Chapter Text
“You slept through your alarm?” Shinsou repeated, raising his eyebrow at Midoriya. “Seriously? That’s how you introduce yourself?”
“He slept through his alarm!” Uraraka cried, falling to the floor laughing.
“Too soon, Midoriya.”
“WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?!” Mina yelled, pulling at her horns.
“I-I’ve been in a coma,” Midoriya muttered nervously, fiddling with his thumbs and kicking at the ground.
“A coma?!” Mina exclaimed.
The class gathered around Midoriya curiously, excluding Jiro, Kirishima, Kaminari and Bakugo, of course, who were still immersed in their training exercise on the other side of Field Gamma.
“Is that why you were in the hospital for so long?” Sero questioned.
Midoriya nodded nervously.
“WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL US?!” Mina grabbed Midoriya by his shoulders and started to shake him frantically. Midoriya was too overwhelmed to stop her. “You just went to the park and decided to play along when you met us?! Actually, wait, did you know who we were?”
“Y-Yeah… I’d um… already seen the Sports Festival – yeah – and Uraraka and Iida had already told me about you all,” he explained backing away from Mina a little.
“Oh,” Asui realised, “you’re the coma friend.”
“Err… Yes?”
“How dare you two keep this information from us!” Mina exclaimed, pointing accusingly at Uraraka and Iida.
Uraraka was in no fit state to answer that.
“Mr Aizawa was adamant that we caused no unwanted panic amongst our class and did not draw too much attention to Midoriya, whilst he was in his debilitating condition and throughout his recovery,” Iida explained, chopping the air as he spoke.
“Well, it’s nice to officially meet you, Midoriya,” said Yaoyorozu, holding out her hand.
He smiled and shook it gingerly.
Mina was still standing beside student 18, hands on her hips with her eyes narrowed, assessing him with intense curiosity. So, this was the guy who had caused so much trouble in their class – without even knowing it! Oh, Kaminari’s going to be a difficult one to handle once he realises what happened.
“Hey, why aren’t you wearing a hero costume?” asked Sato.
“I’m sure it won’t be as gorgeous as mine!” Aoyama exclaimed, doing a pose in his lavish outfit.
“Oh, I don’t have one yet,” Midoriya explained. He was wearing one of UA’s blue and white regulation PE uniforms instead. “But all your costumes are amazing!”
The guy didn’t even linger on Yaoyorozu’s costume for more than half a second – what is he? A saint? Nice change from Mineta though.
“And you were all incredible in the Sports Festival! I’ve seen it twice now,” he added.
“Yeah, not all of us,” Sero sighed dramatically, glancing at Todoroki, who either pretended not to realise what he was talking about, or just wasn’t listening.
“Looking forward to the training exercise, Midori?!” Uraraka exclaimed, bouncing over now that she’d stopped dying.
“Oh, what am I doing?” he questioned.
“Midori?” Mina repeated.
They ignored her.
“You’re paired up with me, 18,” Shinsou replied, chucking the ball marked 18 at Midoriya’s head. He caught it with surprisingly good reflexes.
“Oh my gosh,” Mina started, eyes widening, “You’re against me and Todoroki!” she yelled punching the air in excitement.
“Yeah, good luck,” Sero said pitifully.
“You should all be watching the training exercise,” Mr Aizawa droned.
The group turned back to the screens videoing the unfolding events. They weren’t really sure what had happened, but it seemed like Kirishima’s and Kaminari’s plan of defeating Jiro and Bakugo once they turned up didn’t turn out quite as expected. There were four screens, one on each person. Kirishima was running through the terrane, probably trying to evade Bakugo, who seemed to be searching for him. Jiro, meanwhile, was dragging Kaminari back to their prison. He had already used his Quirk up and wasn’t making any effort to run off. They all seemed a little scorched, whether that was because of Bakugo’s or Kaminari’s Quirk, well, it wasn’t very clear.
“We’ve still got to reveal you to those four!” Uraraka realised. “Oh, this is going to be brilliant! You better wear your 18 shirt this evening!”
“So, it was you!” Mina realised. “You did know him, you liar!”
“Guilty!” she laughed. “You gotta admit it though, that shirt was the best decision ever!”
“It really wasn’t,” Midoriya sighed.
“Oh, shush!” she retorted. “You should have seen you face on those videos – priceless!”
“She spat out her tea when she saw you,” Shinsou smirked.
“OH MY GOD – I added the real student 18 to the group chat without realising it!” said Mina, sinking to the ground in horror.
“I had to persuade Iida not to kick me out,” Midoriya laughed.
“Oh, Kaminari just electrocuted Jiro,” Tsuyu pointed out, looking up at the screens in interest as Jiro fell to the floor right by the jail.
“Did he recover from using his Quirk too much already?!” Sato exclaimed.
“I don’t think that was the best idea,” Midoriya winced.
“Why not?” Mina frowned, “He’s electrocuted Jiro to stop her from putting him in the jail, and immobilised her in the process, so why –”
Her thought process was cut short when Kaminari literally walked right into the jail.
“Because using his Quirk again would just short-circuit his brain,” Midoriya smiled as the others laughed at Kaminari’s mistake. “It would be better to take Jiro by surprise and buy himself some time to, um, recharge, before taking her out with a milder shock. Besides, he could have just thrown her into the jail instead.”
“That’s Jiro’s and Bakugo’s prison,” explained Shoji, “Only Kaminari and Kirishima can be caught in there.”
“Oh, ok – s-sorry, I didn’t know the rules,” he muttered in apology.
“Don’t worry!” Iida exclaimed. “I had no idea you were this good at analysing such situations!”
“Yeah! Especially since you don’t know everyone’s Quirks that well!” Uraraka acknowledged.
Midoriya opened his mouth to say something in reply, but was quickly interrupted by Hagakure, “What’s your Quirk then, 18?!”
“Oh, um… err, it’s –”
“Didn’t you see him arrive?!” Mina interjected. “He’s got a super awesome speed Quirk like Iida’s!”
“Err, well… I’m nowhere near as fast as Iida,” Midoriya retorted.
“What do you think is going to happen next?” asked Tsuyu, who was far more interested in the ongoing match than anything else.
Meanwhile, Jiro had woken up and managed to shut the door behind Kaminari so he wouldn’t wander out again without realising he’d been caught. On the other side of the field, Kirishima and Bakugo were about to meet once again.
“Yeah, who do you think’s going to throw the first punch?! Kirishima or Bakugo?” asked Hagakure.
“Ka–B-Bakugo,” Midoriya stammered.
“Oh yeah? Sounds like something Bakugo would do – a big explosion to start it off,” Sero smirked.
“Oh, no, he’ll just throw a big right hook before anything else,” he quickly explained.
The others frowned at him. “At Kirishima?” Shinsou acknowledged, “the guy with the hardening Quirk?”
“Everyone’s fighting style shows patterns,” Midoriya continued. He seemed a lot calmer now he was in the middle of an analysis rather than when he was just talking to the group about himself. “I’m surprised you haven’t noticed it yet – you could see it in the Sports Festival too. K-Bakugo starts every single one of his fights with a punch. Kirishima will block, and then he will use an explosion.”
Mina could see Mr Aizawa staring at him curiously from the other side of the viewing area. She went back to the screens, just in time to see the fight begin to unfold…
Exactly how Midoriya had predicted.
“Holy shoot – he did use a punch!” Mina exclaimed.
She didn’t see the smile that crept across her teacher’s face as the others gushed over Midoriya’s awesome observation skills; asking if he saw any patterns in their fighting.
Whelp, time for Mina to give up that analyst title she gave herself earlier.
Meanwhile…
Jiro clambered to her feet and glanced around, expecting to be back at Kaminari’s base, within their jail – but no, she hadn’t moved an inch from where he had electrocuted her.
She looked around, and her mouth fell open when she saw the dunce had actually walked into her jail. Idiot.
Without hesitation, she slammed the prison door shut with her foot. Kaminari just said, “Whey!” and stared at her – like an idiot.
She sighed, rubbing her frazzled head, before digging her earphone jacks into the ground and listening in for the location of her boisterous teammate.
It would have been a lot easier if she couldn’t hear her friends’ constant jabbering from the viewing area!
She groaned when that interference was overwhelmed by the booming sound of Bakugo’s explosions – not too far away. Jiro got up and ran towards the site of the ongoing battle between Kirishima and Bakugo. All that distant talk of analysis and fight strategies was giving her even more of a headache.
Perhaps if she wasn’t so dazed from Kaminari’s attack, she would have realised that one of those voices was a little less familiar than the others…