Upon waking up the next morning, Izuku was quick to change into a pair of jeans and his 'shirt' t-shirt in hope of seeing his brother in the common area before his classmates had awoken. Unfortunately, Kirishima and Mina were already up and Shouta was nowhere to be seen. He was probably still asleep.

Izuku gave a tired wave to his classmates, making a beeline straight for the coffee machine.

"'Morning Midobro!"

"Hi, Izu-kun!" Mina paused, face falling. "You have a t-shirt that says 'shirt' on it?"

Izuku nodded as he ladled the ground coffee into the machine. "What's wrong?"

"I have to take you shopping at some point." She spoke seriously, leaning her forearms on the kitchen counter, eyes narrowed practically to slits.

"Why?" he asked, confused.

"Why?" Mina spluttered, indignant. "You have no taste!"

Well, at least it wasn't too bad of an insult, and he could probably benefit from her help. Mina seemed like the sort of person to be very good at putting outfits together.

"Alright," he said, shrugging. "Thanks for offering to help."

Mina flashed him a grin, passing over a mug with the word 'mug' on from the cupboard behind her.

Izuku returned it, pouring a coffee and, not bothering to add milk, took a long drink, sighing in contentment. Kirishima's eyes widened in surprise but he didn't say anything, instead pouring himself a bowl of cereal. Mina gave Izuku a playful nudge.

"I didn't know you liked coffee!"

Izuku shrugged again. "It's good," he replied, voice monotone.

She laughed. "Fair enough. Cereal?"

"Yes please."

Shouta entered the common area just after ten, heading to the kitchen first for coffee, later moving over to stand by the sofas, where the class was gathered.

"Alright, good to see you're settling in," he said with a grunt. "You all know classes start again tomorrow, but you already have your schedules so I won't need to give you new ones… unless you've lost yours again," he added as a few hands went up.

"Now, we need to set a few rules. One, curfew is at eight PM. Be back here before then or you'll get a punishment. Lights off at eleven. Two, UA pays for your food. If you want anything else, you can either make a request for it the next time food is retrieved, or go out and buy it yourself, which leads me onto my next point. Three, you can go off school grounds, but only with permission from a teacher and you must let me know. Depending on how far you want to go, a teacher may be assigned to accompany you. Finally, I know it might be difficult for a class like you, but don't destroy anything, burn the building down, make too much of a mess, or do anything else that would give me a headache. Follow these rules and you'll have a good time here. Don't, punishments may vary; nothing is too harsh. Understood?"

"Yes, Sensei!" the class shouted in unison.

"Good. Now, you have today free, do what you want."

There was a unanimous 'woo' from the class as they all returned to what they had been doing previously. Izuku, however, stood and, waving off his friends' confusion, followed Shouta into the kitchen. He placed his empty mug in the sink, and then turned to his brother.

"Aizawa-sensei?" He continued after a nod from Shouta. "Please may I go to the 1-C dorms to get Hitoshi?"

"Training?" Shouta asked. Izuku hummed in response. "Right, I'll be there in a bit. Make sure you're warmed up," he said, refilling his mug.

"Yes, sensei."

Izuku filled a water bottle, slipped his shoes on by the door and left, jogging to Hitoshi's dorm excitedly. He knocked on the door, which was opened by Hizashi.

"Good morning, Midoriya-kun! Here to see Shinsou-kun?

"Yep," Izuku said.

Hizashi gave him a thumbs-up. "Okay, I'll let him know you're-"

"No need," came a tired drawl from behind Hizashi. Hitoshi poked his head into view. "I'm here."

"Toshi!" Izuku cheered, bouncing in place.

"Yes. Toshi. I do know my name, Izuku. I am, unlike you, not eight"

"Oh shut up."

All in all, Shouta didn't think things were going too badly, with the standards he had in place for adult life.

Well… apart from his brother being corrupted by Nedzu, but that was neither here nor there.

He'd (finally) gotten his bandages off the day before he and his family moved into the dorms, courtesy of some of his dad's best healing quirks. Chiyo was all too happy to announce that he was back to normal.

The dorms were nice, even though he and Hizashi were separated, though they could always steal a room in the teachers' dorms if they were feeling… frisky. The rooms there were soundproofed, after all.

Izuku didn't seem too upset that his classmates knew about his current situation, but he was glad that they hadn't asked too much about the 'older brother'. Bakugou was even being somewhat… kind of… remotely nice for once.

The hellspawn were already comfortable, which would reduce problems later down the line, much to Shouta's relief.

And Hitoshi was happy that he'd be near one of them. Poor Hizashi would be left alone once Hitoshi could transfer to the hero course though.

Oh well, he'd survive. He even might get something close to thriving, but one can never get their hopes up.

Shouta himself was just happy that everything was settling down. The sports festival was in three weeks, Hitoshi was improving, Izuku's nightmares were less frequent, and they had nothing too big to worry about.

He pushed open the door to Gym Delta, satisfied at the sight of Izuku and Hitoshi stretching.

"Right then," he announced, closing the door behind him. "Let's get going. I want you two to spar today, no quirks."

"Okay, Dad," Hitoshi responded with a cheeky grin, the brat.

Shouta ducked his pink face into his capture weapon, glad that Izuku didn't take the opportunity to tease him about it.

Izuku gazed up at the door in front of him, furrowing his eyebrows once he noticed the camera. He supposed Nedzu had probably already seen him then.

"Hello!" he said, waving a hand at the camera.

The door swung open to reveal a grinning Nedzu, who waved a paw back at him.

"You noticed my camera, Midoriya-kun. Not many do. Come on in!"

Izuku passed the threshold onto a nicely-carpeted floor and moved over to take the seat across from Nedzu.

"Tea, Midoriya-kun?"

"Yes please," he responded, folding his hands in his lap.

Nedzu poured two mugs and passed one over to Izuku, who took it in both hands.

"Now, Midoriya-kun. You interest me. I believe you are quite intelligent and I would like to hone your skills. I have heard that you do analysis…?"

Izuku nodded and took a sip of the tea. "I do, but it's not anything special. Anyone could do it really."

Nedzu placed his mug onto the desk and leaned forward. "Could I see your notebook, please?"

Izuku reached into his bag, pulling out his latest notebook, before placing it in front of Nedzu, who opened it and flipped through.

"Not anyone could do this, child," he said, still reading. "This is substantially better than most professional analyses I have seen. I would like to offer private lessons in place of your English classes, as you're already fluent. We would do analysis, talk about current issues and other goings-on, and the like. You must understand, I do not take private students often, so I will not extend the offer again."

Come on, who wouldn't say yes?

Izuku smiled wide. "I would love that, sir. Thank you very much!"

Nedzu's fangs showed as he beamed. "Tell me, Midoriya-kun – have you ever played chess?"

Izuku collapsed on top of his bed covers, not bothering to pull them over his body.

Training with Shouta and Hitoshi had been exhausting with the sports festival steadily approaching, and Shouta wanted them to dominate the event. He'd gone back to the dorms just after midday for lunch, before heading to his meeting with Nedzu, and finally doing some training with All Might. He left his class to head for bed after dinner.

Izuku sighed, relaxing his muscles, and slipped under.

"Hello!"

He startled, opening his eyes wide to see… a throne room?

What the fuck?

He stood in his pyjamas in front of a semicircle of thrones, all occupied by glowing figures. Surrounding the thrones was a vast expanse of black. A void?

"That's what we call it."

Izuku shrieked and held a hand over his rapidly beating heart. Who was that?

"Me!" A hand off to the side flew into the air. It belonged to some bald guy wearing goggles and-

Wait a minute, was that Lariat!?"

"Right you are, Ninth," Lariat said. "But call me Banjou, yeah?"

Izuku nodded, still shocked that there he was meeting a long-dead hero in his dream.

"Ah, yes, sorry about that, Ninth. We're the past users of One For All. It's nice to finally meet you." A man with long, white hair spoke, tilting his head as he did so.

"U-uh, hello?" Izuku replied timidly.

"Hi, Ninth," A lady with black hair called out. Izuku turned to face her with a small wave. "I'm Nana Shimura, but you might know me better as Pro Hero Tempest! You can call me Nana. I was the seventh, and I taught Toshi."

Izuku's jaw dropped, but he was quickly distracted as the man next to her began to speak.

"I'm Tayutai En, or Smoke-Eater, But En is fine. I was the sixth."

"Banjou Daigoro. I was the fifth, but I'm clearly the best-"

"I am Shinomori Hikage. I was the fourth."

"Hey! Don't you go interrupti-"

"I'm Third."

"Second."

"And I'm Yoichi. I was the first; All for One's brother. But you can call me Uncle Yoichi!" The man with white hair exclaimed with a wide smile.

"Wow, you're Dad's brother?" Izuku grinned, and Yoichi smiled back.

"In the flesh, or not actually since I'm dead, but whatever. Close enough. It's great to finally see my nephew face to face."

Izuku rushed forward to hug Yoichi who wrapped his arms over Izuku's back. Someone cooed off to the side, but Izuku couldn't have cared less. He finally got to meet the brother his dad always talked about.

"Well…" Nana said slowly, and they all turned to look at her. "If we're re-building the family tree, then I may as well. I'm Inko's mother."

Izuku collapsed.

The vestiges showed Izuku around their throne room (which didn't take long), until they all got bored, at which point Banjou popped a few cushions into existence, and they sat in a circle on the floor, talking about the quirk they all held.

Safe to say, Izuku learned a lot about One For All in that time. After that, they took turns sharing ideas for what to do, both when Izuku was there, and when he wasn't.

They wrote them all down on a large whiteboard Nana created, and voted.

The thing that came out at the top was, of course, building a house. He didn't understand how none of them had ever suggested it before, but it seemed a valid idea anyway.

And, just as they were discussing the details, Izuku woke up, back in his bedroom in the dorms.

"That's a pity," he mumbled to himself, reaching over to turn his alarm off.

"Yeah," a voice agreed, and Izuku fell off his bed.

"What the fuck?"

"Hi, kid," Nana said, her translucent form appearing in the corner of his room. "Looks like we can come out of the void now."

"Clearly," Izuku deadpanned, picking himself up. "But please can you all go right now? I want to change."

"Yep."

Nana disappeared without a sound, leaving Izuku to stare at the corner where she'd stood just a moment ago.

'Are dead people always this weird?'

There was a resounding 'yes' in his head and Izuku took a deep breath.

"Oh. My. GOD!"

By the time he had gotten to class, Izuku was already fed up.

The One For All users had pestered him all through breakfast, on his morning run, as he said good morning to his classmates, as he walked across the UA grounds, and the list went on.

Nana had made a request to see All Might, which was perfectly fine with Izuku, as long as she didn't hold control for too long.

(The vestiges had discovered over breakfast that they could control Izuku's body if he wasn't actively trying to keep them out when Banjou tried to reach for the cereal across the kitchen counter while Izuku was eating his toast. Thank goodness no one else was around to see the slip-up.)

Yoichi wanted to meet the rest of his family, and Izuku couldn't fault him for that. He'd text Dad later and ask Shouta to go see them sometime.

Meanwhile, Second and Third didn't speak much in general, it seemed; Hikage mostly only talked when he was telling Banjou to stop asking if people were single, other than when he was doing the same, and En just chimed in every now and again.

When they weren't being annoying, Izuku actually didn't mind having them in his head. Funnily enough, he had enjoyed talking to them on the way to class, but then they had become the chaotic monsters that they were before.

"Uh, Midoriya-kun, are you alright?" Uraraka asked Izuku, who was pointedly looking away from the front, where Banjou was twerking to the other vestiges' laughter.

"I'm fine."

Uraraka looked like she didn't believe him in the slightest, but turned away nonetheless.

Just then, the door opened and Shouta walked in. The class went quiet.

Shouta walked up to the podium, unknowingly passing through Banjou who began squealing like a little girl. "Now that you're in the dorms and fully recovered from the attack at the USJ, you'll begin preparing for something that will make an impact on your time here at UA." Shouta paused for dramatic effect, but the class stared on, unconvinced, the time he did this before still fresh in their minds.

"The Sports Festival is in three weeks. Most pro heroes watch it, and how well you do will have a result on your internships the week after. Make sure you prepare accordingly; plus ultra."

The lack of enthusiasm in his last two words did not deter the class, and they shouted it back very loudly.

"Right then. Do homework or something for the rest of homeroom," Shouta said as he pulled out his sleeping bag, getting in and lying down on the floor.

The classroom erupted into noise, a few making plans to team up for training, while others shouted at them to be quiet.

Izuku ignored the chatter around him, instead turning to the vestiges standing in front of his desk.

'I am so dead,' he complained in his mind. 'I've had this quirk for three weeks, and I can still barely use it.'

Nana placed a comforting hand on his. 'At least you stopped breaking bones. Can you imagine how bad the Sports Festival would be if you hadn't figured out full cowl?' She laughed as Yoichi patted Izuku on the back.

'You'll be fine, nephew,' he said comfortingly, eyes crinkling in amusement.

'I sure hope so,' Izuku agreed.

Much of homeroom passed in the same way, Izuku occasionally joining his classmates in their conversations. By the time the bell rang, Izuku was glad to leave the topic behind.

Clearly, the universe didn't like him.

There was a huge crowd outside their door, all clamouring to be at the front.

Kacchan opened the door and the sound came flooding in. He stepped back in confusion, allowing the rest of the room's occupants to gather behind him.

"Oi, what the fuck's going on?" Kacchan growled.

And Hitoshi stepped forward, looking as bored as ever.

"Class 1-A," he drawled. "Nice to meet the famous hero course students, or maybe not so nice, if Blasty here is anything to go by." He carried on, ignoring Kacchan's enraged pops or the rest of the class' protests. "But I digress. You know, the Sports Festival is an opportunity for everyone to prove themselves, even Gen Ed students like myself. And if we do better than you do, well," he waited a moment, "We can take your place in the Hero Course."

There was an uproar from the class, and Hitoshi smirked, "I'm planning to transfer, so watch out, Class A. I'll be trying my best; you do too and we'll see who's better, hm?"

Kacchan grunted and stormed off, while the rest of them stood in silence, Hitoshi having slipped off after he was done.

Izuku slung his bag over his shoulder and left the room, pushing past the other first years outside the door.

He found Hitoshi under a large tree outside.

"That was one hell of a speech," he remarked, sitting down next to the purple-haired teen.

"Thanks," Hitoshi mumbled around a mouthful of rice.

"Are we training tonight?"

"Yeah."

Their sparring later was joined by the vestiges, who wanted to see exactly how rusty they were after being dead for so long. They took the spare mats off to the side to use, even teaching Izuku some moves before Hitoshi and Shouta arrived.

To his shock, they were really good teachers, and he ended up using the gym by himself one afternoon so that he could train with the vestiges. They were all very excited to see just how solid they could become.

The answer: very solid.

Izuku was hit quite a few times, fortunately not too hard, but enough that it hurt.

Hikage showed Izuku meditation in the confines of his room to help reach for One For All comfortably and quickly. Izuku took to it like a fish in water, and was soon meditating both in the morning and evening.

Meanwhile, Class 1-A practised individual techniques twice a week in Foundational Heroics, on top of general fitness in gym class.

Shouta trained Hitoshi and Izuku both with quirks and without several times a week. The vestiges hung around during those, happy to watch Izuku improve, sometimes even pointing things out when he sparred.

Izuku had grown close to them over the last few weeks. They spent the time when he was asleep planning out the house or playing games.

Their favourite games from being stuck in the void were Uno and Charades – an odd choice, but Izuku could tell why.

Each Uno game was loud and friendly, and their rendition of charades was wild. It had been hilarious when Izuku had to act out All For One and started giving them all hugs. Nana kept shouting 'All Might', despite Izuku's many denials of that suggestion and Banjou had the nerve to offer up Shouta, of all people, as the person Izuku was acting out, which just- why?

It was really a strange sort of bond they had, but a good one.

And as the Sports Festival grew nearer, the class grew together, spending their evenings in the common area, talking and having fun. Shouta stayed to watch them every once in a while, though he never joined in.

Izuku saw the happy gleam in his eye. Shouta was such a dad.

Uraraka and Tenya did their homework together before dinner, sometimes joining others. Izuku and Tenya helped everyone else with English as they were fluent. Yaoyorozu helped them with science, Tenya with maths, and Jirou with Art History. The teachers had been letting off on the homework end, because of the Sports Festival, which they were grateful for.

But time passed quickly and before too long, Izuku was bidding goodnight to his classmates before he headed up to his room, the night before the Sports Festival.

He changed into his pyjamas, brushed his teeth, and climbed into bed.

That night, Izuku played Uno and Go Fish with the vestiges. Izuku and Nana won most of the games, although everyone won something at least once.

When he woke up to his alarm blaring on his bedside table, a pack of playing cards was clutched in his hand.