WhIP

by footfungus

nederlands verhalen over mijn otp

219. Chapter 219

Seat No. 19

alohaflower

Summary:

An SI wakes up only to find that they're in the body of their least favorite character from My Hero Academia: Mineta. With difficulty handling his quirk, not much explanation for his sudden behavioral changes, and having already lost the trust of the class 1-A girls... changing the future might be harder than they thought.

Notes:

None of these characters belong to me, etc. Some of the dialogue is from Season 1, Episode 9.

Chapter 1: a time to be born

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter fornotes.)

Chapter Text

My clock read 11:42 PM in bright green letters. I was sitting in my bed, wrapped up in blankets, trying to finish the last of my biology problems before their due date at midnight.Just a few more, I thought to myself, yawning. Despite trying to keep my attention on my homework and attempting to keep my eyes open, they eventually fluttered closed.

My alarm clock went off shrilly.I could have sworn I turned that off, I thought sullenly, blindly reaching out to stop the annoying sound. At that moment, I realized my alarm clock never made such a high-pitched sound. In fact, mine didn't sound anything like that at all. Confused, I sat up and looked around. It wasn't my room.

The walls were gray rather than light blue, covered in what looked like posters of anime characters (was that an All Might one over there?). On the shelves, there were knick-knacks and toys instead of books. "Where…" I muttered to myself, getting out of bed. The bed, while smaller than mine, seemed almost to be taller. So was the door. And the ceiling… Wait, no, that isn't it. The ceiling was normal, and I wasshort. I rushed over to the mirror and stared back at a different face.

Mineta… Minoru? I poked my face. It was Mineta's face. I stared in shock at the mirror for several minutes.I'm Mineta?I frowned at the mirror, wondering if this was even real. "I'm probably dreaming," I muttered to myself. "I've been watching too much anime. What a weird dream." It's not as though Mineta was a character I particularly liked, either. I'd rather be Momo or Ashido or something.

I heard a voice shouting from the other room. "Minoru-kun, isoide!" it yelled. Immediately, I understood the meaning of the statement ("Minoru, hurry up!") and recognized the voice as belonging to Mineta's uncle. "Hai, Ojisan!" I shouted back automatically. I stopped, surprised.Can I speak Japanese now?I wondered, and as if by response, Japanese phrases swirled through my mind. I could.If this is a dream then how am I speaking Japanese? Some kind of subconscious understanding? The brain is such an interesting organ…

"Minoru, if you don't hurry up, you're going to be late!" the voice shouted. Not bothering to dwell on the fact that I could suddenly understand his Japanese, I responded, "Yeah, I'm coming! Be right out!"

I ran over to the closet, which had several UA uniforms in it, and quickly changed into one. So Mineta was already in UA. In the dream. Whatever. Once I had it on, I rushed out to the kitchen, though it was annoying having to reach up to grab the door handle. Yeah, I was definitely short.

My uncle (Mineta's uncle?) had already made breakfast. "You ought not to be late for your third day," he said gruffly. "Don't forget your backpack." I nodded and quickly finished eating. I grabbed my backpack and waved as I left. "Bye, uncle. Thank you!"

UA was a short bus ride from the house. I knew the route instinctively and my feet started taking me towards the bus station.How did I know that?I wondered to myself. A memory flashed through my mind: Mineta running to the bus station, from a first person perspective.

That was yesterday? Yesterday in this world, that is. It must be.So, I had Mineta's memories and knowledge. That would explain the Japanese. This dream was weirdly elaborate. Maybe I could call it a hallucination or a delusion by now? I decided I would think about it later. Thoughts about me hallucinating were very distracting.

I arrived at the bus station. The bus ride itself took under 20 minutes and brought me less than a block from the UA gates. And blocking the gates was… reporters? The news? I wasn't sure why they were there. There wasn't anything in Mineta's memories about it, though the scene did seem familiar. I snuck through the crowd easily, blending in, and managed to sneak past Iida as he shouted about All Might to a reporter.

I paused a moment before the enormous door of class 1-A, which looked evenmoreenormous due to my new shortness. I had to admit it was a little bit intimidating. As I walked through the doorway, I was surprised to feel the stares of some classmates on my back. I turned to see Yaoyorozu and Jirou giving me irritated glares. Wait, why would they be mad at me?

Suddenly, memories flashed before my eyes: Mineta flirting with Jirou right before the entrance exam, Mineta making suggestive comments at Yaoyorozu during the indoor battle training.

Oh. Yikes. I avoided eye contact with them and quickly sat down. On the bright side, if we'd already had indoor battle training with All Might, that means I didn't have to take the quirk apprehension test today. Especially since I'd only had the quirk Pop-Off for… something like a half hour now.

More people were walking in and Aizawa Shouta, the 1-A homeroom teacher, came in just as class was about to begin."Decent work on yesterday's combat training…"he began, explaining he had watched our progress on the video feed. This definitely sounded familiar. When he told Bakugou, "you're talented, so don't sulk like a child over your loss," and told Midoriya to get his quirk under control, I knew he was repeating exactly what he had said in one of the early episodes of My Hero Academia. Season 1, definitely.

"Let's get down to business. The next task will decide your future," Aizawa said ominously. While the class was tense, I wasn't worried. My memories of the early seasons were a little fuzzy, but I didn't think there was anything too high-stakes going on yet. "You have to choose a class representative." The class exploded in a buzz of activity, with several people shouting thattheywanted to be class representative. I sat quietly as Iida stopped the yelling and suggested we vote.

On my slip of paper, I wrote "Iida". While I could tell from Mineta's memories that the class representative was a coveted position, it just didn't seem right to vote for myself (or anyone who wasn't Iida). In my mind, only Iida could be class rep.

"I have… one vote?" Iida said, looking a cross between surprised, disappointed and satisfied. "I'm not the class representative, but I'm glad someone voted for me."

Huh. I don't think Iida got any votes last time.

The vote showed that Midoriya was class representative, with Yaoyorozu as the vice. Yeah, this seemed to definitely be going along the path of one of the Season 1 episodes.

As homeroom ended, we got back papers with Aizawa's feedback about the indoor battle training. The criticisms aimed at me were mostly Aizawa urging me to take the training more seriously. Yesterday, Mineta was easily distracted and made his partner (Yaoyorozu) uncomfortable, dismissing most of her ideas, even when they were good.

I grimaced at the comments. Aizawa was harsh, but correct. It was something the real Mineta would have doubtlessly needed to hear, but they just gave me terrible secondhand embarrassment. I guessed that Mineta probably made a poor impression on Aizawa yesterday.

I put it away in one of my folders as English began.

The rest of the day passed quickly. I didn't talk much, except to Kaminari, who the previous Mineta had been hanging out with during the past few days. I got along well with Kaminari's easy going nature, and got the feeling that most people did. Still, it was very awkward between me and the rest of my classmates. Essentially all of my female classmates didn't appreciate how the previous Mineta had treated Yaoyorozu and Jirou (and now that I think about it, he might have made some sexist comments during the quirk apprehension test too andugh, this was such a mess…)In fact, several of my male classmates, like Ojiro, Sato, and Kirishima, also thought I was just weird or had crossed a line. Stupid battle trials, being broadcasted to the whole class. I was very proud of them for not tolerating sexual harassment, but it still sucked that no one wanted to talk to me.

Oh well. At least I had Kaminari.

It was still very early into classes, but I began to sort of figure out which classes were easy or hard. English would be a breeze; I was fluent. Math would be easy, too. In real life, I was a college student with a STEM college major. UA may be advanced, but it was still high school. Modern Literature would be… okay. All of my Japanese was coming out of Mineta's memories, but he seemed well-read enough. "Modern Hero Art History" (taught by Midnight, of course) was definitely going to be a loss.

At lunch, I absentmindedly grabbed a tray and after getting food, decided to sit next to Kaminari and Kirishima. Kirishima had been avoiding me, but obviously didn't want to be rude. I decided to respect it and not try to start a conversation with him. While we ate, Kaminari asked, "Hey, Mineta, are you okay? You seem kinda quiet today."

Kaminari was pretty perceptive. I never noticed that in the original series. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just didn't get much sleep." I waved away his concerns. "How abou…" Suddenly, the alarms in the cafeteria were blaring. Someone shouted that it was "Level 3", whatever that meant, and there was a lot of panic.

Oh! Now I remember this,I thought.This is when the League of Villains breaks in to get the class schedules for the USJ attack. That means… wait, does that mean the USJ is going to happen tomorrow?!

The timeline snapped together in my head. The media. The class rep vote. The alarms. All of those things happen on the day of the break-in... and the day right before the USJ attack.

Ah, shit.

Notes:

I decided to try my hand at one of these types of fics! The Self-Insert of this story isn't really "me", per say. She has a similar backstory but her personality is completely different. Hopefully that will stave off some of the problems (like Mary Sues) typically associated with SI/OC fics.

I plan to update every Wednesday. Have a nice day!

Chapter 2: a time to keep

Summary:

"By Failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail." – Benjamin Franklin.

Chapter Text

"Come on, let's go!" Kaminari said, quickly rising from his seat over the alarms. "Got it!" Kirishima said and joined him, trying to stick with him in the crowd. I wordlessly rose and started following them, my mind still spinning in loops ofThe USJ attack is tomorrow, oh no. Some kid kicked me over in their rush to get out and I was quickly separated from Kaminari and the others.

Ow, this is great, I thought to myself.Curse being short.I decided to pull myself up on one of the tables and just stay there. After all, I knew there wasn't really going to be a threat in the lunchroom so I might as well stick in one spot, rather than run around like a headless chicken. From the table's vantage point, it was pretty easy to spot Kirishima's bright red hair in the crowd, but he was too far away to easily get to anyway.

I heard Iida shouting that everything was fine from the emergency exit sign in the hallway, and everyone calmed down. I found Kaminari and Kirishima again, who seemed relieved there wasn'treallyan intruder (if only they knew) and slightly apologetic that they were separated from me in the crowd. "It's fine," I said. "Lunch is over. We should go back to class."

Just like in the original episode, Midoriya expressed his admiration for Iida and suggested he be the new class representative. Soon enough, the day was over. "Bye everyone," I said on my way out, but my heart wasn't really in it. My thoughts were busy dealing with the question:What am I gonna do about the USJ?The original USJ turned out fine… sort of. I thought of Aizawa and winced.

Midoriya breaks his legs, but those heal. When Aizawa takes damage to the face at the USJ, it limits how long he can use his quirk later in the series. That's not fixable. I considered telling someone but decided that was also a bad idea.

What am I supposed to say? "I'm from another dimension where you all are fictional characters. Also, I took over this child's body. Sorry, it was an accident."

That might not go over well. Admitting I'm not the original Mineta could make me look like a villainous bodysnatcher. Even if they called in Tsukauchi (the truth-telling detective), all that would tell them is thatIthink that's the truth. Then they might just think Mineta is delusional and I wouldn't be able to do anything about any other future threats. Yeah, it wasn't worth the risk.

So, saving Aizawa. Without telling anyone. Could I stick the Nomu to the ground? No, the Nomu is way too strong for that. Maybe I could stall the villains, taunt or distract them, so Shigaraki doesn't order the Nomu after Eraser in the first place? That option wasn't looking good. If I said the wrong thing, Shigarki or the Nomu might kill me before All Might showed up.

I finally arrived back at home. "Tadaima!" There was no response. Hm, Mineta's memories implied that my uncle worked as some sort of construction worker, who had late hours. That would explain why he wasn't home.

I holed up in my room and drew a rough timeline of the USJ attack in my notebook, including who was where, fighting who. Todoroki, Hagakure in the landslide zone. Ojiro in the fire zone. Tsuyu, me and Midoriya in the Shipwreck. Aizawa in the center, against Shigaraki and Nomu. Thirteen fighting Kurogiri by the entrance. Yaoyorozu, Jirou and Kaminari against the electric villain.

Wait, that's it.

The electric villain! He blocked the alarms. If we could take him out, we could contact the school early! But how?I thought about trying to make my way to them after escaping the Shipwreck zone, but immediately dismissed the idea. I was pretty sure that the Shipwreck zone was on the opposite side of the USJ from where they were, and there were multiple rocky zones (Ruins and Landslide and Earthquake or something?) and I didn't know exactly which one was which. So I would have to go there at the beginning.

If I latched on to Kaminari just as Kurogiri was warping us, then I would be taken with him to where the electric villain was. I could take him out before he could take Kaminari hostage. Then, the alarms would go off.Yes.

But, wasn't Mineta a big part of the plan to help Midoriya and Tsuyu escape the Shipwreck Zone? I chewed on my pen contemplatively. I would just have to trust that Midoriya could come up with a new plan without me. Besides, if I defeat the electric villain fast enough, the heroes might arrive to rescue them out of the Shipwreck Zone before it becomes an issue.

I know all my classmates are good enough to handle their own fights, so afterward the alarm starts going off I should probably go to the center to check on Aizawaor to Shipwreck to check on Midoriya and Tsuyu, to make sure my plan worked.

Feeling much better with a plan, I stuffed my USJ-planning notebook into the bottom of the drawer. Not a very… high-security location, but my uncle wasn't the type to snoop around my room, so it would probably be alright. Humming softly, I started making dinner for myself. I automatically made an extra portion my uncle could have when he got home, just like I did for my roommate who worked late shifts.I hope Theodore is okay without me.I shook the thought away. Thinking about that would just make me depressed. So tomorrow: rescue training.Maybe I'll go to sleep and wake up in my own bed, and none of this will have been real. But right now I might as well treat it like it is real, because if it is, it's life or death.

Chapter 3: a time to to plant

Summary:

"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are." ― Theodore Roosevelt.

Chapter Text

The day of the USJ, I awoke to a too-shrill alarm clock and looked around. The gray walls, the hero posters and toys surrounded me. Mineta's room. Not a dream, then. I changed into my UA uniform and wandered out into the kitchen. "Ah, Mineta. Thanks for making me some extra for dinner. It was very responsible of you," said my uncle.

What?I quickly rifled through memories and… oh. Mineta doesn't normally make dinner, normally he'd eat leftovers from lunch, rather than making dinner for himself and others.I'm acting out of character. Not good."No problem, Ojisan," I said. For the first time since arriving in this world, I sized up my uncle.

Haruki Mineta. He was a construction worker, mid-50s, who eventually was promoted to supervisor in his company. He was shorter than average, but taller than me, with purple hair dark enough it could pass for black. His quirk isEndurance, which gives him increased stamina. He values hard work, meaning he and Mineta have had fights lately over Mineta's slacking (and immature antics, judging by the memories I have about Haruki demanding that Mineta "start respecting young women").

Huh. He's probably been wondering why I haven't been angry with him lately.

"You've done so much growing lately. I'm very proud of you." Haruki's eyes look at me fondly.

"Thanks." I quickly shoved away my guilt atnot really being Mineta. I managed to give a wobbly smile. "I better get to school."

"See you later, kid." "Bye, uncle!"

On the bus, I thought about the guilt. I felt bad for replacing Mineta, but I couldn't afford to dwell on it. It's not like I took Mineta's place on purpose. Besides, I still have his memories, a part of him. I wasn't sure if that made it better or worse, but it was useful, so I decided I would just have to put up with it either way.

I arrived at UA and found my way back to the 1-A classroom. Not long after I arrived, Aizawa explained to the class that we were taking a bus trip to an off-campus facility to do rescue training. I tried to seem interested, because if we really were doing rescue training, I would be excited. Rescuing was important for heroes.

Wait, was I going to be a rescue hero or not? Judging by Mineta's memories he hadn't really planned for that specialization (instead, he fantasized about fighting villains), but now that I thought about it, my small size and quirk would both be great for a rescue hero. Though, my quirk would be good at restraining villains too…

"What you wear in this exercise is up to you," Aizawa said. "I know you may be excited about costumes, but they could limit your abilities."

Costumes. My mood immediately soured. Mineta's costume was terrible. Being small gave a few advantages: it made me a smaller target and easier to get into small spaces. Making the costume's pants so stupidly wide hindered both those benefitswithoutgiving me any other advantages. And it looked terrible. The designers made the pants look like a diaper. I would have to request a costume change at the first opportunity. A utility belt, maybe. I could be Batman! Purple-and-blue or purple-and-white… yes. That would be better.

For now, I decided to take my yellow gloves and boots, and purple mask, but use the P.E. uniform for the rest of the costume. I thought about bringing the cape but it would just get in the way. Hopefully whatever these gloves and boots were made of wouldn't conduct electricity. After all, I had a very specific villain to fight.

We all stood around waiting for the bus as Iida shouted out his plans. Looking around at the costumes of my peers, some of them looked cool and interesting, while others did completely impractical. I very, very carefully did not look at Yaoyorozu. As a 22-year-old female college student, I desperately wanted to sit her down and talk about her costume. But, as someone who appeared to be a 15-year-old boy who had probably alreadymade commentsabout her costume… well, it really wasn't going to happen. I mean, Iknowthat her costume needs to be somewhat revealing so she can make objects out of her body, but why not have a zipper? Or have a sports bra and shorts?

Whatever. Nothing I can do about it now. Meanwhile, Iida had finally looked inside the bus and saw, to his disappointment, that the inside of the bus didn't look like he thought it would in his boarding strategy. We all piled onto the bus anyway.

"You look nervous, kero," Asui said as we went on the bus.

"I suppose," I sighed.

"Don't worry about it, man. I'm sure you'll do great!" Kaminari cheered, giving me a thumbs up.

Suddenly, I had anidea. An idea that might be really stupid, but might be really smart. I didn't have enough time to decide which one it was before I did it.

"It's not that I'm nervous about the training, I just have a bad feeling."

"A bad feeling, kero?"

"I just have a hunch that something really bad is going to happen. My hunches are usually right." The bus was small enough, and I had spoken loudly enough, that essentially the whole class, including Aizawa, had heard that.

Kaminari hummed. "I don't know. You sure you aren't mistaken? I mean, we're at UA. What's the worst that could happen?" A few students nearby nodded in agreement. Their reactions were something I'd expected, after all, UA had never been attacked before.

"You're right, it's probably nothing," I said, fully aware that it wasn't nothing.

They don't believe me right now, but maybe eventually can convince them I have a secondary quirk, or something, that warns me about bad events.

My idea came from a story about time-traveller who faked visions of the future, because time-travel seemed more farfetched than the gift of prophecy, which was a recognized talent in the book's fantasy setting.This is a strangely similar situation. A proper Nighteye-style future-vision quirk they would expect to have manifested and been registered already, but something more subtle, less noticeable, like "hunches always being right"… maybe not. Now, I just have to build a reputation of always being right. Then everyone will take me seriously when I give out warnings.

On the other hand, after the USJ attack happens, the teachers might assume I knew about the villain attack beforehand, which is… technically true, but makes me look a bit suspicious. I'll just have to hope they'll think of the best of me until I can "predict" something that I couldn't possibly have known evenifI were a villain spy.

While I was deep in thought, Tsuyu started asking Midoriya about the similarities between his and All Might's quirks, Midoriya was quickly flustered by it and my classmates started talking about the most heroic quirks.

"Stop messing around, we're here," said Aizawa. Once we got off the bus, I looked up at the USJ building. It was absolutely massive. We met Thirteen inside, who put up three fingers to Aizawa to indicate All Might's time was up.Should I have tried changing that? Well it's too late now…

Thirteen, after introducing the USJ, gave a speech about quirks and rescue that truly was inspirational, until the lights started flickering and a portal appeared by the fountain.

It had begun.

Chapter 4: a time to scatter stones

Summary:

"Until you step into the unknown, you don't know what you're made of." ― Roy T. Bennett.

Chapter Text

"Thirteen, protect the students," Aizawa said, and immediately I slipped through the crowd to be closer to Kaminari. I only had one shot: I had to be warped alongside Kaminari to take out the electrical villain, or between Aizawa and Midoriya there was going to be four broken limbs.

Aizawa ran down the stairs towards the center, fighting villains and gracefully weaving between attacks.He's so cool, I thought, careful to remain close to Kaminari.I aspire to be that skilled… I'm going to throw myself into martial arts training after this.Kurogiri appeared in front of us and then, it was the moment of truth. As Kurogiri said he would separate the class, I tore one of the purple balls off my head, stuck it onto Kaminari's jacket, and clung to it. "Wha..." We were thrown into one of the USJ zones with rocky terrain, and as planned, so were Jirou and Yaoyorozu. "..t? Hey!" Kaminari said, surprised.

"I wasn't letting him put you somewhere by yourself," I justified, pulling the purple ball off his jacket (causing a tear, but I didn't really care. It could be fixed.) Kaminari looked slightly touched. Jirou shouted, "Incoming! Villains on all sides!" … and she was right. We were essentially surrounded. I quickly scanned the villain group. The electric villain had a skull face, didn't he?

As Jirou sent sound waves and the villains and Yaoyorozu started making weapons, I whispered to Yaoyorozu, "Make an insulated sheet, then Kaminari can take them out."

Understanding dawned on her face, and I felt a little bad plagiarizing the plan she would have come up with later, but I had to get this moving as quickly as possible. Yaoyorozu waited for Jirou to come a little closer, then made the sheet. "What is that, a shield?" one of the villains mocked. "No, a sheet of insulation 100 millimeters thick. Go, Kaminari!" Yaoyorozu said.

Kaminari grinned and released a surge of electricity, downing all the nearby villains. Or so it looked like. He'd clearly shorted out. "Don't look!" Jirou warned, and I remembered that the insulated sheet had probably torn through Yaoyorozu's clothes. "I won't!" I shouted back, and took the comment as an excuse to move away from the other two and closer to Kaminari, and subtly started looking around the area.

Now where did that skull guy go… there, coming out of the ground!

I rapidly turned and started throwing purple balls at the electric villain. He managed to pull himself completely out of the ground, but he tripped up in the sheer number I had thrown at his feet. "Take him out!" I shouted. "He has an electric quirk!" I backed off and pulled Kaminari behind me. Jirou attacked the trapped villain from a distance with sound waves. After a few seconds, he slumped over. "Is he unconscious?" I asked cautiously. The lights at the top of the USJ turned back on, along with the distant sound of alarms. "Yep."

"He must have been the one to block off communications," Jirou realized.

"The school is probably being contacted as we speak," I said.

"That's great!" Yaoyorozu said, excited. "What do we do now?"

"You two take Kaminari back to the entrance," I said. "I'm going to go check the Shipwreck Zone. I thought I saw people falling above there."

Yaoyorozu looked uncertain, and Jirou blurted out, "You can't just go alone!"

"Trust me. Kaminari needs to be out of the fighting, and I'm small and quick. No one will notice me and if they do, I'll just run. Keep Kaminari safe!" I shouted, breaking into a run towards the center. I thought I heard Yaoyorozu call distantly after me, but I didn't look back. I ran through the rocky terrain, and they didn't seem to follow.Good.

I heard a cry of pain as I arrived on the edge of the zone, hidden behind some rocks. I peered around them and…No.The Nomu had just broken the first of Aizawa's arms, and he was already bleeding from the head.This is not good. This is too early, isn't it? Or did Aizawa lose that fast?

Kurogiri appeared next to Shigaraki. "Thirteen has been neutralized, but the alarm has come back on." Shigaraki scratched viciously at his neck, obviously frustrated. "We can't win against dozens of pros," said Shigaraki. "Man, it's game over this time. Let's go home." He was giving up. That was a good sign, but I couldn't take it for granted, because last time he said that… "But before we leave, we ought to destroy a little of his pride as the Symbol of Peace. It's a shame he couldn't save his own coworker." Coworker… did he mean Aizawa?

"Nomu, kill h…"

"HEY!" I shouted at the top of my lungs, jumping out from behind the rocks.Shit!

Shigaraki turned. "Another NPC."

"Mineta, run!" Aizawa yelled. He was conscious, but the Nomu held him down.

"I'm no normal NPC. I have a side quest!" I blurted out.

This is my fault. Tsuyu and Midoriya haven't escaped the Shipwreck Zone because I wasn't there. Now Shigaraki is trying to kill Eraserhead instead of Tsuyu, and All Might's not here to save him yet because I set off the alarms too early. The timing's all wrong! I've got to fix this somehow.

Shigaraki stopped scratching his neck. "Oh? A side quest?"

"Uh, yes!" I said. Having no plan, I said the first thing I thought of. "Don't you realize that your leader is manipulating you?!"

"Manipulating me? Sensei would nevermanipulateme," Shigaraki insisted. "Besides, I'm the one who's leading this attack."

"Don't you know that he'll throw you away once he's used you! You're expendable, just like all the other pawns in here!" I shouted. "He'll abandon them, he's not loyal to his allies!" Aizawa looked quietly horrified at our exchange.

"I'm not like the others here," Shigaraki hissed. "I'm the leader of this party."

"Your sensei is a betrayer," I randomly accused. "My side quest is to find out his true agenda!"

Shigaraki seemed even further enraged. He opened his mouth to speak, but Kurogiri interrupted him. "We don't have much time before the pros arrive," he interjected.

"Then maybe, before we go, we should show All Might we're serious by killing thisannoyingkid," Shigaraki growled, lunging towards me. I was far away from where they were standing, but Shigaraki wasfast. I barely had time to flinch back before his hand was reaching at my face.Shit!

Suddenly, with a gust of wind, I was standing somewhere else.

"Have no fear, students. Because I am here!" All Might declared. He wasn't smiling.

"All Might!" I said, relieved.They must have sent him ahead.

All Might had placed Eraserhead and I further back in the center plaza, and turning, I saw that Aizawa was still standing, in spite of his broken arm. "The mist villain has a warp quirk, the leader has five-point disintegration. The last one might be as strong as you. Be careful." Aizawa reported to All Might, who nodded seriously before launching himself at the Nomu. Aizawa picked me up with his good arm and ran toward the entrance. I made a noise of surprise.

"That was incredibly reckless!" Aizawa scolded, "You could have been killed!"

"Ah," I said, not exactly sure how to respond. It was true.

He set me down by the entrance, where some of the students had gathered around a downed Thirteen. "Mineta, you're okay!" Yaoyorozu said, looking vaguely relieved. She was there with Jirou and Kaminari, who seemed confused, half-recovered from shorting out.

"Thirteen?" Aizawa questioned.

"I'm fine, senpai," Thirteen assured.

As Aizawa turned to assess the situation, the doors behind us opened.

"Iknow we're a bit late, but I got the teachers over here as fast as I could."

Nedzu. That meant…reinforcements! This fight's over.

As Snipe shot at Shigaraki, Kurogiri rushed to block him, warping away both Shigaraki and the Nomu.Wait! That wasn't supposed to happen! Kurogiri took the Nomu too!

The teachers started to fight the remaining villains just as Kirishima, Bakugou and Todoroki arrived at the center, though they were quickly told by the teachers to head back towards the entrance.

"Well. All in all, I think that went alright," I muttered. Jirou turned and looked at me in disbelief. I shrugged and gave her a sheepish smile.

Chapter 5: a time to gather them

Summary:

"It has been said something as small as the flutter of a butterfly's wing can ultimately cause a typhoon halfway around the world." ― Chaos Theory.

Chapter Text

The uninjured students were sent home after the USJ attack. I was included in this number, but only after Aizawa chewed me out for "endangering my own safety" and "provoking the villains". He was very upset, but Recovery Girl dragged him away before he could do something rash like expel me.

From what I heard, Midoriya and Tsuyu somehow managed to escape the Shipwreck Zone a little before the teachers arrived, but Midoriya broke his hand doing it. The details varied depending on who you asked, but itwasa relief to know I hadn't accidentally killed Midoriya with my half-baked plan.

The plan did do some good. Aizawa did have one broken arm and had a concussion, but no facial damage, which means no damage to his quirk or his eyes. He didn't have that scar under his eye, either. All Might must have pushed himself over his time limit, but maybe not as badly as in the original fight? It's possible he didn't lose much time in his hero form, which would be a blessing.

As for the bad part… the teachers arrived while All Might was still fighting the Nomu, so that meant Kurogiri took the Nomu with him instead of the heroes capturing it. I even managed to interrupt Shigaraki before he bragged about it being "a weapon made to take down All Might" so they still hadno idea what it was. While Aizawa let them know it was super-strong even with its quirk erased, they still thought it just had Shock Absorption. They could probably guess it was the result of an experiment, but they didn't know it had multiple quirks, which meant All Might and Nedzu didn't know All for One was involved. Or… alive, for that matter.

And the villains had an extra Nomu. Ouch.

Admittedly all of those things were pretty bad. I would have to keep an eye on the situation to make sure it didn't spiral out of control.

I have to be more careful in the future of unintended consequences. That could have gone very badly, maybe even worse than the original USJ attack.

I opened the door of my house, and my uncle greeted me immediately. "I heard what happened at UA, there was an attack on your class, wasn't there? I came home right away when I heard," he said, worried.

"Don't worry uncle, I'm just fine. The teachers did most of the fighting," I said. Well, that was sort of true.

He seemed to accept this explanation, and asked me how my day went and what happened with the attack. "A few of the villains got away, but the heroes captured most of them," I said. "So everything should be alright. A few of the teachers got hurt but no one died or anything."

We ate dinner together and while my uncle was still upset that UA had been attacked, he also seemed assured by my own nonchalance. The original Mineta was the type to panic, so the fact that I was completely calm probably made him think that the news coverage of the villain attack had been overblown.

"I'm going to go work on homework," I said.

"They're still making you turn in homework tomorrow?" my uncle asked, surprised.

I laughed. "Probably not, but there's a paper in modern literature due Monday that I want to finish now."

When I got into my room, I recorded all the changes that I'd caused (both good and bad) in my USJ-notebook. Best not to forget anything. The next major event was the Sports Festival. Notsuperimportant, no one was going to die or anything. Maybe I could stop Midoriya from breaking all his fingers? Didn't that give him permanent damage or something? Something to think about, but I still needed to make sure Midoriya and Todoroki have the "it's your power, not his!" conversation so that Todoroki would use his fire.

I sighed and put my notebook away, deciding I'd think about it. I worked on the essay that I told my uncle I'd be working on, finishing it just before bed. I wasn't sure how much time I had before the Sports Festival. At best, only a few days. I'd have to ask Aizawa-sensei once it was announced.

The next morning, I ate breakfast like usual and said goodbye to my uncle. "Stay safe, kid," he said. He seemed like he wanted to ruffle my hair, but it was made of sticky purple balls, so he patted me on the shoulder instead. "Thanks. I will," I responded.

The moment I entered the 1-A classroom, Ashido yelled, "Hey, Mineta!"

"Yeah?" I responded.

"You were right about something bad happening!"

"What?"

"Remember, you said on the bus you had a bad feeling. How did you know something bad was going to happen?!" she asked.

Oh yeah. I'd forgotten about that. Most of the class looked curious and waited for me to say something. "Oh, I don't know. I just had a hunch. Though, Mom always did say we have a family history of future-telling quirks, so that I should always take my hunches seriously," I said.This is perfect. Mineta's mother is a drug addict. There's a reason I'm living with my uncle. And that's totally the type of thing she'd say, even if it isn't true.

"Dude! Why didn't you just say so!" Kirishima complained.

"Yeah, we could have used the warning," Sato agreed, nodding. They seemed to believe my story. Good. "Sorry guys, I didn't know if it was just a coincidence. It would have been really embarrassing if I gave this ominous warning and then nothing happened," I said, a little defensively. The class seemed placated, and a few people nodded in understanding.

"Next time that happens, tell me," a voice from the door said. Aizawa. He must have been listening. "If you think something bad is going to happen, we can take measures to stop it." I turned to look at him. Aizawa was covered in bandages, though not to the extent he was in the original show, now having only one arm wrapped up.

"Uhhh, okay," I said, feeling awkward. Everyone settled down now that Aizawa had arrived, though there were a few concerned questions from students about his well-being. He brushed them off, and as I expected, started talking about the Sports Festival. He informed us that it would be taking place in two weeks.That's lots of time to train. I need to get a lot stronger before the internships and that fight with Stain… am I going to get myself involvedin the fight with Stain? Yeesh…

After Aizawa announced the Sports Festival, class went on as normal. At lunch, I went to find Kaminari again, who was now sitting with not only Kirishima, but a few others like Bakugou, Ashido and Sero. Ah, the beginnings of the Bakusquad.

Bakugo was grumbling about the food "not being spicy enough" while everyone talked and joked amicably. It seemed like the USJ had pulled our class closer together. "Hey, Mineta," Kaminari asked. "Jirou and Yaoyorozu said that after we defeated the villains in the Mountain Zone, you ran off on your own. Where did you go?"

"I thought I saw people fall into the Shipwreck Zone, so I was going to go see if they needed backup. I went alone because I didn't want you to get left alone when you were shorted out," I explained.

"You went by yourself to see if classmates needed help? So manly!" said Kirishima.

"More like stupid," Bakugou snorted.

I could cry of happiness. I had Kirishima's respect again. He called me manly! "Thanks, Kirishima," I said, feeling warm inside.

"Hey! Don't ignore me!" Bakugou shouted, to the amusement of those at the table, who were starting to get used to his constant shouting.

At the end of the day, when class ended, students from other classes blocked the exit.Dang, I forgot this happened. Bakugou yelled at them to get out of the way, only for Shinsou to insult him and declare war on Class 1-A. Yikes. I liked Shinsou and wanted him to win, but he was going to have the misfortune of being pitted against Midoriya in the first round. Should I try and change that? But if Midoriya lost, he wasn't going to have his fight with Todoroki, which is really important!

Ugh, so complicated. Shinsou will get into the hero course eventually, though.I remember reading about Aizawa training him in the manga. But, would he benefit from getting into the hero course early? Probably…

Monoma showed up and started insulting class 1-A, but I tuned most of it out. Whatever. Soon enough, most people had cleared out from the entrance to the 1-A classroom, convinced they'd seen everything about 1-A that there was to see. I put my notes in my backpack and got up to leave as well.

"Hey Mineta," said Aizawa. "Could you stay back a moment?"

Chapter 6: a time to be silent

Summary:

"Always trust your instinct. It knows you better than anyone and is incapable of anything other than truth." - Tonya Renee.

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter fornotes.)

Chapter Text

"Hey Mineta," said Aizawa. "Could you stay back a moment?"

Uh, oh. What does he want from me? Did I act too suspicious or something?

"Yeah, sure," I said. Kaminari, who was halfway out the door, sent me a questioning look, but I just shrugged. He shrugged back and left. "So, what did you want to ask me about?"

"First, about your hunch. Do you think it's a quirk?"

Wow. Straightforward. "I have no idea. I mean, I've been right before, but usually about little things, like 'I think Mrs. Fukuda is going to have a bad day' and then she drops her cookies, or something. Nothing so obvious as the USJ one," I explained.

"Hm. We'll have to keep an eye on that," he grunted. "Again, remember to tell me if you think something's going to happen."

"Sure, sure, I will."

"Is that how you knew that the villain at the USJ wasn't the true leader?" he asked.The villain at the USJ wasn't… oh! That's right! I told Shigaraki at the USJ that his leader was manipulating him, when I shouldn't have known he had one…

"I just had a feeling he wasn't the actual boss… I'm not sure if it was true or not. I just yelled the first thing I thought of, honest," I admitted, trying to express the fact that I did indeed have no idea what I was doing.

"Hm." Aizawa's expression was neutral. "Secondly, I wanted to ask you if you were alright. You've been acting…"

Like I had a 360-degree personality change?

"... different, these past few days. Did something happen?" he asked.

"No, nothing happened Mr. Aizawa. Don't worry, I'm fine," I said.

Now Aizawa looked distinctly unconvinced. "Are you sure?" As he said this, his face looked skeptical, but he seemed almost… concerned? Is he worried about me? Aw. That's nice of him. When I told him again that I was fine, he said, "Okay. You can leave."

"Bye, Mr. Aizawa," I said, swinging my backpack over my shoulders.

I walked to the bus station, thinking over what he'd said.Aizawa did seem to believe my "bad feeling" was a quirk… but I don't know if he believed me about the USJ or about me acting different. I just have to hope he doesn't think badly of me…

So, now that class time was over I had two weeks to train before the Sports Festival. What would I even do? Exercise, obviously. Mineta's body was very weak. I wanted to be fast and agile, and in good shape.

As for my quirk, hmm. Sometimes I wished I had a better quirk, but I had to remember that in Boku no Hero Academia, no quirk is useless. Pop Off is excellent for restraint and can be used for climbing, bouncing, creating traps and avoiding ground obstacles. If I spam them at enemies they'll get stuck, basically neutralizing short-range fighters. A good quirk for someone who is supposed to capture villains and not badly maim them. But how to train it?

Well for one, practicing my throwing. All I needed to be was fast and a good shot to take down most people, but I was always terrible at dodgeball. That'd be the first thing to fix. Mineta in the show also seemed to be able to bounce from ball-to-ball very quickly, increasing his own maneuverability while making it a veritable minefield for the enemy. I could try doing that and see if it worked? Also, I was pretty sure that Mineta's training in the Forest Training Camp just consisted of him pulling the balls off his head so his scalp would bleed less. I could try doing that right when I got home.

When I did arrive home, my uncle wasn't back yet, as expected. I grabbed a garbage bag and started pulling the balls off my head and piling them into the bag. By the time it was half-full, my head was starting to bleed.This is starting to hurt!I thought.I'm pretty sure when Mineta did this in the Forest Training Camp he was crying.

It really did sting. Well, all for the sake of improvement.

I decided to stop once I had two bags full, because my blood was starting to run down my face and I didn't want to get it on the carpet. I used paper towels to clean up the blood and threw the garbage bags into the bin in our garage. Now all I had to do is repeat that constantly. Ouch.

I had the whole weekend to start and two weeks in total to get down my training schedule. I figured it would be something close to this: pull balls off my head over and over to practice my quirk, stretch, go on a run, stretch more, some core exercises like sit-ups, and then practice the aim and speed of my throws in the backyard. That should get me into shape quickly enough. Probably. I wasn't much of an exercise fanatic, but it seemed reasonable.

The weekend was also an opportune time to request a costume change. I wouldn't be able to use it for the Sports Festival, but I would be stuck with it over internship weeks. I decided to submit a request form asking for a utility belt with pouches, some different pants, and some lightweight armor or (or, really, just a costume with some padding).Hm, what weapons would work well with my quirk? A ball-launcher? But wouldn't the balls get stuck to the inside of the launcher? But the Support Company managed to make it so the gloves on my previous costume didn't stick. Did they make it like Mirio's costume, where they used my DNA or something?

I wasn't sure on the details, but I requested a ball-launcher with an inside that didn't stick, just to see if they could make it. If that worked, I would be able to shoot off balls at a very high velocity, much better than just throwing.That seems good for now. I have long range options, but no short-range weapons… Do I want to ask for a sword or something? I have no idea how to use a sword though... A taser?I shrugged. I probably made enough changes already.This costume is fine for now, I can always add more weapons and stuff on later.

And so, with my costume request in place, I began to prepare for the Sports Festival.

Notes:

Do any of you have any good costume/weapon ideas for Mineta? What might fit well with his quirk? If so, say in the common section below!

Chapter 7: a time to search (an interlude)

Summary:

"The influence of a good teacher can never be erased." - Unknown.

Chapter Text

Aizawa frowned, tapping his pen distractedly on the papers he had been grading earlier.

"Yo, Shouta! You look like something's bothering you," said Present Mic, plopping down in the chair beside him.

"Hm. Sort of. What have you noticed about Mineta?"

"Ah, that little listener's great at English! But he's a quiet kid, ya know?"

"That's the weird thing. Wasn't he a lot louder and more extroverted on the first few days of school?" Aizawa said.

"Hm." Present Mic frowned a little. "Now that you mention it, he was acting pretty differently then. I assumed his excitement at getting into UA wore off. All the kids are extra excited on the first day."

"Something's odd about it, though. On his first two days of school, he acted loud, excited, childish. Wanted to befriend everyone. Then, the next day, he was subdued, withdrawn, and only social with Kaminari." Aizawa tapped his pencil against his papers again. "I checked his records. No deaths in the family, no major life changes, nothing. I haven't seen any signs of bullying, either." He sighed. "But something had to have caused the change."

"Maybe whatever happened to him wasn't reported?" Present Mic suggested.

"I hope not," Aizawa growled darkly. His student being the victim of some unreported crime was a worst-case scenario.

"Or maybe," Present Mic continued, "Nothing really happened at all, and he just had some kind of revelation. Or he had a fight with his parents or something, and they told him to act more mature. These types of things happen. Teens are still trying to figure out who they are."

"I don't know. Maybe," Aizawa said, sighing. "He's been acting suspicious of late. He knows things he shouldn't but seems to be implying he knows them because of a quirk."

"A quirk?" Present Mic pulled up a chair.

"He says he has these 'feelings' that come true, hunches and gut instincts. He predicted the USJ attack and seemed to know Shigaraki wasn't the leader of the operation."

"That would be an interesting quirk, and useful too. But you're suspicious," Present Mic guessed. "He's acting completely different than before and he knew the USJ attack was going to happen."

"I have no proof of anything. And I don't want to think badly of a student. But…" Aizawa trailed off.

"But it does look pretty suspicious," Present Mic finished, nodding.

"It just doesn't makesense." Aizawa let out a frustrated sigh. "He's definitely Mineta Minoru, he remembers things that happened from the first two days of school and he can use Pop Off. An imposter is out. But if he's actively working with the villains, why hint about the attack? Why stop Shigaraki from killing me? On the other hand, if he'snotworking with the villains and knew about the attack, why notinsistthat something was wrong, or tell us about the attack outright? Is he being blackmailed?" Aizawa put his head in his hands. "Maybe he's being blackmailed."

"So, in short, it's technically possible he has a second quirk and is telling the truth, but that doesn't explain his strange behavior. And if hedoesn'thave a second quirk, he has a lot of explaining to do."

"Essentially, yes."

"That is quite the conundrum," Present Mic hummed. "You should keep an eye on him. Maybe you're overthinking and it will turn out to be nothing. It doesn't, you'll be prepared."

Aizawa grunted. 'Wait and see' wasn't the most exciting of advice, but it might be the most logical way to handle the situation. "Thanks for the advice. I'll think about it."

"No problem!"

Chapter 8: a time to speak

Summary:

"The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain." - Dolly Parton.

Notes:

In this chapter there will be some spoilers for the My Hero Academia manga! They start at "Hopefully this stops him from breaking all his fingers" and are done by "As I started walking towards the bus stop". It's that one paragraph between. Alternatively, if you aren't up-to-date on the manga, you can skip to the end of the chapter for a spoiler-free TL;DR version.

(See the end of the chapter formore notes.)

Chapter Text

"Hey, Midoriya," I said. "I want to talk to you."

"Oh, uh, sure! About what?" Midoriya asked with a nervous smile.

It was after class Monday, and time to put the next part of my plan into motion.

"Can we go somewhere more secluded? I wanted to ask you something, but I'm not sure if it's private or not," I said. Midoriya looked even more nervous, but said to Iida and Uraraka, "I've got to go do something. You two can walk to the train station without me."

"We don't mind waiting," said Iida, to Uraraka's agreement.

"No, really, it's fine," Midoriya said, managing to convince them. On the sidewalk outside of the building, a little ways off from everyone else, I asked, "So, is All Might okay?All Might's not, you know, sick or anything, right?"

"What? Why wouldn't he be?" said Midoriya, waving his arms wildly in emphasis.

"It's nothing, really. It's just another one of my feelings. I get the sense that he isn't healthy, and since you seem to be the closest one to him…"

"We're really not that close!" squeaked Midoriya, clearly lying. "And I don't know anything about it," he continued unconvincingly.

There. The fact that All Might is "sick" or severely injured isn't common knowledge. No normal villain spy should know that, unless I was a spy for All for One, but they still think he's dead because of my screw up at the USJ with the Nomu. So that should cement the validity of my "hunches". By the time they figure out All for One is alive, I'll have already proved myself in other ways, maybe predicting the Hero-Killer Stain fight or something similar.

"Well, if you say so. Besides, I had one other thing to ask you about."

Midoriya gave a subtle sigh of relief at the topic change. "Yeah?"

"If this is a little too personal let me know, but your quirk reminds me a little bit of a kid I knew in middle school. Well, his quirk actually wasn't a lot like yours really, but he had a similar control problem. I think I know what you're having issues with."

Now I had Midoriya's attention. "What?" he asked, intrigued.

"I think you're putting too much power into one location," I said, trying to remember what Gran Torino's advice was to Midoriya. "Rather than try to decrease the power in that one spot, try using your quirk through all of your body at once. It's like…" I fished through my mind for metaphors. "You're a circuit. You can decrease the voltage by increasing the current," I said, hoping that Midoriya was enough of a science nerd for that to work.

He was. His eyes shone and he started muttering about electricity, volts and amps, and also about eggs and timers on microwaves. I didn't interrupt his train of thought. If he didn't get Full Cowl from what I said, I might have screwed up Torino's teaching methods later. That would be pretty bad.

Midoriya stopped his mutter streak and seemed to realize I'd been standing there the whole time. "Oh! I'm sorry, I, uh…"

"Don't worry, it's fine," I said. "Was I helpful?"

"Absolutely!" Midoriya said, grinning. "I've got to figure this out before the Sports Festival! I've got to go train!"

"Well, have fun and good luck," I said, waving as he ran off. There was still a chance he wouldn't figure out Full Cowl from what I said, but he seemed to understand and havesomekind of revelation. Hopefully this stops him from breaking all his fingers.

I hadn't finished reading the manga for My Hero Academia. But. The last thing I remembered reading was a massive fight with Shigaraki, his gang, and the corporate guys they hooked up with. All of these important characters (Aizawa, Hawks, Endeavor) were getting horrible, permanent injuries. I think they were implying Midoriya might lose an arm from the damage, too. Best to stop that as soon as it starts, even if I plan on somehow taking Shigaraki down before he gets that powerful.

As I started walking towards the bus stop, Sero (standing next to Ashido and Kirishima) waved his arms at me. "Yo, Mineta!"

"Yeah, Sero?"

"Do you have a bad feeling about the Sports Festival? Is there going to be a villain attack?" he shouted loudly, from the other side of the road.

"I don't think so!" I shouted back.

"Good!"

Well, that prediction should be accurate as well. Unless Ireallymessed up the timeline. Well, time to go home now. For more… training. Yay.

I winced. Training wasn't very fun. It made my scalp perpetually sore, along with my leg muscles. I had to make sure to stretch really well between runs, and take more rest days than first I thought. Mineta really wasn't used to running, and his short legs meant that it tookforeverto get anywhere. I heaved a sigh. Well, that's what training was for.

My uncle seemed to approve of my new training plan and helped make nutritious meals and snacks. That man was a miracle. My aim was getting a lot better thanks to him, too. He was a baseball player in his youth and gave me tips on throwing quickly and accurately. I'd been improving in that area at a very rapid pace. I decided not to tell him about the part where I used my quirk until my head bled for training, because that would probably concern him, so I just practiced while he was out and threw away the balls created by my quirk in one of the dumpsters along my running route in town.

Meanwhile, learning how to bounce from ball to ball like an acrobat was… a work in progress. It was tough, and I bounced off them very violently, which meant it was hard to control my trajectory. I would just have to work on it.

Notes:

TL;DR
Mineta gives Midoriya tips on his quirk, hoping he'll break his bones less later
Sero asks Mineta if he thinks the Sports Festival will be attacked. Mineta says no.
Mineta continues his training, both physical training and quirk training

Chapter 9: a time to give up (a letter)

Summary:

"Great achievement is usually born of great sacrifice, and is never the result of selfishness." - Napoleon Hill.

Chapter Text

Dear Theodore,

It's been about two weeks since I arrived in this new world. It's crazy. Even if we're not talking about being part of the greatest hero school in Japan, the general atmosphere is kind of amazing. I can walk around and all the people on the streets look so different! People just have cat ears or insect wings or plants growing out of their spine. I'm not used to it, but I try not to stare, because sometimes people stare at me and I appreciate that. I'm not exactly sure why people stare at me, though? I thought I looked pretty normal for someone in My Hero Academia, but maybe not? Maybe it's wearing a high school uniform while being so short.

I wonder what's going on in your life. And what happened to my body. Did I just fall over dead, or did I disappear? Is Mineta in my body? As much as I cringe at the thought, at least it might give you some idea of what actually happened to me…

I'm sorry I'm going to miss your wedding.

I was excited to be a bridesmaid but you'll need to find someone to replace me. Evan seems like a very nice man. I think you'll be happy together, I just wish I could see it.

I know this letter won't reach you, at least until I find a way to send letters across dimensions, if that's even possible. I can't focus on trying to cross dimensions until I solve all these villain problems in this world. But, I promise, even though this world looks fun, and even if being a hero would be cool, I'm still going to try to find a way back once the League of Villains is neutralized. I don't want to give up on all the people I love back in my world. You included.

Maybe once I'm in class 2-A rather than 1-A and everything calms down, I can find my way home. I mean, I would still miss your wedding. But you'd better have taken lots of photos so we can look over them together.

If this letter somehow finds you, send my regards to my mom, my sister Max, and your fiance Evan as well.

Sincerely,

Ashley.

[The letter is in English. It's shoved in a bottom drawer, under stacks of homework.]

Chapter 10: a time to tear down

Summary:

"The scariest moment is just before you start." - Stephen King

Sports Festival is finally in session!

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter fornotes.)

Chapter Text

It'd finally come. The Sports Festival. The two weeks had flown by. I'd taken a break from my training the past few days so that I was rested up in time for the festival. While two weeks of training hadn't made me super competent, I did notice some benefits already. I was getting faster and could run for longer, my throwing was better, and the balls on my head were stickier. My progress wasn'tsignificant,perhaps, but it was noticeable. The bouncing from ball-to-ball was… still a work in progress.

The first competition: an obstacle course. I just had to be in the top 40, or something like that, to move on to the next round. No need to be first. Present Mic counted down, and then everyone was running towards the entrance. My way into the obstacle course was immediately blocked by people, just as Aizawa said over the speakers that the door was the first obstacle.No doubt about that.Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a green blur, surrounded by lightning, leap over the crowd.That's Midoriya! He must have figured out Full Cowl!

Once I got through the crowd, Todoroki tried to freeze the ground. I threw down one of my balls and bounced off it just as he froze the ground. Knowing that the villain robots would appear next, I managed to avoid them, sailing clumsily past the biggest of them, stumbling as I landed. I decided not to try to attack other people, besides leaving sticky balls in my trail to slow people down, because I was definitely not tough enough to deal with their potential retaliation.So, what now?

I remembered that the original Mineta had stuck himself onto Yaoyorozu to win the obstacle course, but I didn't want to make her uncomfortable. That would probably set back all the progress I'd made with her when we fought together at the USJ. I scanned those in front of me for someone else I could latch on to.

I knew Bakugou would finish close to first, but he would probably severely maim me if I tried to latch onto him. Todoroki might freeze me and I didn't want to deal with it. But Midoriya… he was much too nice to do something like that. Midoriya was fairly far ahead of me at this point, but he paused before the canyon that had to be crossed with ropes. I took the opportunity. I threw down two more balls and bounced off of them, launching myself ahead. I landed on and stuck myself to Midoriya's back.

"What?" Midoriya said, clearly startled.

"Don't worry about it. Just cross. If you fall, though, I'll catch us by sticking on to the ropes with my quirk," I said.

"Uh, right!" Midoriya said, going with it. He started to cross the canyon, quicker than I expected. He definitely had Full Cowl and was using it to the fullest. The lightning didn't seem to hurt me, but I wasn't sure if that was because it was harmless or if the balls made by my quirk were an insulator or… ah, whatever. Figure it out later.

Midoriya and Todoroki were in the lead, but Bakugou was catching up, his explosions allowing him to just fly over the gap. The trio raced across the minefield and I suddenly realized that me latching on to the back of one of the most powerful candidates in this high-stakes race was probably a pretty funny picture. People were actually watching this, and wasn't that a terrifying thought.

Midoriya, having Full Cowl, didn't bring a metal plate with him and didn't stop to think of a strategy for crossing the minefield, considering he could just run through it at 5%.Aw, I kinda liked his previous strategy, though. I threw some balls at Todoroki's feet to try and trip him up. He successfully dodged them (how? how is he that nimble?!), but was forced to slow down to avoid themandthe mines at the same time, which put him slightly behind. Midoriya and Bakugou crossed the finish line neck-and-neck.

"Wow! A photo finish!" Mic shouted excitedly over the speakers. "Who was the winner? Let's see…" he paused a moment, probably to check the results of the cameras. "It was Midoriya! Midoriya crosses the finish line first by a hair, with Bakugou in second place and Mineta in third! What an amazing race!"

Bakugou turned to Midoriya and growled, saying something about "stupid Deku" and "what the hell is your quirk!" I was too busy detaching myself from Midoriya's back to listen. "Sorry about being a freeloader, Midoriya. You did really well."

"Oh! I didn't mind at all!" said Midoriya sheepishly. "You helped me learn how to use my quirk and you slowed Todoroki down, so you were helpful!"

Todoroki did end up coming in fourth. It wasn't until half of the students had finished the race that I noticedholy crap I came in third place!Mineta's memories told me that this was a huge accomplishment, especially in such a prestigious competition like the Sports Festival.I did it by completely relying on someone else's talents, too. I wonder what hero agencies will think of that.

As everyone came in, Present Mic announced that the top 42 would be moving to the Cavalry Battle, in teams of 2-4. Wait, teams? What team should I pick? Last time, Mineta teamed up with Tsuyu and Shoji and hid in his arms, but I don't think they moved on to Round 3. Yeah, I didn't remember any Tsuyu or Shoji or Mineta fights.I don't remember how they lost, though. Maybe I should just join a team I know is going to win. So, what teams move on to the next round?

I glanced over at Bakugou's team. No. Then, I turned my head to look over at Midoriya's team and saw that he was already talking animatedly to Uraraka and Mei. While I'm sure he'd be glad to have me, if I threw off Midoriya's plan involving Tokoyami, he might lose. I looked over to Todoroki's team. Todoroki probably wouldn't even want me to join his team. So that just leaves…

Team Shinsou. I wandered over to Shinsou, and asked him, "Hey, do you wanna team up?"

Shinsou looked suspicious. "Why would you want to team up with me?"

"You look kinda lost," I said, feeling lost myself.

Shinsou narrowed his eyes. "What's your quirk?"

"It's Po…" The world got cloudy, and my head felt like it was full of cotton. I couldn't think, but I felt a serene sense of calm wash over me, and my body moved without my permission. An indeterminate amount of time passed, and suddenly I blinked and the match was over. "In first place, Team Todoroki! In second place, Team Bakugou! In third place… Team Mineta? Where did they come from?" Mic said from the speakers.

Team… Mineta? I had a headband wrapped around my head, and a few around my neck.Oh, I was mind controlled and got to be the rider. Well, that's one way to team up with Shinsou.

"Oh, we got third? Nice," I said.

Shinsou and Ojiro both looked at me weirdly. So did the random 1-B kid that was the fourth member of our team. I shrugged. Just as Midnight started talking about the third round, both Ojiro and the 1-B told her they wanted to drop out. I looked at Shinsou and gave him a shrug that I hoped conveyed "What can you do?" He quirked his eyebrow at me.

After some debate, Ojiro and the 1-B kid were replaced with Tetsutetsu and Ibara, just as they had last time, and the brackets for the third round were put up.

Perfect. And just as expected, in the first round Midoriya would be fighting…Ashido?

Wait. Wait wait wait wait wait. Midoriya was supposed to be fighting Shinsou, not Ashido. What changed?

I quickly scanned the brackets. All the matches were completely different! Was this… was this because I joined up with Shinsou?That has to be it. I didn't team up with Tsuyu or Shoji, so the teams must have been all mixed up!It seemed like most of thepeoplewere the same, except… hm. We were missing Aoyama, and it looked like Tsuyu replaced Sero.

The matches, though. The matches were completely wrong.

The worst part was that Todoroki and Midoriya were in completely different brackets. If Midoriya was going to fight Todoroki, they both needed to make it to thefinals.That wasn't going to be much of an issue for Todoroki. He made it to the finals last time, and it looked like most of his fights were against people he'd have an advantage over, like Tsuyu. Midoriya though… even with Full Cowl, could he make it to finals? In the second fight, he'd be pitted against Bakugou. Yikes. Could he beat Bakugou?

If Todoroki didn't fight Midoriya, they might not become friends, and Todoroki wouldn't use his fire. Todoroki not using his fire could become a major issue in the Stain fight or in the Forest Training Camp. While I could try to patch it up after, I wasn't sure how to manufacture a situation that would force Todoroki to face his issues and use his fire. And also make him friends with Midoriya at the same time. Damn.

"Sucks you're up against Bakugou in Round 1, doesn't it?" Sero said, giving me a nudge.

Kaminari laughed. "Yeah, you're kinda screwed!"

Wait. Midoriya won't have to fight Bakugou… if I beat him.

"Well, I'll do my best," I said, grimacing.

With Full Cowl, Midoriya can win against almost anyone, but he still might lose to Bakugou. The only way to ensure Midoriya gets to the finals is to defeat Bakugou myself, then forfeit against Midoriya.

So. All I had to do to preserve the timeline was beat the strongest kid in class. Who could make explosions out of his hands. Fuck.

Notes:

THE NEW BRACKETS:
Midoriya vs. Ashido
Mineta vs. Bakugou
Kaminari vs. Shinsou
Ibara vs. Iida

Uraraka vs. Hatsume
Todoroki vs. Asui
Tokoyami vs. Yaoyorozu
Kirishima vs. Tetsutetsu

Chapter 11: a time for war

Summary:

"All warfare is based on deception." - Sun Tzu.

Chapter Text

My odds against Bakugou were bad. Very bad.Anyone can win a fight if their strategy is good enough,I reminded myself, taking a deep breath. Okay, Bakugou. He could make explosions and seemed rash, but I had to remember that he actually was an extremely talented battlefield tactician. At the same time, it was possible he would underestimate me. Short people are easy to underestimate. My best strategy was probably going to be trying to get him stuck to the ground, or sticky enough that he wouldn't be able to move. I just needed to do it without getting blown to bits.Harder than it sounds and it sounds pretty difficult.

Midoriya's fight against Ashido was first. The fight was closer than I expected (had Ashido always been that fit? Well, she was a dancer and a gymnast), but Midoriya managed to land a solid kick, which with Full Cowl, launched her out of bounds.

"You look pretty invested in that, kero," Tsuyu remarked.

"Just nervous for my own match," I said.

"You better get to the pre-match room. After this and Shinsou vs. Kaminari it's your turn."

"Thanks, Tsuyu," I replied, my stomach turning.

I waited nervously for the match to start. Judging by the comments Present Mic made as I walked out, it sounded like Shinsou had won the fight, despite the fact that I knew I'd seen Ojiro warning Kaminari about his quirk earlier. Oh well. It's not like Kaminari was that hard to goad.

I walked out into the stadium to see Bakugou was already there, a terrifying grin on his face. The bright lights shining on us weren't doing anything for my anxiety either. Present Mic kept talking, introducing us and making comments about our match. Biased comments, actually. It sounded like he wanted me to win.Well, thanks Mic. I want to win too.

"3… 2… 1… go!" Midnight shouted.

Immediately, I jumped back slightly, and started throwing sticky balls all over the battlefield, trapping it and making it tough terrain. Bakugou in turn launched himself into the air, avoiding the projectiles, straight towards me.

Yikes!I dove out of the way, narrowly dodging an explosion that would have sent me flying out of bounds. I stayed low to the ground, spreading out more balls until the battlefield was almost completely covered in them. Bakugou scowled, clearly annoyed, but he used his explosions precisely to stay suspended in the air. He obviously couldn't risk coming down, even to kick me in the face or something. Both me and the battlefield were too sticky for it to be worth it. Regardless, he sent more explosions down at me, while I scrambled around to avoid them.Ow, I keep catching the edge of those! They burn!

But I noticed that those explosions were weaker than I'd anticipated. I kept getting singed, but none of them were strong enough to knock me out of the arena… because if he sent an explosion strong enough to send me flying, he wouldsend himself flyingout of the arenatoo,because he was in the air and didn't have any leverage!Oh, physics, I love you.I dodged another explosion.But he still might be able to knock me out from there with an explosion though, if he hits me head-on, and I can barely reach him.

I threw more balls at him as fast as I could, but Bakugou dodged them all with ease, and my head was starting to bleed.Uh oh. I need to think of something, quick. I'm wearing down much faster than Bakugou. But what else can I do?

The explosions rattled the ground, sending plumes of smoke and dirt through the air.The debris is getting everywhere! I bet it's getting hard for Bakugou to see me. That means this is the best time to try to pull something, while I'm obscured from view.My mind flashed to that time Mineta made a whip with the purple balls, at some point in the show. I couldn't remember the situation but I could… try? To do that too? It would be easier to hit him with a whip than with my iffy aim, especially since he'd only ever seen me throw balls during class exercises.

While I was running from Bakugou's explosions, I surreptitiously started making a chain of balls. The heavy dust shrouded what I was doing from his view. When I had something long enough to reach him, I waited for a moment that he was close to the ground, prepared to fire another explosion at me.

Alright, the moment of truth!I swung the whip at Bakugou.

He noticed it at the last moment, and swerved to avoid it, but…yes! I caught his ankle!

I yanked down on the chain, jumping on it and sticking it to the ground, which led to Bakugou crashing down into the battlefield.

I stood back, still cautious.He's still within bounds and I doubt that knocked him out.

The dust settled. Bakugou… was stuck to the ground, trapped by the balls I had left all around the arena.Yes!"Bakugou, can you move?" Midnight asked. The only response to her question was a half-feral snarl from Bakugou, who thrashed, and struggled to escape.

"Well, looks like that's a no. The winner is Mineta!"

The crowd went wild at the unexpected victory. For several moments, I stood there dumbly.I did it? I won?

Then, Bakugou set off an explosion, tearing himself from the ground, ripping through his P.E. uniform, even taking some of the sticky balls with him, having broken the ground beneath him to get out. He lunged towards me, hands aflame.

"Wait, n…!" I started, until an explosion was delivered straight to my face.

The world went black.

Chapter 12: a time to heal

Summary:

"You can't win every battle. Sometimes victory comes in form of bowing out gracefully." - Toni Payne.

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter fornotes.)

Chapter Text

I woke up to a bright light and a beeping sound. I blinked sleepily.

"Welcome back to the land of the living, dearie."

"Mmmm. I don't wanna go to class, Theo…" I mumbled. Then the memories came back to me.Me in Mineta's body. The Sports Festival. Bakugou.I sat straight up. "What happened?"

I was in the infirmary, with Recovery Girl. "You were hit with multiple explosions. Some bad burns, and a concussion. Do you remember?"

"I was fighting Bakugou," I said. "The fight was over, but he went after me."

Recovery Girl pursed her lips in clear disapproval of Bakugou's behavior. "Yes… now, normally, you would have fought in the next match, but you slept through it. In most cases, Bakugou would have fought in your place, seeing as you were unable to…"Oh, geez. I didn't even take that into account."... but Bakugou was disqualified for attacking you out of turn. Midoriya advanced automatically."

"Perfect!" I blurted out. Recovery Girl paused, looking confused. "Ah, I just. I was cheering for Midoriya. He deserves to win."

At that, Recovery Girl's eyes softened. "Yes, well. You're free to go. Your concussion is gone, but some of your burns are likely still sore. Make sure to let those heal."

"Yes, ma'am!" I said with a nod. "Thank you!" I left the room, wanting to see how Todoroki's matches were going.

There was a small group waiting for me outside the infirmary. Ah. Well I suppose I did get knocked out rather impressively. "Mineta! You're okay!" Kaminari said.

"I'm fine now, Recovery Girl healed me," I confirmed.

"It still was very unsportsmanlike of Bakugou to attack you after the match was finished!" Iida said, chopping his arms. "As class president, I must express my deepest condolences."

"Yeah, sucks you missed your match," said Sero.

"Aizawa dragged Bakugou off to talk to him though. Looks like Bakugou's in deep trouble," Jirou said, with a tiny smirk.Hopefully not too much trouble. If he's punished severely and gets suspended or something, that might have some other unintended consequences.

"It's fine, I don't mind. Anyway, what did I miss?"

Iida deflated. "Though I won against Ibara Shiozaki, I unfortunately lost to Shinsou. I did not have the strength of will to stay silent during the match."

"You mean you couldn't stay silent because he insulted you for being a posh rich kid," said Ashido, to Iida's embarrassment.

"Right now, Uraraka and Todoroki are fighting," Kaminari interjected.

Hm, if Todoroki was fighting Uraraka, that meant he defeated Tsuyu in Round 1. Just as expected. I had faith that Todoroki could make it to the finals on his own. "Who is Midoriya going to have to fight next?" I asked.

"Eh, Shinsou I think," Kaminari replied. Oh, that's good. Midoriya won that fight in canon. "Nice."

We started walking back together towards the stands, arriving at the tail end of the match between Uraraka and Todoroki. It looked like Uraraka was putting up a good fight (launching ice spears and other debris at Todoroki with surprising skill) but ultimately she wasn't able to stand up against Todoroki's raw power, and was frozen.

Bzzzz. Bzzzz. Bzzzzz.

Oh, my phone was ringing. I grabbed it out of my backpack and looked at the screen. 14 missed calls from Haruki Mineta. Oops. I dialled the number and put the phone to my ear.

"Are you alright?" my uncle asked, sounding frantic.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. Recovery Girl has a quirk that can instantly heal any injury but then you sleep for a few hours. That's where I've been."

"So you're okay? Not hurt? I saw that kid blow you up on live television!"

I winced. "I'm not hurt. All my injuries got healed."

I heard a relieved sigh through the phone. "Geez. I've been trying to call the school but they haven't been responding. I was worried."

Ouch. "Ah, don't worry. Their phone line is probably busy because of the Sports Festival, but I'm definitely okay."

"Well, that's good. I'm very proud of you for getting so far, kid."

I smiled. "Really?"

"Really," he confirmed. "You managed to get into the final round, and in reality you would've won your match and moved on, if that kid hadn't attacked you. I'm glad he was disqualified… but anyway, kiddo, you did the best you could, and that's what makes me proud."

"Thanks, uncle," I said, smiling.

"I'll see you when I get home tonight. Staysafe," he said, a little bit of warning tone entering his voice. "I will! Love you," I said, hanging up. I paused for a moment. Would the original Mineta have said "love you" to his uncle? I shuffled through his memories, and decidedprobably not.He was going through a rebellious teenage phase. Oh well, I already did it.

I settled in to watch some of the next few matches, sitting next to Iida and Kaminari.It's a shame Iida lost to Shinsou so early. I think he got third in the original competition, even if he couldn't get his medal because… of his brother.

His brother! I totally forgot about the brother I was so focused on the Sports Festival! I'm so stupid!If Tensei gets attacked by Stain, which was set to happen right aboutnow,my classmates would be on a crash course to fighting the Hero Killer, which meant Iida would get stabbed in the arm and get nerve damage, and what if something went wrong and the Hero Killer actually ended up killing a classmate because of the butterfly effect, and…

Okay. Okay. I can still fix this. "Iida?" I said.

"Yeah?" he asked.

"Do you have a way to contact your brother?"

"I could text him? But he's working right now, I don't want to interrupt."

"I have a bad feeling about him. I get the sense that he's in danger, or something. Could you call him and warn him he should be extra careful?" I asked. Iida looked surprised. "Yes, I can do that. But my brother will be okay, he's very strong."

"Just… call him," I responded. Iida nodded and left to make his phone call somewhere more privately.Dang. Hopefully I'm not too late. Though, even if his brother gets the message, there's a chance the Hero Killer will still paralyze him anyway… my warning was very vague. Unfortunately, "you're being chased by the Hero Killer" is a little too specific for the fake quirk I invented. I just have to hope that a general warning is enough.

I bit my lip and decided to just focus on the matches. They went mostly as I expected. Tokoyami managed to throw Kirishima out of bounds, because Dark Shadow gave him reach that Kirishima didn't have with his quirk. Shinsou managed to catch Midoriya under his quirk (can no one shut up in this world? Every person Shinsou faced in this tournament knew what his quirk was but all of them fell for it!)but Midoriya broke his fingers to get out of it. With Full Cowl, he easily managed to push Shinsou out-of-bounds. Then, it was Todoroki against Tokoyami. At the very beginning, I was confident that it would be a quick match in Todoroki's favor, considering Dark Shadow's weakness to light, but…

Aargh! He's not using his fire. Idiot!… which subsequently led to a complicated back-in-forth, in which Todoroki sent waves of ice that Dark Shadow would break as they came in. I was worried when Todoroki started to slow down because of the cold, but eventually he managed to catch Tokoyami off guard and encase him in ice. "The winner is… Todoroki!"

Thank goodness. Midoriya vs. Todoroki. It took them long enough. This could have been a disaster.

Todoroki and Midoriya's match was ever more spectacular than before. The green lightning shrouding Midoriya reflected off the ice he smashed and leapt over. I noticed that Midoriya had a few opportunities to potentially take out Todoroki (well, if he broke a finger or an arm to create blast force, then he could), but he didn't take them, deciding to shout something at Todoroki instead. Then, just as Todoroki was starting to slow down because of hypothermia, he burst into flames.There we go! Phew. Finally, he uses his fire.

Todoroki sent a huge wall of flame and ice at Midoriya, who retaliated with a punch that was far too strong for Full Cowl at 5%. Probably broke his arm with that. Oh well. At least it wasn't all ten of his fingers. Cementoss quickly threw up a cement barrier between the two. When the dust settled… "Todoroki is the winner!" … Midoriya had been thrown out of the arena by the impact. Midoriya's arm did appear to be broken, and he had to be carried out on a stretcher. There was a brief interlude as Cementoss fixed the arena and the school prepared for the awards ceremony. "Wow, that was intense!" Ashido cheered.

It looked like the Sports Festivals results were different this time around. Last time, Bakugou was in first, Todoroki in second, and Iida and Tokoyami in third. This time, with Bakugou eliminated in the first round, Todoroki came in first, Midoriya managed second, and Tokoyami and Shinsou came in third.

Hey, Shinsou came in third! Is that enough for the hero course?

About fifteen minutes later, they all stood on the podium. Todoroki looked unsure from the spot of first place, Midoriya (with his arm wrapped up) looked ready to pass out, while Shinsou and Tokoyami tried to look neutral. As they received their medals, I remembered Iida, and looked around the student section for him.He's not here. Not a good sign. Did he get bad news?

Iida didn't show up for the rest of the ceremony.

Notes:

So that was Bakugou vs. Mineta! Obviously, in a straight fight to the death, Bakugou would have been the victor… but in this, Mineta had already been declared the winner by Midnight. The arena is just small enough for Mineta to be able to trap the whole thing. The actual circumstances of the fight were not in Bakugou's favor, unfortunately for him.

Chapter 13: a time to laugh

Summary:

"Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom." ― Thomas Jefferson.

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter fornotes.)

Chapter Text

Ingenium had been paralyzed from the waist down by the Hero Killer.

Apparently, I told Iida that I suspected Tensei was in danger only minutes before the Hero Killer's attack. When he called his brother, Tensei didn't pick up because he left his personal phone back at the hero agency. Iida left his brother a message, but my warning about the attack didn't get through in time. Not long after, Iida's mother called him to let him know what happened to his brother.

When we returned to school on Monday, Iida looked quietly furious. It looked like he did plan to go after the Hero Killer.

In better news, Shinsou had placed high enough to enter the hero course! While I didn't know whether you needed to win the Sports Festival or what to get into the hero course, it seemed that the school officials decided that third place was enough. He had succeeded over dozens of hero students, after all. He was going to join the hero course next week, after the teachers decided whether to put him in class 1-A or class 1-B. Aizawa offered to teach Shinsou during internships, to get him caught up with everyone else, and Shinsou accepted his offer.

I'd been checking the news since the Sports Festival, and the reaction to my match with Bakugou was… mixed. While I did find one article talking about my "underappreciated clever tactics" (I'd never been so proud in my life), anything I did was overshadowed by Bakugou, namely, what he did at the end of the match. While some people argued that Midnight called the match too early and Bakugou was the true winner, others chastised him for unheroic behavior. Attacking someone after the match was over was bad publicity for him. Though, I did see one admiring article discuss the excellent control Bakugou must have over his quirk, to knock me out with an explosion to the face without killing me or causing permanent brain damage. It was an interesting read, if a little scary.

As for Bakugou's punishment, Aizawa saddled him with a significant amount of detention. That was fine with me, and it didn't seem the detentions would affect the timeline directly. He was still going on the internships with us, which is what mattered. I wasn't sure exactly what would happen if Bakugou didn't go on his internship with Best Jeanist, but I didn't want to find out. Luckily, despite the changes in the last part of the Sports Festival, I still heard Bakugou talking to Kirishima about getting an offer from the #4 hero. A good sign.

My changes in the Sports Festival seems to have led to a net positive, with Shinsou in the hero course and Midoriya having less arm damage, but the whole thing with the bracket changes almost gave me a heart attack. And I still failed at helping Iida's brother. Damn, I should have paid more attention to the show.

As I pondered over how to deal with the Hero Killer (and the Forest Training Camp, I should think ahead to that as well…), class began. Instead of Hero Informatics, we would be choosing our hero names for internships. Then, Aizawa showed the class the tally of offers we received from agencies.

"In past years it's been more spread out, there's a pretty big gap this time," said Aizawa.

Significantly in the lead were Todoroki and Midoriya, with Todoroki having the highest number of offers. Underneath them were people like Tokoyami, Bakugou and Kaminari, with offers in the hundreds. Underneath them were Iida and Yaoyorozu. And near the bottom…

I got offers?I thought, amazed. Only 16 offers, barely above Asui (who instantly lost against Todoroki's ice), butstill.I could have sworn originally Mineta didn't get any offers at all and had to choose from the forty agencies that were available for everyone. Well, I suppose Mineta didn't get into the third round last time, or finish third in the obstacle race.

Midoriya seemed absolutelyenthralledwith the number of offers he got. That was a pretty big change, too. Originally, because of his reckless bone-breaking, he didn't get any offers at all. With a flashy lightning augmentation quirk and a second place finish, the offers were rolling in.Wait, is he going to still choose Gran Torino? If the answer is no then that's going to be problematic, because he won't be in Hosu while the Hero Killer fight goes down. If that happens I'm going to have to act drastically.

But before that, hero names.

I hate hero names. I guess I have "The Fresh-Picked Hero: Grape Juice" as a back-up if I couldn't think of anything, but do I really want to be called that for the rest of my hero career? Especially if I became a combat hero.Just imagine. Myself and my fellow heroes are in a massive, citywide battle against a terrible enemy, who is killing hundreds. One of my allies yells, "Attack him,Grape Juice!"

Grape Juice. Just ridiculous. I snickered quietly, drawing looks from the classmates sitting around me.

Okay. Focus! Think of a better name. I need… a theme. All I can really think of is Grape. Even my quirk, Pop Off, translates toMogimogiin Japanese, which is a type of grape candy. Well, I'm small and purple? Purple… Purple Punch? No, that's terrible. Vineyard Vines? No, that's just a brand. Wait… My Hero Academia takes place in the future. On my phone I quickly did an internet search, revealing that the company in question had shut down over a century ago. Essentially no one would remember it, especially considering it was based in America.

There and then, I made my choice. I wrote on my blackboard and walked up to the front.

"Vineyard Vine."

"Sounds good!" said Midnight with a flourish.

As I walked back to my seat, I could barely suppress my giggles. I named myselfVineyard Vine.The name was kind of terrible, and all I could imagine was pink whales when I thought about it, but it was completely worth it.

Most everyone else chose hero names just as they had before. I thought about suggesting "Ground Zero" to Bakugou (who was still struggling with Lord Explosion Murder) but I decided not to. I probably wasn't his favorite person right now and I didn't want him to think the name was stupid because I said it.

Now, to the internship offers.

"Hey Deku, who's on your list?" Uraraka asked.

Deku was muttering frantically, and I thought I heard "so many options" somewhere in there. So he hadn't decided yet. Hm. I looked down at my own list and started to think.

Last time, Mineta went with Mt. Lady. I definitely wasn't going to choose her. For one, I recalled the fact that Mineta basically just cleaned Mt. Lady's house most of the time. Second, she was my opposite. Her power was growing large, while people on the street mistook me for a child because I was so small. Though that might make us good partners (I could get into spaces she couldn't), it might not make her a goodteacher,especially if she wasn't going to actually teach me anything. Mt. Lady is out.

None of my hero agencies were near Hosu City, either, which meant no direct interference in the Hero Killer Stain fight unless I snuck away to do so in the middle of my internship, which, frankly, sounded like a nightmare. Hm.

I probably wanted to choose an agency that specializes in combat. If I decided I wanted to be a rescue hero, I could do rescue-related internships after I dealt with the apocalyptic villain attacks that haunted 1-A. Death Arms' agency was on my list. He was a combat-based hero, if I remembered correctly. I think Jirou interned with him too? I looked further down the list, seeing a few other minor combat agencies, including… Gunhead?

Didn't that sound familiar? I tried to think of where I'd heard of it.Is that the hero Uraraka interns with? If that's the case, I have to choose him! Her martial arts became absolutely awesome after her internship!I grinned and shoved the papers into my bag, plan already forming.

As I walked out of the classroom, I overheard Yaoyorozu say, "Uwabami, probably. She's an interesting hero," Yaoyorozu was talking to Ashido, but I could help but pause. I didn't think Yaoyorozu liked her internship with Uwabami very much, I might want to nip that one in the bud. "Aah, she's an interesting hero, all right," I said, awkwardly inserting myself into the conversation. "But I have a feeling your internship might be more about publicity and PR than hero work. You might not like it."

Yaoyorozu looked surprised, but thoughtful. Ashido looked curious, too. "You have a feeling? Are you talking about a "something-bad-will-happen-at-the-USJ" feeling, or just a regular kind of feeling?" Ashido asked.

"I can never tell. It's just a feeling."

"I'll have to take that into account. Thank you," said Yaoyorozu.

I nodded and kept walking, unsure if she took my advice seriously.I fought with her at the USJ and I've been acting more mature lately, so she seems to be okay with me now, but I doubt she trusts me. She seems… very confused by me actually. No one really forgot about the sexual harassment from the beginning of term, but I'm acting so different now that no one knows how to treat me. People are warming up to me, but I've got a long way to go before I can call anyone except Kaminari a friend.

In fact, now that I think about it, maybe the internship with Gunhead would be a good time to get to know Uraraka. Join Midoriya's friend group just as they start getting involved in plot things.That would be nice,I thought, smiling to myself. But, one thing at a time.Internships, here I come.

Notes:

You know, I think there are a lot of Self-Insert fics in My Hero Academia that have really never been done. Like, Iida for example. I've never seen one with Iida as the main character. Or Tsuyu, Momo, Uraraka, Todoroki... that's not even mentioning characters who are actually obscure and not major characters.

Just thought that was interesting.

Have a nice day, y'all!

Chapter 14: a time to uproot

Summary:

"To expect the unexpected shows a thoroughly modern intellect." - Oscar Wilde.

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter fornotes.)

Chapter Text

It was the morning of the day we left for our internships. After attempting to casually ask Midoriya which internship he planned on going to (I'm not completely sure if I came across as casual or just weirdly nosy), he responded he planned to do it with a retired hero called Gran Torino. Huh. Looks like an offer from All Might's teacher was just too good to resist. I arrived at the classroom extra early, just after Midoriya and Iida did, to enact my Stage 2.

"Hey Aizawa-sensei?"

"Hm?"

"I have one of those bad feelings again."

Aizawa stood a little straighter. "About what?"

"I get the sense a few people are going to be in danger over internships. In particular, Iida, Midoriya and Todoroki," I said. "Definitely one of those life-threatening feelings."

"What?" said Midoriya, looking alarmed. Oops, kinda forgot he was there.

"Wait… Is this why you wanted to know what my internship was?" Midoriya asked.

Oooh! An excuse!"Ah, yes. I wanted to see if the three of you all had internships in the same area, but it turns out not."

Aizawa gave a serious nod. "I'll warn all the students involved and their supervisors of potential danger." He turned to Midoriya and Iida, the other two people in the room. "I'm going to give both of you my contact information. I won't be in the same area as either of you, so if you are in immediate danger, you should contact your internship supervisors or local authorities. However. If you feel like something's wrong or need me to come get you, I will." I hadn't been expecting this, but this result seemed like it was going in the right direction. "Donotabuse this privilege with pranks or trivial things. For emergencies only."

"Yes sir!" both of them said.I doubt either of them would abuse it. This is Iida, Midoriya, and Todoroki, of all people. All pretty straight-laced.

"And Mineta," he said, turning back to me. "If you can at any time provide more specific information, do so. Talk to Gunhead, he can get in contact with me."

I nodded in response.

"Good," he said. When Aizawa sat back down, he looked deep in thought.

Soon enough, the rest of the class arrived, all excited for internships. Aizawa told us all to go fetch our costumes, but requested Todoroki stay to talk with him for a moment. Todoroki complied with a blank face.

The class went to get their costumes. When I pulled out mine, it looked completely different.

The color scheme was now mainly purple with white accents, though my gloves and cape were still yellow. The pants were completely different, thankfully, looking fairly normal compared the abomination they'd been in the original costume. There was a white utility belt, too, with pockets and pouches to hold things. I was most excited about the little gun-looking thing that came with my costume: a ball-launcher, where the insides wouldn't stick. It turns out theycouldmake it work using a substance from my scalp. Nice. The ball-launcher could only hold 4-5 balls at a time, but it clipped onto my utility belt and wasn't heavy enough to weigh me down. I liked it.

The most significant change was to the costume material. Apparently when I requested "light armor or padding or something", the support company thought "kevlar". That was fine with me, much better than a bodysuit. The boots were sturdier too, and they were white.

The cape and gloves were kept the same. Since they'd already made gloves that didn't stick for me, it would be kind of wasteful to just make another pair in white so they just kept the same gloves. The yellow cape remained so there'd be two yellow things, as an attempt at color balance.

To be honest, the design of the costume was a bit of a mess. There was too much white accent and the fact that two yellow items remained sort of threw everything off. All the same, I was satisfied with what I got. In my request form I emphasized functionality and comfort instead of design, and that's what I got.

I took my costume in its case to the classroom, where everyone was waiting. Soon we'd head to the train station, split into groups to go to our internships. "Mineta and Uraraka, both of you have an internship with Gunhead. You'll get off the train at the third stop," said Aizawa, who was reading off a list.

"You're doing an internship with Gunhead, too?" asked Uraraka, looking surprised.

"I heard he was really good at martial arts," I explained.

"Okay," she responded, clearly unsure of what to make of me.

The two of us got on the train together, with our suitcases and costumes. The silence was awkward, and I had no idea what to say. I made an inane comment about the weather. Uraraka made a 'hmm' noise in reply. Being social is so hard. How do people make friends?

The two of us arrived at Gunhead's agency. He pointed us in the direction of where our rooms were, telling us to get settled, get suited up, and meet him outside in an hour. I found my room (minimalist room, basically just a box, which was kind of expected) and tried on my hero costume. It was comfortable and allowed free range of movement. It actually looked slightly better than I expected after I put it on; my purple hair actually helped balance the color scheme.

I set up a few things around the room, did some basic stretches, and read part of a book for the rest of the hour. When it was up, I went outside to see Gunhead and Uraraka.

We went on a short patrol, during which Gunhead explained the purposes of his office (to catch criminals and clamp down on crime) and how they are typically called in by police.Interesting. You know, it is kind of crazy that only law enforcement and like, the rescue hero equivalent to the fire brigade can use their superpowers freely in public. I have college friends who would probably join the Meta Liberation Army if they saw this system.I wisely chose not to mention any of these opinions in front of Gunhead or Uraraka. The only notable thing that happened during our patrol was Gunhead apprehending a purse-snatcher. It wasn't very exciting, but it was informative. Gunhead let us know that tomorrow we'd be practicing martial arts, but that we'd have the rest of today to settle in, except for a short tour of the agency we'd be having tonight.

Gunhead got us both lunch, so Uraraka and I ate at the agency. I thanked Gunhead, but not long after, I told him I was going to go buy some coffee from a cafe I'd seen a few blocks down the way on patrol. I always loved coffee, but the original Mineta hated coffee. While I seemed to have acquired most of his tastes, I wanted to know whether or not I still liked the drink.

I walked down the street towards the cafe, slightly excited at the prospect of caffeine. If I didn't like the coffee I could just buy tea instead. I turned my head to look down an alleyway and…

Wait… what is he doing here? Why now? He shouldn't be here at all!

Standing in the alleyway, looking down at me dispassionately, in a plague mask and gloves just as he was before…

Overhaul.

Notes:

Announcer Voice*
What is Overhaul doing in the Denny's parking lot? Find out next time on Dragon Ball Z

Chapter 15: a time to mend

Summary:

"Talking to an old friend makes you realize how much your life has changed." - Unknown.

Notes:

We have another slight manga spoiler this chapter, starting with "I barely thought about how I'd deal with Overhaul" and ending with "I checked my watch." If you want to be extra careful, there's a TL;DR version of the chapter in author notes at the bottom.

(See the end of the chapter formore notes.)

Chapter Text

Overhaul. Why would Overhaul be standing in an alley a block away from Gunhead's agency? As far as I knew, Overhaul shouldn't be anywhere near this location!Maybe it's a coincidence?

I turned slowly away from the alley and kept walking.

"Stop right there, Mineta," said Overhaul. "We have business."

Uh oh.I turned back to him and gave him a shaky smile. "Why hello sir. Do we know each other?"

"Cut it out. The fact that you look afraid of me only confirms my suspicions. You should have no idea who I am, yet you do." Overhaul's eyes narrowed. "Who are you?"

"What… what do you mean?"

"I first started getting suspicious around the Sports Festival. Bakugou should have won, but he lost in the first round. Midoriya didn't break his fingers. Sero didn't even make it to round three." He pointed at me accusingly. "You've been causing the changes."

Wait…"What?" I said, confused. "How did you…?"

"At first I thought it might be Midoriya, since he already had Full Cowl when he shouldn't, but he acted in-character the whole tournament. So I started looking elsewhere. Each person's internship was the same as expected, except for you and Yaoyorozu…"

"Yaoyorozu actually listened to me about the internship?" I said, in wonder.

"See! You just admitted it. Your costume is different too and there's no way canon Mineta could ever beat Bakugou in the Sports Festival. Plus, you didn't pull that thing with the cheerleading uniforms. It all points to you," said Overhaul.

"Why don't you tell me whoyouare? Because clearly, you're not Overhaul," I said.

"You tell me your name and I'll tell you mine?" Overhaul suggested.

"Fine. I'm Ashley," I said, frowning.

Overhaul's eyes grew large. "Ashley? It's me, Evan!"

"Wait, Evan, as in my roommate's fiancee?" I asked.

"Yes!"

"How did you even get here? Why are you Overhaul?"

"I have no idea. I was watching TV with Theo in the other room when we both started feeling sick and dizzy. I went to go try and ask your neighbor Doris for help. I stumbled over and saw Doris in the hallway. She looked perfectly fine, but then this wave of vertigo hit and I collapsed. I woke up in Overhaul's body," Evan explained.

"I just went to sleep and woke up Mineta," I told him.

"When did you leave our world, and at what date did you wake up here on?"

"I went to sleep on the night of November 1st and woke up the day before the USJ."

"It was about 2 AM on the 2nd when the vertigo hit, and I showed up the day before the USJ as well," Evan said.

"I was asleep by 2 AM," I confirmed.

"That explains a lot." Evan started to pace. "I decided not to make any changes since the first real death among the heroes—Sir Nighteye—happens during the Shie Hassaikai arc. All I would have to do to fix that is just not kill him. But I got so confused when things started changing anyway."

"I'm sorry, that was probably me," I said. "Do you think anyone else came with us?"

"I don't know. I think there's a good chance Theo could be here too. The three of us were in the same apartment when it happened. Plus, Theo got the same dizzy feeling as I did before I came to this world, while Doris didn't," said Evan. "But the only changes I've seen seem to be coming from you. You caused Midoriya to get Full Cowl, right? Have you noticed any classmates acting out-of-character?"

"I gave Midoriya quirk tips, so yes that was me, but all my classmates are acting exactly the same," I said. "Do you have any idea who he might be?"

"No clue. There's no real common thread between who we are. You're one of the weakest hero students, while I'm one of the most powerful villains," Evan said.

Ouch, that kinda hurts."There is one common thread, We're both some of the most hated characters in the show," I pointed out. "While there are a few oddballs out there, on the whole, Overhaul and Mineta are both reviled by the majority of the fanbase."

"That's true," Evan hummed. "Who else do people hate, then? Monoma?"

"No, he's been acting the exact same. A villain, maybe?"

"Potentially, I suppose, but it's not Shigaraki, Kurogiri, or All for One. Otherwise, the USJ wouldn't have been attacked the same way. I don't think Theo would attack random children. Endeavor?"

"I doubt it. Endeavor doesn't seem to have changed at all, he still shouted 'SHOUTO, have you finally accepted yourself!' or something like that when Todoroki used his fire at the Sports Festival. Besides, he wasn't such a hated character after he started getting his redemption arc," I said.

"I can't really think of anyone else," Overhaul admitted. "Bakugou was acting the same, and he has plenty of fans even if he has haters."

"We'll just have to keep an eye out," I declared. "If you can think of anyone else that everybody hates or just see differences happening with no explanation…"

"We check to see if it's Theo." Overhaul nodded. "By the way, you no longer have to worry about the Shie Hassaikai arc. I'm not going to experiment on Eri or make any quirk-erasing bullets. I will be a good pseudo-dad for Eri," he said, puffing out his chest proudly.

I sighed in relief. "Good. I was so busy worrying about how to survive the Forest Training Camp and the Hero Killer I barely thought about how I'd deal with Overhaul. By the way, have you made any plans for the fight against the Paranormal Liberation Front?" I asked. Overhaul looked confused. "The what now?"

"The Paranormal Liberation Front?"

"What?"

"Oh! You only watch the anime. There's this huge battle coming from the manga," I explained. "Shigaraki gets All for One's powers and kills a few hundred people."

"What?"

"We'll worry about that later…"

"Worry about it later? That sounds like something to worry about now!"

I checked my watch. "Well, notnownow. It's been fifteen minutes. I've got to get back to Gunhead's hero agency soon or they'll notice I'm gone. I can't be seen talking to a Yakuza leader."

"It's probably going to be difficult for us to meet up again in person. The heroes don't have anyevidencethat I'm involved with the Yakuza, but they're still watching my movements." Overhaul dug something out of his pocket and handed it over. "Burner phone."

I put the burner phone in one of my utility belt's pockets. "Do you just carry burner phones on you everywhere?"

Overhaul's eyes crinkled. I think he was smiling under the plague mask. "Iama Yakuza leader now, I can't be caught unprepared."

"Okay, but are you actually running the Yakuza?" I asked. I was in a bit of disbelief. Sure, Evan sold marijuana when he was at university, but…

"Sort of. I'm slowly passing my responsibilities to subordinates so that way eventually I can leave the organization without causing mad chaos and a power struggle. I suppose I'm… working on not being a Yakuza leader," Evan said, looking thoughtful. Then he shrugged. "Anyway. Contact me with that burner phone and give me all the details of the manga battle. We can work together on a plan for it and the Forest Training Camp."

"Wow. Everything should go a lot smoother now that you're here," I said, feeling rather cheerful. "We barely need to worry about the Forest Training Camp at all!"

Overhaul frowned. "Don't get cocky. I may have a powerful quirk, but if anyone sees me use it, I'll get pegged as a vigilante and the whole of Japan will come down on my head. That and I'm not supposed to know where the training camp is. Involving me in your plans could be tricky."

I deflated. "Yeah, that's not good."

"I'm sure we'll think of something," said Overhaul, looking slightly guilty at ruining my good mood. "But you should go to your internship."

"One last thing," I said. "I'm a little worried about the fight with the Hero Killer Stain. I'm afraid I've changed too many things and now Iida and everyone will be in danger, but Hosu is too far from here for me to check on it."

"I'll take care of it," promised Overhaul. "I'll watch the fight and intervene if things get bad for the heroes if it really comes to that."

"Are you sure you can take on Stain?" I asked. "And what about getting accused of being a vigilante?"

"My quirk is literally alchemy from Fullmetal Alchemist, except I can do human alchemy with no consequences. I'm sure it'll be fine. I'll disguise myself just in case, but hopefully I won't need to intervene at all," said Overhaul, a bit dismissively.

"If you're sure."

Overhaul nodded. "Okay, now go."

I walked back to Gunhead's agency, never having gotten my coffee, where I greeted the receptionist and headed back to my room. A little more at ease now that I knew Evan was out there keeping an eye on the Hero Killer Stain fight, I started to get excited for martial arts tomorrow. Suddenly, I had a thought. I quickly glanced around the room for cameras. There weren't any. I carefully pulled the burner phone out of my pocket.

"Hey Evan,"I texted."Has Theo ever even watched My Hero Academia before?"

There was a pause while Evan typed."...No."

"If he's here he has no idea what's going on. No wonder he hasn't changed anything."

Notes:

TL;DR:

- Overhaul meets Mineta in an alleyway

- Overhaul reveals that he was transported from the normal world as well, on the same day as our SI/OC Ashley. In fact, he used to be Evan, Ashley's roommate's fiancee.

- They suspect that the third person in the apartment on the day they were transported, Theodore, may be somewhere in the My Hero Academia world as well.

- Mineta's excited at the possibility of using a friendly Overhaul to fix his problems, but Overhaul warns that possibilities are limited, because the police have an eye on him and he can't use his quirk in public.

- Overhaul/Evan promises not to experiment on Eri, make quirk-erasing bullets, or kill Sir Nighteye. He gives Mineta a burner phone, so they can communicate more easily.

-Overhaul agrees to keep an eye on the Hero Killer Stain fight, and to intervene if it looks like one of the hero students is going to die.

Chapter 16: a time to dance

Summary:

"You can't go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending." - C.S. Lewis

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter fornotes.)

Chapter Text

I watched as Uraraka practiced taking down someone with a knife.She's going to need that one later against Toga, if I remember correctly…I turned to focus on my own opponent. I was learning a slightly adapted version of Gunhead Martial Arts to more easily take on taller and larger opponents. In my previous life, I was a blue belt in a martial art, but it was a grappling martial art that worked best for people who were tall and spindly (which I was then). It was nothing that would help me now, so I tried to forget everything and threw myself into my new combat training, which was absolutely exhausting.

"You ought to spend more time on physical conditioning, kid. You need stamina to be a hero," my sparring partner commented.

"Noted," I wheezed.

"Now let's try that takedown again."

On one of my breaks that afternoon, I checked the news. Sure enough, live reports of the attack on Hosu by Nomu were coming in. No mention of the Hero Killer Stain yet, so that attack must still be in progress. Hopefully nothing went wrong.

If everything goes well, this will be a benefit. Now I've predicted attacks by the League of Villains and by the Hero Killer Stain. They hate each other and I can't be working for both at once. Now my innocence is totally proved.

"This only makes Mineta more suspicious. The League and Hero Killer are both in Hosu and are suspected to be working together," Aizawa said. "Is it not weird that Mineta has only been able to predict things associated with the League or their affiliates?"

"Midoriya told All Might that Mineta predicted he was injured," Present Mic said reasonably. "That's not League-affiliated."

"Unless the League knows about All Might's injury," Aizawa grunted.

"We don't know that."

"We don't knownotthat," Aizawa grumbled. Aizawa's phone buzzed. "Hm. I just got a notification from Midoriya. Let me check it."

It would be nice to not have to deal with anyone's suspicion anymore.

Meanwhile, Uraraka was being teased by Gunhead for texting a boy.Did she get the location notification from Midoriya? That definitely means the fight's in progress.

Unfortunately, I didn't have time to confirm with Uraraka. It was back to work. We kept working on martial arts, but I was antsy, with an itch to check the news every few seconds to make sure everything was going okay, meaning I made more mistakes than I should have. That was another thing to keep an eye out. Apparently I don't fight well when stressed.

After an hour or two, Gunhead pulled me aside. "Eraserhead, your homeroom teacher, just called me. He wanted me to tell you that your prediction about the danger came true."

"It did? What happened?"

"Some of your classmates were attacked by the Hero Killer… don't give me that face, kid, they're fine. One of them managed to send a message to your teacher, who got in contact with local heroes in Hosu and let them know students were in danger at that location," Gunhead explained, oddly gentle and professional for a man called Gunhead.

"Oh… that's good, then."Looks like Overhaul didn't need to get involved after all. Seems like Eraserhead sent them help early, too. Gunhead didn't mention if Iida got that nerve damage to his arm, but…

"One more thing. Might as well tell you this too, because it'll be on the news. The three of them were assisted by an unknown vigilante, with an earth manipulation quirk."

Earth manipulation…? It must be Overhaul. He must have only used his quirk on the ground, which is why they think he has earth powers. Dang! Hopefully nobody figures out that it was him.

"Did he get hurt?" I asked.

Gunhead seemed surprised by the question. "I don't think so, no."

"Good." I nodded. "So everyone's going to be okay?"

"Yes, they should be."

"Excellent. Well, you should probably tell Uraraka how Midoriya is doing. If my prediction was right then he was one of the ones attacked. They're best friends and she totally has a crush on him," I suggested. Gunhead seemed torn between looking happy he had new material to tease Uraraka with and serious that Uraraka's crush had almost been stabbed to death.

"I'll let her know he's fine," said Gunhead.

With that, we started doing cooldown exercises and stretches for the day.

Alright. The Hero Killer Stain attack has been dealt with successfully. One win, hopefully among many others to come.

Notes:

Some people have been talking about how I've been leaving everyone on cliffhangers a lot-and I'll admit it. I prewrote lots of these chapters and am willing to release them 2-3 at a time to leave y'all on a cliffhanger. You're welcome, and sorry!

Anyway, once I burn through the pre-written chapters, I'll update on a weekly schedule. Probably on Wednesdays.

Chapter 17: a time to build

Summary:

"Success is always temporary. When all is said and done, the only thing you'll have left is your character." - Vince Gill

Chapter Text

"Evan. Are you okay? I heard a vigilante helped against Stain,"I texted on the burner phone. Thankfully, the response was immediate.

"Yeah, that was me. Looking back, I think Iida might have been able to save Todoroki, but when I saw Stain about to stab Todoroki I was like 'dang, I gotta do something.'"

"They think you have the quirk Earth Manipulation."I texted.

"Yeah, that's good. I'll just use the same mask and act like my quirk is that if I have to do vigilantism, I suppose,"Overhaul responded.

"Congrats on being a vigilante, lol. Anyway, what now? I completely forget exactly what arcs come between Internships and the Forest Training Camp. No villain attacks, I think?"

"You have Final Exams. Also, that thing with Shigaraki at the mall."

"I CAN'T BELIEVE I FORGOT ABOUT THE MALL!"

"It should be easy to fix. Just tell them not to go to the mall. Or tell them to go to a different mall. They think you have future vision."

"Gotcha. I'll remember that. Got to go, bye."I put my burner phone in the back of my suitcase, this time, because I'd already packed up my hero costume. It was the end of internships, so we were going home soon.

I was significantly better at fighting than I was before I came, now knowing and having practiced a variety of holds, punches and other techniques. All the same, I would need to keep up with martial arts practice if I wanted to improve at it or stay good.

As Uraraka and I stood together waiting for Gunhead to arrive to see us off, I asked, "Hey, Uraraka, would you want to spar with me when we get back to UA? It would be nice to stay in practice with Gunhead Martial Arts."

Uraraka looked a little surprised. Then, she looked down at me consideringly. "Mineta, why do you act so different now?"

"What?" I asked.

"Why are you acting so differently? In the first few days you treated Momo and Jirou badly and leered at all the girls. Suddenly you just… stopped. At first I thought you were afraid of getting in trouble, but even when Gunhead was gone and no one was around, you were nothing but respectful. Why is that?"

"Well…" I had sort of prepared for this question. "The USJ really got me to think about getting serious about being a hero. It was a real wake-up call for me. That, and my uncle gave me a serious talk about what behavior was acceptable and what behavior was not. And… my behavior at the beginning of the year was definitely unacceptable." I bowed in apology. "I'm very sorry, especially if I made you uncomfortable."

Uraraka looked stunned. "That's…" She smiled slightly. "That's good. Though, the people you really should be apologizing too are Momo and Jirou."

Ouch. That was going to be really awkward, but she was right. Even if it technically wasn't me who did the sexual harassment, they deserved some sort of apology. I sighed. "You're right about that. I'll apologize to them when I get back."

Uraraka smiled again. "Well, I'm glad you learned your lesson. I'd be willing to spar with you when we get back to UA."

"Thanks, Uraraka. I appreciate it."

"By the way, Deku texted me and said you were the one to warn him and Aizawa-sensei that he could be in danger. Thanks for doing that," she said. We talked amicably until Gunhead arrived. We spoke only about small things, but the atmosphere was unmistakably warmer than when I had arrived.

Chapter 18: a time to throw away

Summary:

"Spectacular achievement is always preceded by unspectacular preparation." - Robert H. Schuller.

Chapter Text

It wasn't long before we were back at UA, where everyone was busy talking about their internships. Jirou mentioned she did logistical support on a hostage situation, but besides that, she mostly trained and patrolled. "All I did was train and go on patrols, too," said Tsuyu. "There was just one time when we caught smugglers from a neighboring county."

Oh dang. I'd mostly forgotten about that, too… It was sort of a background thing that happened in one episode. I couldn't really recall if anything dangerous had happened during that.Probably not? Not as dangerous as the Hero Killer, at least.

The girls asked Uraraka how her internship went, while Uraraka practiced combat moves in the background. Meanwhile, some of our other classmates were talking about the Hero Killer.

"I heard Endeavor saved you, right?"

"That's amazing! As expected from the number two hero!"

"Yeah. He saved us," Todoroki said, looking slightly disappointed.Ah. So there's still a police cover-up with Endeavor.

"Didn't a new vigilante help save you, too?" Kaminari said. "They were calling him Earthshaker on the news."

"He, ah, didn't introduce himself," said Midoriya. "But he could reshape the earth with his quirk, and he had a green mask." From there, the conversation devolved into a talk about the differences between the new vigilante Earthshaker (Does Evan know they're calling him that?) and the Hero Killer Stain. Kaminari still made a comment about the Hero Killer being cool, to which Iida said he knew why people would think of him that way, but still denounced Stain for killing to accomplish his goals, before ordering the class into their seats.Right on track.

For that day in Basic Hero Training, All Might announced that we would be having a race through Field Gamma, which was a cityscape-esque metal maze, made of densely-packed steel factories.Ah, I remember this too.The beginning group was Midoriya, Ashido, Iida, Ojiro and Sero. "All of them have really high mobility," Asui observed. "I think it will be a very close race." The rest of the class murmured in agreement.

From the video cameras, I saw Midoriya race ahead of the competition, even faster than I had anticipated.He's going even faster than he did at the Sports Festival! Is it possible he's gone beyond 5% during his training with Gran Torino? Or was the previous Full Cowl only at 3% or something?

Then, Midoriya, leaping from pipe to roof to pipe, successfully reached All Might first.I could have sworn in the original episode that Midoriya lost the race… is this proof he's improved? Does he have better control of One for All?

I was so absorbed into watching Midoriya do his race that I forgot I would have to do it too. I was pitted against Tsuyu, Jiriou, Aoyama, and Bakugou. Alright. That was fine.This is the perfect time to practice bouncing from ball-to-ball.

"Start!"

I started running towards the signal All Might was sending. I was sort of fast; while I had exercised significantly and didn't weigh a lot, my legs were still short, meaning I was only putting out an average speed.Roofs will be faster.I pulled a few balls off my head and used them to climb up the side of a factory onto the roof.Don't fall, don't fall!I threw one down and bounced off of it, launching myself onto the next roof. I ran across the roof and again, threw down another ball and went flying towards the next roof.Alright! This isn't too hard once you get into the rhythm of it!

I almost slipped up a few times, and had to slow down to right myself, but I was finally starting to make progress on the whole bouncing thing. When I arrived at All Might's location, Tsuyu and Bakugou were already there, but Aoyama and Jirou had yet to arrive.Middling result! Hooray!

Basic Training was finished shortly after. "Nice job, Midoriya," I said, swinging my backpack over my shoulder. "You've gotten faster."

"Oh, thanks!" Midoriya replied.

When I arrived back home, I sent a text to Evan ("They're calling you Earthshaker on the news!"), made dinner, and started studying for Final Exams. Now that I knew they were coming, I needed to make sure I didn't fail them. That would lead to remedial lessons.I don't want to have to deal with those. Also, the remedial lessons were happening during the villain attack, so I would be forced to stay inside rather than go help.

I was something like 5th in the class for our Midterm exams. I would need to do a little studying for Literature and Hero Art History, but there's really no reason for me to think I would fail the written. The practical, though. The practical might be difficult. As far as I knew, I'd be paired with Sero against Midnight. There really wasn't any reason for me to think that that would change, though it was a possibility.

Alright. Channel my inner Midoriya.I took out my planning notebook from the USJ and started diagramming ways to defeat Midnight. Mineta had originally done it by faking being afraid and running from the gate, then sticking Midnight down, but I wasn't sure that would work. It wasn't that Midnight knew me particularly well, but that I wasn't the best actor. My best shot would probably be making a plan with Sero and springing some kind of trap.

And now that internships were over, I could make another request for costume additions! I included a thank-you note to the support team for the changes on the previous costume, but requested a few minor additions: a taser, some caltrops, and a small medical kit for my utility belt… as well as a gas mask.Sorry Midnight, you're going down.

Chapter 19: a time to tear

Summary:

"Anything that can go wrong will go wrong." - Murphy's Law.

Chapter Text

The next day in class, Aizawa announced that we would be going to a forest lodge for our training camp, also stating that if we managed to fail our final, we wouldn't be able to go.Ah, a rational deception. Still not a good idea to fail, though, otherwise I'll get stuck inside remedial lessons during the attack.

Say... what if a bunch of people failed their finals? They would all be stuck inside during the attack, which would be a good thing!

I could sabotage everyone's finals.The idea flashed through my mind. But how would I even do that? And, of course, there's Bakugou's kidnapping to think about. If it doesn't happen, then All for One and All Might won't have their final battle at Kamino Ward. They'll have to have it at some unknown later date, which isn't good. The more time passes before the final battle between All Might and AfO, the worse All Might's chances get, because he's running out of quirk. All the same, is it even ethical toletBakugou get kidnapped?

At the same time… how could I stop the kidnapping? I could suggest we move the training camp, but the villains would probably still find it. Especially if there was still a traitor within the class.

Maybe the best thing to do would be to let the attack happen, but to try to take out key members of the League, like Toga, Twice and Dabi, while they're there at the attack so we don't have to worry about them later.

In that case, if the goal is to take down as many League opponents as possible, keeping the class away from the fighting would technically be counterintuitive, but to put them in danger…

"Mineta, man! How are you so calm? We don't even know what the practical test is!" Kaminari said, in a cross between a whine and a wail. "I haven't been studying all semester!"

"I can help tutor in English and Math, those are my best subjects," I said. "I also need to run something by you after school today."

"Well, alright," Kaminari said.

At lunch that day, when Kendo told the class we would be fighting robots for the finals, I said nothing. I didn't really want to interfere with the class 1-B finals, mostly because I couldn't recall how they went. Better not change something when I would know the effect.

After school that day, I told Kaminari to follow me. Once we were both a decent distance from UA, I said, "Two things. Firstly, we're not going to be fighting robots for the final exam. We're going to be fighting real people, most likely our teachers. Second, there's danger at the forest lodge. Thus, anyone who passes the final will be in significant danger."

Kaminari looked at me wide-eyed. "What?"

"Both of those are feelings I'm getting. In particular, I'm predicting a villain attack at the forest lodge. So, if you want, I could help you study for the practical portion, because I have a sense for what it's going to be. But if you pass…"

"I'll be in danger," he breathes. "That's not good. Why don't you tell Aizawa?"

"I will," I promised. "I'll let him know about the danger. I just don't want you to get caught in the villain attack. All the same, if a large portion of the class fails their finals, then therestof the class will be vulnerable because when the villains attack, there will be less classmates against more villains," I said, taking a deep breath. "Well, anyway. I just wanted you to be able to make an informed decision."
"Why didn't you announce this to the class, though?" Kaminari asked. "Back at school?"

"I didn't want Nedzu or any of the teachers to overhear or see with cameras that we already know the practical portion of the finals. If we want to all pass, it's best we have the advantage of surprise. I also thought that since you're studying with Yaoyorozu's group later this week, you could tell them all of this when you're at her house?"

Karminari looked serious. "Yeah, I can tell them. I have a lot to think about, when it comes to whether or not I should pass the final."

"Maybe we could meet up tomorrow," I ventured. "At a cafe or something."

He smiled in response. "Yeah, that'd be nice. But man, villain attack. That sucks…"

"It does. But I should go before I miss my bus."

I took the bus ride home, distantly wondering if I'd made the right decision. Rather than try to fail or pass a bunch of students to tip the fight one way or another, I let the students know a fight was coming and let them pick for themselves.Yeesh. I have no idea if that was the right call, but at least I made a decision.

I checked my texts from Evan on the burner phone. He seemed to like the name Earthshaker and was slightly gleeful at his newfound fame.I texted him something in return("I plan on letting everyone know there's going to be an attack in the Forest Training Camp. Maybe the teachers will be able to set a trap for the villains or something.")and I put the burner phone on the inside pocket of my coat.

I got off the bus and started making dinner, as usual. An extra portion for uncle Haruki.

I heard the door open behind me. Huh, seems like he was home early. Maybe he could eat his dinner warm for once. I turned around. "Yo, uncl…"

That. That was not my uncle.

Kurogiri?

In a torrent of purple mist, I was taken from home and plopped in the middle of the League of Villains headquarters. In a cell.

"Wha?"

Shigaraki stood on the other side of the bars. He reached through them and grabbed my cell phone from my hand, dissolving it. "Sensei says you've got an interesting quirk. One that's interfering with our plans."

They can't be talking about Pop Off. My future-sight quirk? But how do they know?

…

The UA traitor. It has to be. My 'quirk' hasn't been registered yet, the only people who know about it are Class 1-A, Gunhead and the teachers. But if we had a traitor at UA, logically they would tell All for One I had a quirk that provided limited future vision. And if I were a villain and I knew one of my targets could predict my attacks…

I would take them out first.

Chapter 20: a time to hate

Summary:

"Survival can be summed up in three words: never give up. That's the heart of it, really." - Bear Grylls.

Chapter Text

So. The UA traitor, or some kind of information leak, let the villains know I had a 'secondary quirk' that provided future sight.I didn't even think about how this would make me a target!

"What do you want with me?" I demanded.

"Sensei thinks your quirk is interesting," Shigaraki repeated. "So he might have the doctor study it." His expression was smug.

Not good. I don't have that quirk! If All for One comes in contact with me he'll instantly know that I was lying about the future vision thing. He might take Pop-Off from me, or I might be experimented on.

All right! Stay calm. What do I need to do?

I need to escape before I come in contact with All for One or the doctor. Rescue is possible, but my uncle might not notice I'm gone until the morning. I need to try to get out of here on my own, as fast as possible.

Shigaraki had definitely dissolved my cell phone, but I still felt the weight of the burner phone in my inside jacket pocket. On the other hand, Shigaraki was still standing right in front of me. If he saw me take it out, he would break it.I need to wait until he's not paying attention to call for help. But if I wait too long, All for One might show up. It's all about timing…

Shigaraki was ranting about something, so I put on my best scared face. It was pretty realistic, considering I was actually terrified. I did a quick scan of the area and… yep, that was probably a camera in the corner of the room.

Shigaraki seemed very absorbed in his speech about the Hero Killer, Earthshaker, and how he hadn't gotten any attention from the attack on Hosu. "The news coverage was unbalanced," I added cautiously. "I'm sure the Nomu did more damage than the Hero Killer ever could."

Shigaraki laughed. It wasn't a very pretty sound. "Exactly! Why does everyone think that Stain is better than me, when all he wants is to destroy whathehates as well?"

I didn't know how to respond to that. The honest answer would probably get me killed. Luckily, the question was rhetorical, and Shigaraki kept talking. "Say, how come you told me that Sensei was a betrayer? You were wrong, by the way, he hasn't betrayed anyone."

"I was just trying to distract you," I admitted. "I don't know anything about your Sensei."

Shigaraki took a moment to look superior.

I tugged my arms inside my jacket to get my hands closer to the burner phone. "It's cold in here," I added.

Shigaraki did not look very sympathetic. "You should have thought of that before you started interfering with our plans. I have to leave, but I'm sure the doctor or someone will come for you soon." As Shigaraki exited, I turned away from the camera, careful to make it look like I was sulking. Then I took the burner phone from my inside jacket pocket, using my body to shield what I was doing from the camera's view. I silenced the phone (thankgoodnessno one had texted me during those few minutes) and turned down the brightness. Hopefully nobody was noticing this.

Okay, time to pull a Midoriya.I texted my location to Evan, with the short additional message of"SOS, kidnapped by LoV"and then placed my phone carefully back in the inside pocket. After that, I made a show of pulling my arms out of my jacket and flopping on the ground in what could be perceived as boredom or helplessness.Evan, you better contact the authorities quickly! I can't afford to call the police; if they hear me talking to someone on the phone and know that help is on the way, they might move me. And I don't know what Aizawa-sensei's number is. Damn, I should have demanded his contact information from Iida or Midoriya or something.

Minutes ticked by to my increasing unease. It was difficult to tell time in here and I sure wasn't going to risk pulling out the burner phone to check what time it was. I started pacing. I checked my cell for flaws and weaknesses (the walls were brick. On the bars there were a few rusted spots, but nothing someone without a strength quirk could take advantage of). I toyed with the padlock for a little bit but I didn't have anything sharp to pick it with, like a hairpin, so all I could really do was tug on it ineffectively. Not that I knew how to pick locks in the first place…after this I'm going to learn and carry lockpicks everywhere!

I was sitting cross legged and sifting through the dust that used to be my cell phone when I heard footsteps echo down the hallway. A young man with brown hair and a red coat stood in front of my cell. No one that I recognized. He didn't look like a hero or a cop.Probably works for All for One then.

The man pulled out a key and unlocked my cell. "Come with me," he said in a flat voice.

Alright, now's a good time to escape!The moment the door was unlocked, I darted around his legs and started to run. Suddenly, however, my legs and arms seized up. I toppled over.

"My quirk." He sounded bored. "Paralysis. I was hoping I wouldn't have to use it."

He didn't even touch me! Is it based on eye contact?

He grabbed my jacket and started dragging me in the other direction.Not good!The low levels of panic I felt before started to rise.Stay calm, stay calm! Try to keep an eye on the layout of this place.We went through a few winding halls. No obvious exits, but a few staircases goes up.Are we in a basement?

The room we entered looked vaguely like a laboratory. The walls were white and the lighting was annoyingly bright. Surgical tools and other medical equipment decorated the walls. Unknown but not-looking-very-good-for-me things were also scattered about the room, like tubes filled with clear greenish liquid. The man placed me down on the metal table in the center, strapping down my hands and feet. Not that it was even necessary, I still couldn't move at all.This is getting worse every second!

"What's going on," I said. He didn't reply.

"What's going on?" I repeated a little more loudly, feeling panicky. He still said nothing.

"Hey! What's…"

"Would youstop talking," the man hissed. "I'm getting a headache."

"I'll stop talking if you tell me what's going on," I said.

"Ugh! Fine. First the doctor's going to establish a baseline for your vitals. Then he'll probably test how your quirk works or how it affects your body, or something. Do I look like I know anything about the science involved?" The man hissed again, rubbing his temples.Hm. Probably a bodyguard then. Maybe the headache is a side effect of using his quirk.

I went silent again and tried to focus on moving. It wasn't going well. While I could blink and speak, when I tried to move my arms and legs, all they would do was jerk slightly. The most I could manage was a twitch of my fingers. The man leaned against the wall, a scowl plastered onto his face.Stop acting like you're having a bad day! I'm having a much worse day than you, random villain.

More footsteps started echoing down the hall. Panic rose in my throat.No no no! This is bad. I don't have any way to escape in this situation at all, and…there was a loud thump, and … I could move again!

I quickly turned my head to the source of the noise. The man who had brought me here was on the ground unconscious -his paralysis quirk must only work when he's awake,part of me thought - and standing over him, was a man in a green mask.

A green mask, that hair…"Earthshaker?"

"Yep, it's me." Overhaul's voice.

"I've never been so glad to see you, ever," I said, sighing in relief.

"We better get out of here. I've had to have tripped some kind of alarm by now," he said, undoing my restraints. He used his quirk to manipulate the ground, blocking the door and absolutely trashing the lab. Then, he touched the wall, which restructured itself into a staircase that led into the light. Picking me up (I opened my mouth to complain about everyone picking me up lately, but closed it, deciding to just be grateful for the rescue), Evan (Earthshaker?) ran up the stairs and into an alley. He pulled me into a side street and into the backseat of a vehicle with him. "Drive," Evan ordered whoever was in the front, and they did.

"Holy crap, I'm alive," I breathed.

"Here," said Overhaul, handing me a phone.

"Do you want me to call someone?" I asked.

"No." He clicked on the Tetris app. "Play Tetris. I heard somewhere that it decreases your odds of getting flashbacks after a traumatic event, and I want to know if that works."

"Nothing really happened to me, I'm not hurt," I insisted, but opened the Tetris app.

"You were still kidnapped. It was probably a traumatic experience regardless," said Overhaul, with all the grace of someone who had been halfway through a PhD in Psychology.

"All right." I conceded the point.

As I played Tetris, I asked, "Where are we going? Are you taking me home?"

Overhaul shook his head. "No. The League knows where you live, Kurogiri could just teleport there and re-kidnap you. We're going to my new apartment."

"Oh."

"Yeah, it's not great, but UA should have dorms soon, so at least once those are up you won't have to think about it." Overhaul looked over my shoulder and at the phone I was holding. "You're terrible at Tetris." I laughed at that, breaking into giggles. From there I just couldn't stop laughing. Overhaul, looking extremely concerned at my laughing fit, gave me an awkward pat on the shoulder. "I'm fine," I wheezed. "Just… lots of nervous tension. Releasing it through laughter." Overhaul nodded in a way that was still concerned, but also understanding.

The car came to a stop. "Thank you, Nemoto," Overhaul said to the driver.

I followed Overhaul up a few flights of stairs and to his apartment. His apartment was medium-sized, a one-bedroom with a kitchen and living room. It seemed he hadn't moved into it very long ago, either. Some of his belongings were still in boxes.

I sat on the couch and played more Tetris. Overhaul draped a fuzzy blanket over my shoulders which, admittedly, did make me feel a lot better.

Playing Tetris, wrapped in blankets, on Overhaul's couch, after being kidnapped by the League. In the world of My Hero Academia. "What a bizarre situation," I said.

"Definitely," said Overhaul. "Now how am I going to return you?"

I looked over at him. "What do you mean?"

"I have to give youbackto the school at some point, but if I go in-person as Chisaki Kai I'll put myself under suspicion, and if I go as Earthshaker I might get arrested. Like, do I just drop you off at a police station?"

"I'm not sure if anyone's noticed I'm missing, either," I said. "They might not notice I'm gone until the morning, since my uncle gets home so late."

"That makes things pretty complicated," said Overhaul. "Hm."

"You could drop me off at UA," I suggested. "They'd probably know what to do."

"I don't want to face their army of teachers," said Overhaul, grimacing.

"Drop me off a block or two from the entrance. I can walk the rest of the way and then you'll have time to leave before anyone comes after you, if they do at all."

"That's a good idea," said Overhaul, nodding. "You can sleep here tonight and then tomorrow morning, I'll drop you off at UA. Just remember to report you got kidnapped by Shigaraki and rescued by Earthshaker," said Overhaul.

"Right," I responded. Overhaul disappeared for a brief moment, then returned, depositing an armful of pillows and blankets on my lap. "These are for you! You can sleep on the couch."

"Thank you," I said, hugging the pile of blankets. I sighed. "Man, what a day."

Overhaul laughed. "Yeah, what a day."

Chapter 21: a time to embrace

Summary:

"Life is like Tetris. You can never really win, you can only try to keep going." - Unknown.

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter fornotes.)

Chapter Text

Completely exhausted and no longer in imminent danger, I fell asleep almost immediately under a mountain of blankets. All the same, sleep was fitful. I woke up a few times and found it hard to fall back asleep. The third or fourth time it happened, at around 4 AM, I just curled up and stayed awake playing Tetris.

When the lights in the kitchen were on and a pleasant smell started wafting from the room, I dragged myself off the couch and stumbled into the kitchen.

"You look like the walking dead," commented Evan as I hoisted myself onto one of the kitchen stools. "Yeah," I said.

"Well, you'll have no problem convincing everyone you were kidnapped," he said. "Between your general exhaustion and your state of dress."

I looked down at my clothes and saw they were covered in dirt and dust, with one of my jacket sleeves torn nearly in half. Matching those were scrapes on both my hands and face. "That's from getting dragged across the ground," I explained. I examined my jacket more closely. It didn't look very salvageable. "...darn, that was a nice jacket."

Overhaul placed a plate of pancakes and bacon in front of me. I ate absentmindedly.

"You really do look terrible though. Are you alright?"

"I'm fine… just had a hard time sleeping," I said. "It wasn't that I had bad nightmares, or anything. It's that I'd wake up a few times and then I couldn't go back to sleep."

Overhaul looked sympathetic. "That sucks. I know you can't really talk about some of the stuff you're going through with anyone else, so if you need to talk with anyone, I'll be there for you."

I smiled. "Thanks. And if you need anything, I'll try to help too. I know it can't have been easy to adjust to beingOverhaul, of all people."

Evan shook his head. "Man, I completely panicked. Almost outed myself as an imposter, too," he said. From there, over breakfast, we shared our stories from when we had flipped over into this world, and particular moments of hilarity. When we were done eating, I felt lighter than I had for a while.

"Alright! Let's get moving. We should replace your burner phone, though. It's good to get a new one every so often." Overhaul pulled a burner phone out of his pocket. I pulled mine out of my pocket, and we traded. Overhaul crushed the old one. "Already has my contact programmed in. If you get kidnapped again…"

"I know who to call," I said, amused.

The two of us got into a generic-looking white car with tinted windows. "This is such a suspicious car," I said. "It looks like the kind you kidnap children with."

"I'm doing the opposite. I'm returning the kidnapped child like a responsible adult," said Overhaul with a grin. "Now, off to UA!"

When we were a few blocks away from UA and behind a convenient building (not far from my bus stop, actually) I got out of the car. "Best of luck, Ash- Mineta," he corrected himself. "Don't lose that burner phone."

I nodded in response. "Thanks for saving me."

"It was no problem," he said. I closed the car door and began the short trek to UA. I entered through the gates with no issue(Student ID in the back pocket, yeah!)and walked to class. I glanced at one of the clocks in the hallway, checking the time.Hm. Everyone should be in English class right now.

Present Mic was at the front of the class, going over cognates, but the class seemed rather subdued. Odd, they were usually so enthusiastic in English. I opened the door. "Hey, everyone. Sorry I'm late, I…"

"Mineta!" Ashido leapt from her seat, knocking over a pile of papers. The class exploded in a frenzy of activity. Everyone was speaking at once, but I definitely heard a panicked "Aizawa said you were gone! He said they didn't know where you were!" from Kaminari.Ah, the heroes noticed I was missing and then told the class.

"QUIET DOWN!" Present Mic's quirk echoed around the room, quickly quieting the class.

In the brief moment of silence, I said, "I'm sorry, I got kidnapped." This might have spawned a new round of shouting had Mic not held up his hand and given the room a warning glance like I'd never seen on his face before. "Mineta, what happened?"

"The purple mist villain from the USJ teleported me into their base, but I got rescued by a vigilante guy who dropped me off a little ways from the UA gates, like ten minutes ago. So I just walked here," I explained.

"You look terrible! Are you okay?!" Kirishima shouted the question.

"Yes, I'm fine. Just some scrapes and bruises," I responded.

Before anyone else could say anything, Present Mic interjected, "I texted Aizawa. He's on his way. Your uncle is being contacted as well." As he finished his statement, Aizawa opened the door. "Mineta, come with me."

I followed Aizawa out into the hallway. The cacophony of questions that were thrown at Present Mic became muffled as the door closed. "What happened?" he demanded, taking in my disheveled appearance.

"Got kidnapped," I explained for the second time. "By the League of Villains. The purple mist one teleported me from my house, but the vigilante Earthshaker saved me and dropped me off a five or ten minute walk from the UA gates, so I came here." Aizawa crouched down and began checking me for injuries. "Did anyone use their quirk on you?" he asked.

"Only once. There was this quirk, Paralysis…"

Aizawa frowned at the words. "Let's get you to Recovery Girl for a check-up."

"I'm not hurt!" I insisted, but Aizawa shook his head. "We should check just in case, and make sure there weren't any side effects to that quirk as well."

The check-up with Recovery Girl was quick. She ascertained fairly easily that I was essentially uninjured and that the Paralysis quirk didn't have any side effects. At the end, she gave me a quick kiss to heal my scrapes, as well as a gummy.These gummies taste delicious. No wonder Midoriya gets hurt so often.I sat in the waiting room with Aizawa until my uncle arrived, bursting in dramatically. "Minoru!" He rushed over to me, and seeing I wasn't hurt, gave me a squeeze.

"I'm just fine," I said, returning his hug.

"You were kidnapped!"

I wasn't sure how to respond to that exactly, so I gave a slight shrug, saying, "I'm happy to not be kidnapped anymore?"

My uncle hugged me again. After the moment was over, Aizawa gave a polite cough. "You'll have to give a statement to the police," he said. "Tell them what happened, essentially. The police will be working with UA to catch the people involved."

"That's fine," I said. "I don't know the location of their base, though. If you want to know it you should probably ask Earthshaker," I pointed out. Aizawa nodded. "Alright. UA's liaison with the police is already here- if you want, we can get this over with right away. Though, if you need more time… " Aizawa said, but I shook my head. "Now is fine."

The three of us walked together towards one of the rooms by Nedzu's office. My uncle sat in one of the uncomfortable waiting chairs outside the meeting room, looking nervous, but I assured him that everything would be fine. Aizawa and I entered together, and there was UA's police liaison… Tsukauchi.

Tsukauchi Naomasa. Hm, I should have expected him. His quirk is essentially Lie Detector. He could pose an obstacle… if one of his questions is too pointed or catches me off guard, I might accidentally find myself telling a lie I can't explain away easily.

Well, I guess I'd just have to be extra truthful during this next interrogation.

Notes:

Unrelated to the story but has anyone seen the OVA "Make it! Do-or-Die Survival Training"? It's the one where the group goes to try and rescue a dummy from a fake 'collapsing building' but then the building actually starts to collapse on the students.

Spoiler warning for it if you want to watch it, but something about it really irritated me. After the building collapses on top of the students, Aizawa talks about how the collapse was 'within parameters', like they didn't necessarily want this training-ground building to collapse, but that it wasn't completely unexpected.

Okay first of all, someone could have been killed. What if someone had gotten hit in the spine with rubble and then died? Heck, a boulder actually hit Bakugou in the leg. What if that had been a more damaging injury and then he had a permanent leg injury? It could've happened! Jeez, why wait for the League of Villains to kill your students when you can let them die yourself. It drained all the tension from the OVA when everyone acted like the supremely life-threatening situation was completely normal and fine.
And what about the fact that the rubble was rapidly filling with water and several students nearly drowned? Was that within parameters, Aizawa? ? This isn't the Chunin Exams, you can't just let half the students die! It honestly seems like 3 out of 4 of this show's OVAs are in the format of "training exercises gone wrong" except in all of them Aizawa just stands there acting like nothing went wrong.
ANyway.
I hope you enjoyed the chapter!

Chapter 22: a time to refrain from embracing

Summary:

"I am prepared for the worst, but I hope for the best." - Benjamin Disraeli.

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter fornotes.)

Chapter Text

The first few questions were basic. Things like name, what time I was kidnapped, and what I was doing at that point. ("Making dinner," I'd said.)

The next question was abouthowI was kidnapped. "I heard someone at the door, I explained. "I thought it might be my uncle, but it was actually the purple mist villain from the USJ. He teleported me into their base."

"Do you know where you were? What it looked like?"

"I was in a cell, with bars and everything. But I didn't know exactly where I was."

"Alright. What happened next, then?"

"I was holding my phone, but Shigaraki, the one from the USJ with the disembodied hands, he took my phone and dissolved it. Then he started ranting to me about how the Hero Killer and Earthshaker were getting more media attention than he was, and how mad he was about it," I said.

"He was angry he wasn't getting media attention?"

"Yeah, really mad. I just tried to placate him and after a little bit he left."

"So what did you do after that?" said the detective.

"Well, I tried to look for ways to get out but there weren't any. I can't pick locks. After ages and ages, this guy came in, he had brown hair and a red coat."

"Did you recognize him?"

"No, I didn't."

"So, what did he do?"

"Unlocked the door. I tried to run from him but he used his quirk, Paralysis, so I couldn't move. It wasn't touch-based, he didn't need to touch me. But it seemed like using his quirk gave him a migraine. Or, I don't know. Maybe it was a coincidence and he just had a migraine at the same time." I shrugged. "He dragged me off to some weird laboratory."
"What did it look like?" the detective pressed.

"White walls and bright lights, full of weird medical equipment. I got put down on the metal table in the center- by the way, I didn't mention this earlier, but Shigaraki said that his 'Sensei' was interested in my quirk and he would have 'the doctor' experiment on me. So, there's that…" I said.

"Do you know who 'Sensei' and 'the doctor' are?"

I was about to sayNo,but then I realized the answer was actuallyYes. Ugh, time to obfuscate. "I think the Sensei was his boss. The doctor was… well, I don't know. He was a doctor? I didn't get to meet either of them."Technically true.

The detective nodded. "So, after that what happened?"

"Then I heard a crash from the other side of the room and I could move again. The vigilante called Earthshaker knocked out the red coat guy. I'm guessing that's why his quirk turned off. Earthshaker used his quirk to reshape the wall into an exit, and we left out into an alleyway."

"Did you recognize any of your surroundings at that point?"

I shook my head. "No. It looked like any other alleway to me. I stopped paying much attention at that point, I was pretty out of it." Tsukauchi tried to fish more details out of me, and I gave him my best estimate, but there wasn't very much I remembered. Once I was rescued I really had stopped paying attention. Tsukauchi also circled back and asked questions about the villain in the red coat. I described him the best I could.

"Do you know why the villains took you?"

"Well, yes. First, they thought my quirk was interesting, so they wanted to study it or experiment on me or something. Second, I think they're planning more attacks on UA. Strategically speaking, they probably want to take me out now so I won't be able to predict their attacks in the future," I said. There was dead silence in the room for a moment.

"How do you know this?" Tsukauchi asked softly.

"Shigaraki told me that Sensei thought my quirk was interesting, and that it was 'interfering in their plans.' I just took it to its logical conclusion," I said. "What I want to know is how the villains figured out I have a limited future vision quirk. I haven't had it registered yet. The only people whoshouldknow are UA teachers, Class 1-A, Gunhead and whoever they told. Does rumor really spread so fast?" I let the question hang in the air. Then I shrugged. "Whatever. I hope the League of Villains gets taken down soon so I don't have to worry about them."

"Thank you for your time," Tsukauchi said politely. I nodded.

I think that went well. That 'interrogation' was rather intrusive, but not necessarily accusatory. He wasn't necessarily trying to trap you in a lie, just confirm that you really did get kidnapped…

"What do you think?" Aizawa asked. He and Nedzu had just received and listened to the audio recording of his student's questioning, with notes from Tsukauchi on what statements rang true and false.

Nedzu sifted through Tsukauchi's notes, humming. "From this interview, there are several statements we now know to be true. That last night, he was taken involuntarily from his home by Kurogiri to the League of Villains base, where Shigaraki disintegrated his phone. That Shigaraki said Mineta was interfering with the League's plans. That Mineta doesn't know where the League's base is. And, perhaps most tellingly, that Mineta wants the League of Villains to fail. All of these things are indicative that either Mineta never worked with the League, or that he was working with them previously but is doing so no longer," said Nedzu. "The only notable lie is when he said he 'didn't know' who the doctor was. Though the fact that he didn't meet the doctor in person is true."

"Hm. Maybe he didn't want to talk about it," Aizawa suggested.

Nedzu nodded in acknowledgement, tapping a paw against his chin. "Itispossible he lied to avoid having to retell a traumatic experience. It's also possible that if he had been working with the League before, he might have heard about the doctor then. It's difficult to tell one way or the other."

"What about his quirk?" Aizawa asked. "Looking back at what happened in Hosu, there should have been no way for him to know that Midoriya and Todoroki were going to come into contact with the Hero Killer. Those two ending up in Hosu was the result of spontaneous decisions," Aizawa pointed out. "The odds of him predicting that without future vision are one in a million."

"You're right, it's nearly impossible for him to have known that without some form of future vision," Nedzu admitted. "It makes it quite possible that he does indeed have that second quirk. Likely, even."

"You sound hesitant. What's the catch?"

"I'm not quite sure myself," said Nedzu, a curious glint in his eye. "While it's possible he's telling the truth about his quirk, I suspect there may be something he's not telling us. I can't say exactly why, but I have the feeling that I'm missing a vital piece to this puzzle," Nedzu suggested. "But don't worry. I'm sure I'll figure it out soon enough."

"So he escaped."

"Yes, he did. It's true. Does this mean we're going to need to change our plans?"

"Not necessarily. We may have lost Mineta, but we learned a few things about his quirk in the process. One, his future vision is imperfect. He was not able to predict us coming to kidnap him. That speaks to a limitation. Two, his future vision is not specific. He talks of coming danger, but is unable to explain the specifics of said danger. Thus, while the fact that we are coming may not be a surprise, what we bring with us may still be surprising."

"Interesting. Then what next?"

"We continue as planned, but we strike fast and hard. There is still a chance we'll have the opportunity to take the heroes off guard."

"Should we try to catch Mineta again?"

"Hm. No. Security around him will be increased to the point of making that near impossible, or at least not worth it. Instead, we should focus on dealing with a different thorn in our side… perhaps it's time to deal with that irritating vigilante, Earthshaker."

Notes:

One trope that bothers me in SI/OC, time travel fics (or even vigilante ones in the MHA fandom) is when kind/compassionate characters in canon act like an asshole because they're slightly suspicious of another character. Is it just me who noticed this? Either way, I try to avoid it. Nedzu and Aizawa see Mineta as one of their students, so ultimately their goal is to help him, even if he's acting a little strangely (or they suspect he had shady dealings in the past).

Though, if the two of them concluded that some random person stole Mineta's body, they might treat the situation quite differently…

Chapter 23: a time for peace

Summary:

"You cannot find peace by avoiding life." - Virgina Woolf

Chapter Text

After I spoke to the police, my uncle and I talked briefly with Principal Nedzu about living arrangements. Nedzu came to the same conclusion that Evan did (that because the villains knew where my house was, it was dangerous to live there) and as a result, began to formulate a dorm system.Huh, the dorms are being created early,I thought.

In the meantime, UA was willing to provide alternative housing, as well as a pro-hero escort to campus.(Thank goodness UA is rich.)All that was left to do was pick up belongings from our old home and bring them to the new place. My uncle, rather worried about these villains and easily manipulated (sorry uncle, I love you but it's true) was quickly maneuvered into accepting this by Nedzu. Though, to be fair, the deal seemed alright. The temporary housing offered was rather nice and my uncle's attachment to his house was flimsy.

I had the rest of the day off to move into the new home. The school offered several extra days off for recovery purposes, but I declined. Finals would be starting in two days and I didn't want to retake them. "Can we stop by Class 1-A again before we leave?" I asked. Nedzu gave a wide smile. I couldn't tell if it was real. "Of course! Feel free. They should be finishing Modern Hero Art History right about now."

Aizawa and my uncle trailed after me as I walked towards the 1-A Classroom. I paused for a moment, wondering if I should interrupt class, but decided since there was only six minutes left, I would just chalk it up as revenge against Midnight for making all those questionable statements around children. I opened the door. "Hi."

"Mineta, you're back!" said Kirishima. I entered the room and while Iida attempted to insist upon order, a few members of the class left their desks and clustered around me. "Dude, what happened?" asked Sero.

"I'm fine everyone! Like I said, kidnapping, but I ended up getting saved right away. Now UA is adding new safety measures so that doesn't happen again."

"Who saved you?" Todoroki asked calmly, from his seat. "Before you said it was a vigilante."

"It was Earthshaker," I said. Todoroki's eyes widened minutely, before his face returned to its default expression. "I see." The revelation led to a few murmurs among the class. "So he's the one who saved you! I knew Earthshaker was cool!" Kaminari cheered.

Wait a minute. Kaminari.I told Kaminari about the attack on the Forest Training Camp on the day I was kidnapped. Could… could he have told the League of Villains that I knew of their plans, which could have convinced them to kidnap me before I told anyone else?

No, no, it can't be him. It can't! Sure, I thought he might be the traitor when I was watching My Hero Academia, but now IknowKaminari. He's my friend! He would never do something like that, right?

"Are you okay?" Sato asked, his eyebrows slightly furrowed in confusion and concern. "You look a little bit upset."

"Yes, I'm fine. I just wanted to say goodbye to everyone before I go home today. I'm coming back tomorrow," I said. The class was disappointed I had to leave right away, but most people seemed either worried about me or happy that I was back. There were exceptions, of course (Todoroki's face always looked the same to me, and Bakugou didn't act concerned in the slightest) but even people like Jirou and Yaoyorozu looked vaguely relieved.Well that's nice. I'm glad we're at a relationship level in which they don't want me dead.

After a few minutes more, as Modern Literature was starting, I waved everyone goodbye and my uncle and I, plus Aizawa, started walking towards UA's entrance. As we walked, Aizawa slowed pace a moment to talk to me. "Mineta," he started, in a low voice. "You've been through a lot in the past day." Slightly confused, I nodded. "UA has counseling and mental health services available," said Aizawa. "And if you would prefer to look outside UA, the school would fund that option as well."

My first instinct was to deny I needed any help. But, as I thought about it for a second, I decided not to be so hasty.Therapy can be beneficial for everyone, even people who don't have mental illness,I reminded myself.There's not much stigma surrounding therapy in this world, in comparison to my old one, too.I took a moment to formulate my thoughts, then said, "Thank you. I'll consider it." A flicker of surprise made its way to Aizawa's face, but he quickly masked it and nodded. Once we arrived at the entrance, there were two pro-heroes I didn't recognize ready to escort us to grab things from our old home. "Bye, Aizawa-sensei," I said.

We travelled by car. There was little conversation between my uncle and I and the pro-heroes, which was just fine with me. When I walked into the house together, I was stunned.

It was absolutelytrashed.The floors were covered in dust and it looked as though half the furniture and appliances had been disintegrated. No wonder my uncle had been so willing to leave. One of the conditions had been that the new housing would be pre-furnished. "Oh, wow," I said. "I didn't know it looked like this."

"Yes. When I came back to this, and the heroes said the villain could disintegrate anything, and we couldn't find you, I thought maybe… you had been turned to dust as well," said my uncle, looking near tears.Oh my god.I gave him a comforting pat on the back. "I'm fine now. We should pick up our things."And here I thought they might not notice I was missing.

After looking around a bit I concluded that my backpack had either been disintegrated or confiscated by the police for evidence. I wasn't quite sure which.How annoying.Luckily, my laptop was still charging in the corner of the room where I'd left it. I found a suitcase in the closet and started putting clothes, blankets and items in there. My bedside table was mostly untouched (except for my lamp, which was destroyed) and I discovered that my letters and planning notebook had been left alone in the bottom of my bedside table.Phew. Bullet dodged. I suppose I really ought to get a better place for them.

I put my papers in folders and packed them away, along with all the posters I wanted to keep, though all the All Might ones had been conspicuously destroyed.Hm.

I pulled my suitcase along, wishing it had wheels, meeting my uncle in the living room. "You have everything?" my uncle asked. "Toothbrushes, pajamas…"

"I've got them, don't worry," I said.

A 20-minute drive later, the new house. It was similarly-sized to the previous one, with a pristine type of feel that indicated to me it had never really been lived in. Unlike the previous one, however, it was a simple five minute walk from UA or maybe a one or two minute bike ride. Huh. When I'd chosen which bedroom was mine, I started laying out my things, before I took out the burner phone and sent a quick text to Evan."Nedzu moved us to a different home. Everything is still going fine. Also…"I paused a moment before I continued texting."I'm a little suspicious of Kaminari of being the traitor. It's only circumstantial, but I was kidnapped after warning him about the Forest Training Camp. I want to trust him so much because he's my best friend now, but you need to know in case I go missing."I shoved the burner phone back in my pocket. Mistrust was an ugly feeling.

I decided to spend the rest of the night studying for finals. All my written notes had been unceremoniously destroyed, but there were plenty of things I had online to study and fuel all my feelings into.I ought to be able to get 1st in the class, dang it! I'm competing against children!I studied very angrily.

My anger subsided into amusement when, after realizing that several of my Literature assignments had been destroyed, I was forced to send the following email:

Dear Cementoss,

I was wondering if you would be willing to provide me an extra copy of the two assignments on the book Sunrise, Sunset, as well as an extension of one or two days to finish them. Unfortunately, my previous copies of these assignments were disintegrated by Shigaraki (that guy with the hands from the USJ) during an unanticipated villain incident.

Sincerely,

Mineta.

In my inbox also was an email from Yaoyorozu.

Dear Mineta,

We're having a class meeting to discuss our Final Exams at my home on 456. South Pemblington Drive, and you are invited and encouraged to participate! Kaminari indicated to me that you may be able to help us study for certain aspects of the test.

Thank you,

Yaoyorozu Momo

Oh, so Kaminari told her about the fact that I knew about the practical portion of the Final Exams and now, a class meeting was happening! At least I wouldn't have to do it myself. Even as my uncle called me down for dinner, I smiled and began to form a new plan.

Chapter 24: a time to love

Summary:

"The two most powerful warriors are patience and time." - Leo Tolstoy

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter fornotes.)

Chapter Text

It was the next morning. I'd gotten a little bit of a better sleep, showered, and changed clothes. I probably looked much healthier than I did yesterday. When I sleepily walked over to the table where my uncle was setting up utensils, he asked, "Are you sure you're ready to go back to school today?"

"I'm sure," I said. "Besides, I wanna see my classmates again."

After breakfast, I gave him an extra tight hug. "I'll be fine."

"If you ever feel like going home, I'm sure they'll understand," he said.

"I know."

I took a quick jog to UA. It was nice, actually, that it was so close. The route was heavily patrolled by heroes, making it one of the safest. I could wake up nice and late and not need to take a bus. I arrived at class a few minutes early and settled into my seat. The few people in class already there told me "welcome back" and I thanked them in response. After that, I started doodling in my notebook to avoid conversation. Then, a familiar yet unexpected face walked into class.

"Shinsou?" I asked.

"Yep, that's me."

He must have been chosen to be in Class 1-A because of the Sports Festival! "Welcome to Class 1-A!" I said cheerfully.

"... thanks," he responded. He sat down in a chair two places behind me, in an extra seat that I hadn't noticed before.

"Wait…" I said. "Weren't you supposed to join our class a little earlier?"

"Technically, yes," said Shinsou. "But there were a few delays. Some bureaucracy, some paperwork, kidnappings…"

"Oh, sorry about that," I said. "At least you're in time for Final Exams."

"Yes, what a joy it is that I made it just in time for finals," he said sarcastically.

Our conversation cut off as more people entered the room, all looking anxious. The first day of written finals was today, in the English and Modern Literature categories. I felt a little bad that I wasn't able to tutor Kaminari in English, but I reminded myself that if he was the traitor then the fact I couldn't was his own fault. Then I felt bad for thinking about that again.

English went smoothly. I deeply appreciated the fact that I kept my English fluency. Modern Literature was a bit more difficult, but I'd studied, and it wasn't like I'd never taken a class on books before.

When the test was over we got to go home slightly early. I stretched and walked home. All I'd have to do is change and eat dinner, then I could go over to Yaoyrozu's and see what this secret class meeting was all about.

After telling my uncle everything went well with my tests over dinner, I managed to get permission to go to Yaoyorozu's house. My uncle gave me his phone and told me to text one of his work friends who lived nearby if anything happened. I nodded and went on my way.

Yaoyorozu's house wasmassive.What a mansion. It was essentially what I'd expected, though. Shewasvery rich. I walked up to the gate and hit the button. A crackly voice came through it. "Ah, you must be one of Momo's classmates! Come in, come in!" The gate made a clicking sound as it unlocked. I swung it open and went inside. I left my shoes at the door.

"Hey everyone," I said as I walked in. And… oh wow. Essentially the whole class was there. We were missing Bakugou (and Shinsou, actually, now that I think about it) but everyone else…

"Kaminari told us about the future attack and how passing our finals puts us at risk," Yaoyorozu said bluntly.

"He did? When?"

"Last night."

Well, if Kaminari told them about the danger, then he can't be the traitor. Unless, well, he knew I was back already and wanted to make himself look innocent… Ugh! Stop thinking about it already!

"Have all of you made a decision?" I asked.

Midoriya puffed out his chest. "We all want to pass!"

"Even if we are to be put in danger," said Iida, in a grand voice, "then we will face the danger together, all of us, as a class." The rest of the class agreed in chorus.Aww, such cute shonen protagonists. The power of friendship and working together.

"Okay," I said. "Then I'll help all of you with the practical."

The class looked happy at that and responded with affirmatives and exclamations.

"Okay then!" I turned on my teaching/announcing voice. "For this exam, you will not be fighting robots. Instead, you will be facing teachers. I'm not sure how Shinsou will factor into this, but it will probably be in groups. Maybe 2 or 3. There will probably be more ways to win than just fighting the teachers head-on, though. Lastly, we will likely be paired against teachers that will force us to face our own weaknesses."

"You got all that from your quirk?" said Kaminari, amazed.

"Well. A little from my quirk, a little based on tests from last year, a little bit of educated guessing. That info's probably 80% accurate. Unless, of course, they plan for my quirk and change the format completely the day of just to screw with me," I said. The room was silent, until Kirishima blurted out, "How do we prepare against that!"

Midoriya had been muttering under his breath from the moment I said we'd be fighting our teachers. Suddenly, he stopped. "We have to study the weaknesses of our teachers!"

"If we can guess who we're fighting then we can form a strategy against them days in advance," said Yaoyorozu. Ojiro nodded. "Or bring helpful objects with us."

"Mineta, do you have any idea who each of us will be fighting," said Todoroki.

"I have some… but again, this is a lot of guessing. We can best try and figure it out by guessing which teachers would be our worst matchups and preparing for them, but also preparing to fight other teachers in case it's not them. For example, I might be put against Midnight because even if I managed to restrain her with my quirk the fight wouldn't be over because of the gas she can produce," I explained. "But that doesn't mean I know for sure I'm up against Midnight."

"Interesting," said Iida, looking deep in thought. "Who might you think a bad matchup for me might be?"

"I dunno. Maybe someone like Power Loader, who can mess with the terrain to make it tougher for you to move around?" I suggested.I think he fought Power Loader last time?"Midoriya, what do you think?"

"Power Loader is one, but you may also be paired against Cementoss! If the battleground is in a city-type area or somewhere with concrete…"

"He could easily reshape the flat ground to make it very difficult to run on, thus reducing my mobility, which is my greatest advantage!" realized Iida.

"Exactly!" I said. "We should work together and try to strategize how groups of us could fight different teachers. I think the Principal may also appear as an opponent," I said. "As a general guide! People who are over-reliant on quirks should prepare against Eraserhead, people with trouble in close combat should prepare against Ectoplasm, and people with low grades should prepare against Nedzu," I explained. "Lastly, people who have bad luck should prepare against All Might."

Midoriya blanched. Good. His luck is terrible.

"Alright let's get started!" shouted Iida. The study session was very loose, with everyone congregating with the others and discussing what teachers they might need to fight, and how. I gravitated over towards a group containing Sero, Kirishima, Ashido and Kamanari. A group that would need help. Where Kaminari was bragging about how he could easily defeat Nedzu.

When he'd just about finished, I said, "I came over here because you two," I pointed at Ashido and Kaminari, "could very easily lose to Nedzu." They both looked shocked. "What?"

"Nedzu is a genius," I said. "A master strategist. Part of me thinks facing Nedzu is punishment for doing badly in the Midterm exams. I don't envy your position and hope that I myself don't have to face Nedzu in battle."

Both of them looked quietly horrified. "But he's not strong at all! What could he do?"

"Lots," I assured them. "Think of Eraserhead. He's not a lot stronger than your average person, but he could defeat all those USJ villains by himself."Well that's an example of skill and technique, not strategy, but hopefully it gets the point across."I suggest you both talk to Midoriya or Yaoyorozu about forming a serious plan to combat Nedzu."

"Them? Why not you?" Kaminari asked.

"... because they're better strategists than me," I admitted. I turned and walked towards Sato. When he was done talking with Tsuyu, I tugged on his sleeve. "Hey." He looked down. "If you're faced with a teacher whose quirk has no time limit, while yours does, direct fighting may not be the optimal solution," I said. Sato looked a little confused at the extreme specificity of my advice, but nodded. "Okay."

I could barely remember what the fights had looked like for the people who won, but I remembered vividly the fights that were lost. I'm not sure why that is. I walked past Yaoyorozu and Jirou. "Noise cancelling headphones," I said. They both looked at me. "For against Present Mic. You could make Jirou some, Present Mic would be a bad matchup for her."

"In fact, we should make noise cancelling headphones for everyone. Smuggle them in our backpacks," said Jirou, twirling one of her earphone things.

"Gas masks for Midnight," I said. "We could bring those too."

"That's a very good idea! I can produce those," said Yaoyorozu. I did a quick check around the room and everyone was far away from us. "Also," I said, my voice quieter, "I wanted to apologize for my behavior towards both of you in the beginning of the year. It was completely unacceptable and I should have apologized sooner."

Both of them looked taken aback. "Uh, yeah. Sure," said Jirou.

"Um. Anyway. Good luck in the finals." I awkwardly shuffled backwards toward someone else and basically threw myself in Midoriya's direction. He looked like he would have good advice for me.

The rest of the night went smoothly. Everyone made some in-depth plans against the teachers they assumed they would be fighting while I dropped hints on everyone's weakest areas. By the end of the night, Yaoyorozu promised she'd distribute gas masks and noise-cancelling headphones the day before the practical, Ashido and Kaminari were in an animated conversation with Midoriya about strategy, Aoyama was speaking with Iida about overcoming quirk limitations, and Jirou and Koda were teaching Kirishima, Tsuyu and Sero a few words in a type of coded sign language they'd invented, so they could speak discretely across a field without teachers knowing what they were saying.

Our chances looked pretty good. At least better than before. Now if only I knew how they'd incorporate Shinsou into the finals…we'd better warn him he's going to be fighting teachers, actually, since he's not here. I'll make sure someone lets him know.

Notes:

"But author," you might be saying, "you said Shinsou would join the class earlier. It's almost like you forgot about him!"
And if you said that...

...you'd be right.

Chapter 25: time to die

Summary:

"Luck? Luck is my second name! Mind you, my first name is Bad." - Rincewind (Terry Pratchet).

Notes:

A short, interim chapter!

(See the end of the chapter formore notes.)

Chapter Text

The three days of written final exams were over. Math was a breeze while Modern Hero Art History was… fine.Ugh.We were standing in front of a crowd of teachers, as Aizawa introduced the final exam. "Now, we will begin the practical exam… I expect that you have gathered information ahead of time and have some idea of what you will be doing."

"Is it robots?!" I shouted, in lieu of whoever had said it last time.

Nedzu popped out of Aizawa's capture weapon. "Not quite! For various reasons, the exam will be different starting this time!" Nedzu proceeded to explain how we would be fighting in teams against our teachers. He looked across our faces for indignant reactions. There were none.

"Oh no," said Shinsou dryly. "We're so surprised."

"You figured it out early," said Aizawa.

"Mineta told us all about how we were gonna fight teachers!" said Ashido. Then she pouted. "We don't know exactly who we're gonna be fighting, though."

Aizawa sighed and rubbed his eyes. "We really ought to get that quirk registered. Regardless, the pairs and who each pair will be up against have already been decided. As we have 21 students, there will be one group of three."

"Todoroki and Yaoyorozu are one team, and they're fighting me."

"Next is our group of three. Midoriya, Bakugou and Mineta."

"Wait, what?!" I exclaimed.

Eraserhead gave a wicked grin. "And their opponent… "

All Might jumped in dramatically, declaring it was him.This is completely unexpected. Bakugou and Midoriya were originally selected so Bakugou could learn teamwork, right? Well, I suppose Bakugou does have beef with me because of the Sports Festival… and it really would only be fair to have All Might fight the group of three…

Most of my worrying wasn't that we wouldlose,per say. Midoriya and Bakugou managed to beat All Might on their own. I just… really didn't want to fight him. I recalled vividly that during the original practical exams, All Might nearly broke Midoriya's spine by hitting him in the back too hard. Ouch. Sounds not fun. I don't have Midoriya's pain tolerance.

Eraserhead listed off the rest of the matches. There were a few that had been switched around, but nothing quite so revolutionary as Mineta having to fight All Might. How unfair.

I walked over to Midoriya, who was anxiously waiting for the Sato and Kirishima VS Cementoss match to start. "All right, Midoriya. Let's come up with a plan."

At the outset of their match, Sato and Kirishima started running in opposite directions.Huh, that's different. It looks like Sato is going towards the escape gate. That's different.

"Bakugou… is not a team player," I told Midoriya. "So he'll do whatever he wants. The two of us need to adapt a plan around what he's going to do, or just work together ourselves."

Midoriya bit his lip. "Kacchan will attack All Might right away."

I nodded. "Then we can use him as a distraction."

Midoriya perked up a little. "A distraction?"

"Maybe you two can slow down All Might, while I get through the escape gate?"

Midoriya's mind seemed to be going a million miles an hour. "We can't beat All Might, we just have to slow him down! But he's super fast, too. What if he notices you aren't there and starts chasing you?"

I shrugged. "You'll just have to stop him, I guess? Or…" I handed Midoriya the ball-launcher attached to my costume. "There are about five purple balls in this," I said. "So if you duck behind a corner and shoot at him…"

"Then he'll think you're still there fighting, throwing the balls!" cheered Midoriya. "So he'll have no reason to look for you or chase you!"

"Then I escape, Bakugou gets his opportunity to fight All Might, everyone's happy and we all pass," I said. Midoriya seemed significantly less nervous. He nodded. "Alright, let's go over specifics," said Midoriya, and for a brief moment I was puzzled.Specifics? Oh, he's talking about the details of the plan. Odd, I usually don't think about the details. Hm, maybe that's how I get myself into these types of crazy situations.

The match against Cementoss was finished. Sato had managed to bash through every cement barrier to the escape gate while Cementoss was busy handling Kirishima. Their win was narrow (and they both needed Recovery Girl) but they stillwon.

They won this time! That's much different.

While Midoriya started going over some ideas he had, Asui and Tokoyami stepped up to the plate, against Ectoplasm. I didn't worry much about them, so I didn't pay too much attention to their fight. They'd succeeded against Ectoplasm last time.

"I think I should hold on to the cuffs. While Bakugou is distracting him I can try to slip them on. Sure, we can't beat All Might in a fight, but if we're sneaky enough we could probably put on cuffs." Midoriya terror seemed to have morphed partially into excitement. That was good. "Even if it doesn't work, you're our back-up plan!"

"That trick with the ball-launcher will buy us a few minutes of All Might thinking I'm there. Also! You should try to make it look like you and Bakugou are fighting the whole time. That way it'll look like our plan is falling apart," I said.

Tokoyami managed to slip the cuffs around Ectoplasm's leg, successfully 'capturing' him and winning the fight.Excellent!The next battle was Shoji and Iida against Power Loader. Hm, that fight was less predictable. Shoji wasn't there before.

"In addition to that," said Midoriya, "I should shout statements that imply you're still there, even when you're gone. Like 'Mineta, see if you can attack from the rear!' even if you're actually running towards the escape gate."

"Oh that isexcellent," I said. "You have a real talent for strategy, Midoriya."

Midoriya blushed. "O-oh, thanks!"

"Remember, though. You need to get All Might's eyes off me at the start so I can start running away to the escape gate," I said. Midoriya nodded firmly, fire in his eyes. "Right!"

The match with Iida and Shoji was bizarre. At first it didn't look like it was going very well, with Iida and Shoji only managing to narrowly avoid pitfalls and traps. At the end, only a few minutes before time was set to run out, Iida somehow launched Shoji out the escape gate with a complex maneuver involving Recipro.Oh, wow. At least they won.

The Yaoyorozu and Todoroki fight went just as it had before in my memory, with Aizawa nearly taking them both out before they both got it together and went with Yaoyorozu's plan.

Aoyama and Uraraka very nearly lost to Thirteen. Uraraka appeared to lose her grip on the bar she was holding. Thirteen was forced to turn off their quirk so they didn't kill Uraraka, who then took out Thirteen with a martial arts hold.Yeesh! Did that happen last time? I mean, good use of a joint lock but still…

Then, it was the battle of truth - Ashido and Kaminari VS Principal Nedzu. Right from the outset, there was a change. Ashido and Kaminari split up and ran in different directions, Ashido towards the escape gate and Kaminari towards where they assumed Principal Nedzu to be. When the walls started crumbling down, it wasn't nearly as bad as it had been last time. Nedzu needed to block off twice as many paths, too, if he wanted to keep them both at bay. Kaminari was having no luck, but Ashido, who was actively looking for an escape route, seemed to find a good path to get out from. Unfortunately, she'd set on it a second too late, and it rapidly started collapsing. Although Ashido tried to backpedal, she was partially trapped under the rubble. Once he realized tracking down Nedzu was futile, Kaminari doubled back and started looking for escape routes, but he didn't find the one left open in time. All the while Ashido struggled to pull herself out of the rocks. The two couldn't defeat Nedzu and left looking very discouraged.

"You did your best," I said, patting Kaminari on the back once he'd returned. "Nedzu is probably the toughest opponent, you got unlucky. I'd rather fight someone strong like All Might than smart like Nedzu."

"You… are fighting All Might," said Kaminari, still looking vaguely despairing.

"Yes," I said. "And I'm glad he's not Nedzu."

"I just… we were going to do this as a class," said Kaminari. "Now I can't support them, when they're all going to be in trouble."

"It'll be alright. You can't win every battle."

The fight between Koda and Shinsou against Present Mic was more fortuitous. They both slapped on their noise-cancelling headphones and charged at him, turning it into a melee battle. Present Mic was actually pretty good at fighting, so he was winning for a while. Once he'd noticed his screams weren't affecting them, he stopped using his quirk to attack. During this period of silence, Koda managed to communicate with some deer. He rode a stag into battle, leading the herd, which wasextremelydistracting. Shinsou managed to escape through the gate while Present Mic was screaming at deer.Oh wow that was even more epic than before! I'll have to talk with Koda about his fear of bugs later, though, so he gets over them. Though I don't think bug-communication is important to any plot points, so there's no major rush.

Hagakure and Jirou against Snipe was fairly short. While Snipe's quirk, Homing, could find stealth types fairly easily, the two worked seamlessly to distract Snipe and get on the cuffs.That's 14 of 16. Not bad numbers…

When Ojiro and Sero fought Midnight, Sero was taken out almost immediately. His plan was half-baked and he didn't even manage to put on his gas mask. Ojiro, on the other hand, was significantly more competent. With what was left from Sero's tape and some clever acrobatics, Ojiro managed to tape Midnight down directly in front of the escape gate. Midnight said something to him (probably pointing out the fact her gas would knock him out if he tried to leave through the escape gate, and that his plan was dumb) but Ojiro pulled the gas mask out of his pocket, put it on his face, and walked straight by her. What a legend.

Okay. I doubt Sero's going to pass, he did nothing. That's 15 of 18. Fifteen classmates against the League of Villains… unless, of course, the three of us pass.

We walked into the false city. And time started.Fight against All Might, here I come.

Notes:

THE NEW MATCHUPS Sato and Kirishima VS Cementoss
Asui and Tokoyami VS Ectoplasm
Shoji and Iida VS Power Loader
Yaoyorozu and Todoroki VS Eraserhead
Aoyama and Uraraka VS Thirteen
Ashido and Kaminari VS Nedzu
Koda and Shinsou VS Present Mic
Hagakure and Jirou VS Snipe
Ojiro and Sero VS Midnight
Bakugou, Midoriya, Mineta VS All Might

Chapter 26: a time to weep

Summary:

"If you fight hard, know who you are, and are proud of who you are, you've got a good chance of winning." - W. Lincoln Hawkins.

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter fornotes.)

Chapter Text

We walked down a wide road in the empty city, in which there was an awkward silence between Midoriya and Bakugou. "I'll take a detour and head towards the escape gate, okay?" I whispered to Midoriya. I unlatched my ball-launcher and handed it to him. "Good luck."

I darted off into a side road, and not a moment too soon. Not long after, a wave of debris and dust flew through the city along that road, throwing Midoriya and Bakugou back. I ducked away from the main street and started heading in the direction of the escape gate.

"We need to run! We can't fight him head-on!" I heard the echo of Midoriya's voice from the main street. It was actually rather convincing.He probably does feel that way, actually."Just because you and Mineta want to fight him doesn't mean… Kacchan!" The sound of explosions filled the air. All the while, I ran as fast as I could away from the action.

I got a decent distance, almost two thirds the way, when a quick gust of wind flew through my alleyway, and All Might appeared.Damn.

"And here I thought you were fighting with your teammates! You're in chaos! One of you only thinks of fighting, and you yourself ran away right off the bat!" All Might flung me into a wall. I slammed against the hard stone. "OW! Fuck you," I said, throwing a few balls at him. He easily sidestepped them.

"My, such language! How unbecoming of a hero like yourself!" All Might declared, punching me in the torso. I flew from the side alley and skidded across the main street.Ouch… road rash.Bakugou and Midoriya raced toward me, having just caught up with All Might. "I'm sorry!" Midoriya said. "The launcher fooled him for a while, but…"

"No worries," I grunted, pulling myself shakily to my feet.

"Kacchan and I came up with a plan," Midoriya explained. "Come on!"

Midoriya pulled me into another side street, a different one this time. He held one of Bakugou's gauntlets.Is this the same plan they came up with last time?When All Might jogged by, Bakugou leapt behind him and goaded him. Then, Midoriya jumped in front and set off Bakugou's gauntlet at All Might, creating a massive explosion.

I quickly ran after Midoriya and Bakugou. "We damage him and then put distance between us," grunted Bakugou.Oh! Explaining his plan to me. How cooperative of him. Maybe he did learn something.

Until, of course, All Might showed back up, breaking both the gauntlets. He hit me square in the chest again, throwing me against the ground, and doing the same to Bakugou and Midoriya. He prattled on about how we'd "learned to work together" but that unfortunately for us, cooperation was "a prerequisite" for the fight.Oww… more like Bakugou learned cooperation, Midoriya and I knew about teamwork from the start.All Might's blows were brutal. It was the pain of accidentally slamming your leg into a dresser, or the burn of a papercut, but across an entire region of the body. My ribs felt like they were on fire. I struggled to get up. The escape gate was in sight.We're so close…Bakugou sent another huge explosion up at All Might. Then, he grabbed me from the ground. "I'm gonna send you flying!"

"What?" I squeaked. My voice cracked. It was a good plan but I didn't want to go flying, I really wasn't ready… !

"I don't like it, but with what we've got right now, this is the only way to win!" Bakugou used an explosion to send me flying through the air. "DIE!"

"AHH!" My stomach flipped. Even if I got through the escape gate how was I going to land?

"New Hampshire Smash!" All Might shouted, flying through the air and…

OW not again!

His body clipped me as I flew through the air, which sent me spiraling left of the escape gate. I hit the ground hard, feeling somethingcrackin my ribs. I let out an aborted scream, which quickly died down because of how much ithurttoscreamandbreathe.Okay, something's broken. That's not good.I lifted my head slightly. The escape gate was right there, but I couldn't bring myself to move.I have to try to get up. Medical care, instant healing, you just have to cross that damn gate…

I pulled my arms under me and tried to lift myself up, but pain shot through my body. I had a horrible coughing fit, which set my lungs aflame again. I spat out a thick liquid on the ground.Blood.

That is NOT good. Is it possible I took some kind of internal damage? I could legitimately be dying!I heard Bakugou screaming angrily at me to just run through the escape gate as his explosions started to die down. He was finally tiring against All Might. Midoriya was running toward the escape gate now too, but All Might's battle with Bakugou seemed to be ending. I stuck out my hand and signed in both ASL and the weird emergency sign language Koda and Jirou invented yesterday, "Help. Help me. Help."I didn't know ASL except a few words (one of those being "help") and I certainly didn't know JSL, but hopefully Midoriya knew some of that or had been paying attention to what Jirou and Koda did yesterday. Nothing could motivate him like knowing someone else needed help.

All Might had essentially defeated Bakugou, the explosions had stopped. He went after Midoriya. "All Might, wait! I think Mineta…" Midoriya was unceremoniously punched in the gut and thrown into a truck. As the two's scuffle continued, black spots started entering my vision.Not getting enough oxygen! Bleeding out or something! I don't have time for this!I pulled myself together and began painstakingly dragged myself toward the escape gate, trying not to jostle my ribs or internal organs more than possible. I had to stop part way for another coughing fit (where I coughed MORE BLOOD, oh sh-),when Midoriya picked me up and launched the both of us through the escape gate. A cheery tune played from the escape gate as we crossed it.

I felt a jolt of pain and saw stars for a moment at the sudden movement.

"Mineta, are you okay?" asked Midoriya. Breathing was a lot of effort and I didn't feel much like talking. I lifted a hand still stained in blood and showed it to him, then made a thumbs down. Midoriya gasped. "All Might, he needs help!"

All Might came over, and seeing that I did indeed need help, airlifted me to Recovery Girl's office in just a few seconds. After I coughed blood again in front of Recovery Girl, she flipped out and, after having me take a few deep breaths on the stethoscope, flipped out evenmoreand did some kind of medical scan thing. I wasn't clear on the details, but it wasn't long before Recovery Girl was sedating me and trying to do some kind of medical procedure.

Notes:

I was rewatching the fight against All Might to write this and dang, was it brutal. I was a little surprised by it, actually.

Chapter 27: a time to mourn

Summary:

"Guilt is the worst demon to bear, strangling you from the inside of your body." - Nikita Gill.

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter fornotes.)

Chapter Text

I woke up feeling vaguely groggy. I yawned. "You're awake," Recovery Girl observed, putting down her files. "How do you feel?"

"I feel alright," I said, stretching. There wasn't any more pain in my chest. "Did you fix whatever internal bleeding I was having?"

Recovery Girl frowned deeply. "You punctured a lung."

"Oh wow, that's pretty bad," I said, but without much seriousness. "Anything I need to be careful of in the next few days?"

Recovery Girl's frown lessened. "Stay away from strenuous activity. No sports, no exercise, no training, understand?"

"Of course!" I said. "What time is it?"

"2:30 PM. You've been asleep for three and a half hours."

"Thank you very much. I'll take it easy."

Recovery Girl seemed gratified that at least someone was taking her advice. I got out of bed, and upon seeing that nothing hurt when I walked, changed in the bathroom back into a clean school uniform. My hero costume was a little torn up. It would definitely need a wash and some minor repairs. Then, I went towards the 1-A classroom. It was empty, except for Aizawa. "I sent everyone home," he said.

"Ah, okay. I'll just pick up my things and leave, then…"

"Mineta," Aizawa said. "All Might took things too far."

The vent of the classroom suddenly clanked open. Nedzu leapt down from it onto one of the desks. "That he did."

"Principal Nedzu," I said, blinking.

"We assumed All Might would properly modulate his powers when he fought against the students," said Principal Nedzu. "Sadly, we were mistaken. We apologize sincerely for your injuries."

Well, it was partially All Might's fault for being too rough, like he was when he hurt Midoriya's back badly the first time. It was also bad luck that I kept getting smacked in the ribs. All the same, he ought to be more careful…

"Well, uh, thanks," I said, with a shrug.

"You don't look particularly upset," Aizawa observed.

"I'm not," I said. "I'm too tired to be upset. A little bit of indignation, sure, but mostly resignation and exhaustion," I explained. There was a brief pause, a momentary silence. "I don't plan to sue, if that's what you're asking."

"That's not…" Aizawa sighed and rubbed his eyes. "That's not what we were asking."

"We wanted to make sure you were unhurt, and listen to any suggestions you had about flaws in the testing process," said Nedzu, his voice high-pitched, but not quite cheerful.

"... I think you should tell All Might to punch less hard next time?" I said.

Aizawa looked evenmoretired, if that were at all possible. "We will… take that into consideration," he said, sounding slightly dead inside. I hoped he was okay.

I paused for a second, remembering something. "Actually, wasn't I wearing kevlar?"

Aizawa winced and Nedzu's face did an odd sort of twitch. "Yes, you were. That material works by spreading out the impact across an entire surface. Unfortunately, in your case, the energy of the hits put significant pressure on your ribs, even when diffused across the vest," Nedzu explained.

"That's absolutely fascinating," I said.I love Physics.

"It shouldn't have happened. It could have beenworseif you weren't wearing that," Aizawa muttered.

"Well, that's why I requested it! Anyways," I said. "It was nice talking with both of you!" I picked up my backpack and walked robotically out of the room.I hope it wasn't rude just leaving like that.

... Whatever.

As I walked out of the doors of the building and towards the UA gate, I felt a sudden gust of wind. Turning a little to my left, I was faced with All Might.

"I must apologize, young Mineta!" All Might's booming voice filled the courtyard.

For a brief moment, I felt a bit angry, because getting punched that hard during finals and puncturing a lung really didhurt.But I remembered the original series, and All Might's relationship with Midoriya, and everything he was dealing with as the Symbol of Peace. My anger snuffed itself out. Besides, he looked really guilty about it.

… admittedly I was a bit of a sucker. He looked too sad for me to be mad.

"I accept your apology, All Might. I know you're just trying your best," I said.

"All the same, it was terribly irresponsible of me as a teacher." His voice was slightly more subdued, which didn't suit his muscular form.

"You know, All Might, I think you should consider practicing self-care," I suggested, deciding I would take this opportunity to talk about something completely different.

"Self-care?" All Might looked a little confused at the non-sequitur.

"Yeah. A lot of people admire you, Midoriya especially. 'Plus Ultra even if it kills you' is the kind of attitude that led Midoriya to break his arms for aschool festivaland Bakugou to injure himself against you in the finals," I explained. "You should try to be a role model for them and practice some self-care! I can tell your health is declining."

All Might's face became grim. "I've heard of your quirk, young Mineta. Are you sensing my death in the future as well?"

I shook my head. "Quite the opposite, actually. I think you've got a good shot of living."

All Might looked surprised. "Really?" he asked.

"Quirks involving time and future sight can interfere with each other. Even if someone else said you would die, maybe one of my predictions will derail the prediction of whoever said you would die?" I shrugged. My entering into the timeline had to have changed something, and I wan't planning on letting All Might just die. "Whatever the case, don't go around acting like you're going to die. That kind of stuff can become self-fulfilling."

All Might was silent for a moment, his eyes sparking with something that looked like hope. "You're an interesting person, young Mineta. I came out here to apologize for my errors, and yet you're giving me advice."

"Sorry about that," I said, not sorry at all. "Anyway, I have one last thing."

"What?"

"You should punch less hard!" I said, a broad grin spread across my face. All Might coughed in surprise into his hand, probably masking blood. "Ah. Yes. I'll do that as well," he said. I bid All Might goodbye and arrived home only a few minutes later, with no more interruptions.

I greeted my uncle. "Hey kid, how did your finals go?" he asked.

"They went great!" I said. "I definitely did well on the written and I don't know how the practical is graded, but I really think I passed."

"That's great! I was a little worried, because the school said you were injured during your practical…"

"Ah, it was minor," I lied, waving away his concerns.

"That's good," he said. "I'm glad you did well."

After a few minutes of conversation, I went over to my room and texted Evan.

"I had to fight All Might in Finals with Midoriya and Bakugou."I typed.

"Wait what? Group of 3?"Evan responded.

"Shinsou joined Class 1-A now so we have 21 people now."

"Shinsou joined! He's one of my favorite characters! Did u pass?"

"Yes, I passed. And All Might almost killed me, too.He punched me in the ribs too hard and they broke and I had a collapsed lung. Nedzu had to apologize cause I almost died."

Evan suddenly went on a rant in his subsequent text messages about 'child safety' and 'reckless endangerment' and while I didn't really understand his references to Japanese laws on the topic, I felt pleasantly vindicated. After Evan calmed down, I explained who had passed and failed. Evan seemed vaguely approving and wrote that Kirishima, who had been stuck inside last time, might actually be more useful out fighting with the rest of the class. That night I went to sleep excited to finally be finished with finals, so I wouldn't have to worry about them any more.

The next day in class, I came in bright and early again.

"Mineta, you're alive!" Kaminari said when he entered. "Man, all these terrible things keep happening to you. Aizawa-sensei said you were pretty injured against All Might."Ahh, they probably didn't see clearly through the camera the blood I was coughing.

"It's kind of ironic," Kirishima added. "Remember when you said, 'those who have bad luck should prepare against All Might?' You didn't take your own advice!"

"I did say that, didn't I? And yeah, I punctured a lung," I said.

"Youwhat?"Kaminari whipped his head around. "That's bad, right?"

"Yes, that's bad," I confirmed. "But Recovery Girl healed it, so it's fine." I could see in Kaminari's eyes that he was going to tell the whole class about it later.Hm.

As more people entered, people started to panic about how finals were being graded and lamenting the fact that they wouldn't get to go to the training camp. I wasn't worried, since I knew I'd pass.I swear, if I don't pass the final I will quit UA and run away to live with Evan.

Everyone looked so despondent about the possibility of not getting to go to the forest camp that I couldn't help but say something. "Don't worry. Everything will be fine for you," I said. Kaminari and Ashido turned to me with starry eyes. "Wait, are you saying we get to go?" Ashido asked.

"Everyone should be in their seats when the bell rings," Aizawa interrupted, quickly explaining himself that everyone would be going to the training camp. "Really?" Ashido shouted happily.

"Yeah. No one failed the written exam, but one person failed the practical examination. Sero."Huh?

"Wait… we didn't fail?" Kaminari asked, confused.

"You may not have been able to defeat the Principal, but the teachers decided that your attempt was decent enough for a passing grade. If only barely," Aizawa said flatly.

"Yeah!" Ashido shouted gleefully. Meanwhile, Sero looked even more depressed.

Aizawa explained more about his 'logical ruse' and told Sero that he would have to take extra lessons at the forest training camp. Someone reassured Sero, as Ashido and Kaminari looked on with thinly-veiled relief that they'd passed the exams.

We received back the scores on our written finals.3rd in class. Good enough for me! I didn't think I would be able to beat Yaoyorozu and Iida anyway.Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Bakugou scowling deeply at me. Was he in 3rd before? Eh, whatever. I ignored him.

We also got a pamphlet about the training camp, explaining all the things we'd need to bring. As people started talking about how much they'd need to buy… "why doesn't Class 1-A go shopping together?" Hagakure suggested.Oh no, not this! But… I really need to buy things. Like a new phone and some lockpicks! I want a knife, too. To stab the League of Villains with. Maybe I'll just suggest we switch venues when she chooses which mall?

"Ooh! Ooh! What about the Kiyashi Ward Shopping Mall!" Hagakure said. "It's a super cool new mall and it has tons of stores!" The group enthusiastically agreed it was the best option. When it seemed we were all in consensus, I cut in, "We shouldn't go to Kiyashi Ward. I'm getting a vague sense of danger from there."

"But… you said it's vague danger? Can we just go there anyway?" Ashido said, pouting.

"I didn't say the danger was vague, I said the feeling was vague," I said.

"Well we probably shouldn't go there if there's danger," said Yaoyorozu anxiously.

"Aww, come on! Please!" Ashido gave Yaoyorozu and I adorable puppy dog eyes.Must… resist…

"Well, theoretically, if we stuck together would the danger go away?" Sero asked.

In the interest of honesty, I answered, "It would decrease slightly."

"Maybe if we decided to stay together it would be okay?" Sato questioned.

"Not rea…" I started, but the group was already looking at the logistics of going to Kiyashi Ward, with the agreement that everyone would stay together. "Fine! Fine! On one condition. We should stay in groups of three or four at least, andonlyif you can convince Aizawa-sensei to come with us," I said.

"We'll never convince Aizawa-sensei!" Kaminari whined.

"Perhaps another teacher would be willing to chaperone for us," said Iida, doing the arm chop things.

"What are you arguing about," said Aizawa from the other side of the room, who had started listening after he heard his name.

"We want to go to the Kiyashi Ward Mall but Mineta says it might be a little dangerous at Kiyashi Ward, so we wanted to get a chaperone!" said Ashido.

Aizawa frowned. "Why don't you just go to a different mall?"

"That's what I said!" I interjected.

Hagakure started to wax poetic about all the benefits of Kiyashi Ward Mall. It… did sound like a nice place, with clothing items made for all sorts of quirks and body types. Itwasdifficult to find clothing items my size…no! Don't be tempted!

Aizawa sighed. "Do you know the type of danger, Mineta?"

"A dangerous person," I said.

"A dangerous person? Aw, come on! With how many people are at the mall there's probably at least one dangerous person at all of them," Ashido complained.

"It's particularly dangerous at this one!" I protested, but it fell flat. I couldn't just say it was Shigaraki, though. Aizawa sighed again. "Look, go ask Present Mic. I'm sure he would love to chaperone your trip."

"Woe to me, for I am Cassandra," I muttered petulantly, while Ashido and Hagakure cheered.

As Kaminari asked who Cassandra was (and Yaoyorozu started to explain), I climbed on top of one of the desks and shouted. "You will regret this decision!"

"Get down from there," Aizawa scolded. I did. The class decided to go to Kiyashi Ward Mall, but to always remain in groups, with Present Mic as a chaperone.This is going to be a disaster. Maybe if it was Aizawa, who could delete Shigaraki's quirk, but a Present Mic vs Shigaraki fight would be hilariously destructive.

I tapped my chin, thinking about the best way to deal with Shigaraki at the mall.I should contact Evan and let him know about this. And maybe I should consider bringing a gun.

Notes:

Ah, yes. A punctured lung. Thankfully, Recovery Girl's quirk can heal what would have taken days in only a few hours.
… otherwise he might have missed the mall.

Also, funnily enough, by coincidence, the Mineta in the original show ALSO was looking for lockpicks at the mall, but for different reasons.

Chapter 28: call the past to account

Summary:

"Avoiding danger in the long run is no safer than outright exposure. The fearful are caught as often as the bold." - Hellen Keller.

Chapter Text

It looked like gun laws in Japan were pretty strict and I doubted Yaoyorozu would make me one even if I asked nicely. So no gun… yet. Maybe I could ask Evan to smuggle me one later. For now, I settled with taking the taser from my costume and purchasing pepper spray. In addition, I texted Overhaul, letting him know that the classwas still going to Kiyashi Warddespite my ominous warnings of danger. Overhaul promised he'd go to the mall and keep lookout.

On the day of, I brought my bag with the pepper spray and taser in it, eyes slightly bloodshot from getting no sleep due to anxiety. I probably looked a little crazy. I insisted on being in a group with Midoriya, telling everyone we should "localize the bad luck so it doesn't spill into anyone else's groups." Midoriya didn't seem to know how to react, but did not object. Thus, my group was Midoriya, Uraraka, Iida, and me. I felt a little like I was intruding on their friend group, but there wasn't much I could do about it.

"Sorry I'm so high-strung," I mumbled, walking over to them.

"No, it's fine. It's a little unfair, really. The class trip was supposed to be fun for everyone, but just being here is making you stressed," Uraraka said. I appreciated her. She was very nice. The four of us stood in the middle of the mall and started debating on where to go first. It seemed all four of us needed clothes but had completely different ideas as to what clothing stores to go to. I tried to suggest stores close to the entrance, where Present Mic was loitering about, but most of the good ones were deeper in the mall.

I subtly looked down at my burner phone."Shigaraki has entered the mall. I'm tailing him and will not text further. Keep an eye out."A message from Evan. A chill ran through me. So it was really happening, even if Shigaraki and Midoriya didn't have contact with each other at the USJ. Maybe the fact Shigaraki here truly was coincidence.

I glanced around the crowd, looking for Shigaraki. At first I didn't spot anyone. Then, out of the corner of my eye, a flash of light blue hair.There.I pretended not to notice him.

"Mineta, we decided to go to this one first!" Uraraka said, pointing to one of the stores on the map. She frowned. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine!" I said, a little too loudly, as we ambled in the direction of the store. I reached my hand into my bag and wrapped my fingers around the pepper spray. Shigaraki quietly followed us through the crowd. His reflection trailed after ours in storefront windows. If I hadn't been looking I I might not have noticed him at all. He looks so different in his hoodie than he did at the USJ.

I whipped the pepper spray out of my pocket, lined it up to Shigaraki's face, and pressed the button.

Nothing happened.

Shigaraki grabbed it from me in a fluid motion, turning it to dust. "You forgot to take off the cap," he said. I backed away quickly, making an aborted motion to grab a ball off my head but I stopped as I thoughtwait you can't use your quirk yet that's illegal. While I probably should have just done it anyway, I hesitated. Shigaraki grabbed my arm and I screamed as the skin started to dissolve.

Suddenly, a wall of earth punted Shigaraki across the room. Then, it encased him in an earthen cage of sorts. A man with a green mask jumped on to the scene. Earthshaker.

The cage of earth was quickly turned to dust as the mall flew into chaos. Evan started setting up walls of earth to protect fleeing civilians just as Present Mic ran on scene.

"Let's go!" Iida said. The four of us ran in the opposite direction, towards the mall entrance. I heard one of Present Mic's screams echo through the air.Hopefully the two of them can handle that!

I tucked my injured arm into my chest and just decided to trust Overhaul with the fight. I wasnotkeen to get involved. We quickly escaped the mall and met up with most of the rest of the class, who was gathered a short distance away. We were only missing one group of three: Shinsou, Kaminari and Ashido. They'd been on the other side of the mall, they probably escaped through the back.

"What is going on?" Kirishima asked, watching the fleeing people.

"It was Shigaraki," Midoriya said. "He was here!"

Kirishima's eyes grew large. "Shigaraki was here?"

"Mineta, I promise we will never dismiss your warnings about dangerever again," Ojiro said, with emphasis. Kirishima frantically nodded along to that statement.

"Yeah, your predictions do not screw around," Jirou agreed, as a minor explosion blew out one of the mall's skylights. Plumes of smoke rose from the building.

"Thank you," I said.

Fire trucks, ambulances and police cars rolled into the mall parking lot. "Can you text Aizawa, Midoriya? I'm going to see if one of those paramedics can get my arm checked or something," I said.

"Ah, right!" said Midoriya, typing on his phone.

"We should assist people with injuries from the stampede, and help them get to the ambulances!" declared Iida.

"Don't get involved in the fight!" I shouted back, just in case it wasn't obvious.

Luckily, the injury on my arm was only superficial. I lost some skin, but there was nothing wrong with my joints or muscle. No permanent damage, only some scarring. A paramedic wrapped up my arm and made me promise to get it checked by a doctor as soon as possible. By the time I wandered back to the group, Shinsou, Kaminari and Ashido had come to join them, and Present Mic was there. He was disheveled and had a black eye, but seemed otherwise uninjured. He told us that both Shigaraki and Earthshaker had escaped in the chaos and that he was here to keep watch on us until someone else from UA arrived.

When Aizawa and Vlad King showed up, Present Mic wandered off to talk to the police. Most of the students were subsequently sent home, except me, Iida, Midoriya and Uraraka, the four most involved in the incident. After Recovery Girl unwrapped my arm and healed it (leaving a scar that vaguely resembled Aizawa-sensei's), the four of us went to the police station to report on the incident and what happened leading up to it.

There wasn't much to report, honestly. Midoriya and Shigaraki didn't have a conversation about ideals or whatever like last time, I just saw him and pulled out pepper spray. At least we managed to provide Tsukauchi with a better description of Shigaraki's face, having seen it not covered in hands.

My uncle picked me up. While he, of course, was even more worried about the villains, I did my best to reassure him. "Don't worry. Once these wackadoos get arrested we won't have any problems," I said. Andgeez.Hopefully that day would come sooner than later.

Chapter 29: a time to judge every deed

Summary:

"Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does." - William James.

Notes:

Warning: slight manga spoilers between "Remember, don't put yourself in danger" and "'... right,' Evan responded." Don't worry, you won't miss too much of the chapter if you skip that part.

Chapter Text

Evan wrapped up his arms in bandages. Thankfully, Shigaraki hadn't managed to get his hands on them.Thatmight have been irreversible. Just damage from debris. "Are you okay?" Eri frowned, tugging on his shirt.

"I'm fine, Eri," he said, giving her a pat on the head. "These will heal."
Eri frowned. "Why don't you make them heal super fast?"

The real answer was that deconstructing and reconstructing his arms would hurt and be a little risky, so it was just simpler to wait. "Because it's important to be patient," he said. "I have to go visit a friend. Why don't you go play with Setsuno?"

"Alright," she said, whining slightly. Evan felt warm on the inside. Eri was so cute. Raising a child had been… a lot harder than he thought it'd be, but Eri was the best thing to ever grace this world regardless.

Out of the corner of his eye, Evan saw one of the Eight Bullets leading around a new official member of the Eight Precepts of Death on a tour of their base. They hovered around the entrance to the room. "His office is so clean," the man whispered, probably assuming Evan couldn't hear him. "Everything is exactly straight. It's actually pretty impressive."

"Trust me," his subordinate Tabe responded. "He used to beso much worse."

Evan smiled. He did have OCD, but everyone in the Shie Hassaikai treated it like a major step down from the previous Overhaul. He minded germs some, but mostly decided to keep the plague masks because they were cool. Between actually having OCD, keeping the plague masks for the motif, and a fairly convincing Overhaul impression, everyone in the yakuza seemed convinced that one day, Overhaul had just suddenly become a little more laid-back and a lot less murderous. No one had complained.

Unfortunately, though, he had business to do. Mineta, previously Ashley, had taken obvious damage in the fight against Shigaraki. And then he hadn't sent texts, so now Evan had no idea how bad it was.

Once Evan had left the Shie Hassaikai base, he donned his green Earthshaker mask. He took back alleys all the way to Mineta's house, preventing a few crimes on the way: muggings, sexual assaults, thefts… he'd gotten used to being a vigilante by now, and few villains could match him. The quirk Overhaul wasbroken.Reshaping the earth alone was incredibly versatile.

He jumped up to the second story window of the house he knew was Mineta's and knocked on the window. Mineta, who was working on his computer, startled and opened the window. "Evan! What are you doing here?"

"Visiting." Evan climbed through the window. "I saw Shigaraki grab your arm, and you didn't text…"

Realization dawned on Mineta's face. "Oh. Yeah."

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah I am! No permanent damage to the muscle. Just a scar." Mineta held out his arm. On his forearm was a massive splotch of lighter-colored skin. Because his arm was so small, the scar encompassed almost a third of it.

Evan hid a wince. "I'm glad there's no permanent damage, though this is a pretty big scar. Are you okay with it?" Evan asked.

Mineta looked down at his scar. "I match Aizawa-sensei now. So I don't mind."

Evan kept forgetting how much Mineta had admired Aizawa and Yagi back in the real world. It must be nice for him to be taught by them. Probably why he'd forgiven All Might so easily after the beatdown that was final exams. "Honestly, you keep getting in dangerous situations. The kidnapping, and then the All Might thing, and then this…"

"I hadn't factored personal safety very deeply into my plans," Mineta admitted. "But now! I will endeavor to change that."

Evan sighed, facepalming. "Okay. Please do."

Mineta nodded.

"Also - what should I call you now? You were 'Ashley' before and you were female but now…" Evan waved his hands to express general confusion.

"Ah. It's very weird to me too. It almost feels like I copied Mineta's gender identity. I think it's because I have some of his memories. I feel fine being called "he" and Mineta and I adapted to his body rather easily, when I really shouldn't have. Weirdly enough, though, I'm still asexual. Mineta was… not that. I would have thought the opposite would happen. It's convenient though, considering I'm truly much older than all the other teenagers in my class."

"That info actually might give us a clue onhowwe're stuck in these bodies."

"What about you? Do you feel any different?"

"Still male, still gay. I'm not sure what Overhaul's sexuality was before I showed up in his body, though. I've looked through a few memories but he never thinks about it."

"Huh. Interesting."

"Anyway, it's good to see you. Do you have any plans for the Forest Training Camp?"

"I think I'm going to try to work with Aizawa, All Might and Nedzu to set a trap for the League of Villains, without telling any of the students or teachers. That way the traitor shouldn't hear about it. I'll see what I can do," Mineta said.

"Remember, don't put yourself in danger," Evan warned.

Mineta nodded. "Sounds good. Also, you've been doing independent vigilante work, right? Can you start investigating Jaku Hospital and Deternat?"

Evan furrowed his brow. "Jaku Hospital and Deternat?"

"I don't know if I told you this before, but both of those are important in the Paranormal Liberation War. The head of Jaku Hospital and the CEO of Deternat are both involved with the League of Villains. If you could do a little investigating, but not tip them off, that would be great."

"Yeah, I could do that," said Evan. "Might be interesting."

Mineta sighed. "I wish we could still have All Might when the Paranormal Liberation War is happening, but I think he'll still be burnt out from his fight against All for One. If only… hey, wait! Your power is deconstructing and reconstructing people, right?" Mineta asked.

"... right," Evan responded.

"Can you fix All Might?"

Evan frowned, thinking deeply. "Well, maybe. He's missing organs though, right? A lung and a stomach?"

Mineta nodded.

"That would be tough. I can't make something out of nothing. All the same though, maybe I could rearrange a few things in a more comfortable manner and reduce scar tissue…" Evan devolved into muttering. "But maybe if I got enough of someone else's organic material I could form it into…" Then he stopped. "Okay. Maybe I could fix him a little. He'd still be losing One for All, he'd just be healthier."

"That's still great!" Mineta said. "We should do that right away!"

"I… do you even understand all thelogistical issuesof trying to do that? I would have toillegally assault the Symbol of Peacewith my quirk!"

"Okay, that might be a bit of a logistical issue," Mineta admitted, to Evan's disbelief. "Maybe you could ask him nicely?" Mineta asked.

Evan laughed. "You know what, maybe I'll try that. Though, all the same, would he really trust someone in the yakuza to fix him?"

Mineta shrugged. "If you frame your quirk as a healing one and act like a concerned citizen, he might accept. Tell him you can sense injuries and that you'd like to try to help heal his, mentioning pain is a side effect," Mineta said. "And if he says no, no loss."

Evan was silent for a moment. "That… Do you come up with crazy plans like this all the time, completely disregarding the consequences?"

Mineta averted his eyes. "Maybe a little."
"I… we're going to have to put a pin in that plan, Mineta. I need to think about it," Evan said. "Oh wow. That might actually work."

"Another question! Is Eri's quirk under control yet?"

Evan shook his head no. "She's been able to rewind some old trees to saplings without killing them, but not with any level of consistency."

"Oh, that's unfortunate." Both of them heard an engine rumbling and the sound of a garage door opening. "That's my uncle," Mineta said. "You ought to go."

"See you later! And next time something major happens or you get hurt,textme," Evan said, to which Mineta nodded. Then, Evan jumped out the window, landing neatly on the ground below. He and his green mask vanished into the afternoon.

Chapter 30: something else under the sun

Summary:

"But there's a twist. There's always a twist." - Dan Slott.

Chapter Text

A little time had passed, and the forest training camp was about a week away. I'd spent most of the time training, and that training had gone fairly well. It took longer for my head to bleed when I was using my quirk, I was actually somewhat fast, my martial arts skills were average and I could use balls to bounce in a passable way.Passable! That's what I was hoping for.

I stretched from my last workout and sat down on the couch, turning on the TV. "... attack on I-Island since it was built, most likely meant to disrupt the I-Expo…"Wait. I-Island, where have I heard that before?

"The movie! The My Hero Academia movies are happening!" I leapt up from my spot on the couch. I ran up to my room, where I pulled out both the new phone I'd bought and the burner phone Evan had given me. On the first, I texted,"Midoriya, I heard I-Island got attacked, are you okay?"to Deku's contact information (to which I'd asked for shortly after summer break started) and on the other, I texted,"EVAN THE MY HERO ACADEMIA MOVIES ARE OCCURING, I-ISLAND JUST GOT ATTACKED!?"

Evan didn't respond yet, but Midoriya's response was immediate.

"Yup! Luckily me and a few other people were able to disable the security system."

Oh. Thank goodness. I could have sworn Mineta was supposed to be there originally."Oh, who else was with you?"

"There was Momo, Uraraka, Kirishima, Kaminari, Todoroki… a few others. It was just good that lots of us were gathered in one place to help fight the villains."

"Well, I'm glad you're okay Midoriya."

The fact that nothing had gone astray in the I-Island fight was lucky. It made me extremely thankful that Mineta was mostly irrelevant to the plot, so even if he didn't show up everything generally turned out okay. But there was a second movie. I'd only ever watched the trailer of it and it looked pretty bad. Nabu Island, was it?If I suggest we don't go there is there going to be a consequence down the line?

Another notification from Midoriya."Me and a couple of other people are going to go get coffee. Want to come?"

I responded in the affirmative. Maybe I could get some extra details on exactly what happened on I-Island- though, I reminded myself, this was supposed to be a social event and not an interrogation.I should be polite and try to have fun.

I arrived at the coffee shop not too long after. There I saw Midoriya, Iida, Uraraka, Kaminari and Jirou. "Hey everyone!" I said. I ordered tea. It turned out Mineta's hatred for coffee had been passed on to me. "Didallof you have to fight random villains at I-Island? I can't believe that happened!"

That spurred an energetic retelling of what had happened by Kaminari and Uraraka, with input and clarification from the rest. "I asked Kirishima to come work as a waiter with me so we could hang out at I-Island for the party," said Kaminari. "I thought about asking you but I didn't think you'd like it."So that's one thing explained. He must have asked me to come in the original movie.

"I'm not much of a partier," I admitted. " "How come the rest of you were there?"

"I was there because I got invited by Momo," said Uraraka. Jirou nodded. "Same."

"I was invited due to my connections with the family hero agency," said Iida.

"Todoroki was invited 'cause he got first in the Sports Festival," Kaminari mused. "But almost everyone else was there because of Momo…"

Wait, Todoroki was there because he got first in the Sports Festival? Then did Bakugou even show up? Probably not! Oh wow that really could have gone wrong.

In their explanation of events, it seemed like they had gotten pretty far up the tower before they were even noticed by the security systems at all.I remember them barely winning. Maybe the reason it went well is because in the original either Mineta or Bakugou started a fight early on. This time since they weren't there, perhaps the group was able to use stealth most of the way?

"That's amazing," I said. "1-A really does have terrible luck, don't they? Was there even a single 1-B student there?"

"I don't think so, no," said Uraraka.

"We totally should have asked you to come though," Kaminari complained. "You would've been able to tell us there was gonna be an attack!"

"Yeah, probably," I said.

"It's probably a good thing you got a break from the villain attacks, though," said Jirou, with the slightest glance down to the scar on my arm.

I shrugged. "It's true, those aren't very good for my stress levels."

After we stopped talking about I-Island and villain attacks, the conversation tentatively led in other directions.

"So you want another fun class activity?" Uraraka asked.

"Yeah! We could all meet up together before the training trip!" Midoriya responded.

"The girls were thinking of requesting use of the school pool," said Uraraka. "So we could do that."

"Would it be acceptable if we were to invite the boys as well?" Iida asked.

"The more the merrier!" said Uraraka.

"I don't know if everyone's going to want to come, though," Jirou said. "I mean, look at Bakugou and Shinsou. And Todoroki. They're all really anti-social."

"I could probably convince Shinsou," Kaminari said. "I got him to come to the mall!"

"And look how well that went," Jirou deadpanned, to Kaminari's chagrin.

"I could ask Todoroki," Midoriya mentioned tentatively.

I nodded. " And I bet Kirishima could get Bakugou to come."

Kaminari winced. "Yeah… about that. It might be tough to get him to come to the pool if you're there," he said.

I frowned. "Why's that?"

Jirou looked a bit troubled. "You know he doesn't like you, right?"

"Uh… yeah, I guess. But doesn't he dislike everyone?"

"Yeah, well, he dislikes you especially. You beat him at the Sports Festival. Then you got higher grades than him during final exams," Kaminari ventured.

Midoriya nodded in confirmation. "Kacchan takes that kind of stuff personally."

"Oh, oops." I shrugged. "Whatever."

The five of them looked a little confused at my complete dismissal of Bakugou's opinion, like they'd assumed my feelings would be hurt. Probably because I was such a tryhard when attempting to make friends with everyone else. "I just think it's that Bakugou doesn't like to feel weak," Uraraka theorized. "And being beaten by someone like you, uh, no offense…"

"It's fine," I waved my hand. "I don't look particularly impressive. Regardless, Bakugou needs to learn that losing is okay. Healsoneeds to learn that he shouldn't judge people by their appearance or quirk."

Midoriya looked bewildered at the fact that Bakugou was being critiqued.

"And you really don't care that he doesn't like you?" Kaminari asked curiously.

"I don't mind it," I confirmed.

We all agreed that we would meet up in a few days at the pool, the rest of the class invited, and if Bakugou didn't come, then that was his loss.

When I got home, I saw Evan's response to the fact that the My Hero Academia movies were canon: ...admitting that he hadn't seen any of the movies either. He hadn't even known they existed. I knew a few things about the villains because of the trailers, but aside from that we'd just have to wing it.

Another text came in from Evan."I've been thinking about what you said about healing All Might. There are a few issues that might come up, but if we want to do this, we need to finish it before his battle with All For One. To give him the best chance of winning."

I texted back."Nice! What issues, though?"

"If we want to give him a new stomach and lung, I'm going to need to bring scraps of organic material with me in a cooler or something, and I'm going to need to know blood type."

"He's type A,"I said,"I always pause and stare at the little info placards in the episode. He and Iida are Type A."

"...So long as you're sure. I'm going to need a day or two to obtain the organic material… no killing, obviously. I could deconstruct someone, take a little bit of their organic material, and reconstruct them alive, though that would hurt…"

I shrugged slightly to myself even though Evan couldn't see it."Try to avoid murder and hurting people who don't deserve it."

"Sounds good! Anyway, last thing. Organ transplants usually take months to recover from, but me reconstructing everything in the perfect position Recovery Girl should make it take significantly less time. But we should do this operation quickly so he recovers in time for Kamino Ward."

I texted, "Quickly? How soon is that?"

"Very soon. Whenever I'm ready with organs."

Chapter 31: whatever is...

Summary:

"This knowledge sits in my heart, heavy as a paperweight." - Daniel Handler.

Chapter Text

On Evan's end, there were a few final details to figure out before he could heal All Might.

First, location.Done.While figuring out where All Might lived was impossible, it was easy enough to look up the residence of Yagi Toshinori.

Second, a disguise. Between makeup, glasses, a hat, different clothing, a facemask and contact lenses, Evan no longer looked anything like Chisaki Kai. Bereft of his green mask, there was nothing to connect him to Earthshaker, either.

And once he'd gotten the organic material, the only thing left to do was carry out the mission. Holding his cooler by his side, Evan walked casually towards All Might's apartment building, loitering in the street across it and waiting. It was about 3 PM, the time school got out, so hopefully All Might wouldn't be long. In addition, between a little hero work in the morning and teaching the whole school day, All Might had probably completely burnt through his hero form.

Soon enough, Evan could see the distinctive blond hair making his way through the crowd. Evan followed him as he entered inside his apartment. Once the two of them were a little ways inside the hallway of the quiet building, away from the streets, Evan waved an arm and said, "Hey, I've got a question for you."

"What question is that?" Yagi said, his face slightly guarded.

"It's my quirk. I can sense and heal injuries," Evan said, and Yagi's cautiousness was replaced by a look of realization. "Oh," he said. "This… well, it's an old injury. Not much can be done for it."

"I might not be able to heal it," Evan fibbed slightly, "But I might be able to reduce inflammation and scar tissue. It could help with chronic pain, a little."

Yagi gave a half-smile, which looked a little scary on his skeletal face. "If you think it would help, I don't mind."Hm. He's rather trusting of a stranger who wants to use his quirk on him… but all the same, what stranger would even know he was injured, unless they really could sense the injury? And who would want to attack 'Yagi Toshinori', a normal citizen? His trust in me would probably be justified if there wasn't a multiple dimension thing happening...

"It might hurt a bit," Evan warned, gently placing a hand on Yagi's side. Yagi shrugged. "Alright."Hopefully we can make this injury a little bit better.

The moment Evan started using his quirk on Yagi, he started screaming. Having your abdomen deconstructed and reconstructed did hurt significantly, so that wasn't unexpected. Steam started coming off of All Might. It looked like he was trying to morph into his larger form, but between only having half an abdomen at the moment and having already used up his time in hero form, he puttered out, shrinking again and spitting blood on the ground. With his other hand, Evan flipped open the cooler and grabbed the organic scraps, stitching them together with his quirk to form a new lung, stomach, and extra intestines. Then, Evan replaced some of the scar tissue with regular tissue and repaired some of the damage done to other organs, like one of his kidneys. Yagi's voice had gone hoarse, but the worst was over.

Evan did an extra careful check to make sure nothing was wrong (nothing was) and stitched All Might's body back together with his quirk. "We're done."

"Urrk…" Yagi groaned. Well, that was a fairly normal response to being partially disassembled. Evan shut the cooler and prodded his abdomen, just to ensure everything was in working order. It seemed fine.

"Yagi. I came to return your paperweight and I heard screa-" The voice cut off and was silent for a moment. Then it returned, with a snarled, "You."

Evan turned around. There, with his quirk activated and eyes glowing red, was Aizawa. And he lookedlivid.

Chapter 32: ...has already been

Summary:

"Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes." - Lao Tzu.

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter fornotes.)

Chapter Text

Aizawa didnotlook very happy. This situation was… admittedly, very difficult to explain. Even if Yagiwasn'tthe Symbol of Peace and Aizawa's coworker, Aizawa still would have come across Evan pinning down an elderly man, who about thirty seconds ago had been screaming in pain.

… Not a good look. No wonder Aizawa looked like he wanted to kill a man.

Evan looked down at All Might.He agreed to my quirk, so he can explain this for me.Yagi's eyes were half-lidded. He was still semiconscious and unresponsive.Okay, he cannot explain this for me.

"Get off of him," said Aizawa, full of righteous fury, throwing out his capture weapon at Evan. Evan narrowly dodged, quickly backpedaling in the hallway. "I can explain!"

"I'm sure you can," Aizawa growled, taking a defensive stance over Yagi, coiling his capture weapon in preparation for another attack.

"Look," Evan said reasonably. "You can either try to catch me, or you can bring your friend to the hospital. He probably needs it. I'm sure he's fine, but just to make sure his body won't reject the new organs."Shit that sounded kinda bad.

"What have youdone?"Aizawa snapped.

"Trust me, I'm a professional. You ought to take him to a doctor, though!" Evan said, whirling around and fleeing the scene as fast as he could. Aizawa threw out his capture scarf again, catching his wrist. Evan quickly disassembled and reassembled the scarf, to the point it almost looked like it had missed him. He kept running without skipping a beat.Yikes! Vigilante training coming in handy.For a few more terrifying moments, Aizawa was hot on his heels, but once Evan had managed to escape out the back door of the building, Aizawa gave up the pursuit. Getting Yagi to a medical professional truly was much higher priority than catching the criminal. Evan fled the area through back alleys.

Aizawa entered the principal's office, shutting the door behind him. "Is Yagi okay?"

The Principal frowned. "He hasn't woken up yet, but what you said about organs seems to be true. Recovery Girl says that he does indeed have two lungs and a stomach."

Aizawa grimaced. "The suspect said something about his body rejecting the organs. Did that happen?"

"No. They seem to have been compatible, and his body is adjusting well," Nedzu said, resting his head on his paws. "This is a highly unusual case."

"Tell me about it. What do you think happened?"

"There are a few possibilities. The police noticed that the cooler found on scene had the remains of lung and stomach tissue-the culprit likely took the organs with them in that, on ice. Toshinori was always considered a poor candidate for organ donation, so it is likely the culprit didsomethingto smooth over the donation-it is very possible their quirk has something to do with it. A healing quirk, perhaps, or a type of surgical quirk, that can cut and seal," Nedzu mused.

"Whatever it was, it was painful. I heard him screaming…"

Nedzu frowned and patted Aizawa on the arm. "We'll find whoever did this," he said.

"We don't know much of what they look like. Just reddish-brown hair," Aizawa said.

Nedzu narrowed his eyes. "We'll still find them eventually. We have an idea of what their quirk is, and Yagi likely got a decent look at their face. They can't hide from us for long."

Toshinori Yagi woke up to the beeping sounds of medical machines. He rubbed his eyes and tried to sit up. When he did, something felt off, so he stopped. "Why am I…" Suddenly, he remembered everything that had happened with the strange man.

"So you're awake," said Recovery Girl. "How much do you remember?"

"I was approached by a man who said he had a quirk that could sense and heal injuries. I told him he probably wouldn't be able to heal mine, as it was an old injury, but he asked if he could use his quirk to perhaps reduce inflammation and help with chronic pain. I agreed, but when he used his quirk on me, it hurt quite a bit. I passed out," Yagi explained.

Recovery Girl facepalmed. "Toshinori, that was a stranger! Why did you let him use his quirk on you?" she asked.

"He seemed like a nice young man!" Yagi protested.

Recovery Girl sighed. "Okay, puttingthataside. Did he have anything with him?" she asked.

"A cooler? I think he was holding a cooler as well."

"That essentially confirms it then," Recovery Girl said, scribbling down a note. "That man probablydidhave some kind of quirk involving some kind of healing, but he didn't just reduce inflammation. He transplanted organs from the cooler into you."

"What?"

"They seem to be a match for your blood type and the perfect size, at least. It makes me think that he selected you beforehand, that this was a planned operation. I highly doubt he was just walking around with the perfect lung in a cooler and happened upon you."

"But why?!"

"He didn't call you All Might, the Symbol of Peace, anything?"

Yagi shook his head. Recovery Girl shrugged. "Maybe he somehow discovered you were All Might. Maybe you were chosen randomly. We don't know. What we do know is that no case like this has been seen anywhere else."

"This is… unexpected. Will I heal?" Yagi asked.

Recovery Girl nodded. "You should. Potentially better than before, in truth. I've noted reduced scar tissue and some repaired damage to the kidney, appendix and gallbladder. Does anything hurt?"

"No, I just feel strange," he said.

"That's fairly normal. Even with my quirk, it will take a few more days to recover fully. After that you should be mostly fine," Recovery Girl said.

"Whoever did this, I'm not sure whether to thank them or arrest them, or both," Yagi mused. "They asked permission to use their quirk, yet didn't disclose the full truth of what they planned to do. The procedure was helpful, butwheredid they get the organs? How disturbing."

"Whoever it is has some questions to answer, definitely," Recovery Girl said gruffly. "But that'll just have to wait. You won't be looking for them yet. Your health comes first."

Yagi thought vaguely of Mineta's advice:You should practice self-care!

Yagi had always considered self-sacrifice to be a great virtue and yet…

With this new opportunity to regain his health, he might as well take Mineta's advice about self-care. If this is a second chance, he ought to make the most of it. After all, Yagi desperately wanted to live long enough to see Midoriya's graduation.

Notes:

Because they aren't completely sure of what Overhaul's quirk is, they just think he was just carrying around complete organs (that are only viable for ~6 hours after removal from other patients) in that cooler, which is kinda hilarious. These people are thinking he stole organs off a fresh corpse. Ouch!

Chapter 33: eternity in the human heart

Summary:

"Happiness is meeting an old friend after a long time… and feeling that nothing has changed." - Unknown.

Chapter Text

Evan texted me, saying the "procedure" had been done and that he'd given All Might a new lung and stomach, and had tried to fix the either damage. All Might was completely vanished from the media for a week and a half after that, but then began to make tentative appearances for slowly increasing periods of time. He seemed to have hit a limit in the past few days, however. He would do hero work for nearly two hours a day, but never exceeded that time.

As for our class swimming meeting, it happened right as All Might was getting back into the swing of things. Midoriya looked extremely cheerful and happy while he was there, which was a good sign regarding All Might's health. Bakugoudidend up coming to the swimming competition, at Kirishima's request, but I did my best to avoid him and everything went smoothly. I sort of noticed what the others had been talking about, though. He did look a little extra angry when he looked at me.

Nothing had blown up, though, figuratively or literally, so I was both excited and apprehensive to finally be going on the forest lodge trip. I took the burner phone with me and let Evan know it was finally happening, and also managed to convince Midoriya to give me Aizawa's contact information. I added Aizawa to both my regular phone and my burner phone in case of emergency. Aizawa also announced that the location of the forest training lodge had been changed and that we'd on learn the true location when we got there.The fact that so few people know the location of the camp is probably the reason we're still having it. A shame that that security measure will turn out to be futile.

One hour into the bus ride, we got off the bus for a 'bathroom break' and 'to stretch our legs'. I knew that was a farce. As we walked out of the bus, I shouted, "Look alive, this is the actual stop!" to give everyone a warning. "I knew it," someone whispered, as Aizawa gave me a sharp glare for ruining the surprise.

We were immediately introduced to Pixie-Bob and Mandalay, who informed us in short order that if we didn't get down the mountain by 12:30 PM, we wouldn't get lunch. I didn't have high hopes for lunch, so I'd filled my pockets with snacks. A few students tried to back away towards the bus, but Pixie-Bob used her quirk to throw us over the mountainside into the forest.Great. Love this.

A massive beast made of earth appeared in front of us and I internally reminded myself to ask Evan if he could do that too. Koda attempted to use Anivoice, but nothing happened. "It's made of earth!" I shouted, as Midoriya attacked it. "Pixie-Bob's quirk!"

It didn't take long for us to figure out how to destroy the beasts, but that didn't mean it waseasy.In particular, lacking offensive firepower, I could only use balls to trap the beasts for my other classmates to attack or run past. We staggered into the base of the mountain just as the sun was starting to set. "You guys didn't have as hard a time beating my earth beasts as I thought you would!" said Pixie-Bob with a grin. "I'm looking forward to where you'll be in three years! I call dibs!"

Oh wow, that's kinda creepy! Did she say that before?I thought, as Mandalay explained to Aizawa why Pixie-Bob was behaving like that.Yeah I think this happened in the original. Huh, I definitely blocked out that detail.

"Whose child is that?" said Midoriya, pointing to Kota.

"Oh, not one of ours," explained Mandalay. "He's my cousin's kid."

"Nice to meet you!" said Midoriya, holding out a hand to Kota. Kota gave a gentle smile and took Midoriya's hand and shook it. "Nice to meet you as well," he said. I blinked.Huh? I don't really remember this episode but I feel like something else was supposed to happen…

We all went into the dining hall and ate dinner together. It reallywasdelicious, especially since we'd missed lunch. Then, we went to the hot springs, which felt great on sore muscles after having fought random earth creatures the whole day. I, unlike the previous Mineta, did not make any attempts to climb the wall between the boy's and girl's side. Unlike last time, Kota wasn't on the wall. That boded well for Aizawa's trust in my human decency, at least.

The next day, quirk training began. Aizawa asked Bakugou to demonstrate the ball throw, in which he barely exceeded his previous record. Then, he told us we were going to focus solely on improving our quirks, making a vague threat about how it would feel like we were dying. And, yeah. It kinda did feel like that sometimes. Using your quirk too often can be really exhausting.

Immediately, everyone was thrown into their own sort of exercise. I was busy continuously pulling balls off my head to strengthen my quirk.I'm used to this but it still stings once my head starts bleeding.After Aizawa had finished directing everyone to their places, he had started observing our progress, giving advice to students and occasionally yelling at them to work harder. As he stood next to Mandalay, he side-eyed the pile of balls I'd created. "You've actually improved quite a bit," he said, in a level tone.

Uh. Is that suspicious?"Self-improvement is good for the soul, or something like that," I said, not stopping my practice. Aizawa stared at me for a long moment, then turned his attention back on the other students.Phew.

After a day of training, we had to make our own food. I looked at the ingredients grumpily.If we're going to exercise all day we might as well not have to cook,I thought. Iida made some comment about it being 'survival training' or 'practice for helping people in disasters' or something and while I doubted that it was either of those things, it did make me feel a little bit better about it. I was placed in charge of adding the spices to the curry. I'd never made curry before (and neither had Mineta) so I wasn't sure why this was my job, but I did my best.

… I definitely added too little spice. Rather bland. "This is a little disappointing, but at least it's filling!" said Kirishima. It tasted good-ish to me, but really only because I was hungry. I finished my food and yawned and stretched. Midoriya had finished his food too, and was making a concerned and thoughtful face, staring at the leftover curry. "Hey Midoriya," I said. "What're you thinking about?"

Midoriya jumped slightly. "O-oh! I was thinking about Kota. He didn't have any curry so he must be hungry," said Midoriya.Aw, classic Midoriya. Being concerned for everyone."Do you wanna come bring him some?" I suggested.

"Uh, yeah! Let's do that!" Midoriya poured out another bowl of curry and we went walking together in the night.."I saw him go this way earlier," said Midoriya, pointing to a small cave on the cliffside.His secret hideout. I have to make sure Kota's not there when the villains attack.

"Ah, hey, Kota," said Midoriya, poking his head in.

Kota came out of the cave. "Hello. What are you doing here?"

"I noticed you didn't get any curry! So I came to get you some," said Midoriya.

"Oh! That's very nice of you," Kota said, sitting with his legs crossed. He started eating his curry.

"And, I wanted to ask you… your parents. Could they be Water Hose? With the water quirks?" Midoriya asked.Oh ouch. That's going to be a sore spot.

Kota's face became solemn. "Did Mandalay tell you?"

"Oh, no, um, uh… Sorry! Yeah. I kinda ended up hearing about it." Midoriya offered his condolences. Kota nodded. "Yeah… thanks."

"Mandalay said you didn't really like heroes because of that," Midoriya said, but looked like he regretted saying it seconds after. Luckily, Kota wasn't offended. He swallowed another bite of curry and said, "Well, I wouldn't say it's because of that. I just dislike the hero system."

"Why do you think that?"

"I think it's crazy only heroes are allowed to use their quirks publicly. It just makes it easier for heroes to oppress the people, including discriminating against heteromorphic-type quirks. We'veseenthat, with a few common sense precautions, quirk deregulation has worked well in countries like Sweden, Haiti and Switzerland," Kota ranted, clearly having bottled up this opinion for a long time. Midoriya blinked, clearly stunned by such a complex argument out of a 5-year-old. Kota blushed. "So. Yeah."

This… this sounded familiar. Where had I heard this type of reasoning before?

"It honestly is not hard. We've seen free health care work in lots of countries, we just need to copy their style!" Theodore argued, his voice echoing through the lecture hall of the American Government classroom.

… Theodore.

Chapter 34: in place of justice...

Summary:

"The only mistake you can make is not asking for help." - Sandeep Jauhar.

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter fornotes.)

Chapter Text

While Midoriya made a tentative argument in favor of the hero system (and Kota listened sheepishly and didn't say much, realizing he overstepped his bounds as a 'five-year-old') my mind ran through loops. Could this really be Theodore?Kota's been acting so differently… it's the only explanation. It kinda makes sense, too! Kota may not necessarily be hated, like Overhaul or Mineta, but most viewers were a little annoyed by him on their first watch. When every single person is annoyed, that adds up fast…

If that's even how our bodies were chosen. We don't really know for sure.

After Kota and Midoriya had finished their talk about hero society (in which they both agreed on what the ideal hero should look like, but disagreed completely on the structure of the system itself) and Kota had finished eating his curry, Midoriya and I got up. Just as we were about to leave, I said, "Could I have a moment alone with him? I know something about his parents, and…"

"Oh! Yeah! Sure! I'll take the bowl back," Midoriya offered.

I smiled. "Thanks. I'll be right down." As Midoriya trotted off, I turned to Kota.

"Theodore?" I asked tentatively.

Kota whipped his head around to look at me. "How do you know that?"

"It's me, Ashley," I said. Suddenly, Kota tackled me in a hug. "Woah!" I said.

"What's going on?" he said, hugging me tightly.

"The three of us-you, me, and Evan-we were transported to this world on accident, on the same night," I explained. "All in different bodies."

"Evan is here?" his voice cracked and he sniffed.

"Yeah, he is. It's going to be alright," I said, patting Kota-Theodore on the head. Suddenly, Kota burst into tears and started sobbing uncontrollably. It took a minute or two for his sobs to die down. He wiped his eyes on his sleeves. "I'm sorry."

"No, it's fine. We've been looking for you," I explained.

Kota's lip wobbled and for a second I thought he might cry again. "Oh. That's really nice of you. I thought I was alone. This world… are we in an anime?"

"Yes. We're in My Hero Academia."

Kota sniffed again. "Yeah, I thought so. I knew I recognized All Might from somewhere. Evan was trying to get me to watch that show for ages. Who are you and who is Evan?"

"I'm Mineta Minoru, a hero student at UA high school. He's Chisaki Kai, who was a villain called 'Overhaul' in the original series but Evan decided to be a vigilante instead," I explained. "He's called 'Earthshaker' so if you see Earthshaker on the news, it's Evan."

"I'm so proud of him, being a vigilante. Good job beating the system, Evan," Kota said, wiping his eyes again. "Wow. This is crazy," Kota said. "How did you know it was me?"

"I could recognize one of your political speeches anywhere," I said, and Kota laughed.

I noticed belatedly that it'd been a few minutes since Midoriya left. "I should get down the mountain before anyone gets suspicious," I said, and Kota nodded, "but something first. I can write you a short explanation of the plot of the anime so you know what's happening. Also, I can give you my and Evan's phone numbers. I'll pass it off to you discreetly… do you think you can keep it hidden?"

Kota nodded. "Yeah. As you can see by my secret cave, my aunts know when to give me privacy. I don't have access to a phone, though…" Kota grimaced. "Well. Contacting you will be an actual nightmare, but I can hide the paper."

"Good. Second, you need to stay out of your secret hideout for a few days," I said.

"Why's that?"

"Villains are going to attack from this direction," I said, and Kota's eyes widened. "So you should stay fairly close to base and keep an eye out. Especially if you hear that there's going to be a 'Test of Courage' you should go hang out with the remedial students inside the building," I said. "It's part of the anime plot."

Kota nodded. "Got it! Let's go down together, then."

When we arrived back at the base, Kota and I split off. I went to the building the boys were set to sleep in. I quickly glanced about and, seeing that no one was paying any attention to me (most everyone was off brushing their teeth or showering), I opened up my burner phone.

"Evan, I won't be able to text for a while after this, but just so you know the villain attack is going to be tomorrow night. Be there please? More importantly, I found Theo. He's in Kota's body (the 5yo with the water quirk who Muscular attacked) and he's okay. I think he'd love to see you soon, but we have to handle the villain attack first. I made sure to tell him to stay away from the hideout so he isn't targeted by Muscular this time."

I sent off the message and hid the phone in my backpack again. Now, it was off to do the thing I promised everyone I'd do: tell the teachers. I'd put it off for long enough, hoping they wouldn't cancel the camp. I wandered over to the classroom area. It was 6:30 PM, so Aizawa was preparing for remedial lessons and the rest of the Pussycats were hanging about.

"Mineta, why are you here?" Aizawa asked.

"Well, it turns out soon we might be having a… bit of a villain attack?"

Aizawa turned sharply. "What?"

"A dangerous group, to be sure. About ten, give or take a few?" I offered.

Aizawa looked at Tiger. "We have to cancel the camp," Aizawa grunted, and Tiger nodded in acknowledgement.

"That's the thing, though. I don't think it will matter. The danger… it follows," I said, shrugging and grimacing at the same time. "I think the villains must have a sensory quirk or some kind of information on the inside, because no matter how we move the camp, the villains will find us regardless."

"That's not good," Mandalay said, turning serious. "When's this going to happen?"

"Tomorrow night, maybe a little later," I said. "Honestly… you might just want to call up a bunch of other heroes to fight the League of Villains when they show up."

"You know it's the League of Villains specifically?" Aizawa asked, frowning.

"Just guessing. I could be wrong." I shrugged.

"We could bring the students inside when the villains are expected to attack," said Pixie-Bob. "Use this place as a stronghold of sorts and have the pros defend it."

Aizawa frowned again. "I still don't like students being in the vicinity."

"If we have enough pro-heroes, we should be able to stop them from even getting close," Pixie-Bob argued. "You said there were only ten villains, right?"

"Give or take a few, yes," I said.

"Hm, how powerful is each one?" Ragdoll asked, her voice shrill.

"Um, let me think. I dunno, maybe three-fourths a Shigaraki each? Except one, who's like three or four Shigarakis."I'll just say the Chainsaw Nomu is worth 3 or 4 of Shigaraki to imply raw power.

"We could move the students and allow the villains to attack this area as a decoy, perhaps," Tiger suggested.

"That… see, that doesn't work. Whenever the students are moved the villains will attack there instead. I can sense it," I explained.

Tiger grunted. "Then perhaps itisbest to have pros waiting for the villains' arrival."

Aizawa scowled, but nodded reluctantly. "How many heroes would we need to safely stop that many villains of that caliber?" As the pros debated on who they would need to protect the students, I had to mention one last thing. "One more thing," I said. "You know how I said whenever the students move, the villain's attack moves? I'm afraid that's because someone might be leaking our movements to the villains," I explained. "So, whatever plan you chose, you shouldn't tell any UA students or teachers. Otherwise the villains might know that we have extra heroes."

Aizawa looked surprised, but considering. "We can't justnotlet the school know about this."

"You can tell Nedzu, and All Might. Both of them are trustworthy. So are you."

"But no one else?" Aizawa tilted his head.

"Well, I'm so suspicious of everybody that I can't figure out who's causing the leak with my quirk. But I can sense that you, the Pussycats, All Might and Nedzu are trustworthy. Also Midoriya but… anyways. We shouldn't risk the plan by telling anyone else and letting the villains know there's a trap through the leak," I said.

"You don't want to tell Vlad King, then."

I shook my head. Aizawa sighed. "Hiding this from him will be difficult. Besides, he's one of your teachers. He's trustworthy."

"I trust no one!" I said, crossing my arms.

Aizawa sighed again. "So be it. We'll see what non-UA heroes can be contacted on short notice. In the meantime, donottell your classmates that an attack is coming, or that we plan to have heroes ready to intercept the villains. Keep it quiet," Aizawa instructed.

"Alright."

"And most of all,stay safe."

"Got it!" I ambled out of the classroom a few minutes before students were set to arrive and headed back towards the boy's sleeping area. Sero was gone, probably left to do his remedial lessons, but everyone else was hanging about and talking.Best get an early rest so I'm prepared for all the stuff that's going to happen tomorrow.

In the morning, we started another day of working on our quirks. Admittedly, I slacked off a little bit. I didn't want to be entirely exhausted when the villain attack was happening. I sent furtive glances at Aizawa, who acted fairly normally throughout the day, but seemed to be on his phone and in contact with other people more often than usual. Hopefully calling for help.

I started getting more anxious as the day progressed. Finally, after we'd had dinner, Aizawa talked about how they'd planned for a 'Test of Courage' but were rescheduling it due to issues with weather. There were some clouds on the horizon, but it was obvious to me this was a lie. Regardless, Aizawa still paired us into groups and decided to let us strategize with our partners for a potential future Test of Courage. The addition of Shinsou to the class meant 21, but Sero was in remedial lessons so that brought down the number of Test of Courage participants to 20, ten groups of two with no one left behind. I was partnered with Shoji.

"I'm not really good at scaring people," I admitted, remembering the fact that I was purple, had dwarfism, and a squeaky voice.

"You think I would be?" Shoji asked, something like resignation in his voice.

I shrugged. "No. You don't really have the temperament for scariness, you're much too gentle. We'll have to work hard to actually scare 1-B with our group."

Shoji blinked in surprise.Oh, oops, people typically think his quirk is scary. Hopefully I didn't say anything offensive right there. Okay I'm just gonna move on...

"Uh, anyway. You're tall so you'll be good at casting ominous shadows or looming over people. I could probably climb a tree or something and make it crackle ominously. Scary noises? Not good at jumpscares, though…"

Shoji hummed. "What about when it's our turn to be scared?"

"Umm. I don't like jumpscares," I said.

"You seemed pretty brave before during the real villain attacks," said Shoji commented.

"Oh! Thank you," I said, feeling flattered.

This is Mandalay! Villains are making their way towards the base! Everyone please get inside!A voice echoed through our heads. Aizawa stood up quickly. "Everyone inside!" he ordered, pointing to the doors of the building. Everyone rushed to follow orders and soon enough we were all huddling inside an empty classroom in the building's center. Vlad King and Aizwa took defensive positions by the doors, as did Tiger and Pixie-Bob, who had been standing nearby. For a short time, all was quiet, excepting the occasional explosion that rattled the building. Then, another message from Mandalay.

There's a villain - brain exposed - we can't hold him back, he's breaking through our ranks! Incoming!

The Chainsaw Nomu? I didn't think he was that strong. What kind of heroes had Aizawa recruited that they couldn't handle…

One of the walls was busted open. Tiger quickly ushered the students away from that side of the room as Pixie-Bob built earthen barriers to keep the students and villain separated. But I was decently sure that measure would be useless. This villain was plenty capable of breaking through dirt.

Tall, muscular, blue and a beak.

The Nomu from the USJ? He's back NOW, of all times?

With a screech, The Nomu lunged toward Tiger.

Notes:

Thirty chapters later and that Nomu has come back to haunt him.

Chapter 35: wickedness was there

Summary:

Battle at the Forest Training Camp.

Chapter Text

With his quirk, Pliabody, Tiger narrowly managed to twist himself out of the way of the Nomu's blow. Endeavor crashed through the door, scorching the Nomu with flames. Tiger again barely managed to flip himself clear of the fire. The students, luckily, were protected from the backdraft by Pixie-Bob's earth walls. The hero Crust slid in, slicing off one of the Nomu's limbs with a shield. The arm had already grown back halfway when Endeavor blasted fire at it, which partially halted the regeneration. "Get out of here!" said Crust, right before he was punted across the room by the Nomu. The students rushed to comply, running out the other door of the classroom and fleeing into another part of the building as the heroes covered our escape.

We ran through one of the hallways until something crashed through the wall in front of us. Two figures stood there shrouded in dust: Muscular and Fatgum, who began trading blows. Fatgum tackled Muscular through another of the building's walls, to our left. "Go right!" Aizawa shouted. Iida, at the front of the pack, skidded and took a sharp right turn. A straight right for long enough led to an empty meeting room. The students quickly entered, followed by Vlad King and Aizawa.Tiger and Pixie-Bob are caught up with the USJ Nomu.

This room, unlike the other one, had windows. I peeked out the window to see how the fight was going. Not far away, I saw Ryuykyu in dragon form fighting the Chainsaw Nomu, an unconscious Twice lying on the ground, and an exhausted-looking Edgeshot trying to fight Spinner, Toga, and Mr. Compress simultaneously. The leftmost part of the woods was burning while purple gas rose from the area to the right. Mt. Lady was fightingsomeoneoff in the forest but only her head was visible through the treetops.This is mad chaos!

I squinted through the window to a fight that I saw a little left of the others, difficult to discern as it was shrouded in darkness.Is that… Ragdoll?I realized it wasn't really a fight. Magne was dragging Ragdoll across the ground in the direction of the woods.That's where Kurogiri is going to show up. If Magne manages to take Ragdoll far enough they'll kidnap her and take her quirk! What can I do?None of the other heroes went to help Ragdoll. Either they were too busy with their own fights to help (Edgeshot) or didn't notice at all (Ryuykyu). I flung the window open. "I'm sorry about this, it's important!" I said, jumping out the first-story window and running toward Magne.

"Get back here!" Aizawa shouted, but he couldn't fit through the window. I could. Magne noticed me running in her direction and grinned slightly. "You're on the kill or capture list, whichever is more convenient," she said, activating her quirk. For a moment I glowed blue, but it sputtered out immediately. "Huh?" she said, confused, and I took advantage of the moment, pulling out my taser and jamming it into her side.

She screamed and crumpled. I would have to figure out why her quirk didn't work on me later. I grabbed Ragdoll and started dragging her towards the building, but I wasn't that strong. I couldn't move very fast. Dabi walked out of the shadows. "Poor little student, all alone," he taunted. He shot a pillar of blue flames at me.

They slammed into a protective earth wall. "Pixie… Bob?" Ragdoll's voice slurred. I glanced down at her. Conscious, a good sign.

"Not quite," said Evan's voice. Earthshaker jumped on the scene. I'll take care of this," he said to me, with a nod, taking a defensive stance.

"Thank you!" I said, and kept dragging Ragdoll back towards the building.

A huge explosion sounded in the distance. I automatically turned to look that way. A far distance away, was that…is that All Might? And All for One?

All for One and All Might were exchanging punches of massive power, absolutely leveling one area of the woods.Oh my god, why is he here.

I quickly resumed my efforts to pull Ragdoll away from the action.

Why is All for One here? Because he wanted everything to go smoothly? Because he thought All Might was here? I have no idea. All I know is that if All Might loses, we're completely screwed!

I heard crunching footsteps behind me. "Mineta!" I whirled around, but it was only Vlad King, who easily scooped me and Ragdoll up. He must've gone to the normal exit and around the building to get to me. He ran back inside, dropping Ragdoll and I off at the entrance of the meeting room.

"Mineta Minoru. What part ofstay putdid younot understand?"Aizawa was furious.

"I'm sorry! I had to! Something horrible was going to happen to her, I could sense it!" I gave him wide, sad eyes.

"Ragdoll was fighting to protect you and the other students! You undermine her efforts when you put yourself in danger. You areluckythat you weren't killed. Now you will stay here, or you will be expelled!" he snapped.

"Y-yeah," I said, a lump forming in my throat.All for One and All Might are fighting. But all the variables are different, the location, the timing. What if All Might loses? Can Evan even beat Dabi on his own? Where did Theodore go, is he in danger? Even if he's in the building there's a chance he's not okay…

I shuffled over to Kaminari and clung to his shirt because he was my emotional support person.If he's the traitor I'm going to get Uraraka to toss him into the sun.Kaminari had the decency to look concerned.

There was more quiet, with the occasional sounds of crashes in the background. Then, a knock on the door. Aizawa motioned to the students to back away and Vlad King cautiously opened it. It was Mandalay. Everyone sighed in relief that it was a hero, and not a villain.

"You okay in here?" she said.

"We're fine," Vlad King assured her. "No students injured." Mandalay smiled.

Vlad King tilted his head. "Mandalay, what is that?"

While Mandalay's clothing was identical to what she wore previously, on her back was an odd device. It almost looked like scuba gear, except it ended in a needle.Wait, that's Toga's equipment, isn't it?

She smiled again, unnaturally. "It's something I took from one of the villa-"

"Potential imposter!" I shouted. "Question to prove your identity! What is the name of the child you help raise?"

Mandalay blinked. "Uh…"

Aizawa activated his quirk, and Mandalay's face started to melt, revealing Toga underneath. Aizawa tied up Toga in his capture weapon and slammed her into the ground. "Ouch! Not nice," she whined. She tried to stab Aizawa with a knife, and Aizawa kneed her in the gut in retaliation. She melted into a puddle of earthy goo. "That wasn't her quirk?" said Aizawa, confused.One of Twice's doubles. Since Twice is already down, he must have cloned her early on in the battle this time.

Then, a telepathic voice entered my mind. The real Mandalay.The fighting is starting to die down and the villains have begun a retreat! UA students, please remain in the classrooms until someone comes to pick you up. Anyone not currently fighting villains please help put the fires out! Thank you!

It didn't say anything about Evan's battle or Kota, but if All Might had lost that message wouldn't be going out, so a good sign. Everyone else was sighing in relief. It was another half hour before we received any more communication from the heroes. A scratched-up Fatgum and Best Jeanist showed up to lead us out, Kota by their side. It turned out he was hiding in a supply closet all along.

No one said anything about the result of All Might's battle, which was not televised this time around. But! I did see All for One, though, wrapped in restraints, being wheeled out.Good! He got him!… and no one knew Yagi Toshinori was All Might. That could change a lot. I wondered distantly if All Might still had time left.

Of Earthshaker, people vaguely referenced the fact that he had fought in the battle, but no one ever specified exactly what had happened to him. All that was left of his battle with Dabi was burning trees and scorched earth.

Chapter 36: one handful of tranquility

Summary:

UA students and the dorms! A bit of a calmer chapter.

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter fornotes.)

Chapter Text

When Aizawa heard a villain attack was going to happen, he prepared for the worst. He had to pull quite a few favors to get a team of non-UA heroes involved so fast, but most were willing to come once they heard the possibility of first-years being attacked. Endeavor, because he was Todoroki's father, was willing to involve himself. He helped recruit some of the other top-ten heroes, like Crust, Best Jeanist and Ryuykyu. Once Aizawa managed to get Edgeshot involved, he brought Mt. Lady and Kamui Woods along. Aizawa had asked Mr. Brave and Fatgum himself. On top of it all, All-Might was on standby and the Wild, Wild Pussycats, Vlad King, and himself were around the students at all times. He thought he'd gotten enough heroes involved.

They werebarelyenough.

It had taken half the Pussycats, Endeavor, Crust and Mr. Brave working in tandem to put down the USJ Nomu. Edgeshot was forced to take on four villains alone because his partner Ryukyu was fighting a Nomu made ofChainsaws. Chainsaws!

Ragdoll was almost killed by Magne and one of his students ran out to save her. That student probably would have beenmurderedif it weren't for the convenient arrival of the vigilante Earthshaker.(Saved another one of my students,Aizawa noted.I need to buy that man a drink.)To top it all off, some monster of a villain came and matched All Might blow for blow. Some man called 'All for One', who could steal quirks. All Might broke his arm, barely won, and only had twenty minutes left in hero form.

What a disaster,Aizawa thought.Was that the villain Mineta said was worth three or four Shigarakis? How damn strong does he think Shigaraki is?

Jeez. At least they had a dorm system now, so there wouldn't be any kidnappings.

The results of the battle were as follows.

Of the heroes, there were many injured. Crust was in critical condition at the hospital, while Pixie-Bob, Edgeshot, and Ragdoll were in stable condition and would likely heal. Endeavor had overheated, so he had a brief hospital stay as well. Fatgum, Kamui Woods, and Ryukyu had minor injuries, treatable by paramedics on-scene, and Mandalay was unconscious because of Mustard's gas. In addition, everyone acted as though All Might was completely fine, but I knew he had to be injured somehow after a showdown with All for One.

On the villain team, of the twelve attackers (there should have been ten but…), five were captured: the USJ Nomu, All for One, Twice, Spinner, and Magne.Not the same people who were caught as last time! Mustard, Muscular, and Moonfish are still on the loose…

All of them were pretty concerning villains to have free. Muscular and Moonfish killed for enjoyment and might start being serial killers? That could be problematic to say the least. Plus, Mustard was a powerful-ish villain who could easily be manipulated into things like he had with this. Hopefully he just stuck with the League and didn't do anything.

The Chainsaw Nomu had been killed, and the rest of the villains escaped. Luckily, they didn't escape with Ragdoll or Bakugou, like they had last time. Kamino Ward was intact.

I had received a text from Evan:"Don't worry, am fine. Must heal self, won't text for few days."Since then, there'd only been radio silence. It was worrying, to say the least, but at least I knew he was alive.

While there was an attempt to double down on the League of Villains, the police didn't hunt for them viciously like they had before, because there was no student missing. In fact, no students were injured at all. UA was quick to spin this positively in the media as proof that they were fully capable of protecting their students.Yeah right. We all almost died,I thought sullenly, but I wasn't truly angry. An attack by All for One's forces was hard to deal with even with a warning in advance.

I had no idea how much time All Might had left, but he announced on the news a few days after the battle with All for One that he planned to retire in a few months, just before the Hero Billboard Chart JP, and was telling everyone now to give Japan time to prepare.Hm. Still retiring, but different. He must still have a little One for All left but be running low. Hopefully this eases the transition of power?

The construction of dorms had been finished as well. Aizawa and Yagi were coming over to visit my uncle and I, so I supposed that I hadn't been expelled for running out after Ragdoll. Probably since it was a spontaneous decision and I hadn't used my quirk illegally. Anyways. My uncle had agreed to the dorms after a lengthy discussion in which I pointed out several times that it would be safer to be surrounded by heroes thannotsurrounded by heroes. Still, while Aizawa and Yagi were there, Haruki peppered them with questions and barely accepted their answers. Once they'd left, I had started packing for the dorms.

"You didn't expel him, Shouta?" Present Mic asked.

"No," he grunted.

"Why not? I know you weren't planning to expel him for real, but I thought you were going to do the thing where you expel a student but then re-enroll them in your class later? So they learn their lesson, or something?"

"I don't need to do that. He's ashamed enough. He hasn't even been able to look me in the eye since I lectured him about it initially," Aizawa said. "Besides, something he said was disturbing to me."

"Something he said?"

"We talked about the possibility of a traitor, correct?" Aizawa said. Yamada nodded. "Mineta seems convinced there is a traitor as well. In fact, he said he was suspicious of everyone, and that the only people within the school he could trust were Nedzu, Midoriya, All Might and me. He didn't even want to tell Vlad King about the attack, because he wasn't one of the four."

"Only four?" Yamada questioned. "Well, it's something to go off of, knowing they're innocent. But why doesn't he try to pin down the actual traitor?"
"His suspiciousness is interfering with his quirk, apparently," said Aizawa. "But regardless. He only trustsfourpeople. Someone he only met once, someone he's barely friends with, someone who beat him half to death, and then myself," Aizawa explained.

"That… doesn't sound very healthy," Mic frowned.

"It's not. He doesn't appear to have any strong relationships with classmates that he doesn't suspect work with the enemy. I don't feel like damaging his trust any further. Also, if I tried to expel and re-enroll him, he might not come back to UA at all. His uncle was very upset by the attack and seemed on the verge of asking Mineta to transfer to a different school, especially considering his kidnapping and injury at the mall, which is understandable." Aizawa sighed. "Though there's something strange about Mineta, even if I can't pin it down."

"Nedzu said that about him too. Did he ever figure that out?"

"Nedzu is busy trying to figure out who gave All Might new organs."

"Yikes. He's got a lot on his mind nowadays, doesn't he?" Mic said.

"No doubt about it."

When we all arrived back at UA, Aizawa told us our luggage had already been sent to our rooms and showed us the layout. I was next to Midoriya on the second floor of the building. I didn't have much to add to the room, just a few posters and some science books I'd bought on the way. I frowned. I expected my room to be a bit more homey once I'd added my stuff, but I guess between two moves and the semi-destruction of my room at the hands of Shigaraki, I didn't have much stuff left. The girls gleefully started checking out everyone's rooms and rating them to see whose was best, but I didn't feel much like getting involved, so I just read a book on my bed and waited for them to come around. Hagakure poked her head in. "Huh, kinda boring," she said.

"Yeah. It's so normal. I thought Mineta's room would be weirder. He's kinda strange," Ashido said.

"Wait, what?" I said.

"Aaaanyway let's go see Ojiro's room!" Hagakure said.

I shrugged and kept reading my book.

Notes:

It was mentioned somewhere in the manga that while Aizawa will expel people for real sometimes, often he'll tell people they're expelled so they're shocked into learning their lesson, but then allow them back in the class (or help them pursue opportunities at a different school). When I first read it I thought it was very interesting, especially since I'd recently seen criticism of Aizawa for his high number of expulsions.

Also, I may not come out with a chapter for a few days. I've paused to work on a different fic. If you want to, check it out:

(Uraraka and Midoriya visit Uraraka's hometown over winter break, but to Midoriya, something feels... off.
/works/27691562/chapters/67830122)

Chapter 37: what will be has been done before

Summary:

Super Moves!

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter fornotes.)

Chapter Text

For the rest of the summer, we would have to try to make our own Super Moves.Dang, I forgot this happened and didn't really plan for it.Ectoplasm made a bunch of clones so we could work one-on-one with a teacher.

See, the thing about working one-on-one with a mentor is that it could be really productive if you were comfortable with the mentor and had a lot of ideas and questions to discuss with them. This was… not me. I mean I had Ectoplasm in math, but I barely knew him, and I never asked him any questions or talked to him because I already knew the answers.Stop staring at me, I can't think!I thought, feeling vaguely pressured to come up with something clever becauseeveryone elsewas already practicing Super Moves and I couldn't think of anything.

I looked back and saw Aizawa and the thin-version of Toshinori standing at the entrance to Gym Gamma. Aizawa turned to look at me. I quickly whipped my head back around.Now Aizawa's looking at me too and my mind is blank!

"So, uh, I guess there are a couple of things I could do," I said. "Well, I did that whip thing at the Sports Festival, not sure if that counts…"

"It probably would," Ectoplasm said.

"Uh, great. That's good. Anyway, I could… headbutt someone and then detach the balls off my head? Then they'd be covered in them at that point but that would sort of be asking to get punched in the face or the neck…" I pondered, really just thinking aloud.

The Ectoplasm clone blinked, recognizing my random musings for what they were. "Have you never thought about this before?"

It hit me how odd it would be if a person studying to become a hero, probably having spent their entire life being inundated with media coverage of heroes, had never thought about what their Super Moves should be before. Ectoplasm probably found it weird.Oops. Acting out-of-character again, but I might as well admit it now."Yeah, I haven't. I'm just kinda making stuff up. You know, I just thought, 'well, my quirk is mid-range, so I need a taser and a gun and then I have all my bases covered,'" I explained.

Ectoplasm was silent for a few moments.

"Blanks instead of real bullets, of course," I clarified. "And I ended up getting a ball-launcher instead. Minimize harm, you know?"

Ectoplasm was silent for another few moments. "Why don't we start focusing on finding some Super Moves for you?"

"Oh, okay, sure," I said.

Together, we came up with a move called "Grape Snare", which was a battlefield control technique in which I'd pull a bunch of balls off my head and scatter them around as obstacles and bounce points for me. Like… caltrops that I was immune to. I'd already sort of been using a technique like that, but now it had a name and was a more solidified tactic.

Unfortunately, most of my other Super Move ideas took time to set up. This was a little problematic because pulling a ball off my head and then throwing it is already kind of telegraphed. My Super Moves possibilities were creative and useful, sure, but they weren't flashy or revolutionary combat techniques.

We had started working on a different idea when I remembered something about All Might. Didn't he get hit by a rock or something? I turned around. "You! Skinny blonde guy!" I pointed at Yagi. He looked rather startled. "Watch out for falling debris!"

"Uh… okay?" he said. I gave a satisfied nod and turned back around and started working with Ectoplasm again. He gave me a look but said nothing.

When the first day of practice was ending, Ectoplasm said to think of more ideas for tomorrow and that perhaps we might spend it on trying to make the whip a more proper Super Move. I thanked him as class was wrapping up. Ectoplasm's clone started melting away. I wondered if he got the memories from those clones, like the Shadow Clone Jutsu, but decided it would be a little rude to ask.

Speaking of Naruto, I vaguely remembered something from it called the Sticky Fist style, a grappling martial arts style in which the user would trap the limbs of their opponent and then take them down. By simply using 'open palm attacks' but holding one of the balls instead, it would be really easy for me to trap someone's limbs. Could I somehow use my quirk in my martial arts?

I'd have to think about it. The Gunhead Martial Arts that I'd practiced was useful and already took into account my height, but I would have to adapt it further to combine my quirk effectively with it. Luckily, it was already focusing on holds and takedowns so it wouldn't be incredibly difficult. To actually try to make this work, though, sparring practice against my classmates would be necessary. I put a pin in that plan.

After the first day of practice, Midoriya went off to see support about his costume. I was pretty sure he was off to meet Hatsume for the first time after the Sports Festival. Should I tag along? I ultimately decided not to. Midoriya and I were friends, but not super close, so following him around for no reason might be a bit strange. There really wasn't much reason for me to go along anyway.

Based on what Aizawa told us, the soonest thing after creating our Super Moves was the Provisional License Exam and I didnotwant to fail that. I really wanted a Provisional License so I could finally use my quirk in self-defense! So I had better start learning all my Super Moves fast if I wanted to get my license.

The next four days of Super Moves practice went by in a flash.

With Ectoplasm, I practiced and invented several new Super Moves. There was my favorite, Grape Snare. There was "Grape Rush", in which I'd run past someone, and throw balls at them at the same time, hoping to stick them down so they can't chase after me. Then, "Sticky Shield" or "Sticky Weapon", where I'd attach balls to a shield or some improvised object to make it a trap. Lastly, "Vine Whip", my flashiest but most impractical Super Move, considering in the time it would take me to make a 'whip' I could just throw balls (and the fact that the whip would get stuck on things really easily).

Overall I was satisfied. Of my Four Super Moves, one of them was a no-brainer (Grape Rush) and one was cool-looking but 90% useless (Vine Whip) but the other two were very useful and fun.

Outside of class, I'd approached Midoriya's group and asked if they'd let me practice a new style with them. They agreed. In fact, Midoriya had been wanting someone else to practice his new Shoot Style against. While Midoriya sparred heavily with Iida to learn all the proper kicks, I usually went against Uraraka and practiced combining the holds and grappling of Gunhead Martial Arts with my quirk. I actually found it quite rewarding. While I wasn't completely there yet, it was pretty easy to hit someone's arm with a ball and attach it to their other arm, essentially handcuffing them. Or doing the same to their legs.

"Sticky Fist" or whatever abomination I was trying to invent was working, and I was very glad I had three other sets of eyes (especially Uraraka, who was good at Martial Arts) overlooking my progress and giving tips. I should get those three gifts, or something.

On the last day, I was practicing bouncing from ball-to-ball and going over Grape Snare with Ectoplasm again when it happened. Bakugou's AP Shot struck through concrete, splitting open the rock above All Might's head and hurtling toward him. Midoriya jumped out and kicked it to pieces, saving All Might and showing off his new Shoot Style. Everyone was speechless for a moment.

"That was pretty great! But what did I say aboutrocks?!" I shouted across the room.

"To… not get hit by them?" Yagi ventured.

Aizawa facepalmed. "Mineta, get back to practicing."

The day was over pretty quick, everyone having developedsomethingfrom this period of time learning with teachers. At the end of it, we were standing in front of Ectoplasm, Aizawa, Yagi and a few other teachers as Aizawa went over the details of the Provisional License Exam. After he did that, Yagi stood forward.

"To you students, I have an announcement to make," he said. "I am All Might."

The students blinked at him. "What?" Tsuyu said, speaking for the class.

Yagi turned into his buff All Might form, as several classmates made exclamations of surprise.

"But… but how?" Kirishima asked.

Yagi deflated and began to explain that six years ago, he had gotten injured in a battle and even lifted up his shirt to show the class his injury. It looked pretty bad, but not as bad as it had in the original show, I thought. In fact… skinny All Might didn't look as half-dead and thin as he had before. Huh.

"I'm telling all of you this because I can only sustain twenty minutes in my hero form," he continued. "This is barely enough to continue being a hero until my retirement and not enough to teach you classes. So, I have decided to introduce myself as who I am, Yagi Toshinori. Of course, this information is highly confidential-tell no one about it."

"Like anyone would believe us," Jirou breathed.

"Regardless, this informationissecret and I expect you to treat it as such," Aizawa interjected. "If anyone is found having shared this,ever, they will be expelled immediately." Aizawa looked completely serious, and the mood immediately turned slightly more somber.

"Mineta doesn't look surprised," said Sero, pointing.

"He rarely is," said Shinsou, and that was the end of that.

I hadn't expected Yagi to reveal his true form to class 1-A but the fact that he still had 20 minutes left was good. It was unlikely he was going to keep his quirk until the Paranormal Liberation War (he'd likely lose it all before then)... but it was nice he had a little time left. A bit of a cushion, if you will.

We all went back to Heights Alliance, where I went to my room and started reading. After a little bit, I went to get a snack from the kitchen, passing the girls who were sitting in the common room and talking about their Super Moves. Shinsou and Kaminari were hanging out in the kitchen. I grabbed an apple and started munching on it, waving at them. "Yo, Mineta!" said Kamianri, waving back. "How are you?"

"I'm good," I said. "How do you feel about the Provisional License Exam?"

"I'm a little nervous," Kaminari said. "How will it go?"

"I think we'll all do well," I said. "But be prepared for anything."Toga Himiko sneaking in included… I'm going to have to deal with that, aren't I? She's just there for Midoriya's blood, right?

I thought of something. "Oh, Shinsou! They'll probably have watched the Sports Festival so the other competitors will know not to respond to your questions. You'll need to find a way around that."

Shinsou's face soured. "That's just great."

"I believe in you," I said, giving him a thumbs up.

Shinsou sighed. "Thanks."

On the way back the girls had started grilling Uraraka on who she had a crush on. Ashido was suggesting that maybe she liked Iida or Midoriya when I walked in. "Mineta! You know the future, right? Who does Uraraka have a crush on!?" she asked. Uraraka turned bright red.

"I can't tell you who it is, that's private," I started, to Ashido's disappointment, but I turned to Uraraka and said, "but Icantell you that I'm pretty sure he has a crush on you back. You should ask him out, he's way too shy to ask you himself."

Ashidosquealedat this information and Uraraka looked like a deer caught in the headlights. "I… really?" said Uraraka.

"I'm ninety percent sure. Maybe you should ask him after the Provisional License Exams," I said. "Good luck!"

Everyone in the room was very excited and started encouraging a flustered Uraraka to try asking out whoever she had a crush on. Mission complete. I went back to my room, hid under the covers and started reading again.

Coming up tomorrow was one Provisional License Exam, and I sure planned to pass.

Notes:

SUPER MOVES
"Grape Snare": Mineta throws balls all over the battlefield so he can bounce around freely, while enemies get stuck.
"Grape Rush": Mineta rushes past someone and throws balls at them simultaneously, hoping to stick them down so they can't chase after him.
"Sticky Shield": Mineta attaches balls to a shield so the enemy or their projectiles are trapped when the attack lands.
"Sticky Weapon": Mineta attaches balls to an object (i.e. a random stick) to form an improvised melee weapon that restrains an opponent when it lands.
"Vine Whip": A chain of balls attached together to form a whip. Cool-looking, but takes forever to make and gets stuck on everything.

NEW STYLE?
"Sticky Fist": Mineta combines his martial arts knowledge with his quirk to create Sticky Fist. He uses open palm strikes but holds one of the balls, so once he lands a hit he can stick his opponent to the ground or another surface (or stick their limbs together). He could randomly drop or throw the balls at any time to surprise an opponent, too. (Mineta can't tell if the name is an innuendo but just in case he's *not* saying it out loud to anyone.)

Chapter 38: yet none can fathom

Summary:

PROVISIONAL
LICENSE
EXAM!

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter fornotes.)

Chapter Text

The moment we got off the bus, we were introduced to Yoarashi Inasa, who enthusiastically greeted us while bashing his head on the ground. He was a little terrifying and very tall in person. But it was time to enact the first part of my plan. "Hello! This is for you." I handed Inasa an envelope.

He looked confused. "For me?"

"My quirk lets me predict some things that will happen. I had a feeling we would meet soon and that message is pretty important. Read it alone, you'll appreciate it," I said. Aizawa gave me a questioning look. Once Inasa had wandered away, I whispered to him, "He might've tried to sabotage one of our students during the exam and then both he and they would have failed. The letter was a warning not to do that." Aizawa nodded, suddenly understanding. I realized I was sort of stretching the bounds of my 'prediction' quirk but by now, I'd proved definitively that I knew the future, and there really was little explanation for even knowing Inasa would be here without future-vision.

The true letter read something like this:

Dear Yaorashi Inasa,

It is very nice to meet you! Plus Ultra! :) This is a warning because I am able to predict some of the future with my quirk. I think that you might end up fighting with one of my classmates, Todoroki, during the Provisional License Exam. If you do that youwill both fail.I know you have certain things against Todoroki and his father, but I ask you to put them aside.

In all honesty Todoroki is absolutely nothing like his father. I know he may have been rather rude to you during the recommendation exams, but lately, he's learned a lot about caring for others and what it truly means to be a hero. Todoroki is a very sweet boy with difficulties expressing himself due to an isolated upbringing. He's not good at interacting with others so please forgive his rudeness.

Secondarily, I think one of your classmates (Camie or something? Illusion quirk? She also goes to Shiketsu) may have been replaced by an imposter with a shapeshifting quirk. Please check that she has not, she may have been replaced as far back ago as a few days. If she is an imposter please contact the authorities before the test starts. If she is not, sorry for the mistake.

Have a wonderful exam,

Mineta.

Hopefully that would do something.

Shortly after Ms. Joke approached Aizawa and started joking and flirting with him, to which he shot her down multiple times. The Ketsubutsu Academy second years came over to talk to us, seeming rather impressed by our fame from the Sports Festival (Yo Shindo, that earthquake guy, was weirdly enthusiastic but Bakugou put a stop to it by being rude to him.) In no time at all, we were walking into a large rectangular room where an exhausted-looking administrator from the commission was explaining the test.

A free for all. We'd be getting six red balls and three targets on our body. We had to take out two students to move on to the next exam, and only 100 students would pass. I decided I would put one target on my shoulder, another closer to my waist, and the third on my back.

The funniest part of this first exam was that we could wear our hero costumes. I honestly had aball-launcheras part of my costume. I hadn't even planned it, but this was perfect. It wasn't even cheating because the test hadn't been revealed until today, so even if Ihadplanned it, it would just be seen as a benefit of my future-sight quirk.

The room unfolded to unveil a massive arena, filled with various environments. The test began. While most of 1-A banded together, Bakugou went off on his own (prompting Kirishima to follow) and so did Todoroki, who claimed his quirk didn't work very well in confined spaces. I chose to stick with the group. Safety in numbers.

And, of course, everyone immediately started targeting Class 1-A because they knew our quirks.Great.I retreated behind a barrier that Yaoyorozu had created, filled my ball-launcher with the balls on my head and started shooting at the enemy. Best stick down a few people to strand them and help my classmates pass first.

We were doing all right, repelling attacks effectively, when the dangEarthquake Guyused some kind of super move to split the rocks and separate us.Dang.I split from Yaoyorozu, but still next to Hagakure. "I know the Earthquake guy's weakness," I said. "He's incapacitated by the backlash of this attack. If we can find him, he'll be helpless."

"Right! Let's go get him!" Hagakure said.

Suddenly, the announcer said, "What?! 120 people taken out by one person, in one attack?"

Oh. That must be Inasa. "Don't be intimidated," I told Hagakure. "That means he's already passed so we don't have to deal with him."

We searched around for Yo Shindo, but we couldn't find him. Instead, we found Iida and Aoyama. "We're all by yourselves," Aoyama said, a bit nervously. "And more people are passing."

"We need a group of targets and high ground," I said.

"This way," Iida ordered. We followed him up a cliff overlooking a group of students, who noticed us immediately. Just before they could throw any attacks, Hagakure used her flash attack and blinded them. Taking advantage of the opportunity, I threw down balls as quickly as I could to trap them. In short order, they were all stuck.

… Huh. Didn't even need the ball-launcher.

I climbed down the cliff and tapped two people out with the red balls, as did Hagakure, Iida and Aoyama.Excellent.When we arrived at the 'finish area' for people who won, Bakugou, Kaminari, Kirishima, Uraraka, Sero and Midoriya were already there. Soon enough, Shinsou, Asui, Shoji, Yaoyorozu and Jirou followed. The seconds were counting down and I started getting a little nervous. Where were the remaining six?

Very dramatically, at the last second, the rest of the class managed to pass.Phew. Jeez. Keeping me worried, I guess. Last second cinematic victories are an anime thing, I have to keep that in mind.I looked around and noticed that Camie wasn't present. Probably a good thing. "Midoriya, did you get attacked by a creepy girl?" I asked.

"What? No," Midoriya said.

"Good. There was just a chance this one girl was going to come to the exam, but I'm glad she didn't," I said. "So everything's great."

"Huh," Midoriya said.

As we waited, I glanced at Bakugou. I could give him a hint, tell him how to pass. I helped Todoroki by warning Inasa, so maybe for the purposes of fairness I should give Bakugou a chance too. I opened my mouth to say something, but Bakugou glared at me. "I don't need your damn advice," he growled. I shut my mouth.

Well, the remedial training would probably be good for him when it comes to character development. I would hate to rob him of an opportunity to grow as a person.

The next segment of the test was a rescue mission, in which paid actors were around a disaster site for us to rescue them from. I recalled this was a system in which you lost points for doing things wrong, starting with one hundred. I would do best in this area by stabilizing structures with balls so other classmates could rescue people, or getting into small spaces that other people couldn't.

We ran up to the rescue scene. When Midoriya said something like "this looks bad" to one of the actors, the actor immediately started yelling at him for being unprofessional and not evaluating the injured.Oh wow. Very spirited actors.We split into groups and started saving people. Shoji asked me to come with him. Iida, Shoji and I started going around and saving actors. Shoji would detect people who were injured (and functioned as the muscle of the group), I would stabilize structures or pull the actors out, and then Iida would evaluate injuries and deliver them to the first aid station Yo Shindo had set up. It was a smooth system. Then, of course, in the middle of the exam Gang Orca showed up with his "villains", testing if we could fight and save simultaneously.

These guys are kinda intense. They should take a chill pill."Alright guys. You keep saving folks, I'll give you cover." I pulled out my ball launcher and started shooting at the approaching enemies. I trapped a few, but most of them stopped coming our way and started going after the first aid station instead. The rear guard seemed to solidly be keeping Gang Orca back, though, so the three of us rescued the last few people in our area and took them over to the first aid station. I was just about to enter the fray when I squinted ahead of me.Bakugou and Kirishima? Why are they attacking Gang Orca? They didn't do that last time. Weren't they rescuing people earlier?

I turned. "You two," I said, pointing to Iida and Shoji. "Re-check the area Kirishima and Bakugou were searching and rescuing people from. I don't think they finished."

"Uh, right!" said Iida.

"I'll come with!" Ojiro exclaimed.

Gang Orca was slowly getting closer to the first aid station. Yo Shindo was lying on the ground, conscious but partially incapacitated, just like Inasa and Todoroki. Kirishima was fighting Gang Orca's remaining minions (of which there weren't many left) while Bakugou was throwing explosion after explosion at Gang Orca. It was largely ineffective. Meanwhile, Midoriya was trying to attack Gang Orca as well, but it was obvious he was having difficulty maneuvering out of the way of Bakugou, who was flying around with explosions and sending debris everywhere.

"GET OUT OF THE WAY SO WE CAN ATTACK!" Inasa yelled.

"We can't use our quirks if you're standing there. Bakugou, move!" Todoroki shouted, but Bakugou ignored them both. Midoriya gave up fighting Gang Orca and started dragging Yo Shindo away, who was getting dangerously close to the fray.

I had to stop this. I grabbed my ball-launcher and sent balls flying at Gang Orca's feet, which stopped him in his tracks. Gang Orca countered by simply slipping out of his shoes and was about to retort, when a long beep sounded. "So at this time all of the HUG members that have been deployed were rescued from the disaster," said the man over the intercom. "The Provisional Licensing Exam has officially been completed."

Thank goodness, what happened?

I wasn't able to find out right away, because we had to go receive the results of the Exam. The ones that passed were listed on the screen in alphabetical order. I quickly looked to the screen and, reading down to the M section, was relieved to see Mineta Minoru there.I passed!Midoriya was there as well. I scanned over to the T section, and saw Todoroki Shouto listed as well.That means Todoroki and Yaoyashi didn't fight!This was also supported by Inasa cheering loudly that he passed and thanking Todoroki for his help with that 'fire tornado' move.

Ashido was smiling and grinning at her win, and so were many others that passed. Shinsou was looking up at the screen in shock. "I did it," said Shinsou, quietly. Then, a little louder. "I did it!"

Huh. Good for him. But what happened with Bakugou and Gang Orca?

"I… failed?" Kirishima said, looking up at the screen.

Wait, what?! Kirishima? He should have passed!I glanced up at the screen and looked through K names. Kaminari was there, but no Kirishima. "It's because you went with Bakugou," said Kaminari, shrugging. "Plus a few other mistakes."

"What?" I said, confused.

"When Bakugou saw that there were villains attacking, he abandoned rescuing people and went to fight the villains instead," Kaminari said, pointing at the screen, which was devoid of Bakugou's name as well. "And he was yelling at people all the time. So that's why he lost. I think Kirishima lost too because he followed Bakugou and left me to save people by myself. There was someone trapped under something I wasn't strong enough to lift, so I had to wait for Iida and Ojiro to come help," said Kaminari. Bakugou was fuming in the background.

"Why did Bakugou leave you alone to go fight the villains?" I questioned. That hadn't happened last time.

"None of your business," Bakugou snapped.

"Okay…" I said, backing off. People went around passing out papers to tell us how we'd done. I had finished with 78 points, having mostly gotten points off for being a bit distracted during the beginning of the test (waiting for Gang Orca to show up) and not completely acting as though the victims were victims and going through the whole assuring-them routine. I had done that sort of, but it was a bit half-hearted and they docked points for that.

Everyone had passed except for Bakugou and Kirishima. It was a bit of a shame, because Todoroki would have benefited from the remedial training more than Kirishima would. Hm. At least Todoroki had his Provisional License, but what was he going to do with it that couldn't have waited until later? Fight Gentle Criminal?

… didn't Kirishima have a Work Study with Fatgum? Did he need a Provisional License to do that?Shoot! I hope that wasn't messed up for him. But I just can't figure out why he failed. A change in Bakugou, obviously, but what caused that? Just a butterfly effect?

It wasn't long after I got a real, physical copy of my hero license. It was beautiful and I loved it. When Midoriya took out his phone and started taking pictures of it to send to his Mom and All Might, I could relate, and sent a photo of mine to both Uncle Haruki and Earthshaker, who was still MIA. Hm. I put my license in my pocket.

Everyone was hanging out in the dorms afterwards. Most were celebrating, though some were expressing condolences to Kirishima and Bakugou (but encouraging them to do well in remedial lessons all the same), but Bakugou's expression got sourer and sourer.

I saw Bakugou pass Midoriya and whisper something to him, to which Midoriya looked shocked and a little frightened.Ah, so that stand-off thing is still happening between them, huh?Then, Bakugou kept walking and came up straight to me. "You. Meet me out front later. We need to talk."

… wait, what?

Notes:

I swear y'all whenever I start looking stuff up to make sure this fic aligns with canon and come across Mineta hate I break into semi-hysterical laughter.

It happens very often. I mean I kinda agree, that's why I made this, but it's still hilarious.

Chapter 39: everything beautiful in its time

Summary:

A showdown after the provisional license exam!
Mineta didn't really want to get involved...

Notes:

(Last time, on Seat. No. 19, after the Provisional License Exam…
Then, Bakugou kept walking and came up straight to me. "You. Meet me out front later. We need to talk.")

Chapter Text

Okay, Bakugou just invited me to a shakedown that I definitely shouldn't be a part of. So, the question was: should I go, or should I not?

Part of me said, 'No! Of course not!' because only a sucker would play into whatever Bakugou's hand was. It was breaking curfew, it was inviting house arrest, Bakugou would probably kick my ass, and Bakugou and Midoriya were probably going to get in a fistfight. It was essentially going to be a bit of a disaster.

… But on the other hand, this was clearly new. Maybe at this meeting, Bakugou would explain whatever change caused him to act differently in the License Exam, which would give me an opportunity to fix it if it was a bad thing.

Is Bakugou just acting differently in response toMinetaacting differently, or is there something else at work?I suppose I have to check. Maybe I am a sucker.

Also… I felt a little bad that Midoriya was getting dragged into this mess with Bakugou. It seemed like the good friend thing to do to come with.

When night fell, I went out to talk to Bakugou and Midoriya. Midoriya looked a little surprised to see me. "Wh- Mineta, why are you here?"

"Bakugou demanded I come," I said.

We ended up following Bakugou to one of the old training grounds.

"...Ground Beta?" Midoriya questioned.

"This is the place where I fought you and lost. You've always made me sick. I could tell, somehow, that you were quirkless and useless. So, how'd you get into UA, and how'd you get a quirk? Ever since the sludge villain… no, ever since All Might came to town… higher and higher, until finally for the Provisional License, you passed, but I failed," Bakugou ranted.

Ouch, harsh. I still didn't understand why I was here.

Bakugou started going on about how he'd been thinking about the 'borrowed power' Midoriya had and how he'd been thinking about the multi-quirked Nomu's he'd seen during the attack on the Forest Training Camp. He then turned to me. "You can confirm it, can't you? That his power is a borrowed one. You can sense things like that. Tell me."

Midoriya whipped his head around, looking pressured and a little frightened, but I shook my head. "I'm sorry Bakugou, I can't confirm anything for you."

"You didn't deny it, and that's as good as confirmation. His quirkisfrom All Might after all," Bakugou said. "Andyou.You beat me at the Sports Festival. You beat my grades in Final Exams by just one place. You get a provisional license, yet I don't. You knew I was going to fail, didn't you! Have you been mocking me this whole time?!" Bakugou's voice rose into an angry yell.

"I thought you said you didn't want help!"

"You're small and weak. Weak even with a quirk. It's pathetic. Yet, you keep winning and beating me at every turn. Are you using your ridiculous second quirk to torment me?" Bakugou accused. I blinked, stunned.

"No, I'm not! Not everything is about you, I just want to do my best! Also, you should stop insulting Midoriya for his quirk status, whatever it may be. It's very rude," I said.He seems personally insulted by the fact that someone who looks so weak has been beating him so much. Did he go off to fight Gang Orca instead of staying to rescue because of his inferiority complex? To prove his strength?

If that's the case, it kind of is my fault that Kirishima failed, because I slighted Bakugou so many times it changed how he acted. I have no idea how to fix it, though.

"Right here, right now," Bakugou said to Midoriya. "You and me. Once I've proved I'm better than you once and for all, in a serious fight, I'll take down Mineta."

"Wait, why does it have to end up like that? No, this is bad… we're not even supposed to be here. If we're going to fight, at least do it during free practice or something! We should reserve a training room and do it there!" Midoriya tried.

I interjected. "Bakugou, we'll all get in trouble. It's not worth it."

"If we fight seriously, we'll be stopped," he said, ignoring my comment. Bakugou launched himself at Midoriya, while I jumped back out of the way.Dang. Well, at least I know what changed.

I sighed and sat off to the side. This is probably vital to Bakugou's character development. On the bright side, as Bakugou attacked Midoriya, his comments were mostly about weaklings surpassing him and 'watching the back of someone who was always behind him' and that sort of thing, rather than carrying guilt over Kamino Ward and ending All Might.Oh! I did a good thing! Bakugou doesn't have repressed feelings of guilt!That's nice, though I still wish he wasn't taking out his personal issues on poor Midoriya.

It took longer for Midoriya to start fighting back without the revelation of Bakugou blaming himself (because he wasn't), but it looked like Midoriya believed he owed Bakugou a full-on, serious fight. He really didn't, but I didn't feel like making any more errant changes today so I just avoided their fight and watched.

All Might, in his skinny form, showed up soon after and started talking with Bakugou on why he chose Midoriya, and Bakugou talked about how he felt weak, but All Might reassured both parties they could be great heroes. Bakugou promised to keep One for All a secret.

Yagi blinked and turned to look at me, seemingly having just noticed I was there. "Young Mineta! Why are you here?"

"Bakugou invited me because he hates me. Also, because he wanted me to use my quirk to confirm if you really did have a quirk that could be passed on. I didn't say anything, promise, but he'd already figured it out," I said.

"So, you already knew about One for All?" Yagi asked, surprised.

"From the beginning," I confirmed.

Midoriya looked at me with wide eyes. "You knew I was quirkless the whole time?"

"Yep," I said, nodding.

His eyes teared up. "And you didn't care?"

"Of course not," I said.

A few fat tears rolled down Midoriya's face, but on his face was a bright smile. "Thanks," he said, wiping his eyes.

I nodded and gave him a smile back.

"Get it together, idiots," Bakugou grumbled, but there wasn't much vitriol in it. "Just because Midoriya secretly admires me or something doesn't mean that you haven't been trying to screw me over."

"I really haven't," I said. "You'll pass remedial exams and then go on to be a great hero."

Bakugou grunted. "Oh yeah? Then which one of us will surpass the other?"

"It could go either way," I said, which was technically true even if I thought Midoriya would end up the number one hero in the end. All Might watched the scene unfold and eventually walked us back to the 1-A dorms, where Aizawa was waiting. He did not look very happy with us.

All Might whispered something to him (taking some kind of partial responsibility for this fiasco or something) and Aizawa calmed down, but still was ready to dole out punishment for breaking the rules. "Who hit first?"

"Me," Bakugou said.

"I also went in pretty hard," said Midoriya.

"I didn't even fight," I said.

"Four days of house arrest for Bakugou! Three days for Midoriya! One day for Mineta!" he said, and assigned us to cleaning.Great.

After scolding us and assigning punishments, and after Midoriya and Bakugou had walked upstairs, Aizawa looked at me. "I wouldn't have expected you to get involved, Mineta."

"Normally I wouldn't, but I felt bad for Midoriya. His relationship with Bakugou is probably the most toxic thing I have ever seen. It's the relationship equivalent of corrosive nuclear waste," I said. I huffed in frustration.

Aizawa made a humming noise. He seemed to internally take note of that statement. "Go to sleep, Mineta."

I went upstairs with a sigh.

When I got into my room, I checked my burner phone and saw a response. Sure enough, Evan had replied. I quickly opened it."I'm back! My burns were pretty bad and I collapsed and was unconscious for a few days, getting taken care of by a Shie Hassaikai medic. Once I woke up I was able to heal myself, though. Dabi is a ferocious fighter. Congrats on your Provisional License!"

I sighed in relief. Evan was okay. That made me feel a lot better about everything.

I stretched out on my bed. Overall, the Provisional License Exam had been a mess, but nothing too important had changed. Sure Kirishima failed while Todoroki passed, but Kirishima could just do a work study at a later date or something, and Todoroki wouldn't have to deal with his father criticizing him.

Endeavor was such a mean person. Luckily, once Endeavor got his redemption arc Todoroki wouldn't have to deal with that. I frowned a little and started thinking. I'd skipped over some of that part in the manga, admittedly. Whathadsparked the Endeavor redemption stuff in the first place? I couldn't really recall. Eh. It probably wasn't that important.

Chapter 40: a season for every activity under the heavens

Summary:

The Big 3!

Chapter Text

I woke up in the morning. Cleaning was split between me, Midoriya and Bakugou and I hated it profusely. I knew I'd made my choice and was supposed to deal with it, but by the time the day was over I was at my wit's end. Maybe because I hated cleaning. Back in college, I would cook and Theo would clean. Very nice roommate arrangement. Anyways, it was a good thing I only had a single day of house arrest.

Class 1-A returned soon after and it seemed like I'd missed a day of lecture. They also started to reference Work Studies. Midoriya wondered aloud what work studies were while Iida told him (just a tad pretentiously) that because we were on house arrest that he couldn't tell us what they were.

"I'm sorry, Iida," I said. "A work study is like an internship but closer to being real. We get to work with a pro-hero, but UA doesn't find that hero or agency for us. We have to search for it ourselves, through networking," I said to Midoriya and Bakugou.

"Mineta, no!" said Iida.

I could see the moment that Bakugou realized you'd need a provisional license to get one as well as the moment that Midoriya began stressing over trying to find one. Hm.Should I get a work study? But if so, with who?

The next two days were normal class periods (I truly hadn't missed much, since it was just the first day) but on the day that Midoriya came back, things started to get interesting. Some kids from 3-A were coming in to talk about work studies. The Big Three. Neijire, Tamaki and Mirio. The class was very impressed by them.

"Let's introduce ourselves. Start with Amajiki," Aizawa said.

Amajiki turned around wordlessly and rested his head against the wall in a display of extreme social anxiety. Neijire during her turn asked everyone random personal questions, and Togata (Mirio) attempted a call-and-response that failed terribly.

"Their strangeness is palpable," Tokoyami said, to the class's general agreement.

Then, Togata challenged us to all fight him at once.

"Huh? You want to fight us?" Kirishima said.

"Well if you want them to experience our experience then this is a pretty rational way of doing it," Togata said. "Right Eraserhead? Rational!"

"Do whatever you want," said Eraserhead.

We all walked over to Gym Gamma and prepared for the mini-battle. Amajiki went on dramatically about how we might "not recover" from the experience of fighting Togata, but the class was skeptical.

"They're obviously much further ahead than us, but we've fought pros before," said Tokoyami.

"Not to mention we took down some legitimate villains," said Kirishima.

"We're gonna lose… but we should try our best anyways," I said. Several classmates turned to me incredulously. I shrugged. This was like fighting All Might again, where I knew it was going to hurt a bit but I couldn't do much about it.

"Alright so who wants to start!" said Togata. Midoriya volunteered, determined to catch up on the three days that he had missed. Very quickly, and losing his pants once or twice in the process, Togata took down the long-distance fighters with a series of well-timed blows. This included me. I got gut-punched in the stomach and dropped to the floor. "Owww…"

It wasn't long before Togata took everyone else out too, with only Midoriya even coming close to landing a hit.

Togata was the exact opposite of everything my quirk could do and that I focused on. He could easily phase through any of my balls, even once stuck down. Almost impossible to restrain. I stood no chance.

"He needs to learn how to hold back," Aizawa commented. I dragged myself to my feet.Sometimes I fucking hate this school.

Mirio gave the whole class an explanation on how his quirk worked, and everyone immediately assumed it was a very strong power. Togata corrected them, explaining how difficult it was to use a quirk like that. In the end, he turned it into an inspirational speech on how his work study made him powerful. Everyone gave polite applause at the end, and work studies were starting to sound great even to me. It was very inspirational.

"Hey, kid! You were the only one who knew you were gonna lose!" said Neijire, tilting her head curiously. "How did you know?"

I did jazz hands. "Magic."

"He has a quirk that can predict the future," Kaminari said.

"Hey," I protested halfheartedly, while Togata grinned. "Wow! Sir has a quirk that's like that too!"

"It's different in several ways," I said. After a little more conversation about work studies, the three left, and it turned out no one was too badly injured by Togata's aggressive punching. Togata's cheerfulness left a general good impression, even if his punches did hurt. I started thinking about potential work study options.

The Big Three were walking away from the gym together. Neijire was smiling and skipping about. "We thought you'd hurt some of them on accident you know, but no one was injured so I think you did a good job! Way to go, Mirio, A," she said cheerfully.

"It was pretty close though a few times," Mirio said, contemplating the students. "That Midoriya though, he predicted my moves a couple times! I bet Sir would love to meet him. Plus, there was that purple kid who had the future vision quirk. I think Sir would definitely want to hear about that," Togata said, smiling.

The next day, Aizawa told us that while most of the teachers didn't really want us to go on work studies (safety concerns or something) that they would accept them if we found trustworthy agencies. It was pretty interesting. After school, I heard the loudspeaker call Togata Mirio to All Might's office. That probably happened in the original show. I shrugged and kept working on my math homework. A few minutes later, the loudspeaker calledmeto All Might's office.Oh no, what timeline event have I derailed now?

Midoriya, Togata and All Might were all sitting in his office together. I sat in a chair. Togata gave me a wide grin. "Mineta! How do you feel about maybe having a work study with Sir Nighteye?"

"...What?" I said.

"You have a future vision quirk a lot like his!" said Mirio. "That's pretty rare, you know! I'm sure he'd love to meet you!"

"We could do the work study together!" said Midoriya, looking a little excited.

Hm, this might be problematic. Sir Nighteye would probably be the best person at sniffing out the fact that my future prediction quirk is actually fake. But I can't just use that as an excuse.

"I don't know, guys," I said. "I don't really like him a lot as a person."

All Might coughed in surprise, but there wasn't any blood.

"Wait, what?! You haven't even met him!" Togata exclaimed.

"I can predict the future," I said, a bit dryly.

"Even if you don't like his personality, per say," said All Might, "You could still learn from him."

"That's true! You shouldn't turn down such an opportunity!" Midoriya said. Midoriya's statement was pretty true. The hero student part of me was hoping not to turn down such a prestigious chance, but the cautious part of me never wanted to come face-to-face with Sir Nighteye.I suppose my quirk isn't exactly the same as Sir Nighteye, it's just gut feelings. As long as I emphasize that I can probably keep up the facade…

… besides. I do want to be 'in-the-know' when it comes to the Nighteye Agency's investigation into the Shie Hassaikai. I can't let Evan get arrested.

"Alright, I will," I said, and Midoriya cheered. "But he might not accept me," I cautioned. "So don't be disappointed if he doesn't want me to work there."

"I'm sure you'll do fine!" said Togata, optimistically.

"Sure hope so," I muttered under my breath.

Chapter 41: in place of judgement

Summary:

Sir Nighteye makes an appearance.

Chapter Text

Midoriya and I got on a train that weekend to head to the Nighteye Agency. Mirio warned us that we should try to make Sir laugh. The onlyissuewith that is that in the anime, it really was never shown what Sir found funny. Did he like puns, dark humor? I had no idea. I spent part of the night looking up jokes but I wasn't sure exactly how it was going to go.

When we first opened the door and saw Sir Nighteye, with Bubble Girl pinned down to the weird tickle machine to make her laugh, I was very disturbed. This was something that was kind of funny out-of-universe but justweirdto see in-universe.If he tries to do that to me I can and will taser him. That's why I have a taser on me at all times!

Midoriya immediately tried to make Sir Nighteye laugh by doing an All Might impression and making his face lookexactly like All Might's.I couldn't help but snicker under my breath as Togata looked vaguely horrified and Nighteye looked particularly unimpressed. Nighteye commented on how All Might's wrinkles didn'treallylook like that and accused Midoriya of insulting All Might. After that Midoriya said that heactuallywas copying All Might after the Vinegar River Incident or something of that nature. It was… a bit of a bizarre conversation.

"And you," said Sir Nighteye, turning to me. "What are you laughing at?"

Sir Nighteyeloomedover me. He was so much taller than me it was comical. I was literally under 4' and Sir Nighteye was closer to 7 feet tall than 6.

I craned my neck to look up at him. "I'm sorry, I've just seen Midoriya and All Might actually interact before, so seeing him with that face was hilarious," I said. "Alas, for an All Might fan I am but a lowly casual."

Sir Nighteye sighed. "Were you testing me?" he asked Midoriya, to which Midoriya explained he just got excited about All Might and wasn't really testing Sir Nighteye.

"I'd like to speak with you one at a time," said Sir Nighteye, pushing up his glasses.

"That's fine, but if your reasoning is that I can't know about O-" I stopped talking, realizing Bubble Girl and Togata were still in the room. "Well. Trust me, I know most of the secrets. If you still want to evaluate us separately, then…" I shrugged.

Nighteye shook his head. "No, nevermind. I'll just tell you both at once, then. Mirio and Bubble Girl, would you mind leaving?"

Once the two had left, I said, "Yeah. One for All, I know about it."

Nighteye narrowed his eyes. "How did you learn?"

"Well, my quirk comes in the form of instinctive feelings, about the future or otherwise. When someone mentioned that Midoriya's quirk was similar to All Might's, I got the feeling that they were more correct than they assumed. I put it together from there," I explained.

"Hm. So you both want to work study here in order to become stronger?" he said.

"Yes sir! Please allow it!" Midoriya replied.

"You have a contract from the school-"

"Yes, I brought it with me!" said Midoriya.

"You will not interrupt me when I am speaking."

"No sir!"

"Once my stamp is on that paper, the work study contract will become official. A hero work study is not like the weeklong internships of normal workplaces that you can participate in casually. You must work here for at least a month, and of course you will be paid," Nighteye explained.

Wait, we're getting paid?!I almost exclaimed, but shut up at the last second.This is the best thing ever, I'm getting paid! I thought I was doing this for free!

"As a first year who still has a lot of classes, you will also rack up a lot of absences, and you will not be able to continue this path on the same level as your classmates," he said. The absences wouldn't really be an issue for me. I barely paid attention in class anyway.

"I understand that!" said Midoriya. "...if I match my pace with everyone else, I can't be at the top!"

Nighteye purposefully missed the contract with the stamp, making it look like he wouldn't accept Midoriya, and started explaining how he didn't think Midoriya working here would benefit the agency. I groaned. "I know you're going to make Midoriya do it, but doIreally have to fight you to prove my worth?"

Nighteye looked a little surprised. "So youcansense the future. Interesting. We'll get back to you later. For now, Midoriya. Three minutes. If you want to work as a hero under me, then stamp the seal yourself. "

"I'll be outside the door," I said.

I heard vague crashing sounds from inside the door and just decided to sit cross-legged outside the door. Three and a half minutes later, the door was opened, and the room was a bit of a mess (though no All Might posters had been damaged) and Midoriya's paperwork was signed. Midoriya looked a strange mix between despondent and determined that let me know Nighteye had probably just said something about how he was unfit to inherit One for All. I gave Midoriya a pat on the back.

"You haven't even made an attempt at humor since you got here," said Sir Nighteye.

"Oh, sorry. Didn't want to outshine Midoriya's All Might impression. Here, uh. Ahem. So there are three builders. They're having a competition to see who is the strongest. They decide they'll figure it out by throwing bricks in the air, having them fall and seeing how deep the hole is. The first builder throws one high in the air, it falls and makes a hole one foot deep. Pretty impressive. The second builder throws one even higher, it falls and makes a hole two feet deep. The third builder throws his brick and it never comes down."

There was total silence for a few seconds. "Is that it?" said Sir Nighteye.

"My other jokes are better! Why do bees have sticky hair? Because they usehoneycombs!" I said.

Sir Nighteye gave me alook."Disappointing."

"Okay, okay, last one. So there's this lady, she has a balloon on a plane. The flight attendant knows you aren't supposed to have those on planes, so he takes it from her and throws the balloon out the window," I started. "The lady's angry. So when she sees the flight attendant smoking on the plane, she takes his cigar and throwsitout the window too. Meanwhile, the captain is flying the plane and he sees something go by the window. What is it?"

"The balloon?" Midoriya questioned.

"THE BRICK!"I shouted, slamming my hand on the desk.

Midoriya blinked in shock as Sir Nighteye started chuckling under his breath. "That one wasn't too bad. A bit long-winded," said Sir Nighteye.

"Sorry about that, the only jokes I can come up with on the spot are puns."

"It's a start," Sir Nighteye said, with a tiny smile. "Now, tell me what your quirk is. Specify."

"First I've got Pop-Off, which is…" I started.

"The other one."

"I get gut feelings about the future that almost always come true, for instance that you were going to challenge Midoriya to battle, or that a villain attack might occur. I usually only get them for the people and things around me, and they aren't always super specific,"I explained.

"Have you ever managed to prevent the future with your quirk?" Nighteye asked.

I hummed and thought about whether I actually had. "Hm. Maybe? Kinda. For instance, I tried to do a bunch of changes to stop the attack on the Forest Training Camp and the massive fight with All for One, and while both thingsstill happened,the circumstances were different. Instead of the fight between All for One and All Might being in the forest, it would have been in…"

"...Kamino Ward," Nighteye finished. "I had been wondering. I had been sure that fight was supposed to take place in Kamino Ward. That was you?"

"Yes," I said.

"A fight like that taking place in Kamino Ward would have been devastating, with many casualties. You likely saved countless lives," Nighteye said, giving me an intense stare. I shied away a little and rubbed the back of my neck. "Uh, you're welcome?"

"It seems that while you may have difficulties truly changing the future… most quirks involving the future do… your changing of circumstances might be the best thing we have to prepare againsthisdeath…" Nighteye mused, a glint forming in his eye.

"I'll do my best to stop him from dying," I promised. "Not on my watch."

"Whose death?" said Midoriya, who had been sitting on the floor the whole time, listening to the conversation.

"That's kind of private," I said, figuring that All Might would probably want to tell Midoriya himself about the dying part. I looked at Sir, who nodded.

"Mineta, get out your paperwork," said Sir Nighteye.

"What about the mall trip? Did you change anything there?" Midoriya asked.

"Uh, might have made that one a bit worse, actually," I said, pulling the contract from my backpack. "At least no one died?"

"We'll work on how not to make the future worse," said Sir Nighteye. "It's a common problem with future vision quirks." He stamped my paperwork.Actually, he might be able to give me some helpful tips on not worsening the future. Even if my quirk isn't future vision, I do know some of the future.

Sir Nighteye let back in Togata and Bubble Girl, revealing that he chose to take both of us on as interns. Togata was really happy about it and cheered for us. "I get to work with my cute kouhais!" he said, smiling. I couldn't help but smile back at his infectious happiness.

Midoriya and I took the train back. On the way, he looked deep in thought. Alright, time for damage control.

"Midoriya, Sir Nighteye is wrong about you. Youareworthy of your power," I said.

"Yeah! I'll prove it to him, that I'm worthy!" Determination was aflame in Midoriya's eyes. Huh, I didn't even need to cheer him up. Midoriya seemed like a pushover on the surface, but he had a spine of steel when faced with a challenge.

When we got back at the dorms and Midoriya announced the both of us had a work study with Sir Nighteye, he actually seemed to do it with a bit of pride. I was a little proud, too, even though I knew Sir Nighteye only really wanted me in his work study because my fabricated quirk might be the key to saving All Might's life. I mean, to be fair, I did want to save All Might's life, and my introduction into the timeline might be the thing to do it, but… well, it was a little odd. Though, I think the best part was that I would be getting paid.A paid internship! I'm so happy. Then I can buy yarn to crochet with, some decorations, and some nice knives!

Work studies starting tomorrow. Considering Overhaul was out of the picture, itshouldbe uneventful, but you really never know.

Chapter 42: a chasing after the wind

Summary:

Start of Work Studies.

Chapter Text

Soon enough, it was our first day of work studies. Midoriya and I both came in our hero costumes. "Today, we will be doing patrols and surveillance. We'll split into two groups with me and Bubble Girl, and Mirio, Midoriya and Mineta," said Sir Nighteye.

"Surveillance?" Midoriya questioned.

"Nighteye Agency is currently working on a secret investigation," said Bubble Girl.

"Shie Hassaikai is a small designated villain group. Nothing too alarming has happened, but we're doing some small investigation because it appears its young head… in other words, the number two, Chisaki, may be stepping down. His plague mask is his trademark." Sir Nighteye slid a picture of Overhaul across the newspaper.

"That plague mask is pretty scary!" Midoriya commented.

"Normally groups like this are under surveillance by the police and are thus pretty obedient, but we like to keep an eye on any major power changes within the group. We haven't managed to get proof that he's done anything criminal. Because of that, the Hassaikai is a gray close to black, and we cannot treat them like villains," Sir Nighteye explained.Still an investigation into the Shie Hassaikai… but a calmer one for a different reason.

"Be careful not to let them suspect anything," said Sir Nighteye.

"Yes, sir!" I answered along with the others.Too late for that.

We went on our patrol alongside Mirio, who asked us about our internship experiences and if we'd ever been on a patrol before. I responded that I had, while Midoriya hadn't been able to do a normal patrol because of the Nomu attack. He asked us our hero names.

"Oh, mine's Deku," Midoriya said.

"Mine is Vineyard Vine," I said, remembering suddenly that I'd named myself that.

"I'm Lemillion! I don't have to save everyone, but a million…" I opened my mouth to say what an admirable goal that was whenOverhaulwalked out of the alley. I almost choked. Midoriya made a sharp gasp in surprise.

I looked down and noticed Eri was with him. She didn't have any bandages, just a nice dress, and they seemed to be going on a friendly walk together. "Ah, heroes on patrol! How nice to see young people being inspirational," Evan said, with a pleasant smile.

Midoriya looked horrified, so Mirio quickly pulled his mask over his face to hide the expression. Eri trotted up to Deku, grinning. "I saw you at the Sports Festival! You looked so cool! Can I have an autograph?" she asked, thrusting a notebook towards him.

"O-of course!" said Midoriya, signing the notebookDeku.Then Eri turned to me. "Also you! You beat the explodey guy!"Aw, she's so cute.

I signed her notebookVineyard Vinewith a smiley face next to it.

"Ah, I'm sorry if we're interrupting your patrol," said Evan placatingly, and I justknewhe was screwing with us. He watched the original show, so he knew we'd be here. "My daughter just loves heroes," he said.

"It's no problem," said Mirio, amiably but slightly distressed. "We should probably get on our patrol soon, right you two?"

"Right!" Midoriya said loudly, and I nodded. Evan winked at the three of us. I knew that wink was probably meant for me. Classic Evan, but Mirio and Midoriya were looking really freaked out that Overhaul just winked at them. We met up with Sir Nighteye and Bubble Girl on the corner.

"Sorry! It was an accident!" Mirio said. "I never thought we'd run into him… like running into a transfer student at the crossroads…"

"No, this was my fault," Sir Nighteye said. "We could've avoided this if only I'd used Foresight on you three beforehand. Mineta, did you see this coming?" he asked.

"I sensed Overhaul was in the general area, but we already knew that," I said, "And I alsowasn'tpredicting a fight, so…" I waved my hand instead of finishing the sentence.

"I'm just glad you're all alright," said Bubble Girl.

"He winked at us!" Midoriya exclaimed.

"Could he have known that he was under surveillance by heroes?" said Bubble Girl.

"No… that would be impossible," said Sir Nighteye. "He probably noticed how nervous you were, realized you knew who he was, and chose to taunt you."

"What about his daughter, Eri?" asked Mirio. "Was that really his kid?"

"She seemed happy, and she loves heroes," Midoriya piped up.

"I wonder why he didn't discourage his daughter from loving heroes," Mirio said.

"We didn't know he had a daughter. We'll have to put that on file," said Sir Nighteye.

No one really seemed sure what to think of Chisaki and this odd encounter. Most people filed it away as coincidence. After a little more surveillance, in which Nighteye Agency saw him spend more time with his daughter instead of doing crime, they began to theorize he might be stepping away from the role of young head to raise his child instead. The Nighteye investigation into the Shie Hassaikai dropped off over the next few days. I contacted Evan occasionally and updated him on how the heroes' investigations were going."They've got nothing on us,"Evan replied on his phone."With me actually becoming increasingly less of a threat, and the new young head being pretty chill and focusing on non-Trigger recreational drug sales, they'll probably move on to something else soon."

It was true. The Shie Hassaikai investigation was eventually dropped, with the Nighteye Agency satisfied that nothingtoonefarious was going on with it.

As for our classmates, it seemed Tsuyu and Uraraka were still doing a work study with Ryukyu, and Tokoyami with Hawks. Kirishima couldn't do a work study because he didn't have his Provisional License (can't believe I screwedthatone up). Oddly enough, it seemed Todoroki would be doing a work study with… Gang Orca?

"I didn't realize he did work studies," I said to Iida, who told me the news.

"He actually does! Gang Orca loves to nurture young minds!" announced Iida.

"He was impressed by Todoroki and Yaoyashi in the Provisional License Exam, so he's taking on them both," Shinsou interjected.

"Man! All you guys managed to get work studies with really awesome heroes!" Kaminari complained.

I had expected Todoroki to work study with Endeavor, but this was probably better than that. I'd just have to wait and see. I did rack up a few absences as my work study continued, but Iida was so helpful with giving Midoriya and I notes that it didn't affect us deeply. What a wonderful person Iida is. About a week in, however, there was a major change.

"Nighteye Agency is starting an investigation into a series of murders that have taken place in nearby cities. We're cooperating with the League of Villains taskforce, led by Tsukauchi Naomasa, because these cannibalistic murders match the MO of B-Rank villain Moonfish," Sir Nighteye revealed, placing down two photos of Moonfish. One was him in a straightjacket as he was seen during the attack on the Forest Training Camp, while the other was a normal mugshot with his face revealed. He looked creepy in both.

"He was one of the people working with the League that escaped, right?" Midoriya asked. Sir Nighteye nodded. I grimaced. Moonfish wasn't supposed to have escaped. We needed to arrest him as soon as possible, before he caused more problems.

"Centipeder and I will be investigating the most recent scenes. Bubble Girl and Mineta, you will be building a geographical profile with the computer software. See if you can figure out where or how he selects his victims. Bubble Girl, donotlet him see the graphic evidence photographs. Mirio and Midoriya, you will be covering patrol for today."

"Yes, Sir!" we said in chorus.

Bubble Girl booted up the software to create a geographical profile, which was something to estimate where a criminal lived, based on the location of their crimes. The first thing to pop up was a map labelledEarthshaker.

…Uh oh.

"Earthshaker?" I questioned. Bubble Girl clicked out of it and opened up a blank one to start Moonfish on. She nodded. "Earthshaker operates around this area," she said. "While occasionally he travels, most notably to combat the League of Villains, we suspect his home base is somewhere in our town. We've closed in on a certain area on the north side, but we're not going to be the ones responsible for catching him. We don't have a large force of fighting heroes. UA, on the other hand, is interested in him, so we sent them our information," Bubble Girl explained.

"Huh," I said neutrally.

Shoot! I was so worried about Evan getting busted for replacing All Might's organs or being a gang leader, I didn't really think about him getting busted for vigilantism!

… Yeesh, Evan has been doing lots of illegalish things. I'll have to warn him about this.

Bubble Girl and I started working on the geographic profile for Moonfish. She showed me how to use their software as we inputted the location the targets were last seen and where the remnants of their bodies had been found.

"It looks like he's moving from city-to-city in a line," Bubble Girl commented.

"Like the train line we use to get here, actually. The stops go Musutafu, Corusa, Felukai, Nabou, Sereno, Endor…"

"Wait a minute. Bubble Girl vanished into the other room and came back with a map of the train lines. She circled every city in which Moonfish had killed. "You're right. He kills a few in each city, going straight down every stop of the Blue Line. That might be how he's getting around," Bubble Girl said, setting down her red pen. "In that case, his next targets will be attacked in Sereno, and then in our city."

"Interesting. Who does he attack?"

"There's not much common thread between victims," said Bubble Girl, her lip curling with distaste. "He'll attack almost all demographics. But he attacks young people, children and teenagers, most often."

She took out a box of evidence and together we started pinning it on the board. We put up victim's faces, circumstances and details up on the board. Bubble Girl started scribbling things down about Moonfish. It seemed as though Moonfish most often attacked people either on secluded streets or alleyways, but would occasionally attack someone in their homes. "Some of these crimes could be called opportunistic," she muttered, tapping on the face of an older woman who'd been killed in a random alleyway. "But others," she said, tapping on a teenaged boy who was attacked at home, "require active stalking."

"Maybe he prefers to attack children and teens, but is willing to attack adults when the opportunity presents itself? It looks like most of the home invasion ones are for kids," I said.

"That's very likely," Bubble Girl agreed. "We still don't knowwherehe selects his victims, but as we track their movements in the days before their deaths, this may become more apparent. It's possible he just chooses randomly on the street."

A few more hours of theorizing and filing later, Mirio, Centipeder, Sir Nighteye and Midoriya were all back. Centipeder went off with Bubble Girl to update our crime boards with the newest evidence found at the scenes, while Sir Nighteye stayed behind to address us interns. "Mineta. Good job with the discovery about the train lines. Sereno city police will be on the lookout," said Sir Nighteye, giving me a nod. Then, he looked sharply at Midoriya. "Midoriya. I heard about your fight with a Trigger manufacturer today. It was completely unacceptable."

"Sorry, Sir!" Midoriya rushed to apologize, giving a deep bow.

"It could have seriously endangered Fatgum Agency's takedown of that drug ring. You're lucky it didn't go further south," said Sir Nighteye coldly. I had no idea what he was talking about.

"I will be more careful in the future! Sir!"

"I would hope so."

The conversation ended there, but Mirio looked uncomfortable while Midoriya looked a little sad. What had happened? This didn't happen in the original series. It probably happened now because Nighteye Agency and Fatgum Agency weren't working on a Shie Hassaikai raid and had time to do other things.

As the two of us took the train home, I tried asking Midoriya what had happened but he didn't want to talk about it. Hm. Instead of pushing further for answers, I decided to text Evan. I took out my burner phone, but saw it already had messages on it.

(Unknown Number) "Do not text back, this is Mandalay's phone she'll see it. I'm deleting the conversation after this. Meet me at Memorial Park in Mandalo City."

(Evan) "I saw the text from Kota. I'm going to meet him. Can you come?"

Finally, those two would get to meet! Unfortunately, it didn't look like I'd be able to come. I glanced over at Midoriya, who was still looking out the window on the train. We were supposed to come straight back from work studies and I wouldn't be able to ditch Midoriya.

I texted Evan back."I can't come, UA will notice I'm missing. Tell Theodore 'hi' for me though! Also, Nighteye Agency has used geographical profiling to pin the area 'Earthshaker' lives and I think they're right about it. They sent that to UA, too. Be careful, they seem close to finding you."

"Dang! Thanks for the info. I'll have to do something about that."

I put the phone away and looked back to Midoriya, who'd seemed to have put his determined face back on. "You okay, Midoriya?"

He nodded. "Yeah."

"Okay," I said. The train arrived at UA.

About an hour later, I noticed more texts on my burner phone.

(Evan) "Gave Kota his own burner phone so he can talk to us!"

(Maybe: Kota?) "This is Kota! New hidden phone so we can talk!"

I grinned. Now I could finally communicate with Theodore again, after all this time. It took a little while, between Evan's injuries, Theodore's status as a five-year-old, and me being not supposed to leave the dorms, but we got it. I slipped my phone away and promised I'd text them both in the morning.

Evan walked back into his safehouse apartment after a long day. With Nemoto having promised to watch Eri and take her to Kindergarten (with safety gloves, didn't want to unwind any other six year olds, of course), he could tonight and the first part of today to be alone and recover from the annoying surveillance done by Nighteye Agency. Knowing you were being watched was stressful. The police were easy to dodge, but the heroes were tougher. He yawned, feeling tired but happy. He'd finally managed to make contact with Kota. With a burner phone, now they could finally call and text consistently. He'd have to do something about what was going on with Earthshaker, of course, but it could wait a day.

Evan fiddled with the keys and opened the door. He walked in, but saw a flash of white fur in the corner of his eye. He whipped his head around. Sitting there, at his kitchen table with a cup of tea, was Nedzu. He smiled. "Hello, Earthshaker."

… not good.

Chapter 43: two are better than one

Summary:

Two unexpected meetings.

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter fornotes.)

Chapter Text

Nedzu was sitting at Overhaul's kitchen table. "You look surprised," Nedzu commented.

"I suppose I shouldn't be," Evan said, sighing. He removed his plague mask and set it aside. "Doing all your vigilantism in one area is a good way to get caught."

"Well I'm glad you know what gave you away!" said Nedzu. "But it wasn't only that. Considering your height, hair color, gender and approximate age, as well as geographical location, you were the only person that fit. The earth quirk to throw people off was clever, but with observation it was easy to see you didn't only manipulate earth. You used concrete, brick, stone. Anything, really," Nedzu explained with a sip of his tea. Evan sat down on the other side of the table.

Does he know about the…

"Youalsopaid a visit to Toshinori Yagi, not too long ago, and gave him a few new organs. You can manipulate both living and nonliving materials."

He does know! Shit!

"Uh, sorry about that," Evan said. "...If it makes you feel better, the organs weren't stolen? I made them myself, with my quirk."

"Interesting," Nedzu said. "How does it work?"

"I can disassemble and reassemble at the molecular level," Evan explained. "It's extremely difficult to turn nonliving things into living cells, though, so I just used a mix of pig cells and cells from consenting human volunteers, and then turned them into the proper kind of cell."

"That's rather fascinating," said Nedzu. "It could be revolutionary in the medical field."

Evan was… getting a little nervous. Nedzu's eyes were a mysterious abyss.Is he going to arrest me? How mad is he?

"So." Nedzu set down an empty teacup. "Whydidyou choose to heal Yagi?"

"Uh…" Evan didn't know what to say. "...because he needed help?"

"You never chose to specifically seek out anyone to heal them before or after that incident. Why Yagi, in particular?"

"I know he's All Might," Evan admitted. "That's why."

"How did you discover this?" Nedzu asked.

I don't have an explanation!"I saw him deflate once," Evan lied. "I actually thought someone was impersonating All Might at that point, so I followed him, but then I realized it was the actual All Might."

"How did you know his blood type and where he lived?" Nedzu asked, face still neutral.

"I googled the address and the blood type wasn't hard. He leaves bloody handkerchiefs everywhere," Evan said. Evan was liking this interrogation less and less.

Nedzu leaned back in his chair, reveling in Evan's discomfort. "You're very odd. Your motives… well, they make little sense," said Nedzu. "First, you lead the Shie Hassaikai and seem to want to lead them into new glory days. Then, suddenly, you take a step back from the leadership and start focusing on raising your ward instead. Then, you take the leap into vigilantism, taking special care to either attack the League of Villains or protect Class 1-A students. It's difficult to determine which is your goal. Lastly, you heal All Might, but ask for consent to do it in a partially unethical way you knew he wouldn't refuse," Nedzu mused. "Whatisyour purpose in doing all this?"

"Well, I was found and raised by the previous boss of the Shie Hassaikai. So, I owed him a lot and got really into defending the Yakuza and wanted to lead it to a new era. The Boss, though, told me I shouldn't get into that sort of thing. Eventually, when his granddaughter was given up by her parents, he gave her to me to take care of and investigate her quirk because it looked somewhat similar to mine," Evan explained. He was scrolling through Overhaul's memories to make sure his story was consistent, giving his voice a far-off quality. "Eventually it hit me that I wasactually raising a child!It's really hard being a dad, but it's been one of the best experiences of my life. I lost interest in the Yakuza. The Boss approved, said he was glad I finally found something that made me happy. He fell into a coma not long after."

"Anyway, I came out as the vigilante Earthshaker shortly after. People who attack children are repulsive to me. Especially considering I'm raising a child now. That's why Ihatethe League of Villains and can never respect the Hero Killer Stain. Their targets are innocent and young. Ever since Class 1-A was attacked the first time, I've been keeping an eye out for them. That's basically it."

Nedzu seemed to absorb the information, but Evan really couldn't predict what was going through his mind. "A reformed Yakuza leader dedicated to protecting children. I wouldn't have guessed that's who Earthshaker was at first, I'll admit," said Nedzu.

"Uh. Anyways. Are you going to arrest me?" Evan asked, a little afraid of the answer.

"Why do you ask?"

"I want to know if I need to flee the country," Evan admitted.

"Hm, not attack me instead? I'm the only one who knows," Nedzu said.

Evan struggled for a moment. Why was henotattacking Nedzu? Well, primarily because it would mess with the timeline, but he couldn't say that. "Because, that… would be mean," Evan said lamely.

Surprise flickered over Nedzu's face for a brief moment and he laughed.

"Alright, Chisakai. Why don't we cut a deal?"

Mirio told Midoriya and I that I had been right about the train theory. Two people had been attacked in Sereno by Moonfish. Sir Nighteye wanted us back on Saturday and Sunday for work, but we had a few days before that would happen. I was extra focused on training all the while, especially in trying to formulate my new martial arts style. The next day, I was asking Midoriya about how he did his weight training in the common room.

"Why do you train so hard?" Jirou called from the common room couch.

"Do you want the honest answer?" I asked.

"... yeah?" Jirou answered.

"Well, one because I want to be awesome. Two, because a terrible danger is coming and I want to be ready," I said.

Jirou spit out her water. "What?"

"Well. Two or three great dangers but I digress."

Midoriya and Jirou both stared at me with wide eyes.

"I… sorry, you look so shocked. I thought I'd mentioned it before," I said.

"What are the great dangers?!" said Midoriya, looking a little frantic.

"Large battles. They're not anytimesoon,don't worry. I just feel," I waved my hand vaguely. "A sense of great danger, coming from afar. Half a year off, maybe."

"Woah, that's not good for us," said Jirou. "I can see why you've been picking up the pace with training then."

"We should all do our best, then!" said Midoriya. "To prepare!"

… okay, hopefully I didn't just make Midoriya more obsessive over training. Sometimes he needs to chill out about training. I would have to keep an eye out.

A few more days passed. It was Saturday. I texted Kota, who was happy to hear from me.

"The plot of this anime is insane!"was a common text to receive from him randomly as he was reading over the little packet of My Hero Academia summary he'd been given. I smiled to myself as I read a text saying something like that on the train back to our work study. I looked up and tucked my burner phone back into my pocket.

My heart skipped a beat. I stared at the person who was sitting across from me on the train.Next stop, Endor City,the intercom said, as the train started moving again.

… you've got to be joking.Sitting across from me wasMoonfish,wearing normal clothes and looking like an average citizen.

First train to Endor a few days after Moonfish made his first kills in Sereno. I'm so stupid. We were just asking for this. It's barely even a coincidence.

Midoriya was still scrolling on his phone. He hadn't noticed. The bad thing was that once Midoriya noticed Moonfish sitting there he was going toflip outand completely tip off Moonfish.The two of us had our Provisional Licenses, but fighting Moonfish in such a tight space with this many people? It was asking to die while also being responsible for the deaths of 50 others. I took out my regular phone and sent a text to Aizawa:"Moonfish is riding the same train as us. I am not joking."

Then, one to Midoriya:"Read this entire text before you do anything. Do not panic. Do not do anything. Stay quiet and keep looking on your phone, but Moonfish is on the train with us."

Midoriya immediately whipped his head up. I sighed. "Midori," I said, not wanting to say 'Midoriya' in case Moonfish recognized the name. "It's rude to stare at strangers."

Midoriya looked at me with wide eyes and mouth half-hanging open. I supposed that was a reasonable response to being on the exact same train as a mass-murdering cannibalistic serial killer.

"Oh, it's fine," said Moonfish. "Is it the teeth?" He gave a toothy smile with his jagged teeth, looking vaguely unhinged.

"U-uh," Midoriya stuttered.

"He has difficulty talking with people," I said quickly. "Extreme social anxiety."

"Ah, understandable," said Moonfish. He was quiet for the next few minutes of the train ride but stared at us, seeming oddly fixated. Midoriya had gone back to looking at his phone, but was sweating significantly and very obviously only pretending to read something.

"You both look… familiar," Moonfish spoke up suddenly. "Are you UA students, from the Sports Festival?" His teeth lengthened a little. "You seem afraid of me. You know who I am, don't you?"

The train stopped.Arriving, Endor Station.As the doors opened, I took one look at Midoriya and said, "Run."

Notes:

Hey y'all! I've got the next 2-3 chapters written and I'll be releasing them over the next week, but essentially I've stopped writing for now! I've got school things to do for a while. After the next three chapters are released I'll be going on temporary hiatus to focus on other things!

… to be honest I'm not exactly sure how I wrote 60,000 words in under a month but I'm a bit impressed with myself. At this point I think I've gotten more comments concerned about my health than asking me to release new chapters? I think I'll consider it a practice run for that write-a-50,000-word-book in the month of November challenge. I sort of proved to myself I could do it? Maybe I'll try it out next year.

Anyways, I'll be taking a break! I'll likely return to this in a couple of weeks time and release at a slower pace.

Have a nice day and thanks for reading!

Chapter 44: an unfortunate encounter

Summary:

You can meet all sorts of interesting people on trains.

Notes:

Major manga spoiler after "We just have to keep an eye on the League." If you haven't read the manga you can just stop reading there and the rest of the fic will still make sense.

Chapter Text

We both quickly fled the train and ran as fast as we could away from Moonfish, pushing through the crowd. I heard footsteps and risked a look back. He was coming after us. Once we were out on the open street, I yelled, "To the agency!" Midoriya nodded.

I looked back again and saw that Moonfish had stopped running after us and had started chasing us using his teeth. I screamed and ran faster. "Midoriya, use your quirk! You have a license!" I shouted, throwing a ball down and bouncing off it, landing on Midoriya's shoulder. Midoriya started running at 5% or 8% or whatever he was at, while I threw ball after ball toward Moonfish, trying to slow him down.

The streets on this side of the city were fairly empty, because it was early morning, and fairly narrow, with little room to maneuver. Midoriya's Full Cowl was barely enough to outrun Moonfish and the balls barely helped. Whenever a tooth of his got stuck, he would snap that one off and regrow it while he kept chasing us. Moonfish struck me in the side with one of his tooth-blades, knocking me clean off Midoriya's back. "Mineta!" he yelled.

"Go, keep running!" I screeched, narrowly avoiding a few more blades. Midoriya, though, was not the type to leave an ally behind. Midoriya sent a punch that sent a blast of wind at Moonfish, not enough to do damage, but enough to make him flinch. I took the opportunity to scale one of the sides of the buildings. "Up here!"

Midoriya bounced from building to building like he'd done in his training with Gran Torino, meeting me at the top. I latched onto him again and we kept running.

… Unfortunately, Moonfish could climb buildings too. Using his teeth to dig into the walls, he easily lifted himself straight on top of the building and started running after us. "Give me yourflesh!"he bellowed. He wasterrifying.

I was seriously regretting not changing into my hero outfit before this, but I pulled out of my jacket something I'd impulse-bought with my work study money. "SUPER MOVE: STICKY FRISBEE!" I screamed, sticking several purple balls to the pink plastic frisbee I'd bought. I whipped it towards Moonfish's face, but he slapped it out of the air with one of his tooth blades and then snapped that one off. "FUCK!"

"We're almost there!" Midoriya said, jumping down from the rooftops and landing on a car, most likely causing the hood serious collateral damage. Moonfish, however, circled around, blocking the entrance to Nighteye Agency.Now what do we do?I threw balls at Moonfish blindly. He was able to avoid most of them, catching me on the bicep with another tooth blade and sending me skidding away from Midoriya again. "Mine-" Midoriya started, but Moonfish attacked him, forcing him to defend himself. He sent tooth blades at both of us indiscriminately, muttering about flesh.He's too fast for me!I thought, hit again on the side and arm with more blades, leaving large gashes.If we don't end this battle quick, he's going to end up cutting my head clean off!

Centipeder slammed the door open to the Nighteye hero agency, sending one of his centipede-like arms to coil around Moonfish's body. Mirio jumped out of the ground and delivered an uppercut to Moonfish's face, knocking him out cold. Bubble Girl and Nighteye quickly came out of the agency door as well. "Are you two okay?" asked Mirio, landing on the ground next to Midoriya. I glanced over at Midoriya. He seemed scuffed up with a few big cuts from the blades, but he seemed alright. Now that the adrenaline rush was wearing off, though, I could feel my own gashes throbbing.

Blood dripped down into my eyes. I wiped it out of the way. And my head was bleeding. Great. "Just peachy," I grumbled. I felt wobbly for a moment, but the world righted itself.

"What happened?" Sir Nighteye demanded, running up to the scene.

"I got a feeling something bad was going to happen when we got on the train. Thenhegot on at the Sereno City stop," I said.

"He chased us!" Midoriya said, pointing at the unconscious Moonfish.

"We'll debrief later," said Centipeder, who made his way over to me and started inspecting my injuries. "Some of these are bleeding pretty severely. He's going to need stitches. Did you hit your head at all, kid?"

"If I pull too many of these balls off my head starts bleeding," I explained. "Quirk overuse."

Centipeder looked vaguely surprised. "Two quirks?"

"Let's get them to the Emergency Room," said Nighteye, sighing.

Nodding, Centipeder pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket and pressed it against my side. "Keep pressure on this, alright?"

Midoriya was dragged along, because his cuts weren't exactly a walk in the park either. On the car ride there, I piped up, "I texted Aizawa-sensei for help before Moonfish started chasing us, so you should probably contact him before he panics." I pulled out the shattered remains of my cell phone, which had been smashed at some point in the fight. In the chaos, I'd hardly noticed. "Mine's broken."And I can't just pull out the burner phone here. Carrying two phones is rather useful if you think you're going to get in a fight, but you can't use it if you're hiding one from your allies. Life lessons.

Nighteye stared into space for a moment, probably imagining Eraserhead's reaction to this situation. He grimaced slightly. "We need to contact UA right away," he said.

"Oh! I have Aizawa-sensei's number!" said Midoriya, taking out his phone. "I'll tell him we're fine!"

Bubble Girl drove, Nighteye sat up front, while Mirio sat between me and Midoriya in the back. Centipeder held down the fort back at the agency. Probably doing the paperwork of having interns injured on commute, whatever that may be. I started leaning into Mirio's side.Such a tall person. So nice.I was feeling tired and kinda heavy, so I shut my eyes. "Hey, hey! Stay awake!" said Mirio, shaking me slightly. "Jeez, I didn't think you lost that much blood!"

"Ow," I responded.

"He's half your body size. He doesn't have that much blood to begin with," said Sir Nighteye.

"I take offense to that," I mumbled.

"Is he going to be okay?" said Midoriya, sounding worried.

"I bet he'll be fine," Mirio said reassuringly as we pulled up to the Emergency Room.

There was barely a wait. Almost as soon as I was in there, the nurses were giving me sugary juice to sip on and started cleaning wounds and doing stitches. Thankfully they injected pain medication near the wounds, but it still stung and itched. The entire process was exhausting. When they were done, they wrapped everything in bandages. I imagined I looked vaguely like a disaster victim, considering my sluggishly-bleeding head and the bandages around my arms and side.I kind of am a disaster victim, if you can consider Moonfish a disaster.

Midoriya and Mirio walked over to me as I sat on the bed, munching on a cookie. "Mineta, you're okay!" said Midoriya, whose arms were wrapped up as well.

"I'm fine. Just got a little woozy there at the end, is all," I said. "Well! At least Moonfish has been arrested. Sort of a success."

"That's the spirit!" said Mirio. "We definitely weren't expecting to see Moonfish right outside the agency. We saw you guys fighting him through the window!"

"No kidding," I said.

Not long after, the three of us wandered towards the waiting room. We saw Aizawa and Sir Nighteye talking there. "You can talk to the two of them tomorrow, once Recovery Girl has healed their injuries," Aizawa said. It sounded like the tail end of a conversation. "Hey!" Mirio said, with a wave.

"You, Midoriya and Mineta are going back to the dorms," Sir Nighteye said. "UA is taking back its interns for the day."

"Oh, okay," Mirio said.

That was that, and we were headed back to UA.

(Meanwhile, in Evan's apartment.)

"Alright, Chisakai. Why don't we cut a deal?" said Nedzu.

"What kind of deal?" Evan responded.

"You work as an informant for us, and we'll help you get a hero license, legally."

"An… informant?" Evan questioned.

"You obviously have information that we are not privy to. You almost always seem to know where the League of Villains is, whether you use the Shie Hassaikai to gather information or somehow else. Before, we fought the League of Villains separately, but we would be more effective as a team," Nedzu suggested. "Perhaps you could even assist Recovery Girl once you have a hero license, and use your quirk to heal."

"Oh. That would be nice. I do suppose I know where they make the Nomus," Evan said, frowning. "But I can't raid the place all on my own."
"Precisely," Nedzu said, leaning forward.

"Well alright then. You have a deal. I really thought it would be worse, somehow, like you were going to blackmail me. You sure there isn't going to be a double-cross at the end?" Evan said, raising his eyebrows slightly.

"UA does owe you some gratitude for defending our students. There will be no double-cross. Though, it is expected you to refrain from breaking major laws, sans vigilantism until you get a license, of course. But no more pulling what you did with All Might. If you're going to use your quirk on someone, explain it thoroughly," said Nedzu, his gaze turning sharp. Evan nodded quickly.

"No law breaking, and honesty! Got it," Evan said.

"Good. Now, tell me about these Nomus…"

Recovery Girl healed my injuries, but I felt very tired after. I had some crackers and then took a nap in her office. Upon waking up, I wandered back to the 1-A dorms. There were a few groups of people in the common room waiting alongside Midoriya.

"You two fought Moonfish at your work studies?!" Sero exclaimed. "That's insane!"

"Woah, what was it like?" Ashido said, bouncing on the coach.

"Uh, it was like getting chased by a serial murderer," I said.

"How did you fight him?" Kirishima chimed in.

"We really just ran away," Midoriya said sheepishly.

"Aw, boring!" Kirishima exclaimed.

"Don't badger the two of them for details," Aizawa grunted, having just entered the room. "They have enough to deal with without you bothering them." He waved them away, causing the crowd to disperse. "You two, speak with me for a moment?"

Midoriya and I followed Aizawa into the kitchen. "Tomorrow, the two of you are going to the Nighteye Agency to debrief on your encounter with Moonfish. I'm busy with something, so Midnight will take you."

"Are we going to go back to the work study like normal after that?" Midoriya asked.

Aizawa shrugged. "I'm not sure. The teachers are considering suspending work study programs for first years altogether." As Midoriya began to protest, Aizawa held up a hand. "You had already deduced that Moonfish was moving around using the Blue Line and that his next target was Endor City. Sir Nighteye should not have let you come to his agency using that train."

"I didn't think of it, either," I admitted.

"You are a student, and he is a pro. His job is to think of the things you don't, and protect you while you learn. He didn't do that properly. Whether or not first year work studies will continue is being debated, but even if they do, UA will be keeping an especially close eye on yours," Aizawa said.

Midoriya looked a little resigned at that. "Alright…" he said.

"On the bright side, at least we don't have to worry about Moonfish!" I said. My mistake, he never being captured, had been fixed.

"There was a lot of property damage," Midoriya admitted. "So there's going to be lots of paperwork."

… He was right. Moonfish had left lots of random gashes in the concrete and on the sides of buildings, Midoriya had crushed that car, and I left sticky balls everywhere.

"Most of it was Moonfish," I said. "The only thing you did was land on a car, and the only thing I did was the frisbee."

"I still can't believe you threw a frisbee at him," Midoriya said.

Aizawa buried his head in his hands.

"It was a tactical decision," I stated. "Right?"

Aizawa sighed. "Please try to keep out of danger," he said. "This time it really couldn't be avoided, but it would be preferred if you could not run into dangerous villains at all."

"We'll do our best," I said. Midoriya nodded along, but with no particular conviction or enthusiasm.

When I went upstairs and checked my burner phone, Evan seemed really excited about something."You'll never guess what just happened!"his text read. It was a little funny, that's what I was about to text him.

"What?"I replied.

"Nedzu figured out that I'm Earthshaker and did the organ thing with All Might. Now he wants to work with me."

"WHAT? Are you getting arrested?"I should've known Nedzu would figure him out. Dang, too smart.

"No, he wants me to help him take out the League of Villains, and if I do, he said he'll help me get a valid hero license,"Evan explained.

"That's crazy, but kinda good. It's nice to know you aren't being arrested, but be careful! They might betray you or something."Not that I didn't trust Nedzu, but I didn't. I knew he wasn't a traitor, but I hadn't seen much of him in the anime and manga, so I didn't know how he treated vigilantes (or anyone else, for that matter.)

"I'll be careful! How have you been today?"

"I ran into Moonfish on accident and Midoriya and I had to flee for our lives, but then he got arrested."

"How!? Are you okay?!"

I assured Evan that I was fine and explained the circumstances. Evan was concerned that Midoriya and I kept running into random trouble, but was glad Moonfish had been arrested. He had been posing a problem."Mustard and Muscular seem to be sticking around the League, while Moonfish went off on his own,"Evan texted."We just have to keep an eye on the League."

Apparently, Evan and Nedzu were going to be working on some kind of joint project to capture the doctor at Jaku hospital, to stop Nomu production."Did you tell him about Kurogiri being Oboro?"

(Evan is typing…)

It was a few minutes before Evan sent a reply.

"No, I forgot about that tbh. We need to make sure Kurogiri is caught alive, tho."

"He was caught in the manga alive, somehow. I think Gran Torino did it? I forget the details of the capture. I kinda skipped over some of the Endeavor redemption stuff and the villain arc."

"Coming back to bite us now,"Evan replied sardonically.

"Good luck with the whole Jaku hospital stuff,"I said, putting my phone away.

It was a relief to know that Evan wasn't getting arrested or chased around despite getting outmaneuvered by Nedzu, but I could only hope Nedzu wasn't trying to forward some sinister plan. All the same, it was true that Evan would function a lot better with backup, and being closer to the heroes, he could monitor what they were doing and look for changes. It was a good setup, all around, so long as it didn't blow up in Evan's face.

… the same kind of went for the whole work study with Nighteye, in fact.

Oh well.

Chapter 45: inconvenient secrets

Summary:

A meeting with Midnight, a brief questioning, and a problem to be solved.

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter fornotes.)

Chapter Text

The next day, we went with Midnight to the Nighteye Agency for our debrief. She was in plainclothes and rode the train with us. Midnight was an interesting character. She was perceptive, intelligent, an admirable hero, an interesting teacher, but above all,weird-her sexual brand around students was always something that put me off.

Either way, twenty minutes later, we arrived at the Nighteye Agency.

"You're a bit late," said Bubble Girl, who was waiting.

"Our bad. I'll stay in the waiting room during the debrief," said Midnight, shrugging.

"I'll just going to take them up with me," said Bubble Girl. Midoriya and I followed her on to the upper floors.

Sir Nighteye and Centipeder were both there, as well as Tsukauchi Naomasa. Yikes, more only-truthful statements. "Alright, tell us what happened," Centipeder said, sitting down.

I glanced at Midoriya, who nodded for me to start. "We were on the train to get here and Moonfish showed up on it. I texted Aizawa-sensei to let him know what was happening and then I texted Midoriya on his phone not to panic, but that Moonfish was there."

"How did you recognize Moonfish?" Tsukauchi asked, scribbling something down.

"Sir Nighteye showed us a photograph of him a few days earlier," I said.

"Alright, what then?"

Midoriya explained how Moonfish noticed him panicking, noticed we were UA students, and figured out we knew who he was.

Tsukauchi nodded. "What after that?"

"He started chasing us," I picked up the story. "We decided to just run to the agency because we knew where it was. He followed us all the way there and we got some cuts from his teeth. Then Centipeder and Mirio beat him when we got to the agency."

"We saw Moonfish attacking them through the window, then went to assist them.," Centipeder added.

"And then the fight occurred." Tsukauchi nodded his head. "A fairly straightforward story. All true."

"Mineta, one more thing," said Sir Nighteye. "Did you detect Moonfish at any point with your quirk?"

Uh oh."I wasn't really paying attention to gut feelings," I admitted.Technically true.

"Can't you feel things like months in advance, though?" Midoriya questioned.

Come on Midoriya!"I don't think in the 'original timeline' that I was supposed to be having a work study with Sir Nighteye. That was a change that only really happened a week ago," I said. "And I was feeling nervous about Moonfish in just an average way, so…"

Tsukauchi nodded. "True."

"Ah," Sir Nighteye said. "Be sure to pay more careful attention, in the future."

"Wait, I have a question. Have work studies been cancelled?" I asked.

Sir Nighteye shook his head. "UA has indeed allowed first year work studies to go on. By a very slim margin, I've heard, but they will continue. However, Mirio will take the train with you when you come to this work study," Sir Nighteye said. I glanced at Midoriya, who seemed relieved.

The debrief wrapped up, though Centipeder walked off with Tsukauchi to finalize some details, while Sir Nighteye stayed behind to talk to us.

"Midoriya," he said, a little sharply. "This is the second time you've panicked in front of a villain and endangered your fellow heroes-in-training. It cannot happen again."

"I'm so sorry!" Midoriya exclaimed, looking very regretful. Ouch.

"It's understandable he was afraid," I said.

"Both times,youwere able to maintain your composure in stressful situations," Sir Nighteye said. His voice was cold. "Midoriya must learn to do the same, or fail as a hero."

"I'll do better!" Midoriya promised. Sir Nighteye didn't respond.

This was the start of a trend over the next week. Each time Midoriya was assigned to a task, Sir Nighteye would find his work unsatisfactory. He never raised his voice, ever. Never yelled. Instead, in a cold, clinical voice, he would pick apart every detail of what Midoriya did and what was wrong with it. Midoriya would apologize until he was red in the face and put every effort into getting better, but it was never enough for Sir Nighteye.

Often, the differences in how he treated his interns was obvious, because he tended to partner Mirio and Midoriya together for tasks. At the end, when he looked over their work, he would treat Mirio with soft eyes, warm smiles, occasional chuckles and good humor, then turn to Midoriya and look at him with icy, judging eyes, and cruelly tear apart his every action.

Sir Nighteye would never lecture Midoriya too much in front of others, but the favoritism was still apparent to the others in the agency, who were all very perceptive. It was starting to make everyone really uncomfortable and contribute to rising tensions.

"I don't remember him being this harsh toward you when you were first starting out," Bubble Girl commented, sorting through old files.

"I could've sworn he wasn't," Mirio said, frowning for once.

"I suppose he's always liked you, but…" Bubble Girl trailed off.

Centipeder was leaning against the wall, sipping coffee. "I'm not sure why Sir is acting like that. He's just a first-year intern, he's bound to make mistakes."

I stayed mostly silent. I couldn't really explain the reason Sir Nighteye was acting like this without explaining how One for All worked.

"Do you know what's going on, Mineta?" Mirio asked.

I winced. I guess I was getting involved. "Uh, kinda… it's complicated."

"He doesn't treat you like that, does he?" Bubble Girl asked, sliding the box of files under her desk.

"No, he doesn't. It's just Midoriya," I said.

"It seems like you know what's happening. Can you tell us?" Centipeder asked, interest clearly piqued.

"It's partially confidential…" I said. I thought about what I could tell them and couldn't tell them. "Well, due to some events that are going to happen in the future," I waved my hands to express nebulous future events, "Sir Nighteye wants Midoriya to give up on being a hero, but Midoriya refuses to do that."There. That's the closest I can get to saying 'Sir Nighteye wants Midoriya to give up One for All to Mirio so All Might doesn't die' without getting into all the things they aren't supposed to know.

"He's trying to get Midoriya to give up being a hero?" said Mirio, looking worried.

"Essentially, yeah."If Midoriya gives his quirk to Mirio, that's what might happen.

Centipeder set down his coffee mug. "So you're telling me that Sir Nighteye took on a hero student so he could convince him todrop outof the hero course?" Centipeder questioned.

"That would explain why he's being so discouraging," Bubble Girl added.

"That's completely unacceptable," said Centipeder, crossing his arms.

"Geez, how important is this future event?" Mirio said.

"Pretty important. But in my opinion, Midoriya's future is also important," I said.

"Hey, does your teacher know about this?" Bubble Girl asked thoughtfully.

"No," I said.

"Of course he doesn't! Otherwise, neither of them would be here," Centipeder argued. "If Aizawa knew he would pull them both out in an instant. You've met him, haven't you?"

"Does Sirreallywant Midoriya to drop out?" said Mirio, fidgeting.

"If Midoriya is here because Sir wants him to drop out, why areyouhere? He doesn't have some convoluted reason for you working here, does he?" Centipeder asked, exasperated.

"It's the future-telling quirk for me, I think," I said.

"It does make sense for him to want to mentor someone who has a quirk like his," Bubble Girl suggested.

"Ehh… I think it's more that my quirk can change situations in the future, which might be able to stop that future event…"

"For goodness sakes!" Centipeder sighed.

"What evenisthis future event?" Mirio asked, a little desperately.

"I don't think I'm allowed to tell you about it," I responded.

Bubble Girl and Mirio were both about to say something, but Centipeder held up a hand. "Look… I'll just go talk to him. Sir Nighteye is a reasonable person. We'll see what we can do about this," Centipeder said. Both Bubble Girl and Mirio nodded, and Centipeder walked out of the office. As Centipeder left, Midoriya walked out of Sir Nighteye's office.

Mirio opened his mouth to ask something of Midoriya, but Bubble Girl made eye contact with him and shook her head minutely. "You two are both done for the day. You can leave."

"Thanks, Bubble Girl," Midoriya said.

The two of us walked out of the agency and I contemplated what I'd just told Centipeder. The situation was becoming more and more untenable, and we'd barely worked at the agency for two weeks. We had another two or three to goat leastto fill our month requirement. With no Shie Hassaikai to distract everyone and Sir Nighteye's death not happening, it was obvious to everyone that Sir didn't like Midoriya and berated him constantly. I sighed.Hopefully Centipeder sorts this out and I don't have to worry about it.

Notes:

See y'all in a bit! Hiatus time

Chapter 46: an understanding

Summary:

Mineta and Nighteye have a confrontation. Evan gives Nedzu and Aizawa some troubling news.

-=-=-=-=
I'm back y'all! But a warning: this chapter contains major manga spoilers! If you're anime-only, best to skip Overhaul/Evan's perspective. The rest of the chapter will make sense without it.

Chapter Text

A little while after we got back, I sat at a table in the common room making up homework I missed, munching on a cookie.

"Hey Mineta?" Uraraka's voice from the entrance to the kitchen.

"Yeah Uraraka?" I asked.

"Do you know what's going on with Midoriya?"

I blinked and put my pencil down. "Wait, what are you talking about?"

"I'm worried about him," she said. "He seems really stressed lately and I think he's overworking himself-he's training more than ever."

I frowned. Midoriya had done that in the original a bit, but because he wanted to save Eri. Eri wasn't in danger here. Was it my vague warnings of danger? His self-esteem? "Where is he now?" I asked.

"The gym over that way," she responded, pointing. "Do you know what's going on?"

I closed my book. "I don't know… I have suspicions. Might have to do with our work study, now that I think of it. I'll go talk to him," I said.

Uraraka nodded firmly. "Tell me if he's not okay, alright?"

"I will," I promised.

I wandered over to one of the gyms that was generally open for student use. I walked in and Midoriya was the only one there, doing deadlifts. "Hey, Midoriya," I said.

"Oh, hey," Midoriya said, setting down the barbell. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to check on you," I said. "You sure you're not, exceeding your limit or something? Overdoing it?"Yeesh, that was not very tactful.

"I made sure that I'm doing the maximum amount of training without injuring myself, and not going over!" Midoriya said, fishing out something from his pocket. He handed me a little logbook, which seemed to contain his workout plan.

I flipped through the book and examined the scribbled text. "This is very thorough," I said hesitantly. "But it excludes all the exercise we do in class and in our work study?"

"That's more technical stuff. It's not focused on conditioning," Midoriya dismissed.

"We stilldointense exercise," I said. I handed it back. "Look, I know I've been doing a lot of training too, so I don't have much room to talk… but why are you working so hard?"

"Because I'm not good enough!" Midoriya said, upset. "I need to make sure I'm worthy of this power All Might gave me!"

"You are doing that," I said, a little placating. "But just pretending we don't train within class periods in your exercise plan could do damage."

"I'm not improving enough." Midoriya started to pace. "I need to get faster, stronger… I already don't know what I'm doing at the agency…"

"Because you've never worked at a hero agency, that's what this is for," I said.

"You and Mirio always know what's going on, but I never do," said Midoriya. "So I need to get better in other ways! To prove that I deserve One for All!"

I… this was problematic.I should've known Sir Nighteye would get to him eventually. This is terrible for Midoriya's mental state. It can't continue.

"Midoriya," I tried. "I think maybe you should talk to someone about this."

He snapped his head up. "Why?"

"Maybe All Might could help. He's good at exercise plans, right? He would find you a good one, and make sure it's not too much," I said.

Midoriya frowned. "...Maybe."

"Why don't we head back to the dorms together and we can talk about it tomorrow? We've got a lot to do in work study tomorrow so it's best not to be tired," I said. Midoriya furrowed his brow, looking frustrated in an adorable and teenager-y way, but nodded. "I'm basically done for today anyway," he said.

Midoriya did a few stretches and we walked back to dorms together. He and Uraraka started talking when we got back, and while they didn't address Midoriya's overwork, Uraraka occasionally shot him worried glances.Ouch. I'm not that great of a friend, not noticing Midoriya struggling… at least Uraraka's got it covered.

I texted the new group chat, made of Theodore and Evan."Midoriya is getting self-esteem issues and overworking himself again. I think it's because Sir Nighteye is being so critical all the time."

"Nighteye's the future guy, right? Why is he being mean?"Theodore replied, having only been given the bare bones of the plot.

"Sir Nighteye doesn't like Midoriya bc he wanted Mirio to have OfA instead,"Evan explained."Also that's bad you gotta fix it. Midoriya already barely values his safety."

"No kidding. I told Centipeder and he said he'd talk about it with Nighteye. If he doesn't fix it I'm going to have to complain to Aizawa or All Might,"I responded.

"Yikes!"said Theodore."Isn't Midoriya the nice green-hair one? I liked him, he was so friendly."

"That's him,"said Evan.

"Ouch! Future guy needs to back off, Midoriya is an adorable babey,"Theodore judged. I sighed and smiled to myself. Theodore was just the type of person to get attached to Midoriya.

"I've got news!"Evan typed."I'm having a meeting w/ Nedzu & Aizawa to talk about the League. We're going to try and outline a plan of attack."

"Be careful! I know you said Aizwa was nice but I wouldn't trust any heroes. They're all super shady if you ask me,"said Theodore.

"Aizawa has worked with vigilantes in the past, in MHA Vigilantes, I think. But I didn't actually read that so I don't know a lot?"I said.

"I'll be extra careful,"Evan promised.

When the conversation wound down, I put my phone away for the night.

In the morning, when Midoriya, Mirio and I all came into work studies, some of the tension in the air seemed to have dissipated. A good sign. "Mineta," Sir Nighteye said. "Could I speak with you for a moment?"

I followed him into his office. "Yes, Sir?"

"You told the others what was going on," Sir Nighteye said. It was a statement.

"Yes."

"Why? We cannot give them the details to explain the situation."

"It was… well, the way you treated Midoriya wasn't really acceptable," I said.

Sir Nighteye's eyes narrowed, light reflecting off his glasses as he stood up. I took an involuntary step back. Sir Nighteye was… intimidating. Even being older than Mineta, at my true age I'm still more than a decade younger than Sir Nighteye, who sets off everyThis is An Authority Figurealarm bell in my head.

"It was necessary. If Mirio is to receive One for All, then Midoriya must give up the quirk. It is that simple. He needs to see that Mirio is the superior candidate."

"I agree with you that Mirio is an excellent candidate. But Midoriya already has One for All and it's too late to go back," I said.

"It isnottoo late to go back," Sir Nighteye insisted. "Midoriya will see reason."

"Look, Mirio is a worthy candidate for One for All, but so is Midoriya. Midoriya may be younger and less experienced now, but he can gain that experience with time…"

"We don'thavetime!" said Sir Nighteye, raising his voice slightly. "All Might is going to die within a year or two while Midoriya is still a student if we don't do anything about it! We need someone who can help stop this!"

"We'll just have to stop it while Mirio doesn't have One for All," I said. "He's still powerful, the top student at UA, right?"

Sir Nighteye looked even more frustrated. "Who are you to decide that?"

"No, who are you? All MightchoseMidoriya and Midoriya isn't going to give it up! Midoriyanevergives up. He's been quirkless for years, dealing with people meaner than you. The only reason your words hurt him so much is because herespectsyou! You have the opportunity to help raise the next Symbol of Peace and instead you're driving him into a mental breakdown! All Might would nev-"

"Quiet."The word was soft, and dangerous. He placed down his weighted seal with a little more force than necessary.

I froze. I really shouldn't have said that, even if I was right. This was my superior in the work study program, so I'd essentially just mouthed off to my boss.

"You have no place speaking to me this way. You will not disrespect me any further. You will nottellme how to handle my interns. You will not share private information with others if you are not given leave to do so.Do you understand?"

"Yes, Sir," I said, voice more subdued than I'd hoped it'd be.

He walked around the desk and stood over me. "You areluckyyou have such a useful secondary quirk. Otherwise, I would never take on a first-year of such average competence. So do not go around feelingself-important,"the last part was a hiss.

I felt like I'd swallowed ice. Even as someone who didn't sign up to be a hero in the first place, that stung, after spending so long in the hero course training. I felt shaky.

My vision began to blurr.Don't cry don't cry don't cry, stupid teenage hormones…!I didn't cry, but my eyes watered pathetically. There was a moment of silence. Sir Nighteye sighed. "I apologize. There was no need for me to say that."

"It's fine," I said, voice cracking a bit.

Sir Nighteye looked tired. "We just… don't have much time left before he dies."

It struck me that Sir Nighteye was probably too focused on his friend's death to reason properly. He must be worried to death. "We can do it," I said, wiping my eyes and trying to project confidence. "Mirio is powerful, with or without One for All. He can still help, along with everyone else!"

Sir Nighteye didn't smile, but he didn't look as hostile as he had a moment ago. "You're rather optimistic for this situation."

I shrugged. "I try."

"I… made a promise to Centipeder to treat Midoriya with more civility. I plan to follow up on it and will be fairer to Midoriya in the future. I just wish…" he trailed off.

"I'm sorry, it won't happen. Midoriya's much too determined to prove himself," I said.

Nighteye chuckled quietly, a bit sardonic. "Is that one of your predictions, or do you just know him that well?"

"A bit of both," I said.

Sir Nighteye sighed. "Very well. If Midoriya is to become the next Symbol of Peace, I must focus on training him, rather than convincing him to give up his quirk. My priorities have been incorrect, so I will fix them."

It wasn't exactly an apology, but it was a promise to change. More than I expected out of the situation, in truth.

"Thanks," I said. "Be careful of what you say to him. He really wants to be a good hero but he has a habit of overworking himself."

Something like interest and surprise flashed in his eyes. "Thank you. You're dismissed."

I nodded and left.

"So you talked to the boss? How'd it go?" Bubble Girl asked. Midoriya and Mirio were nowhere around, probably sent to do filing and paperwork as a distraction.

"It went fine," I said, deciding to ignore the part where I almost started crying. "He promised that he would be nicer to Midoriya," I added.

"That's good!" Bubble Girl said, looking cheered.

"He made that promise to me as well," said Centipeder. "I knew he could be reasonable, though his reasons for acting like that in the first place are something I still don't understand."

"It's complicated," I said, clarifying nothing.

"So now Sir Nighteye will be nice to Midoriya and everything will be better!" Bubble Girl said, appearing relieved at the idea that everything could go back to normal.

"It'd better be better!" I said. "If he doesn't do anything I'll have to interfere."

They both winced visibly. "What would you do if that happened?" Centipeder asked.

I hummed, considering. "Well, Sir Nighteye's attitude has been affecting Midoriya negatively," I said. "If it continues I'm either going to have to tell Aizawa or All Might." I said.

Bubble Girl looked slightly sick at the thought, while Centipeder was taken aback. "You would tell All Might about this?" Centipeder asked, surprised. "I know he's one of your teachers but that seems… vindictive."

It was, but there was a good reason to consider it. "All Might has been mentoring Midoriya for ages now," I said. "If there's anyone who would want to know about this, it would be him. If I told Aizawa or some other teacher he would likely hear of it tangentially anyway."And Midoriya is like All Might's new son.

"I can't imagine All Might and Sir re-meeting over this," Bubble Girl said, frowning worriedly.

"Hopefully things improve and they don't have to," I said.

"I believe they will. I will do everything in my power to be encouraging to his growth, regardless of Sir Nighteye's actions," Centipeder vowed.

"Good to hear," I said, smiling slightly.

When Evan walked into a meeting with Nedzu and Aizawa, presumably to plot against the League of Villains or something, he wasn't really sure what to expect. Nedzu said they could just meet at UA, but Evan pointed out that would be a great place to set a trap, sarcastically suggesting they Shie Hassaikai headquarters instead. The compromise was a meeting center in Nabou City, a neutral ground of sorts.

Evan walked in quietly and saw Aizawa, who was waiting for him in the lobby. "We have a meeting room over here," said Aizawa, motioning for Evan to follow. Evan shrugged and walked with him.

Evan had taken precautions for the meeting. While he rarely fought with weapons, today he'd brought a few smoke bombs. If a fight broke out, the smoke would obstruct Aizawa's vision and he could escape with his quirk. Evan had considered bringing tear gas or pepper spray to force Aizawa's eyes closed, but he didn't want to damage Aizawa's eyes on accident. Mineta would kill him if that happened. If Nedzu had a sensitive nose (does he? I don't know anything about Nedzu) maybe the smoke would distract him as well? All in all, Evan felt only mild paranoia when he followed Aizawa into their meeting room.

As promised, only Nedzu and Aizawa were there. "Hi," Evan said, sitting down stiffly.

"It's good to meet you, Earthshaker," said Nedzu with a grin.

"You can call me Chisaki, if you want," Evan said. Nedzu just smiled wider. It was getting a little scary.

"So this is really him, huh?" Aizawa said, almost to himself. He looked over Evan and seemed to come to some conclusion. "Thank you for keeping an eye on my students," he finally said, with a nod.

"It's no problem," said Evan.

Nedzu clapped his paws together. "Excellent! Let's get started! So, you told me the Nomus were being made primarily at Jaku Hospital, by the President. Last time we discussed potential raid options, however, we did not talk about how these Nomu were made. How much do you know on that front?"

"I have the basic gist of it, nothing too detailed, though. They take someone who died and turn their corpse into a Nomu. They give them a lot of quirks that were taken from other people," Evan explained.

"That would explain why the Nomu seem brain dead," Aizawa said.

"Well, most are. There are a few that are not," said Evan.

"How interesting! Where are those?" said Nedzu, paws laced together.

"All of them are still stuck in the labs, except Kurogiri. He's a Nomu."

Both Nedzu and Aizawa looked surprised. "Kurogiri is a Nomu? He didn't look like one," Aizawa said.

Nedzu hummed. "I suppose we wouldn't know. If these intelligent Nomu exist, it stands to reason he could be one."

Evan nodded. "It's why he's so loyal to Shigaraki. He was made to serve him."

"Does he have multiple quirks?" Aizawa asked.

Evan shook his head. "No. He only has the Warp quirk. His original quirk was taken and swapped out for Warp. Or maybe the Warp Quirk was fused with his previous quirk…"

"What was his original quirk?" Aizawa asked.

Evan grimaced. "Something with… clouds, I think?"

"Clouds?" Aizawa blinked.Uh oh.

"His first name was Oboro. Can't remember the last name. Loud Cloud?"

Aizawa's gaze grew dark and furious. "What."

Evan cautiously began to explain. "They used Oboro's body as a base to make Kurogiri. He might still have some memories…" Aizawa stood up quickly, knocking his chair over, a slight snarl on his face.

Evan startled, jerking back a little. The smile vanished from Nedzu's face, who looked at Aizawa with concern.

"I…" Aizawa took a deep breath. He breathed in, then out. He set his chair back up and sat down. "Continue," he said, voice flat.

"Are you okay?" Evan said.

"Fine. Just keep going," said Aizawa.

"Well, he might still have memories. He very likely does, in fact. If we catch him we could work on trying to bring those back. Alternately, there's my daughter's quirk, Rewind. It can rewind objects back to their past states. If she could rewind him back about fifteen years…"

"We would have fifteen-year-old Shirakumo back," Aizawa said, looking a little overwhelmed.

"But Eri needs time to control her quirk better. Right now, her rewinds can be up to twelve years off the intended amount… a 3-year-old or 27-year-old Shirakumo isn't what we want. And it might take a while for her to learn how to control her quirk, because she needs to recharge her powers between rewinds," Evan explained. "She should eventually be able to do it, though."

"So we need to capture Kurogiri as soon as possible," Nedzu said, humming. "At least to prevent any further brainwashing or damage. The same goes for the other Nomu."

"I do have to warn you that Kurogiri is probably the calmest and smartest of the intelligent Nomu. The others are powerful but a little… volatile?" Evan said.

Nedzu nodded. "Noted."

Aizawa was still paler than normal and Evan couldn't get a read on his emotions. "Do you know if the League has any plans right now?"

"Uh, they're looking for alliances, I think." Evan didn't think they'd teamed up with the Meta Liberation Army yet. It might be a little bit before that happened. "But besides that, there are rumors about Shigaraki having an unawakened power that worry me."I should warn them that Shigaraki is about to get a lot stronger…

"An unawakened power?" Nedzu questioned.

"Apparently something All for One gave him. I don't know if it's true or not, but it seems like the League will only get stronger from here on out if we don't arrest them," Evan said.

"Best to stop the problem early on," Nedzu granted. "I believe that starts with the Nomu."

Hm, he's right. I don't have enough information on Deternat or the Meta Liberation Army to take them out and I have no idea where the main League members are right now. So I suppose taking out their auxiliary fighters, the Nomu… that might be the best preparation we can do at this very moment for the Paranormal Liberation War.

"I agree. We should take out that doctor. He's a menace."

Both Aizawa's and Nedzu's eyes gleamed with a dark excitement for revenge.

… Oh dear.

Midoriya and Mirio finished the paperwork and filing in record time. When they came back, Sir Nighteye gave them both a lukewarm compliment. Mirio grinned and Midoriya blinked in shock but then began to smile in cautious pride. "The three of you will be working with Bubble Girl on some local burglaries," Sir Nighteye said. "Centipeder and I have other business."

"Sir, what will you be working on?" Mirio asked, with a slight bounce.

"We'll be helping a group of other hero agencies track down Muscular," he said. As Midoriya and I both were about to say something, Sir Nighteye put a hand up. "You will not be helping."

"Why not?" Midoriya cried.

"The League of Villains is targeting UA students. You can't be involved, it's too much of a risk. We learned that last time," he grimaced, likely thinking about our run-in with Moonfish.

A chill ran down my spine at the reminder of Moonfish. I glanced over at Midoriya, who looked similarly perturbed. As much as I wanted to get involved… Muscular was a wild card. I didn't have any real information on his movements and the purple balls on my head would barely slow him down. I would be completely useless against Muscular. Besides… I agreed with Sir Nighteye when he said Midoriya shouldn't get involved.

Ever since the Moonfish incident, Midoriya seemed to develop a fear of trains. Whenever we went on one to get to our work study, Midoriya would fidget nervously and his eyes would dart around the train. He always subtly inched closer and closer to Mirio, who would wrap a comforting arm around him and chatter incessantly to try to put Midoriya at ease.

… They were developing a lovely friendship.

Regardless, Midoriya didn't need any more traumatic unscheduled villain encounters. I couldn't think of how an aversion to trains would change the plot of the story, but the more seemingly-irrelevant things I changed, the more unpredictable the timeline. Thus, best to avoid Muscular as much as possible.

I had just made up my mind to never ever run into Muscular when I looked at Midoriya again. The brief fear in his eyes had been replaced with an infinite well of determination.

… oh no.

"I want to help!" Midoriya insisted.

Sir Nighteye sighed and rubbed his eyes.

"We are helping," I said. "If we help catch this burglar and other criminals while Sir Nighteye is busy, then all the other heroes working on the Muscular case won't get distracted. We're lightening their load." I purposefully didn't mention how Bubble Girl and Mirio could probably handle the case by themselves.

Midoriya seemed to be thinking hard about the idea. "I suppose… I want to be updated about the Muscular case, though!"

Sir Nighteye looked relieved and gave me a grateful glance. "That can be arranged."

"Let's get started!" Midoriya said.

As we started working on solving the burglaries, I pondered what was going to happen next. The Cultural Festival was around the start of November, so about a month and a half away, as it was mid-September now. Nothing could gotoowrong between now and the Cultural Festival, right? I glanced over at Sir Nighteye who was picking up boxes of files on Muscular.

… I can hope.

Chapter 47: A Red-Colored Coat

Summary:

Mirio wants to buy some mochi.

Notes:

some light manga spoilers, from "I've got news from the meeting w/ Aizawa & Nedzu" to "It was a good sign." I suggest anime-onlys skip that part, the chapter will still make sense!

Chapter Text

About a day after Nighteye promised to be better to Midoriya, I was sitting in my dorm room doing laundry when I picked up my burner phone. I'd silenced it a few hours ago, but it looked like something had happened.

(Three Musketeers Groupchat: 62 notifications)

(Kota-Theodore: yoo what do you think of my treatises?)

(Evan: I've got news from the meeting w/ Aizawa & Nedzu.)

I checked the chat starting from the top and noticed Evan's news: he'd finally told Aizawa who Kurogiri was and that they'd finally set a date for the raid. The heroes (alongside Earthshaker) planned to attack Jaku Hospital shortly after the Cultural Festival. The whole thing was being kept on the down-low, but since the Meta Liberation Army hadn't yet allied with the League of Villains, their spies shouldn't have any real reason to let the League know an attack was occuring.It should work, so long as we're careful,Evan had typed.Clandestine operations and all that.

It was a good sign. Those Nomu were a massive threat.

Second, Theodore had spammed the groupchat with text files that all appeared to be mixes between blog posts, newspaper articles and research papers. I scanned through the titles of some of what he had written:"Amnesty for Public Quirk Use", "Why is Earthshaker so Inspiring?", "Preventing Quirk Discrimination in the Workplace", "Why Endeavor is Dangerous: Statements, Statistics and a Worrying Theory", "The Hero Killer Stain: Are His Beliefs Legitimate?"and"The League of Villains Has Attacked Children. Stop Glorifying Them."

… It was a lot. It looked like Theodore had gotten sick of sitting around and doing nothing, so he'd decided to write down all his opinions into articles. He was calling them "treatises" and seemed rather proud. Evan had started setting up an anonymous blog for them: Theodore would write them, the two of us would edit, and then Evan would release them. Political writing was one of Theodore's most impressive talents.

In my opinion, it was an excellent idea. We need some good PR.

I texted back saying I would definitely help proofread them before their release. Meanwhile, Evan was already gleefully talking about how we could release them on hero forums with links back to the original blog to make them more popular.

I paused when I got to one of the middle articles, though."Why Endeavor is Dangerous: Statements, Statistics and a Worrying Theory."Hm. I scanned through the article. Damage and injury statistics, worrying things Endeavor had said (especially in relation to quirk marriage) and a theory pertaining to spousal abuse. All true, of course.

"Are you sure we want to publish that article about Endeavor? All that info is true, but he's about to have a redemption arc and calling him out could be bad for the heroes,"I texted.

"Well yeah, but he's not getting a redemption arc,"Theodore texted.

"Wait, what?"

"Evan said Endeavor started getting redeemed 'cause he had a conversation with All Might while Todoroki was making up stuff for failing the Provisional License Exam. You said Todoroki passed the PLE. So no redeem. Thought you knew?"Theodore typed.

I dropped my phone. I started thinking long and hard about Endeavor's redemption arc, but for the life of me, I just couldn't rememberwhyEndeavor had his redemption arc. I picked my phone back up and looked at it, just to see that Evan was freaking out too. Apparently, he'd known when the Endeavor redemption arc started, but didn't think about it hard enough to realize that we'dpreventedEndeavor's redemption arc.

"Maybe something else will redeem him and it'll be okay?"I tried optimistically.

"IS TODOROKI OKAY?"was Evan's frantic reply."You know just as well as I that Endeavor did at least some child abuse, though we don't know how much! He punched a 4yo Todoroki! And now he's not getting a redemption arc!"

"Todoroki lives in the dorms now, so he should be alright for now,"I responded.

"We have to release that article,"Theodore wrote."Maybe it will placate the fire villain who is Endeavor's son if Endeavor gets slandered in the news?"

"We're not 100% sure Dabi is a Todoroki,"responded Evan.

"Ok but he has to be one or it doesn't make sense,"Theodore said.

"So we agree that article is being released?"I texted before a debate could break out.

Both of them responded with an affirmative.

"We should probably start building your blog popularity with a few non-controversial articles. Release once a week, maybe, and in 3-4 weeks you can drop the Endeavor one? Compile even more evidence during that time,"I suggested.

They both seemed to agree. Ultimately, we decided that we'd start with the relatively normal"Preventing Quirk Discrimination in the Workplace"then go for The Hero Killer Stain article (to use his popularity as a jumping off point) before doing the Endeavor article. Then we'd start releasing the anti-League of Villains and pro-Earthshaker articles. It was a solid plan.

Still, even with this article coming out, I have to keep an eye on Todoroki. It's good he has a work study with Gang Orca and not Endeavor, thank goodness… but if we don't do something, he'll probably get stuck with unredeemed Endeavor for his second work study. Maybe something will set off his redemption arc but we can't bank on that.

I sighed and put my phone away, glancing at the clock. It was about 5PM and on a Saturday, when students could either go get something from Lunch Rush or eat at the dorms for dinner. I figured I would probably make myself a sandwich or something and trotted downstairs.

"Eeeeeeeeee!" Ashido was making a very high-pitched squealing noise.

"Ashido, what is it?" I asked.

She grabbed my arms. "You haven't heard? You haven't heard! Oooooh I get to tell you! Uraraka finally asked Midoriya on a date andhe said yesand it's so exciting!"

I couldn't help but smile. "Hopefully things go well for them."

"They're socutetogether!" Ashido said, bouncing.

Ashido pounced on an unexpecting Shinsou as he entered the kitchen, excitedly telling him the news as he blinked in confusion. I grinned and went to go make my sandwich.

I felt pretty happy for Uraraka. I was pretty sure I could call her a friend by now, or at least a friendly acquaintance. We did a lot of sparring together. Sometimes Midoriya, Iida, Jirou or Ojiro would join, but she was my most frequent partner. In general, training was going rather well. Recently I'd been practicing more with my super moves and fighting style, training to make them feel more natural to me.

I was hopeful that my work study would help me learn, too, and that it wouldn't have to get cancelled because Sir Nighteye broke his promise.

Two weeks had gone by, and he hadn't. Sir Nighteye's treatment of Midoriya had entered the realm of basic human decency, for which I was glad. Their relationship was still tentative and damaged, but Nighteye now offered constructive criticism and the occasional approving nod or smile. Midoriya's self-confidence seemed to be returning. I saw him talking with All Might over exercise plans and I hadn't heard anything else from Uraraka, so I hoped he'd finally stopped overworking himself.

The burglar from earlier was caught fairly easily. Midoriya was fairly useful in this case, while I was more dead weight than helpful in the investigation. Regardless, it was a learning experience for both of us. Over the two weeks, us three interns were usually sent patrolling, training, or to work on smaller cases. Mirio would occasionally be called to work on something bigger or more important, but Midoriya and I were generally relegated to low-priority work. At this point, I'd even gotten to take down a few villains! Just muggers and the like (with Mirio and Midoriya at my back) but most low-level criminals didn't have a defense against me just sticking them to the ground.

While Midoriya and Mirio were gaining a good reputation amongst the citizens of Endor for their positive attitudes and volunteerism, I was gaining a good reputation with (oddly enough) both Endor City police and local anti-police/hero brutality activists. It was weird, but I think my efficient and nonviolent takedowns of criminals made me popular in both circles. In my two weeks, I hadn't actually hit or tackled anyone. Just stuck them to the ground. So while Mirio and Midoriya were much more popular than me to the average Endor City citizen, I was becoming known in certain niche groups. I wasn't sure how I felt about it.

Meanwhile, Theodore's blog (calledNewspaper Anonymous)was starting to pick up steam. His quirk discrimination article was fairly well-received, if obscure, while his Hero Killer Stain article (complementing Stain for his ideals but arguing he should have admired underground heroes more, then ripping him a new one for attacking students) became much more widely-circulated. I wasn't sure how his Endeavor article would be received. His blog wasn'tthatpopular yet, but it was popular enough that such serious allegations against Endeavor would be noticed.

I pondered this as Mirio, Midoriya and I walked back from our work studies. I looked up and blinked. We were in a different part of the city than usual. "Huh?"

"We're getting mochi," said Mirio with a nudge.

"Oh, yeah, sorry, I forgot," I said.

"Wow, you are distracted! What's on your mind?" Mirio asked.

The fact I prevented Endeavor's redemption arc."Ah, nothing much. I'm just a little bit worried, is all," I said.

Mirio frowned and looked concerned. "About what?"

"I don't know, just in general," I said. Mirio's frown got deeper.Oh, my future vision. He probably thinks I'm getting a bad feeling."It's probably nothing," I assured him. "Let's go get mochi."

We arrived at a small cafe on the corner, guided by Mirio's knowledge of the best local places to buy food. It was a little out of the way from the train station and on the outskirts of town, but Mirio assured us it would be well worth it.

I ended up getting Daifuku mochi, a little rice cake with sweet filling inside, and green tea to go with it. Midoriya got something similar, but I was too busy drinking my tea to pay attention.This is so good! Have I always liked green tea this much, or is it just this place's green tea?

The mochi was delicious too. Mirio was right that going a bit out of the way was worth it. I happily munched on my mochi. "So you like it, huh?" Mirio said.

"This is the best ever," I declared. Mirio laughed and smiled, sipping on his own drink.

We started wandering back towards the train station, with Mirio leading the way and Midoriya and I trailing after him. I glanced at the sky, where the sun was getting a little low. It wouldn't be too long before we got back, though. I figured we'd arrive back before sundown. As we were walking, the streets were empty, except for one person, apparently. Mirio gave a friendly wave to someone standing in a side street.

I passed the alleyway and raised my hand to give the person a wave too, but froze. The person he'd waved at had brown hair and a red coat.The villain from when I got kidnapped? The paralysis quirk?

I opened my mouth to say something when both Mirio and Midoriya crumpled to the ground. Suddenly, the leg I was leaning on froze up, and I stumbled, barely catching myself on the wall. "So, we meet again," the man said, his face impassive.

Not good.I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket, fumbling to contact Aizawa, but the muscles in my hands were paralyzed. I dropped the phone. The villain stalked forward as I staggered back, dragging my unusable leg behind me. In a way that radiated calm, cold anger, the villain picked up my cell phone and smashed it into the ground. Immediately it was in pieces, unusable. I glanced frantically back at Mirio and Midoriya, but both of them were completely immobilized.Mirio's quirk can fight almost anything, but if he can't move… !

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," said the villain. "It'll just make all this more painful."

Burner phone? With both hands paralyzed, I wasn't dextrous enough to pull that out, let alone dial a number. And with my leg paralyzed, I couldn't run. Midoriya took a deep breath and started to scream.

Chapter 48: new discovery

Summary:

A fight against a terrifying villain.

Merry Christmas! :D

Notes:

Warning: minor manga spoilers! About what's going on with Midoriya's quirk, One for All. If you already know that it's safe to read.

(See the end of the chapter formore notes.)

Chapter Text

Midoriya started screaming as the villain approached. It was the strategically correct thing to do, really. Maybe someone would hear him and call the police. But almost as soon as he started, his voice cut off, replaced with a choking noise. "Vocal cord paralysis isn't fun, huh kid?" the villain said, a bit of vindictive glee in his voice. A moment later, Midoriya's choking stopped and he took a large breath of air and started coughing harshly. "Don't make me do that again, or I'll paralyze your diaphragm, too," the villain said, sounding almost lecturing. I glanced at the villain's stupid red coat and wished I could ruin it somehow.

"Why are you doing this?" Mirio exclaimed from behind me.

"I have nothing against you personally," Red Coat explained. "Just the purple one."

"And why don't you like Mineta?" Mirio said.Good job, Mirio. Keep him talking, stall for help. Someone has to come by this area eventually.

Red Coat scowled. "Thatgraperuined my reputation. The fact that I couldn't even keep a weakling like him captured meant no one takes me seriously anymore. I didn't even get payment for the job where I was supposed to keep him down. I need to prove to everyone that I'm capable, otherwise Giran won't gimme any new jobs." His grin became sharklike. "I've been watching you, following you. Waiting for my moment. I'll kill him if it will restore my reputation."

He strode towards me. While I tried to run, I was too slow with only one functioning leg. He picked me up by the back of my shirt and pulled out a knife. "It's time for you to die, kid. You're giving me a headache."

"N-!" Mirio's shout was cut off and he was wheezing, short of breath.

"What did I say about yelling for help?"

The muscles in my hands had finally unlocked, but there was no time to go for the phone. It would be too late. All I could focus on was the knife. I started thrashing with everything I had, trying to hit his eyes, but I just didn't have the reach to do anything but scratch ineffectively at his wrists. And scratch I did. Through raw desperation, I left some impressive gouges. Red Coat hissed. My entire body went limp. I couldn't move again. "You're making me use my quirk an awful lot. How irritating."

He slashed his knife across my face, from above my left eyebrow to below my right eye, a diagonal path. I barely felt it through the adrenaline. Blood from the cut started leaking into my left eye, but I couldn't wipe it away. Most of my muscles were frozen. Another slash, across the bridge of my nose, this time. Red Coat smiled at the blood and started walking further into the alley, dragging me along, away from Midoriya and Mirio.

"No! No! Don't go!" a sobbing noise from behind me, coming from Midoriya. "You can't- don't LEAVE! GET YOUR HANDS OFF MY FRIEND!" I felt something wrap around my waist and throw me back. I flew through the air dizzyingly, skidding on the street and landing right behind Midoriya.Ow! What just happened?

Then, I saw it in the air. Black tendrils whipped around the place where Midoriya was. A second quirk. Blackwhip.

It's too early for this! And in a city? Blackwhip was out-of-control the first time he used it and that was just a training exercise. Now-

Blackwhip spun out in tendrils, causing significant damage to the area around Midoriya and the entrance of the alleyway, breaking nearby stone and brick. Red Coat growled and rushed forward, trying to dodge the tendrils and reaching out for me. That's when Mirio dropped into the ground and shot up, headbutting the villain in the face. With a loud cracking noise, the villain's nose spurted blood. Red Coat cursed and barely ducked a stray tendril in the process. He backed away, then started running. In the process, I felt the paralysis drop. I could stand again, and so could Mirio. I wondered briefly how Mirio had managed to headbutt the villain, but there wasn't time.

Mirio didn't bother to chase the villain, instead turning to Midoriya, who was surrounded by black tendrils. "Midoriya, are you causing this?" Mirio yelled.

"He is! He can't control it!" I shouted. "Midoriya, you need to calm down!"

"I- I can't!"

Mirio took a deep breath and went intangible, all except for his feet, nimbly stepping over the tendrils and walking towards Midoriya. When he got to the center, he made himself tangible again, placing a hand on Midoriya's shoulder.

"Midoriya," -intangible again, for a moment, to avoid a swinging tendril- "it's going to be okay. Mineta is safe. The villain is gone. Everyone's fine." Mirio spoke calmly and quietly to Midoriya, squeezing his shoulder, and the tentacles began to slow down. After a few long moments, Blackwhip died off, the tendrils becoming smaller and smaller until they were gone.

"You okay, Midoriya?" Mirio asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine- Mineta!" Midoriya shot up from the ground and ran over to me. "Mineta, are you okay?"

"I'm alright," I said, getting up shakily. Mirio took a look at my face and frowned. "I don't think the cuts on your face will need stitches, but we should bandage them," Mirio said. "And we need to call the police. So they can find the villain."

Midoriya got out his phone clumsily and dialled an emergency number, and began explaining what had happened to the first responder on the phone. "Mirio, how did you fight the villain? You couldn't move," I asked.

"I made my legs intangible first but returned tangibility to them last so I would shoot up at a forty-five degree angle," he explained. "But I couldn't see him until he came running out of the alley. Since I didn't know exactly where he was, I probably would have sailed right by him if I tried it sooner."

"The police are on their way," Midoriya told us, still on the line.

"Great job, Midoriya," Mirio said.

"You know it's a good thing you had your hero costume on to buy mochi," I said.

Mirio looked down. "Huh, I didn't even think about that. I'm glad I was too lazy to change out of it!" A half-smile made its way onto his face, until he looked at me and frowned. "You're still shaking," he pointed out.

I looked down at my hands. I was. "Yeah… "

He put a hand on my shoulder. "You okay?"

My vision blurred as my eyes filled with tears.Oh, whatever.I shoved my face into Mirio's side and hugged him tightly. Mirio paused for a moment, but then gently wrapped his arms around my shoulders. Mirio gave me a pat on the back. "Everything's going to be fine. You're safe," he said.

"M'fine," I said, hiccuping slightly.

Mirio did feel really safe, in fact. Nigh-invincible and very huggable.

I heard sirens coming from afar. The police. I gave Mirio one last squeeze and let go of him as the police car parked nearby. Mirio went to go talk to one of the officers, a tall man with an avian mutation quirk, while I shuffled closer to Midoriya, who looked a little miserable. "You good?" I asked.

"Yeah, though…" he pointed at the broken concrete and scuffed buildings. "...I caused a lot of damage. How do I explain this?" He didn't seem confused. One of those quirk spirits within One for All (Daigoro?) must have explained Blackwhip to him.

"Call it a new application of your quirk. A 'new way to channel energy' or something, but it went wrong because this was your first time trying it and you panicked," I whispered.

"Yeah, I'll say that," he said, nodding minutely.

I paused for a moment. "Thanks for saving me."

Midoriya bit his lip. "It… it wasn't really me, Mirio saved you-" but I shook my head. "He couldn't launch himself at the villain unless the villain came within his sight, otherwise he'd probably miss. The villain only came out of the alley to chase me after you pulled me back. If you hadn't done that, the villain would have gotten away," I said.

Midoriya looked a cross between upset and relieved. "Really?"

"Really. Thanks for saving me. I owe you one."

Midoriya was about to say something else when another car rolled in, this one unmarked. Sir Nighteye popped out of the side of the van. The tall officer clicked his beak. "Your internship supervisors?"

"Yes, that's them," Mirio said.

Bubble Girl and Sir Nighteye quickly approached. "Oh, what happened!" Bubble Girl said, with one glance at my face, vaguely fretfully. Mirio and the officer walked over together to talk to Sir Nighteye and Bubble Girl.

"Someone with a paralysis quirk was targeting Mineta in particular. Those cuts are the only injuries," Mirio explained.

"A paralysis quirk," Sir Nighteye furrowed his brow. "Then what's that?" he pointed at the rubble behind us.

"Fight against villain, yes? Some damage expected," chittered the officer, who didn't know what Sir Nighteye was asking. Neither Mirio's intangibility nor Midoriya's raw punching power explained the odd way the concrete was torn up.

Sir Nighteye still looked a bit confused, but moved on. "Okay. Did you know who this person was, Mineta?"

"Yeah. He helped the League kidnap me before and wanted revenge because I escaped," I said. Bubble Girl's eyes flashed with surprise but Sir Nighteye just nodded. He'd probably been briefed on what happened before, but Bubble Girl obviously hadn't. "I don't have a name for him, but…" I lifted my hand, which had blood and skin beneath the fingernails. "I did scratch him."

Bubble Girl winced.

"Augh! We should've just gone home after you started getting that bad feeling," Mirio said, pouting.

"You had a bad feeling but you didn't turn back? Why?" Sir Nighteye said, turning to me.

"... I really wanted to get mochi," I said.

Sir Nighteye facepalmed. "And was it worth it?"

"Not really… but it was some good mochi…" I said.

"You need to be careful. If you have a bad feeling,leave,"Sir Nighteye emphasized.

"This is my fifth or sixth villain attack. I've survived all of them so far. I'll be fine.Average competence my ass,"I said, the last part muttered under my breath, but Nighteye clearly heard it the way his mouth thinned after my statement.

"The students should return to school soon," the officer interjected. He gestured to the darkening sky. "The sun will be setting."

"Yes, you're right," Sir Nighteye said. "Thank you. My agency will follow up with your department."

We followed Sir Nighteye into the car. Mirio got to sit in the middle again to be leaned-on by both first years. Once Bubble Girl had started driving, Sir Nighteye turned to us and asked, "What was that property damage?"

"New aspect to Midoriya's quirk," I said. "Black tendrils and stuff."

"How did that even happen?" Mirio said in wonder. "It looked nothing like your previous quirk."

I winked at Sir Nighteye while Midoriya said, "O-oh, just a new way to utilize the energy, is all. I didn't think it would be so violent."

Mirio was silent for a second and for a brief moment, I didn't think he'd believe it. Then, he smiled. "You're a smart cookie, aren't you, Midoriya?" he said, ruffling Midoriya's hair.

"T-thanks!" Midoriya said.

The drive was a bit quiet, though interspersed with questions about what had happened and how we'd fought the villain, or where the cuts on my face had come from. Sir Nighteye looked increasingly unsettled in the passenger seat at how close the villain had come to dragging me off, while Bubble Girl was pale.

When we arrived at UA about an hour later, Mirio and Midoriya were sent off to talk to Aizawa while I was ushered towards Recovery Girl. When she healed my face, it probably barely took up any stamina, but I was so tired (physically from a day at my work study, and mentally from the attack) that I just decided to curl up and sleep.

Notes:

Some catharsis for the previous chapter! Have one more written for either tomorrow or Sunday, then will probably wait a few days before releasing another.

Chapter 49: a lack of tact

Summary:

New precautions are taken.

Notes:

More minor manga spoilers specifically dealing with how Midoriya's quirk works.

Chapter Text

I stared at myself in the mirror. Despite Recovery Girl's assistance, the knife wounds had left two scars on my face: one diagonal, the other across the bridge of my nose. They intersected to form an uneven X on my nose. I glanced down at the light patch on my arm. My other villain scar. Objectively, I knew that the one on my arm was larger than the scar on my face, but for some reason, the facial scars bothered me more. They were deep pinkish gouges that looked like indents, and I kept wanting to bring my hand up to rub them off my face. I knew they would lighten over time, but…

I shook my head. Maybe Yaoyorozu would lend me some makeup for them, if I wanted it. I left my room and wandered down to the common room to see Aizawa sitting on the couch. "Mineta," he said. "I need to speak with you for a moment."

"Okay, Aizawa-sensei," I said, walking over.

He paused. "You're not in trouble," he added, seemingly an afterthought.

I refrained from rolling my eyes (I knew full well this wasn't about me doing something wrong) and nodded.

"UA thinks it best that you suspend your work study program for now," said Aizawa. "At least until the man with the paralysis quirk, or the League of Villains as a whole, is caught. They're clearly targeting you."

I thought about it for a moment. "Yeah, okay. That's reasonable."

Aizawa raised an eyebrow minutely, clearly having expected protest.

"I had a good run. Besides, I don't want to get killed by villains," I said.Goodbye, paid internship. You were nice while you lasted.

"You also won't be permitted to leave campus without a hero escort, presumably one of your teachers," Aizawa said. "At this point there are too many people after you."

Oh, ouch. "I guess I'll have to get Kaminari to buy things for me off-campus," I said.

Aizawa nodded. "Are you feeling alright?"

I glanced up at his face, which lacked the crescent-shaped scar he would've gotten at the USJ.Hm, if he'd gotten that we would match even more."Yeah, I feel sorta alright. I didn't really appreciate getting attacked. Terrifying, though it did help Midoriya grasp a new aspect of his quirk," I muttered.

"A new aspect of his quirk?" Aizawa raised an eyebrow.

Uh oh. He doesn't know about One for All and no one told him about the shadow tendrils. It's up to me to sell this lie, I guess."Well, he somehow managed to turn the energy from his quirk into a weird tendril shape?" I said.

Aizawa's eyebrows rose further in marked skepticism.

"It was definitely weird but Mirio saw it too!" I said. "He used it to grab me and pull me away from the villain, but then he lost control."

"Interesting," he said. "I'll have to ask Midoriya about it."

Ouch. 'New application of quirk' was a pitifully weak excuse for Blackwhip, which looked nothing like Superpower. There was no way to pretend Float was part of his strength quirk, either, and I had no idea what quirks Midoriya would get besides that. I wondered how Midoriya was going to explain a bunch of new quirks to the class.

Other students started to wander downstairs for breakfast. Aizawa gave me a nod and disappeared off to wherever he goes, maybe his sleeping bag or the teacher's dorms or something. Rather than make breakfast, I went back upstairs and tore off a piece of notebook paper. My talk with Aizawa had reminded me of a few things.

TO-DO LIST

Explain Midoriya's future quirks to him.

Let Evan know about the Paralysis Villain.

Buy new cell phone to replace the broken one. (Again?)

More training!

Make an appointment with Hound Dog for therapy.

I put the cap back on my marker. It was a good list for now.

"So… uh, why hast thou summoned me?" Evan said. "Did something change with the raid?"

"No, the raid is still on schedule," Nedzu said. He slid Evan a thin file. "But we have a job for you in the meantime."

"A job?" Evan said, confused. He picked up the file and flipped through it. On it were the details of Mirio and Midoriya's internship at Nighteye's agency. He frowned. Nothing about Mineta was mentioned, but wasn't Mineta doing an internship there too? "What's this?"

"Recently, one of our students was attacked on the way to their internship," Nedzu began. Evan felt a pool of dread in his stomach. "Who?"

"You've met him before- Mineta Minoru."

"Is he okay?" Evan tried to keep panic out of his voice.

"He's perfectly fine, but it was too close a call. We want you to escort two of our students, Mirio and Midoriya, to their work study," Nedzu explained, and Evan calmed a bit.

"What about Mineta?" Evan asked.

"He's no longer participating in the work study program," said Nedzu. "As a first year under threat he'll stay on campus. Because neither Midoriya nor Mirio is being targeted by villains in the same way, we can justify continuing their work studies. We can't truly justify using resources on a proper pro-hero escort, but…"

"But you still want someone to keep an eye on them," Evan said.

Nedzu's eyes twinkled. "You have a reputation for defending UA first-years already, so your involvement shouldn't be heavily questioned."

"Indeed." Evan stared down at his file, which outlined Mirio and Midoriya's schedules. This was probably a good way to make sure the main character of the story didn't get killed in an unpredictable changed-timeline event. "I'll do it."

"Excellent!" Nedzu clapped his paws together. "I'll contact you if there are any unexpected scheduling changes in their work study."

My burner phone pinged. I picked it up. A frantic notification from Evan, who had heard from Nedzu I was attacked.

"I'm just fine! Sorry for not texting you sooner, I was sleeping."

"Were you hurt?"A message from Theodore.

"A little, but Recovery Girl healed me. I have a few new scars, though."

"New scars?"was Evan's reply. I sighed. This would worry them.

"It was the paralysis villain from the kidnapping. He cut my face with a knife."

I winced as both of them responded quickly with varying levels of shock."I'm fine, just cuts! Mirio and Midoriya saved me."

"Are you sure you're fine?"Theodore asked, and I could imagine him saying that in real life, with his soft, lilting voice.

"I'm signing up for therapy if it makes you feel better,"I responded, sighing.

"It actually kinda does. Congrats! Hope therapy goes well 4 you,"Evan texted.

"If you need to talk you can talk to us. And if you don't feel like talking, that's fine also! We'll be here for you no matter what."I smiled slightly. That definitely sounded like something Theodore would say.

"I'm going to go eat breakfast, so brb for a while."

After receiving an"Okay"and a"Gotcha!"I trotted back downstairs to get something to eat. There were a couple people down by then. Shoji and Bakougou sat at the table. Shoji's eyes landed on the scar on my face before he awkwardly averted them. "It's good to see you're okay, Mineta," he said sincerely.

"Good to see you too," I said.

Bakugou, on the other hand, looked over me judgmentally, scoffed, and then returned to eating. I had… no idea what he was thinking, really, but it seemed like a normal thing he would do.

"Yo, Mineta, I saved you a portion," Kaminari shouted from the living room, waving a hand. Technically we weren't supposed to be eating over there, but Kaminari broke small rules like that all the time. Kaminari and Jirou were on the couch, with Asui lounging on one of the chairs.

"Good to see you, man," said Kaminari, sliding over a plate.

"You too." I glanced up at him and noticed a worried, almost fretful expression. "Are you okay, Kaminari?"

"I-" Kaminari gave an aborted laugh. "I'm fine. Obviously! You're the one -" but Jirou gave Kaminari a nudge. "Try to be tactful," she whispered to him, but I heard it anyway.

"I'm alright, guys. A bit shaken, yeah, but I'm in one piece," I said, starting to eat. "How much do you know about what happened?"

"Aizawa-sensei explained that you got attacked by a villain but he said you weren't that badly injured," Kaminari said, in a rush. "But then he gave us a speech on respecting people's scars so everyone was really worried because that meant youdidget hurt, at least a little. Midoriya told us everything that happened once Aizawa-sensei left."

"Ah, I see," I said.

"I saw what happened in the kitchen, kero," said Asui. "Shoji was being awkward, but he was just worried about being rude about your new scar. Everyone will get used to it, kero."

"Thanks, Asui," I said.

"Call me Tsu," she responded.

"Besides, I think the scar looks cool," Kaminari said. Jirou punched him in the arm lightly and glanced at me to check my reaction. I knew Kaminari was just trying to cheer me up. "Thanks," I said.

"And, okay, now that we already did talk about the whole thing… I was so worried about you! You keep getting involved in such scary stuff!" Kaminari said, frowning.

Gradually, other people started waking up and wandered into the living room to check on me and make sure I was okay. It was nice that they cared. Despite the scarring, I did my best to assure everyone I was alive and well. Once breakfast was over and my tea had gone cold, I bid everyone goodbye briefly (it was the weekend) and told them I had to go visit a teacher.

Not a teacher, really, but a counselor. It was time I finally set up an appointment with Hound Dog and got myself some mental health counseling.

Chapter 50: a new quirk and a newspaper article

Summary:

The Cultural Festival approaches!

Notes:

Manga spoilers, again. I think this'll be my last warning for them because we're getting closer and closer to actual manga territory. If you haven't gotten there, go read the manga! (or wait until the next season of the anime comes out and then come back to this fic, DX)

Chapter Text

"Alright, so how much did the previous user tell you?" I said. Yagi, Bakugou and Midoriya sat across from me, ready for news on Midoriya's odd new quirk. After Midoriya had filled All Might in on what happened with Blackwhip, I'd been called to the office to see if I could offer any unique insight with my future vision.

"We know that I'm getting quirks from the previous users," Midoriya said.

"Essentially, yeah. You'll get five more, probably Float next," I said.

"Why didn't you warn me about this?!" Midoriya said, biting his lip.

"I didn't expect it to manifest so early, but I suppose that if you wanted to grab me and pull me back…"

"It would fit the quirk perfectly, just like Daigoro said," Midoriya said, sighing. "Which made it manifest. I had an odd dream about the previous users… "

Yeah, that definitely wasn't supposed to happen this soon. Is it because he learned Full Cowl sooner?"You'll get these other quirks down eventually," I assured. "You're progressing at a much faster rate than I expected, actually. You should try practicing floating while you're under Uraraka's Zero Gravity. It might help you with Float," I said.

"That's an excellent idea, young Mineta," All Might said.

"So the nerd's getting five more quirks? Tch," Bakugou commented. "He can barely control one."

Midoriya frowned, looking worried. "I haven't been able to use Blackwhip since it manifested on Saturday," he said. "Daigoro gave me some advice on the quirk, but it sounds like it's going to be difficult to learn."

Yagi frowned to himself. "I'm not that good of a teacher… maybe I should ask Gran Torino to help you with it." Yagi looked a little put out at the idea.

Hm, should he? Gran Torino was objectively a better teacher than All Might, but there was something about him…

I thought about All Might's initial reaction to Gran Torino in the anime: shaking in fear. It was played for laughs in the show (it was a funny joke if you didn't think about it too hard,) but played straight, his reaction was fairly alarming. And now that I'd entered this universe, I had to assume we were playing it straight. Horrible anxiety and extreme avoidance… that's not how All Might would react when remembering a good teacher.I know Gran Torino's training was "harsh", but…

"I don't like Gran Torino. He gives me bad vibes," I declared.Between him and Nighteye you have a lot of problematic acquaintances, All Might.

"Not this again," Yagi muttered. "What is it about Gran Torino?"

I thought for a moment. "He gives me the same feeling Endeavor does."The type of person to punch children and potentially abuse their trainees.

Yagi looked confused at that, but Midoriya's eyes narrowed. Bakugou clearly knew what I was talking about too (he overheard Todoroki at the Sports Festival) as his expression twisted into a sneer. "Endeavor, huh?" Bakugou said.

"I'm not sure what you mean," said Yagi.

"Hm. Gran Torino has bad vibes, but I suppose he'd help Midoriya improve. Call me if he shows up though, so I can keep an eye on him," I said, shrugging. Maybe the guy wasn't that bad, he'd been alright with Midoriya in the weeklong internship, but I didn't feel like taking chances. "With or without Gran Torino, Midoriya will figure out his new quirks with time and patience. And Midoriya, look on the bright side! You'll be able to fly soon, if you can master Float."

While I saw in his eyes that Midoriya wouldn't forget what I said about Gran Torino, the concept ofbeing able to flywas a successful distraction. Midoriya started muttering under his breath about applications. I smiled to myself.

It'd been a few days since then and Aizawa-sensei had officially announced the coming of the Cultural Festival in class. While Ashido, Hagakure and Sero immediately started to cheer, Kirishima yelled, "Aizawa-sensei, is it really okay to be so carefree in these times?" and argued that having the Cultural Festival right now could be dangerous with the increased villain activity.

"You're right. That's a very reasonable opinion," said Aizawa, still in his sleeping bag. "However, UA isn't just about the hero course. If the Sports Festival is the big moment for the hero course, the school festival is for the others- the Support Course, General Course, and Business Course - to shine. It doesn't get as much attention as the Sports Festival, but for them, it's an event they look forward to." Aizawa glanced at me, as if giving me an opportunity to pipe up and say there was going to be some terrible danger.

"I don't sense anything dangerous," I said. That was sorta true. Gentle Criminal didn't actually pose a threat to student health. Maybe I could even help Midoriya face him myself if I was allowed to leave campus by then.

"See! Then we're good!" Ashido said.

"Unlike last year, this year, the festival will just be for the school. Even if we aren't the focus, each class needs to participate with something." Aizawa slumped against the wall and closed his eyes. "You need to decide that today."

"He's asleep!"

"I, Tenya Iida, Class 1-A representative, will take things from here! I'll do my best to help things go smoothly! First, put out some options! If you have a suggestion, raise your hand!"

There were plenty of suggestions, including a dance, a maid-cafe, and a fight to the death (that last one courtesy of Bakugou.)

When it came around to me, instead of giving my own suggestion, I said that I liked Uraraka's mochi shop idea the best. By the time we'd gotten rid of the worst ideas people had come up with, class was over. "That was a very illogical meeting. Decide by tomorrow morning. If you don't, I'll make it a public lecture," Aizawa threatened as he walked out.

Honestly, I wouldn't mind a public lecture if it meant I wouldn't have to do anything. But everyone else was horrified at the thought. Aizawa had pointed out the fact that there was a lot of stress because of moving into the dorms, which was caused by the hero course getting attacked by villains all the time. Thus, relations between the different courses might be a little strained. It wasn't really our fault, though, so I couldn't muster up the energy to care if other classes were bitter at us.See how you like getting attacked by randos.

… Regardless, when we got back from classes to the dorms, the main conversation was about how our booth could relieve the stress of the other classes. Between Ashido's suggestions about a dance, Todoroki's support and Jirou's musical aptitude, the conversation followed the same course and Class 1-A decided on a musical performance.Oh well. The concert was really cool-looking at the end if I remember right.

The discussion ended there.

The next day, when the other classes heard Class 1-A had planned a grand musical performance "to lift everyone's spirits", the general reaction was indifference or scorn. No one was rude enough to complain about 1-A causing the villain attacks to my face (my face which had criss-cross scars from said villain attacks) but I'd heard enough from my classmates to know what people thought.

Their attitude was a bit annoying, but I had the benefit of already knowing our concert would turn out really well (and also the benefit of not being very invested in it) so their words barely bothered me. That day in class was mostly lecture and training exercises.

That night, there was a long conversation about who would play what instrument. Sero somehow managed to goad Bakugou to showing off his skills on the drums, but Bakugou was supremely annoyed at everyone wanting to please the other courses. "Why do we have to think about howtheyfeel? If you guys are doing this to make them feel better, then stop right now! Let's kill everyone in UA with our sound!"

Okay. That was terrifying but inspiring, but Bakugou would play the drums. Yaoyorozu was going to be the pianist, thus, the only positions left were guitarist, bass, and vocals. (I was wholly unsuited to any of these positions: I could sort of play the cello, but that was off-genre, and Mineta's body didn't have a particularly great singing voice.) After Jirou was chosen as the singer and Kaminari and Tokoyami were chosen as guitarists, I was relegated to the dance team. Meanwhile, Kirishima and Todoroki were chosen to make ice dust, while Aoyama got to be the disco ball. Shinsou, who immediately refused to dance or be on stage, was put in charge of lighting on the special effects team. Thus, we were set into three groups: the effects team, the band team, and the dance team.

It took until 1 AM to decide who would do what and I was dead tired. Before I went to sleep, I glanced at my burner phone. Hm, notifications from the groupchat. I opened it and saw that they planned to release the Endeavor article tomorrow, right on schedule. But Theo wanted to release an additional article alongside it. I paged through the article and smirked."Sounds good. Release them together."I responded, before crashing into bed.

(Theodore: so here's the new article idea - "Hero Killer Stain vs. Gentle Criminal: Why Gentle Criminal is the Better Activist.")

[The article examines Gentle Criminal's past behavior, like how he only robbed stores with shady pasts, how he carefully chose his targets, and his general lack of violence. Then, it contrasts it with the Hero Killer's attacks on positive community influences like Ingenium. The differences between the two are stark.]

Chapter 51: questions pondered

Summary:

A dance routine and a ticking time bomb.

Chapter Text

I knew Evan was planning to release the two articles in the afternoon and I worried slightly at their reception. It wasn't likely the Endeavor article would make any true strides except for making his reputation slightly trashier, but still, it made me a bit edgy. I was still tired in the morning and didn't feel like eating, so I skipped breakfast and went straight to class.

When the Endeavor and Gentle Criminal articlesdidcome out, there was no massive online media wave or students exclaiming about it in the hallways. But according to Evan…"It's getting a lot of views! It won't be long before these articles are noticed by bigger news outlets or are spread to a wider audience. Once it gets noticed by a larger publication we can expect some outcry."

So they weren't mainstream, but the articles were officially a ticking time bomb.

As far as I knew, besides that, nothing too exciting was going to happen this coming week, except that I was going to have to spend the entire week learning additional dance choreography. I felt vaguely like at some point during the week Midoriya would learn something about air blasts and ranged attacks, but nothing Mineta was previously involved in.

Ashido's dance choreography was soexhausting,though…at least I wasn't as bad at dancing as Midoriya was…

"Hello again, Nedzu and Aizawa," Evan said, swinging his legs in the office chair. He'd been called to another meeting in their de-facto meeting room in the city.

"We have a bit of news for you," said Nedzu. "Kurogiri was caught not long ago."

"Oh! Oh that's great!" Evan said, not having realized Kurogiri getting captured happened so early. "I'm glad that happened, though Eri's still not ready to use her quirk. We're getting much closer, though! She can rewind trees almost perfectly and she's doing alright with insects and lizards."

"Interesting." Nedzu poured himself more tea. "Kurogiri responded partially to meeting Aizawa. It appears he did retain some of his memories and personality."

"He is Shirakumo after all," Aizawa said, frowning.

"Oh. I'm very sorry about that," Evan said. It was expected, but…

"Nedzu has more to say," Aizawa deflected.

"Indeed. We discovered the identity of the villain who attacked Mineta on his work study through a description and blood sample." Nedzu fished a photograph out of his pocket and slid it over to Evan. "His name is Iwasaki Kaori."

"Interesting," Evan said, glancing down at the brown-haired man in the photograph. "Are you going to arrest him, or something?"

"We're not exactly sure where he is at the moment, though we suspect he's still hiding in the Shizuoka prefecture," Nedzu said. "We've started a manhunt. You can keep the picture, just keep an eye out for him."

"Gotcha," said Evan, slipping the photo in his pocket. "I haven't seen anyone following Mirio or Midoriya since I've started watching them. He doesn't seem to be going after them."

"Hm, as expected." Nedzu hummed. "Will you continue protecting those two?"

"Of course!" Evan said. "Wouldn't have it any other way."

I tapped my pen against my desk, thinking about the future encounter with Gentle Criminal. It wasn't too high-stakes, but it would be better if he didn't mess up the festival. UA didn't need more bad PR… and I was a little bit excited to see Class 1-B's play. Maybe UA wasn't on such thin ice for this festival as last time around (the whole "one false alarm and the festival is cancelled" thing,) but I couldn't know for sure without asking Nedzu, who I doubted would give me a straight answer. I supposed I would have to assume any mistakes or alarms result in cancellation.

If I let Midoriya go buy rope, he would stop Gentle Criminal… unless…Eri hasn't been rescued and isn't actually going to be attending the festival. Will Midoriya fail against Gentle Criminal if he doesn't have Eri as motivation?

Hm. That could be a problem. I was pretty sure that Midoriya was super motivated by wanting to make Eri smile. That wasn't a factor here.

Maybe… I should send someone with him? Like Bakugou? No, Bakugou and Midoriya never get along. Maybe Todoroki? But Todoroki was very flashy and someone might notice him fighting Gentle Criminal, which would get the festival cancelled. I needed someone powerful enough to fight Gentle Criminal, but subtle enough that they wouldn't get caught.

I wracked my brain, but the only person I could come up with wasAizawa,which was great and all, but as a teacher he would probably be obligated to inform the police that someone wanted to crash the festival.

I rubbed my eyes and yawned. Geez, I'd been feeling so groggy and tired lately.Maybe I'm going to be on my period soon? Wait, no, I'm a boy now. Whatever, nevermind that. Focus on the problem. Who can I send alongside Midoriya to ensure that this is a success?Normally I might bring myself, but I wasn't allowed to leave campus. Kirishima and Bakugou didn't have licenses. Ojiro, Shoji, Kaminari, Iida and Sato were all extremely unsuited against Gentle's quirk. Aoyama, Ashido, and Todoroki were all flashy fighters, likely to be noticed. Tokoyami's giant shadow bird was liable to be noticed in the daytime, too. Who did that leave?

… Kouda? I imagined little birds attacking Gentle from all directions. "Put a pin in that one," I muttered to myself, scribblingKouda?in my notebook.

There was a knock on the door. "What is it?" I shouted.

"We're practicing the dance routine again!" Ashido shouted through the door.

Sighing, I set down my notebook and went to go join the rest of the dance crew.

Chapter 52: a cord of three strands

Summary:

The day prior to the Cultural Festival.

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter fornotes.)

Chapter Text

It was undeniable at this point. I was sick. My persistent tiredness and lack of appetite lately were probably the first symptoms. Now, only a few days away from the Cultural Festival, my throat was scratchy and my nose was stuffy. I sighed.

Guided by Mineta's memories, I took a ball off my head and stuck it to the wall. Mineta's quirk could be a useful diagnostic tool. The balls got stickier the healthier he was, and when he was sick or tired, they were less sticky. The ball came off the wall with a little pulling. Hm. About the stickiness of duct tape… not terrible, but not great in terms of stickiness level. It didn't bode particularly well for my health.

I glanced in the mirror. I didn'tlookthatsick and I didn't have a fever, so… I grabbed a facemask off my desk and jogged downstairs to beg Yaoyorozu or Kaminari for cold medicine.

Kaminari had some Advil-esque medication lying around (a brand from futuristic Japan, but it seemed to promise the same thing as Advil) and I took one before heading to class. I almost took two, but reminded myself that I was half the size of my previous self.

My school day was fairly unremarkable. Occasionally someone would see my mask and ask, "hey, are you sick?" and I'd say, "yes, I have a cold" and they'd avoid getting too close to me. Foundational Heroics was a little bit sadder than usual, because even though we were doing a fun training exercise (one that resembled capture the flag) anyone I pinned down with my quirk would rip themselves free without much effort, then look a little confused that it was so easy. Our team lost.

At least tomorrow was Saturday.

I was sitting on my bed when there was a knock on the door. I opened it. "Yeah?"

Aizawa was standing there. "Mineta, I came to tell you that the villain with the paralysis quirk was caught."

I blinked. "Wait, really?!"

"Really. He was taken in by the vigilante Earthshaker."

"Wow, that's great!" Evan was a lifesaver. "Wait, does that mean I can leave campus?"

Aizawa nodded. "It does. You're still required to sign out like the other students and for now, your work study is still suspended, but you're allowed to leave. I suggest you don't wander off alone, though. Stay in groups."

I grinned. "I'll be careful!" I bounced slightly. Once Aizawa was out of view, I grabbed my burner phone. It texted the group, asking if either of them were available for a call, and both were. I closed the door and entered a 3-way call with Evan and Theodore.

"Paralysis villain's been caught! I can leave campus again!" I bounced on my bed.

"You're welcome! He was a bit tough to track down, but I'm an expert now with all my recent experience in vigilantism and organized crime."

"You're amazing, Evan. We all love you."

"Aww, thanks. You're very inspiring."

"This means I can help Midoriya stop Gentle Criminal because I'm not restricted to the dorms!"

"Normally I'd be worried if you went off to fight a criminal, but Gentle Criminal hasn't been known to seriously hurt anyone. Learned that in my article research,"Theo said.

"I don't remember him being that dangerous either,"Evan added."So I suppose you have permission from us. How are you?"

"I'm good. How are you two doing?" I asked.

"Feeling great!"said Evan, cheerfully."In fact, I have some good news on our Endeavor article. It got picked up by a major news station in Tokyo, they're doing a piece on it. It'll be toned down, of course, they don't want to get sued, but still…"

"That's excellent news!"said Theo."See if you can get them to link back to our article. Most of our information is publicly available, but getting people to read the original spousal abuse theory might be beneficial if we want to take his reputation down a peg."

"Definitely! What do you think we should do about Gentle Criminal?" I asked.

"Hm. See if you can talk him into redirecting his focus away from UA and on to different corrupt organizations and groups. He could be a weapon for good if pointed in the right direction. Also. Ask him for his tea recommendations,"Theodore instructed.

"I… tea?"Evan said.

"Theodore's watched all of Gentle Criminal's videos now. So he knows all about Gentle's tea expertise. If I see him I'll ask."

"Your voice sounds a little scratchy, Ashley. Or is that just what Mineta sounds like sometimes?"asked Theo.

The conversation drifted. I explained to them that I had a mild cold, to which they expressed their pity. Being sick is never fun. Theodore complained about how annoying it was to be a five-year-old (six in December, he said) but celebrated the fact that he'd recently got his quirk, Water Gun. It was completely expected (given his parents, the Water Hose Duo) but he liked being able to randomly splash people with water. Meanwhile, Evan talked for ages about how wonderful Eri was, forgetting to mention what was going on with her quirk but explaining in detail the crayon drawing she'd made for him. It was cute.

"Maybe you should introduce Eri to Aizawa, or Class 1-A," I said. "It's a little sad that they never got to meet."

"Very true! Aizawa needs some light in his life and there's nobody brighter than my daughter,"said Evan, proudly.

Theodore huffed a laugh through the phone, a faint smile evident in his tone.

I spent the next few hours talking to my friends, but Theodore had to leave when it was getting late as Mandalay would get worried if "Kota" stayed out too late. I bid them both goodbye and hung up, smiling to myself. It was nice speaking with them after so long. I went downstairs to get a snack from the kitchen when I noticed a sweet smell. "What is that?" I said as I wandered into the kitchen.

"Gold Tips Imperial tea! Momo's family got it for her," Jirou explained.Hm, wasn't that the type of expensive tea that Gentle Criminal is going to drink?

"Would you like some?" Yaoyorozu asked politely.

"If you wouldn't mind," I said, scratching the back of my neck awkwardly. I still wasn't exactly sure where I stood with Yaoyorozu. 'Cordial relationship,' maybe? She poured me a cup of tea and it wasdelicious.I sipped it. "Thank you," I said, smiling. "It's amazing! Tea's good for a cold, I think." It was warm and did make me feel a lot better.

I didn't see anything hostile in Yaoyorozu's expression when she smiled back. Then, she started talking to Jirou about how impressive it was that Jirou had managed to teach Kaminari so much about the guitar in a week.Yeah that was pretty impressive.I drank my tea, happy I got to try this kind.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Midoriya watching a video featuring Gentle Criminal on the couch.Well, at least he'll recognize the guy when they meet.

Despite the brief respite granted by the wonderful tea, I felt worse the next morning after a night of restless sleep. Muscle aches, a headache, worsened sore throat, and a few chills that might just be the start of a fever. When I checked, the balls on my head were about as sticky as scotch tape. Definitely not an improvement.

I was feeling marginally better after I heated myself up some soup and took more cold medicine, which is why I didn't immediately bite Ashido's head off when she announced we'd been spending today doing rehearsals for the Cultural Festival, which was happening tomorrow. I just sighed and remembered to take a mask.

"You still have a cold, Mineta?" Uraraka asked, conversationally.

"Unfortunately," I sighed.

"Yeah, your voice doesn't sound so good," she said. "Remember to drink water!"

"Thanks."

Almost as soon as Midoriya arrived to meet the dance team, he was unceremoniously "fired" and sent off to do work with the stage crew. He didn't seem too broken up about it. I wasn't sure if he planned to re-join the dance crew partway through the performance without Eri as an incentive, but I didn't ask after it.

With all our practicing separately, the rehearsals went fairly smoothly. The band's performance was nothing short of impressive, the special effects were beautiful considering they'd been created by a bunch of teenagers, and Ashido had whipped the dance team into shape in no time.How did a bunch of 15-year-olds pull off creating a professional-level band performance in a week and a half? The world may never know.

Unfortunately, all the jumping around wasn't great on my body. I'd taken more medicine when we stopped for lunch and I'd been drinking lots of water, but apparently water wasn't a substitute for rest. My muscles were aching worse than ever before and my chills were worsening. Eventually, Ashido noted my exhaustion and sent me to work with Aoyama on the confetti. For the last few hours of the day, I was mostly sitting down on the floor and sorting through decorations last minute. Ashido said something about me joining the last dance rehearsal with the group for one last practice(please no)but at exactly 9:00 PM Hound Dog kicked us out, so we never had the chance.

"Get some rest tonight!" Ashido ordered. "We need you in good condition."

"I'll see what I can do," I muttered. I brushed my teeth and fell face down into bed.Ugh. I feel terrible.

I set my alarm for 7:30 in the morning. With our concert starting at 10 and the festival opening at 9, that should at least be early enough to give Midoriya a head's up on what was about to happen.

Notes:

Characters going to school even when they're sick really hits different in these times of corona. At least the world of MHA doesn't have a pandemic going around.

Chapter 53: hibiscus tea

Summary:

Mineta considers giving up, but Ashido might be sad.

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter fornotes.)

Chapter Text

My alarm bell was horribly shrill. I fumbled around in the dark to turn it off.It's too early for this,I grumbled to myself. Part of me contemplated just staying in bed.

You need to help save the Cultural Festival,one part of me said.

The Cultural Festival isn't that important,argued my other half.

But Ashido worked so hard on it. Ashido would be sad.

Yes, Ashido would be sad. Kaminari had been excited for it too, Iida was excited, even Tokoyami and Bakugou were at least a little excited…

Imagining all their disappointed faces gave me the strength to drag myself out of bed. I was feeling worse than yesterday. Headache, sore throat, chills… all accounted for. My soreness was worse than ever, of course. I don't know what I expected from trying to exercise yesterday.Mornings are always bad when it comes to the flu. It'll probably get better as the day goes on,I reminded myself as I got out of bed. I stuck one of my purple balls to the desk in what had become my daily routine and was surprised when I could peel it away with ease. It was barely stickier than a sticky note.

Useless in battle. I can't fight Gentle Criminal and La Brava like this.

I staggered down the stairs and looked around. "Hey Mineta, are you going to get something to eat?" Kaminari asked, who was sitting in the kitchen.

"No, I'm not hungry. Do you know where Midoriya is?"

"He left super early to go do something, apparently," Kaminari said.If I remember right, Midoriya is training somewhere on-campus! But I don't know exactly where.

Shinsou, who was sitting on the stool next to Kaminari, was a little more perceptive than him. "Hey, are you okay? You don't look very good," Shinsou said.Wait… Shinsou! Powerful, subtle, efficient, has a license, yes…

"Shinsou, come with me!" I said. "We're going to find Midoriya together."

Shinsou raised an eyebrow. "Okay, but why?"

"It's important for the Cultural Festival," I said. "Come on!"

Shinsou got up from his stool. "I'm only coming to make sure you don't fall over on the way there. And we'd better be back in time for the concert. Kaminari, you coming?"

"I have to go talk to Jirou about my guitar part," Kaminari explained.

"Alright, meet you back here then," said Shinsou. Once we'd left the dorm, he asked, "Okay, where are we going?"

I don't know where Midoriya is, but he has to leave campus to buy the rope where he then runs into Gentle Criminal. There's only one campus exit that leads out onto the street. We'll wait near there until we see Midoriya come by."We're going that way." I pointed to the campus gate. "I predict Midoriya will go near there. We can intercept him."

"I still don't understand why we want to intercept Midoriya," Shinsou said, but still followed me toward the campus gate.

"It's because you need to go with him to buy rope!" I said. "It's very important."

Shinsou looked a little skeptical and a little concerned. As we walked, he placed a hand on my forehead. "You're hot. Feverish."

"Well, yes," I said. "But that doesn't mean he needs you any less."

Shinsou sighed. "This rope had better be important."

We arrived at the campus gate shortly after and I sat down on a convenient rock. After a few minutes, Shinsou started getting antsy and checking his watch. "When's he going to be here?"

"I don't know. Soon, maybe," I said, hoping Midoriya hadn't already crossed the gate. I doubted it though, because that would imply his fight with Gentle Criminal took like three hours in the original timeline. When fifteen minutes had passed, Midoriya came running towards the gate, wearing those fancy support gloves that Hatsume made for him. "Hey guys!" he said, waving. "What are you doing here?"

"Waiting for you," said Shinsou. "Mineta insisted it was important."

"You both should go buy the rope together," I said. " If you two set off any of UA's alarms the Cultural Festival could be cancelled, so avoid that. Don't forget the rope. And when you see the Golden Tips guy, ask him for a tea recommendation."

"Mineta, are you sick?" Midoriya questioned.

"Yeah, but it's important you go buy rope. Promise," I said.

"I think his fever's gotten too high," Shinsou commented.

"Maybe, but his predictions are usually accurate in really scary ways. Remember the mall incident?" Midoriya said. "Let's just go together."

"I feel bad leaving him here like this, though," Shinsou said, pointing at me.

Midoriya frowned. "Mineta, are you feeling okay? Be honest."

"I'm not feeling so well," I admitted. "But it's important you both go buy rope."

"You've said," Shinsou interrupted dryly. Then, he turned to Midoriya. "What can we do?"

"I have Aizawa-sensei's contact information! I'll text Aizawa-sensei and tell him that you're sick," Midoriya said, typing into his phone. A few seconds later, he said, "Aizawa-sensei says to stay right there."

"Okay," I said. "Sorry you have to have this fight without me, Midoriya."

"The fight… to buy rope?" Shinsou said, raising his eyebrows.

"It's complicated," I said.

… I'm putting in way too much effort for this stupid festival.

Midoriya opened his mouth to ask another question, but Shinsou shook his head. "Let's just go," Shinsou said, tugging the sleeve of Midoriya's jacket. "We'll see you soon, Mineta!" Midoriya called as he left, waving. When the two were gone, I laid down in the cool grass. I was just sohot.I'd been cold a minute ago but now I was burning. That, and my head was killing me.

I wasn't sure how much time had passed when I heard footsteps in the grass. "Mineta."

"Urghh…" I groaned.

"Mineta." Aizawa crouched down and gave me a nudge.

I opened my eyes. "What?"

"Can you stand?"

"Don't wanna," I mumbled childishly and closed my eyes again.

I heard a sigh. "I'm going to pull you up," Aizawa said. When I didn't say anything in response, he hoisted me to my feet. It took me a moment to find my balance.

"Why did you come all the way out here?" Aizawa said.

"I needed to tell Midoriya something but he'd already left," I explained, yawning.

"It must have been something pretty important to make you go such lengths," Aizawa said. Was he fishing for information?

"Kinda was," I said vaguely. We made our way towards the main building, with Aizawa slowing his stride to match mine. "What are your symptoms?" he asked.

"Fever and headaches and stuff," I said. I scoffed to myself. "Things're only as sticky as a sticky note. Of course I feel terrible. Sticky notes are worthless," I muttered.

Aizawa blinked in confusion for a moment, before it dawned on him. "Your quirk hasn't been working properly in training exercises," he said.

"The healthier I am, the better these things stick," I said. I pulled one off my head and threw it at a tree. It stayed still for a few moments before it rolled down the tree sadly.

Aizawa frowned at that. "Let's go visit Recovery Girl."

After explaining my symptoms and getting a brief checkup from Recovery Girl, she gave Aizawa medicine for my fever if it got worse and gave me strict orders for bedrest, effectively banning me from the Cultural Festival. Which was fine to me. I didn't much feel like walking.

Once I'd eaten a little something I felt well enough to sleep shallowly for at least part of the day. When I woke back up at about noon, no alarms had gone off and I hadn't heard any news, so I assumed the Cultural Festival had at least not crashed and burned. I took out my burner phone and squinted at the bright screen long enough to text Theodore and Evan that I had the flu or something like it and that I might be offline for a while. Without waiting for a response, I carelessly shoved it under a pillow and laid back under the covers.

A few minutes later, the door creaked, and I saw Asui at the door. "Tsu?" I muttered.

"Aizawa-sensei asked me to bring you something to eat, kero." Ah. With Asui having younger siblings and probably used to taking care of them, she was the natural person to assign this task to. She set down a bowl of soup and some crackers.

"Thank you," I said. "Has the festival been going well?"

"Pretty well," she said. "Everyone loved our concert, kero."

Excellent. That means Midoriya and Shinsou managed to stop Gentle Criminal after all.

"Nice. Thanks, Tsu." About a half-hour after I finished my soup, Aizawa came in and gave me a thermometer. I stuck it in my mouth and after it beeped, it read just over 39.6 degrees. I was too lazy to use Mineta's memories to convert that to Fahrenheit, but Aizawa looked unhappy at the number and handed me a dose of the fever-reducers.

The rest of the day was essentially an indistinct blur of me laying in bed doing nothing except eating saltine crackers or occasionally doodling. Every once and awhile, Aizawa would pop his head in to check on me, but nothing particularly exciting. Most of my classmates spent their day at the festival.

Despite this, at the very end of the day, Midoriya came to visit. "How'd it go against Gentle Criminal?" I asked.

"It went fine!" Midoriya said. "We had to fight a little, but Shinsou and I managed to convince him to give up. There was this article, apparently, that was starting to make him more famous, that talked about how good he was for only choosing worthy targets. Shinsou managed to convince him attacking UA would make him unpopular with the people who already liked him."Oh? So Theo's article was helpful!"Also, he said he recommended 'Haru Hibiscus Tea?' Whatever that is?" Midoriya said, sounding a little unsure.

Hah! He actually asked for a tea recommendation! "So you got him?" I asked.

Midoriya furrowed his brow. "Got him? No, he got away."

…

… okay, that's not what happened in the original show.

"Oops," I said.

Midoriya blinked. "Wait, was he supposed to get caught?!"

"Maybe I should have sent Kouda with you after all," I noted.

Midoriya groaned, facepalming. "I blew it."

"No, you did great. I was the one that changed all the circumstances of the fight," I said, giving him a pat on the arm.

"Wait, if he was going to be captured in the original event, why bother changing it?" Midoriya asked.

"I stopped a bad thing from happening, but that changed your motivations during the fight. I was planning to accompany you myself to make sure that everything went like it was supposed to, but I got sick. So I sent Shinsou to make sure you'd win," I explained.

Midoriya nodded and furrowed his brow in a way I knew meant that he was thinking. "You were really sick, but you still ran across campus to make sure that Shinsou and I would stop Gentle Criminal from attacking the Cultural Festival. You did it even though you wouldn't get to enjoy the festival yourself," he said. A smile grew on his face. "You helped make everyone's dreams for the festival come true! Thank you!"

I felt rather touched.I love heartfelt anime speeches."It was no problem, Midoriya."

"And the class got you this!" Midoriya pulled something out of his bag and handed it to me. It was a card with the wordsGet Well Soon!in giant letters written across the top. I opened it and saw it was filled with little messages and signatures from my classmates.

I wish you a speedy recovery from your illness! - Iida.

You were right. The trip to buy rope was pretty important. - Shinsou.

I hope you feel better! - Kirishima.

Be sure to take care of yourself, so we can spar again! - Uraraka.

Everyone had signed it, even Bakugou, with a crisp signature and the short noteStop lying around being sick or I'll fucking kill you.I smiled, thinking,I bet Kirishima or Iida was the one who went around getting signatures.

I'd come a long way since I'd first arrived, when half my classmates were uncomfortable talking to me and the other half didn't know me. To be a Mineta that was respected and well-liked by his classmates…

Heh. I'd thought it was impossible.

"Tell everyone thanks for me," I said.

"I will!" responded Midoriya.

I still felt terrible (anime speeches don't cancel out the flu,) but maybe today hadn't gone so badly after all.

Notes:

Gentle Criminal's escaping, the timeline is falling to pieces, and everyone should try hibiscus tea. It's delicious.

Chapter 54: trustworthy

Summary:

The subsequent day.

Notes:

Spoilers for the movie Heroes Rising! (if you haven't watched it, skip until "This morning, my fever had dropped..." if you don't want to be spoiled)
Also the manga

(See the end of the chapter formore notes.)

Chapter Text

Still down with the flu, I ended up missing the next day of school. Bored, I decided to call Evan.

"Hey Evan," I asked. "When's the raid on Jakku Hospital going to be?"

"Very soon,"he said."A week or so after the Hero Billboard Chart."

"Oh, I see. Then who's getting involved?"

"Well we have a bunch of hero agencies involved. Ryuykyu's, Fatgum's, Dreamcaster's, Endeavors' and Nighteye's agencies, in particular. There are some heroes coming independently too, like Wish-Fish, Dark Wings, Hawks, Gang Orca, Mr. Brave, Agent Owl, Rock Lock… and then there's the UA Staff, of course."

"Wow, that's a lot of heroes," I commented.

"Yeah, but they will be fighting high-end Nomu and the League of Villains. They need a lot of people."

"Very true," I said. "Wait… did you say Ryukyu's and Nighteye's agencies were involved?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Both of those have UA interns. Hawks has Tokoyami, too."

"Oh yeah. You're right. Official meetings about the raid haven't taken place yet but I haven't heard anything about UA students being invited. I'm guessing that because this is about the League of Villains that they're being excluded from the fight."

"Weren't UA students invited to the Paranormal Liberation War, though?"

"Yeah, but that's because the Meta Liberation Army had like 100,000 people so they needed students for more manpower. The MLA haven't allied with Shigaraki yet so at this point in the timeline, that's not a worry."

I sighed in relief. "Good."

"Speaking of, the Paranormal Liberation War Arc is the last we know about, right?"

I frowned. "Yes, it is, though we have to deal with the Nabu Island Arc from the movie Heroes Rising before we get there."

"Well, that's great and all, but what are we going to do after you run out of material to predict?"Evan asked.

I winced. "I don't know. That might be a problem."

"Yeah, definitely. You're running out of things to predict and even the things that we do know about are getting progressively less and less reliable. We can't even predict Gentle Criminal of all people, who knows where he is. I would come up with some excuse."

"But what excuse would even work?" I asked. "Quirks don't just go away."

"Not usually, no,"Evan said."Unless they get stolen. Maybe you can say All for One took your quirk."

"All for One is in jail," I said dryly.

"... break him out?"

"Please no, that's a horrible plan. There is actually someoneelsewho can steal quirks, though."

"Wait, there is? When did that happen?"

"He's the main antagonist of the Nabu Island arc. He can take quirks, but I think his power is more limited. His name is Nine."

"That's the answer then! Just run into him and make up a story about how he took your quirk,"Evan said triumphantly.

"There are a few issues with that," I pointed out. "Like the fact that afterwards everyone is going to think that Nine can tell the future."

"Those can be worked out,"Evan insisted."The eventual loss of your so-called future vision can't be worked out."

"I guess so." I sighed. "I hate not knowing the plot of that movie."

"It's a good thing you watched the trailers and promos, though. Otherwise we wouldn't even know about Nine."

"That's very true," I said. It wasn't long before Evan had to leave. Evan was busy these days, trying to keep a handle on his vigilante duties, the raid and raising his kid. Meanwhile, Theo was probably bored out of his mind but could only bring out his phone occasionally, when Mandalay was out of sight. Of course all of 1-A was in class, so I was on my own.

This morning, my fever had dropped to just shy of 39 degrees, but Aizawa said it was too high to attend class. He was probably right, I felt much too miserable to focus on anything academic. But it was boring being all alone. Back when I was sick in my old life, my mom would take care of me and sometimes my sister would stay to entertain me. I'd only gotten sick in college once, but Theo had been there. I felt achingly nostalgic about those times, even if I had been sick. Sure, Aizawa was hanging about to make sure I didn't die, but it just wasn't the same. Stop it! Stop being homesick.

I sighed. Might as well try to nap.

I woke up to a banging on the door. "Young Mineta! Are you there?"

… Definitely All Might's voice. The loud, bellowing one, too. I yawned. "Yeah. You can open the door."

All Might opened the door in his muscular form and deflated moments later. I half-expected him to start coughing blood, but he didn't.I guess Evan's patch job did the trick.That, and All Might's skinny form had put on some modest weight. Now, Yagi looked almost healthy at first glance, though if you examined him closer you would notice a slight thinness and the bags under his eyes.

"Apologies. I didn't realize you were sleeping," he said.

"It's fine. What did you need me for?"

"Well, I contacted Gran Torino to help Midoriya learn about Blackwhip. You said you wanted to be there for that…?" he trailed off.

"Alright, I'm coming," I said, wrapping a blanket around my shoulders like a cape and dragging it with me. Yagi looked a bit bemused, but I was tired enough to drag a blanket with me everywhere. If I had a sleeping bag I'd bring it around like Aizawa.

"They're in Gym Gamma," Yagi said.

"Hey," I said. "Come to think of it, why did you invite Gran Torino?"

"I was thinking about how he had more experience with teaching in our conversation earlier," said Yagi with a sigh. "Once I explained the situation to Nedzu, he was willing to allow Gran Torino to come over to help Midoriya learn about the new quirk," Yagi further explained.

In a conversation with me, huh? That must be why it didn't happen in the original after Midoriya got Blackwhip. Hm, or maybe there was just more time for this type of thing to happen here, because Midoriya got Blackwhip earlier.

"That makes sense. I'm going to go to Gym Gamma then. Are you coming?"
Yagi shuddered. "I'm sure those two have no need for me there."

"Gotcha."

Gym Gamma was a short walk away. Irritating, but not difficult. Maybe I was finally shaking off the illness. When I walked into Gym Gamma (it was a large, empty space, going unused by classes right now) I heard Midoriya's voice echo through the gym. "I can only use it for short periods of time. It's gotten so strong within One for All th…"

Midoriya paused as I opened the door, which creaked. "Mineta! What are you doing here?" he said, a bit worried.

"I promised I'd watch, didn't I?" I said, approaching the pair. "Never fear, Midoriya. I'll just be laying down here instead of my bed."

"Who's this?" asked Gran Torino.

"Ah! This is my friend, Mineta!"

"And why is he here?"

"He has a future-seeing quirk like Sir Nighteye," Midoriya said. "He wanted to watch."

"A quirk like Sir Nighteye, eh?" Gran Torino turned to me. "What's your name?"

"Mineta, like Midoriya just said."

"Toshinori?" Gran Torino's tone had a faux-innocent element to it.

Oh. He's playing a trick on me, like he did with Midoriya when they first met."Sorry, won't buy it. I can see the future."

Gran Torino turned serious again, nodding. "Hm. So you do have that sort of quirk. Come to see if our training causes any visions?"

"Something a bit like that," I said, folding my blanket and placing it on the floor. "I'm just going to be laying here, so don't mind me. Carry on."

Gran Torino's grin grew sharp and playful. "You're a UA student, aren't you? Thought you could come watch our training session without participating?"

"Well, yes…"

"We ought to see if your quirk really is at Sir Nighteye's level, like Midoriya claims!" And Gran Torino was off like a bullet. He darted behind me and kicked off the wall, landing a hit on my shoulder, then bounced back to land a few more light hits. The punches weren't painful, but they were annoying and quick. "Oi, back off," I said, throwing a ball half-heartedly at him. It wasn't even in the ballpark of hitting him.

"Can you not utilize your quirk fast enough to fight?" Gran Torino asked, landing another kick. "Or is it just your poor reflexes!"

I grumbled and pulled a few more balls off my head, lobbing them blindly in his direction and none of them even came close. He tripped up my feet, leading me to wobble and fall over unceremoniously.

Midoriya stared at the fight for a few moments before saying, "Gran Torino, no!"

Gran Torino skidded to a stop. "What?"

"You can't fight him, he's sick!" Midoriya exclaimed. "He's supposed to be resting!"

Gran Torino turned and studied me. After a few moments, he seemed to find something in my complexion (whether I was pale or flushed I didn't know.) He scratched his cheek and asked, "If he's supposed to be resting then why is he here?"

I crawled over to my blanket and curled up in it. "I had a feeling about you and decided to come," I said.

"A feeling? Doesn't sound very specific," Gran Torino said.

"Because of my quirk, my feelings are given greater consideration. In fact, the last time I had a feeling something dangerous would happen, a villain jumped out of an alleyway and gave me these scars," I said, pointing to my face.Oh wow, that sounded metal!

"Well, what kind of feeling about me then?" Gran Torino asked, his voice gruff.

Midoriya gave me an anxious glance. He obviously wanted to know as well. I gave Midoriya a shrug.

"I had feelings of danger in your future."He is put in danger for the Paranormal Liberation War, so I suppose that isn't a lie, even if the main reason I'm here is to check on Midoriya."It'll be a few months until that danger strikes, if it strikes at all, considering I plan to stop it before it happens. I thought being nearby might give me some clarity," I said, yawning. "Just do your thing. I'll barely be paying attention."

Gran Torino had turned solemn at the mention of vague future danger. He turned to Midoriya. "Right. Let's get training."

And that's how, one day after the Cultural Festival, I ended up laying on the floor and observing Midoriya's training with Gran Torino through half-lidded eyes. Gran Torino and Midoriya started with mostly talking. Occasionally, Midoriya would activate his quirk in demonstration, but he seemed only to be able to summon the smallest of tendrils, or just black wisps. Gran Torino didn't seem particularly impressed. Considering at this point in the previous timeline Midoriya hadn't had access to Blackwhip at all, it was an improvement, but it was obvious Blackwhip wasn't ready for battle.

Out of curiosity, from my place on the floor, I yelled, "Hey Midoriya, what percentage of One for All are you at?"

Gran Torino briefly appeared surprised before he masked it.Oh, nobody told him I knew about One for All. But everyone deserves to have one future-telling friend who knows the truth… hey wait, am I Midoriya's version of Sir Nighteye?

"I can go up to 25%, but only for short periods of time because it puts a toll on my body. I usually fight at around 12%," Midoriya explained.

"That's pretty impressive," I said, though I had no idea how much he could do in the past at this point in the timeline.

"He's come a long way but he's not close to done yet, not by a long shot," Gran Torino said. This comment annoyed me but seemed to make Midoriya more determined, who nodded firmly and said, "Right!" before returning to training. After Gran Torino gave Midoriya a final piece of advice on Blackwhip (something about locking and unlocking, though Midoriya seemed to understand better than me) before they went on to train with Midoriya's "Air Force." I barely remembered that move from the original show, but Midoriya seemed intent on mastering it. The two sparred while Midoriya practiced shooting off ranged air blasts at Gran Torino during their fight. Midoriya tried to activate Blackwhip once as well, but Gran Torino shook his head, telling him to wait until he could use Air Force without thinking before he tried to add Blackwhip into the mix as well.

… they seemed to be getting a lot done.

To my relief, their spar didn't look too harsh. In fact, as someone who got punched and kicked by Gran Torino not ten minutes ago, I was almost uniquely suited to keep an eye on their training.Maybe he learned his lesson about treating students well after All Might. Or I over-villanized him in my head.Regardless, it was nice to see Midoriya's training was going well. His improvement was obvious.

The door of Gym Gamma creaked open. It was Aizawa. "There you are," he said, walking into Gym Gamma.

"Aizawa-sensei!" Midoriya exclaimed.

"I'm not here for you, Midoriya." Aizawa glanced at me. "Mineta, what part of 'stay in bed and rest' did you not understand? Next time at least write a note so I don't have to hunt you down."

"Sorry," I muttered.

He looked down at my scuffed and scratched form and frowned. "You shouldn't have been training."
"I apologize, that was my fault," said Gran Torino. "I didn't realize he was sick and tried to make him join the training session."

Aizawa sighed. "Regardless, we're leaving. Mineta, with me."

I pulled myself to my feet and wrapped my blanket around my shoulders. "Tell me if anything interesting happens, Midoriya," I said as I left, following Aizawa out the door.

Aizawa looked a little bit more done with life than usual. "Stop dragging yourself to random locations across campus and making me come get you," he scolded.

"Got it," I sighed.

"What made you come out here this time?"

I paused for a moment, reluctant to say anything. I didn't particularly feel like lying. On the other hand, I didn't want to accuse Gran Torino of being terrible without justification, because if I saidmy quirksaid he was shady, I might be believed a bit too much. Especially since I had no idea if he'd gone through a redemption arc or if I was misinterpreting all this in the first place.

Aizawa noticed me waffling and sighed. "Was it about Midoriya, or Gran Torino?"

"Both… sort of. Well… you know how it's hard for me to tell if someone is bad news or not with my quirk if I'm already suspicious of them?" I said. Aizawa nodded.

"Well, I don't have a lot of trust for Gran Torino."

"Do you have a reason for distrusting him?" Aizawa asked.

"Yeah," I said. Might as well walk him through my reasoning. "Haven't you seen All Might's reaction when Gran Torino's name comes up? Gran Torino was an old mentor of his but All Might looks panicked whenever Gran Torino is mentioned," I said, frowning. "My quirk lets me know that reaction is from whatever harsh training Gran Torino did when he was All Might's teacher. I'm worried about what kind of training Gran Torino did to inspire that kind of reaction. It makes me not want to leave him alone with Midoriya."

Aizawa took a moment to process that. "I see what you mean. But if Nedzu thought Gran Torino was going to hurt Midoriya, he wouldn't have let him on campus."

"I suppose," I said, frowning. "But I needed to be sure he was treating Midoriya right."

"You need to stop running after Midoriya," Aizawa said. I was about to protest, but Aizawa continued without missing a beat. "Next time, speak with me or another teacher. I have access to the security tapes for most of UA, including Gym Gamma. If you're worried about Gran Torino and Midoriya, I can monitor them for you, or ask Nedzu to do so," he said.

"Oh," I said.

I hadn't thought of that. For some reason, I'd assumed my non-future-quirk-related opinions would be dismissed out of hand.

"I take student concerns very seriously, especially if you think someone isn't safe," Aizawa said, unsmiling but with a bit of earnestness. "The next time you think Midoriya is in trouble, whatever the source, ask for help if the problem is out of your depth. We will help you." Aizawa gave me a stern look. "Particularly if you have a fever and should bestaying putrather than running around with no supervision."

"Huh," I said. "Thanks."

Aizawa nodded.

Aizawa really is on my side after all. I should remember that he's someone I can rely on. Handling things alone just makes them more difficult.

… Could I maybe tell him the truth about who I am? Could I trust him that much?

We walked back to Heights Alliance together.

Notes:

Hm, I've been thinking. I might eventually try to fuse short chapters together, add scenes, or do edits in general (not sure if anyone's noticed, but there are a few plot threads I set up but then dropped) but I think I'll wait to edit over the fic until it's finished.

Chapter 55: truth or dare

Summary:

Everyone enjoys a party and tries to subtly figure out what Mineta's deal is.

Chapter Text

It took another few days for my flu to clear up. After that, I was back to training. My Super Moves and fighting style were actually coming together in a nice way, though incorporating both of those with ball-bouncing acrobatics and any semblance of agility was probably going to be a challenge.

I hadn't said anything to Aizawa yet about who I really was. I was still thinking about it. That wasn't a decision to be made lightly… and it still came with the risk of being thought of as a villain. But…it would be nice to have him on my side, fully. Where I could tell him what's really happening and he could give me advice.

As much as I thought that if I explained it right to Aizawa that he would believe me and be helpful, it was too risky to give him the actual truth, considering how ridiculous and unbelievable it was. More likely, I would invent a more truthful lie like 'I'm Mineta from a year in the future', or 'I'm Mineta from an alternate dimension one year in the future.' Not the truth, but… a step closer to it.

Something to think about.

Meanwhile, Midoriya had been improving as well. Inviting Gran Torino to train with him was the right thing to do, though he wouldn't be able to stay and train much longer, citing "an important mission" (probably the preparations for the Jaku City Hospital Raid, if he was involved in that.)

Meanwhile, it was the start of November. While at the end the Hero Billboard Chart JP would be happening (along with All Might's official retirement) for now, there was a moment of quiet.

Which is why I accepted the invitation to Ashido's "sleepover."

("C'mon, it'll be fun," Hagakure insisted, one of the party planners.

"We already all live together already," I'd said.

"But we can play games and watch movies and stuff!" she'd responded.

I eventually gave in.)

Besides, I finally had knitting needles and yarn, so I could just not pay attention and knit the whole time. Make a scarf or something.

It was the weekend, so we were technically allowed to stay up an hour or so later than usual, but Ashido said we should just start the party early and maybe move it to someone's room if we got kicked out of the common area. Everyone agreed that was best.

After dinner everyone hung around in the common area, sprawled out along couches, playing video games, painting nails, braiding hair and talking amiably. A few classmates suggested that when it got late, we could watch a horror movie, but Iida was trying his best to tamp down those ideas so we "got proper rest."

I sat curled in a chair, knitting, but I'd occasionally talk and engage in party games (a weird version of "Mafia" in particular.) I opted out of Never Have I Ever, because I might look conspicuous hesitating over whether or not I did something, sifting through memories of two lives. Truth or Dare, though, I joined in. Aoyama managed to convince everyone in the room (Sero, Jirou, Uraraka, Hagakure, and Kaminari) to play a few rounds.

All the dares were tame, but I just preferred picking truth. Sure, for me the truth could be dangerous, but I could always just… lie. Even if it was breaking whatever sacred party games rules existed.

"Alright, truth or dare?" Sero asked.

"Truth," I responded.

"Hm… okay, I've got one," Sero said. "What is your deepest, darkest fear?"

"Death!" I responded cheerfully. "Jirou, truth or dare?"

"Um, truth," she said.Oh now I have to think of a question.

"What's the last time you lied to someone?" I asked.

"I told Kaminari I didn't eat his pickles," Jirou admitted.

"Wait, you did?!"

"Such betrayal!" Aoyama said dramatically, laying across the couch.

Uraraka was dared to steal leftovers from Bakugou in the fridge (she was immediately hit with a punishing wave of spice) while Hagakure was dared to do an accent for a few rounds and was still speaking a bad rendition of Snipe's American accent. Kaminari, in the meantime, had admitted to a time when he knocked out the power for a whole block with his quirk.

Jirou was snickering, while Hagakure said, "I cannot believe…"

"Don't forget the accent!"

"Ahem… Icannotbelieve that an upstandin' citizen such as yaself…"

Jirou laughed harder.

"Okay. Jirou, Jirou, truth or dare."

"Dare!"

Kaminari was looking through a list of dares on his phone. "Oh! I found a good one! It says, 'Sell a piece of trash to someone in the group. Use good salesmanship.'"

Jirou thought about it for a moment before she smirked. She scooped me up and held me in the air easily, considering how light I was. I jerked a bit at the sudden contact but Jirou simply got down on one knee and held me out towards Uraraka. "Please, purchase this trash from me-"

I wheezed. So that's what she was doing. "Noo, my feelings," I said, as Uraraka burst into laughter. She tried to suppress her giggles, but even after I'd been plopped back down on the ground, her face was red. This was more fun than any game of Truth or Dare I'd ever been a part of, even if I wasn't fond of being randomly snatched off the ground. It was something about the dares not being too harsh (all in good fun) and the spiritedness of the players.

After a dare for Sero and a truth for Aoyama, Hagakure said, "Alright, Mineta! Truth or dare."

"Truth," I said.

"Who do you have a crush on?" she said.

"No one, sorry," I said.

"Aw, come on! You've got to have a crush on someone!" Hagakure teased.

"I don't, I'm a-" My voice died in my throat. I had been about to sayI'm asexualorI'm aromanticor something to that effect but I remembered that I was inMineta'sbody. I doubted anyone would believe me if I said I was asexual with all the sexual harrassment Mineta had done before I took over his body.Dang.I belatedly realized I'd been silent for too long. "I don't have a crush," I said.

"Ooh, I bet he does!" said Ashido, who'd come bouncing in from another room at some point. "Is it someone here!?"

"No!" I protested.

"Your heart rate increased," Jirou said, and Ashido smiled widely as a shark.My heart rate increased because I'm panicking about the situation, not because I have a crush!

"Now you have to tell us," said Uraraka cheerfully. "It's in the rules!"

"I already said I don't have a crush," I said stubbornly, deciding to double down.

"Aw, come on!" said Ashido, pouting. "Who is it?"

"It's notanybody!"I insisted hotly.

"Alright guys," said Kaminari, ever the peacekeeper. "Let's just move on to the next person."

Ashido was visibly disappointed, but Uraraka seemed to agree readily enough. She ended up telling the truth about the first time she used her quirk (she threw up on her mom) while Kaminari was dared to throw ice cubes at Kirishima. Kirishima was confused, but took it well.

I assumed everyone had forgotten my mistake during the crush question until it was Ashido's turn to ask a question.

"Jirou, truth or dare?"

"Dare," she said, absentmindedly spinning her earphone jack.

"Kiss Mineta!" she declared cheerfully.

Jirou turned an impressive shade of pink."No,"we both declared at the same time.

"I can't tell if Mineta having a crush on you is more or less likely with that reaction," Ashido whined.

… Alright, time for me to make an escape.

"Eh, I'm going to go knit upstairs," I said.

"Wait, don't go!" Sero said.

"I didn't mean to scare you off!" said Ashido.

"No, it's not that," I said, even though it was that a little. "I'm already tired."

"Oh, well, goodnight Mineta!" Kaminari called.

There was a small chorus of goodbyes.

… Ah well. It wasn't such a shame I was leaving early. I was proud I managed to last three-fourths the party and have fun, considering I hadn't really been in a socializing mood anyway.

"Sometimes I still have a hard time understanding Mineta," Ashido said, tilting her head. "That was a pretty abrupt leave if you ask me."

"Yeah, he looked super uncomfortable at the idea of anything romantic," Sero added. "I mean, wasn't he flirting with all the girls in the first few days of school?"

"I try to ignore the first few days of school," said Uraraka. "Otherwise his personality just doesn't make any sense."

"Yeah, what's up with that? I mean the weird sexual comments weren't the least of it. It's like he was a completely different person," Hagakure said.

"I have theories," said Todoroki. He spoke up from the corner, where he had been watching the game in relative silence, completely unnoticed.

"Theories? Oh, do tell," said Ashido, ready for gossip.

"My first theory. Imposters," said Todoroki. "Mineta was replaced."

"Wait, don't you think someone would've noticed that?" Ashido pointed out.

"Besides," Kaminari added. "Mineta remembered everything that happened in the first few days, like where he sat and our conversations and stuff."

"An imitation quirk that can pass on memories as well as a person's quirk, that can last for this long?" Jirou hummed. "I agree, it's pretty unlikely."

Todoroki huffed at their dismissal, but moved on. "Then there's my second theory," Todoroki continued. "Dissociative Identity Disorder."

"He's like two different people," muttered Uraraka. At this point the game of Truth or Dare had dissolved into a theorizing session, with Todoroki at the helm.

"Okay, but if that's the case, then why haven't we seen the first personality back?" asked Sero.

"Maybe he just doesn't want to use that one-" someone suggested.

"Can personalities hide for months?" Aoyama asked, almost to himself.

"The switches don't necessarily have to be noticeable," Uraraka added.

"Alright!" Ojiro's voice cut through the speculation. "I don't think we know enough about the condition to understand whether or not he has it," said Ojiro. "So let's not be rude. Even if he did have it we wouldn't treat him any different, right?"

"Right!"

"My third theory," said Todoroki. "Is trauma."

"I don't know if we should talk about this eith-," Kaminari began, but Hagakure immediately clapped her hands together, saying, "Maybe the USJ? That could explain why he stopped acting immature, he wanted to be more serious to be a hero!"

"Except," Kaminari interrupted. "He had the personality change rightbeforethe USJ."

Hagakure deflated. "Thought I had it…"

"Then there's my last theory," said Todoroki, before anyone could say anything else, "Futuretrauma. Something terrible happens in the future and that's what happened."

"Maybe if he got a vision of the USJ or his kidnapping," said Hagakure, snapping her fingers. "Then that would make him act all serious!"

"I don't think his quirk works like that," Midoriya piped up, who entered the room a few moments before. "He gets feelings, not visions."

"It doesn't have to be visual to be traumatizing, feelings can still be stressors. I read that on the Internet," said Todoroki, pulling out his phone to double-check.

"Okay I hate to get involved with this, but hedidsay there was going to be a 'terrible danger' in our future at some point," said Jirou.

"Wait, he said that?!" Ashido exclaimed.

"He did say it, Midoriya was there-"

"He did say that," confirmed Midoriya. "But he said it was months away and that he wasn't going to let it happen, so… "

"Maybe it was the responsibility of averting all these disasters that caused him to change how he was acting," Ojiro suggested. "If his personality changed rightbeforethe first big crisis."

"That makessomuch sense!" Uraraka exclaimed.

"Okay, but thatstilldoesn't explain why he suddenly hates romance-"

"Maybe he was just faking acting extroverted and flirty because he wanted to be popular?"

"That seems way likelier than anything else, in my opinion."

"And then he gave up on it after seeing all the bad things in the future!"

"Maybe Aizawa gave him a talk about not doing that kinda stuff…"

"So his entire personality changed? I doubt it."

"Personally I think the Dissociative Identity Disorder hypothesis makes the most sense."

"That one's the most far-fetched!"

Ultimately, even with a few more minutes of theorizing, no one could agree on a theory, though Ojiro's version of the "Future Trauma" theory seemed to be by far the most popular. Thus, Class 1-A gave up, and conversation went on to other topics, like Uraraka's date with Midoriya (it went well, but neither could answer questions about it without blushing furiously) or Tokoyami's internship with Hawks. Then, they turned on a long movie that, despite Iida's protests, would last hours and make everyone exhausted in the morning.

Chapter 56: therapeutic

Summary:

Some decent advice, some help freely given, and something a little unexpected.

Notes:

Major manga spoilers

All y'alls comments are very inspiring! Thank you! :D

(See the end of the chapter formore notes.)

Chapter Text

I awkwardly hovered by the door. "Ah, come in," Hound Dog said.

I entered Hound Dog's office and shut the door behind me. "I have an appointment?" I said, and he nodded. Hound Dog looked different than I'd expected. He lacked his typical hero outfit. Rather, he wore casual clothes. Without the muzzle of his costume, he just looked like a regular person with a dog mutation quirk, with blond fur and a long yellowish mane. Without his fluffy jacket, Hound Dog seemed to have some of his bulk, looking thinner than I'd originally assumed.

… not that he was truly thin. He was well-built and quite capable of ripping me in half with raw strength if he decided to. Despite his quirk, Dog Form, he didn't really lookcute.He was furry, sure, but his eyes were sharp, his snout was long and thin, and he couldn't have been less than seven feet tall. Not to mention the jagged teeth.

No wonder the student body found him intimidating. And this was the less-scary version of him, without the muzzle obscuring half his face and the puffy jacket that made him seem twice as muscular. At this point, though, I was getting used to everyone being taller and larger than me, so I didn't feel too nervous around him.

Thus, I walked across the room and settled down in the chair across from him. "Uh, hi."

"Hello." Hound Dog's voice was rumbling. "Mineta, is it?"

"Yes, that's right."

"Welcome," he said. "So, what brings you here? On your appointment form, you wrote that you were coming to speak to me about personal problems."

"Yeah, well, I suppose," I said, feeling a bit awkward. "After all the villain attacks it was suggested that I talk to someone? You specifically, actually."

"That's good! You may already know this, but I'm Inui Ryo. You can call me Inui-sensei or Hound Dog, whichever you prefer," Hound Dog-no, Inui, might as well call him by his name- said. "I think for this first meeting we should get to know each other, go over any questions you might have, and the like. Does that sound alright with you?"

"Yeah, sounds good."

"Do you have any questions to start off?"

"Yeah, a bit. What's your policy on confidentiality?" I knew there were laws in America about it, but I wasn't sure about 23rd century Japan.

"Everything you share will be kept strictly confidential, unless someone is at risk of being harmed, be that you or others. In that case, I have to report it," Inui said, a slight growl in his voice. About what I'd expected.

"Are you legally bound by that?"

"Yes, unless you decide to waive it."

"Gotcha," I said. From there, we introduced ourselves a little bit. After I asked, Inui explained a little bit of his previous experiences and qualifications in the area (and he was qualified to be a counselor, I was actually a little surprised at how much expertise he had) while I told him a few basic things about myself, like how school had been going and what my quirks were. When I mentioned I had a "quirk" that could predict the future, his eyes lit up slightly in recognition, as if to say,ah, I've heard of a student like that.

Eventually, he asked me specifically what kinds of problems I'd been having that I'd like to handle or talk about.

"Well, I have nightmares occasionally," I noted, thinking, "and, well, I feel a little paranoid sometimes, especially about leaving campus or being kidnapped. And I'm worried that when my uncle finds out that I got these scars on my work study he'll pull me out of school, and then I'll be off-campus with no protection, and then the League of Villains will get me, and then I'll die- well, it's easy to spiral with that kind of thinking," I explained, with a slight wave of the hand. "Especially since it might actually happen."

For a moment it looked like Inui was going to disagree with me about that, but ultimately he said, "That's a lot to think about on your own." It looked more like awe-can-talk-about-this-laterexpressionon his face than anactually-you're-right-you-might-dieexpression, which made me feel a bit better.

"Yeah. Also, I'm having a lot of worries about the future things that are going to happen. And, uh, I'm having a hard time making friends with my classmates. So all those things."

"I see," said Inui, writing something down. "We can definitely start working on those."

I nodded. Since we had a little time left, Inui invited me to talk about how my week had been going. "It's been going fine," I said. "I got sick and missed the Cultural Festival, but I managed to sto-" I cut myself off, but then realized that a) it wasn't really a secret because I said I had a future vision quirk and b) that it wasn't illegal or wrong to send someone with a provisional license after a criminal. "Ahem. I managed to stop the festival from getting cancelled by sending Midoriya and Shinsou after Gentle Criminal."

Inui's eyebrows rose, and I remembered that he'd been there, sniffing around the festival grounds. "Why send those two?" When I tilted my head in confusion, he asked, "You didn't tell your teachers or contact any hero agencies?"

"Well Midoriya was already going to fight him and most likely win, so I just decided to get Shinsou to go with him as an extra safeguard," I said, shrugging. "I could sense a lack of danger and they both had licenses, so."

"A lack of danger," Inui said. "Good you checked for that. Though, in the future, it might be better to let a nearby hero agency know as well, if just for ease of arrest."

'Ease of arrest' was right. It was probably much simpler for a hero agency's patrolling heroes to hash out the paperwork for an arrest than UA's teachers trying to explain where they picked up this criminal when they were supposed to be protecting the festival while insistingno, he wasn't trying to break into the festival, I promise…

"I suppose," I said, nodding. "Not a lot else happened this week. I was sick for a lot of it."

"Glad to see you feeling better," said Inui. "Well, how's this upcoming week looking?"

Heh. The type of question only someone with future vision could answer. "It's probably going to be fine too," I said. "I'm not sensing anything particularly exciting or dangerous, that is. Would you like to hear about the upcoming major events?" I asked.

"Sure," Inui responded.

"First we have Hero Billboard Chart JP, of course. Then there's the Hawks and Endeavor team-up, but that might have been prevented so I'm not sure exactly how it'll go down. 1-A and 1-B might have a Joint Training session, then there's going to be the Nabu Island fiasco. Then we'll have Work Studies II. Meanwhile we're going to have to keep a lookout for the Meta Liberation Army, since they're going to make a comeback," I explained.

Inui patiently listened through the whole list, despite not really knowing the details of the events I was talking about, but he seemed immediately alert at the mention of the Meta Liberation Army. "The Meta Liberation Army is making a comeback?"Oh yeah, that's a terrorist group.

"They probably already have," I said, thinking, and yeah. Making such a large army would probably take a long time. They'd likely already started and very nearly finished. They just hadn't yet allied with the League of Villains. But heck, even if theydidn'tthey would still pose a major threat.

"That's pretty serious," said Hound Dog. "You should consider discussing that with Principal Nedzu."

Wait actually, yeah! Let Nedzu know and he can start investigating Detnerat early. It will only be a benefit."Sure, I'll do that. They'll pose a problem later on if they're ever allowed to ally with the League of Villains," I said. Inui tried to hide the expression of mild horror on his face at the idea of that. After a few seconds he succeeded, his face smoothing into calm. "So you'll talk to Nedzu?" he asked.

"Definitely," I said.

Hm, I probably should have mentioned it to Nedzu sooner. Hound Dog's advice is already being a little helpful.

The rest of our conversation went well. Inui's style seemed good for my personality type, at least so far, and we scheduled another meeting to happen in a week.

I won't tell Inui anything too special… maybe I'll clue him in on a few future events and let him give me advice on how to handle them. And advice on how to connect with my classmates… plus, I can tell him about how I'm feeling! That's what counseling is for, after all!

"So yeah, the Meta Liberation Army is going to make a comeback, they've got a hundred thousand people or so in their army," I explained. "Their leader is the CEO of Detnerat. That's where they get their money. They control a few cities, like Deika City. Literally 90% of Deika City are their soldiers and all the heroes in Deika work for them," I explained. "They have a lot of spies in the hero system too, so don't tell the Hero Commission about this. Otherwise the spies will hear."

Nedzu blinked. Then he blinked again. "I see."

"That's all the details I have and, well, I'm not sure how to handle that by myself, so… now you can deal with it instead?" I said, questioning.

A fraction of the cheerfulness returned to Nedzu's face. "Indeed! Thank you for this information, Mineta."

"No problem."

The moment I arrived back at the dorm, Iida approached me.

"Mineta! I could really use your assistance!" he said.

"Oh yeah, sure. What about?"

"I'm having difficulty with the material in English," he admitted. "You scored highest in English in the Final Exams of all the first years, even above Tsunotori Pony, the exchange student from America! Please tutor me!"I scored above the exchange student in her native language, despite the fact that Mineta has no reason to be fluent… whoops, hope no one was paying attention to that test score.

"Hey, did Mineta ever live in another country, like America or the UK?" Mic wondered aloud.

"No, only Japan," Aizawa answered absentmindedly.

"Does he have any relatives that would speak English? Does he speak it at home?"

"Not as far as I'm aware."

"Then how the hell-"

"Yeah, I can do tutoring," I said.

"Thank you! I'll go get my worksheet! May others join us? Several of our classmates were struggling to study for the upcoming exam."

"No problem," I said, and Iida skidded off to get his worksheet. I grabbed a water bottle from the kitchen and sat cross-legged on the common room floor. Iida returned with Uraraka, Midoriya, and Todoroki and they spread out their worksheets on the floor around me.Their whole gang, huh?"Alright, what part are you having trouble with?"

There were a few sentence structure issues that Iida and the others were having on their worksheet, but their main problem was the spoken section of the coming test, where they would be graded on their conversation with another student. While Iida and Todoroki knew the grammar perfectly well, their pronunciation wasabysmal.Uraraka's pronunciation was fine, but her vocabulary was limited. Meanwhile, Midoriya managed to be completely average in every category. After we went over the initial grammar issues in the worksheet, I did my best to gently correct Iida and Todoroki's pronunciation as I helped Uraraka and Midoriya make flashcards, giving Midoriya light grammar tips all the while.

"The best way to learn English is to speak it," I said, in English.

"How do you know English so well, anyway?" Uraraka said.

"I know several people from America," I invented. "It's easiest to learn when you have people to talk to. Midoriya, why don't you try to practice your English with All Might? I'm sure he'd be happy to help." I gave Todoroki a wink, whose eyes widened.

"Love child," he whispered, too quietly for Midoriya to hear.

"Uh, yeah! I could practice with All Might," Midoriya said.

I quizzed vocabulary, corrected grammar, and helped with pronunciation for quite a while after and saw some improvement. Iida in particular learned English quickly and while the others sometimes struggled, they got it after enough practice (or after I changed the learning style a bit, to make it visual or auditory or otherwise.)These four are going to start developing American accents if I tutor them too much,I thought to myself, but oh well. I'd already kind of blown my English-knowing cover.

After our session, Iida gave a little bow and thanked me sincerely.

"No worries," I said. "If you ever need help in English or Math, come to me!"

I wondered vaguelyis this how you make friends?but put the thought aside. Just as I waved goodbye to the four and was about to go upstairs, Aizawa said, "Mineta, wait. Your father is here to see you."

Wait… what?

Notes:

I will again be going on a temporary ~hiatus~ to do college work after this chapter or a next, though it shouldn't last longer than a month. Hopefully I've proved that I actually can come back from hiatus with these new chapters.
Have a great day everyone, thanks for reading!

Chapter 57: unexpected visitation

Summary:

Theodore starts finding answers in the background of a surprise custody battle.

Notes:

Last Chapter: Mineta's dad appears
Comments Section: suspicious!

TW for abuse & mentions of drug use

(See the end of the chapter formore notes.)

Chapter Text

Theodore had asked for books involving alternate dimensions from Mandalay and the Wild, Wild Pussycats, something he could read while they were around instead of stalking about on the Internet. They found his new fascination with them adorable and were sure to oblige, but usually only gave him books for kids. In some ways this was good (Theodore's Japanese wasn't great, because he was running off five-year-old Kota's Japanese) but it meant the content of the books were inevitably stunted.

"Not this one, not this one," he muttered to himself, setting book after book aside of fairy tales or cutesy magical adventures. (He would read them later because he kinda liked them, but they didn't have any useful information about how he was stuck here.) He grabbed another cover and almost set it aside automatically, until he noticed how old the book was. It was a thin, dusty book, smelling faintly of mildew. Most of the title was scratched off.Did they just toss this one in when they heard the genre, without even looking?It seemed likely. It was confirmed when Theodore opened the book and saw that it was in Spanish, rather than Japanese. "Kota" wasn't supposed to know Spanish.

He opened the front cover and examined the title.Verdad de los mundos cambiantes.

"Truth of the changing worlds? What is this?"

Theodore felt very curious. And while Kota didn't know Spanish, Theodore's Spanish was passable. Enough to decode whatever this was.

I was very surprised when Aizawa told me that myfatherwanted to see me, of all people. I said, "Sure, just give me a minute," then ducked into the bathroom to examine Mineta's memories of him.Okay, who is this person? I thought he was out of the picture…

Around five years ago, Minoru's parents separated. He went with his mother and chose to use his mother's last name (Mineta.) Unfortunately, not long after that, Minoru's mother was caught doing drugs and was sent to rehab. But just beforethathappened, Minoru's father had beaten someone badly in a drunken brawl and had been sent to jail. Therefore, Minoru was sent to live with Mineta Haruki, his mother's brother.

Minoru's mother recovered from her drug addiction, but had a hard time finding and retaining a job, so Minoru kept living with his uncle. She eventually moved to a different prefecture for work. We weren't close, but we sent each other holiday cards and letters occasionally. Minoru's memories of her were still tinged in fondness, regardless of their estrangement. He loved her.

Minoru's father, though? After he got out of jail, he never made any move to use his visitation rights. He just disappeared from Minoru's life. Mineta's memories of the man (faded, now) were of a man bitter over his dead-end job, one who had strict expectations, but otherwise barely interacted with him.Okay. Well at least I know what to expect, though I'm not sure why he would visit, of all things.

I left the bathroom and walked over to Aizawa, who led me to the main gate. It wasn't uncommon for parents to come and ask to get dinner with their kid, even on a school night like tonight (though it was getting slightly late) so long as they were back by curfew. But thiswasan uncommon occurrence, because it was my father. I briefly wondered if someone was impersonating him.

When I saw him, it was easy to confirm that it was actually my father. His hair (if it could be called that) was unmistakable. It was light gray, nearly white (born that way, as far as I knew), down past his shoulders, and made up of a long mane of spikes. He could pull them off and they would re-grow, just like the balls on my head. As far as I knew he couldn't shoot the spikes, which would have made them significantly less useful if he had wanted to be a hero. He wasn't, he was an office manager or something. He was a little shorter than the average man but not to a significant degree. I had gotten the short genes from my mom.

(My mother had dark purple hair and she could secrete a sticky mucus from her wrists. Sometimes she'd just make some and smear it on the wall to hang up pictures or use it as impromptu glue. Their two quirks together fused to create Pop-Off.)

"Hello…" I said. Hm, what do I call this guy? Otousan, which basically just meant 'Dad', was probably a safe bet. It was what Mineta had called him when he was ten, even though it felt weird to call a stranger that. And that wasn't even a jab at how he wasn't around, I just… had never met this person. "Hello, Otousan."

"Minoru," he said.

"Make sure to have him back by 9, or we'll send someone out to get you," Aizawa grunted.

"Of course," my father said smoothly.

I awkwardly trailed behind my father, who seemed to have a destination in mind. After a minute or two of walking in silence, we arrived at a cafe and got a booth in the corner. "Two coffees," my dad told the server, who nodded and left.

"So…" I wanted to ask why he was here, but I didn't know how to do so politely.

"We're talking because I recently re-gained custody of you," he said.

Wait, really?"What, why?" I asked, blinking.

He looked slightly annoyed. "Because I'm your father. Your uncle was having trouble dealing with you. So he returned custody to me."

I felt a little… hurt by this. It was unlikely he was lying. My father was a serious man, not prone to joking.Did this happen in the original timeline, or was it the villain attacks that drove my uncle to give custody back?

… does Haruki know I haven't seen this guy in like five years? Why not give my mother custody?

This seems really unlike my uncle.

"Why didn't my uncle let me know this first?" I demanded.

"Because you broke your phone," my father said.

"Oh," I responded. The server returned, two coffees in hand. I looked down at the coffee with a bit of distaste. I used to like coffee, but Mineta never had. I put an excess amount of cream and sugar in my coffee and sipped it a little at a time, wincing at the bitterness.

"Let it be known that I am not like your uncle," my father said. "I will not put up with any messing around," he said, and I was about to open my mouth to respond indignantly when he followed up with, "I've always thought hero school was a waste." I paused for a moment to listen.

"You obviously aren't fit to be a hero," he said, grabbing my arm. I made a surprised sound as he pushed back my sleeve to reveal the splotch of scar underneath, gesturing to both my arm and my face. "Look at you. You've already gotten hurt. You're tiny, and your quirk is weaker than mine. It's for your own good." He released my arm. I wanted to argue, but he wasn't done. I fumed silently.

"UA is already a prestigious high school, though your grades are lacking…"I'm 3rd in the class, nitwit!"... it isn't a total loss. Transfer to General Studies or Business. Start doing better there. Make up for lost time," he said.

"No," I said flatly.

My father huffed in obvious frustration. "This is not the time for teenage rebellion, Minoru."

I stared at him for another moment. He stared back. "Look, I'm not transferring," I said.

My father stood up stiffly. "We're leaving." He tossed 600 yen on the table and stalked out of the cafe. I had to jog to keep up with him. He stopped cold a little ways away, and I approached. "Dad, come o-"

He whirled around and grabbed my wrist, scowling all the while. "Do you really think you can succeed as a hero?" His grip got tighter. "Answer me!"

"Yes, I do!" I shouted back.

"You'll fail and disgrace me along with you. You think you're smart?!"

I responded with a few choice words in both English and Japanese. His grip tightened again, to the point I was afraid that it would bruise. "The only reason I'm taking care of you is as a favor to your uncle," my father hissed, "and because I doubt your mother would be able to discipline you properly. If there were any other option I'd pass you off to someone else, got it?"

"Really?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Yes," he hissed and started tugging me along back towards campus, sinking his nails into my skin. "But because I'm in charge, you'll either transfer from the hero course or be pulled out and sent to a more appropriate school. Raise your Japanese Literature scores. They're embarrassing." I let myself get dragged along. My father may have worked in an office, but he was an office guy who regularly hit the gym, with a bit of muscle behind him.As far as Mineta's memories go, his father never acted like this. Before, he was just distant. Now he's angry and seems violent. This is far from ideal. Dang, if only my uncle had given custody to my mom.

We approached the UA gates about an hour after we left, standing a short distance from them. "Don't forget what I said," he ground out. He loomed over me, trying to be intimidating. I shrugged, scowling at him.

Aizawa had probably been awaiting our arrival but he seemed to materialize out of nowhere. My father released my wrist as he appeared. With purposeful steps, Aizawa put himself between me and my father, a physical barrier between us.

"Takemura-san," he said, his voice polite but clipped. "Thank you for coming."

My father scoffed and left without a word.What an asshole… I'm going to have to deal with this, somehow. Having him as my guardian is untenable.

Aizawa turned to me. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," I said.

"What about the wrist?" he asked.

Hm, right. He'd probably seen me get dragged in. My "father" had been looking seriously angry, too. No wonder Aizawa had come out to check on me. I rotated my wrist experimentally. It was red and tender (with a few little cuts where fingernails had broken the skin) but the bruise hadn't appeared yet. "It's fine, just brui- it might not bruise," I said, correcting myself at the last second. Aizawa didn't seem to like that answer. His frown grew deeper and he muttered something to himself being more careful with visitation.

"Should I take him off your visitor's list?" Aizawa asked.

"If you can, yeah," I said.Can they deny access to him if he's my guardian? I'm not sure…

"Are you injured anywhere else?" he asked. When I shook my head, he said, "If the pain in your wrist doesn't improve, go to Recovery Girl."

"Sure, thanks," I said.

That night, Aizawa kept an especially close eye on me. Normally that might make me uneasy, but his eyes would occasionally spark withsomething,the samesomethingthat appears when Ashido is about to fall off something or when he lectures Midoriya for breaking bones.

It's difficult to interpret Aizawa's facial expressions, but it might have been worry.

Regardless, I knew I needed to fix thisissuewith my father before it got any worse.

Firstly, I needed a guardian. My father had proved himself a terrible guardian in a single hour, so he was off the table. My uncle had already given me up (and didn'tthatsting, if my father was telling the truth) and my father would never hand over custody to my mother, though she technically was an option. I sighed and flipped open my burner phone.

"Evan, my uncle gave up custody of me to my biological father, who sucks. I need you to stealth adopt me or help me get emancipated or something."

"Really? Sucks about the dad. I'll totally stealth adopt you tho! Lol, imagine how Nedzu and Aizawa are going to react. They're going to have a fit."

"How would that work in Japanese law?"

"Hm, I'll need time to research. Lemme see what I can do."

Evan quickly found that the 23rd century law on the topic was a bit complicated. To transfer custody to a non-custodial parent could be done easily(-ish), but transferring custody to someone who was non-family required going through the court system.

Luckily, he had a few judges in his pocket.

While Evan might be able to get custody with sheer bribery and a little blackmail, everything would go a lot smoother if Mineta's father was on board. So that's the reason Evan was knocking on Mineta's father's door at 8 PM. A man with long grayish hair made of fangs (?) opened the door, and Evan found himself asking, "How do you feel about transferring custody of your son?"

"I'm a family friend of Mineta Haruki. I've known Minoru for a while now…"

...

"Ah, don't worry about that, I'm used to dealing with troublemakers. I'm quite strict with my own daughter, in fact."

...

"Of course not. Without high academic scores how would one get a job? I'll make sure he's studying hard, if nothing else."

...

"I agree, heroism is an overblown field nowadays."

...

"Oh, well, I'm a businessman…"

...

"Yes, I'll do my best to encourage him to pursue the Business Course at UA. Just thought you might be a busy person and not need the extra work of dealing with a teenager, of all things."

Evan left feeling exhausted. No wonder Mineta wasn't fond of his father, he could be… aggressive. Both passive aggressive and normal aggressive. But the goal had been accomplished.

"Your father is agreeing to give me sole custody. We're going to need to have some kind of custody hearing, but because everyone is in agreement it should go fairly quickly."

Now, to file some paperwork.

To get a hearing to happen quickly would take a little bit of maneuvering, but with judges working for the Shie Hassaikai, he might be able to get a hearing within a few days! How exciting. His involvement in the yakuza was really paying off.

The next day, Aizawa noticed an inconsistency in Mineta's file.

Aizawa tapped his pencil against the file. "This can't be right."

Yagi, the only other person in the teacher's lounge, leaned over. "What?"

"Mineta… last I checked, he was in the custody of his uncle. Yesterday, I saw worrying behavior when his father came to visit. I planned to remove his father from the accepted visitor's list and place a red flag for possible abuse. Now it appears that Mineta is in his father's custody. It looks like his uncle signed it over to him."

Yagi winced. "That doesn't sound good."

"No, it's not. Where's Mineta? I need to speak with him about this."

"Actually," Yagi spoke up. "He left campus almost as soon as school ended."

"For what?" Aizawa asked.

Yagi glanced at the sign-out sheet. "A custody hearing?"

Aizawa huffed. "If the paperwork has changed like this in our records, that means his father alreadyhascustody," he said.

"Okay, so someone else wants custody from the dad?" Yagi said, confused.

Aizawa rubbed his eyes, frustrated. "Then who else is trying to get custody of my student?"

Notes:

Aizawa: your dad is coming
Mineta: *looks incredibly surprised, hides in the bathroom for 2 mins, comes out with a vaguely worried expression*
Aizawa: do I need to be concerned

Meanwhile Evan is really excited to exercise some of his gang connections.
See y'all in a bit after college work!

Chapter 58: guardianship

Summary:

The saga continues.

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter fornotes.)

Chapter Text

Evan and I left the courthouse smiling. "The look on the judge's face when my father outright said he didn't want any custody was funny," I said.

"It was, but in… a bit of a dark way, to be honest," Evan said.

When all parties were in agreement, Evan got sole custody, though the judge still provided my father with visitation rights that were in my opinion, too generous. I wasn't sure if my father planned to even use them, though. "You wanna get milkshakes and stop by the apartment before we go back to UA?" he asked.

"Yes!"

With a milkshake in hand, I walked into Evan's apartment, though to my surprise, there were already two people inside. "Thank you for watching her, Heijiki," he said. I glanced up. It was one of the Eight Bullets of the Shie Hassaikai, the one with the shields. Coloring with crayons across from him was Eri, who was grinning. Once Heijiki had left, Evan crouched down next to Eri. Evan gestured in my direction. "This is Mineta Minoru. I'm going to be taking car-"

Eri looked at me with wide eyes and gasped. "You're the Sports Festival guy that signed my notebook! You're back! You came to visit!" She ran over and gave me a tight hug.

My heart melted. "Aww, nice to meet you."

We sat on the couch to talk. "Mineta goes to hero school, so he might not come here very often," Evan cautioned. Eri looked a bit disappointed, but I assured her that I would visit occasionally to play with her.

I turned to Evan. "I'll make sure to visit you too…" I smirked. "Father."

Evan choked on his drink. He coughed for a moment before replying, "Son."

It was surreal.

After a little bit of conversation with Eri, Evan took my back to school. On the way, we talked a little bit about details. "You basically can make whatever decisions you want. Just call if you need your legal guardian to sign something or a place to stay," he said. I appreciated how forthright he was. It was an odd arrangement, but it would be better to have Evan as my legal guardian than Mineta's terrible father.

"And also, even if you stop being my… ward," Evan made a face at the word, "You still have to visit Eri, because she really likes you," Evan said.

"Alright, I will," I said, smiling to myself.

A slight ways from the gate I waved him goodbye and returned to Heights Alliance, where Aizawa was waiting for me just outside. "Mineta," he said, after seemingly confirming no one else was around, "Your sign out form indicated that you just went to a custody hearing. Has anything changed that needs to be updated in our paperwork?"

"Well I'm not in the custody of my uncle or my father anymore," I explained. "Now I'm with a… family friend, of sorts." I paused. "You might know him. Chisaki Kai?"

Aizawa's eyes widened in disbelief. "He… a family friend?"

"Well, I know him. He's not really friends with my family."

"Do you know about…"

"The yakuza and crime fighting? Yes," I said.

He glanced down. "You were just with him?"

I nodded. "Yep."

"And he's been okay? Hasn't made you uncomfortable, or anything?"

"He's been good. I just played with his daughter," I said. I thought for a moment, before adding, "My quirk says he's safe."

Aizawa sighed. "At least there's that. I need to talk to Nedzu."

Evan couldn't say he was surprised when he was called to another meeting with Nedzu and Aizawa. What was slightly surprising was the presence of Hound Dog, who previously hadn't shown up to these meetings.Hound Dog? Why's he here? I would be concerned about him getting my scent and following me, but Nedzu literally already knows where I live. Is this because he's the guidance counselor? Probably that…

"So," Nedzu said, sipping tea. "You took custody of one of our students."

"Yeah, I did," Evan said. "Sorry about that, his situation wasn't great."

"Sorry? You can't just do that whenever someone's situation isn't great," Hound Dog growled. "How'd you even manage it?"

"The judge was in with the Shie Hassaikai," Aizawa answered, crossing his arms.

"Well, not just that. I also managed to convince his father to give custody," Evan added. All three people in the room looked at him in confusion. Evan shrugged. "I literally showed up at his door and asked him to give me his kid. It wasn't even that hard. It took like an hour," he said.

"He was… just willing to give you custody," Aizawa said, questioning.

"Yes. He was excited to get rid of him, actually," Evan confirmed. "It's lucky it was me who ended up getting custody and not someone worse."

There was a brief moment of silence. "So why'd you do it," Hound Dog said, sounding marginally less hostile, but still quite hostile. "How does this benefit you?"

"It really doesn't benefit me."Well, except maybe to give me an easier avenue of communication with Mineta… but it's more that a friend needed help."I was just worried about him. His father was trying to force him out of the hero course and Mineta said he was acting way more violent than he remembered," Evan said.

Nedzu poured more tea. "Hm. This gives you significant power over and access to one of our students, so you can see why we would be concerned," Nedzu said.

"Yeah, I know," Evan said, sighing. "Look, if you find a more suitable guardian and Mineta wants to go with them, then we can do a custody transfer. But if he wants to stick with me, then he will. Whatever the case, your student will be fine with me. I'll protect him."

Nedzu gave a considering look. "I see. But if you make a wrong move, like endangering his health for example, or act suspiciously, like trying to pull him out of school, all our deals are off." Nedzu's voice was cheerful on surface-level, but there was something deeply chilling to it.

"I promise I won't!" Evan said, putting his hands up in surrender.

"What kind of guardian would you consider 'suitable'?" Aizawa asked.

"Basically anyone who he likes and who isn't dangerous," Evan said. "Really it's his decision, unless the person in question is Shigaraki or something."

"Is emancipation an option?" Hound Dog wondered aloud.

"I don't know if he's financially independent enough to be emancipated," Evan pointed out. "But we could try to make it work if that's what he wanted."

"Hm. You already have a daughter, but she is quite young," Nedzu said. "Do you know how to care for a teenager? You understand that Mineta is intelligent enough to make his own decisions, which is a good start, but teenagers also require emotional support. He's not an adult, but you seem to be treating him like one," Nedzu pointed out.

Nedzu was… perceptive.He can tell that I don't consider Mineta a child.

"Mineta has undergone several difficult experiences lately, so he is especially in need of understanding adult figures," Nedzu continued, pouring even more tea. "Even without these traumatic experiences, adolescence can be a particularly turbulent time in-" and… Nedzu was doing a speech. About parenting. Aizawa and Hound Dog both started looking distinctly irritated.

Is this a form of punishment or is he trying to be helpful?Whichever the case, Evan could tell this was going to take a while. Thus, he settled down and prepared to listen to Nedzu's parenting advice for a very long time.

Much later, a group of teachers gathered in the faculty room.

"So you're telling me a yakuza boss-" Snipe began.

"A reformed yakuza boss," Yagi added.

"-that a yakuza boss has custody of one of our students. Legally. And now we're trying to find someone else to replace him," Snipe said.

"That's the essence of it, yes," Nedzu said. "Said yakuza boss has demonstrated a considerable amount of good faith. Though I doubt he has any sinister plans, we can't compromise when it comes to student safety. Thus, we need to find a replacement guardian as soon as possible."

"The most challenging part of this is choosing someone who Mineta would want to be his new guardian," Aizawa said. "Convincing him could be difficult. Mineta has a great amount of trust in what his quirk tells him and it has told him that Chisaki is a safe option. We need someone he likes."

"So we need to select someone we think he'll trust right away based on what his quirk is telling him, or someone who he already knows and respects," Hound Dog added.

"Guessing at the first may be difficult," Yagi mused. "Sometimes he dislikes people before he even meets them seemingly at random, like Sir Nighteye and Gran Torino. Endeavor as well, for some reason."

"Alright, so whowouldMineta accept?" Present Mic posed the question.

"What about yourself? He does seem fond of you," Yagi suggested.

"I don't know." Present Mic frowned. "I could be his guardian, but I work three jobs. I'm not sure I'd be able to actually give him any attention. Put a pin in that. What about you, Yagi? He likes you, doesn't he?"

"That comes with some issues in itself," Nedzu intervened. "While few know that Yagi Toshinori is All Might, if that were to get out…"

"It would be a major problem for Mineta," Yagi sighed.

"... Midnight?" Present Mic ventured.

"One time Midnight was stopped by the police in a mistaken sexual harassment case and Mineta didn't even bother to warn her. He just laughed," Snipe added.

"I think her brand puts him off," said Yagi.

"He doesn't know me at all, so I think I'm off the table unless his quirk prefers me for some reason. How much do you think he likes Vlad King?" Snipe asked.

Aizawa sighed. "He distrusts Vlad King. All of you are forgetting the fact that Mineta is paranoid about the League of Villains potentially having a 'traitor' or a source of information from within UA. Thus the list of who he trusts in the school is limited."

"That sounds unhealthy," Hound Dog growled.

"Well, do you know who's on it?" Present Mic asked.

"I believe the list includes Nedzu, Yagi and myself," Aizawa said.

"Wait, you should be his guardian! He definitely likes you and you're essentially responsible for him anyway," Mic said. "I don't now why we didn't just suggest that in the first place."

"I can, but I'm not sure he would trust me enough for that," Aizawa said.

"If Yagi isn't available, that leaves only you and Nedzu," said Snipe. "Nedzu, what's your take on this?"

"I could offer to be his guardian, but it's very unlikely that he would accept. I'm told I have an intimidating demeanor," Nedzu admitted. "Mineta doesn't seem hostile towards me, but he does act rather cynical in our interactions." All eyes turned to Aizawa.

"I'll try," Aizawa said. "Don't be surprised if he doesn't want me to be his guardian, though."

Present Mic clapped him on the back. "I'm sure you'll do great."

After talking to Aizawa, I decided to text Evan. I'd started worrying about what was going on with my uncle. While I didn't think anything had actually happened, I asked Evan to check up on him, just to see exactlywhyhe'd given up custody to my father. It was rather unlike him. Evan said he would check and figure out what had happened.

Afterwards, I played a game of cards with Shoji, Hagakure, and Kaminari. We started playing a game very similar to Poker, but not quite the same. It was my first time playing, but somehow I managed to win the entire "pot" (full of candy) for the first three games through raw luck despite barely understanding the rules. Jirou (in the background, doing homework) found it hilarious, cackling at everyone else's surprised expressions.

"How?" Hagakure said, melodramatically crumpling onto the floor.

"Beginner's luck?" I said, shrugging.

"You aren't using your quirk to cheat, are you?" she accused.

"I don't think I can use my quirk to cheat at cards," I said. "Besides, I don't actually care about winning because I don't feel like eating candy. You can have yours back."

Hagakure happily took her candy back while Kaminari looked like he was thinking hard. "Maybe you're using your quirk subconsciously, you know? Like accidentally? It's a passive quirk, right?"

I know it wasn't possible, because I didn't actuallyhavethat quirk, but I shrugged. "I mean, I wouldn't know. I don't think so."

"I don't mind so long as I get to keep my candy," said Hagakure. That seemed to be the general mood of the players and it was decided that I was allowed to continue playing card games and the like so long as I didn't keep my winnings. I played a little more (and won most of the time, prompting Kaminari to announce his theory had been proved correct.) I sighed.Random chance and a little skill can create a lot of illusions when it comes to card games,I thought to myself.

When the game fell apart (Shoji had laundry and Hagakure got bored,) I gave a farewell and went back to my room. I had been expecting some sort of response from Evan, but it looked like he was still off checking on my uncle. On the other hand, Theodore had something very interesting to say.

"I found something interesting. I think I figured out why we were sent to this dimension."

Notes:

Nedzu: alright everyone we need a legal guardian for this kid
Present Mic: I work three jobs
All Might: my secret identity could endanger him
Nedzu: I've been told I scare children
Snipe: I've never met this kid in my entire life
Aizawa: he might not like me
Nedzu: too bad you're hired

Chapter 59: truth of the changing worlds

Summary:

Discoveries, answers, and explanations.

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter fornotes.)

Chapter Text

"I found something interesting. I think I figured out why we were sent to this dimension."

"Wait, you did? What is it?" I asked.

"There is this old book - Verdad de los mundos cambiantes. It explains so much- and it's so specific I don't think it's a coincidence."

"Okay, go on?"

"It says that a long time ago, a great power created the many worlds of the multiverse. It seems to imply there's a finite number but doesn't say how many there are. Basically, it says that whoever the world-creator was, they felt sad that the residents of one world weren't able to see the greatness present in the other worlds. So, to fix this, they inspired artists and writers in different universes to make works of fiction based on other places in the multiverse. Thus, My Hero Academia."

"That's actually a pretty good explanation as to why this world even exists," I said. "But how do you know that's actually what is going on?"

"Well, there's more. There's a very, very specific ritual that lets you cross between worlds and we may have… accidentally completed it."

"Wait, what? How?"

"Okay, so the ritual is required to be on an All Souls Day that has a full moon in an area with high levels of tectonic activity. It needs three people in close proximity."

"High levels of tectonic activity? Well, we were in California. It was November 1st, right? Is that All Souls Day?"

"No, not exactly. You went to sleep on November 1st, but we actually travelled in the early morning of November 2nd. November 2nd is All Souls Day, and it was a full moon."

"Oh, wow, okay. That is pretty specific."

"There's more. For the ritual to succeed, one of the three people needs to be terrified, the second completely calm, and the third somewhere between."

"Completely terrified?"

"That was Evan. We were watching horror movies. I was the in-between one."

"Ah, I see."

"The in-between one is called 'The Connector' and must have a strong interpersonal relationship with both parties for the ritual to succeed. Which I do. The calm one and the frightened one must have different sexual orientations and different genders. Not different sexes, it specifies gender identity…"

"How specific is this?"

"It just goes on and on. There's a reason this took so long to translate, you know. Moving on, the ritual must occur within ninety minutes of the "witching hour", which I think is 3AM. While it doesn't necessarily have to be dark outside, the moon must be out from behind the clouds for it to work. The ritual can begin once The Connector consumes a small quantity human blood-"

"Wait, how did that happen?

"I bit my tongue, okay?Anyways,once that happens, if the frightened one wishes they could go somewhere else, but wants to take the Connector with them, then the ritual commences and the two are sent to another universe, with the Connector dragging the calm along with by virtue of their connection."

"Oh wow. I… I'm pretty surprised. That's very specific. I can't believe we did all that by accident! You know Evan is going to tease you forever for completing a dimension-crossing ritual by accidentally biting your tongue, right?"

"... Yep. There's even an explanation as to why we're in the bodies we got stuck in."

"What's that?" I asked.

"As a penalty for participating in an impure ritual, each of us is stuck in the body that we would want to possess the least. It's a person-to-person thing."

"So I'm in Mineta's body because I don't like him. Evan is Overhaul's because he doesn't like Overhaul. And you're in Kota's body because…"

"Probably because I wouldn't want to be stuck in the body of a child, especially when my fiance got stuck in the body of an adult. I do hate it actually, now we can barely see each other, let alone actually be in a relationship because of the age changes. And the fact that nobody in our group was fond of Kota probably exacerbated it and maybe made him the specific child."

"Ah, I see. That sucks. At least there's an explanation."

"Very true. But there's more!"

"More? What?"

"Well a few things, it's a bit hard to read. It talks about how the calm will 'guide' us all through the new universe, but it's a little unclear what it means by that. And it has another thing about 'tag-alongs' that I don't understand. I need to do more studying. There appears to be a counter-ritual to get back, too, but… "

"But what?"

"Well, it also requires a full moon on All Souls Day. But the next full moon on All Souls day in this universe is in like 16 years."

"16 years?! We're stuck here for 16 years? I mean, I thought I'd be stuck here forever and we'd never even get the option, but… yikes, that's a long time. That's as long as Mineta's body has even been alive. I'll be in my 30s!"

"Yeah, the ritual requires the three original people as well. So if any of us were to die…"

"No ritual?"

"No ritual."

"No dying, I guess. And I've been wondering something… what happened to the bodies of the people we inhabited? Like what happened to Mineta?"

"Oh, it was pretty straightforward about that. It says 'their souls have reached the Great Beyond.' I'm fairly certain that means they're dead."

"Oh…" I had been putting off thinking about what happened to Mineta for a long time, arguing to myself that I couldn't know what happened to him for sure. To find out he's dead, along with Kota…

"Don't feel too bad! I mean, it's terrible, but it wasn't on purpose. Plus, through this experience we've actually confirmed the existence of the soul. 'The Great Beyond' makes it sound like there's an afterlife too, so that's nice. This actually makes me feel much less existential, you know? I like the idea of an afterlife."

I smiled slightly. "That's nice."

"Anyway, I'm excited to figure out what more. I wonder what all this extra stuff means. And I can't wait to tell Evan when he gets back! I wonder what he's up to right now."

Evan politely knocked on the door of Mineta's uncle's house. It was opened cautiously to reveal Mineta's uncle: Haruki. "Who are you? I'm not expecting anyone."

"Ah! My name is Inui Ryou," Evan lied. "I'm the guidance counselor at UA. I was wondering if I could ask you a few questions, just to get our paperwork sorted, as to why there was a custody switch for Mineta?"

"Come in," the uncle said, his voice guarded. Evan closed the door behind him.

"So, what questions?" Haruki said, gruffly.

"It's easier for the paperwork if you indicate your reason for the custody switch," Evan said lightly, "So we were wondering if you would be willing to tell us."

"It's his father. There's no reason he shouldn't have custody," Haruki stiffly said.

"Of course, it makes perfect sense. We were just wondering as to why it happened now as to earlier or later," Evan said.

"All the UA staff are heroes by profession. You wouldn't understand."

"I'm actually the exception! There are very few heroes with the credentials to be a counselor as well," Evan said, his voice implying that was just common sense. He leaned in, saying conspiratorially, "I've had plenty of parents who have hang ups about their kids going into the hero industry. It's nothing new to me."

Haruki huffed. "You understand how the hero industry is nowadays, don't you? All flashy quirks and dangerous firefights."

"Those things have become a common aspect of heroics," Evan said agreeably.

"Minoru, he… I thought he would do fine in heroics. His quirk is nothing too flashy but it's… useful, you see. He could fly under the radar and make a decent underground hero. But…" Mineta's uncle trailed off.

"It hasn't worked out that way?" Evan prompted.

"No. He's become a target of major villain organizations. He gets injury after injury… the kidnapping, the mall incident… you know, he said there was a minor fight with a villain in his work study, nothing to worry about. Later I find a picture of him and he has these long scars on his face and…"

"... and?"

"And he was lying to me! It wasn't minor. It never was. I'm still not sure it came from that fight," Mineta's uncle said, his face souring.

"Did this influence your decision to give custody to his father?" Evan asked.

"It's why I did it. He was getting injured far too often… His father hates heroics. Failed to make any of the big hero schools back in his day. I knew if anyone could stop him from pursuing heroics, it would be Takemura," he said.

"I see," Evan said, taking a neutral tone.

"You're the guidance counselor, aren't you? Is that what's happening?"

"Takemura is trying very hard to convince Mineta to transfer to the Business Course, though no transfer has yet been made official," Evan said.

"Of course. Minoru is a stubborn one." His uncle looked up. "He's fine, right?"

"He's fine. Is there a reason you'd think he isn't?"

Haruki shrugged. "Notreally,but Takemura can be… difficult, if you don't take his way. He used to get in a lot of fights, back in the day, because of his explosive anger." Haruki frowned to himself. "But I'm sure… I'm sure he wouldn't take it out on his own son. He likes Minoru." It sounded a bit like Haruki was trying to convince himself and Evan winced subtly.

"Well, I think that's enough information for now," Evan said. "Thank you for agreeing to meet with me." As Evan left, he sighed.Another 'I don't want Mineta to be a hero'? This one seemed to come more from a place of concern, but still… What am I supposed to tell Mineta? This could be pretty upsetting.

Evan glanced at his phone, reading a message from Theodore. "Wait, Theodore knows why we're stuck here?!"

Notes:

Me wondering if I should add the "Mineta Minoru is Dead" tag
(Most popular Mineta-related tag btw)

Chapter 60: inexplicable odds

Summary:

This chapter has it all: drama, dying whales, statistical advantages, attack ponies, and an exposé.

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter fornotes.)

Chapter Text

I was sitting on the couch, quietly knitting and thinking over what Theodore had said to me, when Kaminari poked his head out from the kitchen. "Hey, Mineta?"

I looked up. "Yeah?"

"Come over here! I want to try something!"

I shrugged and put my knitting down on the table and walked over to the kitchen. In the kitchen were Kaminari, Shoji, and Midoriya.

"What do you need?" I asked.

"Essentially," said Shoji, "we told Midoriya about how you could use your quirk to cheat at cards. Midoriya was interested and was wondering-"

"Could we test your quirk more?" Midoriya blurted out. Then he blushed. "I mean, I just think, it would be nice if we could test it with more scientific rigor and make sure it's not a coincidence! We could see how much your quirk can help you with things like guessing games, gambling, cards, things like that!" He paused briefly. "I'msorryifImadeyouuncomfortableohmy-"

"It's fine, don't worry!" I said.Though, with this they'll figure out my "quirk" doesn't work that way. But Midoriya looks really excited. I'll just preface it with…"You can do tests with my quirk," I said. "But I'm not sure if my quirk actually works that way, so don't be surprised if nothing happens."

Midoriya's eyes shone. "I have so many ideas!"

Midoriya guided me around, telling me to complete different tasks while he scribbled things down and muttered frantically. He laid out cards face down, gave me one half of a pair, and asked me to find the other. Then, Midoriya asked me to guess what number he was thinking of. Finally, he asked me to play a few rounds of Go Fish with Shoji.

By the end, his muttering had increased in speed and his pen was whirling across the page of his notebook. "So, how'd it go?" I said.

"Just as I expected!" he said, smiling. "Your quirk definitely provides you with a statistical advantage!"Wait, what?

"It does?" I said, confused.

"Mm hmm," he said. "In the memory pair game, you were significantly more likely to find the card that was laid face down. When you were guessing the numbers I was thinking of, you got much more of them right than was average! And when you were playing Go Fish with Shoji, you were much more likely to ask for a card that he actually had. There are so many applications that come with this! You'd be able to find lost people much more easily, you probably have a good instinct for locations because of your quirk, an advantage in navigation… "

"It really works that way?"It's probably just a coincidence.

"Yes! I've calculated the p-value on the card-finding game. It's 0.021, meaning there's only a 2.1% chance that it happened by accident!" Midoriya informed me cheerily.Oh, okay. Well, a 2% chance is still a chance…

"And don't get me started on the number guessing game," he said. "You correctly guessed 16 out of the 20 numbers I was thinking of! The chances of that being a coincidence are astronomically low! 0.1 chance to get it right, 0.9 chance to get it wrong, your odds of being able to dothatrandomly is 6.6 times ten to the negative seventeenth power!"

16 out of 20? Midoriya's right, how could that be a coincidence? Maybe it's because the human mind isn't truly random? Still, that's so strange…

"I don't know why you look so surprised," Shoji said. "Your quirk definitely works for small things. You always know if we're going to be assigned homework before the class even starts," he pointed out.I do? Since when?When I blinked at him in confusion, he sighed and said, "Sometimes you right down 'Math Homework' in your notebook before Math even happens. But you only do it on the days when we get homework later."

How is that even possible?"Oh," I said.

Midoriya nodded. "Plus, you always start to look annoyed about thirty seconds before Midnight makes inappropriate jokes in Art History."What the hell?

"I guess so," I said, a little numbly. I started feeling vaguely nervous.Why is this happening? I don't actually have that quirk, I made it up…

"You look nervous," Midoriya noted. "What about?"

"I don't know. I just feel like I'm about to go have a meeting with my boss," I admitted.

Aizawa walked into the room. "Mineta, I need to speak with you."

Shoji nodded and gestured to Aizawa. "See? I'm not sure why you're so surprised by this. It's a natural extension of your quirk, you know. Probably getting stronger now that you're using it more."

"Huh, okay," I said to Shoji.Maybe it's a coincidence or people are seeing things where they aren't there… but the statistics…

I shoved it all out of my mind for now.I'll deal with it later.

"Alright, I'm going to go talk to Aizawa-sensei," I said. I did my best to aggressively ignore whatever had just happened with Midoriya and walked over to Aizawa. We went into the next room over and when no one was there, Aizawa gestured to the couch and sat a chair across from me. "So, what do you need?" I asked.

"The staff has been talking about the situation with your legal guardian," he said.

"Uh huh."Uh oh. Hopefully there haven't been any problems…

"While I understand your quirk recognizes him to be safe, which is relieving, UA does not consider him a suitable guardian considering his history," Aizawa said. I frowned at that, but Aizawa continued, "Now, before you say anything- while UA does not consider him suitable, UA doesn't control the law. It would be difficult to gain a transfer of custody without Chisaki's approval."

"So… what do you plan to do?"

"Chisaki stated that he would accept transferring custody to any person that could ensure your safety, only on the condition that you approved."

"Huh."So Overhaul is letting me pick my legal guardian. Nice.

"I came to offer you an alternate solution," he said. "If you wanted, I could be your legal guardian, it would-" Aizawa kept talking, but my mind screeched to a halt.Aizawa's offering to be my legal guardian?

I felt… I wasn't sure how I felt. Honored, in a way. I hadn't been expecting it. But I was going to have to turn him down.Evan's just the only one who understands that I'm not a child. Being able to talk to him this way is just too important. I hope Aizawa doesn't go after Evan for this.

"I'm sorry, but I can't," I said.

Aizawa sighed. "Is there anyone else you would consider?"

"No," I said honestly. "You're the closest. My quirk says you're trustworthy too, but I'm sticking with Chisaki for now. I think it's better we stop the game of custody transfer hot potato."

Aizawa sighed again. "Okay," he said. "But know that if you ever change your mind, my offer is always open. And even if I'm not your legal guardian, I am still your teacher. If you need anything, you can talk to me, or call. You have my number."

I nodded, glad he wasn't angry. "Thank you."

Aizawa nodded back.

Aizawa sighed, rubbing his eyes. It had been a long day and while the talk with Mineta hadn't gone badly, it hadn't gone ideally, either. The kid had explicitly stated his trust(You're the closest, my quirk says you're trustworthy)but hadn't accepted his guardianship. Aizawa had been a little bit confused as to why Mineta wasn't accepting it. If it were a problem with him, he could understand, but Mineta said he wouldn't accept anyone else, either. Did he have some reason for choosing Chisaki specifically? Aizawa almost wanted to argue the point, but he sensed the undercurrent of fiery stubbornness in Mineta and knew he wouldn't get far.

Regardless, this meant that his student now had a former-yakuza leader and current-vigilante as his legal guardian. As much as Aizawa appreciated the man, for protecting students from villains and providing valuable information…

He didn't trust himthatmuch. Especially since, as Nedzu said, he didn't seem to understand that Mineta was a teenager, despite his sudden maturity after the USJ incident.

It could be worse, though. This was something they could handle fairly easily. Aizawa knew that Mineta's and Chisaki's excursions outside of the school would be closely monitored. Nedzu would make sure of it. Aizawa just had to watch over him when he was within the school.

Present Mic opened the door. "Hey, how'd it go?"

Aizawa shook his head. "Not well. He refused."

"Oh, Sho…"

"He said he wouldn't accept anyone else either."

Mic gave Aizawa a pat on the shoulder. "That really sucks. Not much you can do, though."

"Yeah, not much I can do…"

"Even if you're not his legal guardian, you're still basically the one in charge of him on the daily," said Mic. "It's not like anything will really change and Nedzu's not going to let him be in danger. They'll…"

"... be watched, I know," said Aizawa, frowning to himself. "I just…"

If he were being honest with himself, he just felt a little sad.

"Aw, Sho," said Mic, who knew him enough to tell how he was feeling. "There's a bright side to this, a little bit. Mineta's definitely been socializing more, you know?"

Aizawa nodded, remembering. "He's finally been talking to his classmates, even playing with them. Usually just board games and cards, though Kirishima bullied him into a game of tag recently. It used to be very uncommon to see him play."

"See, that's good! He's getting more comfortable with his classmates, more comfortable with you, he started therapy… all good things! This legal guardian thing is a hurdle but it's not an insurmountable hurdle. He's still improving."

"In several ways. His fighting style and ultimate moves have really been coming together," Aizawa muttered to himself. "To think, on that first day, I almost expelled him. I never would have thought he would start modifying fighting styles to fit him in his first year." Aizawa smiled to himself slightly. "You're right, maybe this situation isn't all bad."

"That's the spirit! I even saw him making American-style potato soup for everyone today for dinner," Mic announced. He paused. "Also, are you sure he never lived in America?"

"I'm positive," Aizawa said.

"His American accent is perfect," Mic said, his voice growing insistent. "And he can makeperfectAmerican dishes. With no recipes."

Aizawa shrugged. "His records say he lived in Japan his whole life."

The sound Mic made in response was akin to a dying whale. A skeptical one. A skeptical dying whale.

Nedzu had watched everything happen on security cameras. Hm. An imperfect situation, but an acceptable situation for now. Extra monitoring which meant more work, but he had expected it, to some extent. While Chisaki's motives were pure, Chisaki was the type who had to be handled carefully due his disregard for rules and laws. Still, Nedzu had hope that Chisaki could be a useful resource.

As he was switching tabs on his computer, he caught sight of an article posted by a popular newspaper. It was the title that caught his eye.

ENDEAVOR, THE EXPOSÉ: PROPERTY DAMAGE, VILLAIN CASUALTIES, AND SPOUSAL ABUSE?

Nedzu blinked. He'd noticed Endeavor's propensity for property damage, despite his good control over his fire. He'd noticed how harsh Endeavor was when he arrested villains, how often they were injured. And he'd long suspected that the breakdown Todoroki Rei had was a result of familial pressure, either her husband or other immediate family.

But he hadn't expected someone else to independently notice all these flaws. And compile them. And have it picked up by a major news agency.

He clicked on it, checking the article over. The sources and the information seemed to be accurate at first glance. At the end, an acknowledgement that it had been inspired by an article that had popped up on a blog and on some hero forum posts not long ago. Nedzu found the original article with ease. It was even harsher on Endeavor than the major news story had been. But who wrote it?

Despite his efforts, Nedzu couldn't find the author of the original post anywhere. They appeared to be writing under the pseudonym… Attack Pony.

The writing style was compelling, but very odd. It was as if someone with a very high ability in analysis were trying to filter their thoughts through the vocabulary of a child. Nedzu's first thought was that perhaps they weren't from Japan, but their grammar and sentence structure were fine, as were their knowledge of Japanese culture and idioms. It appeared they simply had very limited knowledge of vocabulary, kanji, or both.

Someone who hadn't finished school? Maybe, but it didn't seem likely. A human who achieved this level of analytical ability would likely need some instruction, and most humans would dismissAttack Pony'sintelligence after hearing their limited Japanese, or would insist thatAttack Ponylearn more kanji alongside analysis. It was possible, but…

Someone with a learning disability? Nedzu nodded to himself. That seemed fairly likely. It would make sense as to why they were very skilled in some areas, but had disproportionate difficulty with writing and language. Regardless, Nedzu would have to be careful with this new blog writer. They seemed to have a remarkable (dangerous) amount of insight.

All the same, they seemed oh so very interesting…

Nedzu began penning an email.

Dear 'Attack Pony'...

Notes:

Nedzu tries to understand why someone who who's so good at critical thinking writes likes they are in elementary school. He doesn't get it exactly right. (Just a reminder: Theodore is in Kota's bodies, so he only has Kota's memories of the Japanese language to go on. Kota was precocious, but he was still five, so.)

Chapter 61: crashing suns

Summary:

Mineta discovers more about his new quirk.
Theo receives Nedzu's email.
Two people with clashing personalities have a chance meeting.

Chapter Text

Evan's phone rang. He picked it up. "Hello?"

"Evan the weirdest thing is happening! You won't believe this!"

"Mineta? What happened?"

"So I was playing cards and I kept guessing the right bets to make even though I didn't understand the rules. Midoriya was interested in it so he asked me to 'use my quirk' to try and guess a bunch of things and I thought, 'well, it's harmless' but IT WORKED! It shouldn't have worked, and-"

"Slow down, slow down," Evan said. "So you're saying you were supposed to use the future-telling quirk to guess what was going to happen, and it actually worked?"

"Yeah, basically. Yes."

"Are you sure it wasn't a coincidence?"

"I checked! I did the math myself. The odds of guessing all those things randomly is about…"There was a shuffling of papers at the other end of the line."... 0.0000000000…"When Mineta had gotten to the tenth zero, Evan said, "Okay, yeah. I think I get what you mean."

"See? It shouldn't have happened!"

"Are you sure there wasn't some kind of mistake?" Evan said. As much as he trusted Mineta's math skills, this seemed like way too much.

"I redid the experiment with the best random number generator I could find. Out of 100 random numbers from 0 to 9, I was able to successfully guess 78 of them before they flashed on the screen. 78! There's only a one in ten chance for me to guess each digit! If it were random I should have only gotten like 10! That's 7.8 times more correct than I should have gotten correct, and… "Mineta seemed to run out of breath.

Evan frowned. That actually was strange. "Oh. Wow."

"I know right! What even…"

"So you're saying you actually do have that future-telling quirk?"

"But I shouldn't! I don't understand. Is it like Doris said? Doris used to always say that if you think about something hard enough, it will come into your life. Like how she thought that if she focused hard enough on not getting sick, then she wouldn't get sick? WAS DORIS RIGHT ALL ALONG?"

It was obvious Mineta was feeling a little bit hysterical. But while he was saying this, Evan furrowed his brow as he thought of a new theory. "Maybe it's not exactly that, but the opposite?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, why did you say you have a future-telling quirk?"

"I thought of it?"

"And when you thought of it, why did you go with it right away?"

"I just felt like I should,"said Mineta. He paused."I 'felt like' I should say I had feelings that could tell the future.… Seriously?"

"You had a 'feeling' you had special feelings, so to say. Perhaps it was an instinct that drove you to make up the quirk?"

"We can't know for sure right now, but I think that might be it,"Mineta said, sighing."And these statistics aren't the first time I've had weird intuition that wasn't about my fake quirk. I felt nervous and afraid before I ran into the paralysis villain,"Mineta admitted."Even though I had no real reason to think that I would run into a villain and nothing from the anime or manga."

"There you go," Evan said. "This is still kind of unbelievable, but didn't Theo say something in the ritual, like 'The calm will guide us?' Could it be related to the ritual?"

"Potentially. We really need to talk to Theodore about this," Mineta said.

"Yeah… no kidding. I bet Theodore will have more details."

Theodore stared at the screen. At first, he'd needed Evan to sneakily release his articles from some remote server, but eventually he found a nearby library (an old library, devoid of cameras and only containing the oldest of laptops) and he would upload his content from there. He had just been about to release his two newest articles (The Hero Splash: Her Quirk, How She Operates, and Her Newest Controversyas well asDark Wings & Dreamer: The First Disabled Heroes) when he found, in his work email, he found an email fromNedzufrom all people, asking him about his article about Endeavor and some of his other articles (especially the ones where he analyzed the activity of heroes and villains.) Asking about his sources, how he'd come up with everything.

Theodore absentmindedly chewed on his pen. Was this a good type of attention to attract? He couldn't be sure. All he knew about Nedzu was ominous warnings about him from Evan and Ashley, that he was a hyper-intelligent mouse-looking sort of creature. The principal of UA, apparently really smart.

As Theodore read the email closer, he noticed little things, almost unnoticeable implications about how he should give information. The phrasing in the part where Nedzu complimented his skills was subtly asking about who taught him. Nedzu's brief discussion of the pseudonym Attack Pony implied he should give his real name. Nedzu was curious.

Theodore probably shouldn't reply. Considering High Specs, anything he sent back to Nedzu could probably be used against him or used to identify him in some way. Especially since Evan always read through his articles and helped correct any obvious mistakes. If he sent an email without running it by Evan, it would be obvious he was evenlessskilled at putting sentences together than his blog posts indicated. But still… Nedzu seemed really smart. It would be nice to talk to someone, even through email, who he could have interesting conversations with. Someone who would treat him like a professional and not a kindergartener.

Theodore went over a mental list in his head of what he couldn't tell Nedzu.His age, his name, his quirk, identifying details, his location.Then, he started writing a return email, very careful to leave out anything too specific about himself.

Dear Mr. Nedzu,

I'm happy you like the name Attack Pony! Some of what I know about Endeavor I can't tell you. Secret, right? The sources in the article are okay for everyone, those are the only ones I can give for now. I noticed bad things in Todoroki family, all I can say. I just wrote two new articles, one about the Hero Splash and two about Dark Wings and Dreamer. I think…

I was standing outside Hound Dog's office, waiting for our second meeting. "Come in," he said. I sat down across from him.

"So it's been a bit of a busy week for you," Hound Dog said lightly.

"No kidding. I see a lot of things coming but I didn't see this coming, to be honest," I said.

"How have you been feeling about what happened?" Inui asked.

I thought about it and frowned to myself. "Not very good. I mean I don't really care about my father's opinion of me. So not that. But I'm surprised my uncle gave me to him."

Inui hummed, a low rumbling sound. "Do you know why?"

My frown got deeper. "No. I asked someone to go check on my uncle to see why, because my phone got broken so I couldn't text him, but… well, I know they checked on my uncle. I know they went to his house. And they've talked to me since too, but they didn't say why my uncle did what he did."Evan never explained…

"Do you have an idea on why they didn't say?"

"They would've told me if my uncle was hurt or dead or was forced to give up custody. Therefore, he probably just didn't want me. My friend probably didn't tell me because he didn't want to hurt my feelings," I said, pouting and crossing my arms.

Hound Dog seemed sympathetic, suggesting that I ask my friend for more details while implying that even if my uncle reallydidn'tcare about me, that it wasn't my fault. I mumbled an agreement but even though I sort of agreed (Haruki shouldn't have given me up, he thought I was the kid he'd been raising for years) I also knew things that Hound Dog didn't. As far as I knew, in the original timeline, Mineta never had been given up by his uncle. That meant itwasmy fault, if it were a problem with Haruki, he would have given up the original Mineta too…

Your acceptance or keeping of your child shouldn't be conditional based on personality changes that weren't even causing any problems for you,my brain thought, but I still felt bad. I'd respected Haruki a lot.

Inui eventually gently asked why I'd chosen to stay with Evan, rather than go with someone else (his voice strongly implied, 'why didn't you go withAizawa')and I just shrugged. "He… I don't know. Aizawa is great, but he has other students and things to do. In three years he won't be my teacher any more. Evan will stay forever but what if Aizawa justleaves meonce I turn 18?" I blinked, surprised at myself. Did I really feel that way?I swear if Haruki gave me abandonment issues I'm going to pummel him.

Hound Dog's face changed and he opened his mouth to say something when there was a knock at the door. It was Mic. "Mineta, someone's here to see you." I felt briefly annoyed. I wasn't expecting anyone, and if they hadaskedbefore visiting then they wouldn't have interrupted mytherapy session.Inui nodded. "Mineta, we can continue this later. Maybe we can schedule for tomorrow?"

I sighed. "Yeah, sounds good."

So who's here to see me? My uncle? Evan? My father? My mother? Shigaraki in a trench coat?At this point, I was expecting anyone. When I walked over, I saw the familiar long wave of grayish spikes on his backs.My father.I sighed. He still had visitation after that court case. He had the right to come visit, or even take me from the school briefly so we could do things together.

Mic frowned at my annoyed expression. "You don't seem very happy."

"He interrupted my therapy session. Very rude, considering he is part of the reason I need therapy," I explained hotly.

"Ah," Mic said. "Say, little listener… you can use your quirk to sense the future, right?"

I nodded up at him.

"Do you sense anything dangerous? Is it okay to let you go with him?"

I frowned to myself. Was it dangerous? I closed my eyes and thought about the idea of leaving the school with my father. The moment I was completely focused on the idea, I felt a prickle down my spine and a horrible sense of unease. I opened my eyes. "Hm. No. It's not looking good, to be honest."

Mic frowned deeply. "I don't think we can stop him… I'm going to talk to Nedzu." He quickly walked down the hallway towards Nedzu's office. I stared at my father through the glass door. He huffed, obviously annoyed, and gestured at me to follow. I shrugged minutely in response. He just seemed to get angrier. About a minute later, Midnight, in plainclothes, walked by and opened the door for me. She smiled politely.

"Minoru, come here, right now," Takemura said.

"Uh, I think I'm supposed to wait for Mic," I said.

"He sent me!" Midnight said, with a grin. "I'm coming with you!"

"You?" Takemura scoffed. "Why areyoucoming?"

"Mineta is a first year who's been threatened by villains, you see," Midnight said. "Having a teacher accompany him is a commonsense precaution."

Takemura frowned and looked her up and down. She was wearing just a sweater and pants, not her hero costume, (which Takemura might have taken offense to because of all the skin showing,) but Takemura seemed to still find some kind of problem with her. Maybe the whip she was carrying on her hip? "Why you?" he asked, a little disdainfully.

While they were talking, I walked through the glass door and the conversation migrated outside onto the sidewalk.

"Normally his homeroom teacher would come," Midnight explained. "But Aizawa is teaching supplementary lessons for Class 3-A, so he's not available right now."

Takemura grumbled at her. "It's unnecessary."

"Fear not, we take student safety concernsveryseriously," Midnight said with a purr.

"Wait, are you the hero that never wears any clothes on TV? The, what was it, 18 hero?" Takemura narrowed his eyes. "Why are you even allowed around children."

Midnight laughed. "I'm a good teacher. Besides, concerned parents like you turn me on! I love a man with kids. They usually have such soft and tender hearts."

Takemura made an offended hissing noise.

I looked between the two.

This was going to be a disaster.

Chapter 62: a few steps taken

Summary:

We're back in business; answers await.

Chapter Text

The three of us walked down the walkway, away from UA, and Takemura was glaring angry daggers at Midnight. "I don't see the reason you need to interrupt my conversation withmy son,"he said, half-stomping down the sidewalk. Pedestrians gave him a wide berth. I stuck close to Midnight.

"I didn't mean to interrupt," Midnight said, her voice sickly sweet.

"I really don't believe that."

"So little faith in me? I'm hurt."

"So," I interjected. "Otousan…" the word tasted something like ash, "... are you going to tell me why you came today?"

Takemura pointed to a little cafe on the corner. We walked in and took a booth.

Takemura was… acting strangely, to say the least. I could barely recognize him, even with the benefit of Mineta's memories. Superficial things were the same, sure, like his appearance, his love for black coffee and his obsession with out-of-the-way cafes. But the way Takemura had stormed into the cafe? The way his lips pulled back in a sneer? The way his muscles were tensed? The way he'd grabbed me the last time we met?

It was very far from the distant father that Mineta recalled. Mineta's memories portrayed him as generally pretty calm unless something set off his explosive temper. He was a bit of a deadbeat, but this level of childish spite? It made him nearly unrecognizable. I couldn't help but wonder:What the hell?I supposed it had been years…

"Minoru," he said, addressing me. "You haven't transferred out of the hero course."

In the corner of my eye, I saw Midnight looking puzzled.

"I don't plan to," I said.

Takemura snarled. "So, was that Chisaki lying, or are you just that stubborn?"

My first instinct was to blame Evan for the situation, but I didn't want Takemura to try to initiate another custody battle. "I am pretty stubborn," I said agreeably.

"Whynottransfer to the Business Course, or the General Course, hell, the Support Course even! What's so special about the Hero Course to you?" Takemura raised his voice a little, and the server who was planning to hand us menus turned around and fled back to the kitchen.Smart move.

"I've got to be honest and admit there's no lost love between me and Business," I said. "And I really don't know enough about engineering to transfer to Support."

"Then why not General?!"

It was a good question. At first I didn't really know whether I wanted to be a hero, but stayed in the hero course because I needed to save everyone from getting murdered by the league of villains. I still needed to help do that, but there were other reasons now.

For one, I'd gotten a little attached to the Hero Course. I liked the teachers, the classes, and couldn't help but feel a smidge of Class 1-A pride.

For two, as Aizawa would say, I had potential. Mineta's body lacked raw power, but I could become an expert in rescue (with my perfect adhesive) or in gentle captures. No need to slam someone into the ground when you could just stick them there. With my quirk, I could easily avoid undue violence.

Besides, as a rule of thumb, if the villain couldn't tear through stone, I could pin them to the ground. And that was most villains.

My third reason to be in the hero course? It was thrilling. I was getting actually somewhat good at running and agility (also combat!) and I had loved going on patrols with Mirio and Midoriya during our work study.

All and all, I could see it. With Theodore as our analyst and investigative journalist, Evan as the overpowered and semi-legal vigilante contact, and me as the one with the "in" in the hero system, who could initiate internal reforms …

Maybe we could make the My Hero Academia universe just a tad bit brighter.

Also, if I quit being a hero before the Paranormal Liberation War, we might all die.

"I like the Hero Course better," I pointed out. "I'm pretty far along. No sense in quitting now, especially when I prefer it."

"That's no reason to pursue folly," Takemura growled. "A sunk cost fallacy at best. You're nothing special. You have to know that."

Ouch. Now that stung a bit. "Geez, tell us how you really feel," I said. I glanced at Midnight to see her reaction.

Nemuri looked at Mineta, then looked at Takemura. "You don't want Mineta to be in the hero course?" she questioned. It was a bit bizarre. Most parents would be exceptionally proud of that fact, even if they were worried.

"Of course. Justlookat him," Takemura seemed to be getting more and more worked up, "He's small, he's lazy, he won't do his classwork, his quirk is weak. Not to mention his perverted tendencies."

Nemuri felt progressively more confused as the list went on. The only thing on that list that fit Mineta was 'small.' She grasped on to the middle part, where he accused Mineta of laziness and academic ineptitude. "He always does his homework," she said, attempting to clarify. "He's third in his class." At UA, such a competitive school, that was a big deal.

"There's no need to lie," Takemura insisted. "I've never seen that kid work a day in his life."

Nemuri didn't buy it. That kid trained like the world was ending. "Okay, and what were you saying about 'perverted tendencies'?"

Mineta buried his face in his hands, turning red. "He's obsessed with women," Takemura continued, oblivious or uncaring to his son's obvious embarrassment. "He'll spy on them, flirt with them, even older wome-"

"I do not!" Mineta said, loudly.

Takemura scoffed. "Like your teacher hasn't seen it by now."

Nemuri tried to think back to any time that had happened. Maybe he said something in the first Modern Hero Art History class? Yes, she could definitely recall him saying several inappropriate things, but ever only on the first day of class. After that, he'd been quiet and unobtrusive. "Hm."

"I definitely don't do that," Mineta added.

Had he ever expressed romantic interest in any of his female classmates after the first few days? So weird. Maybe everyone had acted that way in his middle school, and he just wanted to fit in? Since then he'd seemed completely uninterested in dating any of the girls in class, which seemed to suit them just fine.Maybe he's actually gay, and that was his way of overcompensating before?Nemuri thought. Hm, potentially. As someone who was bisexual herself, she was curious if there were students who weren't straight.I'll ask Aizawa and Nedzu later. I'll bet those two know.

Thinking all this, Nemuri was quiet a moment too long and decided she needed to break the silence. "If you really are into older women, that's no problem," she said, tacking on a playful smirk.

Mineta shot her a glare.

Takemura looked both triumphant and disgusted. Mineta whirled around towards Takemura, pointing at him, saying, "I swear, if you say anything… just shut up! I don't control what my teacher says!"

Takemura's face got slightly more smug.

"Look, why are you here? You said you didn't care about me, so if you don't care, then why not just abandon me and let me make my own life choices?" said Mineta accusingly.

Takemura turned slowly to face Mineta, making Nemuri a little anxious. "Sure, let me tell you. I'mangry.I'm angryyouthink you have what it takes to make it in the hero course with that weak quirk." He glared up back at Nemuri. "Why did you let him in the hero course with thatquirk?"

Quirk discrimination. Nemuri hated these types of people. "Pop-Off could be useful for capture, mobility and utility," she said, slightly more professionally, "And his second quirk would be invaluable to any hero. Sir Nighteye is one great example of-"

"Second quirk?" Takemura questioned.

Mineta slowly brought his face to his hands.

"Minoru, what second quirk?"

"No idea what you're talking about," Mineta muttered, sinking into his chair.

"Minoru."

"Fine! I can sense future events," Mineta sighed, exasperated.

Nemuri looked between the two of them in disbelief.Mineta never said anything to him about about having a second quirk?Nemuri thought, amazed. Oh wow. Their relationshipwasbad.

Takemura stood straight up. "You didn't think totell me-"Takemura started pacing around the area, at one point even taking a handful of spikes in his hair and yanking them off, letting them spill onto the floor. They were a bit sharp, but so long as nobody stepped on them, they posed no danger.

Nemuri hesitated. It was technically quirk use (as under the law the spikes counted as an emitter quirk,) but it was a case so minor that he would face virtually no consequences. (People might call her discriminatory too, if she arrested someone for just pulling their hair and not bothering anyone.)

So it wouldn't be logical to step in. waited for a better moment.

"Sensing future events," Takemura chuckled darkly, "So you knew, you knew… everything that was going to… "

"I don't know everything," Mineta said reluctantly, as if he didn't want to give his father a pebble of information.

"And you didn't bother to warn me about anything! Any of it!" Eyes wide, Takemura started looking progressively angrier. "You liar."

"I never lied about anything!" Mineta protested.

"A lie of omission is still a lie,Minoru,"Takemura said, shaking his head. "I thought I taught you better. Now what do you have to say for yourself? What do you have to say to yourfatherwho youlied to?"

Mineta stood up. "You know what! I'm just going to say it."

Mineta took a deep breath and looked Takemura dead in the eye. "Midnight is a better dad than you," he said.

Nemuri choked on air.

Present Mic and Hound Dog sat in the teacher's lounge. Nedzu was there too, scrolling through emails and smiling. He'd been extra cheery the past few days and nobody knew why that was. A few of the teachers suggested they send an ambassador to Nedzu to ask him if this was a positive or negative development for humanity, but so far no one had volunteered to talk to him.

Present Mic wasn't focused on that, though. He frowned, worried for his student.

"What's got you so down, Yamada?" Hound Dog asked gruffly.

"I'm worried about Mineta," he admitted.

"Fear not! Kayama will do excellently in protecting him. I'm quite sure Takemura will enjoy his conversation with her," said Nedzu, cackling slightly.

… Yeah, sending Midnight was definitely a set-up, but Present Mic already knew that part.

"Try not to worry," said Hound Dog. "He'll probably be fine."

Present Mic sighed. "Yeah, you're right."

Hound Dog tapped on the desk. "Actually, on a related note, have either of you heard of someone named 'Evan'?"

"Who?" Present Mic asked, as Nedzu said, "Can't say I have."

"Someone Mineta mentioned to me. I think he said that name by accident," Hound Dog said.

Nezu made a humming sound. "In what context was the name said?"

"I think he was trying to talk about Chisaki, but he accidentally said 'Evan' instead," Hound Dog explained. "I was going to ask about it, but then he had to leave right away."

"An American name! Maybe Evan taught him English!" Present Mic said, snapping his fingers.

Both Hound Dog and Nedzu looked a little puzzled.

"Mineta speaks perfectly fluent English but he's never left Japan. He's gotta know someone American, judging by his accent. I thought it might have been Chisaki who taught him, but I couldn't be sure."

"It's probably not Chisaki," Nedzu said. "Chisaki is a Japanese national who only leaves the country very rarely. He's had some contact with international drug cartels, but mostly Korean and European ones, not American."

"So maybe it is this 'Evan' who taught him," Present Mic mused. "But who's that?"

"Maybe a neighbor, or a friend?" Hound Dog suggested.

"This kid's backstory is like an onion," Present Mic said. "It haslayers."

Hound Dog barked a laugh. "Yeah."

Nedzu looked like he was pondering something. "Tell me if you hear more about this 'Evan' character, please."

"Will do, unless he brings that up in therapy. Confidential, and all that."

"Of course!" said Nedzu, clapping his hands together. "This week has been such a fascinating one!"

Present Mic still wasn't completely sure what he meant, and it was a little unsettling.

Chapter 63: and maybe one misstep

Summary:

What's going on with Takemura? The heroes discuss what information they have.
Meanwhile, Mineta tests his new quirk to interesting effect.

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter fornotes.)

Chapter Text

Telling Takemura about my fake quirk (though could I really call it 'a fake quirk' at this point?) set him off. He went around ranting about how I could have prevented something, but honestly, I had no clue what he was talking about. But I really wasn't happy about it.

"Midnight is a better dad than you," I said.

I couldn't believe I'd just said that to Takemura's face. Midnight wheezed, sounding both amused and taken aback at the same time.

Takemura was not so amused. His face turned bright red, he bared his teeth, and he grabbed a handful of his hair and threw them in my direction.

It was only how telegraphed the motion was that let me dive to the side and dodge the spikes, which embedded themselves into the wall. Midnight stood up quickly, ripping a hole in her sleeve and emitting a purple gas.Somnambulist.Stupidly, Takemura attempted to charge Midnight, who easily dodged.I don't remember my father being that stupid,I thought to myself, as the gas put him to sleep.

I'd backed away a little bit, trying to avoid breathing in the gas. The whole situation had caused quite the panic and someone was already calling the police. Meanwhile, Midnight had already pulled out her hero license to prove that her quirk use was legal. Everyone avoided the place where the sleeping gas slowly settled and dispersed.

Midnight walked over to me. "You okay?"

"I'm fine!" I said. "Didn't get hit."

"Good," she said. "I'm glad I was here."

"Me too."

There was a brief moment of silence. "I wasn't expecting you to say I was a better dad than him," Midnight said, still sounding faintly amused.

"Yeah… I mean, you defended me. When he said I was lazy and weak," I said. "That makes you better than him. You know… maybe you're not so bad after all," I said.

"Even with my brand?" Midnight sounded curious, not hostile.

"I don't care about your brand if you tone it down near the students," I said.

"I'll take that into consideration," she said, with a huff of amusement.

There was another long pause. "What about Aizawa?" she asked.

"Huh?"

"Is Aizawa a better dad than me?"

I thought long and hard about the question. "Aizawa can be the mom."

Midnight burst out laughing. "I… am going to tell everyone that. And tease him forever. He'll never live it down."

I grinned. "Hah, yeah."

Midnight seemed to remember something, and she sobered slightly. "I heard about the whole custody thing. You don't have to answer if you don't want to, but why didn't you go with Aizawa? Or one of us? We would've been fine with it."

Ah, the million dollar question. "I've known Ev- I mean, Chisaki for a very long time," I said. "So I know for certain he's not going to abandon me. I mean, I know Aizawa-sensei's good, I can sense it, but…" I struggled to find words to describe feelings. "Well, he's only offering because he thinks I might not be safe. Which is very nice of him! But because of that, if he finds someone who is safe, then he might give custody to them. On the other hand, I know that Chisaki wouldn't give custody to someone unless I really wanted to go with them," I explained.

Midnight started saying something, but I interrupted her before she could continue.

"It's not that I think Aizawa-sensei would bail on me!" I rushed to assure her. "But he has other students, and when I turn 18, he's still going to have other students to take care of, and he has lots of responsibilities." And besides, while I liked to think I knew Aizawa from my time spent in this world, I'd never seen him become a parent to anyone except Eri in the manga, who was seven-years-old and had totally different circumstances.

I glanced at Midnight, who looked a little bit… sad? "Aizawa's not going to toss you out at age 18 just because he has other students. And he wouldn't hand you off to someone you don't want to go with," Midnight said.

"I know, but…" But how could I know for sure? Evan was completely trustworthy, but I didn't know if I trusted my own judgement when it came to Aizawa. I was biased in his favor. "I thought my uncle wouldn't hand me off to someone I didn't want to go with, and we all saw how that turned out," I grumbled.

"Aizawa isn't like your uncle," Midnight corrected gently.

"I guess," I said, feeling upset. "I just don't even know why my uncle did it. I think it was because he knew I was keeping things from him, or he just didn't like how my personality changed. My father was mad at me for keeping secrets, too."

Midnight sighed. "I don't know a lot about your uncle or your father. But I think even if you were hiding things from them, it was because they didn't deserve to know."

"Thank you," I said.You now, she's right. If they weren't prepared to raise me then they don't deserve to know…"I appreciate it," I added.

Not long after, the police arrived to arrest my father.

Not long after, Nedzu called a meeting between a group of heroes about Takemura, who had been arrested for aggravated assault with a quirk. Those involved? Nedzu, Aizawa, Yagi, Midnight, and Naomasa. All of them sat around a table.

Yagi blinked in surprise. "Naomasa? Why are you here?"

"Because the issue with Takemura is League of Villains-related," Nedzu said, solemnly.

"Wait, Takemura was part of the League?" Midnight asked confused.

"Not quite," Naomasa spoke up. "But he was affected by one of them."

Nedzu slid an image of Mustard across the table. "A version of Mustard's gas. It causes extreme and irrational anger in its victims."

"So we can't charge Takemura for his crimes," Aizawa muttered to himself. "He was under quirk effects, so he can't be held responsible."

"That's true," Nedzu said. "But I think it can be believed that most of his aggressive actions were due to the quirk. I suspect he will no longer be a significant danger when the gas wears off."

"How long do the effects last?" Midnight piped up.

"The gas has been in effect for a little longer than a week, but hospital officials expect that it will wear off in a few more days," Nedzu said.

"I thought Mustard's quirk caused weakness, sleeping, coma…?" Aizawa trailed off.

"He appears to have altered its chemical composition to change its effects," said Nedzu, frowning. "Mustard lacks strategic initiative, but it appears he is highly talented in chemistry. It is my opinion we need to show extreme caution when it comes to Mustard's future gas variants. While this form of the gas took days to drive Takemura to violence, Mustard could create a new version that would cause immediate rage, or incite other emotions, like fear."

There was a moment of brief silence.

"So, why was Takemura targeted?" Yagi asked.

"Probably because he was a family member of a student," said Naomasa, with a sigh.

"It may be more than that," Nedzu said. "Inventing a new gas form just to attack a single student's family is inefficient, even for him. This may have been a test run for a larger attack."

Aizawa nodded. "That, or he's planning more attacks on students specifically."

"We're going to have to be very careful and catch him as soon as possible," Yagi said, and there were murmurs of agreement.

"I'll contact Earthshaker and see if he's heard anything," Nedzu added.

"Good idea," said Naomasa. "We need what help we can get."

When the meeting ended, Midnight pulled Aizawa and Nedzu aside for a moment. "I've got a bit of an update regarding the Chisaki-custody situation," she said.

"Oh?" asked Nedzu.

" I asked about it, Mineta said he'd known Chisaki for a really long time."

"Hm," said Nedzu, with a faint smile, "I hadn't known how long they were acquainted. One more piece of the puzzle. Anything else?"

"Well, yeah. I think I figured out why he didn't choose to take custody with Aizawa," Midnight said. "So after his uncle and his father he has trust issues and everything. He seemed to be under the impression when he turned 18 you'd stop bothering to parent him. And that you might just give custody to someone who wasn't a gang leader once you got custody."

Aizawa sighed and rubbed his eyes. "Anything I can do to convince him Iwon'tdo that?"

Midnight shrugged. "I don't think you can. He stated pretty strongly that he didn't want any more changes… I think at this point we're going to have to accept that Chisaki is the best we've got."

"Just do your best to be present in his life," Nedzu assured. "Having both you and Chisaki could be a benefit."

"That's true," Aizawa said, sighing again. "Thanks for the explanation, Nemuri."

I sat on the couch, thinking about what had happened.

My father had… definitely not been a good thing. I was glad I had Midnight there with me. It was a good thing that my new quirk ('?') had worked properly so I could see going with him would be dangerous, though I don't think Mic would have sent me alone either way.

Speaking of new quirk… I'd been making stuff up all year about how I 'sensed' this from one person or another but I'd never actually tried it. Who should I use it on?Hmm… Evan?

I closed my eyes and tried to think really hard about Evan. After a few moments, I felt a strange warmth in my limbs, like I'd been napping in the sun. A few words came to mind:friend, fierce, protector, lawless.

I yawned, feeling sleepy. I brought my hand to my neck. My pulse was slow.Interesting, when I think about Evan, my quirk calms me down. What about someone else?

I thought of Theodore.Friend, gentle, intelligent, purposeful,were the words, and with them came another wave of exhaustion. The feeling my quirk gave me about Theodore was difficult to describe, but I might liken it to a refreshing breeze or the smell of summer rain.

I tried thinking really hard about Nedzu, but strangely, there was very little effect. There was a weird tingling in my fingers like I was touching something soft and cold, but no words came to mind and my quirk didn't exercise a judgment on him.Huh. That barely worked. I guess I should try again. Aizawa, maybe?

Thinking hard enough about Aizawa caused a reaction fairly quickly. The feeling was strange, but lovely. It almost felt like being encircled in soft blankets. More words.Warm, strict, teacher, skilled, safe.

I yawned again, my vision darkening at the edges. I curled up on the couch. Part of me railed against falling asleep(it was only 5PM and you got plenty of sleep last night!)but I felt so nice and warm that there was no point in not sleeping. Besides, putting my head down made the dizziness go away.

In less than a minute, I fell asleep.

When Aizawa walked into Heights Alliance, he saw Mineta sleeping soundly on the couch. He huffed in slight amusement. He supposed it had been a long day, but it was getting close to dinnertime, and Mineta would have to be awake.

"Mineta," he said, fairly loudly. There wasn't a reaction. "Mineta."

He shook his student by the shoulder slightly, but Mineta didn't wake. "Mineta?"

Aizawa quickly looked over his student. Mineta was pale, breathing very shallowly. A quick pulse-check revealed that Mineta's heart was going extremely slow. "Shit!" Aizawa scooped up his student easily, ran a room over, and hit Heights Alliance'sHealth Emergencybutton, alerting Recovery Girl to the situation. Then, he started moving quickly towards the main campus.

Aizawa didn't know what had caused this, but all he could do was get medical care as fast as possible, and hope for the best.

Notes:

Next chapter: A continuation of Mineta's story, and a return to TheodoreNedzu!

Chapter 64: tête-à-tête

Summary:

Mineta wakes up, Nedzu could use drones (but would prefer to rely on other methods for now) and Theodore's just excited to be involved.

Chapter Text

I woke up to a beeping sound. "Hnnn?"

I rubbed my bleary eyes and sat up. "Infirmary? What happened?"

"We were hoping you could tell us that, dearie," Recovery Girl said. "Your breathing and heart rate got very low. We aren't sure what the cause was from our initial tests. What were you doing before it happened?"

"I figured out how to activate my future-vision quirk on command," I said. "So I was practicing with that, but I started getting really tired. So I was exhausted, but I just ignored it, and-"

Recovery Girl gave me a light whack on the shoulder with her cane.

"Ow, hey!"

"Don't tell me this was a case ofquirk exhaustion,"Recovery Girl said, putting her head in her hands. "Don't kids these days know not to experiment with their quirks without supervision?"

"Uh, no…?"

"For goodness' sake," she said, sighing.

There was a knock on the door. "Come in, Aizawa," Recovery Girl said.

"It's good to see you awake," Aizawa said to me. Then, he asked Recovery Girl, "What happened?"

"This idiot managed to give himself a case of quirk exhaustion," Recovery Girl said pointedly.

"Quirk exhaustion?" Aizawa said sharply. "I didn't realize quirk exhaustion for him involvedbradycardia.What happened?"

Recovery Girl shook her head. "Not with Pop-Off. The future-vision quirk, whatever that's called."

"It's registered under the name Future Sense," Aizawa muttered, half to himself. "How did you manage to do that?"

"I figured out how to activate it on command, so I can sense the future of whatever it is when I want, rather than it happening organically."

"And once you figured out how to do it," Aizawa said, sighing, "You did it so many times you almost died."

"I… to be fair, it wasn'tthatmany times," I said.

"Congratulations, Mineta. You're banned from doing that without supervision now, unless it's an emergency. You'll train with it, but only where someone can watch you, until you can prove yourself responsible with this part of your quirk."

I almost started protesting, but the look on Aizawa's face shut me down. Sure, only four tries knocked me out (and I almost wanted to tell them how little it took for my 'quirk' to have negative effects,) but bringing that up might raise a few eyebrows. In the My Hero Academia universe, getting life-threatening quirk exhaustion as a teenager usually took a reckless amount of stupidly ignoring the warning signs, and I didn't want to hint my quirk was different.

But yeah, I could see why Aizawa was imposing consequences.

"Fine, I guess," I said.Besides, I can always use it when nobody's looking, if I really need to.

"Good," Aizawa said. "Now take the day to rest. Donotuse your quirks, either of them. You need time to recover."

"Got it," I sighed.

Nedzu was happy to discover yet another email from the mysterious author. It seemed their writing abilities, grammatically speaking, were worse than he initially assumed. They must have some sort of editor. Nedzu looked curiously at the words on the screen.

First: the articles.

Based on the Attack Pony's blog, what did Nedzu know about him?

Attack Pony (perhaps Pony for short) was definitively under the age of 25, given his offhand comment about the Hero Splash's age. He went by he/him according to his profile.

Judging by the particular hours he posted, he was very likely a student, teacher, or worked at a school.

Nedzu paused at this. Hm. It did make the 'learning disability' option more likely and the 'dropped-out-of-school' option less likely (as teaching required a degree, and being an active student required beinginschool.)

Hm. If he already was a teacher (or he had some other job, but Nedzu thought he could be a good teacher) then perhaps Nedzu could hire him on a part-time basis.

Now, Nedzu wasn'tthatimpressed by his skill in quirk analysis (Pony was decently above-average for a human, but that was barely passable by Nedzu's standards) nor did he really think that Pony's works on ethics were anything special. No, what Nedzu really found impressive was his manipulation, the way he framed the discussion to subtly persuade the masses. He clearly knew how to twist meanings and messages to his benefit. Pony wasn't bad in critical thinking and reasoning, and his investigative journalism was indisputably well-done.

So, if he could, Nedzu would happily hire Pony to teach something like Investigative Journalism, Media Studies, Simple Battle Analytics… something of the like.

If he wasn't suited to teaching, Nedzu could easily hire him as an 'administrator' and go from there. There were plenty of things UA could use someone with Pony's skills for. Or maybe he could work with them on a contractual basis…

If Pony was a student, Nedzu would probably try to steal him from whatever other school was teaching him, see if he could get him to transfer to UA. If he was at the collegiate level, Nedzu might send him an invitation to intern here. Pony, in Nedzu's opinion, would be a very fun student to have.

Next, Nedzu moved on to looking at the emails.

In his return email to Nedzu, Pony was surprisingly cautious about the information he gave, indicating that he either a) respected Nedzu's skills and considered him a threat, b) was a naturally private person, c) was hiding something, or d) was having fun, like Nedzu was. Nedzu personally believed it was a mix of all four, but mostly a and c.

Nedzu (though he was well known for his status as UA's principal in many circles) was only truly renowned for his intelligence within and around the hero industry. Yet Pony seemed to know about it, through either research or involvement in heroism himself.

Nedzu hadn't yet met a hero or vigilante that matched Pony's profile, meaning that Pony either could be: a) a new hero or vigilante on the scene (highly unlikely considering his work hours), b) was well-acquainted with a specific hero or vigilante who let something slip, c) somehow had access to conversation in hero or vigilante circles, or d) was simply talented in rooting out information about people. Judging by what Pony had dug up about Endeavor, Nedzu wasn't willing to count out that last option yet, but any of the others were also fair game.

Tracking the emails and release of the articles led to very old computers in Mandalo City. So Nedzu knew they likely lived in or near Mandalo City to release such articles so frequently. All the same, he couldn't actually track their accounts (because it was released from a public computer under a fake name) or hack security cameras around the area to look for them (there were no local security cameras set up). Nedzu didn't have time to travel right now. He supposed he could send a drone to look for Pony if that's what it took, but he would prefer to rely on other methods for now.

Ping!Theodore glanced at his mailbox. Another email from Nedzu. He read it carefully, trying to glean what Nedzu knew about him.

Nedzu's email gave advice and suggestions about his ideas, pointing him in a certain direction. If it was anything like Nedzu's last email, it would help Theo figure out how to build off of what he already had and refine his concepts. It was a quiet guidance, one that led Theodore to the resources he needed to draw his own conclusions. It was a subtle style of teaching, but a fulfilling kind for problem-solving types.

Theo could definitely tell this guy was a teacher. And ridiculously smart. Theo knew it would only be a matter of time before Nedzu discovered him, so he wanted to make the most of this opportunity.

But before Theo sent his return email, he had to send something back to Ashley. He'd been decoding more of theVerdad de los mundos cambiantesand discovered a bit more. He'd heard Ashley and Evan texting about how Ashley had somehow managed to get a 'real quirk' and with a little more digging, Theo discovered that the statement 'the calm will guide us' actuallyhadbeen referring to 'the gift of preternatural instincts' that the calm would develop over time. So Ashley's dilemma made sense. There was also a warning in there that if that person intentionally activated their senses more than three times per day that they would become extremely exhausted and might face severe health consequences. Best that he text Ashley before that happens by accident.

Now if only he could figure out what that line on tagalongs meant…

Profile: Chisaki Kai

Notifications: (5)

Ashley-Mineta: Guess what happened today? I was experimenting with my future vision quirk but I overdid it, an… [cont]

Kota-Theodore: Finally figured out what 'the calm will guide us' meant, and you were right about… [cont]

Nedzu (UA Principal): This is a serious warning about the villain Mustard. He's beginning to develop new gas forms that are extremely dange… [cont]

Chapter 65: fourth party

Summary:

Evan has to pay a fine.
Meanwhile, an interview takes an unexpected turn.

nice short chapter :)

Chapter Text

"So the raid's in two weeks," Evan said, nodding.

"We're having an official meeting with all the heroes involved, including you, a few days after the Hero Billboard JP. On Tuesday," Aizawa said, before explaining the details of the meeting.

Evan nodded. "Got it. By the way, I haven't heard anything about Mustard, but I'm keeping an eye out."

"Understood!" said Nedzu. "And before the meeting with the heroes, you're going to need this." Nedzu passed over a shiny-looking card.

Evan glanced down at it. "A hero license?!" He blinked in surprise.

Aizawa snorted. "He did say he'd get you one."

"I kinda forgot about that!" Evan admitted, grinning wildly. "This is great!"

"Don't break the law and get it revoked," Nedzu said. "You also have to do about a hundred hours of community service. And pay a fine."

"Wait, I do? Why?"

"The judge required it as part of your sentence for vigilantism. Ididgo through the courts system," Nedzu said, amused.

"Oh, well okay. I'll do that then. I guess then thisisactually legally obtained," Evan said.

Evan felt a sense of burgeoning pride looking at the hero license. He should have tried to get licensed right away.

"To distance you from Earthshaker-we're trying not to attract too much attention to you-I used 'Overhaul' for your hero name," Nedzu added.

"That's fine!" Evan said. Overhaul was still a cool name.

My burner phone rang. I was in the middle of math homework, so I decided to discreetly ignore it, but it started ringing again after a few moments. I sighed and picked up the phone. "Hello?"

"Ashley you will NOT believe what's going on!"

"Theodore? Is this about the 'don't use Future Sense more than three times'? I already explained I was-"

"No! No! Not that, though, that is very important. Just- I managed to decode the rest of the part about tagalongs."

"Oh, you did?"

"Yeah, it's the very last part of the book to decode, so no more surprises after this, but… boy, I should not have saved it for last."

"Wait, what do you mean by that?"

"Okay, so the tagalong part indicates that if a fourth person is close nearby, there's a chance they'll come along as well."

"Oh. So there might be someone else? The only one close to us at that point was-"

"They come in somewhere from 3 to 9 months after the initial travel,"Theodore interrupted."So that's why we haven't seen any irregularities up until now. Just… turn on Channel 2. You'll know what I mean."

Curious, I went down to the common room and flicked on Channel 2. It looked like Endeavor was doing an interview, but…

"I really think that since I'll be the Number One hero officially in a few days, I should turn over a new leaf! I'm planning to let myself be a little happier," Endeavor said cheerfully, clapping his hands together. "I look forward to working with you all!"

Endeavor wore a bright pink hoodie with a red-and-white floral pattern with clashing blue sweatpants. He lacked the flaming facial hair that normally accompanied him.

"Oh no," I whispered to myself. "It'sDoris."

Chapter 66: imprecise

Summary:

Doris cheerfully breaks the My Hero Academia universe, while Mineta, Theo, and Evan watch in horror.
Everyone else is very confused.

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter fornotes.)

Chapter Text

I knew- Iknewit was Doris, but I had to be sure. It had been about a day since I'd woken up and it was technically banned, but…

Just once,I thought.I'm allowed to do it three times a day.

I used my quirk to sense Endeavor. The feeling I got was something like the scent of floral tea turned into a person, with the wordskindly, optimistic, superstitious, elegantalongside it. Another wave of exhaustion. I yawned, staggering slightly.

I probably shouldn't have done that, but that's definitely Doris.

Doris was the elderly woman who lived next door, about 70 years old. She was rather friendly, owned a few cats, and used to be a dancer. And she loved flowers and tea. (If each of us went in the body of the person we wanted to be in the least, Doris would hate to be in the body of someone who was frightening and scary, so Endeavor… it was the perfect match.)

I drank some water, feeling a little bit better, and watched more of the broadcast.

"Todoroki-san, what caused this change?"

"Oh, this and that," Endeavor said, waving his hand. "Lots of thinking!"

"Your style seems - a bit different lately!" one reporter shouted.

"Just a natural variation!" Endeavor said, smiling. "I thought I might try to look a little bit less intimidating when I'm not at work!"

Okay. No. I walked back to my room and called Theo back. "Yeah okay, I see what you mean. That's definitely Doris."

"She's doing great but she has the subtlety of a brick,"Theo said."Someone's going to know something is wrong. And I helped trash Endeavor's reputation, that's going to affect her negatively, but I can't just gobackon it-"

"Just…" I shook my head. "Yeah I don't know. Maybe release something saying you don't know what's going on with Endeavor, and you're just as confused as everyone else?"

"At least that would bearesponse,"Theo muttered to himself."How are we going to spin this? How can we spin this?"

"Let's get in contact with Doris. She has her own PR team now. Try to quietly reduce the circulation of your anti-Endeavor blog post," I said. "So long as we can't prove anything against Endeavor, she can't be arrested. And that's what counts."

"Alright. I cannot believe Doris is the #1 hero now."

"Me neither."

Evan glanced at the news and the frantic texts from both Theo and Mineta. So Doris was here, in this world. He quickly sent a text back:"Guys, I officially got a hero license. In a couple of days after the JP Hero Billboard, I'll be meeting all the heroes involved in the raid, including Endeavor. I'll try to contact her then."

"What iswrongwith him?!" Natsuo said, glaring at the television.

"I'm sure he's…" Fuyumi was going to try to defend him, but she was just as confused as Natsuo was. "He's probably just trying something new…"

"Are you blind?!" Natsuo said, pointing at the screen. "That is- that is NOT our father."

"He was DNA tested and checked for quirk effects and drugs when he showed up to work acting that way, because the sidekicks at his agencies panicked," Fuyumi said, pursing her lips. "And it's definitely him. Maybe… people can change, after all."

"It's not- it can't be him."

"Thatis,objectively speaking, our father," Fuyumi said, slightly crossly. "Maybe he is trying to get better."

"He's definitely not being sincere," Natsuo decided. "I'm not sure what game he thinks he's playing, but I won't buy it."

"I don't understand," Todoroki said, staring at the screen.

"I'm not sure either," Midoriya said. "Maybe somebody's pretending to be him. Or he's joking."

"I don't think hecanjoke," Todoroki muttered. "Maybe he finally lost it."

Midoriya didn't have a better explanation.

The teacher's lounge was abuzz on the day of Endeavor's strange interview.

"What's going on with him?" Snipe asked, frowning. "Is that even actually him?"

"He isn't affected by any quirk or controlled substances," Nedzu mentioned absently, staring at his notebook. "And a DNA test was done. That's Todoroki Enji, in the flesh."

"Really," Yagi said, frowning at his rival-of-sorts. "Really?"

Nedzu nodded.

"So then why's he acting like that?" Midnight asked, tilting her head.

"I have no clue, really," said Nedzu, shrugging.

For a brief moment, the teachers in the room stopped dead. Most of them had never heard Nedzu openly admit he didn't know what was going on, because healwaysdid. "No idea, huh," Aizawa said. "That's pretty rare for you."

"It is," Nedzu agreed. "But it's been an odd sort of year. A lot of unexplainable things have been happening, honestly. Endeavor is just the next link of a very confusing chain."

"A very confusing… chain?" Midnight questioned.

"I wonder which is more likely," Nedzu said to himself, glancing at his notebook. "If all these things are coincidentally coinciding, or if they're somehow related?"

"I have no idea what you just said," Midnight responded.

"I'm working on it," Nedzu said, and everyone accepted that answer.

[Nedzu's Notebook, Page VII]

RAPID UNANTICIPATED PERSONALITY CHANGES- at least 2-3 cases recorded

Possible Victims: Mineta Minoru, Chisaki Kai,Takemura(unlikely, proven drugged by Mustard), Todoroki Enji, others unknown to us?

Not registering on common tests as a quirk effect

No drugs registered on drug tests, or drug-detecting quirks

PATTERN: All changes appear to be for the better

(Mineta - more responsible, Chisaki - wants to help people, Endeavor - less malice)

All victims seem completely well-intentioned after the changes

ChisakiMineta know each other very well (working together? Acquaintance/bond caused by whatever caused the changes?)

No connection between Todoroki Enji and any of the others on the list

CHECK: will Chisaki or Mineta seek out Todoroki Enjia after this change? If so, perhaps some merit to this theory

Chisaki's changes are attributable to the responsibility of having a child, but those changes seemed to set in around same time as Mineta, coincidental timing

ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS:

Who else is involved? Could this happen to others? Why did Todoroki Enji's personality change at a different time than all the others?

What caused Mineta Minoru's spontaneous quirk development?

If Todoroki Enji's case is truly unrelated to Mineta and Chisaki, then whatreallyhappened?

[Looking at it, Nedzu was getting a headache. Too many unanswered, nonsensical questions. Honestly, he was starting to doubt himself about this one. It wasn't a feeling that happened often, and he didn't like it. He sighed. Maybe these humans were all just changing for the better in a normal way, and because of his own personal anti-human biases he was blowing things out of proportion. Should he start fresh with new theories…?]

Notes:

Nedzu's getting closer, but he's doubting himself because everything seems so weird and unlikely. He may be the smartest being on Earth, but even he has a hard time reverse-engineering what happened if what happened breaks all bounds of common reason.

Chapter 67: perfect score, coming storm

Summary:

Mineta's been cheating, but like, on accident.
Dabi kicks down a door, definitely on purpose.
The main plot kicks back into gear.

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter fornotes.)

Chapter Text

"Mineta," Todoroki said, glancing at me. "I have a question."

"Uh, yeah?"

"What's going on with Endeavor?" he asked, flatly.

"I'm not completely sure, to be honest," I said, shrugging nervously. "It's really strange."

"Is he an imposter?"

"No, that's definitely the real him. That's what makes it weird," I said.

"Hm," Todoroki said. "Maybe he is having a mental breakdown."

A mental breakdown? That's a good excuse- well, not great to imply the new number one hero is mentally unwell while hero society is in danger, but it's better than body snatching?

"Actually, maybe," I said, feigning thoughtfulness. "Becoming the number one hero, but not really by your own merit, but just because your rival had to retire? Maybe he re-evaluated his life choices because of that, or it took a toll on him? But I don't know for sure."

"Hm," Todoroki said. "It makes more sense than my other theories."

"I just don't know what else it could be," I lied.

"Me either. Thanks for talking to me," Todoroki said.

"Good luck," I said.

Ouch. Hopefully this wouldn't weigh on Todoroki so heavily. If we got in contact with Doris, we were going to have to ask her to tone it down a little and try to make her change more gradual… though it might be too late for that.

There were one or two other students who asked me about Endeavor, and I told them I didn't know, or implied that becoming the number one hero inspired some kind of midlife crisis and caused a personality change. Most people accepted that answer. After Midoriya asked, I glanced at him and said, "Hey, I forgot to ask, but how has your internship with Sir Nighteye going?"

"It's amazing!" Midoriya said, eyes suddenly brightening. "Mirio saw my notebooks and showed one to Sir Nighteye and Sir didn't think they were creepy oranything,and now we get to have analysis lessons too and they're so much fun, and he said I was doing a good job!" Midoriya was grinning, clearly happy.

Someone figured out about those analysis books, huh? Never happened in the main timeline… but it looks like Sir Nighteye has figured it out. Seems like he's nicer, too, or at least putting in effort to cultivate Midoriya's talents.

"That's great, Midoriya," I said, smiling.

"Wait, did I ever tell you about what my notebooks were-" he said, but I shook my head.

"No, but don't worry though, I already know," I said. "Glad someone's taking interest in them, they could be useful. You're a smart cookie."

Midoriya turned a little red. "Uh-thanks!"

Bakugou had been sitting across the room, reading. And apparently listening quietly. "Hah, losers. Smart cookie, huh? I rank above him in class."

"You know I rank above you, right?" I said.

Bakugou glared at me, looking distinctly annoyed. "That's just because you're using your quirk to get the right answers on tests," he said, scoffing. "You're using it to inflate your class rank, aren't you? You must be using it, judging by what the extras said about your experiment with Deku."

I felt a flash of anger, but also discomfort, because in a way, he was right. Just like my so-called quirk activated passively when I was guessing or gambling to give me an advantage, my quirk could guide me towards the right answers during tests. It used to be imperceptible, something I could ignore, but now, whenever I took a multiple-choice test, I could feel one of the answerscallingme before I even finished reading the question.

I honestly didn't know what to do about it except just get a couple wrong on purpose for fairness' sake. This part of my quirk developed very quickly compared to the rest of it (trying to find lost things with my quirk wasdefinitelystill a work-in-progress.) Probably because I took so many tests and quizzes.

"That's not fair," I snapped at Bakugou. "It's not like I can help it!"

"Can't help what?" Aizawa had come in from the kitchen.

Ah, fuck."Nothing!" I said, flushing slightly.

"He's cheating," Bakugou said absently, turning the page of his book.

"I'm notcheating!"I exclaimed angrily, crossing my arms.

"Cheating how?" Aizawa asked.

Well, now I was going to have to explain. "I know all the answers to test questions because of my future vision quirk," I mumbled.

"What's that?" Aizawa said.

"I know all the answers to test questions because of my quirk!" I said, loudly. "My quirk is good enough now that I can automatically feel which ones are right!"

Aizawa paused for a moment. He blinked. "And you've been using it to get good scores on tests," he said.

"Not on purpose!" I said, slightly desperate for him to believe me. "It started happening a week ago, and then there was nothing I could do! I've been trying to ignore it, but it's like someone forced me to memorize the answers before I took the test!"

"Why didn't you say something sooner?"

"I was afraid you would get mad at me," I admitted. "So far my quirk's only been so obviously active on English quizzes, which I would've gotten perfect scores on anyway, and that Ethics test…"

Aizawa sighed and rubbed his eyes. "Would it help if we restructured your tests somehow?"

"Free response and essay questions are more difficult for my quirk to handle," I said. "But that's a short-term solution. I'm already getting a vague sense of how I should structure my answers to those. With more quirk practice, I'll know the answers to those too."

"I'll have to talk to Nedzu about that," Aizawa grumbled. "In the meantime we'll change your test structure to free response and essay questions only."

"Sorry about making you rewrite more tests…" I said, trailing off.

"We're just accommodating your quirk," Aizawa said, waving his hand as if to bat away my concerns. "We'll figure it out. Meanwhile, though, I'll assign you an Ethics essay to replace the test."

I still felt overwhelming relief that I wasn't getting in trouble, but I couldn't say I was particularly excited about the Ethics essay.

Meanwhile, I heard Midoriya muttering under his breath. "Knowledge… hippocampus… eventually indistinguishable…"

"Hey Midoriya," I said.

Midoriya jumped slightly. "Yeah?"

"Did you figure something out about my quirk?"

"Well, yeah! So, you're probably having problems distinguishing knowledge that your quirk gives you and things that you actually study for, right?"

"Yeah, I guess…"

"Eventually, with enough practice, they could become practically the same thing! When a question is asked, the answer will spring from your mind, and whether you know it because of your quirk or because you heard it before will be irrelevant," Midoriya said, scribbling. "While right now, your quirk onlytrulyworks this way for test questions and gambling, if you could make it work in a day-to-day context, you could become omniscient."

"I… what?" I said.

"If you train your quirk the right way, when you're asked a question, you would automatically know how the person wants you to respond or the true answer to the question. I'm not sure which, but either would be useful."

Aizawa and I stared at Midoriya in silence.

"If it were the former, you could use it to your advantage because you know automatically what answer they want from you, and you could use that to manipulate them. If it were the latter, you could become essentially omniscient, because any time anyone asked you a question you would instantly know the truth," Midoriya said.

"I'm glad to see your quirk analysis lessons with Sir Nighteye haven't been going to waste, Midoriya," Aizawa said.

Midoriya blushed.

"You're right. We should train that aspect of his quirk," Aizawa said, nodding. "Mineta, I'll get back to you on this." After that, Aizawa walked away.

"That was amazing," I whispered to Midoriya. I glanced over to check for Bakugou's reaction, but it looked like he'd left in the middle of that.Only sticking around to try to get me in trouble, huh,I thought to myself, but there wasn't any bite. After all, if Bakugou hadn't publicly accused me of cheating, I might never have learned about any ofthis.Having Midoriya as a friend was a definite advantage.

Dabi clenched his fists and kicked down the door.

Endeavor was sipping a sweet-smelling tea. He raised an eyebrow. "Oh, hello. Was there something you needed?"

"What Ineed,"Dabi hissed, "is to know what's going on with you! Youfraud!"

Endeavor put down his cup. "I assure you, I am indeed Todoroki Enji-"

"I'm not-" Dabi fumed. "Howdareyou pretend to benicenow!"

"I understand you may be upset, young man, but-" Endeavor stopped, squinting his eyes. "Touya?"

Dabi snarled. He couldn't believe- all his plans- just because Endeavor identified himnowof all times…

He expected Endeavor to react violently or angrily, with disbelief, to accuse him of being an imposter. Hedidn'texpect Endeavor to give a sad sigh and say, "Sit down, you poor dear. Would you like some tea?"

"So you're telling me that you stole Endeavor's body and got away with it," Dabi said, giving a deadpan stare. "Somehow, no tests could pick it up at all, and even quirks that detect other quirks failed. That's what you're saying."

"That's right!" Endeavor said, smiling. "Please don't tell anyone else. I'm only letting you know because you're his son, and he wronged you, so you really deserve to know."

"Who are youreally,then?"

"My name is Doris, I'm actually a woman!" she said cheerfully. "I did freelance design for work back in the day, but I'm retired now. I used to do dancing, too, but after my husband died- well, story for another day. Nowadays, I love to crochet, knit, and garden, and play cards with my friends."

Dabi looked at her in disbelief. "You said you're retired. How old are you?"

"Seventy-two this coming spring," Doris said. Dabi stared for a moment.

"You know," Dabi managed to get out, "Normally I wouldn't believe you. But there is literally no way you're Endeavor."

"Exactly! Do you plan to tell anyone about this?"

"No," Dabi said. Then, a small smile crept upon his face. "No, I won't tell anyone. Oh my god, everyone must be so confused."

Doris nodded. "They are, it's a lot of fun."

Dabi started chuckling. "To think, his perfect, scary reputation… taken over by an old woman… who likes to garden!" At this point, Dabi was cackling loudly, bent over laughing.

Doris smiled to herself and gave Dabi a comforting pat on the back.

I was sitting on the couch, thinking about my new Ethics essay (and the upcoming Hero Billboard Chart JP.) Then, Aizawa walked into the room with an announcement. "Everyone, we're having visitors. Behave yourselves while they're here," Aizawa said dryly, ignoring questions from students about who was visiting. Everyone was sitting in the common room, waiting for them to arrive.

"Lock on with these sparkling gazes!"

"We've come to lend a paw and help!"

"Coming out of nowhere…"

"Stingingly cute and catlike…"

"Wild, Wild, Pussycats!"

Oh! I forgot the Wild, Wild Pussycats visited before Hero Billboard Chart JP! That means…I glanced behind them and there was Kota, who gave me a wink. I smiled at him back. Everyone started greeting the team. "Long time no see!" "You kitties look like you've been doing well!" Meanwhile, Hagakure and Ashido cheered at the fact that Tiger brought buns for everyone to eat.

"Hey, thanks for saving me back then," Ragdoll said to me. "But never be so reckless again!"

I laughed. "Sorry, and you're welcome."

"Man, what was going to happen that you ran out to save her like that, anyway?" Kaminari asked, half-joking.

"Oh, she was going to get her quirk stolen. And maybe tortured," I said.

Kaminari blinked. "Quirk… stolen?"

"By that guy who gave the Nomus quirks," I explained. "He can take quirks as well. He wanted Search. She would have been forced into retirement."

Both Ragdoll and Mandalay turned to look at me in disbelief. "I suppose I owe you a lot more than I even initially assumed," Ragdoll said, "but still, don't put yourself in danger like that! Your safety is just as valuable as my career."

… It was a nice sentiment. "Thanks. In the future, better plans, less risk."

"That's it, kitten!" Ragdoll said, slapping me on the back.

When Sato asked why the Wild, Wild Pussycats were visited, Mandalay explained that they wanted to visit UA because they were coming off hiatus. For a moment I was confused (they shouldn't be on hiatus if Ragdoll still had her quirk, right?) but they explained they wanted to give Tiger, Pixie Bob, and Ragdoll some time to recover (both mentally and physically) after their fight against Nomus. Understandable.

The Wild, Wild Pussycats couldn't stay long, and I never got an opportunity to talk to Kota because they had to go visit Class 1-B as well, which was disappointing. I waved, though, and Kota smiled and mouthed'I'll call you'.Kota also made sure to wave and smile at Midoriya, who looked very happy and shouted that he "wouldn't forget Kota's letter!"Aw, so Theodore must have written him a thank-you letter in this timeline as well. Evan probably gave him the idea. That's very cute.

As the Wild, Wild, Pussycats left, I settled in to watch the Hero Billboard Chart JP.

Notes:

SPOILERS IN THIS END NOTE (for the mha manga)

I now Endeavor didn't recognize Dabi in the PLF fight against him, but I imagine in the middle of a massive fight it's difficult to recognize someone. Besides, Doris has always been rather good at recognizing people, and she's the type to suspect that a death never happened if they couldn't find the body...

Chapter 68: Hero Billboard Chart JP

Summary:

Dabi decided murdering Doris isn't on his to-do list, but no one really knows what's going on with him.
Meanwhile, Doris has to give a speech.
Hawks is suspicious.

Chapter Text

The top ten, from bottom to top: Ryukyu, Crust, Yoroi Musha, Wash, Kamui Woods, Mirko, Edgeshot, Best Jeanist, Hawks, Endeavor-Doris (Endoris?) Essentially the same lineup as in canon, except that Crust fell several places as he was unable to work for a while after the battle at the Forest Camp. Luckily, despite his severe injuries, he was able to recover. Good, I'd been worried.

Their statements, which were supposed to be inspirational, were… a little generic. Ryukyu just said something about trying her best and feeling bad for not helping Crust (who was nearby during the Forest Training Battle) and Crust spent his turn trying to cheer her up. Yoroi Musha said something like "my mission hasn't changed", Wash literally just said "Wash"...

The rest were just "I'll try my best"s and "evildoers beware" and stuff like that.

AndthenHawks gave a speech about how "heroes less accomplished than him" were "playing it safe", and talked about how irritated he was with the empty inspirational phrases. Then he said approval ratings were more important than anything else. It was… interesting, to say the least. And a bit controversial.

"Now, go ahead, number one hero with a lower approval rating than me," Hawks said, handing over the microphone to Doris.

"Thanks, kiddo," Doris said, nodding. Hawks looked mildly offended at that.

"Now, I know there are many that are skeptical about the state of heroes now that All Might has retired. But I don't think society has truly relied on All Might for a long time now." Doris paused, letting it sink it. "In the days leading up to his retirement, he barely helped with more than one or two incidents a day. That's not a lot."

Doris puffed out her chest. "I know I'm not exactly a symbol, but I don'tneedto be! Just by existing through the past few months, us heroes have proved we can function without All Might. All the heroes will have to work hard to fill his shoes, but wecan,and wewill!Everything will beokay!"she emphasized. She glanced at Hawks. "And even if my approval rating is lower than yours, my incidents-resolved rate is higher. That makes us two halves of the same coin, you know? We'll make a good number one and number two. Maybe we should consider working together some time."

With that, Doris handed the microphone back to the announcer, and from the audience there was applause.

Not a bad speech," Aizawa muttered to himself. "Not the best, but not the worst."

"I would have expected Endeavor to say something to try to prove himself in response to Hawks' challenge, rather than conceding to the point but trying to spin it positively," Present Mic said, sighing, "but who knows what's going on with Endeavor nowadays."

"Sorry for the trouble I caused," Hawks said, cheerily, glancing at Endeavor for his reaction.

"It is what it is," Endeavor said, unbothered. In fact, while Endeavor had been on fire on stage for the showmanship, almost the moment they got offstage Endeavor dropped his flames. It was an unusual show of vulnerability from Endeavor, unlike anything Hawks had seen from him. Considering Endeavor was someone Hawks admired… it was unsettling, to stay the least.

"Well I'm glad you don't mind!" Hawks said. "Hey, what's been going on with you? You seem so… different, lately!"

"A bit of a change in outlook," Endeavor said, waving it off.

Hawks was suspicious, and others were too. While allegedly, no quirks or drugs were affecting Endeavor, the Hero Commission still wanted Hawks to keep a bit of an eye on Endeavor while he was acting so unpredictably. "Alright, very interesting," Hawks said.

"Did you need me for anything?" Endeavor asked. Hawks was momentarily thrown by Endeavorofferingto help (in the back of his mind, he'd thought suggesting they work together was a PR stunt) but if Endeavor was going to ask…

"Do you remember the Nomus?" Hawks asked.

It was easy for Hawks to get Endeavor to agree to go have lunch with him so they could talk about the Nomus over the meal.

Chapter 69: party crasher

Summary:

The Endeavor & Hawks VS High-End has begun.

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter fornotes.)

Chapter Text

"A few dozen stored in Kamino were eventually found and captured after All for One's defeat. Since then League's been busy, but no more Nomu have appeared. We know more exist, though. You were invited to the Jakku Hospital raid, weren't you?" Hawks asked.

Endeavor's eyes glazed over for a brief moment, as if remembering something from a long time ago. "I do recall that, yes. Do you have evidence that these Nomu are in use?"

"No, they're just rumors," Hawks said.

At this, he expected Endeavor to either blow up at the lack of real evidence or smile and put on a sweet act (based on what Hawks had seen at the press conference,) but Endeavor just frowned thoughtfully. "Considering we know more Nomu exist, these rumors could really be something."

"Well, similar rumors are popping up all over the country. So I think some idiot is telling scary stories to stir up the uneasiness, and they spread across the country. That villain earlier shouted, 'hooray for Metahuman Liberation', right?" Hawks said, referencing a villain he'd cleanly taken down on their way to the restaurant. Then Hawks started to explain how Destro's life story, a radical book, was selling better than ever. "Those kinds of books sell more when society's uneasy. They thrive."

"So what exactly do you think I should do about it?" Endeavor asked.

Hawks could have sighed in relief at the normality. Endeavor was still nowhere near as intense as usual, but he seemed to act much more like himself in business-mode. Maybe the Hero Commission really didn't have much to worry about. "I want you to become a dependable leader now that you're number one. I want you to verify the veracity of those rumors and tell everyone proudly to stop worrying. I'm not going to do anything special. I said the same thing yesterday, but basically, I'm being the producer behind the number one hero."

Hawks was in the middle of explaining how he wanted to make a world where heroes had too much time on their hands when Endeavor coughed politely.

"Excuse me, but-" he pointed out the window. Hawks turned his head to see a dark winged shape on the horizon.

"Everyone get back!" Hawks yelled, shielding the person nearest.
A head crashed through the window and a scream echoed through the air.

"Who's the strongest?"the hooded creature said in a deep voice.

"Evacuate the citizens, would you, kid?" Endeavor said, backing up slightly.

"Roger! What about you?"

"I'll throw fireballs. My specialty, you understand!" Endeavor said, throwing a wave of flame at the Nomu. The Nomu was knocked back slightly and Endeavor jumped forward, hovering in the air.

"Endeavor, you can fly?"

"No, I can only hover!" Doris shouted.

"You didn't think you could kill me with this fire, did you?"

"It regenerates!" Doris warned. Doris knew all of Endeavor's moves and techniques on an intellectual level, as she had his memory, but for some reason lacked his muscle memory. It made no sense, but now was not the time to consider that.

She'd had plenty of time to practice with her latest villain captures, but some of the Super Moves were still… a bit tetchy. Very few villains needed to be taken down with a Vanishing Fist or a Hell Curtain, so some of his more niche moves weren't available. She'd have to be careful where she used those anyways, because it made her new body overheat.

… all the same, with the hooded being's (Hoodie?) regeneration ability, it might take a serious blast of flame to actually take him down.Find the weak point, burn the weak point.

She threw another blast of flame but found herself slammed against the building.If he's pinning me, it means he's stuck in one spot!"Flashfire First!" she yelled. She managed to burn through part of his torso, but it built itself right back.Do I need to vaporize it, or- could the head be the weakness? The exposed brain seems like an oversight…

Hawks was quickly lifting people out of the collapsing building, which looked ready to fall on to the streets below.Oh, that's a problem.Luckily, Endeavor had been in situations like these before, and she'd studied his memories for tips before going out into the streets. Once all the people were out, she yelled, "Hell Spider!", slicing the collapsing portion into more manageable pieces. With his feathers, Hawks redirected the pieces to land more safely.

Unfortunately, even with just two Super Moves, Doris noted that she was starting to get too hot.

"You aren't firing anymore?"Hoodie said."The heat rays? Or you can't fire."

"Well… uh, if you don't have anything nice to say, then don't say it!" Doris snapped, fresh out of clever quips. She never really had any in the first place.

I need to take him out now, before my overheating gets any more severe. I'll aim for the neck and hopefully catch both the brain and the rest of the body in the resulting blast…

"Prominence Burn!" Light shined brightly from the flames of Doris' Prominence Burn, like a miniature sun in the sky. When the light dimmed, Hoodie seemed to be gone. "Is it- over?"

"Too bad."Doris whipped her head around, just to see the villain's decapitated head in the air. It must have thrown it, and it was rapidly regenerating.

With two rapid strikes, Hoodie slammed its fists into Doris' face and her side, then slammed her into the ground. "Oww… "

"Boring. Aren't there any stronger heroes around?"

Doris knew that as the strongest hero around, she should get back up regardless of the pain and try to delay Hoodie further. But she wasn't sure she could even fire off another Prominence Burn without accidentally killing herself. As she contemplated the next course of action, Hoodie turned to ash above her.

"W-what?" Doris said, her voice shaky.

"I'm sorry for being so late. But now that you've finally brought the fight to the ground... Well, I can't fly, is all."

It was a man with auburn hair, a black facemask, and a feathery purple-and-green coat. "Are you alright? I'm Overhaul- another hero, a new one," he explained, crouching down.

"Ah- ow, I'm alright," Doris assured. Overhaul helped her up. Meanwhile, Hawks landed nearby. "Hey, what happened to the Nomu? I lost eyes on it."

"He vaporized it," Doris explained, nodding at Overhaul. Hawks' sharp eyes darted to the man. "I'm Overhaul," he said, fishing out what looked like a hero license. "My quirk lets me reshape things, so I just turned him into ash. I'm a new hero on scene."

Hawks' eyes scanned the hero license and saw no falsehood. He flashed a smile. "Huh! Good that you were here, then. Some debut, for a newbie."

"How did you know Hoodie was coming," Doris asked.

Hawks eyes narrowed. "Hoodie?"

"The thing with the hood," Doris said. "We were talking about rumors of Nomu before Hoodie attacked the building. Was there any information you neglected to share with me? You seem like a nice kid, but that's a bit too much of a coincidence."

Hawks was about to respond but something seemed to catch his eyes. "Later. The media's coming over."

While Hawks was glancing at the media trucks, Overhaul discreetly handed Doris a piece of folded paper. "You'll be interested in it," he promised quietly, before melting melodramatically into the shadows.

It wasn't long after that Doris left to go see a medical team for her injuries and Hawks was left to deal with the media. Hawks ended up saying that Endeavor weakened the monster while he rescued citizens and ran damage control, while a new hero called 'Overhaul' dealt the finishing blow. It was essentially accurate, and with his statements, credit was split fairly evenly among the three.

Later, at the hospital, after a few people had used healing quirks on Doris, she was feeling better enough to read the letter. Curiously, it was written in English.

Hey Doris!

It's me, Evan. Ashley, Theodore and I are all trapped in this world…

… for more information, meet us at Cafe Neko on xxx North Street in Musutafu.

Your friend,

Evan

Lacking fire, wearing a worn hoodie, and half her face plastered up because of the hit that the Nomu landed, no one recognized "Endeavor" when she headed into the cafe. He just seemed like another tired person, and no one wanted to stare at her obvious facial injury.

Sitting around the table were Overhaul (Evan), a short purple-haired teenager, and a black-haired elementary schooler with sharp eyes and a red cap.

"Hello," said the purple one. "My name's Mineta."

Mineta is Ashley, according to the letter. So that means…

"And I'm Kota," said the kid.

So that's Theodore.

"It's amazing we all get to meet, after all this," Evan said, with a faint smile. "We've got a lot to catch you up on, that's for sure."

"Definitely," Theodore said and Ashley nodded.

"But first," said Evan, "What about pronouns? And names?"

"Oh," Doris said. "Well, I like the name Doris better, more familiar, though Endeavor is quite nice for a hero name. And while it's easier to handle being called 'he' by random people in this universe because Endeavor is so used to it, I still like 'she' better."

"Nice," Evan said, nodding. "He/him, I prefer Evan better but don't mind Chisaki Kai."

"He/him," Theo said. "Theo and Kota are both equally good."

"He/him also," Mineta said. "Ashley's a nice name, so I don't mind if you call me that, but I think I'd rather go by Mineta Minoru now that I'm male."

While Evan, Theodore, and Doris started chatting about how things had been, Mineta went up to order their drinks. Mineta handed over some yen and meandered back over towards the table while the drinks were being made.

"What a fine gentleman!" Doris said. "Is this a friend of yours?"

Mineta glanced over towards where Doris was looking and saw a flash of white fur. It was- oh… It was Principal Nedzu, smiling in a very friendly way towards Doris.

"I… I don't know if you would call him a friend?" Evan managed to get out, looking at Principal Nedzu uncertainly.

Doris sighed. "What a shame. He's so polite. Reminds me of my grandson."

"D- Endeavor, you don'thavea grandson," Evan hissed.

"Oh, um…" Doris looked down at Nedzu again. "He reminds me of… my normal son?"

Nedzu didn't lose his friendly smile.

Theo laid his forehead on the table. "We're done," he said.

As Nedzu turned 180 degrees to stare Mineta in the eyes, Mineta couldn't help but agree.

Notes:

(He/him pronouns and 'Endeavor' are used in Hawks perspective because he's unaware of the change)

Also,
My Hero Academia AU where everything is the same except the Nomu Hood is actually called Hoodie and Endeavor is trans.

Chapter 70: at last, answers

Summary:

Nedzu confronts the four. Theo's life changes some. Hawks and Dabi meet in an alleyway.

Notes:

minor manga spoilers!

Chapter Text

Todoroki had panicked when he heard his father was fighting someone so truly powerful in the city. His father had been acting strange lately, but he didn't want him todie.He was very relieved when he heard that his father was alright, but frowned when he heard someone else had finished off the monster. His father would be angry about that.

Well… no. His father wouldnormallybe angry about that. There was no telling how he would react to someone else ('great heroes don'tneedhelp, Shouto') intervening at this point. He couldn't be sure. Maybe he wouldn't be too mad?

"Apologies for interrupting," Nedzu said, not sounding sorry. "Mineta-kun, would you come over here?" Nedzu asked.

I shuffled over towards the table.

"I'm going to tell you what I know," Nedzu said, waving his hands at the four of us. "One, none of you are who you say you are. Definitive body switching." There were a few reluctant nods.

"Next, all of you know one another and you all are from America. Between names like 'Doris' and 'Evan' and Mineta's fluency in American English, it's undeniable. Anything wrong so far?"

"No…" Theo said, wilting.

"Good. Four, all of you are different ages. You," he pointed to me, "you," he pointed to Theodore, "and you," he pointed to Evan, "are all in your early 20s. Mineta-kun is the youngest and 'Evan' is the oldest among you three. And Doris is the oldest of all of you, probably in her 70s or 80s."

"Seventy-two," Doris said.

"You all appear to have known each other before the switch, and the switch was likely unintentional on your parts," Nedzu said. "None of you have attempted to exploit your various positions for any personal gains and most of your plans are slipshod, put together at the last moment. And none of you are good actors. I can't imagine this was on purpose."

"It was proximity-based," I explained. "We were all neighbors but then we switched into these bodies. We didn't mean to! It was an accident."

"As expected. Now, this next part took me the longest to figure out," Nedzu gave a sharp smile. "Either you time traveled, or you're from a different universe," Nedzu said.

"W-how?!" Evan said. "How'd you figure that out?"

"It was many little things," Nedzu explained. "From the defunct company you used as your hero name," Nedzu said, nodding at me, "to the minute variations in all of your fashion choices, to the dishes Mineta cooks in the dorms, it only makes sense that all of you are from 21st century America specifically."

"Defunct company?" Theo glanced at me in confusion.

"My hero name is Vineyard Vine," I said. Theodore facepalmed.

… so choosing Vineyard Vinedidcome back to bite me.

"So which is it? Do you not know?"

"We think it's a different universe," I said. "There were things in our universe that don't exist in yours."

"Interesting," Nedzu said, tapping his chin. "Is that all?"

I didn't feel like bringing up the 'My Hero Academia is a manga' topic right now. We could tell him about that later. "Basically," I said. "We were thinking that my future vision quirk was a side effect of dimensional travel. And we don't know how to go back to our own universe at this point."

Nedzu clapped his hands together. "This certainly was a puzzle! Though it might have been better if you'd gone straight to me and asked for help."

"I didn't want to get arrested," Evan volunteered.

Nedzu nodded. "Very understandable. But while I'm certain I came to the correct conclusion, it would have been easy for someone else to come up with awrongconclusion that implicated you while I was still deducing the cause of your strange behavior. This is certainly a unique case, but in the future, please come to me with any issues as large as this."

"Yeah, alright," I sighed.

"I'm very sorry to all of you," Doris said, bowing her head. "All of you were able to keep this hidden for months, but I managed to reveal us within a week."

"You didn't even know the rest of us were here at first," Theo said, standing on his chair to pat the very-tall Doris on the shoulder. "You didn't realize there was anyone else to reveal."

"While your change was the most obvious, I'm quite sure I would have discovered the truth eventually, if more slowly," Nedzu assured her cheerily. "I was already on the correct deductive pathway when you arrived. Though I do have to admit trying to understand the cause of all this was very amusing. I don't think I've been so confused in years!"

Thatwasa pretty unique honor.

"Though," Nedzu glanced at Theodore, "who are you exactly?"

"I'm Kota Izumi," Theo said. "Mandalay's nephew."

"Ah," Nedzu nodded. "I haven't yet confirmed this, so excuse me if I'm wrong, but are you Attack Pony?"

"... Yeah."

"Fascinating. You must have realized contacting me on a consistent basis would only risk your discovery," Nedzu said, flashing a smile.

"Yeah, but you were the only one who didn't treat me like I was actually five," Theo pouted.

Nedzu's eyes lit up in understanding. "I see. In fact, I may have a solution for that fact."

"What do you mean?"

"You'll see!" Nedzu promised. "In the meantime, we should investigate further, to see if we can send you back to your own universe and bring back the owners of these original bodies."

… yeah, that might not be happening.

"Theo, send him a copy or translation of that book later and an explanation of the Boku no Hero manga," I said.

Nedzu looked at me questioningly.

"We found a book that seems to explain our mode of dimensional travel," I said. "And, well, it kind've implies the original owners of the bodies are… not alive, any more."

Nedzu frowned. "Hm. That's… unfortunate."

"My body was a terrible person. He was planning on torturing children," Evan said. "But I wish Kota and Mineta were still alive. Even Endeavor, though he was abusive…"

There was a long silence. Nedzu broke it. "If this is true, it could be problematic. Even if we could find a way to send you back, we can't allow Endeavor to drop dead right now. Society is in a fragile state."

"There's a way to return listed in the book, but it's so specific it would take years to set up," I said. "Theo should just send you a copy. It's a better explanation."

"I will," Theo said.

"The situation isn't ideal, but I'm glad it was you," Nedzu said.

"Huh?" Evan asked.

"So many humans would have tried to make a grab for power. But none of you have," Nedzu mused. " Of all the people who could have been transported here… a group that only wants to help. Quite lucky, on our part."

"You probably have good karma," Doris said.

"And a group that's just careful enough that most people won't be able to discover the truth, but such poor actors that I catch on fairly easily. It's perfect," Nedzu said.

"You're welcome?" Evan said, and that was that.

When Theodore arrived home (he'd had to sneak on a train to get to Musutafu and back), Mandalay and Ragdoll were waiting for him.

"Nedzu said he ran into you today," Mandalay said. Theo froze.

"He said we should screen you for an intelligence quirk," she continued.

Is this what he meant by 'I'll see what I can do about it.'?

"It makes a lot of sense!" Ragdoll added. "You always were a precocious kid, but right before you got your water quirk you seemed to suddenly become so insightful!"

"Uh… yeah," Theo said.

"Having more than one quirk is so rare," Mandalay mused, "but considering Water Gun is just like your father's quirk, and your great aunt on your mother's side had a mild intelligence boosting quirk, it makes sense…"

Theo smiled to himself. At least now people would take him more seriously.

Evan glanced at the television. He'd been getting a lot of media attention as a new hero for being the one to deal the finishing blow to what the media had dubbed "Hoodie" based on one of Hawks' comments. He'd shared his phone number with Doris on the way out, meaning he finally had a way to contact her. Excellent. And with Nedzu finally understanding the full scope of the situation (and on their side) he would be able to cover for them…

Things were looking up. Hopefully the Jakku City Hospital raid went just as well.

Hawks confronted Dabi in an alley about how he didn't hold up to his end of the deal, sending a Nomu in the middle of the day rather than in a factory along the coast.

"Just wanted to see if this Endeavor was as good as my old man," Dabi said.

"Your old man?"

"And speaking of broken deals," Dabi said. "You didn't say that a new hero would be on scene. Overhaul, was it?"

"I didn't expect him to be there either. He showed up on his own."

"Likely story. You know, between that and the zero fatality count I have to say, I'm not very convinced of your burgeoning villainy," Dabi said, raising his eyebrows.

"I had to keep up appearances," Hawks insisted, but Dabi was skeptical. What were the odds that someone perfect for taking out Nomu, like Overhaul, would just be sitting around waiting to jump into the fight? Of course Dabi knew that Hawks was obviously a spy for the heroes, but if Hawks was willing to do something that bold while undercover, who else knew what he would do? It made the whole operation too risky. So it probably wasn't worth playing along.

The two parted shortly after. Dabi told Hawks he would 'contact him again' sometime soon, but he was lying. He definitely wasn't letting Hawks get any closer to the League.