Chapter Text
Midoriya hated being ignored.
There had been times, in elementary and middle school, where for a whole week, people seemed to forget he existed.
Bakugou didn't blow him up. Classmates didn't talk about his uselessness. Teacher's didn't call his name during the roll call. His mother never made breakfast for him, or said good night, or asked about his day.
He would honestly have preferred if people called him out. Called out for being weak, quirkless, useless. Bakugou blowing him up, leaving red, angry burns on his arms. His teacher bonking him on the head every time he mentioned he wanted to be a hero.
Being ignored made him feel like a ghost. Like he was so worthless, he didn't even deserve to exist.
But it always happened. One week, three or four times a year. It was inevitable. Even knowing it was some kind of sick prank, and his mother was probably overworked to the point where she just collapsed outright on the couch, did not make him feel any better about himself.
It never happened again once he stepped into UA. Bakugou yelled at him every day, Kirishima and Kaminari patted him on the back, Mineta asked him of his opinion of girls, Ojiro, Yaoyorozu and Jiro smiled at him, Hagakure tried to sneak up on him, forgetting she was wearing a uniform. Asui, Uraraka and Iida chatted with him, Sero and Ashido told him jokes, Shoji, Sato and Koda nodded at him, Dark Shadow liked to play with his hair until Tokoyami told him leave Midoriya alone, Aoyoma winked at him, and he made small talk with Todoroki.
And he didn't expect it to happen anymore.
Midoriya bumped into someone on his way to school. They were staying in the dorms at school, but he had spent the weekend at home with his mother. He needed to get back to UA before lessons began. Iida was really, really strict about being half an hour early to everything.
"Oh! Hey! I didn't see you there!" The teen turned, "Oh, Midoriya!"
"Uh... hi?" Midoriya sheepishly replied, not expecting it to be an old classmate, "I haven't... um... seen you since middle school."
"Yeah. Well, it's been nice seeing you around. I need to get to school!"
"Ah! I'm going to miss my train! Bye!"
The two teenagers parted ways, and Midoriya started running to the train station, and didn't hear the teen chuckling behind his back.
Midoriya finally made it through the gates of UA, and fished his phone out of his pocket to dial his mother. She had wanted a notice when he arrived at school, just to make sure he made it there safe and sound.
"Hey, Mom?" Midoriya spoke into the phone, when he heard the sound of it being picked up.
"Hello? Who is this?!"
Midoriya blanched. His mother had his contact saved on her phone! There was no way she wouldn't know who he was. Maybe her phone was glitched or something.
"Mom? It's me. Midoriya Izuku."
"Hello? If you're not going to say something, I'm going to hang up?"
"Mom!? Wait, Mom!"
She hung up.
Midoriya stared at his phone, like it was haunted, then he shook his head.
No. This happened before. There were several instances where his mother had to work overtime, and for an entire week she practically forgot he existed. When the torturous week finally ended, they both deduced that it was from overworkm and Midoriya didn't blame her too much.
His mom couldn't have forgetten about him in such a short amount of time. Maybe the speakers on her phone were broken. Or the microphone on his phone.
Yeah. That had to be it. Just a glitch that hopefully could be fixed. Just a small problem.
A small problem just like you.
Midoriya shook the thought out of his mind.
Go away, self deprecating thoughts. No one wants you here.
He made his way to the classroom. Maybe he could ask Hatsume to fix his phone for him later.
Midoriya took a deep breath to himself, and smiled.
It's going to be alright. It wasn't going to be like before.
Midoriya pushed the door open, and found his classmates all chatting amongst themselves. They turned when the door opened, but they didn't greet him or anything.
Almost like they didn't see him.
Midoriya frowned. That was weird. Everyone would usually say "hi" or something, and even if the others didn't greet him, Iida, Uraraka, Todoroki and Asui would usually speak up.
"Hey guys!" Midoriya mustered up his courage to speak up, "How was your weekened?"
Iida just continued chatting with Uraraka, completely ignoring him.
Midoriya's smile wavered, as he quickly scuttled to his seat.
No way.
It couldn't be happening again.
Not again.
Once he had entered UA, he thought he was free from this curse of being ignored. But no, it was back to haunt him.
Bakugou slammed open the door, storming into the classroom. He dumped his bag onto the ground, and settled his feet on the table, before starting an arguement with Iida about respecting his seniors who used the table before him.
No explosions aimed his way.
No "FUCK OFF, YOU STUPID DEKU!".
Bakugou was completely ignoring him, but for once, Midoriya wanted the blonde's attention. He didn't care if Bakugou seared his skin, or threw his notebook out the window, or called him by a degrading nickname.
He just wanted someone to notice that he existed.
Aizawa walked into the classroom, and sighed as the students rushed for their seats, "This is irrational. You're taking too long to get to your seats."
"Yes sir!"
"I'm just going to take your attendence, since some people went home for the weekened. Aoyama?"
"Ici, monsieur!"
"Ashido?"
"Present!"
"Asui?"
"Here, kero!"
Aizawa droned on, and Midoriya just prayed his name was on the list.
"Bakugou?"
"Tch."
"Mineta."
Midoriya blinked, as tears welled up in his eyes.
Even Aizawa was ignoring him, and if it was a prank, Aizawa was the type of person to say it was irrational and not take part in it.
They had forgotten about him. They couldn't see him, they couldn't hear him.
It was just a sick joke, right?
It had to be just a joke.
He was real, Midoriya was sure of that. He was real, he was alive, he could breathe...
So why couldn't his classmates see him?
Why couldn't they hear him?
Why were they so cruel?
Midoriya was close to tears as it was time for lunch.
They had Math, English, and Literature before lunch, and just like Aizawa, the other teachers didn't even glance at him. Yamada just jabbered on and on about something, Ectoplasm didn't give him his math test back, and Ishiyama completely skipped over him when he asked the class to take turns reading their book aloud.
Yagi and Kayama had popped into class during homeroom, needing to talk to Aizawa, and while Midoriya knew that Kayama wouldn't have a reason to seek him out, Yagi didn't even say hello; he didn't even look his way.
His friends and teachers were all ignoring him.
And he hated that.
Midoriya rubbed the tears away, and stood up. His classmates had already left the classroom to head to the cafeteria, and while Midoriya couldn't confront them during lessons, Midoriya was going to get to the bottom of this once and for all.
"1-B is so much better than 1-A." Monoma muttered, glancing as the 1-A students chatted noisily as they ate.
"You wanna say that again!?" Bakugou growled, as Kendo smacked Monoma, "Shut up."
"Hey, where's Midoriya?" Awase leaned forwards and whispered, "Isn't he usually with them?"
"Who cares." Monoma snorted, "He's in 1-A, just like the rest of them."
"Midoriya's really nice, though?" Kodai spoke up, "I've honestly never seen him being rude to anyone."
They heard some footsteps, as Midoriya ran into the cafeteria. The 1-B students turned to Iida, half-expecting him to yell at Midoriya for running in the halls, but the boy didn't even seem to notice Midoriya, saying something to Uraraka even though he was facing Midoriya's general direction.
Midoriya bit his lip, and just looked so miserable that even Monoma felt bad for him. The greenette ran in the direction of his friend group, but he didn't notice that Shinsou was getting up from his seat and ran into the purple haired boy.
"Watch it." Shinsou muttered, before noticing who it was, softening his tone, "Oh... Midoriya."
"You can see me!?"
Shinsou blinked in confusion, as Midoriya stared at him, tears starting to well up his eyes. Scratching his neck, Shinsou replied, "Uh... yeah? Of course I can see you. It's not like you're invisible like that girl -"
He did not expect Midoriya to burst into tears, wrapping his arms around the purple haired boy as he sobbed.
1-B stared at the commotion in confusion, but the 1-A students didn't even twitch.
"Stupid stuck-up idiots." Monoma hissed, glaring at the 1-A students, as Shinsou tried to pry Midoriya off him, "Hey, stop that. What's wrong with you?"
"I'MJUSTSOHAPPYTHATSOMEONECANSEEME!" Midoriya was practically wailing, "MYMOMHUNGUPONMEANDMYFRIENDSDIDNOTEVENWANTTOTALKTOME -"
"Calm down! I don't know what you're saying." Shinsou grumbled, awkwardly patting Midoriya's back. The greenette took several deep breaths, tears still leaking from his eyes, "I thought... no one could see me... I tried to call my mom this morning but she just hung up on me... and then I went to class but no one saw me, and I tried to say hi to my friends but they didn't even react... and then Aizawa-sensei didn't call on me during roll call, and none of my other teachers called on me or gave me homework or anything..."
Shinsou scowled; he used to be ignored while he was in school, due to his quirk, and it just felt terrible when no one wanted to talk to him. But they did talk about him behind his back, and Shinsou knew it, so at least, he knew he existed.
1-A and the teachers were just treating Midoriya like he didn't exist, like a ghost.
"Oh, fuck it." Shinsou cursed, as Monoma growled, "Those pieces of shit."
Monoma wasn't heartless. Sure, his Copy quirk was pretty damn useful, but there had been a period of time where it had been considered useless and he had been ignored until he managed to prove himself.
Monoma stomped up to Iida, "You 1-A students think you're so great?!"
"Excuse me... but what did we do?" Iida asked, confused, and Monoma growled, "Ignoring your classmate like that!?"
"Ignoring... no, we would never do that!" Iida sat up, alarmed, "We're so sorry! Who did we ignore?"
"Midoriya. You know, scrawny green kid in your class who breaks his arms all the time?" Monoma spat, but Iida's very next sentence chilled him to the core, "Midoriya? Who's that?"
Uraraka raised her eyebrow, "Uh... we don't have a classmate called Midoriya."
Todoroki slurped his noodles, "I don't know a Midoriya."
"I've never heard that name before, kero..." Asui tilted her head, before calling out to the rest of 1-A, "Do we have a classmate called Midoriya?"
"... No?" Ojiro asked, confused, as Yaoyorozu shook her head, "Tsu, our class only has nineteen students since the beginning of the year. Are you okay?"
Everyone could clearly see how Midoriya was so distressed over this.
"Why the hell are you talking about Aunt Inko? She's never been to UA!" Bakugou spat, and Kendo stood up, alarmed, "You know, Midoriya Izuku? You call him Deku for some reason."
"Who the fuck is Midoriya Izuku? The only Midoriya I know is Aunt Inko, and which fucking idiot names himself Deku?"
Bakugou's statement was the last straw, and Midoriya burst into tears again, but really, no one blamed him.
"Shit..." Shinsou cursed, awkwardly trying to console the crying boy, "We should talk to the principal about this."