The Hero & The Demon

Chapter Five

Izuku Midoriya hadn't been focusing much in class, but even in his inattentive state, he had picked up on the news that a new transfer student would be joining his class.

It seemed strange to him for someone to jump in so late into the year. It had been three months since his training with All-Might began, leaving a little over six months until UA's entrance exams. He had been working away at All-Might's carefully prepared training plan, and was brainstorming ways to help supplement and augment it with additional training on his own. The real trouble was finding the time to fit in anything else, given how extensive the schedule was. He figured he could try cut down a couple of hours of sleep and use those somewhere else, but there were a lot of variables to consider. He had to be cautious of how much rest he was getting, or else he would risk his training backfiring into the detrimental.

He shook the thoughts away. He hadn't opened his mouth this time, but he could still tell that the others in the class were looking at him strangely. They all figured he was delusional after his encounter with a villain. With perhaps one exception, no one realised he was genuinely training and still pushing for UA. Or rather, no one thought he was doing so with even the slightest sliver of a chance for success.

The exception was Katsuki Bakugou. Kacchan had eased off of him somewhat since the incident with the Sludge Villain, but he could tell his old friend and current bully was still glaring at him whenever he could. He hadn't lashed out at him, but Izuku still didn't feel totally like he could relax with him around.

Currently, Kacchan was occupied chatting with two of their classmates. Izuku remembered one had a Quirk that let them lengthen their fingers, but their actual names were shamefully out of reach. He doubted Kacchan cared to remember their names either, but it was even less likely that lacking that information bothered him.

"I heard he's some kind of criminal." The boy with the long fingers said. Izuku had heard a few rumours about the new transfer student. He didn't put much stock into any of them. As something of a social outcast, he was all too aware of how wild rumours and speculation could get, and how isolating they could be.

"No way!" The other boy next to Kacchan replied, making a dismissive motion with his hands. "I heard his dad's a cop or somethin'. I heard Ishidatami saw him walking around with a detective."

"Maybe he's some undercover guy and he's, like, here to investigate us." The long-fingered boy snapped his fingers like he had just come up with a brilliant theory. He laughed. "Pfft, maybe he's gonna accuse Katsuki of makin' bombs." Kacchan looked up at the boy with a harsh glare and gritted teeth.

"Shut up, fingers!" He popped a few small explosions to emphasise his point. Both boys raised their hands defensively, though Kacchan quickly turned away from them, already losing interest. "Why do you care about some loser extra, anyway? One more stepping stone won't make a difference." Izuku couldn't help but frown as he overheard. Kacchan saw everyone as stepping stones for his own dreams. His convictions and determination were things he couldn't help but admire, but his attitude made doing so not feel great.

Even without being an active target, it was hard to ignore that Kacchan wasn't a nice person. He had been, once, though. Izuku knew it was naïve, but he sometimes wished they could go back to those days.

"Alright class, take your seats!" Their teacher walked into the room and stood at the central podium. Everyone shifted lazily into their seats, not particularly concerned about his arrival. Mister Tochaku wasn't one to dole out harsh punishments. He was generally well liked by the others for his casual, laid-back attitude. Izuku and Kacchan both didn't think much of the man. Given how much they both wanted to push themselves, it was no surprise that his attitude bothered them.

Still, at least he hadn't exposed Izuku's plans of getting into UA in front of the entire class. That was more than could be said for some of their other teachers.

"Before we get started, I've got something to announce." The teacher cleared his throat and picked up a piece of paper. "As of today, we'll be having a new student join us today. Give him a warm welcome, everybody." It was clear from his tone that mister Tochaku didn't particularly mind what kind of greeting they gave. He turned to one side and his hand extended out, the two wires that seemed to connect it to the man's wrist reaching forward. He opened the classroom door.

"Okay, you can come on in now." He said, barely noticing how the boy had been leaning up against the door and was now hastily stumbling to remain standing. He had black hair that was spiked forward. It looked a little bit like Kacchan's hair from a distance. His eyes were a slightly pale, yellow colour, or perhaps gold. He didn't show any signs of a visible Quirk from what Izuku could tell. He had a shaky smile on his face, clearly hoping no one had noticed him looking foolish.

Izuku could relate.

"Yo!" He shot a wave. He glanced around the classroom, but before speaking again, he hesitated. Right as his eyes landed on Izuku, he paused and his eyes widened. It lasted for less than a second, and if it wasn't focused on him then Izuku was sure he wouldn't have noticed. As he saw Izuku, he seemed to briefly look around for something else. He seemed satisfied upon seeing Kacchan, his smile becoming more confident.

Did he recognise them from somewhere? People knowing Kacchan from the sludge villain incident wasn't unheard of – he had been on the local news, after all. But Izuku? He hadn't noticed himself in any detail enough to make him out in any article or news report about the encounter. He wasn't quite deliberately omitted so much as he simply wasn't in any good pictures.

"The name's Kage Sekai!" He pointed to himself with his thumb. "I wanna be a hero, and I'm going to get into UA high! But for now, I hope we can all get along!" He bowed quickly. Izuku recognised the glint in his eye when he looked back up. Something about this situation, he seemed to find amusing.

The rest of the class, however, felt the temperature of the room drop. All eyes turned to Kacchan.

His palms were smoking.

At this point, Kage was half-convinced that his life was being watched by someone as some form of messed up entertainment. Of course, of fucking course he was in the same class as Izuku 'protagonist-of-the-entire-goddamn-story' Midoriya and Katsuki 'main-rival-and-deuteragonist-as-well-as-total-badass' Bakugou. Why wouldn't he be? That was clearly where the drama was, and someone, somewhere, was thriving on it.

Whoever had said God is dead and we have killed Him was wrong. Clearly, God was alive, and He was a total asshole.

The morning classes had passed by fairly uneventfully. Kage glanced around the class as he worked, observing his new classmates. He didn't think any of them showed up later, though off the top of his head, he vaguely recalled a possible brief cameo in one of the novels. Then again, he might have been mixing that up with any number of fanfics he had read. He'd considered that his life could be playing out some kind of fanfiction plotline itself, but the thought of someone wanting to project themselves onto his existential crises and now frequent mental breakdowns was too concerning to dwell on.

Anyone who wanted to be him clearly had something wrong with them.

None of the class stood out as too strange to him anymore. A few had visible Quirks, though most looked like ordinary people. Then again, he thought, the standard for what was and wasn't ordinary was outdated. He supposed that even the one boy with a large wooden head or the one with stones instead of hair must have seemed normal to everyone else.

They were all generally nice-looking, Kage thought. He was bi, so he tended to think that about almost everyone, but that didn't make it any less true. Given that he was in the world of an anime or manga – he hadn't worked out which better fit his current life, partially from lack of information and partially because the thought of the whole world being fictional still made him hyperventilate a little – he wondered if that meant most people would be free of all the little imperfections he had seen in his old world. He was sure that notion could be dismissed on closer inspection, but at a glance, he had to admit that everyone seemed to look nicer than he was used to.

It even included himself. It felt strange to think about, but he figured that if it wasn't for how this body wasn't fully his on a fundamental level, he would think he was hot.

But looks were not the reason he was curious about his classmates, nor did he feel they were the reason for their curiosity about him. Under most circumstances, he would have assumed them to be primarily concerned with his Quirk. Whilst he was sure that was a point of interest, the way everyone was looking at him with a worrying expression whenever they thought he wasn't looking told a different story.

Him proclaiming his intention to get into UA had evidently gotten Katsuki Bakugou's attention. No one seemed to think that would go well, himself included.

Bakugou was not a particularly likeable person, even more so at this point in the story. He got better later, but for now he was going to be completely insufferable to be around, and he had made himself a target of his ire. Bakugou had this fixation on being the only one from Aldera Junior High to get into UA. Something about wanting people to recognise his talents immediately. Kage didn't care one way or the other, frankly.

He wanted to help people, and being at UA put him in the best position to do so. Anything beyond that seemed pointless to worry about.

The bell rang for lunch, shaking him out of his thoughts. The class seemed to split up, a little over half going to the school cafeteria whilst the remaining students chose to sit and eat in class. Kage found himself in the latter category. Tsukauchi had prepared a lunch for him – several, in fact, for he made them in batches so that he wouldn't have to worry about it every day. Kage felt his cooking was brilliant, but Tsukauchi insisted it was pretty average at best, and that his sister was far better.

Bakugou didn't go to eat. He stalked his way over to Kage, glaring down at him. He looked ready to combust, which, given his Quirk, might not have been far from the truth.

"Hey, you." He called out. Kage chose to ignore him. He continued eating his lunch. Back in his old life, he recalled being a much pickier eater, but Kage Sekai's body seemed satisfied with anything you put in front of it. Did his tongue have muscle memory of other foods? He supposed that made a sort of sense. His senses reacting to something familiar was-

"Quit ignoring me!" Bakugou kicked at his desk. Kage held onto both sides and kept it from toppling over, but some of his lunch did spill out. He cursed. Tsukauchi had worked hard on that. He looked up to Bakugou, maintaining a bored expression. He wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of annoyance.

"Sorry, didn't hear you." He lied. "Can I help you with anything? I'm new here, so you probably know about this place way more than me." By this point, Kage could feel the eyes of the class on his and Bakugou's conversation. It had been less than one full day, and already he was getting caught up in some dumb school drama.

"Who do you think you are?" Bakugou growled. Kage held his chin with one finger and tilted his head thoughtfully. Bakugou seemed intent on making a fight out of this, so he figured there was no point trying to be polite.

"Kage Sekai, last I checked." He shrugged. "And you are…?" Bakugou scoffed. A grin appeared on his face. Any opportunity to brag about himself seemed like something he would take.

"Katsuki Bakugou." He jerked a thumb to himself. "I'm the only one out of this garbage school worth a damn, and I'm the only one who's getting into UA."

"Wrong on both counts, but nice to meet you." Kage replied. Bakugou's expression was one of sheer bewilderment. It seemed he was used to either people being in awe of his presence or intimidated by it, so Kage being unfazed was new to him. Inwardly, Kage had to admit to some level of worry, but he knew from experience that he could fight if he needed to, and he knew about Bakugou. In a strange way, it was as though he was used to his presence from knowing about him as a fictional character.

"Every life is worth everything, which is where you were wrong on point one." Kage said, holding out a finger to count. Bakugou continued to look stunned, though his anger was clearly rising. "As for point two, you're not going to be the only one here going to UA."

"Oh yeah?" Bakugou snarled. "What, you think you can compete with me? What can you even do?" Kage considered his response carefully. Bakugou would respect a strong Quirk, which might make him calm down a little. He would probably have to deal with the guy as a rival though, and already he was getting sick of his presence. Then again, just by going to UA, Bakugou would interpret him as a competitor.

Maybe it would be better if he was one that he would dismiss quickly. Get himself written off as delusional.

"My power is called Void Energy." He explained. Even now, the use of the word Quirk felt strange in regards to his abilities. He still had no idea why. "It sounds more impressive than it is. It lets me translate languages." He let his eyes shift in demonstration. It wasn't a lie, technically. Bakugou barked out a laugh.

"You think you can compete with a lame Quirk like that?" He laughed. Kage shrugged. "Oh man, you should give it up. There's no way you can match my explosions." He demonstrated his own Quirk, popping off a few small blasts in one hand. Kage had to admit, it looked even cooler in person than it did on the page or TV screen.

"I don't care about competing." He admitted. Bakugou was dismissing him anyway, so he figured he'd hasten that along if he could. "You do your thing, I'll do mine, and we'll go become heroes and never see each other again." Bakugou's face fell to a frown once more and he leaned forwards.

"I don't think you're following me, newbie." He growled. "You're not even going to apply to UA if you know what's good for you." Kage sighed. He knew Bakugou would be difficult to deal with, but he wasn't ready for just how annoying he would be.

"Look." Kage stood up. He happened to be taller than Bakugou by a fraction, which he found more satisfaction in that he probably should have. He was about six feet tall, compared to Bakugou's five foot eight. "I don't care to indulge your weird superiority complex. Right now, I'm just trying to eat lunch. As far as UA is concerned, I couldn't give less of a shit about whether or not you enrol or get top scores or beat up All-Might and get a statue in your honour, okay? All I ask is that you leave me alone."

"No way that's happening, jackass." Bakugou clenched his fists. "If you're trying to go to UA, you're in my way. I'm not having anyone challenge me, especially not some weak ass loser like you!" He went to punch Kage.

"DIE!"

Izuku Midoriya could already tell things with Kacchan were going disastrously. Sekai didn't seem to really register just how hostile Kacchan could be when he felt like people were looking down on him, and the new boy's nonchalance was doing him no favours.

It wasn't surprising that Kacchan went in for an attack. It wasn't surprising that the few other members of the class present barely reacted – no one knew or cared much for a new kid like Sekai, and they knew better than to try messing with Kacchan.

What was surprising was what happened next.

The moment Kacchan yelled, Sekai's entire demeanour changed. His eyes went wide and his pupils went small. His Quirk seemed to activate and force black veins to erupt across his face. Izuku guessed they were on the rest of his body too, hence why he was able to instantly and effortlessly dodge Kacchan's punch.

He had moved in the blink of an eye. Kacchan noticed, but before his eye could even continue following Sekai's movement, his hand clutched at Kacchan's head and slammed it down hard enough into the desk to break it clean in two. Everyone in the class gasped and backed away instinctively.

Kacchan tried to pull himself up, but Kage knelt down and pressed his knee into Kacchan's torso. Kacchan gasped, the pressure evident from his face.

"You should pick your words very, very carefully." Sekai hissed with a venom that left Izuku and the others in the class paralysed. He had seemed completely normal until now, but in that moment, there was something distinctly inhuman about him.

"F-fuck off." Kacchan barked out. Sekai raised his knee for a moment so he could slam it back down, forcing him to stop any further reply.

"I have faced things far scarier than a whiney, bullying brat with an ego bigger than his brain." Kage continued to speak with venom-tainted fury, but his face briefly flashed of confusion to Izuku. It was as though he was only partially aware of what he was doing.

"I have seen death. It is not something to wish upon anyone." He continued. "The pain. The emptiness. Every moment of your life being violently stripped away by the cold. You speak of what you do not understand."

Izuku wasn't sure what Sekai was talking about. It sounded mad, and yet the conviction of his words was too much for them to be empty nonsense.

"We are not intending to challenge you. Remember that." Izuku took note of the phrasing. He noticed more of the black veins had clustered around Sekai's mouth and turned his lips pure black. "And remember one more thing – should you threaten us with death again…"

Sekai leaned down to Kacchan's face. Kacchan was furious in a way Izuku hadn't seen for months at least, but there was something else. It was disguised well, so much so that Izuku doubted the rest of the class would have noticed it, but he knew him better than most.

There was just a hint of fear.

"We shall make you wish for it." Sekai finished. Almost as soon as the sentence had ended, the black veins vanished completely and he stumbled off Kacchan. Kacchan pulled himself up quickly and turned, seemingly about to strike Sekai. He stopped, however, noticing that his opponent was already collapsed on the ground and looking utterly bewildered and terrified.

"(W..what was…)" Sekai seemed to be at a loss for words. He had also switched languages and was apparently talking in English. His entire body was shaking. His eyes were wide and were darting around the room. The class looked at him, generally put off by whatever had just happened.

"Get the hell away from me, freak." Kacchan said. It was harsh, but quieter than his usual threats. Sekai barely seemed to register that he had been addressed. He hastily clambered to his feet and rushed out of the room, brushing past a few students at the door.

Despite seemingly having dominated the encounter, Sekai looked far worse off. Izuku cast a worried glance to Kacchan, but-

"The hell are you looking at, extras?!" He yelled out to those watching him, Izuku included though not targeted directly. He popped off some explosions threateningly. "Keep your eyes to yourselves before I blast them out of your skulls!"

"He's fine." Izuku found himself oddly relaxing. He still flinched at Kacchan's yelling, but it was reassuring to see him going back to how he usually was so quickly. There was an aura of abnormality and dread that Kacchan had effortlessly blown apart.

Still, Izuku found himself still worried. Sekai had looked so scared, and his behaviour had been so strange.

He thought to himself. What would All-Might do?

It didn't take him long to find an answer. He walked quickly out of the classroom and searched the corridors.

Kage threw himself into the nearest bathroom he could find. No one was present. He bolted over to a sink and began retching violently. It didn't stop, even after he had gotten rid of everything he had eaten for lunch.

What the hell was happening?! What was that?! That…that wasn't him, was it? It was as though he had slipped into a dream mid-conversation. He had seen what was happening, he felt it, but he didn't feel like he was doing anything.

Was he?

"We shall make you wish for it."

Who the hell was 'we'? Kage was only one person, wasn't he? But, if that was true, that meant that all that venom and violent fury and rage that burned through him was all him. How was he capable of all that? Sure, Bakugou wasn't a nice guy, but he wasn't worth that, was he?

The right thing to do would have been to let himself get punched. He should have just taken the hit, taken all the ones that followed. He deserved it. By existing in this world, he was already a murderer. He was a ghost. He was a monster. He was a demon.

"No, you are not."

Kage spun around quickly. There was still no one else in the bathroom. No source for the voice to have come from other than his own mind. But it wasn't him at all. He hadn't spoken. His voice was too wracked with rough sobbing sounds to form anything coherent.

He fell to the floor and crawled into a ball. This was too much. Everything was too much. He closed his eyes and tried to force himself to breathe. In. Out. In, and out. In and out. Inandout. Inandoutandinandoutandinandin-

He forced himself to gasp out some air. Great, he was hyperventilating. He was going mad and his stupid body couldn't even take in some air to keep himself sane? Gods, how pathetic was Kage Sekai, really? How was he so weak, so useless, so much of a coward? All his strength and knowledge and it couldn't do anything! Why couldn't it manage just breathing?! Why did he have to be dead?!

Why was the weak, terrified boy still there? He didn't have any strength; he barely knew anything. He didn't have power, and he was no hero.

He didn't deserve to live. But he was too afraid to die.

"No." Kage's own voice rang in his head. He was surprised by his own thoughts, how confident they sounded. How clear they were. "I'm stronger than this. I ran through a burning building. I faced two pro heroes. I survived. I can survive this. Just breathe."

He forced himself to breathe again. In, and out. It came out less shaky than before. He went again. In, and out. He was having a panic attack. He knew what this was. He wasn't powerless against it. He was who he was. Whether or not he deserved it, he couldn't change that. He had to make it work, make it mean something.

He slowly dragged his eyes open. His vision was blurry and they were wet with tears, but he could open them. He was still shaking, but less than he had been a moment ago. He no longer felt any more need to throw up. He glanced at his body.

The black veins were there, but they were much fainter than usual. It was strange, but they almost felt like they were caressing him. It was somehow comforting.

He wasn't sure if it should have been. He focused and dispelled the faint presence of the veins. Instantly, he felt colder, but that was fine. He didn't want any more of their strange influence right now.

He needed to be just himself for a little while.

Izuku found Sekai in the boy's bathroom. It smelled of vomit, and Sekai was shakily standing over a sink. He looked pale and was breathing slowly and heavily. He was calming himself down from a panic attack, he realised. Izuku had faced similar situations occasionally. He had been known to get anxious from time to time.

"Sekai?" Izuku stepped into the bathroom slowly. The door closed over behind him. Sekai jumped, but he didn't seem threatened. Just surprised to have been found. He turned to face Izuku. His face wore an uneasy smile, and he had clearly been crying.

"O-oh!" He waved a hand up at Izuku. "S-sorry, I didn't see you there. I can go if you want." He jerked a thumb behind himself, as though meaning to point to the door. He then realised that Izuku was standing in front of the door, and put away his hand. He laughed, a little bit forced and nervously.

"It's fine." Izuku said. "More importantly, are you okay? I-I know Kacchan can be a lot to deal with." He knew more than anyone else. Kacchan wasn't always so stressful to be around, but he had a short temper and it didn't take much before he would get set off. He was more or less used to it, but Sekai taking it badly shouldn't have been surprising.

"Kacchan?" Sekai tilted his head before widening his eyes. "Oh, you mean Bakugou! Yeah, I shouldn't have let him get to me. I guess I really lost my cool there, huh?" He scratched the back of his head. Izuku didn't want to say that he had clearly done more than just lost his cool, though his expression seemed to say enough for Sekai to pick up on it.

"Sorry." Izuku didn't understand why Sekai was apologising to him. He looked away from Izuku. "I-I honestly don't know what came over me. It was like I just…" He clenched his fists before relaxing them. He didn't finish his sentence, struggling to find proper words. "I don't know."

"It's okay." Izuku said. He wasn't sure if Kacchan would see it that way, but as far as Izuku was concerned, Sekai's hostility was so clearly unlike his usual self that it wasn't worth letting it affect his opinion of him or anything like that. "I mean, you don't seem like a bad person. Plus, Kacchan did sort of start it." Sekai hesitated. Something about Izuku's words bothered him, but he nodded after a pause.

"Yeah, he was kind of asking for it." Sekai agreed with a more relaxed smile. "I shouldn't have stooped down to his level, though. That's probably gonna make things worse in the future." He groaned. Izuku let out a small chuckle.

"I wouldn't be surprised if he wanted a rematch later." Izuku agreed. Kacchan probably wouldn't have seen what had occurred of much of a fair fight, and he wasn't one to accept anything less than a perfect victory. He probably wouldn't start another fight immediately as soon as Sekai returned, but there was no way he wasn't planning on challenging him to a more proper fight in the future. As long as Sekai wanted to go to UA, he would be competition in Kacchan's eyes.

Izuku had the advantage of seemingly being beneath his notice by now. Sekai was a fresh target.

"I didn't catch your name." Sekai said, snapping Izuku out of his thoughts. "I'm Kage Sekai, which you probably picked up on before. Call me Kage. Being called by my last name feels weird." He introduced, extending a hand out. Izuku returned it hesitantly.

"I-Izuku Midoriya." He introduced. "I don't really have a preference on which name you use." Technically accurate, though he hoped he wouldn't have to be called 'Deku'. The class tended to drift between Kacchan's nickname for him and just Midoriya, and neither tended to be said respectfully. Se-er, Kage raised a finger to his chin thoughtfully before he snapped his fingers.

"How about Green-bean?" Izuku's jaw hung open.

"What?"

"Y'know, like a nickname!" Kage said cheerfully. "That's a thing friends do, right? And you've got the green hair and you're a little short. Well, actually, I might just be tall. I'm not sure, actually. Does the advent of mutate Quirks change the average height for human beings?"

"It doesn't." Izuku immediately latched onto a question he knew how to answer. "Heteromorphic Quirks are seen as outliers and aren't counted in average measurement systems, which is weird because they're increasingly common among society and logic would dictate that their presence throws off the statistics of the average person in a crowd, but most groups tend to disregard it in favour of focusing on more conventional appearances, which is a flawed mindset that demonstrates a failure to adapt since the dawn of Quirks and that supports the popular idea of societal stagnation in our supernatural world-" Izuku didn't realise he was rambling until Kage tapped him on the shoulder. He glanced up and noticed that black veins had reached Kage's ears.

"Pretty interesting stuff!" He praised, and surprisingly he seemed genuine. Izuku's face burned with embarrassment regardless. "You just might wanna pace yourself a bit. It was a little hard to keep up, sorry."

"S-sorry, I get carried away a lot." Izuku admitted. Kage laughed.

Don't apologise for being passionate!" He grinned. "Everyone's got some stuff they can't stop talking about. I think that's awesome. I love learning new things from people who seem to really care about it. I'll try to keep up better next time." Izuku looked at him with wide eyes. He wasn't used to people responding positively to his ramblings. Even All-Might said they were a bit much, though he at least had been well intentioned in admonishing Izuku's habit. His classmates and teachers had a more condescending attitude with it.

"Thanks." Izuku said, before noticing something. "Wait, next time?" Kage looked surprised to have been questioned, but he still seemed happy. He scratched the back of his head nervously.

"Yeah, I mean, if you want to." He said. "I guess I did jump the gun on us being friends, but if you've got stuff you wanna say, I'm down to listen. It'd be nice to have people in this school who don't want to explode my face off." He laughed at the end. Izuku was still surprised. He wasn't used to people wanting to be friends with him, or even interacting with him in a positive sense full stop. Frankly, he had expected Kage to ask him to leave him alone by now.

"Sure!" He smiled. "Happy to be friends, Kage." His new friend returned the smile gratefully.

"Same here, Izuku." He said. Izuku was already glad that he wasn't going to try and make Green-bean stick. It was an improvement over Deku, but his name would do just fine. It felt nice to hear it from someone who wanted him to be around.

"Alright, we should probably-" Kage was cut off by the sound of the school bell going off. He winced and gave an apologetic look whilst Izuku visibly panicked. "-get back to class. Whoops." Izuku nodded rapidly and repeatedly before dashing off. Kage quickly followed behind him.

When Kage arrived at the door, the teacher turned to him immediately. His expression was a firm frown, and Kage winced internally. Great, it was only his first day and already he had gotten into a fight, had a mental breakdown and been late for class. All in all, not a great first impression.

He made a friend, though! So that was one good thing to three bad things. It could've been worse.

"Ah, mister Sekai. Nice of you to finally join us. I'd ask you to sit down, but you'll have to fetch a new desk first." Kage looked over and saw the desk that he had been sitting at before was smashed in two. He completely forgot he had done that. There were several spares arranged at the back of the classroom, fortunately, so he just walked over to one and picked it up.

"Sorry, sir." He apologised. "It won't happen again." He walked over to where his previous desk had ben and placed down the replacement. The floor had been cleaned to some degree, so at least his lunch wasn't spilled across the ground. He suspected the desk parts were left intentionally to make a point.

"See that it doesn't." The teacher shook his head. "I know it's your first day and being overwhelmed is natural, but you can't take it out on school property. You should know that UA won't take kindly to that mindset." Kage's thoughts wandered to the beginning of the series where Iida had been insistent on keeping people's feet off the desks. The rest of the school didn't seem to be bothered about property damage, but he doubted the teacher would appreciate his input there.

"Understood, sir." He said, then hesitated. He wondered if it was worth bringing up how he had only broken the desk because Bakugou had attacked him first. The teacher seemed to notice his expression and sighed.

"Don't bother going over the details." He said. "I heard about what happened. Yours and Bakugou's parents will be hearing about this, but I'll take it easy since it's your first day and leave it at that much. This isn't the first time we've had issues with damaging school property." The teacher shot a brief glare over at Bakugou.

"Tch." Was all he had to say on the subject, turning to look away. Kage blinked.

"I don't know who my parents are." He said. Several heads turned to him as he spoke. "Or where they are. I don't think you could call them." The teacher's face softened. Kage was more bemused honestly, but his admission seemed to have drawn out some sympathy from the rest of the class. They looked a little less afraid of him now.

"I see." The teacher said. "Well, your guardian then. Now, let's get back to class before anything else interrupts us." As if on cue, Izuku hastily burst into the classroom. Kage had seemingly used his Quirk by accident to get ahead of him. The teacher turned to him, but Kage spoke up before he could.

"Sorry for making you late, Midoriya." He said clearly and perhaps a little louder than necessary. The teacher raised an eyebrow. "I'm glad I had your help to…uh…clean up after I was sick in the bathroom?" He tried, searching for an excuse. Izuku hesitated, then nodded.

"Y-yeah, no problem. All clean now." He gave a thumbs up. The teacher sighed and decided to wave it off. Evidently, he didn't care much about punishing Midoriya. The others in the class laughed to themselves, either about the excuse being so weak or the idea of Midoriya having to stay behind to clean up someone's sick. Kage frowned, but sat down. He couldn't make any more of a scene about it, even if he didn't like their attitude.

Unlike Bakugou, Kage found Izuku just as likeable as he was in the original story, if not more so. Making friends with him wouldn't just prove useful, it would also just be fun generally. He found himself glad to be around him. For once, interacting with what had once been fiction to him felt less than strange. It was comfortable.

A lot had happened in one day, he thought. After the past couple of months had been so relatively uneventful, it had felt odd for things to be so active again. And this had only been the first day.

He wasn't sure whether he would approach the coming times with excitement or trepidation. But he knew one thing.

He would survive it.

AN: Oh hey, the canon protagonist finally arrives! I keep having new ideas for bits to add to this early portion of the story, so it's been longer than I originally anticipated. I'm having fun, though! It was nice to give Kage a good old-fashioned mental breakdown. The stress and strangeness of being a self-insert protagonist is something I really want to explore with this fic, so it was nice to delve into that here. Kage's not totally a self-insert though, he's a character of his own in many ways. I, for example, love Bakugou. Kage very much does not. Enjoy!