(A/N) Hey, all! This would've been up about nine hours ago but the site was having some technical issues.
Fun fact! Since this is a Katsuki-heavy(ish) chapter, I was gonna talk a bit about what I did and didn't like about how the My Hero manga (up until the chapter before last) was developing Bakugo, who is my favourite character (not named Miruko). Obviously, last week's chapter happened since then, and most of my argument is now moot. If you're following my artist insta/twitter, then you know how I feel about that lmao.
As for this humble fan-written chapter of mine, there is a bonus (extra) scene at the very end of it. It's more for fun than anything, and it has absolutely no bearing on the characters or the story. If you found it entertaining, then enjoy. If you didn't, feel free to pretend you never saw it.
X
"Yahallo, Miruko."
Rumi looked up from her tablet and unhooked her fingers from her coffee mug. She gave the newcomer a long, flat stare.
"That sort of greeting doesn't suit you at all."
The celebrity pro hero, Uwabami, smiled. "Was it a little much? It's in style with younger people these days. "
"It sounds juvenile to me," the seated woman replied easily. "Besides that, what are you doing here? I didn't peg you as someone who liked to make coffee runs. Don't you have lackeys for that sort of thing?"
More than that, she should be at her agency at this time of day, not at the neighbourhood coffee shop.
Uwabami mumbled something about waking up on the wrong side of the bed. To the Rabbit Hero's visible ire, she took a seat at the booth facing her.
"The owners let me in through the back, but I wouldn't have needed to come in the first place if you bothered to answer my messages," replied the Snake Hero exasperatedly. "Do you even have your phone on you right now?"
"It's on silent."
Uwabami shook her head. "Never mind that. I have a show with Maison Margiela tomorrow. PR thinks it'd be great if you tagged along–"
"Sorry, not interested." Rumi picked up her tablet again.
The snake woman blinked. "Eh? Wait, seriously? You're usually fine with this sort of thing."
"I'll be busy."
To prove her point, the white-haired woman dipped the tablet backward to let the blonde see what she was working on.
"This is…" Uwabami trailed off. "I can't read upside-down, Miruko. I don't have a clue what this wall of text is supposed to be."
"I'm dropping by UA. Archer asked me to– for his class."
The snake-haired woman's expression became unreadable. The two locked stares for a few moments.
"Mm. I get it now."
Miruko's eyebrow quirked upwards. "You 'get it now'?"
"Yeah."
"What is it that you 'get', exactly?"
"Nothing. It isn't important. Moreover, why is Archer teaching at UA to begin with? He never struck me as the professor type."
The rabbit mutant's ears squirmed for a moment, but otherwise didn't look too bothered about the poorly-veiled change in subject. "Seriously? He said the same thing. I think it's the perfect job for someone like him, though."
The other woman's interest was piqued. "Eh? …Well if you say so. You do know him best, after all."
The proclamation was met with a violent scoff. "Right. As if anyone knows what goes through that guy's head. He's got a one-track mind– hero this, save everyone that."
Uwabami's lost control of her jaw and ended up staring at Rumi dumbly.
"I can't believe you said that with a straight face. Forget 'the pot calling the kettle black', this is on another level."
"I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Listen," Uwabami took a breath to calm her agitation. "I don't know Mister Number Two beyond a few greetings whenever there's a hero meeting, but you, I know fairly well. I have never –and I mean never– met an individual more reluctant to give half a shit about anything other than being the top dog than you. You're a grown twenty-six-year-old woman, and you're still single. Do you have a life, girl? I can't imagine Archer being any worse than that."
"Tche."
Rumi looked away. "You wouldn't get it. He's already at the top. I'm still… here. I can't afford to slack off now."
She tried to lift her tablet to her face once again, but Uwabami pushed down on the screen to keep it planted on the surface.
"It's you who doesn't get it, idiot," chided the Snake Hero. "The only thing holding you back is your own ego. You would've been top-five ages ago if you just sucked it up and funded your own hero agency."
"I have an agency," Rumi corrected.
"A secretary to offload all your paperwork onto isn't a hero agency. If you weren't so against letting other people help you–"
"I don't need help! Do you think that someone like…" the bunny mutant bit her tongue.
"…"
"…"
"That's it, then," Uwabami finally said. "It's about him again. Just because he does something a certain way, it doesn't mean that you need to do the same thing."
"He's not better than me! Anything he can do, I can do just as well!"
"I didn't–" the blonde caught herself and sighed. "No, forget it. It's like talking to a brick wall with you. I'm going to leave now. The staff looks about ready to open the place up."
It was true, Rumi noted. There were already some regulars that were waiting patiently at the doors to the coffee shop.
She liked to ask the owners to let her in before operating hours for a little peace and quiet, though she didn't mind talking to fans every now and then either. Uwabami on the other hand needed to clock in on time at her agency. Famous celebrity that she was, the woman would be at least an hour late if she got caught up with signing autographs.
"Alright. See you around."
"Yeah, yeah," grumbled the snake woman. She waved a hand over her shoulder dismissively and left through the backdoor from whence she came.
X
Shirou stared out the window of the teacher's lounge with an uncomfortable expression on his face. His coffee mug was clenched tightly between the palms of his hands.
The pro hero Vlad –his fellow homeroom teacher– met him at the window and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.
"The media is just as relentless as ever, huh?"
Shirou's eyes widened by the smallest fraction, not expecting the man to come up behind him.
"Kan-senpai. Good morning."
The Hero Ideologies teacher turned his attention back to the view of the school's front gates.
"'Relentless media' or not, though, isn't this a little over the top? I knew that it would be a big deal for both All Might and myself to come teach here, but…"
Vlad laughed good-naturedly. "They definitely aren't to be underestimated. You should know that better than most."
They stood in a comfortable silence for an instant, both looking down on the commotion outside.
"Say, Senpai…"
"Hm?"
Sekijiro quirked a brow. Emiya seemed to be thinking deeply about something.
"Did All Might leave you any concerning reports for any of your students? For the Villain-Hero drill, I mean."
The taller man tapped a finger against his jaw. "A few, I suppose. If you want an example, one of them's got some serious ego issues. It drove his team's score through the dirt. You?"
Sighing, the greying redhead nodded. "Yeah. I'm not quite sure how to handle it though. I was hoping that you'd be able to give me some pointers since you're experienced with this sort of thing."
A twinge of pink crossed Vlad's cheeks in reaction to the praise, but he quickly coughed into his fist to hide it.
"I wouldn't make too big a deal out of it. They're all fresh out of middle school, so they haven't found their land legs yet; they're still learning. For now, just talk to them; let them know why what they did was wrong."
Shirou's shoulders relaxed. "I suppose that makes the most sense. Thank you, Kan-senpai."
"No problem, Emiya-san."
A soft buzzer rang near the door's entrance.
"Ah. There's the five-minute mark," remarked Vlad. "I guess that's our cue to head on out."
The pair of teachers grabbed what they needed for their class and headed their separate ways.
As he approached his classroom, Shirou thought about how he wanted to broach the issue. He could probably leave Yaoyorozu and Todoroki out of it for now since whatever funk they were in the other day seemed to have left them.
Bakugo and Midoriya, on the other hand…
"…"
He froze at the door. When should he do this, before or after? Greeting the class beforehand would allow him to get the ball rolling on homeroom and keep things organized.
…No. Just like when dealing with villains, the threat needed to be nipped at the bud.
He slid the door open and walked through purposefully. The class as a whole got to their feet.
"Good Morning, Emiya-se–"
"Bakugo. Midoriya. Come meet me outside the classroom for a moment."
Everyone froze mid-bow and blinked.
The two boys took a moment to react. Bakugo scoffed and marched out while Midoriya followed on legs made of noodles. The green-haired boy looked like he would pass out any second.
Whether from nervousness or embarrassment, no one would know.
Now faced solely with the stoic face of their teacher, the number two hero in Japan, the pair lined up with their backs facing the wall. Neither spoke.
"I heard about your incident yesterday; All Might gave me the feedback reports. Would either one of you care to explain what happened?"
They shied away from his gaze, likely feeling chastised.
Shirou grimaced. It wasn't his intention to corner them like this. Maybe ho should've done things differently.
Oh well. It was too late to change things now.
Midoriya cracked. He started to babble.
"Uhm. Well, you see! We were, uh… Kacchan, erm, Bakugo I mean, we didn't really… I thought, uhm… I wasn't really, but I just wanted to–"
"Midoriya."
The boy stopped in his tracks.
"Calm down. Use your words."
The green-haired boy took a deep breath. He bowed at the waist.
Caught off guard, Shirou took a step back.
"I'm sorry! I allowed my personal feelings get in the way, I was careless, and someone could've gotten seriously hurt because of that. I know I wasn't thinking straight, and I know what I did was wrong. I won't ever let it happen. I… I'm sorry."
"…And what about you?"
Midoriya rose from his bow to meet his teacher's unreadable expression.
"Me?"
"You did get hurt. This is the second time you've landed yourself in the infirmary because you were too reckless with your quirk. How much longer can your body handle what you're putting it through?"
"Sensei… I'm sorry–"
"Apologizing isn't–"
"–I'm sorry, but I can't let that stop me!"
"..."
The red-haired man's jaw clenched in surprise.
"I can't…" repeated Midoriya. "If it means I can be a hero, then I don't care what happens to my body! If I can't even save someone who's in front of me because I'm too scared to get hurt, then what good am I?!"
Even Bakugou couldn't keep the shock off of his face.
This sort of assertiveness from the flaky-looking boy wasn't normal, then.
Shirou's expression was as complicated as it was unreadable.
"…Head back to class, Midoriya. We'll work something out for your quirk later, but for now, you're off the hook."
The kid blinked before bowing once more. "Yes, sensei! I won't let you down again!"
He scampered off, and Bakugo tried to follow.
Shirou clamped his hand down on his shoulder and kept him from moving.
"We're not done yet."
The blonde planted his feet and swiped the hand away with a growl.
"Get your hands off me!"
He tried to put on a mean face, but his fire was quickly put out by Shirou's glacial expression.
"I'm disappointed, Bakugo."
"…"
The human firecracker averted his gaze.
"I get it already! I messed up. But I… I just hate it!"
His fists were clenched tightly at his side.
"I hate it! I hate it, I hate it, I hate it! So what if he managed to pull some better-than-average quirk out of his ass! That doesn't mean that he can act like he's better than me!"
The boy was just venting now. Shirou let him finish.
"Deku, the ice bastard, and even Ponytail– what's with all these people acting like I'm not worth the shit stuck to the bottom of their fucking shoe, all of a sudden?"
The kid wasn't even talking to him at this point, nor was he making a lick of sense. It was more like his poorly-managed frustration was making him think out loud.
"You're strong, Bakugo."
The blonde's eyes were bloodshot, his fists trembling. He was clearly confused by the compliment.
"It because you're strong that you can't afford to show your weaknesses like you are right now."
Shirou had spent a good part of the previous evening thinking about what it was he wanted to tell the angry boy when he finally spoke with him. He came up with dozens of ways to make a lesson out of it; to tie it back to what he said the other day about strength bringing responsibility.
In the end, he didn't bother with that.
"Let's say that ten or so years from now, you become the strongest hero. Stronger than me, stronger than All Might. What then?"
Shirou walked past his distraught student and motioned for him to follow him back into the classroom. Before they joined the others, however, he had one last thing to say.
"As you see it, who is 'Bakugo Katsuki, the number one hero'?"
X
"Hey, dude."
"…"
"My man?"
"…"
"Bakugo! You doin' alright there, bro?"
Katsuki took a deep breath and exhaled sharply.
"Get out of my face, Shitty Hair," he spoke as he snapped his disposable chopsticks apart.
"Shitty Ha–" the newcomer repeated, stricken, before calming himself.
No. Kirishima Eijiro was unperturbed.
"Wow. Was that, like, your indoor voice? You've been all quiet'n stuff since Sensei gave you a dressing-down."
"Mind your own business. What's it to you, anyway?"
The spiky-haired hero-in-training scratched the back of his head. "Well I mean, y'know, you're really standoffish."
Not understanding the point that was trying to be made, Katsuki started digging into his lunch.
Though not invited, Kirishima set his tray down next to him and took a seat.
"But that said, you're here to be a hero, just like the rest of us," he continued. "You can't be that bad of a guy, right?"
The mouthful of rice only made half the trip up to Bakugo's mouth before it slipped through his chopsticks.
"As you see it, who is 'Bakugo Katsuki, the number one hero'?"
Eijiro quirked a brow when the blonde seemed to stare into nothingness for a little too long.
"You good?"
"…I'm fine."
"…"
"Hey, Shitty Hair."
The boy in question made an almost-agonized face. "So you've already settled on that name, huh?"
His whining went ignored.
"If you had to elect someone to be class president, who would it be?"
Kirishima's brows scrunched. One could practically see the gears turning between the ears.
"Eh? Yaoyorozu-san the class president, right? Why's it matter?" Where was this guy going with this?
"Just answer the question, dumbass."
"Well, I mean, I still don't really know everyone that well. Yaoyorozu's fine, I guess? Really, no one stands out from the crowd, you know what I mean?"
Bakugo narrowed his eyes and glared at him judgementally.
"Why?" asked Kirishima curiously.
"…Forget about it. Never mind."
Kirishima smiled and laughed. "Haha. I take it back. You're definitely in a worse mood than usual."
That was as far as their conversation went. Blaring sirens sounded throughout the expansive UA cafeteria.
The pair shot to their feet.
"What the–"
"Security level three has been breached. Students are asked to evacuate promptly."
Following the announcement, everything around them became chaotic.
"Security level three?" Katsuki mumbled to himself quietly as he watched his peers act like chickens with their feathers plucked.
"Quick, make way!"
"Quit it, stop pushing!"
"Move it, man…"
"Ouch!"
He watched as people who thought they wanted to be heroes scrambled like a bunch of lemmings.
"You're crushing me…"
"Hurry up, will you?"
"What do you think is going on?"
He watched as a bunch of fucking side characters lost their shit and smeared the reputation of the school on his hero resume one whiny babble at a time.
"Hands to yourself, man!"
"Too close!"
"SHUT THE FUCK UP! SHUT THE FUCK. UP. YOU FUCKING HEADLESS DIPSHITS!"
The shout was so loud that it was heard over the commotion. The room, now dead silent, turned to face the angry-looking first year who stood on the table with sparks crackling in his palms.
X
The moment he received the text from the principal concerning the security breach, Shirou knew that he wouldn't like what he found.
But this? This was a little more worrying than what he expected.
"Archer-kun," Nezu called out to him from where he stood with a good portion of the school faculty.
"What happened?" was all that Shirou could think to say.
The school gates –reinforced to withstand even the harshest punishment– were crumbled to dust.
"We don't know," Midnight answered him. "Nothing good, I don't think."
"I'll say," agreed Present Mic in an unusually somber tone. "The media was going crazy all morning, but I don't think that all the reporters in the world could break down these walls. Another party must have taken advantage of the distraction."
"Is someone trying to send a message?" offered Vlad.
Nezu bowed his head with a serious expression strewn across his brow.
"If this is an evil entity, then they are showing that they are capable of penetrating the stronghold that is UA Academy. If nothing else, it's a declaration of war."
All the teachers were equally perturbed. However…
"And if they're still here?" offered Archer.
They all froze.
"Spread out, and leave no stone unturned!" Nezu commanded.
They didn't need to be told twice. The professional heroes jumped into action to secure the premises and make sure that no villain had snuck in without their knowledge.
Shirou entered the closest building to him. He grimaced, realizing that he must be on a newer side of the campus. He didn't have a class here, and it didn't seem familiar to him at all.
If villains were really here and came for a reason, then they probably planned out a route. If that were the case, then it was he who was at a disadvantage in this environment.
He stopped running and observed his surroundings.
It was empty.
He shook his head. Of course, it would be empty. The students would have evacuated by now.
A thought came to him.
"Trace, on."
His brain preened itself for the taxing job of manifesting thirty identical blades. They were strange two-pronged daggers that bore an uncanny resemblance to tuning forks.
Once more, he ran. The strange daggers followed him, and every once and a while they would lodge themselves into the walls and ceiling.
Shirou's eyes were closed. He wasn't looking, but listening.
The blades operated using the quirk Earphone Jack, copied from his own student, Kyoka Jiro. When "plugged" into the walls, and disturbances or vibrations in the surroundings would be magnified for him to hear. Since there shouldn't be any students around, well…
His eyes shot open and he dug his heel into the ground.
Two floors directly above him.
It could be anything, but he couldn't afford to take chances right now.
So as not to make noise, he traced a large flat blade and kept it hovering in the air horizontally. He jumped onto it with a low, crouched posture and used his telekinetic over his own creations to float up the stairs without touching the floorboards.
One of the doors was open, and a soft glow emanated from within despite the lights having been shut down remotely post evacuation.
His suspicions were growing, and Shirou decided to throw caution to the wind. His makeshift mount barreled into the room at breakneck speeds.
There was a shadow– a mutant-type, rather. They made eye contact, and just like that, it disappeared without a trace.
The broad sword vanished. Standing now on his two feet, the hero wielded a pair of ornate Chinese dao. He tensed, waiting for combat.
"…"
It never came.
"Damnit," he cursed. Shirou relieved himself of his blades and slumped his shoulders.
He wasn't fast enough.
His eyes started to sting from the harsh light, and he only then realized that there was a sole computer running in the otherwise dark room. Across the screen, the word "DEACTIVATED" was blinking in bright red letters.
Shirou clenched his fists in annoyance. He was no tech wiz, but the chances of that prompt bearing any sort of good news weren't terribly high.
X
Extra! Emiya-sensei might need help
As a whole, class 1-A couldn't help but stare as something mind-boggling happened right in front of them.
"No, sensei, we really don't have an overhead projector," denied Momo once more in a tired voice.
Shirou frowned. "There's something I needed to show you all, though," he complained while waiving a transparent sheet in his hand demonstratively. Softly, he mumbled to himself, "Why would UA do something as stupid as getting rid of all their projectors? What am I supposed to do now, then?"
"Emiya-sensei! Most classrooms are equipped with Think Boards or such digital displays made in their likeness!" provided Tenya helpfully. He pointed to the eighty-inch monitor propped onto a stand in the corner of the room.
Their teacher looked absolutely lost. "A TV? It's not a video."
"It's a mirrored display," offered Kaminari with a dazed look on his face. "For your computer and stuff. Do you have that sheet saved online anywhere?"
The teacher clicked his tongue. "No. I wrote it out by hand."
"By hand? Wouldn't he have needed to write it all backward?" was a shared thought amongst the students.
He shook his head and turned on the desktop installed in their classroom. "No matter. There's a video that I found earlier this week that might do the trick."
1-A collectively sighed in relief. Most of them would usually be fine with getting out of lessons, but for it to happen like this was a little…
Shirou booted up the search browser. In the homepage search bar, he searched for the address "Yoogle dot com."
"Hey, hey…" muttered Ashido over her back to Asui. "Did he just…"
"Use Yoogle to look up Yoogle? Yes, ribbit."
Tenya raised his hand. "Sensei!"
"Yes, Iida?"
"You don't need to go to the Yoogle address. You can search directly from the home page."
Shirou smiled kindly. "Thanks, Iida, but I need to get to the home page first."
"…"
"…"
Emiya-sensei took their silence as a go-ahead to continue. When he finally managed to navigate his way to the ViewTube video he was trying to find, his students let out a breath they didn't know they were holding.
He pressed the play button and took a seat at the desk. It was an older rescue recording from France wich naturally was accompanied by French commentary.
Rikido, who was sitting at the back of the class, raised a hand.
"Ah, Sensei…"
He received angry glares from those in front of him.
"Yes, Sato?"
"The subtitles are a little hard to see from over here. Could you please put the video in full screen?"
Their teacher grinned happily. "Of course. You should have said so sooner."
He put the video in Cinema Mode.
Uraraka folded in on herself. Her face was paling quickly. She began to mutter, "I can't believe it. In this day in age, someone like that actually exists. It's the number two hero. The number two hero is one of those people."
Ojiro, who was seated at the front, got to his feet and bowed. "Sensei! Please allow me to assist you with the media presentation for this course."
The older man blinked. "Hm? Alright, if you want to," he agreed unwittingly.
From that point on, Shirou would be helped by a student whenever he needed to use the computer.
X
Shirou's stats, according to the Ultra Analysis Book (false)
Power: 6/6 (S)
Speed: 5/6 (A)
Technique: 6/6 (S+)
Intelligence: 4/6 (B+)
Domestic Skills: 6/6 (S+)