"Listen up everyone, we're going to be breaking up into teams for this exercise. The goal is to disable or destroy all the robots within ten minutes. Teams will be randomly assigned with one person designated as a team leader." Mr. Aizawa paced in front of the assembled class, they were grouped on training ground Foxtrot, one of the half dozen faux cities UA had. Izuku slumped slightly, 'great, just great.'
Mr. Aizawa started calling out names, after a couple groups he finally called out his, "Midoriya, Uraraka, Ida, and Ashido. Your team leader is Midoriya."
He felt his heart sink, he was the team leader? This was going to go poorly, wasn't it?
Resigning himself to his fate he found the other three in his group. He recognized Uraraka, although they hadn't spoken much since they started school. Ida, their class president, was also someone he already knew of. He didn't know who Ashido was though.
Uraraka clasped her hands behind her back, rocking back and forth on the balls of her feet, glancing down at the ground mostly. Ida, as always, stood at attention, his yes quickly snapping to him. Ashido, it turned out was the pink girl with horns, she had an easy-going smile, standing with a hand on her hip.
"Sup" Ashido raised a hand in greeting, "Names Ashido, your Midoriya right?"
Izuku nodded, "Hi, yes, I'm Midoriya Izuku. Ummm, I guess I'm team leader."
"I am Ida Tenya, as you probably know" Ida raised a hand, then lowered it robotically. Izuku nodded to him politely.
Uraraka glanced up from the ground, briefly meeting his eyes, "Hi Midoriya."
Izuku nodded back, "Hi, Uraraka, have you umm, enjoyed UA so far?"
Uraraka shrugged, "I guess yeah. Honestly a little surprised I even got it, but still. I'll try my best!" She seemed to grow more confident as she spoke, raising her fist in the air at her declaration. "So, let's go kick some robot butt!"
"Awww yeah!" yelled Ashido, "Getting me all pumped up Ocha!"
"Settle down you two, please. We must come up with a strategy if we are to pass this assignment," chided Ida. "Do you have any ideas Midoriya?"
"Right, ummm, well, I umm, I, maybe? What are uhhh, everyone's quirks again?" Izuku stammered, feeling suddenly embarrassed.
"Oh right! I can make acid!" Ashido said with a grin, "I can make it super corrosive or just gooey."
'That's cool,' thought Izuku.
"Similar to my family, my quirk is Engine. I can use it to run faster than most and have trained to utilize it to make my kicks more potent " preened Ida.
'That's definitely useful and pretty cool!' thought Izuku.
"And I can negate gravity when I touch something, but I have to touch it with all five of my fingers," explained Uraraka.
'Why are everyone else's quirks so cool?' Izuku mentally sighed, compared to them his quirk was just kind of 'meh.' Only really useful when dealing with robots.
"What about your quirk Midoriya?" asked Ida, "Please explain what you can do."
"Well, umm, it's kind of hard to explain fully. I don't really know its limits, but like, I can control robots when I touch them."
Ida hummed, "That might certainly be useful during this exercise."
Izuku agreed, it might, but at the same time it would only be useful if he could get to a robot. "You okay Ocha?" Asked Ashido.
Izuku glanced at Uraraka who was staring at him wide eyed, her mouth opening and closing like a fish, "It was you!"
"Me?" asked Izuku nervously.
"YOU! You were that boy! The one from the entrance exam!" Uraraka was now bouncing in place. "The one who stopped the zero pointer!"
"That was you Midoriya?" asked Ida curiously.
Izuku shrugged, he still didn't remember anything from the entrance exam, "I don't remember" he scratched the back of his head. The video Mei had 'obtained' had shown him enough of what happened that he could piece together events. But no matter how hard he tried he could never actually remember first-hand what happened.
"Really?" asked Uraraka. "You don't remember doing that?"
Izuku shook his head stammering, "Nothing after the written part actually. I just remember waking up in the nurse's office with a horrible headache."
"Oh," replied Uraraka quietly. "That's too bad."
"So do you like just have to touch a robot and boom, you're able to control it?" asked Ashido.
Izuku shrugged, "I guess? I don't really know much about my quirk."
"I see, in the future I hope you'll take the time and explore its possibilities. A good hero must train all of their skills to their maximum potential!" exclaimed Ida.
"Right, I'll er, do that then," replied Izuku awkwardly.
Ida nodded, seemingly placated for the moment. "Good, now I suggest we refocus on the task at hand. Midoriya, do you have any strategies for how we could best defeat our foes?"
Izuku thought for a moment, then shrugged, "Honestly, umm, I don't really know. Sorry."
Ida frowned at his comment, but Ashido shrugged, "Eh, it's not like Mr. Aizawa's expecting us to have some super complicated plan anyways. Might as well just wing it."
"Right" said Uraraka, "We did that during the entrance exam so we can probably do that here too!"
"But we should have a plan of some sort!" argued Ida.
"Oh? And I guess you have a better idea?" shot back at Ashido
Ida floundered, his face suddenly turning beet red as he spluttered, "that is! I don't think- I'm sure that if given a few moments I could conceive of a plan!"
Ashidos lips curled into a catlike grin, "Right~ sure buddy~"
As Ida continued to splutter, Mr. Aizawa called for their group to enter the testing area. As their group headed into the faux city, Ashido kept poking fun at Ida's embarrassed floundering, leaving Uraraka and Izuku to walk silently side by side. It was awkward to say the least. Izuku didn't know what to say in times like this. Should he wish her luck? But weren't they all doing this together? Maybe he should wish all of them luck? No wait, he needed to say something a team leader would, like 'let's do this,' or 'everyone stick together.'
Wow that sounds cliche, maybe he shouldn't say that stuff. But he felt like he should say something.
An explosion brought him out his thoughts as a robot drove through the front of a nearby building. The four of them froze momentarily, then Ida jumped to action. In a blur he'd approached the robot, his leg arching up to strike the small head, kicking it off the robot easily. More robots appeared, driving through buildings, coming around corners, even breaking windows in the buildings above them. Izuku tensed, unsure of what to do.
"Scatter!" yelled Ida.
Uraraka and Ashido dove to the sides, narrowly avoiding a barrage of rubber bullets from the robots. Izuku had reflexively raised his arm, the rubber bullets bouncing off of the shield strapped to his left arm. The shield!
He flexed his arm like Mei told him, and the shield grew to full size. The robots seemed drawn to him now, a seemingly endless barrage of rubber bullets pinging against the shield. He was faintly aware of Ashido and Ida moving from robot to robot, melting and dismantling the robots one by one. Uraraka had touched the robot Ida initially destroyed and was quite literally using it like a club.
A robot turned to fire at her, and Izuku felt his body move on its own. He leaned forward, his jetpack firing up and launched him forward. He slammed his shield into the robot's arm, stumbling a little as he landed. The robot raised its fist and Izuku could only watch as it hurtled towards him. Then he felt a gut flipping sensation as the grappling belt fired an anchor into the pavement and pulled him to the right, narrowly dodging the attack.
He reached out, touching the robot with his free hand. He felt power thrum through him as the warm metal pulsed under his hand. Izuku felt a momentary sense of vertigo as his vision fractured then doubled. He shut his eyes to stave off vomiting, then he felt an uncanny sense of calmness wash over him. He pressed his left hand against the robot, smoothly pulling the grappling gun from his belt with his right.
With a practiced ease he never possessed before he aimed it at a robot, thumbing a switch on the side to change the firing mode to launch nets instead of grapples. The moment he lined up on the robot he pulled the trigger, *thwomp*. A net wrapped around the robot, tangling in the rotating gun and jamming it.
Out of the corner of his eyes he spotted another robot pointing its machine gun at him. He should have felt scared or panicked. But he didn't.
The world seemed to slow as he leaned to the side, rubber bullets whizzing past him. He raised his grapple gun, thumbing the switch back to the grappling launcher and took aim at the robot's optical sensor. The small harpoon broke the optical sensor easily, the robot froze, now effectively disabled.
Izuku dropped the now useless grappling gun and climbed up onto the robots back, the robot moving to assist him. He held on with both hands as the robot came to life under him. He urged it forward, driving it towards the first robot he shot at. His robot raised its armored fist high, then brought it down on the other robot's head, shattering it into several pieces.
The rest of the fight turned into a blur, the sensation of metal crunching under his robot's fist clashed with the noises of other robots being dismantled by his teammates. When the fight was finally over, Izuku opened his eyes and stood up on the robot's back. His robot was surrounded by its scrapped comrades, his own sporting dents and scrapes where the other robots fought back.
Izuku pulled off his helmet, allowing the cool spring air to dance across his sweaty face. He felt amazing, like he could do anything! Ida, Uraraka, and Ashido were in varying states of trying to catch their breath. They'd done a decent amount of damage too, Ida had disabled six robots, Ashido five, and Uraraka had gotten three.
Izuku grinned down at them from his perch, "Y'all have fun down there?"
"Damn Midoriya! You made light work of those bots!" responded Ashido.
Uraraka leaned over, hands on her knees, her face green, "You call this fun?"
"Sure" replied Izuku, "What's more fun than playing life sized rock 'em sock 'em robots?"
"Please be serious about this Midoriya," chastised Ida. "But yes, I believe we are all fine."
"Speak for yourself" grumbled Uraraka as she clutched her stomach.
Izuku slid down the robot's back, the moment his feet touched the ground he felt the energetic spark disappear. Why'd he say that earlier? What the heck was rock 'em sock 'em robots anyways?
"You okay Ocha?" asked Ashido, a look of concern pinching her face.
Uraraka waved her off, "I'll be fine in a bit. Just used my quirk too much."
Izuku wondered what side affect her quirk had on her, then he wondered what side effect his quirk had on him. Maybe it had something to do with his memories? But if that was the case then shouldn't he not have any memories from the fight just now? He reasoned it must be something else then. He'd have to test his limits during training sometime.
He picked up the grapple gun, trying to reel it in. When he got to the harpoon still embedded into the robot's head unit, he yanked on it hard, the harpoon came out with a crushing sound. The harpoon itself was made out of steel and was undamaged, not even a scratch on it. He stuffed the harpoon gun back into its holster, he'd have to thank mei for it later, it came in handy despite its unorthodox use. The same with the net launcher feature.
He jogged to catch up with the others, falling into step behind the three. They exited the faux city, heading towards Mr. Aizawa who was nodding approvingly at them, "Good work. We'll do a performance review after everyone has finished, go and wait with the others."
"Yes sir" replied Ida and marched away, Ashido raised her arms in victory letting out a "yay!" before following him. Uraraka had a more subdued response, only giving a weak "wooo." Izuku was happy that they'd passed, despite him. He hadn't caused Ida, Uraraka, and Ashido to fail. He quietly followed them, the energy he had back when they fought the robots long gone.
When they joined the rest of the class that finished, Kirishima and Asui greeted them, "Sup guys! How'd it go?" There were four rows of seats, Kirishima was in the row just in front of the back. Ashido skipped over and sat down in the chair next to Kirishima, Uraraka and Asui next to them. Ida moved to the front row. Izuku sat in the back.
"It went amazing!" gushed Ashido "You should have seen me out there Kiri, I was kicking some robot ass." Ashido started shadow boxing for added effect.
"Did you use too much of your quirk Ochako? Kero" spoke Asui.
Uraraka nodded, "Yeah, but I'll be fine."
"Dude you should have seen it!" continued Ashido, Izuku's attention was torn back and forth between the two conversations, only picking up snippets of each. Uraraka continued, "But I managed to use my quirk for longer this time, so that's a good improvement."
"Oh yeah?" asked Kirishima.
"Yeah man, at first I was kinda worried, his quirk isn't all that impressive, but the dude can kick some major ass when he wants to," what Ashido said made his focus pivot almost entirely on her conversation. "He pulled out this shield, and like started blocking bullets with it. Then he took control of a robot! And then he like pulled out this gun thing and in like five seconds he'd taken down like three robots!"
"Dude! That's so cool!" exclaimed Kirishima. Izuku felt a weird numbness, Kirishima thought he was cool? Really? "Aw man, I can't wait to see that! I bet you were pretty badass too, right Mina?"
"Damn right I was!" grinned Ashido, "Managed to bag myself five takedowns!"
"I only got four," complained Kirishima.
"It's because you're too slow," sneered Bakugo who'd sat down in the chair next to Kirishima. "You're lucky you even got four." Izuku made himself smaller, sinking lower into his seat, hopefully Bakugo wouldn't see him. "I'm surprised y'all finished so fast, especially since you were paired with Deku."
Izuku winced at the name, memories of middle school bubbling up. He quashed them, pushing them back into the recesses of his mind. "Deku? You mean Midoriya?" asked Ashido.
"Hah yeah," barked Bakugo.
"Aww! You have a nickname for him?" giggled Ashido. Izuku felt numbness overtake him, his heart thundering as blood rushed in his ears. "You went to middle school with him, right?"
"Yeah yeah, he was the same back then too. The same Deku he is now," he saw Bakugo shoot a sneering glare at him. Izuku felt his blood run cold as he looked down on the floor, 'don't make eye contact, don't make eye contact, don't engage, do not engage. I'll be okay, he won't do anything to me here.'
"That's cool, Mina and I went to middle school together too," replied Kirishima with a grin.
Izuku did his best to ignore the rest of their conversation, he'd occasionally catch snippets of conversation around him. But he didn't allow himself to focus on any of them. He pulled out his phone, scrolling through online forums discussing different pro-heroes. A new one popped up today, a Russian hero named Valkyrie. She had large angelic wings, her costume looked like something out of the medieval ages, plate armor and all. She even sported a gleaming silver sword. He found a debut video, making note of it to watch later.
He was broken out of his thoughts when someone sat down next to him, he glanced over, the boy had the head of a crow. Izuku tried to remember his name but for the life of him could only remember that it started with a T. The boy caught his gaze and gave him a polite nod but didn't speak. Izuku gave him a quick nod back and looked back at his phone. A few moments later Mr. Aizawa came in, causing everyone to quiet down, he moved to the front of the room, holding a clipboard up. "All in all, you didn't do terribly. Iida, you used your speed advantage well, pass. Yaoyorozu, work on your reaction time, fail. Midoriya, glad to see you're keeping up with training, work on your situational awareness, pass. Uraraka, make sure to train with your quirk some more, pass. Bakugo, tone down the aggressiveness, pass. Aoyama, work on quirk stamina, pass. Ashido, pass. Asui, good use of terrain, pass. Ojiro, pass. Kirishima, pass. Koda, be more assertive, fail. Sato, find a way to overcome your quirks downsides, fail. Shoji, pass. Jiro, pass. Sero, fail. Tokoyami, fail. Todoroki, pass. Hagakure, pass. Mineta, pass."
After that, Mr. Aizawa released them for lunch. Izuku hurriedly stood up, heading for the door, trying to evade Bakugo's scathing glare. He was the first in the locker room, but due to how much gear he had on by the time he was finished changing many of the other boys had too and were heading to lunch. "Hey! Midoriya! Wait up man!" Izuku paused, seeing Kirishima grinning at him, "Wanna eat lunch with us?" Next to him was Bakugo, Ashido, Kaminari, and another boy he didn't recognize.
Izuku glanced at Bakugo, he had no desire to even be in the same room as him, let alone eat lunch with him. And he was pretty sure Bakugo felt the same, "Sorry. I um. I have stuff I need to do. Maybe next time." Stuttered Izuku. Besides, he was going to be in the support studio. Mei had texted him earlier that she had something for him to try.
Kirishima shrugged, "Alright man, see ya later." He waved and started to walk off. Ashido, Kaminari, and the other boy following close behind. Bakugo lingered just long enough to growl, "You know they just pity you right Deku? Nobody really wants to hang around a useless loser like you. They're worried your uselessness will rub off on em."
Izuku didn't reply. He knew that. It was obvious even to him that nobody wanted to hang out with him. Save for maybe Mei, but that was always to test some invention or because he gave her food. That was it. He was already resigned to that fact of life. And no matter how he tried to change it, in the end they'd move on to something or someone more interesting than him. He'd still probably interact with Mei, but only because she was making his gear. Hell, she probably didn't even see him as a friend. Just a customer.
Izuku sighed when Bakugo had gotten out of earshot, He adjusted his grip on his backpack, slinging it up onto his shoulders. He kept his eyes down as he slowly walked down the hall. When he eventually got to the support studio, he found the room alive with activity. Support students busied themselves with building various projects. His eyes scanned the room, eventually finding Mei.
She wasn't alone.
Next to her was the tall boy with blond hair he'd seen with her a couple weeks ago. He had a massive grin on his face as he talked animatedly with Mei. Mei grinned right back playfully swatting the boy's shoulder. He felt something seize up inside him, it wasn't something he was familiar with. He took a deep breath, trying to get control over what the heck was happening to himself, and shambled towards Mei. She'd asked him to be here after all.
The boy with her noticed him first, he raised a hand at him, "Hiya! Need something?"
Mei turned suddenly to look at him, a sly grin on her face, "Bout time you got here nerd! What took you so long? Don't tell me you had to make yourself pretty just to see little ol me?"
Izuku blinked, trying to process the sentence. He felt warmth creep up his neck, "I just, um, Mr. Aizawa just released us."
The boy next to Mai wheezed a little, then leaned in and whispered something to her. Mei grinned in response, "Oh for sure for sure."
The Boy let out a short laugh before standing up, "I'll get going then, I'm Mirio by the way, pleasure to meet you." He held out his hand to Izuku.
Izuku paused for a moment then shook his hand, "Midoriya Izuku."
"See you later Mai bae! Try not to blow anything up!" Mirio walked away.
Mei rolled her eyes, "Fuck off!" Then she turned back to Izuku, "Anyways, where were we, ah, the new baby!" She looked around her desk, then snatched up a familiar sphere, this time there was a cable trailing from it. "I had a few ideas last night about the drone. We know you can control it with your weird techno-powers, but you're limited to only things you can touch yeah?"
Izuku nodded, unsure of where she was going.
"Obvious problem with a drone. Kinda hard to control it with your quirk if it's flying. So, I put a cable on it," Mei handed him the cable, Izuku thought for a moment, then caught on to her idea.
"So, you think if I can just touch any part of it, I can control the drone?" asked Izuku.
Mei shrugged, "Possibly, go ahead and try it out."
Izuku focused on the drone, willing it to lift off. For a few moments nothing happened, then the drone lifted off the tabletop, hovering a meter above it. Mei must have disabled the cameras because his vision didn't change. He willed the drone to move around in a circle, and to his surprise it did, slowly humming as it sped through the air. The line was yanked from his hand and the connection broke, the drone continued along its flight path, finishing the circle and coming back to where it started.
Mei hummed, rubbing her chin and biting her lip, "What did you tell it to do?"
"I told it to fly in a circle," answered Izuku.
"I see," Mei thought for a moment, then snapped her finger, "I see, I see, so, not only can you control the drone by touching any part of it, but it will carry out the last order you gave it. But I wonder-" she suddenly yanked on the cable coming from the drone detaching it. She grabbed it from the air, then pushed it into Izukus hands, "Try again, just tell it to fly in a circle and return to you."
Izuku closed his eyes, he gave the drone its order, and watched it fly out of his hands, zoomed around Mei, then returned to his hands like a yo-yo. Okay, that was cool. Very cool. He grinned, he felt like he was finally getting a hold on his quirk now!
"Oh, I have so many ideas now!" exclaimed Mei, a manic grin forming, "First though" she popped open the drone, fiddling with its internals then closed it with a snap. She handed it back to Izuku, "Do it again."
When Izuku touched the drone, he realized she turned the cameras back on, the sense of vertigo washed over him before he shut his eyes, then he gave the drone the same order as before. When it came back to him, he quickly set the drone down. He wasn't sure what Mei had hoped he'd accomplish by doing that. "And?" asked Mei.
Izuku shrugged, "Nothing different, just feeling dizzy from the 360 vision."
Mei hummed, staring at the drone closely, she absentmindedly scratched the scab on her left arm. Wait. How'd he know she had one there? Maybe the drone saw it as it passed her and let him know about it? "Mei, let's try that again, but instead hold up a number behind your back, don't let me see them."
Mei raised an eyebrow but shrugged. She held her hands behind her back out of view, and Izuku picked up the drone, pushing past the vertigo he gave it the same order as before. When the drone came back Mei asked, "And? How many fingers am I holding up?"
"Four" answered Izuku almost immediately.
Mei grinned, "Right! Oh, that's so cool! You must be able to access the drone's memory somehow. Okay, we gotta test this more!"
For the rest of their lunch period, they tested how many commands he could give to the drone, and how much information he could glean from the drone after it came back to him. On more than one occasion the drone accidentally slammed into a wall or buzzed another student trying to work on a project. He apologized profusely for causing disturbances. They mostly waved it off as Mei being Mei and doing Mei things.
They got so caught up in testing his newfound abilities that he almost missed the bell signaling break was over. He also realized neither he nor Mei had actually eaten lunch! So, as he was dashing out of the support studio he turned around, ripping his bag off his back, rummaged around inside of it, and almost slammed down the small lunchbox on Mei's desk. She jumped a little at the sound, but then realized what it was and grinned, "Thanks!"
As he ran out of the support studio, he heard a few other students muttering and whispering but didn't pay them any mind. He sprinted down the hall, praying he wouldn't be late to his own class. He managed to slip into the room just as the bell rang. "You're almost late Midoriya, make sure that happens again."
"Sorry sir, I got caught up in the support studio," replied Izuku, his face flushing from embarrassment.
Mr. Aizawa hummed, "Right, never mind then. Take your seat."
Izuku sat down, pulled out his notebook and settled in for the lecture.
Izuku stuffed his things back into his backpack before heaving it up onto his shoulders. His stomach rumbled loudly as he remembered he wasn't able to eat lunch. He sighed, 'can't be helped' maybe the food in his lunchbox was still good. Although he doubted it. There was some activity near the door, he heard voices but couldn't make out what they were saying or who was saying it. There was a loud "Awwwwwww!" and then he heard someone shout "Hey! Midoriya! Where are ya?!"
He frowned as someone pushed through the crowd; it was Ashido. She gestured for him to follow, "Come on you smooth criminal!"
'Smooth criminal? How is he a smooth criminal?' He followed Ashido and his classmates filing out of the classroom. When he exited, he noticed Mei leaning against the nearby wall, tinkering with some device as always, and tucked under her arm was his lunchbox he gave her.
She glanced up at him, and handed him his lunch box back, "Thanks, that chicken was to die for. Like seriously man, how do you do that?"
Izuku shrugged, his face flushing from the compliment, "I just uhh, well, I just cooked what I thought would taste good."
He felt someone elbow him gently, Ashido grinned at him, "So that's why you turned us down for lunch eh? Got yourself a hot date with this cutie?"
Izuku flushed harder, stammering, "No, that's, not that's not, uhh, no, we aren't!"
Ashido cackled, "Chill bud, I'm only teasing!"
Kirishima appeared a moment later, "Hey! What's up?"
"Nothing much Kiri, just found out Midoriya here is one smooth operator," she grinned like a cat.
Kirishima looked between Izuku's flushed face, to Mei who was still tinkering with whatever device she was working on. Then he said "oh, I see. Oh, wait, weren't you that chick that wanted Midoriya to test some gear a while back?"
Mie nodded, "Yup yup, that's me. Mei Hatsume, the greatest inventor to have ever lived!"
"Ah, cool," replied Kirishima, "Well if you want you can join us for lunch too Hatsume."
Mei paused, seeming to consider it for a moment, then asked, "You, mean it?"
Kirishima seemed a little taken aback, "Yeah, sure why not? Any friend of Midoriya is a friend of ours."
Izuku wondered briefly if they meant that he was their friend? He doubted it though; they were friends with Bakugo after all. Mei though seemed genuinely interested, "I suppose I don't mind eating lunch with y'all." Izuku mentally sighed, now he couldn't make an excuse to turn them down without seeming rude. Perfect. Just perfect.
The following day found him sitting down at a table in the cafeteria squished between the boy he didn't know, Sero, and Mei. Across from them sat Kirishima, Bakugo, and Kaminari. Ashido had taken a chair from a nearby table and pulled it over to them and sat at the end between Kirishima and Mei. Izuku had, as usual, made himself a lunch, and one for Mei. She'd also brought along a device to work on. It was flattish, the sides were rounded but as for its function he had no idea what it could do.
"So," started Ashido, popping a chicken nugget into her mouth, "How'd the whole lunch thing start Midoriya?"
Izuku shrugged before stuttering, "Well, Mei is making my gear for me, and well, I thought that this would be a good way to thank her for it."
"Oh, so like a favor?" asked Kirishima.
Izuku nodded, "I guess so."
"Think I should do that for my support tech?" asked Kirishima.
Izuku shrugged again, "If you want?"
"Hmm. Hatsume-" started Ashido.
"Call me Mei, it's faster," interrupted Mei.
"Right, Mei, what are you working on?" continued Ashido.
"This is baby number 1987; I call him Bert. It's the mark two drone for Midoriya," replied Mei as she ate a baby carrot before returning to the device.
Bakugo barked out a laugh, "You name them? What kind of weirdo does that?"
"I name all my babies." Replied Mei easily, shrugging as she returned to working on the drone.
Bakugo scoffed, "your babies? What are you ten?"
"Sixteen actually," responded Mei without so much as looking up from the drone. "I turn Seventeen in May." That surprised Izuku a little, she was almost a year older than him? He was going to have to remember to ask her specifically when her birthday was. Especially since it was next month! He'd have to make her a cake, wait, would that be going a little far? Maybe, but she was making all this equipment for him, it was the least he could do in exchange. He wondered what kind of cake she liked, maybe he'd just go with chocolate just to be safe, girls like chocolate right?
…Probably.
"No fucking wonder you're the one hanging around Deku then," laughed Bakugo.
Mei paused for a moment, then glanced up at Bakugo her brows furrowing. She mouthed the word 'Deku' then glanced at Izuku. He could see her pupils' contract and dilate slightly, and he wondered again what her quirk was. He guessed it had something to do with her eyes, maybe some sort of enhanced vision? Given that her eyes looked like crosshairs.
Mei turned back to Bakugo, "What did you call Midoriya?"
Bakugo grinned, but it was Ashido who answered, "Oh umm, Deku. It's just Bakugo's nickname for Midoriya. Which do you mind if we call you that too? You know, since we're friends and all?"
Izuku wanted to scoff, friends? They want to call him Deku and they said they were his friends? Bakugo laughed again, "Sure, he doesn't mind, do you Deku?"
Ashido grinned, "Sweet! Hey Deku! Wanna hang out with us after school today? We were gonna go to the local park downtown!"
Izuku grit his teeth, clenching his fists tightly under the table. "Yeah, come on Deku! Let's all go hang out!" Said Kirishima.
'Now they show their true colors, they are all friends with Bakugo. And all they wanted to do was torment him. He felt tears beading at the corner of his eyes. He'd had enough. He didn't want to stay any longer. He just wanted to go home.
"Yeah! Oh, hey Deku, you like hero stuff, right? You wanna come visit a merch shop with me one day? I hear there's a great one downtown, they even got stuff there from like, twenty years ago!" his grin twisting into a malicious snarl.
Izuku couldn't take it, someone please stop them. He just wanted to have friends! Why are they doing this? Why do they always do this?
He felt a hand brush against his clenched fist, he looked over, Mei was looking at him again with furrowed brows, her invention forgotten on the table. Her eyes widened a fraction of a centimeter, then she looked back down at the drone, and said "Ah shoot. I forgot some stuff back at the lab. Hey, Midoriya, you mind helping me get this thing back there?" Mei stood up quickly, picking up the dismantled drone.
Izuku was stunned for a moment, before he got his bag, got their lunches, and followed Mei. "Oh, uhh, later guys!" called out Kirishima behind them.
They walked in silence for a few moments, before Mei softly asked, "That name, he called you, it's not a nickname is it." It wasn't a question.
"No" confirmed Izuku after a moment. His voice cracked a little as he said it.
Mei didn't say anything more, just scowling as they walked to the support studio. He felt the tears threatening the spill out, but he wouldn't let them. Not here, not in public. He wouldn't give Bakugo any more ammunition. When they arrived at the studio department Izuku expected Mei to walk over to her desk like normal. Instead, she headed towards the meeting rooms. Izuku followed.
She set the drone down on the conference table, then sat down in one of the chairs, she patted the table next to her, indicating Izuku sat down there. He did without argument, setting her lunch down in front of her and his own where he was sitting. Mei picked up her chopsticks, glaring down at the food for a moment before saying in a quiet tone, "I'm not good with words. I won't ask you for details, it's not my business to pry, but if you ever want to rant or talk or scream, well, I'm available most of the time, and it probably helps that these rooms are soundproofed. So, whatever happens here, stays in here."
Izuku paused, looking down at his lunch, considering her offer. It was the first time anyone, boy or girl, had ever offered to listen to him. He felt the tears flowing now, he couldn't hold them back any longer, he stuffed a piece of broccoli in his mouth, chewing hard. He felt compelled, for some reason, to answer her. "It's a nickname from when I was a kid." Mei nodded, remaining silent, "back when I and everyone else thought I was quirkless. Some of the kids started calling me Deku, because it meant useless."
Mei glowered into her lunch, her frown etching lines across her face, she poked at a cherry tomato with her chopsticks, rolling it around in the poor excuse for a salad. He told her a little about what happened, the bullying by the other kids, how they'd leave him out of activities sometimes, how he sometimes heard them talking about him in whispered conversations. By the time he'd finished telling her what he was comfortable sharing, Mei's grip on her chopsticks made him worried she might break them.
"Well, aren't they some class A assclowns?" Mei stabbed the cherry tomato with a squelch, "what gives them the right to call someone else useless? Especially just saying it over and over like that. But I hate to say this but, well, they are partially right."
"What?" asked Izuku in a whisper. He felt his veins turn to ice, was Mei going to start calling him Deku too?
Mei shrugged, "dude, you're only really useful if there are robots around. I've seen you throw those things you call punches." she turned her head to look at them, tapping her chopstick against the table, "but I think it's only bad if someone doesn't move forward. And I think I know a way to help you move forward."
Izuku gazed down into his lunch, mulling over her words. She was right, he had no idea how to fight, not really. When he connected to that robot during training he'd managed it, somehow. But when he's not fighting robots, will he actually be helpful? If he's going to be a hero, he needs to learn how to fight, he needs to get stronger, faster, better. He needs training, which was why he was here at UA. But he needs more than just what Mr. Aizawa had been giving him. He was tired of being weak, tired of Bakugo picking on him, pushing him around. He'd show everyone, he'd show them he wasn't the same quirkless little boy they could push around on the playground. He was a pro-hero in training, and he wasn't going to let them pin him down any longer. "How?" asked Izuku, his expression turning serious.
"Simple really," answered Mei with a grin, "The Underminer. My mom used to use it to train, and I don't have much use for it, so if anyone is going to use it, it might as well be you. Plus, when you become a badass, you'll be the best advertisement possible for Hatsume Industries."
Izuku nodded, it was a fair trade. She helps him become stronger; he's her glorified billboard for the rest of his hero career. Win win. "Deal."
"Sweet," Mei held out her hand to him, "to a brighter future. Eh partner?"
Izuku took her hand, shaking it.
Mei turned back to her lunch, then suddenly said, "But really? They called you useless? That's such a weak ass insult it hurts. A better one would be greenhead."
Izuku paused, completely flabbergasted, "What?"
"Greenhead, your hair is green," pointed out Mei as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, "if they're gonna make childish insults they could at least be creative about them."
Izuku was now thoroughly confused, "What?"
Mei shrugged, "What? The best insults are ones about someone that makes sense! Calling you useless makes no sense. Now greenhead, no, wait, moss for brains? Broccoli face? Eh, something like that, that makes sense because it's something about you that can be made fun of."
How was that supposed to make him feel better? Calling him Broccoli face? Really? He didn't feel angry anymore, just confused and now that he thought about it, Broccoli face was actually kind of funny. Izuku grinned, fine, if she wanted to play that way he'd play ball. "And what did children call you? Hair worms? The Manic Mechanic?"
Mei leaned back in her chair, her face breaking out in a wide grin, "That's the best you got? Manic Mechanic? That sounds like a hell of a good rollercoaster though! Or maybe a band name! Nah they called me the Junkyard Dog and Cryptoid."
Damn, those were creative. "They really called you Cryptoid?"
Mei nodded, "Oh yeah, I used to just break into the local junkyard to get stuff to tinker with. The guards called me that because anytime someone else broke in for stuff they left after they found me." Izuku could picture it, a younger Mei perched atop a scrap pile hissing at someone and throwing the occasional nut or bolt at them demanding they leave. "It probably didn't help that I threatened to curse them."
"Do you still do that?" asked Izuku as he munched on a carrot stick.
"Nah, don't need to these days." Mei smirked, "people usually just faint on sight when they see me backwards crawl towards them." Izuku snorted, trying to imagine it.
"Midoriya" said Mei with a sudden seriousness, "Don't let them beat you down. You've got a real chance at being a pro-hero. And when you do, I wanna see the expression on those jackasses faces." Izuku nodded, feeling a sudden warmth flood his chest, it was nice knowing that someone, anyone, believed in him.
And that's chapter 7 done. I kinda wanted a bittersweet moment. No, Kirishima and Mina aren't being malicious, they just don't know that Deku is an insult not a nickname. I also don't want Izuku to be fond of the name Deku, even if Uraraka thinks it's "cute." Nobody in their right minds thinks that someone who has been called a slur all their life (maliciously in this case) will suddenly go "oh, I didn't see it that way" when someone likes it.
But, that's just me. I don't plan on Kirishima and Mina being ignorant forever. Eventually they'll come around, but boy oh boy the damage has already been done. Also, I just realized, Izuku never asked what Mei's quirk was. A little out of character to be sure, but so has most everything else in this story. So *shrugs* meh, I'll get around to it one day. Maybe in future chapters.
Also, yes, I still plan on having All for One in this story, because, well, you need a bad guy. And he's arguably the best one. As well as a few others. Wolfram too, Stain maybe, I dunno yet, Overhaul definitely. The meta liberation front? Hmmmmmm, maybe? Possibly? Probably. Don't know how I'll use em, maybe just as someone to fight. Maybe as a way to redeem Bakugo (yes I'm going to do that. But not in the way you think.) And as I wrote that I figured out how to use the Meta Liberation Front, woo atta go brain! Sadly they won't show up until around, erm, probably a dozen or so more chapters, maybe more. Probably more.
Aight, that's probably enough from me, y'all have a good day. That's not a suggestion. I will find you and make you have one. Ta ta!
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