Midoriya, UA has a zero tolerance policy toward bullying and discrimination. You shouldn't have to worry about that, and if anyone gives you a hard time because of your quirk, you are more than welcome to report that to me or to Nedzu."
"And I won't get in trouble?" Izuku asked, now reeling from shock. This all seemed like a dream. A good dream! But still a dream.
He clamped his mouth shut when he noticed the heavy silence that had blanketed the room in a stark contrast to the happy sounds of working that had greeted him when he'd first left his room. His classmates were staring at him with various expressions of disbelief, shock, and even anger.
"You used to get in trouble for reporting discrimination?!" Kahaku asked. "What the fuck?!"
"Well, it's just that every school has a zero bullying policy," Izuku hurried to explain, "but most teachers tend to think that it's not a big deal. Or, not big enough to get a promising student in trouble for, but then something has to be done about the complaint and someone has to be punished, so...yeah."
"You don't have to worry about that anymore." Powerloader said firmly. "We actually follow our policies here. We couldn't call ourselves heroes if we didn't even protect our students from each other."
"Thank you so much, goodbye!" Izuku held hurriedly and rushed back into his room and slammed the door, wiping at his eyes furiously the moment he was out of sight. They really wouldn't let him get bullied? It just seemed so surreal! He couldn't resist the urge to pinch his arm to make sure that he hadn't just overslept somehow, but even though he pinched his arm hard enough to make the skin turn red, he was still at UA, staring at his private room with a setup of computers that the principal had personally set up. This was really real.
After a minute or so, Izuku took a deep breath to steady himself and sat down at his computer. If UA was going to do so much to help him, the least he could do was become an analyst they could be proud of, starting with his assignment from Nedzu.
Analyzing the hero course first years.
Chapter 14: DiscoverySummary: Izuku finds an...opportunity.
Chapter TextOnce Izuku gained access to the system, he spent some time familiarizing himself with the system, making sure he knew how to pan between the different cameras and could figure out which cameras covered which areas of campus. Once he was comfortable with that, he grabbed an empty notebook from the shelf and started debating the best way to start his project. The only problem was that the first years...hadn't really done anything yet. Yesterday had just been the entrance ceremony and Eraserhead hazing his class, whatever that meant, but they wouldn't start combat exercises until that afternoon at the very least, so what was he supposed to do until then?
Izuku thought for a moment before looking through the archives to see if he could find the entrance exam. Whatever it had consisted of, it was apparently a good enough demonstration of each student's quirk and combat ability to determine their qualification for the hero course, so if it was good enough for UA, it should be good enough for him. It was somewhere to start, at least.
Thankfully, Izuku found the footage he needed quickly, along with a list of the examinees by area. On instinct, he scanned until he found Katsuki's name. Testing area C. Izuku bit his lip. He didn't actually need to see Katsuki's exam, he knew his quirk well enough from a lifetime of experience to be able to analyze it in his sleep, but a part of him needed to know if Katsuki really was as strong as he'd always bragged.
Before he could second guess himself, Izuku opened the footage from Katsuki's area. The minute that people started moving, Katsuki blasted ahead of the other examinees and went to town, leaving a trail of robot parts in his wake. Izuku felt a surge of anger, couldn't he at least leave some of the robots for other people? No, that would require him thinking about other people for once in his life, wouldn't it?
As he watched Katsuki destroy robot after robot, Izuku couldn't help but feel grateful that he hadn't tried for the hero course. As much as he hated to admit it, he really wouldn't have stood a chance against robots like that. They weren't the kind of opponents that he would have been able to beat simply by analyzing them. He wouldn't have gotten a single point.
Katsuki, however, didn't even blink as he destroyed robots left and right. The main issue that Izuku could see was his recklessness. True to form, Katsuki treated the other examinees like extras that weren't even there, resulting in several instances where someone could have been injured from either his explosions or the shrapnel and debris that went flying with the destruction of each robot. Izuku watched as Katsuki let loose a giant explosion less than a foot from another examinee's face, effectively stealing the three pointer that he'd been about to destroy. The other examinees that he'd done something like that to had shrugged it off and found another robot far away from Katsuki's attack radius. This one, however, some kid with purple hair that seemed to defy gravity, got angry. Izuku grimaced, knowing what was about to happen as the kid yelled at Katsuki, who wasn't going to let an insult like that stand.
To his surprise, however, Katsuki turned around and walked away, allowing the purple-haired kid to finish off the three-pointer that had been injured by Katsuki's attack. That couldn't be right. Katsuki would never have backed down like that even if All Might himself had been yelling at him, much less some extra that he didn't even know, so what had that kid said to get him to just...drop it?
"Is there audio on these cameras?" Izuku muttered to himself, looking at the files more closely. Even if there was, the noise from the fight would probably have drowned out the conversation, but Izuku had to try anyway. He had to know what that kid said.
As it turned out, the cameras did have audio, but when Izuku listened to the camera he'd been watching, all he could hear was metallic clanging and explosions as the students raced to destroy the robots. He almost gave up, but then he realized that for an exam like this, Nedzu probably would have gone through extra trouble to make sure that there weren't any blindspots. That meant that there might actually be a camera closer to where the two were fighting, just pointed in the wrong direction so that it had a different field of vision. Within a few minutes, Izuku had found a camera that was almost directly above the fight he wanted to listen to.
When he first opened the audio, he was worried that he still wouldn't be able to hear anything above the noise of the fight, but after a few seconds, he heard Katsuki's familiar voice. He could barely make it out above the din of combat, but Izuku could still understand what he was saying if he concentrated. He rewound the audio a few seconds until there was the sound of a loud explosion, most likely when Katsuki attacked the robot, and then a voice he didn't recognize started yelling.
"You almost killed me!" That must be the purple-haired kid. "What do you think you're doing?"
Katsuki's answer was more like a growl, "Get out of my way, extra!"
"Forget about me and go find yourself another robot."
Izuku waited to hear Katsuki's response, but it didn't come. Izuku looked at the time signature on the audio and did a double take when he realized that Katsuki had already stormed off to find another robot. He just...told him to go away and he actually did? That didn't sound like Katsuki at all!
Izuku facepalmed and laughed as he made the connection. He was an idiot, it must be the kid's quirk! There was no other way that Katsuki would have obeyed him. But what was his quirk? It would probably be in his file, assuming that Izuku had access to it. He navigated back to where the student files should be and entered his password, which actually worked! Information like the students' phone numbers and addresses were blocked out, but Izuku suspected that Nedzu intended that as a mental exercise more than anything else. He didn't need any of that right now, though, he needed quirks.
He cross referenced the list of examinees in area c with the hero course students, only to come up empty. Confused, because someone who could get Katsuki to obey him was obviously extremely strong, Izuku widened his search to all first year students.
Hitoshi Shinso. Quirk: Brainwashing. The three pointer Izuku had seen him take out was about half his points, since his quirk wasn't naturally destructive, so he didn't have nearly enough points to get into the hero course, which Izuku honestly thought was a crime. Yeah, Shinso couldn't compete with kids like Katsuki when it came to destroying robots, but his quirk would be so useful for hostage situations and overpowered villains that couldn't be beaten head on! And his quirk most likely had a lot of room to grow, since he could obviously modify memories with a simple command. Katsuki would have turned right around to explode him the minute Shinso released his hold if he hadn't been commanded to forget about him. And since he could do that, there was a chance that he could train to be able to give more complicated commands and maybe interrogations, even though his file said he couldn't give any commands that required higher brain function. Yet.
Izuku grabbed the notebook he'd ended up scribbling his thoughts in, tearing out the first page that had the beginning of Katsuki's analysis on it, and headed out to the lab again. The other students were all busy at work again, though Mei did look up when she noticed him, probably expecting him to come over and talk to her. He could drop by her table on his way back, but that wasn't his goal right now.
He gripped his notebook a little tighter as he approached Powerloader's desk. Izuku felt bad about interrupting whatever their teacher was working on, but Powerloader had said that he was here to answer any questions they had about projects and said he wouldn't get in trouble for reporting bullying, so he probably wouldn't get in trouble for interrupting him either. Wait...maybe he was supposed to go through Nedzu instead because he was an analysis student?
"Izu-kun!" Mei's voice in his ear made his jump and he looked over to see her grinning at him. "What are you working on? Do you have a project you need approved? Are you gonna make super cool analysis babies?"
Well, it was too late to go back into his room because Mei had already caught Powerloader's attention and he was now looking right at them. Izuku took a deep breath and reminded himself that teachers were supposed to help their students, and Powerloader wasn't like his old teachers, so he wasn't going to get mad. Probably.
"You said we could do extra credit projects, right?"
"Yep." Powerloader leaned forward attentively, "Do you have one in mind?"
Izuku nodded and opened his notebook, "Shinso Hitoshi. He's a gen-ed student with a brainwashing quirk, but he originally applied to the hero course. I'd like to see if I can use my analysis to help him improve enough to get into the hero course at the sports festival."
"That's a pretty tall order." Powerloader said. "Do you know how rare it is for someone from another course to actually succeed in transferring that way?"
"The last one was Eraserhead when he was a student here." Izuku said confidently. "But Shinso has what it takes! His quirk is powerful, it's just not any good against robots. Plus, this will be a good way to test if my analyses are useful! If I can help Shinso improve, then I'll know that my notes are actually helpful!"
"Hmm," Powerloader thought for a minute, "As long as you won't get too discouraged if he doesn't end up transferring, then I don't see any problem with it."
"Ooh! Izu-kun, you said he's got a brainwashing quirk?" Mei grinned manically. "I could make so many babies for him! Powerloader! If I make some babies, could he use them in the sports festival?"
"He's a gen-ed student?" Powerloader asked. "He should be able to bring a single support item, but it'll need to be approved by Nedzu in advance."
"Good enough for me! We're adopting him!" Mei declared.
Powerloader just sighed, "Adopting him?"
"Yep!" Mei smiled. "Izu-kun and I are adopting him as our extra credit project! Let me read your notes!"
Mei grabbed his notebook and started reading while Powerloader looked at Izuku, who smiled and shrugged, "Hey, at least she didn't try to call Shinso one of her babies."
Mei hummed and turned a page, "Where did you even find Extra-Credit-kun, anyway, Izu-kun?"
Izuku couldn't hold back a grin as he started walking back toward his room, "He yelled at my ex-bully during the entrance exam."
Mei cackled.