Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"Just what exactly are you implying here, Mineta? Something like this is an incredibly serious accusation and you should not be throwing words around like that lightly," Shouta said, sighing slightly. 

The kid made a defensive gesture, putting his hands in the air. "Look, I'm just saying that you should have a look in the journal yourself. It's creepy. You know, I always knew there was something off about that kid, but no, of course no one believed me. And for no good reason, either. I swear, most of those kids hate me but if someone like Todoroki said what I've been saying this whole time, they would believe him instantly. It's just because he's tall y'know, girls hate me only 'cause they've all got a thing against short guys-" 

Shouta held up a hand, silencing Mineta. He had absolutely no desire to be listening to a kid talk about how horrible it was that no girls like him. And, he was almost sure that just the other day, he was pretty much clinging onto Midoriya's leg, making Shouta highly doubt that he'd been saying something was off about that kid this whole time. "Keep on topic, please"

"Oh, right. Well, I was just saying that his notebook seriously scared me, it is not anything that I would expect a hero student to be doing. Here, look at it," Mineta said, before passing the notebook over to Shouta.

It was just a generic notebook, something you would find in the supermarket. White and blue, it was battered and looked well used. There wasn't really anything  special about it, only the blocky writing on the front of it, saying, "hero analysis-No.14" made it different from any other notebook.

Shouta sighed, again. This was just Midoriya's notebook, the same notebook he brought absolutely everywhere with him, the same notebook that he had never tried to hide before. Was Mineta just trying to cause trouble, then? Shouta wouldn't put it past the kid.

"And how exactly did you get this?" He asked.

"Well, I just found it outside on the floor and picked it up. I opened up the first page to see who owned it and when I saw it was Midoriya Izuku's I remembered what it was, I just got curious. He's always writing in that thing, and I wanted to know just what he was writing. So, I started reading it, and eughh, it's horrible sensei, really, you have to look." Mineta said, almost eagerly.

"So, before I do, let me get this one-hundred percent clear. You, Mineta, are saying that you think Midoriya is the traitor, because of what's written in his notebook,"

"Yup. He's got pages and pages of heroes, teachers, and even students in our school. It's- you have to see it yourself to understand," Mineta said earnestly.

"Midoriya has never hidden the fact that he writes hero analysis’ and it’s never been a problem before, why are you only bringing it up now?” Shouta asked.

“Yes, I know that he writes the analysis stuff but I’d never read it before. This isn’t just analysing everyone's quirks. It’s got notes and notes on everyone's weaknesses and how to take them down in a fight, this is the sort of stuff villains would love to get their hands on. Just read it, sensei.” 

"Fine, I guess I'll take a look inside of it," as much as he didn't want to, Shouta knew he had to. These students were his responsibility, and, with the possibility of there being a traitor in their midst, he had to take any accusation, no matter how unbelievable it seemed, very seriously.

"Out, now." He said to Mineta. 

He opened the notebook and began reading.

It was- okay, Shouta hadn't been completely sure just what he was expecting, but, this, this was not at all anything he had thought would show up in Midoriya's notebook.

He would like to tell himself that whatever this is, it isn't a big deal. Just a kid exploring a hobby of theirs. But, and there always had to be a but.

Sure, his problem child had gotten into his fair share of trouble and shit, but, not that kind of shit. He got into trouble, the sort of trouble you get into when you're too kind for your own good, too much of a martyr, with not even an ounce of self preservation.

Izuku would never become a traitor. That would be going against everything he believed in, everything he stood for. One of the most determined, hard working students he's had this year, he couldn't do such a thing.

But - what if he didn't want to? There's always the chance that if Izuku were to be working for the other side, it might not have been on his own free will. And as much as Shouta would hate to think that he could miss such a thing, it's not something that he could just ignore.

This isn't something he could just ignore.

Perhaps he was already getting ahead of himself, thinking of scenarios where Midoriya was the traitor when this was the only piece of possible evidence. Nope, one step at a time. Shouta was not going to overwhelm himself by overthinking absolutely everything. Yamada had given him enough shit about doing that already.

Okay, so he supposed the next step would be to go to Nedzu. 

Though he had half the mind to go to Yamada instead, or just not go to anyone at all and let himself handle it and watch Midoriya for the next week or so to see if anything was up, he knew he couldn't.

Nedzu had emphasized an awful lot just how important it was to let him know if there was even a whisper of someone being the traitor, and maybe showing Nedzu would be better, with an intelligence quirk and all, he would surely be able to look at the notebook and Midoriya through an objective lense.

Yes, it would be better to go to Nedzu. 

The bell rang, signalling that lunch was over and classes were about to begin once again and Shouta decided that right when school ended he would head up to the principal's office.

"I think you should see this," Shouta said, sliding the notebook across the desk, over to Nedzu.

"And what exactly is this?" Nedzu asked, picking the notebook up and examining the cover.

"Its-" and Shouta paused, it was hard to get the words out, because then, it would make the possibility all the more real. But after a few seconds and a small breath in, he continued. "This is a notebook belonging to a student of mine, Midoriya Izuku, as I'm sure you're familiar with. Today, another student brought this notebook to my attention, saying that the contents inside were disturbing. So, I took a look inside it and well I suppose it could be seen as concerning- to say the least. And I think that it is my responsibility, as a teacher to bring you anything that I think could relate to the U A traitor,"

"The traitor? Midoriya Izuku? Do you really think it could be?" Nedzu asked, the intrigue apparent in his face.

"I would like to think I know my students well enough to confidently say that I would know if they were the traitors, but this notebook opened my mind a bit, and now, I'm really not sure what to think. I'm not saying that Midoriya is the traitor, but, I can't say for sure that there isn't something odd going on," he finished.

"Hmmm, yes, I understand. What exactly is in the contents of this notebook? I know you quite well Aizawa, and you are most definitely not the type of person to be unsure of something, so I will admit, I am rather excited to see just what it was that made you think twice," Nedzu said, and it was completely in character for him to say he was excited about something like that.

"Hero analysis is the basics of it, but it goes way further than that, to what I would consider a dangerous level. The amount of information Midoriya was able to get on all these heroes is insane, I would even go as far to say that it is on par-if not better, than what professionals would be capable of doing,” Shouta replied.

Nedzu looked at the notebook once more, before opening it and beginning to read. He seemed to be drawn into it rather quickly, his whiskers twitching as he read, his face pulled into deep concentration.

Some time later, he abruptly closed the book and sat up straighter in his chair. Shouta looked at him expectantly, “so, what do you think?” he asked.

Nedzu thought for a  moment or two more, before finally saying. “It’s- incredible, the things he has written here. The depth he goes into on each hero, examining the possible science behind their quirk, probably thinking harder about it than the heroes themselves. The language he uses, you can see how passionate he is about writing such things. The drawings, the lists, the graphs, everything here is exceptional, nothing I would have thought a first year student to be capable of,” Nedzu sounded enthralled.

“Are you saying that this isn’t something to worry about?” Shouta was hopeful, maybe he truly was overreacting.

“Oh no, in fact, I am saying quite the opposite. No matter how impressive this is, it also doesn’t change the fact that some of the information he has the potential to be deadly. If the villains had a hold of it, they would pretty much have a step by step guide on the best way to take down each hero. If the villains have already gotten a hold of this, well, it explains how they have been taking down as many heroes as they have been recently,” Nedzu said.

“So, you’re saying that Midoriya is the traitor?”
“The potential traitor. I think that if we were to go to the police now, they would believe us, but, for our own sake, I think it’s best to wait just a bit, see if we can get any other evidence, and, then, in  maybe two, three weeks, we can see where we’re at. Does that sound good?” Nedzu asked Shouta.

“Umm, yes, I suppose it does. What- what do we do until then?” Shouta wasn’t sure exactly how he was feeling, he had almost been wanting to be proved wrong, laughed at even. The fact that Nedzu didn’t brush it under the rug, and seemed to be taking the matter quite seriously, made this weird feeling in Shouta’s gut.

“Well, I’ll call a teacher’s meeting tomorrow and tell all the other teachers about the potential traitor, tell them to keep an eye out. I won’t say anything about the notebook, and you won’t either, we don’t want that evidence to be compromised in any way, okay? Everyone will keep an eye out, see if they spot anything fishy and after the two weeks are up, well, by then we should know whether or not he’s the traitor.” Nedzu explained.

“Yeah, that sounds good. Look I guess I’ll be on my way out now,” Shouta needed some time alone to think.

He got up out of the chair, nearly reaching out towards the notebook before Nedzu picked it up. “I think it’s best that I stick with this. Wouldn’t want you to lose it.” he said, putting it in one of the many drawers in his desk.

Shouta nodded mindlessly “makes sense,” he said before starting to walk out of the door.

“Aizawa, wait,” Nedzu said.

Shouta stopped where he was and turned back to the principal, waiting for him to say whatever it was he had to say.

“ If Midoriya is the traitor, he’s no student of yours. Considering the way things have panned out this year so far, if he’s working with the league, it most likely started even before the school year. There's nothing you could have done about it. Just, don’t hold it against yourself.” Nedzu told him, with pity on his face.

Shouta opened his mouth to reply, but ended up just leaving with a stiff nod. His throat felt oddly dry.

During that night's patrol, he was able to think about it for a little bit longer. He was dazed, maybe in shock. He just couldn’t believe that one of his students might be the traitor. It just didn’t seem possible. Especially Midoriya.

He had always tried to never play favourites, and he never did, at least he never outwardly showed bias towards one student or against another. When he was a student, his teachers had never seen a problem with giving all their attention to one sole student, and Shouta knew how damaging that could be.

At the same time, though, he wouldn’t lie and say that no student ever stood out more than the others.

Midoriya Izuku was exactly that student. He was so shy, at first, and awkward, and with such a powerful quirk, he was awful at controlling it. But, throughout the year, he had made so much progress it was incredible, and his personality began to shine through more than it had been at the start. Everyone adored him, the students all looked up to him, treating him as their leader of some sort. And even then, Midoriya had some serious confidence issues, second guessing himself constantly, getting flustered at something that could barely be considered a compliment.

It was baffling, to say the least, and Shouta didn’t pretend  to understand it.

But he supposed that all that might have made him all the more susceptible to being targeted by the league of villains. A kid, so not used to attention that the first ounce of it he got, he clung onto whoever it was, even if they were a villain, and listened to whatever they had to say.

It was a sad thing to think about, but Midoriya really was only a kid, and kids being groomed by adults to do whatever they pleased was far more common than you would think.

The next day, as he said he would, Nedzu called a teacher meeting after school.

Everyone was standing around, making small talk and what not, people wondering what the meeting was about. Shouta knew, of course, and he was not looking forward to it.

Nedzu had told him that he thought it was best to tell all the teachers early on, to have  more eyes and ears on the lookout for any signs of the kid being the traitor, and, initially Shouta had agreed, but after thinking about it for some time, he was beginning to wonder if it really was the best idea. When too many people are in on one secret, it never stays secret for too long. Still, he didn’t say anything because he knew that if Nedzu wanted something, Nedzu would get it.

Nedzu stood at the front of the staff room table, on a cushion, probably to make him seem bigger than he was. He began speaking.

“As you all know, there is a traitor in U.A. and, as of yesterday, we have a suspect.” he declared.

Everyone looked surprised, clearly no one had thought that this was going to be what the staff meeting was about.

“Who is it?” Cementoss asked.

"Midoriya Izuku, a student in class 1-A," Nedzu said.

The staff room was silent for a second, and then, as if everyone's reactions were completely delayed, noise erupted from everyone.

Some of the teachers pretty much had their mouths wide open, shocked. The majority, though, burst out laughing, clearly thinking it was the funniest thing they had ever heard.

"Midoriya Izuku? That cute one? Nedzu, that's the funniest thing I've ever heard," Midnight screeched, hiccuping with laughter.

"That little listener is the furthest thing from a villian that I could ever think of! You can't actually be serious?" Yamada shouted, his quirk making his voice louder, probably by accident.

"That Midoriya kid could never be the traitor! Such a lovely kid. Always says thanks for the food!" Lunch Rush interjected.

"Surely, that's what he would want you to think? He wouldn't want to come across as suspicious and he'd want to get on everyone's good side, so when something like this happens, no one would believe it. It makes perfect sense for it to be him, if you ask me," Snipe explained.

At this, a few teachers stopped to think for a few seconds longer. 

"That-that actually could be right," someone spoke up.

"Yeah, it really could," someone else said.

"Guys, think about it for a second. This is Midoriya Izuku we're on about. What about him could possibly lead him to be the traitor? Come on, guys, think for a second," Yamada said, showing a more serious side to him. He obviously took offence to people thinking that Midoriya could be the traitor.

"Well, if Nedzu brought it up, there's got to be some evidence, hasn't there?"

Nedzu seemed to take this as his turn to step in. "Yes, in fact, I have quite a solid piece of evidence. One that, although I cannot disclose it right now, I'm sure you would all find incredibly disturbing if you were to see it, too."

This brought out a whole other wave of noise and conversation throughout the staff room, people gossiping about what the evidence could possibly be. 

After a few seconds, though, All Might spoke up.

Shouta noted that he had been extraordinarily quiet this evening so far, which, he had to admit he found rather surprising. He would have expected All Might to object right away, due to the very close relationship he seemed to have with the kid. Maybe it was disbelief, or, shock? News like that can certainly cause it.

"This has got to be some sort of mistake, surely? Young Midoriya has more of a drive to become a hero than I've ever seen in another student before. He wouldn't-he couldn't do such a thing. What do you think, Aizawa? You're his homeroom teacher, you've spent a lot more time with him than most everyone else here. You have got to have something to say about it," All Might said.

Shouta sat up a bit straighter, after hearing the question directed to him. He hadn't expected it, for whatever reason, and he most certainly did not like the eyes of the whole staff room on him.

"Yeah, let's hear what Shouta has to say. He's the kid's teacher, of course he knows him better. Of course he knows that he's not the traitor," Yamada said.

Shouta took a sharp breath in, fuck. Yamada would not be happy with what he was about to say. 

Shouta wasn't even happy with what he was about to say, still, he had to get out with it, even if it felt like acid coming out of his throat.

"Midoriya Izuku is my student, yes, and I have spent a lot of time with him, and, though I would absolutely vouch for his behavior and as much as I don't want this to be true, I have seen the evidence. It's jarring. And even if Midoriya is the traitor, there are multiple reasons that could be, that are not his fault," Shouta was saying, before being cut off.

"Like what?"

"There's a chance that if he is the traitor, it's not by free will. Some adults will take advantage of any kid they can get their hands on, and, reminder, that he only is a kid, " 

At this, All Might sat up a bit straighter. Yamada did not look impressed, or anything remotely like it.

That's how it was by the end of the meeting. Half conflicted, about a quarter convinced he was innocent, and a quarter convinced he was absolutely the traitor. No one was happy.

The plan was to watch out for the next few weeks for anything suspicious, and, if any of the teachers suspected something was really off and were worried, to tell Nedzu, and he would handle it.

Shouta was not looking forward to these few weeks, and that odd feeling in his gut only got worse.

Chapter Text

Two weeks had passed since the staff meeting, and not a lot had happened.

Nothing with Midoriya actually being called out as the traitor, things in that whole regard were happening rather slowly.

But, if you were talking about the things surrounding that whole situation, then you could say some things were happening.

Everyone was watching Midoriya, quite closely. They were all waiting for him to slip up, to catch himself out, to reveal himself as the traitor. They were waiting and watching and some were getting impatient.

Very impatient.

Some of the teachers had taken about three days to monitor the kid, before adamantly making up their mind that he was the traitor.

When asked about it though, they would only reply with something vague and elusive. Like "I can just tell, " or "That kid, he's always been a little dodgy. No student has ever had as many encounters with villians in their first year,". 

They were pressuring Nedzu to do something about it sooner, finally get rid of the traitor, stop the villains, and get the press off of their backs. Nedzu hadn't budged about waiting a few weeks, though it was hard to tell what he himself actually thought.

Other teachers were so outrageously against the idea that Midoriya was the traitor, and most of them had no problem sharing their opinions about it. Especially Present Mic.

He simply couldn't wrap his head around the fact that people could think that Midoriya was the traitor. Midoriya Izuku. The same Midoriya who had broken his bones over and over again, saved people from villains over and over again, who was probably willing to give his life in order to protect anyone in U.A., staff and students included. Hizashi thought that anyone, even bringing up the possibility that Midoriya was the traitor, was  insulting to all the heroic things he had done.

He and Aizawa had not been getting on very well.

That was as expected, to Aizawa at least. 

He hadn't been all that vocal about whether or not he figured Midoriya was the traitor, even with all the enquires from his colleagues, asking him, since he was the kid's homeroom teacher and spent the most time with him, they all thought he would have had a better grasp on who exactly Midoriya was.

Eventually, when he refused to comment on the topic, everyone just assumed he was indifferent to it, or that he was too socially inept to handle all of those people talking to him. 

He couldn't get away with not talking about it to Hizashi, seeing as they were living together and all. It was most definitely brought up at pretty much every dinner. Hizashi asking him over and over again if today was finally the day he would come to his senses and realise just how dumb he had been, to even consider the fact that Midoriya coukd be the traitor. How horrible it was, for a teacher to think that his own student could do something so bad.

Aizawa had tried, many times already, to explain to Hizashi that he was not accusing Midoriya of being the traitor, just because he didn't brush it under the rug right away. Pushing his own feelings about the situation to the side, and looking at the facts, he couldn't just ignore the possibility of it. He wouldn't be a good teacher then, if he was unwilling to look into things that could potentially save his students from a lot of harm, just because he might find something that could hurt his feelings.

Hizashi thought that  Aizawa pushing his feelings away was the dumbest thing he could do in this situation, that his feelings would probably help him figure out if the kid was the traitor or not. Aizawa thought looking at things from an objective standpoint was the best thing to do.

And, in all honesty, Aizawa had no fucking clue how he felt about it all. He was never good at that sort of thing, emotions and such. He wasn't sure why he was that way, but he couldn't really remember being any other way, so he concluded that he had just always been like that.

He never tried to become attached to his students because he never tried to become attached to anyone else. Though he did end up becoming attached to other people, he also ended up becoming attached to his students.

It happened every time. He would get a class and be all strict and harsh and expel them only to re-enroll them a few days later, they would learn their lesson and he would continue to teach them. And throughout the three years he had them he would really get to know them, and by the end, as proud of them as he was, he also felt a slight squeeze in his heart, watching them all leave.

Class 1-A was no different. Although he had been unable to expel them, due to Nedzu refusing to let him do so. Aizawa found himself caring an awful lot more about them than he would like to admit. They seemed to have grown on him quicker than the previous years.

It was just, so hard to think about the fact that he might have been wrong all along, that his problem kid really is a bad sort of problem kid, the kind that he can't train or teach to be better and do better, because he won't be able to. The second that it comes out that Midoriya is the traitor, if it comes out, he'll be taken away. Not to prison, but still, away . 

And if that happens, Aizawa would still have to keep teaching all his other kids, the ones who absolutely adored Midoriya, the ones who would be heartbroken over it all. He'd have to teach them and he'd have to move on and pretend it wasn't as if he was unable to look at any of his students the same way again, because how could he truly know them? How could he know they're not hiding everything from him?

Andddd, that was exactly what trying to understand his feelings did to him every time. Thinking, thinking, thinking far too much and overthinking and sending his mind down a not so great path.

He hadn't realized though, until now, just how much of an effect Midoriya being the traitor would have on him. That wasn't very nice to think about, either.

Though now that he was already doing it he couldn't help but wonder what effect it would really have on everyone else. What about his friends? What about Bakugou? They would surely have even worse reactions, considering. Aizawa was only his teacher, and it's not like he was extremely close with Midoriya. All Might seemed to be, and Aizawa was very curious about him. Ever since the staff meeting, he had been acting differently, maybe even a little strangely.

All Might looked like the symbol of peace. Because he was the symbol of peace. He looked just as strong and he smiled just as much and he spoke just as positively.

To the outside world, he was all this. To them, he was pretty much the same man he was five years ago, even ten years. To them he hadn't changed at all.

Toshinori, on the other hand, was what people would call a complete fucking mess.

He was injured, as he had been for the past five years, and the hours he could spend as All Might had been dwindling at an increasingly fast rate, nothing like they were ten years ago. Especially since the rematch with All For One, he had nearly been outed to the world in his weak self, and he would have been if it had only lasted a few seconds longer. If he was being one hundred percent truthful, he could barely last over an hour and a half in his All Might form, which is pretty much the same as nothing when it comes to being a hero.

This-this was all horrible and an absolute nightmare on its own. But it should have been handled, it was going to have been handled. Young Midoriya had been passed down his quirk, he was on track to becoming the next symbol of peace, the next beacon of hope. The next All Might. 

And it had been going well- okay it hadn't been going exactly the way Toshinori had figured it would go, and it was certainly not as quick or as simple as it had been for himself when he was passed down One For All, but, he should have known that Midoriya wasn't the same as he had been. That had been no one's fault but his own.

At least it was still moving along and Midoryia was still on track to become a hero.

Now, though, fuck. Now with all this talk about Midoriya being the traitor, things really did not seem to be heading in the right direction. Quite the opposite, actually. 

It was- of course Midoriya wasn't the traitor. That's not what the problem was. At least he hoped it wouldn't be. He knew Midoriya too well, he would have noticed if something was up.

But-

No. All Might did not second guess himself, so Toshinori wouldn't do that now, it would get him nowhere. 

The problem wasn't that Midoriya was the traitor (because he couldn't be), it was that everyone else seemed to think he was.

If this were to get out, it would be horrible for his reputation, no one would want a symbol of peace who they couldn't trust. Everything Toshinori did for Midoriya would be pointless if he couldn't even get a job as a hero.

So, that was the problem.

The very massive problem that he had to do something about and that was causing him a great deal of stress. Seriously, his blood pressure had been way up in recent weeks.

He couldn't go about and make a big scene, that would just cause more questions. A few teachers knew about his weakened form, though none of them, except for recovery girl and Nedzu, knew about One For All. If he were to be too eager dismissing everyone's claims that Izuku was the traitor, it would just cause more suspicion about their relationship, and he knew some people were already curious about that. And the real traitor, whoever they may be, would have more of a chance to find out about One For All.

Surely, hopefully, this whole "Izuku is the traitor" thing would have blown over in the next few weeks without there being any real consequences to it, and everything would be fine. Because, until then, Toshinori decided that it was best if he would just stay out of it.

Also, distancing himself from Izuku would be the smart thing to do, just for a little while. Better to make sure that everyone who could be on their trail gets thrown off.

It's all for the greater good.

Chapter Text

Izuku had lost his notebook.

Yup, definitely lost it.

For two weeks now, he had been looking everywhere for it, he's sure he had turned his bedroom upside down at least three times hoping to find it, and he had also scavenged the U.A. halls for it every day since he noticed it went missing.

But, now, with absolutely zero luck on finding it, he finally accepted the fact that it was gone.

He probably would have done that earlier, maybe after only a week of looking for it, because, as much as he loved that notebook, he knew a lost cause when he saw it, but, spending all of his time looking for the notebook had been helping him keep his mind off of things. The teachers in school had been acting quite oddly.

Anyway, losing his notebook was more than disappointing. He had so much information stored in there, he had worked so hard on all of it. What a waste for all that to just be gone now. It was certainly going to put a damper on his day. Maybe his week.

Well, there was nothing he could do about it now. Keep moving on, he told himself, what's in the past is in the past.

Sighing, he left his room and walked out into the hallway.

The house was quiet, his mother was working, again. Izuku was used to that, Inko was working all the time. And, as he went out into the living room, he realised his mother had cleaned it and rearranged the couch, again. She did that all the time, too.

He looked on the kitchen counter and saw that she had left some breakfast out for him. He smiled slightly, she hadn't forgotten about that this time. 

Eating his breakfast, before looking in a cabinet in the kitchen for his notebook, because what if , he headed out of the apartment, locked the door, and started on his way to school.

Everyone was staring at him.

He knew they were looking at him, he could feel their stares on the back of his neck, an uncomfortable sensation.

They all just kept looking over and back and over again, trying to be subtle but clearly failing.

Izuku himself hadn't given any indication of noticing, instead just taking a few deep breaths and trying to focus in class.

Of course that wasn't working, because how the hell could he focus if he could feel everyone staring at him. 

It was making him nervous.

They had all been acting weird since as soon as he walked in the door, when they had all jumped apart as if they had just been caught doing something bad. Mineta was in the middle of it all, so whatever it was, probably wasn't great.

But still, that didn't explain why no one could seem to take their eyes off of him for more than twenty seconds.

There wasn't anything wrong with him, right?

His uniform was on correctly, he made sure of that in the morning. His hair was a mess, but the same mess that it always was, so nothing worth ogling over. There was no massive pimple on his face or any leftover toothpaste around his mouth. After feeling his back, he knew there was nothing stuck onto it like a note or some sticky paper.

If nothing about his appearance was off, that could only mean it was something else.

The thought of that made him feel quite sick.

It couldn't have been something he said, because he hadn't said anything at all, not that morning at least, due to him arriving just before the bell went.

Perhaps he said something on Friday? But that was over two days ago by now, and he couldn't remember anything significant happening then. Only All Might not saying hello to him sprung to the forefront of his mind-

-Which was a whole other problem, now that he was thinking of it. All Might had been ignoring him, along with most of his teachers, and Izuku had no clue why.

The more he thought about it, the more anxious he was getting.

Maybe he did say something wrong on Friday. He could have done so and not noticed. Sometimes he said the first thing that popped into his mind without even thinking about it beforehand, and that had brought him an awful amount of trouble before. Even when he didn't mean it in a rude way, everyone just took it as that. But that hadn't happened in a long time, not since starting U.A., everyone here never seemed to misunderstand Izuku, or, if they did, they pretended that they didn't.

Perhaps his tone was off? Maybe he was speaking in a really annoyed voice even though he wasn't annoyed at all because why would he be annoyed? He had friends here that talked to him and liked him and-

Well, they might not like him now, not anymore. Not after he spoke to them so rudely. That's probably what they were all talking about in the morning, when he walked into class, wasn't it? Of course it was. Oh god, they must have been saying something really horrible. They probably all know about him and know that he's not actually fit for this and he's a fraud and so, so, so bad .

He thought he might actually get sick. So sick. What was he going to do now? With no friends or anyone to hang out with, how was he going to excel if no one wanted to be his sparring partner. Who was he going to talk to? No one, because he had no one. Not his friends, not his mother, not All Might.

All Might was ignoring him, the teachers were ignoring him and his classmates wouldn't stop staring at him and it was going to be just like when he was younger because dammit deku you messed up again. Why do you keep messing up and-

Breathe, he had to breathe. Shit. Something like that hadn't happened in a while. In and out. In and out. He had to focus on his breathing.

Fuck, he was just working himself up again, why did he always do that? God, he was just giving them more reasons to stare, they could  definitely all tell he was in the middle of a goddamned crisis.

He was being irrational, that's what it was. His friends weren't talking shit about him, they wouldn't do that, and it was unfair of him to accuse them of such things. All Might wasn't ignoring him, come on, really? Not saying hello one time doesn't mean that he was ignoring Izuku. He would have to get his act together, now, before All Might started to think that Izuku was a child with attachment issues. He wasn't, obviously, so he couldn't keep this going on. Teachers were just busy, Izuku wasn't anything special, they didn't have to give him any attention.

He was fine. Fine. Totally a-okay. Today was just a bad day. One where the tiniest thing could send him spiralling. He had those sometimes. He'll get over it, he always did. He was fine.

Izuku assured himself of this over and over again, until he was a tad bit more composed.

He was almost sure no one had noticed his little freakout, because they never did. Even if, in the moment, it felt like he was being so loud and it was so obvious, in hindsight, he realised it probably wasn't as big of a scene as he thought it was.

Although he was feeling pretty much better, he still went to the bathroom during the small break before the next class, to give himself a little breather and get away from everyone. He threw some water on his face and paced around a few times, trying to expel the restless energy that had taken up inside.

"Like, I'm not saying he is or anything, but, he was acting sorta odd during class, wasn't he?"

"Yeah! I noticed that aswell. And the way he just ran off to the bathroom right when the bell went, too,"

"Kinda suspicious, if you ask me,"

"Really? I thought he was acting the same as he always does,"

"Maybe the way he always acts is just suspicious,"

"Guys, are we seriously still going on about this? Are you actually going to beleive a word that comes out of Mineta's mouth? I watched him for like the whole class and he didn't seem any different,"

"Exactly. Are we all just forgetting who Mineta is? Like, since when did we just ignore the fact he's a disgusting human being?"

"Him being a disgusting human doesn't have anything to do with what he told us, though,"

"You don't need to defend him y'know-"

"Im not defending him im just saying-"

"Im right here guys,"

"and?"

"Ughh. But I told Aizawa sensei. He believed me! He looked at the notebook! Haven't you noticed all the teachers have been acting strangly? Clearly they've been told!"

"Well, they have been acting weird,"

"Fuck. So it is true,"

"If it was true, the teachers would have done something about it,"

"Maybe they're about to do something about it, but they're like, staking out, tryna see if they can figure anything else out,"

"Actually, that could be true,"

"Yeah,"

"God, guys, I'm so conflicted right now. Like maybe he is but at the same time, I mean, how could he?"

"This is all disgusting behavior. For you guys to be saying such stuff behind you classmate and friends back! As the class representative, I find this appalling. How could you ever think Midoryia was cabaple of such things? Are you forgetting everything he's done for us?"

"Honestly, I think it makes sense,"

" What?  You? But aren't you like his best friend?"

"I mean, well, yeah, but, like think about it, if I'm his best friend, surely I know him better than all of you, and, I think it makes perfect sense,"

"What about Bakugou. You were childhood friends, yeah? What do you think?"

"I think you're all two faced extra's who have no sense and I've never seen people spew so much fucking bullshit you lousy bastards who-"

The door opened.

Mineta, Iida, Jiro, Mina, Uraraka, Tsuyu and Denki jumped apart, just like they had at the start of the day. Kachaan had cut himself off in the middle of a sentence and everyone began staring at him, again.

That feeling of dread started to bubble up inside of him.

Maybe something really had happened.

If it did, surely, someone would tell him?

Hopefully.

Until then, Izuku decided he would just pretend as if nothing was wrong. 

"Hey guys, sorry I took so long, But I'm back now!" He said, plastering on a smile and walking inside the class.

He took his seat again and started to mess with his pen, clicking it.

He gulped.

Chapter Text

Izuku really, really wanted to go home.

He was just so sick of school right now, so, so, so tired of it.

He was so sick and so tired of it and he also had a headache that just wouldn't go away and it was so frustrating and made everything so much worse and he really wanted to leave .

He thought he could just pretend as if everything was normal, he told himself that he would act as if he was oblivious to the change in everyone around him, but that was simply just not possible.

All Might was still ignoring him, and Izuku had given up on trying to talk to the man after the fifth time of speaking to him and not even being acknowledged with so much as a nod in his direction.

He had no idea what had happened.

The other teachers had iced him out, too. No longer calling on him to answer a question or congratulating the score he got in his test or even just saying hello to him, all of them (apart from Present Mic), seemed to have forgotten he existed. That stung, but he had been used to teachers doing that sort of thing, so it still hadn't hurt as much as All Might deciding Izuku was no longer worth his time. 

Izuku felt as if he really might just start crying. 

His classmates had been acting no better than anyone else. 

They were watching him, constantly. Looking and looking and even when they knew he knew they were watching him they still didn't stop. They just stared. As if he was a rat in a lab and they were trying to dissect him, only with their eyes. It was as if they were waiting for something remarkable to happen, for him to- 

Izuku had no clue what they were waiting to see him do. Zero. Idea.

It wasn't just the staring, though, no, no, no, that was only the beginning. Staring, as much as he hated the feeling of being perceived, would have been manageable.

It was everything else that just made it so much worse.

They whispered about him. And he wasn't being conceited and self-centered for thinking so, despite what he had originally told himself. He knew they were whispering and discussing him because he could- he could just tell. He was sure anyone would be able to tell when people were talking about them, if they were doing it so often. Because it was often that they were talking about him. It seemed to be almost all the time. Before class, during class, in the middle of lunch, at the start of school, at the end of school. Anytime, anywhere, and Izuku was certain that somebody from his class was saying something about him. He didn't know what, exactly, but he knew it couldn't be good. He saw the looks they gave him, he saw the disgust in some of their faces, he noticed the way they made sure to keep their distance, as if he were a parasite. He saw all of it, over and over and over again. And everytime he walked into the room and watched them all slowly stop whispering as he got closer, before giving him more looks and stalking off to somewhere else, he just wanted to curl up into a ball and die.

He had still asked them all to hang out, once, too. Hoping that maybe, they would say yes and he would see them outside of school and Izuku would realise that he'd just been paranoid, that they were still his friends and that they cared about him and they'd laugh with him once he confessed that he had been worried something was wrong. He had always been far too optimistic, though. And his worries and fears had been backed up after hearing bullshit excuse after bullshit excuse as to why no one was able to come. He hadn't known whether or not they thought he was dense enough to actually believe that they were telling the truth, or if they just knew that he didn't have the guts to call them out. 

In the end, it didn't matter which one it was, because neither answer would change the fact that nobody wanted to hang out with him.

They all hated him.

He didn't get it.

It was like that in middle school, too.

In middle school, everyone had disliked him right from the very beginning. He had introduced himself as Midoriya Izuku, though all anyone heard was that quirkless one (the news had spread exceptionally fast). He had never even been given a chance, and had been treated as less than for all of middle school, by teachers and students alike. 

Everyone had acted as if his mere existence was something done to personally offended them. So, they hated him. They had despised him, or at least they acted like it. Izuku wasn't sure you could really despise someone that wasn't somehow important to you, and back then, nobody gave two shits about Izuku. He was a punching bag, something people could use to release their pent up energy on, a thing to practice using their quirks on. Nothing more than that.

And he didn't get it.

Back then, after a day full of taunting and trips and shoves along with burns and bruises and cuts, he would lie in bed and think why? Technically, he knew it was because he was quirkless, because that's what everyone said was the reason for it, but he couldn't wrap his head around the fact that this one thing about him, this one thing that wasn't even his fault to begin with, and something he couldn't just change, made everyone so incredibly angry with him that they felt it was okay to treat him like that. He didn't think it was possible. There had to be something else that made them keep hating him and keep treating him like that, even after getting to know him a little better.

But there wasn't. Although he had quite nearly convinced himself that the real reason everyone hated him was because he had a personality that was so incredibly unbearable that they could not bring it in themselves to look past the fact that he was quirkless, and that he was so delusional and in denial that he lied and told himself no one liked him because he was quirkless.

He knew that couldn't have been true due to the fact that none of the people that had hated him, had ever even gotten to know very much of his personality, so even if it was unbearable, it wasn't the cause of their hatred. It truly was because of him being quirkless. That one singular thing about him made his life a living hell.

He understood it, but once again, he did not get it.

Getting a quirk was the greatest thing to have ever happened to him. Finally getting a chance to succeed, finally being on even footing with his peers, finally being equal and not less than . Being trained by his biggest hero, and the world's symbol of peace, Izuku had thought life couldn't get any better than it was.

And then it did. He got into U.A., and he loved it. He made more friends than he could have ever imagined having, he had teachers that actually taught him, and his dream of becoming a hero didn't seem so crazy after all. He laughed and smiled and there were many taunts and shoves and trips paired alongside cuts and bruises and burns, but this time it was for a reason, it was because Izuku was helping people and he was able to fight back harder than he ever had before.

He had gone from someone who wasn't very much of anything, to someone who was so much of everything.

In U.A., no one knew his past, no one knew him to be previously quirkless, except for Kachaan, but that had been taken care of. He was just like everyone else, a kid with a quirk and a desire to help. They liked him, they asked his opinion on stuff, and they listened to what he had to say. He was able to be himself in a way he had never been before, that constant anxiety had left him and he became more than he ever was before. He thought that he would never feel the same way he'd felt back when he was in middle school.

Until he did. Until one day All Might started ignoring him, Aizawa forgot about him and his classmates began to whisper things about him. 

Until Izuku stopped even having lunch. His stomach was in knots more often than not nowadays, a constant ball of dread taking up the space where food was supposed to go. That anxiety was back and stronger than ever.

They began to hate him.

And Izuku didn't get it.

He wasn't quirkless. He wasn't quirkless. He wasn't quirkless. Why? Why would they hate him, he wasn't quirkless, he wasn't, he wasn't, he wasn't.

He finally didn't have to worry about that one singular thing holding him back. What he thought was the reason everyone disliked him.

But he had a quirk now, and still, everybody hated him. 

That fucking sucked. That sucked an awful lot more than being hated while being quirkless. Now, he couldn't blame it on anything, not anything but himself, who he was as a person. He could no longer soothe himself by saying that the only reason they hated him was because he was quirkless and they were prejudiced, not because they might simply not have enjoyed his company. Since he had a quirk now, that meant they hated him because of him.

They had  liked him at the beginning, so that meant that they had gotten sick of him. They had gotten sick of his incessant chatter about the most mundane things. His endless enthusiasm about heroes and their quirks. His questions upon questions to his classmates about their quirks and how they worked and what they were like.

He had gone from someone who wasn't much of anything, to someone who was too much of everything.

And that made him want to fucking cry.

He could never go about it the right way, could he? He was weird and awkward and annoying and how hadn't they gotten sick of him sooner?

All Might must have realised that he wasn't good enough to be the next symbol of peace, because when was Izuku good enough for anything? 

Aizawa had figured out that he wasn't worth the amount of trouble he caused, "the problem child" was something not worth fixing.

Everyone had come to their senses and realised that he was a phony, a freak, a good for nothing nobody who thought he could fit in with all these people who were great and worth it and who didn't have to fake it all the time and who were born with quirks and not given to them out of pity-

Since that must have really been why All Might even bothered at all. He hadn't saved Kachaan, he'd ignored the heroes and he didn't have a plan, just a goddamned school bag that did nothing, and he ruined it and he embarrassed himself and it didn't show greatness at all, it showed that he was borderline suicidal and All Might was probably worried he'd throw himself off a roof just like Kachaan said he should, and since All Might really was a good person, he- he gave his quirk to Izuku and- maybe he should have listened to Kachaan, maybe then-

Oh god, he really was about to start crying.

He was about to start crying and his head was still hurting because he kept thinking and thinking and his mind kept going and going even when he tried to get it to stop but it wouldn't, it wouldn't, it wouldn't stop and he couldn't stop and he just needed to leave this classroom and this school and run and run and run and never stop running.

He stood up so suddenly that his desk nearly toppled over and he left the classroom, startling everyone.

Chapter Text

Nobody went to check up on Midoryia, not even the teacher.

He was going to, though he had been stopped by a student, Mina, who'd asked the question Shouta very much did not want to hear.

"So, is he really the traitor?" she said eagerly, and Shouta could practically see the rest of the class sit up straighter, wanting to hear the answer aswell.

And that was just fucking great . Of course, of course Mineta had told everyone. Why had Shouta even thought for a second he wouldn't? The little bastard. And now, the one time the kid is out of the classroom, they all jump on the ball to ask him the question.

Sure, he knew the kids had probably been aware that Midoriya was under suspicion of being the traitor, considering the way he'd seen them whispering. He wasn't blind, but, it really did make his job a hell of a lot more tricky, now that he'd actually have to talk about it.

What would he even say? What could there even be said about it? It's not like he could straight up deny it or confirm it. He could do neither. Nedzu still hadn't said anything else about what his plans were, and whether or not he thought Midoriya was the traitor and if they were going to take it up with the police, despite the fact that it was already a week past the time the principal had said he'd have it figured out. Even with all the complaints from staff, about how something really had to be done, Nedzu kept giving vague replies that weren't answers at all.

It pissed him off a good bit. Shouta had always harboured a good deal of respect for Nedzu, something he didn't have for most people. Now, though, this whole thing, it was really rubbing Shouta the wrong way. The sooner this could be over with, the better. Dragging it out was worse for everyone involved. The rat didn't seem to understand that though.

So, what could he say? Could he just pretend he had no idea what they were on about? That could work- no, it probably wouldn't be the best descison, that might make them go and tell Midoriya about it all, and then Midoriya would know they were on to him. If he was the traitor. If not, well, it wouldn't matter. Too bad Shouta had no goddamned clue if he was the traitor or not. There was arguments to both sides, in his opinion. And, unlike Yamada, Shouta was still too iffy about which side to choose. He didn't think he'd ever been so indecisive in his life. It was just too hard to choose, and, as horrible as it might make him seem, Shouta would prefer if he didn't have to choose at all. Hopefully, some sort of evidence will come out that can solidify the fact that the kid is or isn't the traitor, and save Shouta from having to pick a side.

"Uh, sir, so, is he or is he not?" Jiro asked, snapping Shouta out of his thoughts. 

Fuck, he still didn't know what to say. He'd have to make it up on the spot.

"Midoriya-" he started, but was cut off right away.

"He is oh my god, how many times do I have to say! I thought you all believed me?" Mineta whined, crossing his arms like a petulant child.

"And what's wrong with asking the teacher just to make sure, huh? What's got you so upset about it?" Sero sneered.

"Im not upset I'm literally just pointing out that it's a waist of time to ask the teacher since I've already -"

"If you want an answer, everyone here is going to need to shut up," Shouta snapped, a bad mood was rising.

At least the class listened, everyone went quiet.

"Now, I want to make one thing extremely clear. Students were not supposed to be aware of this," he said, sending a sharp glare in Mineta's direction. "But, of course, it's a bit late for that now,"

"U.A. does in fact have a traitor. Now, we do not know who it is for sure but Midoriya is under suspicion of being the traitor, due to some evidence we obtained that points us in his direction-"

"His notebook! That's the evidence, I told you-"

Another look right at Mineta got him to finally shut his mouth. "It points us in his direction , it is not definite that he is the traitor, and we will not know until Nedzu decides to take this further. I assume that everyone here is responsible enough to understand that Midoriya cannot find out about this, or else it will compromise the investigation. You are not to tell him under any circumstances or there will be extreme consequences, does everybody understand?"

A chorus of yes sir's followed suit.

"Well, what do you think about it?" Kaminari asked.

"Yeah, in your opinion, do you think he is?" Kirishima said.

"Of course the man doesn't think Deku's the traitor! He's one of the few sensible people in this goddamned school! Unlike the rest of you extra's, he doesn't hear one stupid fucking rumour and take it like it's the fucking gospel-" Bakugou began to shout.

"I-," Shouta started, but then he paused.

The class reacted as if he'd done a whole lot more than that.

" Holy fucking hell! Do not tell me you think so too? Are you seriously that fucking dense? Deku isn't the traitor, he's just a fucking weirdo who's obsessed with heroes! I know him better than all of you bastards so stop acting as if he's this completely different perosn than he is! Do you think Deku is capable of being a goddamned traitor? Deku? Seriously? Of course the fuck not he isn't! Have any of you seen him? Talked to him? Used one braincell to think about this? Clearly you haven't!-" 

Shouta held up his right hand, he silenced the boy, but Shouta could tell that if he hadn't, Bakugou would have been able to go on for forever. 

"I did not say I thought he was the traitor so do not, and I mean it, do not put words into my mouth," Shouta said.

"You didn't say it but you obviously meant it!" Bakugou shouted.

"No. I did not."

"So, you think he's innocent?" Tsyuu asked.

"I never said that either," Shouta replied.

"So you think he's guilty," Hagakure said.

Shouta clenched his teeth. "I did not say anything- "

"And I think that speaks for itself," said Mina.

"Yeah, he's all but admitted he thinks Deku is guilty," Kaminari added in.

After that, the classroom broke into chaos, not even Shouta could calm it down. People shouting over eachother, talking about this new 'revelation', there were bursts of flames coming from Bakugou's hands, he was so furious. A few students, Todoroki, Iida and one or two more, stayed quiet, they looked to be lost in thought. 

Shouta took a deep breath in. This, had gone horribly, and now everyone thought for some reason, that he'd said Midoriya was the traitor. Teenagers were a fucking nightmare. 

Shouta needed a break from this shit.

He was the traitor, he had to be, pretty much everyone thought so, even Uruarka, the teachers, too! Aizawa had practically outright said he thought Midoriya was guilty. The only reason, and he'd heard it from Kirishima, that they hadn't brought him in yet was because they were trying to see if they could figure out exactly how he was getting information to the villains. Aizawa had said it was because they still weren't completely sure, but, he might have just said it to say it.

Iida hadn't believed it at first, Midoriya would never do such a thing, he was kind and strong and everything that it meant to be a hero, most of all loyal. Then, everyone else had told him that's what a traitor would want him to think.

Midoriya had lied, he'd betrayed everyone's trust, he'd tricked Iida, he'd tricked them all, and that made him sick. Iida had considered Midoriya to be one of his best friends, if not the best. Midoriya had been there for him when his brother had been attacked, he'd told Iida that he would be there to listen if he needed to talk, something that had made Iida's heart swell with appreciation, now, he knew it was all fake. 

There was, this little voice in the back of his head that Iida just couldn't ignore. Midoriya was the traitor, he'd been working with the villians. What villains exactly? The league of villains, yes, but perhaps there was more? How did he know where Iida was the night that Stain attacked? How did he know where to go? What if, what if he'd known beforehand where Stain was going to be, or he'd been alerted to where they were fighting? What he had been with Stain the whole time. Iida's brother-

He didn't think that Midoriya would do such a thing, but, now, he didn't think he knew Midoriya at all. It was just as probable as it wasn't. 

The Deku he knew, it was all an act, wasn't it? Carefully constructed and construed, how could Iida know what parts of him were real and what were fake? If any were real at all? It was far too much for him to think about, yet his mind wouldn't stop.

Shouto had never been a people sort of person.

He wasn't exactly sure why. He told himself that's just the way he was, somebody who just didn't like others all that much. 

But, he didn't think that was true. To be honest, he liked people. He liked them a lot . Not everyone, of course, but, some people, Shouto really wished he was better friends with.

It's like- he tried, he did, but it just never seemed to work. He never got other people, or they never got him. He wasn't sure the difference it made. He was always so cold and detached because he simply didn't know how else to be? How was it that nobody else seemed to struggle with such things? Why did everyone else get it but him? It's like everyone knew these secret rules and tips and tricks to socialising, but Shouto had missed out.

He wondered sometimes if it was the way he was raised. His father had never really let him interact with others his age, preferring to keep Shouto alone, having friends would have interfered with his training. He thought that must be it. Everyone else had years and years to become good at making friends and just talking to people in general, Shouto was far behind, only just starting now.

So, maybe he was a people person. He just wasn't very good at it.

He hated his father.

Midoriya had run out of the classroom, he seemed upset, very upset, actually. If Shouto wasn't Shouto, and if he was someone else with even an ounce of knowledge on what to do when another person was upset, he would have gone out after Midoriya. Midoriya needed comfort, and nobody else wanted to give him any, not even the people Shouto would have thought were closest to him. Iida and Uruarka had been rather adamant that he was the traitor. Uruaka, mostly, Iida seemed to have just followed suit. It was weird, to say the least, and unexpected. Shouto wanted to comfort Midoriya, but he just didn't know how. Perhaps Midoriya would think it odd, as well, they weren't very good friends. That's why Shouto wished he was good at people, then he would have even half a clue what to do in this situation.

Midoriya was, or so Shouto assumed, upset because people thought he was the traitor, and everyone had been treating him differently since. Shouto didn't think he was the traitor, not even for a second, and he couldn't fathom why his classmates did. Surely they knew how incredibly out of character something like that would be? 

It made him quite angry, listening to some of his classmates and the things they said about Midoriya. And Shouto wouldn't consider himself an angry person, not like Bakugou, and he didn't necessarily want to become an angry person, the less like his father he was, the better. But, sometimes, he wished he had the confidence to do even a bit of what Bakugou did.

Like, literally right now. Bakugou was in the middle of another blow up about how disgusting he thought it was that everyone considered Midoriya the traitor, even Aizawa, and how insane everyone must be. Shouto completely agreed, he didn't like Bakugou all that much, but he couldn't dismiss the fact that he was passionate.

It was cowardly of him, he knew, to just sit back and let Bakugou be the only one to stand up for Midoriya. But, Shouto didn't know what else he could do. He couldn't be loud and angry, like Bakugou, as much as he might have wanted to be, it just wouldn't work. And, it wasn't as if he could just put his hand up and say "I don't think Midoryia is the traitor,". What sort of impact would that have? None, probably. He wasn't sure if people would care to hear his opinion on it. He didn't really see why they would.

So, Shouto did nothing but watch the others in his seat. He told himself that he would make up for it, someway. Soon, hopefully.

Chapter Text

Toshinori looked outside the window, it wasn't a particularly nice day today, as it was rather cloudy and gloomy, his walk to U.A. this morning from his apartment, had let him know the weather was exactly as you'd think it would be on a day looking like this. Not too bad, but the breeze was certainly accompanied with a sharp coldness. He appreciated the view all the same, though, as nothing could put a damper in his day.

He had slept well the previous night, finally, for the first time in what seemed like forever, Toshinori fell asleep and stayed that way, not waking up frantically in the middle of the night, his own mind and nerves preventing him from getting rest. 

He felt relaxed, or as relaxed as somebody in his position could be. The decent night of sleep was the most likely cause of that, since not only was it his mind that benefited, it was his body as well. The pain was always better, and more manageable, on days like this.

It was nice, and he wasn't going to take this seldom day of being well rested for granted. With no classes to be teaching right now, and nowhere in particular he had to be, Toshinori was enjoying himself, wandering around the halls of U.A. aimlessly. It gave him some space to think.

He tried not to let his mind linger on one thought for too long, instead bouncing around from one to another. It helped him stay calm, keeping himself from dwelling on things until he got worked into a bit of a panic. 

He thought about heading to the staff room, maybe grabbing a cup of coffee. He thought about the fact that he had been much more optimistic lately, since things seemed to be getting better. His injuries were still there, and he couldn't suddenly start lasting more than a few hours as All Might again of course, but they had sort of plateaued, no longer dilapidating so quickly. It founded a new sense of hope within him, after the initial weeks of disbelief, horror and overall sense of hysteria at the knowledge of All For One still being alive and not in fact dead, like he had once thought. Toshinori should be dead, or at the very least, his cover should be blown and the whole world should know about his weakening form, every single part of that fight between him and All For One had been leading in that direction. Toshinori had seriously thought it was the end. And yet here he was, his heart was still beating and his lungs were still breathing.

When he got to thinking about it, during the good days like this, and not the bad days, where everything seemed almost hopeless, Toshinori realised how lucky he was. Another close encounter to what should have surely been his demise, and it wasn't. It felt like a sign, not from anyone specifically, but just a sign. The universe as a whole, perhaps? Anyway, he felt like this sign was telling him it's not over for you, not yet. Don't give up or lose hope. You are the Symbol Of Peace. It reminded him of something he'd found himself forgetting, recently, when everything seemed to just be going wrong. Being a hero, it wasn't only his job, it was his life . He couldn't simply give up and sit back. This problem, it wouldn't go away if he just ignored it, and even if he did stop being able to become All Might, that wouldn't suddenly make All For One and the rest of the threats in this world cease to exist. He had to keep going, and he vowed that he wouldn't stop till the very end, until he was physically unable to go on any further. And then, then he would still help and do whatever would be needed of him, if not on the front lines, he would be there in the background, always. 

He would do everything in his power to defeat All For One, but he knew, realistically, that the fight probably wasn't going to be his to win. One For All was thrumming through his veins, but it was not the same as it used to be. Now, it was up to the next holder of the quirk, his successor. 

His successor would be the one to truly rid this world of All For One, Toshinori knew. He had to be the one, because, if not, the world and their society as they knew it, would be irrecoverably changed, and not for the better. All For One's resources were nearly unmatched, and soon enough his powers would be, too, he seemed to be growing stronger and recovering from their fight five years ago. One For All would be the only thing able to stop him.

So, it was his successor, it had to be, who would end this at last. He would be the one to finally finish the fight that started centuries ago, with the very first holder of One For All. And then, he would continue to carry on the legacy that All Might had created, he would become the next Symbol Of Peace, save and protect the people in the same way All Might had, he would become the very best hero the world had ever seen. He would be All Might, but an even greater version.

He figured that it would be any day now, Nedzu calling off the whole 'watch Midoriya' operation, considering it had been weeks since it started, and nothing of value had come up in relation to him being the traitor, which Toshinori had, obviously, expected. The principal was clearly keeping it up only for the few staff members who had somehow convinced themselves that Izuku was the traitor, who couldn't be swayed by everybody else, and show them that he was taking it very seriously and such, so that when he did call it off, no one would be able to object.

It was a smart move, the best thing to do, really, though, Toshinori would admit that it was also quite frustrating. Not being able to speak to his successor, or train him, was definitely not the most favourable position for him to be in. It was vital, especially now, that Midoriya got the most practice with his quirk, seeing that he had to master by the time he went up against All For One, and while Toshinori expected that it would be soon, perhaps in a few years at most, things could change quite dramatically and he knew the villain wouldn't wait for Midoriya to know how to defend himself properly before attacking.

He supposed that as important it was that he got back to training the boy, him being in U.A. was good enough for now. He was learning combat, defence, rescue, and strategy skills here, with or without Toshinori, so it was far better than nothing. That kid, he was a good one anyway, so he'd be fine.

While lost in his thoughts, Toshinori had ended up walking a long time, and was now standing in another hallway halfway across the school, a long way from where he began. He huffed slightly, so much for not getting caught up while thinking. At least he was thinking Positive things, though.

Suddenly, Toshinori was knocked over, hard, and he was sent sprawling backwards across the floor. 

He grunted, bringing a hand to the back of his head where he hit it. Just a bit sore, nothing bad, and he'd sure had far worse happen to him than a little bump. He groaned slightly while maneuvering himself to a sitting position before standing up, his muscles were rather stiff. He berated himself silently for not noticing somebody right in front of him, what sort of hero was so oblivious? Him, apparently.

At that, his head shot down sharply to the floor in front of him once he remembered that he did, in fact, knock someone over. He had his hand out instantly, reaching over and trying to help the kid up. Toshinori was giving his most profuse apologies when the other person brought their own hand up to grab his.

And then they froze, hand stranded mid-air and wide eyes peering up at Toshinori.

Wide, green eyes.

Shit. He hadn't even realised.

They both seemed to be stuck in time, neither knowing quite what to do. Then, as if he snapped out of it, Izuku retracted his hand and stood up abruptly.

Toshinori blinked and another second passed when he remembered his hand was still extended, he brought it back in, awkwardly brushing it off of his jacket. 

Awkward. That was most definitely the best word for this situation. Toshinori hadn't spoken to Izuku in well over three weeks, he'd barely looked at the kid because of all the extra attention that had been on him, and had to keep away from that. A necessary precaution, of course, but, god, as he took in Izuku for the first time in weeks, he wondered just what had happened in this kid's life.

He looked, to be quite frank, horrible. Truly, truly, horrible. He had these big, dark bags under his eyes, ones that Toshinori had never seen there before. When was the last time he slept? Speaking of his eyes, Izuku, he was clearly close to tears, a sight Toshinori was very well versed in seeing, though that usually stemmed from happiness. He did not look happy, the furthest from it, actually, he looked absolutely miserable. 

He had to force his mouth shut from gaping, since he was really that shocked after seeing his successor in such a state. Did he learn some bad news? Did something happen in class? Was his mother okay? Other relatives? Whatever had happened, he hoped it wasn't too serious, that couldn't be good for him.

Izuku moved as if he was about to leave, though he didn't, and he stayed in the same spot. He brought his eyes back up to meet Toshinori's, it was brief, only for a few seconds, so he didn't have enough time to decipher just what conflicting emotions were on the kid's face. He opened his mouth before closing it again and shaking his head slightly, like he'd just lost an internal battle with himself. Izuku  looked away and Toshinori saw him swallow, his expression became blank.

This time, he really did begin to walk away, fast, and without even glancing back.

Toshinori realised that he hadn't even said a word to Izuku, instead he just stared at the kid. Shit. That probably wasn't the best thing to do. Not when he was on the verge of tears.

Toshinori had to think quickly. Should he call out to Izuku? Should he leave it? He wasn't meant to be interacting with his successor, but he was obviously really upset. It didn't seem right to just let it go. Nobody else was around anyway, and surely, if they were around, they'd find it more odd if he let Izuku leave, teachers are supposed to comfort the students, not ignore them. He made up his mind.

“Young Midoriya,” he called out.

Izuku froze in the middle of his step instantaneously, and he whirled around to face Toshinori once more. “Yes?“ He replied, his voice was quiet but sounded hopeful.

Toshinori faltered. What does one say in a situation like this? He couldn't ask what was wrong straight away, right? He hadn't spoken to the kid in ages, he probably wouldn't appreciate it, it would make him seem nosey. He'd have to build up to it. “uh, what are you doing out of class? You know you shouldn't be,” 

It was the first thing that came to mind, and he regretted it as soon as the words left his mouth. Izuku's face noticeably fell, and his expression shuttered. He clenched his fist as he said the word “Bathroom,” before turning around and leaving once more, this time rounding the corner and leaving Toshinori's sight.

Toshinori reached out his arm, about to call Izuku back, but he balked. Was it really the best idea? He'd messed that up, badly, he knew. He hadn't meant to come off as angry or disappointed or whatever it was that Izuku took it as, but that didn't matter, because he did . He wanted it to seem like he wasn't prying, or trying to stick his nose into Izuku's business, so he'd figured that not asking what was wrong right away was the way to go. It was not. He was no good at handling teenagers. 

Maybe he'd just make it all worse, if he went after Izuku, and he'd say something dumb again. He didn't want Izuku to get more upset than he was now. Perhaps the best course of action was to do nothing, not right this moment, at least. Give him some time to calm down and cool off. Toshinori had always done well, coping better most of the time while he was alone, as a teenager. It'd be the same for Midoriya, most likely. 

Yeah, that's what he would do. Just leave it be for a little while, and then, at break probably, he'd have a chat with his successor. Tell him he hadn't meant to come off as rude, the whole not speaking to Midoriya thing would have to be put on hold for some bit, he couldn't just let this pass by.

It might've been time to speak to the principal, too. 

Chapter Text

Izuku was alone in the corridors, walking as fast as he could without breaking into a run. Even now, so close to tears, he couldn't find it in himself to break the rules. 

He felt a bit better, now. The movement had helped, but still, there was this lump in his throat that for the life of him, would not dissipate. That's why he needed to head to the bathrooms, he knew it'd all come bubbling up out of him eventually, and bathrooms were a good place to hide in times like that. When it all went out of control. 

Unluckily for him, U.A. happened to be a massive fucking school, which, for some odd reason, did not have many toilets, so Izuku was in for a bit of a journey. At least, a bit of a journey for a boy who's throat felt an inch too tight.

As he stumbled down the halls, no one came after him. Still all alone, he was. It's what he wanted, obviously, the whole reason he'd left was to get away from everybody and their staring and whispers, not to have them follow him.

But, a part of him, this teeny tiny little voice in the back of his head, said, they'd have gone after anyone else . And Izuku couldn't help but agree. That's the protocol, was it not? When there's a student, and they up and leave seemingly out of nowhere, someone's meant to chase them. A teacher, or a student, anybody really, was supposed to run out of the classroom, behind, so they could catch up to said student and check up on them. He'd seen it happen before, a few times in Middle School, he'd never seen a student run out and not get bombarded with comfort.

He'd seen it happen one time here, too, only a few weeks ago. Hagakure stormed out, in what Izuku could only guess as tears, considering he had only been able to hear her, and not see her face. Anyway, Yaoyorozu had been up in an instant, the silent nod on Aizawa's face was the only permission she'd needed before running after her. Her grandad had died a few days prior, and Izuku figured that it'd just all become too much for her, then. 

Like it had become too much for Izuku today. Yet here he was, a minute or two since he'd left the class, and his footsteps were the sole ones to be heard. 

It was stupid, so stupid for him to be fixating on this thing. He didn't even want somebody with him. He wanted to be alone, he really did. 

Still, he wondered how it would go down if someone had gone after him. His imagination always got the better of him.

Someone seeing him go, looking upset, and chasing him. 

Them being worried about him. Thinking of him. Using their own time and energy on him . 

The confrontation; Izuku running, not slowing down, even when they call out his name. Then, the person, speeding up and pulling his wrist back, effectively stopping him from moving any further. Asking him what happened? Are you okay? Tell me? Talk to me? Trust me. Izuku snapping and pulling his hand back, answering in a rude manner leave me alone. And they'd say, they'd say no, no I'm not leaving you. I'm staying here and I don't care if you don't want to talk. But I'm staying, I swear. And they stayed. And then they spoke, because Izuku was like that, he'd speak forever if someone would care to listen. 

It was all a superficial idea of how it would go down, aided by the tv programmes he had watched, and his rather vivid imagination. He hadn't truly a clue what would actually happen if somebody decided to go after him, but he figured it wouldn't be as dramatic as his mind had conjured up.

That didn't matter, much, the way it would have gone down. Just that it would have gone down at all. It meant that someone, even just one person, cared.

He wanted someone to care.

To care like everyone had for Hagakure, for those little kids in middle school, to care about him being upset, even if he had said something unsavory or rude or done whatever it was that had got everybody to start ignoring him. Care for him like he was a person who deserved to be cared for. 

Nobody cared, not right now. Nobody had chased after him, no one had even called out his name. They'd just stared, like they had been doing for weeks. Then, when he was out of sight but still in earshot, he'd heard everyone explode into chatter, about him, of course.

He brought his thumb up to his mouth and bit down, hard; he tried to distract himself from the sudden onslaught of thoughts about the sort of things his classmates were saying about him. It didn't work very well at all. 

There was a sick sense of dread, sitting like lead at the bottom of his stomach. He knew they were talking about him, but he didn't know what it was about . It could have been anything . There was an endless amount of flaws they could be pointing out and making fun of. And Izuku had no clue what they were, he was just walking around, surely he was unknowingly adding fuel to their fire of insults. 

Everything. They could be talking about each and every last horrible trait he had, picking fun of his mumbling and his hair and the way he ran and walked and talked and laughed and punched and did everything . 

Another thing and another thing and another thing kept popping into Izuku's head, incidents he had embarrassed himself quite dreadfully, subconscious actions he did, anything and everything that they could find worth making fun of him over. There was so much and Izuku's breathing began to speed up and he swore his heart hadn't been pounding this loudly against his chest. 

He brought his hands up to his face, pressing the backs of them into his eyes, trying to stop the tears from pouring out. He never ceased walking, though, because he had to get to the bathrooms as soon as he could, and, he hadn't expected to see anyone else around.

So, of course, he banged right smack into somebody.

Izuku, now lying along the cold floor of the hallway, resisted the urge to scream with frustration. He'd thought that things couldn't get worse than what they were, he was most obviously mistaken. Everything that could go wrong, seemed to be going wrong . Apparently the universe and everyone in it seemed to think he did something unforgivable, and that all these horrible things were the punishment for it. 

He refused to let himself have a fucking breakdown in the middle of a corridor in front of some stranger, so Izuku swallowed down the whine that was about to escape his throat, and he tried to take a deep breath before opening his eyes.

Blinking rapidly as he began to sit up, Izuku reached out to accept the offer of All Might's hand to help him stand.

All Might.

All Might, well, technically Yagi, was standing over Izuku, hand stretched out as he spluttered apologies for knocking him over.

Izuku stopped completely, and he looked up at his mentor owlishly. Everything seemed to slip from his mind, then; His classmates and their possible insults, why he'd left the class, the fact that he'd been mere seconds away from bursting into tears- it all just stopped along with Izuku. His mind was too busy looking at the tall man above him.

He hadn't spoken to the man alone and face to face in, what, weeks? But now here he was, saying sorry and offering a hand to Izuku, like none of that mattered. And it didn't, of course it didn't, because Yagi was his mentor, Izuku, he could always count on him, Yagi he c-

Cut himself off the second he locked eyes with Izuku. Smack bang, midway through a sentence, and he'd looked at Izuku and stopped talking, mouth agape for a moment or two before snapping shut.

Oh, Izuku thought, he didn't know it was me.

Izuku had been hopeful, for a second, there. 

This sight, Yagi keeping his mouth strictly closed, Izuku was struck with how familiar it had become, recently. That didn't make it hurt any less, though. Because, damnit, it hurt .

Yagi's eyes travelled up and down along Izuku, as if he was taking him in for the first time in forever, which he probably was. And Izuku, suddenly feeling extremely conscious of the fact he was still ass to the floor with watery eyes, jumped to a standing position, ignoring Yagi's hand, still held out. It wasn't meant for him, anyway.

Yagi stood still, watching Izuku with wide eyes. Izuku focused his own eyes on a small mark of mud, to the left of Yagi. Standing here, in front of the man he'd admired his whole life, Izuku would have never believed he could be this sad. The reasons he'd been so close to crying, only a minute before, had come back to him, hitting Izuku square in the chest, but exemplified, because now Izuku had to think about All Might as well as his classmates. 

Izuku missed his mentor so badly . And Izuku was desperate, for this comfort he craved so much. So he- he took a shaky breath in and he brought his head up, contemplating whether or not he should just outright say it. 

Why? He wanted to ask, and he was going to, he swore, but then he saw Yagi's dark eyes, and was reminded of every other time he'd try to talk to the man. And every time he'd been ignored and brushed off and every time his resolve broke a little more.

He didn't think his voice would work, anyway, not without breaking. So instead he shook his head, as if to wipe away the memories and turned swiftly around, determined to make it at least around the corner before he let the tears loose.

"Young Midoriya," Yagi called out.

Izuku's step stuttered, and because he was a foolish, foolish boy, he turned around to face Yagi. "Yes?" He asked, his voice was small, any louder and he knew it'd just crack.

He wondered if this was it. His chase, his confrontation, his somebody who cared. He hoped so. It must have been, All Might- he was a hero, the very best one, and he was a person, a genuinely kind one, and he was Izuku's mentor, and he c-

And then Yagi ruined it. "What are you doing out of class? You know you shouldn't be,” 

That was it. That was it. That was it . Just a teacher angry at a student for breaking the rules. Nothing more. Nothing of value. Nothing like a mentor caring.

Because his mentor did not care.

Nobody did.

Hope was a stupid and fickle thing. Izuku should have known better.

He clenched his fist down by his side and muttered the word "bathroom," before stomping on his heel and speed walking until he was out of Yagi's sight, then he broke out into a full on sprint. The rules could go and fuck themselves.

He gave up on holding back his cries, so by the time he reached the toilets, he could hardly see anything, it was all blurred by the droplets in his eyes. He stumbled with the door for a second before it fell open and Izuku clambered into a stall.

It didn't happen straight away, or all at once, it was like- it sort of built up?

He sat atop of the closed toilet seat, his hands were trembling and he could barely move them enough to cover his mouth to try and stifle the keening sound that came from it. 

He was so sad, just utterly miserable. And he was angry, too, somehow, he was so angry and he didn't even know at who. Everyone and himself, really.

It was all too much, everything. All of his classmates and teachers, they were all so like middle school but, and he hated middle school, but he was supposed to love it here, he had loved it here until-

Until and he didn't even know why . They'd all started hating him and ignoring him and whispering and staring and not telling him why . What had he done? What had he done so terrible that all these people just couldn't stand to even look at him?   Was he really that horrible? Probably. 

They'd always told him he was horrible. His old teachers and classmates, and Kachaan had, too. They'd all said such mean things to him, every day, again and again, they never gave it up. Even when he'd asked. And Izuku had asked so many times. 

But it never stopped, never. No matter how many times he'd asked or wished upon the stars or cried himself to sleep. It never got better. Would it ever get better? 

His heart was heavy in his chest, like the overbearingly large sense of doom sat in the bottom of his stomach. It didn't feel like things would ever improve. 

He was hopeless and worthless and nothing and-

He had his hands in his hair, pulling hard and with urgency, trying to stop it from happening, because this sort of thing, it had happened before and Izuku he-

His lungs weren't working properly, and each breath, it felt like he was suffocating. The air wasn't reaching his lungs, so he couldn't breathe, he couldn't breathe, he couldn't breathe -

Until he suddenly could. A deep breath of air in, led Izuku into a hacking cough. 

He bowled over, clutching his chest with his hands, his heart felt like it was going to beat right out of his body.

His vision had cleared some, and his thoughts were less of a jumble, but Izuku could still sense the impending panic, he had to do something.

He flung himself out of the bathroom stall and over to the sink, he turned the tap on and frantically began to splash water all over his face, not caring whether or not it got onto his uniform. 

He thought, trying to recall what you were supposed to do in a situation like this, until he remembered.

He had to ground himself. How? How did he do that? He looked around the bathroom, as if that would help any, and decided to just start naming out random objects.

He spoke loudly, like that could keep his thoughts from taking back over, and he spoke clearly, or as clear as he could. Izuku no longer gave a shit if someone were to overhear him, enough had gone wrong today, what's another embarrassment or two? 

The mirror, the red stall doors, the silver handles, the white tiles; Izuku named it all, stuttering and stumbling over the words in the beginning, but eventually, he was able to speak without pausing and breathe without hiccuping. 

When his heart had slowed and Izuku felt that he was safe enough from experiencing what he thought was a panic attack again, he still made no move to leave the bathroom.

Would they really expect him back, after such an exit? What even was the point of going back? Izuku was sure that the class period was nearly over, lunch would be starting in only a few minutes, what a waste it would be for him to show up, then, distracting the other's from learning even more than he had earlier. Not going back, though, it would only be prolonging the inevitable. 

He'd be in miles of trouble, most likely. Extra homework, detention, suspension, the whole nine yards. Expulsion, even? Aizawa threatened it quite often, and, well, this would be his perfect excuse. Izuku knew his teachers from middle school would have killed for an ample opportunity like this one.

He decided in the end to wait it out here in the bathroom. Sure, he was feeling fine now, simply tired, but that didn't mean he'd be feeling okay once he saw everyone again. Izuku couldn't control his emotions, more often than not.

Which was most definitely something that bothered Izuku a lot. It was so annoying, because, when not totally overrun by emotions, Izuku had always been very good at rationalizing things.

Logic and reasoning, Izuku was a master at finding such things. Unfortunately, it seemed to only be when it didn't pertain to him and his own life. 

Izuku could gather facts and information, because there was always facts and information, and lay them out in a set, orderly, chronological way. He could look at them, study them, dissect it all, and come to his own conclusions as to why it was the way it was. 

Analysing, that was his thing. Whether it be quirks or strategies or why everyone had begun to fucking despise him.

Because that's what he was going to do. He was going to go through it from the very start, since the first day he noticed things were off, right up until now. He didn't have a notebook to outline everything, so he would have to settle for saying it outloud and hope that kept his head straight.

He would do this, and he was not going to freak out or overthink or do anything that could possibly lead him into a panic attack. 

Izuku took a deep breath, and then he mentally boxed away all of his feelings, determined to keep them separate from this.

And so he started.

"Well, what was it, a Tuesday? No, Wednesday.... Wait no, definitely the Tuesday. Yeah 'cause that's the day all the teachers kept staring at me and stuff, and then the Wednesday I didn't get called on even once in History, even though I had my hand up loads, it was the same in maths. It was okay in the other classes, but, eventually all the teachers- except Present Mic, actually- started doing the same. Two weeks after the Tuesday- one week and six days more like, is when my classmates started acting weird, wasn't it? Yeah, it was. That's when I caught loads of them all talking like they were in a meeting, but when they saw me they all stopped. So, I must be right to assume they were talking about me, because after that is when they all were being odd. Is it connected, the teachers ignoring me as well as the students? Surely it has to be? Or if not, did I really do two separate things to piss them off? I couldn't have, I definitely would have remembered that . All Might, too! That's gotta be a whole other category, because yeah, technically he's my teacher, but he's also my mentor so that's like above teacher status. So teachers, students, mentor. All of them ignoring me or just being weird. If I go back to what I did on the friday before any of it, what......."

And so he went on.

Izuku couldn't say he was getting anywhere with all the rambling, but, it helped if he focused on the technical side of it and looked at it as if it was some sort of puzzle, rather than thinking about the way it affected him. It made him feel more disconnected to it.

He might have figured at least a few theories out, if he only had more time. Because, before then, he heard a loud noise coming from outside the bathroom. Footsteps, perhaps? And voices, a lot of them.

Izuku glanced at his watch to confirm that yes, there were still five minutes left in class, so really, there shouldn't be that many students out there, not enough to cause the sort of commotion that he could hear.

He was instantly on guard, what was going on? Had he missed something? An announcement? He'd better go and check, make sure everything was alright.

As Izuku stepped carefully towards the door, straining his ears to see if he could make out anything that was being said, it all went quiet. Unnaturally so. That amount of noise didn't stop so suddenly for no reason. One For All buzzed right under his skin, ready to be used.

Before he could pull at the door handle, it flew open with a bang, causing Izuku to jump back in surprise.

A big, burly man stood in the doorway, blocking Izuku's view of anything else. He started to storm in, saying something Izuku couldn't quite understand.

"Get away !" Izuku shouted, backing up to keep his distance from the unknown man.

"Kid, come here," he snarled as he continued on his advance.

Once Izuku was against the wall, and the man a mere few feet away, Izuku went up and pushed as hard as he could, with the aid of One For All. He couldn't have a proper fight, not in a place as small as the bathroom, so Izuku ran as soon as he sent the man sprawling on the floor.

He just reached the hallway when he noticed that the man in the bathroom hadn't been the only one to come. There were a handful of people, all surrounding him, keeping him from running any further.

Izuku spun around, desperately trying to find some sort of opening, when he noted with some confusion-

They were all wearing police uniforms?

" Get him!" One of them screeched.

" Use the scarf!" Another one said.

It all happened so fast after that.

Something wrapped around Izuku from head to toe, tight. Trapping him. 

And this time, this time he really was suffocating.

Chapter Text

“ Get it off me, get it off me, get it off of me!” he shouted, but his voice came out muffled and unrecognizable through the thick fabric. He doubted that even if his attackers could hear him, they would comply.

His hands were bound tightly down to his sides, he pulled, but he couldn’t move them so much as an inch. His legs were stuck together, and Izuku found himself wobbling precariously. Even with all that was going on in his mind, Izuku tried to keep himself as upright as possible, some natural instinct told him that if he fell over now, he would be ten times more vulnerable than he was already. 

He couldn’t see, and every breath he took felt too shallow, the fabric trapping him was unrelenting and stiff. 

Izuku powered up one for all, and he could feel it all throughout his body. It was a risky move, using his quirk, but Izuku didn't have any other option. It was this, or defeat. And Izuku wouldn't let himself lose control over a situation again. 

He powered up his quirk, only to about three percent, using any more than that would do more harm than good, and he was about to start to try and move his right fist, when he felt the fabric begin to fall slack.

He wasn't sure why this was happening, why they had suddenly stopped keeping him trapped, but he didn't have time to dwell on it. This was the perfect opening for him.

So, before the fabric had even completely fallen to the floor, and before his eyes had readjusted to the light, Izuku went in blind, and pulled his arm back, going in for the punch.

As his fist sailed through the air, suddenly, his arm went weak. One For All was gone. In an instant, Izuku froze and looked over at his arm, it didn't look any different, but then his eyes caught off of something on the floor. 

The fabric that had held him was a scarf. A scarf he knew about all too well. Aizawa Sensei's scarf. 

As the pieces began to fit together in his mind, Izuku dragged his head forward and locked his eyes with ones glowing red.

Click.

Izuku’s head shot back over towards his arm, a shiny handcuff now tight on his wrist. The officer grabbed Izuku's arm and dragged it behind his back, where he attached the second cuff to his other arm. 

“Midoryia Izuku, you are now under arrest,”

He looked back up at Aizawa, who had stopped using his quirk against him, and no longer needed to, thanks to the quirk suppressant handcuffs in place to do that same job. 

“What- what’s going on? Why am I- what did I do? I didn’t I didn’t do anything I swear!” Izuku was pleading with the officer, he could feel tears welling up in his eyes. “Sensei? What are you doing? Tell them, I didn’t do anything!” 

Aizawa opened his mouth, clearly about to speak when the officer that had detained Izuku put his arm on his shoulder and started to steer him away, down the hall. “Save the crocodile tears for the interrogators' kid, it’s not going to get you out of anything here,”
“They’re not, they’re not crocodile tears, please, sir, just tell me what’s going on. I swear I didn’t do anything!”

The officer just grunted and pushed Izuku forward with more force than before, not wanting to put up with his defiance. He didn’t even reply.

They exited the school through the front, and Izuku could see a police car parked by the curb, waiting for them. 

His mind was whirring, Izuku couldn’t comprehend just what was happening to him. It wasn’t an attack or a setup, it couldn’t have been. This was all real, too real, Izuku’s own teacher had been the one to stop him. Aizawa was the one that captured him, the same way he would have if Izuku was nothing more than a villain, as if he wasn’t a student.

That’s how this had all been, everyone was acting as if he was a villain, like he’d done something despicable. Which he hadn’t! Izuku knew he hadn’t, he hadn’t done anything of the sort! He’d just been- he’d just been, well, Izuku didn’t know what he’d done to warrant any of this.

It wasn’t because he’d up and left the class, was it? No, that was an absurd idea, why would the police come because he’d just left? He hadn’t put anyone in danger, he’d only defended himself against who he thought was an attacker. Anyone would have done what he did if they were in his position. 

The policeman was opening the door to the back, where the criminals went, where Izuku was expected to sit until they got to the station, and that's when he saw it. He saw Mineta, of all people, surrounded by what looked to be at least three officers, looking teary-eyed and speaking, waving his arms around in a dramatic manner. With his hand on the boy’s shoulder, Nedzu seemed to be comforting him, or encouraging him to keep on speaking, but Izuku couldn’t tell which one. Yagi was there too, and he looked angry, he was speaking loudly and pointing in the direction of Izuku, he looked as though he was about to start walking off but Aizawa grabbed his arm to keep him from going, shaking his head and said something. Yagi seemed to deflate at that.

Izuku watched on in confusion, thinking whether or not he should shout for them in hopes they’d hear it and come, but he stopped himself. The officer wouldn’t appreciate it, he thought, and anyway, what difference did it make? Everyone all knew that he was being taken away, hell, half of them had been there to see it. This was obviously planned, and everyone obviously thought he needed to be arrested or whatever else.

No one was going to help him, so Izuku didn’t bother wasting his breath.

He ducked his head down as the policeman shoved him a little too roughly into the car, and flinched when he then slammed the door shut, making the car shake. The officer then made his way to the driver's side door, got in, and started to drive off without so much as even a glance back toward where Izuku was. 

Izuku blinked harshly, trying to stop himself from tearing up more than he already was, and he laid his head against the cold glass of the windshield. He hoped everything would be explained to him soon. He didn’t know how much more of this he could take.

Chapter Text

The room they put him in could hardly be called a room, it felt more like a cupboard, there was hardly anything in it, yet it was already too cramped. It hadn’t been used in a good while, he could tell, as there was a decently thick layer of dust covering seemingly everything in the room. It’s not like there was much to cover though, just the two chairs and a rickety old table. 

Everything about this situation was incredibly uncomfortable, from the position his arm was in, to the harsh luminescent lighting above him, and the fact that he knew he was being watched, the little red light on a camera in the corner of the room was a dead giveaway. He didn’t know how to act, or what he was meant to do. The police officer that drove him here had only told him to shut it every time Izuku tried to ask a question. He’d been dumped into this room and one of his handcuffs was attached to a leg of the table, so he hardly sit up straight, let alone stand up and stretch. He desperately wanted to fiddle with the handcuffs, maybe try to alert someone that it was hurting him and hopefully they would loosen them a little and attach it somewhere else. He was too worried though that whoever was watching him on the camera, if anyone even was, they’d think he was trying to escape or something, and Izuku most definitely did not want to make anyone madder than they all already seemed to be.

He’d decided to simply sit there and wait, and he wouldn’t make a noise. He wanted to make the best impression possible and be on his best behavior, so that maybe then he would get some answers as to what he was here for. 

It became a rather difficult task to just stay still though, as the longer and longer it went on, the more Izuku began to think that perhaps they had forgotten about them. He became restless, how was he meant to just sit here when there were a thousand things running through his mind? He had started to overthink again because that’s all he seemed capable of doing nowadays. He didn’t want to have a panic attack here, he couldn’t, so he tried to reason with himself instead.

Surely, since it’d been so long and they hadn’t come back to him, it couldn’t be that serious. But then again, the whole fiasco from earlier at school, made it seem like it must’ve been dire. If they wanted to speak to him badly enough that they had to arrest him , then why had he been alone for what felt like ages? Why wasn’t there anyone speaking to him? That’s all they could want, right? To speak to him. Nothing else made sense, as Izuku may not have been sure if he’d said something to upset his classmates, but he would have certainly known if he had committed a crime. And he hadn’t. So it couldn’t be that. Unless-

And the door slammed open, startling Izuku out of his thoughts. A tall, dark-haired man with a large smile and an energetic energy to match, barged in and sat on the chair on the other side of the table, with his back to the door. 

“Look alive, kid, we’re hardly going to be here for long,”  he announced, flicking through a pile of papers he had in his hand.

“Ex-excuse me sir, could you please tell me why I’m here? I asked so many times in the police car but he wouldn’t-” Izuku started.

The man held up a hand, shushing Izuku. “Nuh uh, we’re getting a bit ahead of ourselves now, aren’t we? Before we start the interrogation, there are a few things I gotta let you know. It’s all mumbo jumbo, very boring stuff, but it’s compulsory I tell you so there’s no escaping it, sorry kiddo,”

“Couldn’t you please just-,”

“Look, the less you interrupt me, the sooner we can get out of here. I don’t know about you, but I have other things i’d very much prefer to be doing,” he said, and Izuku nodded in return. His nerves were getting in the way, and Izuku mentally berated himself, he was going to find out everything in the next few minutes, he had to stop pestering. This man seemed nice enough, Izuku didn’t want to make yet another person turn on him.

“I’m just going to read out a list of your rights and responsibilities now,” and the officer did so, stopping periodically throughout to check if Izuku understood what he was saying. It was quite thoughtful of him, as even when Izuku said he did understand, officer Aoki, as he came to find out was the man’s name, would still keep going and simplify it down for him, stating that he had come across many people too nervous to say that they couldn’t understand and he didn’t want Izuku to feel like he didn’t know what he was allowed or not. 

“...which pretty much means that you technically don’t have to answer these questions if you don’t want to, but, like, let's face it. It makes my job a hell of a lot easier, and yours too. You’ve hardly got anything you want to hide from us either, right? Yeah that’s what I thought. Anyway, that’s the end of all the boring stuff, now it’s time for the fun part,” he let out a sharp laugh, but stopped when he saw the blank face on Izuku.

“I’m just kidding, y’know, tryna lighten the mood and all. But really, this next part isn’t going to be fun, but, if you cooperate, it shouldn’t be hard. All you have to do is answer a few questions I ask, completely truthfully, and then it’s over. See? So simple. Are you ready to start?” he asked.

“Yes- yes I’m ready,” Izuku replied.

“First things first, oh gosh, I've totally forgotten. What’s your name, kid? I’m usually better than this, so sorry, how rude of me,” Aoki said.

“It’s um, it’s fine. My name’s Midoryia Izuku, sir,” Izuku answered,  and he found himself with a slight smile on his face. He couldn’t help but be so thankful for the detective, as he’d finally started to relax. It was impossible not to, with the easygoing attitude that the detective seemed to be going about things. 

“Midoryia Izuku, that’s a nice name. That’s a pretty cool name,” he said, writing something down on a notepad in front of him.

“Um, thank you,” Izuku said shyly.

“Oh, and there’s no need to call me sir. Just call me Aoki, I prefer it. And can I call you Izuku? I’m going to call you Izuku,” finished writing, Aoki placed the notepad down in front of him and put his two hands flat on the table, giving his full attention to Izuku.

“Okay, um, but Aoki, can we please, um-” 

“Get on with it already? Oh yeah, sorry, that’s me summarised for ya, always rambling, couldn’t stop me even if you’ve tried. Been like this since I was a child. Drove people crazy,” he said fondly, as though he were remembering things from his childhood.

“Yeah, people always say the same about me,” Izuku admitted, though he didn’t think he would ever be able to reminisce on it happily, like the detective. 

“Really? Hmm, I guess you and I have more in common than one would think. And don’t worry about it, son, when you get old like me, you stop caring what people say,” Aoki offered, a gentle smile on his face, like he knew exactly how Izuku must be feeling.

“Anyway,” he continued, “we’ll actually start the interrogation now,”

“Right, yeah, okay. Wait- interrogation about wha-,” 

“I ask the questions and you answer, remember? First, do you like heroes?”

“What’s this got to do with anything?”

“What did I just say?” Aoki reminded him, sounding somewhat playful.
“Oh, um, right, sorry. Yeah, I love heroes. I always have, ever since I was little,”

“And you want to become a hero, correct? Seeing as you’re doing the hero course in school?”

“Yeah! I wanna be a hero soo badly, it was an actual dream come true when I was accepted into U.A.,”

“Right. So you’re a good kid, right? You want to do good? You want to help others?”

“More than anything,”

“That’s a good dream to have kid. I always felt the same,” he said smiling. “It’s time to get a little more serious now, to start asking the proper questions. Is that okay?” he asked, and Izuku could see it, the slightly more serious attitude the officer took on.

“Of course,” Izuku replied. 

“That’s great, so you wanna help me out here?” Izuku nodded. “Good, because there’s something I’m having a hard time trying to get to the bottom of, and I think you’re the only one who can help me,” he said.

“I’ll try my best- I’ll tell you anything-”

“What’s this?” the detective asked, sliding something across the table, but leaving it just out of reach from Izuku. 

It took a second to recognize it, but Izuku would know his notebook from anywhere. “That’s mine!” he said “that’s my notebook. How did you find it? I’ve been looking for it for ages!”

“How we came to possess it doesn’t matter, just that we have it. And I’ve read it ,” Aoki said, he was watching Izuku cautiously, like he was expecting some crazed reaction to that.

Izuku didn’t know exactly what to say to that. “Why did you need to read my notebook? What’s it got to-”

“Kid, calm down, no need to get defensive. I’m not here to attack you, I just need some answers,”  Aoki cut in.

“I’m not getting defensive, I'm just confused because I don’t know what’s-,”

“Izuku, I thought you were a hero student? What’s with the back talk all of a-”

“It’s not back talk, I’m just explaining-”

“And there you are again, cutting me off. I thought you said you wanted to be helpful? Izuku, look, I’m going to leave for a few minutes, give you a little break. I know you’re quite anxious to get out of here, I get it, but fighting with me isn’t going to make things go on any faster. I need you to understand that. I’m giving you a pass this time, but just know that if any other detective was in here instead, well, then, I doubt they would be doing the same,” Aoki gave this look to Izuku, one full of pure disappointment.

“No wait, don’t go! I’m sorry!” Izuku scrambled out his apology, but Aoki didn’t even acknowledge it, or him, as he made his way out of the room. He closed the door, leaving Izuku alone with his thoughts, once again.

Izuku felt sick. He’d done it again, of course, he had. Why did he have to upset Aoki? He’d been so nice to Izuku, helping to calm him down and he seemed like the last guy who would get angry, but Izuku had somehow managed to make that happen. The worst part was, Izuku didn’t even know why. He swears he wasn’t trying to be rude, he was just confused! He’d been here for ages, and he still didn’t even know why! He didn’t understand how it was such a difficult question to answer, and Izuku was getting so frustrated. He shouldn’t have done that, though, speak back to Aoki or whatever it was he’d done. He couldn’t afford to have yet another person against him. He had to calm down, like Aoki said to do, and just answer the questions.

A little while later Aoki came back in, with two cups of water, and he passed one over to Izuku. Izuku took it gratefully, and before he could start apologizing, Aoki beat him to it.

“No, you know what? We’re not going to think about what happened there earlier. It’s over, it’s in the past. I’ve already forgiven you, Izuku. I know you didn’t mean to, not at heart. You’re a good kid, people wouldn’t like to punish you. That’s why being as kind as you are is good, you get off easily when you do make mistakes,” Aoki had that warm smile back on his face and Izuku already felt so much better. Maybe he hadn’t completely messed this up.

“Thank you so much, I really appreciate it. And I am really sorry for talking back to you,”

“Thanks, son. You know, it’s not often I talk to people as kind as you in these rooms,” Aoki said.

“Oh-”

“Yeah, and it just makes me quite sad. You don’t deserve to be here, Izuku. I know you don’t,” 

“You, um, you still haven’t told me why I was brought here-” Aoki held up his hand, shushing Izuku again. 

“You didn’t mean to do it, did you? You didn’t want to do it,” Aoki said.

‘Do what?” 

“You were coerced, or forced, right? When did it start? Were you still in middle school then? When they found you? You were vulnerable, I know. You didn’t have a quirk then, since you were such a late bloomer. You were bullied, I know how it goes for the quirkless around here. I can relate to an extent, my quirk is practically useless, it only gives me stronger nails than most people. It’s not cool, or flashy, and you can’t exactly show off to people that your nails never break when trying to pull apart two pieces of lego,” he let out a bitter laugh and continued on. “I think back then I would’ve done anything for someone who made me feel special. Or important. Or even just wanted. God, I know I would have jumped at the chance, just like you probably did. So I get it . I get you , Izuku. You don’t have to pretend when it’s with me. You don’t have to lie. You just have to tell me the truth ,”

“I don’t- I don’t know what you want me to say. I don’t know what you’re talking about. Please, tell me what did I do? I didn’t do-”

“Others will understand, too. I know they will, you only have to tell them why you did it, how you were driven to it. And I'll be there, too, I’m on your side, Izuku, son. I’m on your side,”

“ What did I do?” Aoki was scaring him, now. Izuku didn’t understand. What did he do? He was near tears, he didn’t understand.  

“You know what you did Izuku. You know what you did. I know it, too. So stop it. Stop pretending,” Aoki answered, and Izuku heard the switch in his tone. Gone was the gentleness, the softness. He spoke sharply now, still quietly, but in a way that felt more threatening than relaxing. His face had changed too, and Izuku could see anger written all over it. The furrow of his brows, the darkness in his eyes, the straight line and pursed lips of his mouth. 

Izuku didn’t understand, he didn’t get how someone could change so suddenly. How could he go from so kind and sympathetic, to viscous and uncaring? Izuku felt his heart rate pick up. 

“ I don’t know. I don’t know what you’re talking about. Tell me, tell me, please. I swear I’m not trying to make you upset,” Izuku pleaded with Aoki.

“This is getting so ridiculous, Izuku, buddy, I’m not dumb. You can’t fool me, and I’m not going to let you get away with this. Why are you still lying? Why? I know the truth, We all know the truth. Just say it to me,”

“I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t fucking know!” Izuku cried out.

“ You betrayed them! Just admit it! Admit it Izuku! You’ve been handing the villains all the information in  your notebooks and you’re…….”  Aoki continued on, still shouting, but Izuku couldn’t hear the words anymore.

And that was it. That was it . They thought that he was the traitor. The traitor . Oh god, oh god. That was why? Wasn’t it? Why everyone had been acting so odd. All of his teachers. All of his friends. Even All Might. Did they all seriously think he was capable of betraying them? That he would ever betray them? How? How? How? How could they think that? Why would they think that of him? That couldn’t- that couldn’t be true. Please say it wasn’t true. 

But it was. This wasn’t a dream, he knew it wasn’t. He’d already pinched himself enough times today to make sure. It was true. All of it. He couldn’t do this. He couldn't , he couldn't , he couldn't handle this shit. Not now. Not ever but especially not now. Why was this happening to him? Why were the worst things always happening to him? What did he do wrong? Why did he always do wrong?

He looked back over to Officer Aoiko, who was still shouting. Izuku moved his eyes to behind him, where the door was. There was no way for him to get out. He was trapped, from the handcuffs to the large man blocking the exit. He couldn’t leave. He couldn’t find it in himself to speak. Not even to move. He couldn’t do fucking anything but he wanted to leave so badly. He needed to leave. He had to.

He couldn’t stay here. He couldn’t stay here. They thought he was the traitor . He was arrested . He was being interrogated right now. He couldn’t stay here. What if they didn’t believe him? What if they found him guilty and charged him and he was never allowed to leave? He couldn’t stay here. What if, oh god, he couldn’t- he couldn’t- he couldn’t do anything. This was the law . He was helpless, so fucking helpless. He couldn’t escape this or run away. It’d be on his record forever. Or he’d be in prison forever. Why did they do this to him? How could they do this to him?

Izuku brought his legs up on top of the chair and wrapped the one arm not in handcuffs around them. He laid his head down on his knees. He couldn’t handle this. It was too much. Too much for him. He felt like such a big baby, but he couldn’t stop himself from crying. 

“ Hey! Are you even listening to me? Look at me, boy! Look at me before I make you!” Aoki shouted, and Izuku complied and lifted his head up, though he could hardly see through the tears.

“Now sit up straight and stay that way, right, good to see you still have a little obedience left in you,” he said sharply, nodding his head when Izuku did as he told.

“And stop it with the tears Izuku, last I checked you weren’t a fucking baby, so grow up and admit to your actions,” He spat out.

Izuku took a shuddering breath in and then said “I’m not . I’m not the traitor. I swear to you I’m not. Please, I would never-,” 

Aoki suddenly leaned across the table, getting right up to Izuku’s face and telling him in a steady voice “Say that to me again. C’mon Izuku, lie right to my fucking face. I dare you,”

“I didn’t lie-”  Izuku replied, moving his head back as far away as he could bring it. 

The officer let out a sharp laugh, before sitting back in his seat “you have a lot of fucking nerve, don’t you boy?”

“I’m not the traitor!” Izuku pleaded.

“And you’re the only person who thinks that. Who do you think told us about your notebooks? Who do you think has kept watch of you for the past weeks? Your principal, your teachers, your peers! All of them know it’s you, yes, so stop trying to hide it. You can’t ,” he said.

“No, no, no, no, no-” 

“ Don’t kid yourself. You know it’s true. They’re all scared of you. They won’t want you back no matter what happens here today. They won’t let you back. You’ve got nothing left to lose. Nothing! Just tell me the truth. It’s the only thing you can do,” he snarled.

“ Let me go. Please let me go. Let me go, you can’t keep me here. Please let me go!” 

“No! Not until you’ve told me the truth. Until then, I can’t let you leave,”

“I’ve told you the truth! I’ve only told you the truth! I’m not lying. I’m not, please- I can’t- I can’t stay here any longer,” Izuku hiccuped.

“but you will. You’re going to stay here until you tell the truth and since you’re not, then I can’t let you go-”
“You gave me a break earlier! Please, another one. Just for a few minutes, please!” he begged.

“ No , that was simply a once-off. I told you I wouldn’t let it slide if you did anything again, and here you are, arguing with me for the last half an hour. You’ve spent up all my kindness,” he said coldly.

“Please, I’ll do anything, anything!”

“Then tell me the truth!”

“ I have- I have I-” Izuku broke off into another fit of tears. He didn’t know what to do. Nothing he said was working and Aoiko wouldn’t stop . He just kept going and going and beating Izuku down with his words harder and harder.

“You did this to yourself, I’m not the one making things difficult, you are. I’ve told you what to do, and I’ve given you chance after chance to do it. But you haven’t! ” 

“Fu- fuck you!” Izuku shouted.

Aoki stopped for a second, despite everything, this was the first time Izuku had said something outright rude to him. Somehow, he looked even angrier.

“You know, I tried to be nice to you. I did. I really did. I thought that ‘oh maybe he’s just made a mistake, maybe he’s just a misguided young kid who needs to be set back on the right path’. But you know what? That was fucking dumb of me to think, wasn’t it? You’re not even trying here, Izuku. It’s just so glaringly obvious that you don’t give a shit about anyone but yourself, right? Because if you cared, even slightly, then you wouldn’t make me sit here for hours while everyone is just waiting for it to be over. They want the traitor caught, and I know we’ve caught you, but all you need to do is to confess. People are scared , heroes are worried for their safety, and your classmates don’t know whether or not they can walk home without being ambushed. If you wanted to do an ounce of good, to help make up even slightly for the endless damage you’ve caused, then now is the time for it. Otherwise, if you don’t, well, I can’t say much, but, things aren’t looking too bright for you. People don’t like liars,” Aoki said, his voice ice-cold.

“I’m not a liar, please believe me-”

“No! Izuku you know I can’t believe you when you say that. You know I can’t trust you. Stop making me seem like the bad guy here, I’m not. Ive given you chance after chance after chance to just tell me the truth. This is why you’ve gotten away with it till now, you see, you and this little crybaby innocent act you have going on make people pity you, they look down on you because you act like a harmless little thing, they don’t expect you to do be capable of doing something so horrendous. But I know you, Izuku, and I know so many people exactly the same as you. And do you know where all those people are, now? Prison. Because they don’t get past me. I see through the facade, I see the real you , and it’s disgusting,” he stood up and stomped around to the door opening it. “You wanted a break so fucking badly, then here you go,” and he slammed the door behind him.

That’s how it went. Time after time after time. Aoki would come in, sometimes he’d be back to the same old nice guy he’d been at the start, other times he’d come back just as angry as he left. And he always left angry, no matter what way he came in. 

Izuku would tell him the same things again and again and again. Aoki never believed him, though. Never. He was determined to get a confession out of Izuku, and Izuku was being worn down unbelievably. He was exhausted, and his voice went hoarse from all the crying. He couldn’t be sure how long he’d been trapped here for, as he had no way to tell the time, but he knew it had to have been hours. 

The walls felt like they were getting closer together every minute, and Izuku hadn’t ever considered himself claustrophobic, but being stuck in this room for so long, he felt like he was being driven crazy. He didn’t think he could last any longer like this. He wasn’t sure how he’d even made it this far. Izuku needed out.

He’d been thinking of it for a while but kept changing his mind. He figured that he would actually do it this time because it was the only thing he hadn’t yet tried. 

Maybe he could give Aoki what he wanted. A confession. It would work, surely. They’d stop the interrogation and put him in a cell, which couldn’t be great, but anything was better than this. Anything. He could-he could tell them tomorrow, once he’d finally gotten some rest that he didn’t mean his confession, that he retracted it. They’d realize it wasn’t him. They had to realize. A notebook was hardly solid enough proof. They would catch the real traitor and Izuku would be free. It would be fine. He prayed that it would be fine because he was going to do this. He’d already made up his mind, for real this time.

The next time Aoki came in, Izuku spoke for the first time in a while. “I’m ready,” 

Aoki looked at him, clearly surprised by his change of attitude, and then he smiled. “See, I knew you’d come around and do the right thing. It only took a little bit of time,”

“Go on, then,” he encouraged.

Izuku gulped. “I am-,”

The door burst open.

“What the fuck is going on here?” Detective Tsukauchi all but shouted.

Chapter Text

The sudden commotion had shocked Izuku out of the almost zombie like state he was in just a moment prior, when he had been in the middle of confessing. The outburst frightened him, and Izuku practically collapsed on top of himself, letting out a yelp when, inevitably, the handcuff pulled at his wrist, and all the way up to his shoulder. Fuck, that hurt.

He ignored the throbbing in his arm in order to look back up at the scene unfolding across from him. Aoki was looking at Tsukauchi with an incredulous look on his face, while the detective was staring back with a face that seemed ready to commit murder, waiting not so patiently for an explanation. 

“Oi! He was about to confess! You ruined the-,” Aoki began, shaking his arms angrily at the detective.

“About to confess my ass! Are you actually fucking serious?” Tsukauchi rebuked.

“ Yes , give him a second, he was just saying it!” Aoki pointed at Izuku and beckoned him eagerly to continue talking.

Izuku balked. His mind was racing. Should he say it? He told himself he would, but, Tsukauchi was here now, he obviously didn’t approve of what Aoki was doing, right? Tsukauchi would stop it, he had to. Izuku could tru-

But he couldn’t. How could he trust the man? Tsukauchi was just another policeman, he’d want to know who the traitor was, too. He’d want answers, and he’d probably do anything to get them, as well. Izuku couldn’t know if he was any better than Aoki, and he didn’t want to find out. He couldn’t sit through any more of this shit. Izuku opened his mouth and began.

“I’m-,” only to be cut off again.

“No, no, I will not be giving him a second !” Tsukauchi shouted “Do you even know what you’ve done here? Do you know what I came back here today to find out? That you went and did the one thing that I told you not to do Aoki! I said and I remember saying that when they brought this kid in that I was the one meant to do the interview! Not you! Not after last time! I’m the one properly qualified for this and you know it! Why are you even risking your job like this?” Tsukauchi brought his hands up and rubbed them down his face, the frustration coming from him was palpable.

Aoki scoffed and crossed his arms. “Well, you weren’t even here! We can’t just keep relying on you to get things done and it was urgent! I was doing just fine on my-,” 

“Fuck right off with you saying that it was urgent! Seriously, who do you think I am? An idiot? If it was urgent you wouldn’t have had the time to trap him in here for eight goddamned hours! He’s a kid , there’s hardly much damage he can do!” Tsukachi argued.

“Yeah, a kid working with a bunch of villains! That doesn’t make him fucking harmless. This is exactly why I'm better off doing this interrogation. You’re not even taking him as a serious threat-”

Tsukauchi spoke over him “Because he isn’t! Not when he’s here, in handcuffs! Someone should’ve called me! Why did no one say they brought him in today? I was only an hour away!” 

Aoki threw his arms up into the air. “Beacause it was unexpected, he was fucking arrested!” 

“Arrested? What- ughh anyway, you still had eight hours where you could’ve picked up a fucking phone and told me? And what about his guardian? Why weren’t they informed?” he challenged.

“Because-,”

“ No! Aoki, there is no excuse for that one! What were you even expecting to happen? How would this interrogation even hold up in court? Nothing you’ve done here was l-,”

“Oh get off my back! You know it’ll be fine in court, if we just give them a lit-”

Tsukauchi went very tense “I do not give bribes to law inforcement Aoki so you better shut your fucking mouth before it gets you into even  more trouble than it already has ,” 

“H-,”

“ No, don’t say another fucking word! I don’t want to hear it! Not now, not while he’s still here! You know what, just get out! Get out right now or I swear to god i’m gonna-”

"Okay! Okay! I’ll leave!” Aoki put his hands up in a mock surrender and shook his head at Tsukauchi “see, look-”

“I said get out!” Tsukauchi bellowed at him.

“I’m leaving already!  But Jesus christ calm down a little” Aoki griped, still actually not leaving, but instead making a show of stretching his back and legs in preparation to leave.

Tsukauchi was not amused, and Izuku saw any sense of professionality leave his body when he took two steps forward and grabbed Aoki by the shirt, not even letting him stand, but pulling him up before pushing, causing him to smash his back against the wall. While doing this, he knocked the chair Aoki was using over and it toppled to the floor, letting out a loud noise as it banged off the ground. Izuku winced at the sound, but Tsukachi wasn’t even phased. 

“What the fuck , man? What-,” Aoki started, but was cut off by Tskauchi leaning in and covering Aoki’s mouth with his hand .

“Don’t you tell me to calm down. Not now, not after you did this. I’m sick to fucking shit of your bullshit, Okay? Okay? Now get out and I’ll deal with you later,”
All at once he dropped Aoki’s shirt and stood off to the side, and he watched with a face full of disdain as Aoki practically ran out of the room, nearly face planting as he tripped over the fallen chair in his haste to get away. 

The second the door was shut and Aoki gone, Tsukauchi was over to Izuku in an instant. 

“Midoriya, are you okay?” he asked, the concern apparent in his voice. 

Izuku didn't answer. He couldn't.

Tsukauchi let out a whispered shit. He glanced around the small room, as if he would find the answer on how to handle this situation written on one of the walls, and when he obviously didn’t, he looked over at Izuku for another second. 

He began to bend over, but paused and thought for a second, and instead he knelt down on the little space left on the floor right next to Izuku, so that they were now level with each other. He reached his hand over and said to Izuku “I’m just going to unlock this handcuff here, okay? That’s it,” he twisted the key and with a click , the handcuff fell open and off. 

Izuku noted distantly that he was technically free. Now, there was nothing trapping him and the steady thrum of One For All under his skin was back. He could try and chance an attempt at escaping, something he’d been dreaming of doing since the second the interrogation had gone south.

He didn't, however, as the words of Aoki were still whispering in his head. Well, not so much whispering as they were being screamed at the top of his lungs. A constant loop, again and again front and center in his mind. Your principle, your teachers, your peers! They’re all scared of you. They won’t want you back. You’ve got nothing left to lose! 

What was the point of running, when he had nobody to run to? Aoki was right. Izuku closed his eyes and swallowed tightly. No one was on his side. What was the point? There was none. 

When he opened his eyes again some moments later, Tsukaouchi’s dark eyes were staring directly into Izuku’s, but Izuku didn’t think he could really see them. He didn’t feel like he could see straight at all. Like the world was spinning and spinning and Izuku couldn’t stop it because he was weak and and powerless and like Deku was falling and failing and falling and failing and-

“Breath, Midoryia? Midoriya? Izuku , can you breathe for me, please?” Tsukauchi asked, putting his hands on each of Izuku’s shoulders, and Izuku snapped out of it and found himself heaving, gasping for air as though he hadn’t had access to it this whole time. 

“C’mon, with me, kid. In and out, in and out. Slow and steady Izuku. In and out……,” he repeated over and over. Izuku wasn’t sure how long they were there like that, with Tsukcauchi reminding him how to breathe and Izuku doing his best to follow, only to have the panic start up again and have to redo it all. He couldn’t be sure how long it took, but the only thing he knew was that Tsukauchi stayed that grounding figure he needed until his breathing evened out, not getting annoyed or frustrated with Izuku for not calming down right away. 

Eventually, when Izuku was capable of breathing normally for a good minute or two, Tsukauchi spoke up again. “Are you okay Midoryia?” he asked.

Izuku opened his mouth and this time he didn’t shut it right away. “I’m- I’m fine,” he said quietly. He couldn’t say more than that. He didn’t have anything left he could say. He felt like he didn’t have anything left at all. He was empty. 

Tsukauchi didn’t need his quirk to tell that it was a lie, but he didn’t stay stuck on it. “Midoryia, I’m sorry, truly , so sorry. The interview, it wasn’t meant to happen like that, not at all. I was meant to be the one to do it, but I don’t know why, they never called me in, I didn’t even know you were here- I didn’t think it was supposed to happen today. I still don’t know the full story, I have to find out- nevermind about that, you have to know what just happened to you, that’s not what it was meant to be like. I would have never permitted the interrogation tactics he used on you. It’s- it’s not right,” he said sincerely, squeezing Izuku’s shoulders slightly.

Izuku nodded in return.

“I can’t even begin to imagine how horrible this must’ve been for you. I can promise you that Aoki will be taken care of. I’ll do everything in my power to make sure he gets what he deserves,” 

Izuku didn’t want to talk about Aoki. “Can I leave?”  he said blankly. 

“Yes, of course, we can leave this room. Your mother, she should be here by now,” Tsukcauchi said, standing up. “Come on,” he beckoned Izuku to follow him out of the room.

Izuku walked slowly behind Tsukauchi, making sure to keep his distance. And anyway, his joints were aching, after not moving from that spot in hours, as well as the fact that Izuku felt like the life had been zapped out of him, exhaustion weighing heavy on his head, so he’d hardly have been able to walk much faster than this even if he wanted to. The walk to the reception seemed to take an awful lot longer than he figured it would have, Izuku didn’t realize how out of the way the interrogation room he’d been brought to was. 

He studied Tsukauchi as he walked, the man was tall, but he didn't have an incredibly demanding presence. He wasn't particularly intimidating . His quirk- it was no good in combat, unlike Izuku's, and there really wasn't much damage it could do at all. And yet, the second he charged into that room today, Aoki basically crumbled the second Tsukaochi showed some authority.

Izuku had screamed, and shouted, and begged, by god did he beg , and all it took was for one man to tell him to leave and he did. Izuku had been about to lose it all, if Tsukaochi hadn't shown up, Izuku would've done it. He would have actually done it. He would have confessed to a crime he didn't commit and ruined his life, all to get away from a situation that took someone else a second to stop.

Why had it been so simple for Tsukauchi to stop it and not for Izuku? How did he have so much power, so much authority? How did Izuku have so little? It wasn’t fair. Why wasn’t it fair? Izuku was just so sick of this, of feeling so small compared to everyone else. Tsukauchi had saved Izuku, and he knew he should be forever grateful to the man, and he was , but Izuku couldn’t help the little part of him that bubbled with resentment. 

He forced his eyes away from looking at the detective, as if that would force his mind away from thinking about it, too. Izuku was ashamed to be so jealous, he couldn’t think about it any longer. He didn’t want to think about any of it for any longer. 

The first thing Izuku spotted when they got to the reception was his mother wringing her hands together nervously as she glanced around. Her eyes caught onto Izuku as he made his way over, and she cried out his name as she began running over to him.

Seeing her like that, and hearing her voice, it did something to Izuku. His mother was here , she was here to protect him. He did have someone on his side. He didn’t have to keep his guard up, at least for a few moments. 

“Oh, Izuku honey, my poor baby,” she cried, bringing her arms up and protectively wrapping them around him. She hadn’t done that in a long time. Izuku’s head was on her shoulder, and he was holding her as tight as he could. He hadn’t done that in a long time. He held on and never wanted to let go. 

Everything in his world had been rocked, and it all felt so unsteady. All except her embrace, in that moment, he felt like she was the only thing keeping him standing. He had his mother now, and it was over. 

He cried hard into her shoulder, despite thinking only moments earlier that he couldn’t possibly have any tears left. They were like that for a little bit, neither him or his mother caring about the people that surrounded them. He wanted so badly for it to never end, for him to stay like that with her forever. 

They couldn't, of course, and detective Tsukauchi broke them apart by tapping them both lightly on the shoulder. “I’m sorry to be breaking this up,” he said “but there are still a few things we have left to sort out before you can go home,”

Izuku shut his eyes very hard, as if he could just pretend it wasn’t happening. Why more? He couldn’t take any more. 

Apparently, Inko couldn’t either. “More? You want more? Don’t you think you’ve already done enough, huh?” she said.

Tsukauchi looked from Inko and then to Izuku for a second, a pained expression on his face. “Before you do go-,” he paused briefly “um, there’s still the matter of the interview,”

Izuku straightened up and he felt his heart rate speed up again. His guard was back up. “What? I was just interoga-,”

“And all of that’s void,” he explained. “Aoki… he didn’t do it right. You were meant to have a guardian present the entire time and there’s a bunch of other stuff. I am really sorry, but, well, it’s not exactly over yet,”

Izuku wanted to scream.

“Of course, of course , it won’t be anything like what Aoki did. And it’ll be a few minutes, tops. I promise,” Tsukauchi said. 

“How do I know you’re not just like him,” Izuku said. 

“You can trust me Izu-,”

“He said that too,”

Naomasa stopped at that. He looked up at Inko. “okay, obviously your son has gone through a lot tonight. I really can’t let him go, unfortunately, until the interview is over, or until forty eight hours have passed, since he was, technically, arrested,” he scratched the back of his head. “But I mean, he’s clearly in need of a rest, so I can let you both try and sleep in a cell? Come back in a few hours maybe and do the interview then? I mean, I really am sorry but there isn’t that many optio-,” 

“Excuse me?” Inko said angrily. “Do you think I'm going to listen to you now? After what you’ve done to him? Look at him!” she tearfully exclaimed “does this look like a child who should be subjected to what you’ve done? He’s a wreck and exhausted and you expect me to stay here and speak to you now? And stay in a jail cell? We’re going home,” she was resolute. 

“I really am so sorry, but I just can’t facilitate that,” Naomasa tried to explain. “Izuku legally isn’t allowed-,” but Inko cut him off.

“This is over and I don’t care what you have to say about it. We’re going . I’ll send you the number of my lawyer, so you can speak to him.  Because don’t you think I’m just going to let this slide. C’mon, Izuku, we’re leaving,” she gently grabbed his shoulder and tried to steer him into the direction of the door. Izuku didn’t move.

He knew that what the detective was saying was correct, and he didn’t want to get his mother into trouble if he did leave with her, she couldn’t afford to have any criminal charges on her record. And the thought of staying in a jail cell made him feel sicker than he already did, so as much as it was the last thing on earth he would rather do, Izuku still said “I’ll do the interrogation now. It’s fine, mom. I don’t want to cause any more trouble,”

“You didn’t cause any trouble, kid. It wasn’t you that did anything wrong,” Tsukauchi replied sternly. He turned back to Inko “Look ma’am, I swear, everybody responsible for what happened to your son today is going to be appropriately penalised, I just have to do this interview and it’ll be over before you know it. I promise,”

Inko looked just about ready to argue, but she stopped herself. “Fine,” she decided. “But make it quick. My baby needs to sleep now,” she said.

“Of course, ma’am. Right this way,” he said, leading the pair of them away.

He brought them to another interrogation room, this time though, it was much larger and modern looking. The seats were more comfortable, and it certainly didn’t look like it hadn’t been used it ten years. Izuku sat down right next to his mother, and didn’t object when she grabbed his hand. 

“Well, I’ll get right to it then,” he said. 

“Now, did Aoki read your rights to you earlier?” he asked.

“Yes,” Izuku replied.

“Right, okay. Well, I’m going to have to read them a second time, sorry. It’s just protocol. Please, either of you stop me if there’s anything you don’t understand,” Tsukachi read out the rights, stopping when Inko asked for clarifications. Izuku didn’t need any rehashing.

“Now, to start, as you know, I have a lie detection quirk, so basically what you need to do is just first answer my questions with a very clear answer, yes or no ones preferably, and then you can elaborate if you find it necessary,” the detective said.

“Okay,” Izuku said. 

And then the questions started. 

“Is it true that you analyse people’s quirks and keep them written in those notebooks of yours?” he asked.

“Yes,”

“Why?”

“Because I want to. It’s a hobby of mine, since I was a kid,”

“Have you ever used your notebooks for malicious purposes?”

“No, never,”

“Do you have plans to use them for malicious purposes,”

“No, never,”

“Are you, in any way, shape, or form, associated with a villain, villain group or alliance, or anyone that would be considered a villain by others,”

“No,”

“What is your definition of a villain?”

“The same one one that’s in the dictionary,”

“Would you tell someone if you were ever forced, manipulated into working with, or providing information for a group or person with a villainous or perceived by others to be a villainous cause?”

“Yes,”

“Were you, then?”

“No.”

“Are you the U.A. traitor?”

“...No.” that had been the hardest question to answer, as it had reminded Izuku upfront as to why he was here in the first place. Why everything that had happened today happened. It hurt to think about

There were a few more questions, but they were short, quick, and to the point. Izuku gave mostly one word answers, rarely bothering to explain further. The sooner he was out, the better.

All in all, it took about twenty minutes in total before Tsukaouchi clapped his hands together and said “well, that should really be it. Of course, if anything else comes to light or we need some more clarification you might be called back here, but so far, it doesn’t look like there should be any need for that as it is quite clear to be that you, Izuku, have done nothing wrong and are not the traitor. You’re free to go,” he declared.

“Oh thank god this is over,” Inko muttered, gathering up her purse and nudging Izuku up off of his chair. “Honey, get up. It’s over, now,” she whispered to him.

Izuku sat there for another second, in stunned silence before catching himself and standing up. He followed after his mother as she made her way out, not even paying attention to anything around him, just going through the motions of putting one foot in front of the other.

He couldn’t believe it. This second questioning, it had been so easy. So simple. Hardly any hassle at all. So fucking simple. And yet somehow, Izuku had never felt more defeated. He had gone through so much today. He had endured what he learned was eight hours of what he could only consider a form of torture, all that for it to be considered void. Pointless. Worth absolutely nothing. For him to get more out of twenty minutes than a whole day of that , it made him so-

Tired. He was too fucking tired to be anything else. He couldn’t think straight.

The car park was dark, and Izuku was just following his mother, as he didn’t know where she parked, when he heard someone call out behind him. Izuku turned around, half expecting to see Tsukcauchi or another officer, waiting to say that they’d made a mistake and that Izuku would have to be apprehended again, that he’d have to go back , and he felt his rate rate pick up. 

Rather than seeing Tsukauchi, though, waiting with another pair of handcuffs, Izuku saw none other than Yagi and Aizawa.

They were both standing there in tow of each other, illuminated only by the streetlight above them.

Yagi took a step forward. 

Izuku took a step back. 

He couldn’t look at these people, he wouldn’t . He turned around and continued over to the car, which he could now see. And he didn’t look back. Not even when Yagi called his name, not this time. He swallowed harshly and blinked back the tears in his eyes. 

He waited for his mother to catch up, he’d somehow passed her out, and once she did, she wasted no time in starting the engine and beginning to drive off. Izuku turned his head and watched from his window in the passenger's seat, he couldn’t help it, as the two figures got smaller and smaller as they went further and further away from the police station. Izuku wasn’t able to see the expressions on their faces, but neither of them looked happy. 

When Izuku arrived home he went straight to his room, ignoring his mothers inquiries on whether or not he wanted some food.

He had a shower that night. A long one. It was one of those showers where he put the water as hot as it would go, as if it would wash away the events of the day. Or at least the memories of it. It was nearly hot enough to burn him. He almost wished it did. Maybe it would have worked better, then. Perhaps the pain of the scalding water would have been enough to let him forget about it, even for a second. He wondered if he would ever be able to forget it. It was one of those showers where he stood there, stock still, letting the water run down, and letting it go till it ran ice cold. He didn’t want to get out. Getting out meant he’d have to confront the world’s existence again. The world’s existence and everything in it. He wasn’t sure if he could do that. It was one of those showers where he told himself just one more minute , but that minute always seemed to last too little. So he said it again and again.

It was one of those showers where the second he stepped in the world stopped existing. It was one of those showers where the second he stepped in, he could pretend he stopped existing, too. 

Oh, how he wished that were true. 

Chapter Text

School, for about the first time in his life, fell to the side lines. He didn’t go in the next day. Or the day after that. Or the day after that. He lay in bed and just-

Well, he did just that. He lay there and he didn’t really think and he slept and slept and sometimes ate a little food and slept and then when he did think, there weren’t any good thoughts. He hated to think. 

For those few days, he lived in what he felt like was in a continuum where life wasn’t life anymore and existence wasn’t existence and he wasn’t himself and time was passing, he knew time was passing, but he felt like he had fallen into this sliver of space in between what once was and what will be, where everything moved in slow motion (or maybe it was just him) and the clock ticking by on his bedside table meant nothing anymore, and the sun coming up and down meant nothing anymore and those posters on his wall and those figurines on the side of his bed meant nothing anymore. Nothing meant anything anymore. He meant nothing now. 

His friends weren’t his friends. His mentor wasn’t his mentor. His life wasn’t his life. Everything was run and dictated by those around him. He had no control. No power. No say. He was just a passive puppet in this wheel of life. Always had been. Always will be. 

His mom came by and sat with him sometimes. She stroked his hair. Whispered words that he didn’t pay much attention to. She stared at him with these big eyes like she was a little bit scared. She didn’t know what to do, she had said. What do you want me to do? She had said.

And then she had to leave for work. So she left. He did not answer. He did not have an answer. He heard her often vacuuming the kitchen, and he heard the screeching of the couch as she pushed it from one side of the living room to the other, and then when she pushed it back. She always cleaned when she was stressed. She cleaned a lot those few days. 

He felt a little bad for making her worried. He also wished she worried more. He hated himself. He hated everyone. He didn’t want to think anymore. He couldn’t stop. He had a cold shower. It didn’t work. He went to sleep. He didn’t dream.

Chapter Text

The world isn’t fair. Bad things happen. Mistakes get made. It’s better to be safe than sorry. It was a logical conclusion. We had to be sure. There was no other way. I didn’t know it would be so aggressive. I had to protect the kids. I was just doing what I was told. 

Excuses ran rampant through his head. Every time he thought of it. Every time he called the role. Every time his eyes glanced in that empty seat. Every time he faced himself in the mirror. 

The guilt ate at him all the same. He knew the excuses meant nothing. They didn’t change what happened. They didn’t fix it. They didn’t make it better. Yes, the world was unfair, but wasn’t that why he was a hero? Didn’t he want to make it a more fair place? Help others, not hurt? He had partaken in the aggressive nature of the whole event- he had been the aggressor in the whole event. He attacked the kid for fuck’s sake. He did that. Yes, it’s what they told him to do, but why’d he listen? Why? 

He knew Midoriya. He knew that fucking kid. He shouldn’t have been so passive. He shouldn’t have sat back and watched his other kids ice their classmate out. He shouldn’t have sat idly while hearing the teachers, those who have  never even had Midoriya in their classroom- never even seen the dedication he showed to becoming a hero, the care he showed for those he called friends, even for those who didn’t show the same care back, tell Nedzu and the others how it was as clear as day that he was the traitor.

He could have done something. He could have. 

But he didn’t. He fucked up bad. And he knew it. How did he let it get this far? Go on for so long? Shouta was sure now that he had adequately ruined the kid's passion for heroism- fully shot down his prospects for the future. He fucked up so bad and even Hizashi knew it- no longer instilling arguments, rather trying to comfort Shouta. Trying to tell him it wasn’t so bad. 

“It’s over now. You messed up but at least you know that now. Sulking won’t change anything,” Hizashi said, running his hands through Shouta’s hair. The two were on their couch in front of the TV, Shouta resting his head on Hizashi’s lap. 

“I fucked that kid up,” Shouta retaliated. “You should’ve seen the way he looked at the police station. And the whole shitshow of an interogation- Tsuckauchi told me it was a fucking disgrace what that officer did to him,”

“But it wasn’t you who did that, obviously you didn’t know that’s how it would go down. No one did. You’d expect a police station to be a little more competent,”

“I was the one who arrested him. I did that ,”

“It wasn’t just you though. If you weren’t the one to detain him, someone else would have. And those officers, they might’ve used even more force- they could have done some proper fucking damage. It wasn’t just you. What about Nedzu? He’s the one who told the whole of the staff-”

“I’m the one who told Nedzu though-”

“Because that’s your job. You did it because you care Shouta. That’s why you feel so guilty now, because you care about that kid. You care about all those kids, which is why going to Nedzu was the right thing- just in case,” Hizashi said firmly.

“I-,”

“No. no more from you. Not right now. You’re not the reason for shitty cops. You’re not the reason the rest of the school handled it the way they should have. Everyone messed up so don’t go around taking all the blame for yourself. Blame Nedzu. Blame me. Blame All Might. Blame the real traitor. Blame everyone, or blame no one. None of this is going to get you anywhere. The only thing you can do now is accept that you fucked up, and move on. Be Midoriya’s teacher, prove to him that you care. Be the good guy you couldn’t be earlier. Be better. Do better. Keep going,” Hizashi finished.

Shouta let out a breath. “I don’t deserve you,” he said quietly.

“And I don’t deserve to be stuck here listening to your moping,” Hizashi said, before gently moving Shouta’s head off his lap and onto the couch before jumping up. “Now, sweet stuff,” He began, giving two solid pats to the top of Shouta’s head and saying “you’re going to get off your ass, have a shower, come to bed with me and the cats, sleep well and have sweet dreams, and tomorrow you’ll wake up a new man and go over and talk to Midoriya. Fuck whatever Nedzu says about giving him time. He needs to hear that he’s wanted back, you know that. So, hip hop and get to it,” 

“Fine, fine. Thanks. I’ll go now. See you in a few mins,” Shouta groaned and stretched and slowly started getting up off the couch.

“Good,” Hizashi said, and he left the room, only stopping on his way out the door before looking back and saying to Shouta- in a soft voice with sweet eyes. “You’re not a bad person. I love you,”

“I love you, too,” Shouta whispered. 

–

School continued on as normal, and while Midoriya’s absence seemed to constantly be shouting in the face of those who had grown so used to having him around them, nobody in class 1A was particularly keen to address the situation. It’s not as though they were forbidden from it, but after that first day, where Shouta had to gather everyone up and tell them all that yes, even in spite of the whole debacle that had taken place the day previous, with the very public detainment and arrest of Midoriya, that he was in fact proven innocent and free from any and all possible charges that could have been made, a deep sense of shame had fallen over the students, and talking about the fact he was innocent, would just cement the guilty conscience of all the kids even more over the way they had treated Midoriya.

Of course, there were a few outliers. 

Mineta, ever present and endlessly irritating, had taken up randomly breaking into bursts of rushed and desperate speeches defending himself from what he had caused by being the one to spread all the rumors. The police aren’t always right! He could still be guilty! I could still be right! Any of you would have done the same so don’t look at me like that! It’s not my fault! He practically did it to himself the way he acts so weird about everything! 

Bakugo had also taken up disrupting the entire class, during the times when simmering in a silent fury just simply wasn’t enough to encapsulate how terribly angry he was at the whole school for not believing him when he said that Midoriya wasn’t the traitor. All you idiots! I told all of you, every last one that it wasn’t him and now look at what you’ve done. Deku hasn’t been to school in a week! You’re all fucking worse villains than he could have ever been. 

Uraraka seemed to be on the verge of an emotional breakdown at all times. And Iida was the walking, talking, personification of guilt. 

The others in class 1A, though, well they stayed quiet. 

The whole of the rest of the school seemed to still be bustling with energy and excitement over what had happened, and a clear division had formed. Those who still thought Midoriya was the traitor, and those who were adamant in his defense. Everyone had an opinion, and they were all loud as hell about it. 

The teachers did what they could to quell the outlandish rumors being spread.

  He's not been in school because he’s run off and changed identities!

He killed three people! 

He’s actually been working with the police force this whole time and was with the villains, but only as a secret undercover agent, but that got lost in communication and they actually thought he was a real villain!

Yet, the students had their own free will and could not be overheard at all times for the things they say to be fact checked, so the stories and gossip told ran rampant through the halls. People reenacting the arrest became a common occurrence, and Shouta had to deal with, on more than one occasion, students coming up and asking him to pretend to arrest them. 

It enraged him how unseriously everyone seemed to be taking this whole situation, yet, he had to to remind himself that they were all just stupid, stupid kids. They didn’t know any better. They didn’t know the repercussions their words could have, they didn’t know the stain that this whole thing would probably leave on Midoriya’s record, despite his proven innocence, the name Deku would probably be tainted for life. These things stayed on record. 

Shouta sighed, blinking hard as though that would get rid of all the thoughts racing through his head. He could only hope now that the weekend would bring some relief and everything would be far calmer for Monday, which is when he hoped Midoriya would be back in school. He would go over today and speak to him and his mother. Nedzu hadn’t been the most keen on the idea, and believed that they should give the kid another few days alone to recover from the whole ordeal himself, but Shouta had stood his ground like Hizashi had told him to and declared that he would be going no matter what. He had to begin to sort this whole debacle out. Nedzu did end up agreeing, although reluctantly. 

Which annoyed Shouta. He always had a deep respect for the principal, his genius and skill truly unmatched, though this had made Shouta see him through a different lense. Intelligent he was for certain, though empathetic? Caring? Less so. Not the most admirable quality for someone in charge of so many youths. He could never truly go against Nedzu, for he would be at risk of losing his job, but he'd have to start… not taking everything so upfront, perhaps.

He gathered up a few loose sheets and chugged the rest of his now nearly cold coffee, hoping it would give him the strength and knowledge on what to say to the Midoriya family. Because right now he was fucking clueless. 

He walked out of the school, and as he was only a few feet away from his car, a voice called out to him.

All Might. Shouta sighed again. “What do you want?” he asked “I’ve got to be somewhere in a few minutes so make it quick,”

“Nedzu informed me that you were going over to talk to Izuku,” He said.

“That’s correct,” Shouta replied.

“I am going with you,” Toshnihori said taking a few steps closer.

“I don’t see why you need to be there,” Shouta responded, albeit a little harshly.

“Izuku is… I am quite like a mentor to him, and I believe it would be best if I went with you to go and talk to him. He needs me. Honestly, I could save you the trouble and just go myself, you really don’t need to be there-”

“There’s no trouble with me going to the house of one of my students that I am concerned about,”

“Well, then both of us can go,”

“How come you never went to him sooner, if you know he needs you so bad?”

“Well, I thought I would give him space. And Nedzu said not to and..” he trailed off a little awkwardly 

“And?”  Shouta inquired.

“And I’m not so sure what to say to him. I don’t know. I messed up with the way I handled things before, I thought distancing myself was the right thing to do. It wasn’t. I didn’t know it would all end so badly,”

“So, you know being distant from him was the wrong thing to do, so you, stayed distant after that too?”

“Yes, yes. I know. I shouldn’t have. I just. I don’t know. But I’m ready now, to face him, and talk. I shouldn't put it off any longer.”

A pause. “Fine. Get in, I suppose,”

“Right. Good. thanks!”

They both got in the car. And before starting the car, Shouta said one last thing. “Let’s just hope he’s ready to hear it,”.

They drove in silence.

Chapter Text

Three sharp succinct knocks to the front door tore Izuku out of his haze. He blinked, dazed, and glanced from his spot on the couch. The tv was on, a low murmur in the background, he hadn’t been paying attention in god knows how long, probably not at all. It was there more so to instil a sense of normalcy into his day, though it had not worked. No noise could penetrate his mind enough to quiet all the thoughts. 

He took a slow breath in, and a long sigh out. Curled up on the couch- not cosy, yet he still did not want to move. To go and open that door. To face someone, even just the postman, made his insides twist uncomfortably. Nobody should see him like this- weak, and tired, and so ridiculously sad . There was just so much of that. 

That horrible, horrible, horrible sadness. This despair, to him, was worse and more all-consuming than any pain he had been in before. Physical pain, he knew. He understood . Somebody crushes your arm. It snaps. Your arm is broken. It hurts. There is a reason why it hurts. You put it in a cast. You wait. It gets better. It heals. The pain is gone. The arm is normal again. You can punch again. You nearly forget your arm was ever broken in the first place.

There is a start, a middle, and an end to this sort of pain. There is a reason for it. You see it. Everyone else sees it. They believe it. 

This pain he felt now, this despair . Well, it was entirely different.

Why did he feel this way? At what point did it start to heal? Would it ever? He felt as though there would be no end. 

There simply couldn’t be. This pain, he felt everywhere- i n the throbbing headache behind his eyes, through every shaky breath in, as constant as the beating of his heart; by now the pain flowed through each and every inch of him, making his veins as much of a home to it as was his blood. He was heavy all over, and groggy. Almost as though he was ill with a fever.

There was no wound to bandage, no knife to blame. Unless the wound was his soul and the knife was the betrayal of all those people he thought he knew. Though clearly did not. He did not know a timeline for this healing, did not think there could be one. This felt like it would be an unending pain- as what caused it would never leave. Those moments in the interrogation, those days in school, lost and wondering what he had done wrong. The memories of this would do more than haunt him. They would hurt him, again and again and again. Salt in the wound. Stab to the heart. Kick to the stomach. To so much as look at his classmates or teacher and even All Might would be sure enough to kill him all over again. 

His destiny and future and all that was once so bright ahead of him now felt bleak and buried six feet under. His reputation was ruined, as was his spirit. 

His life was over, and he had never felt so low.

What was there to live for? What was he made for now, without this? Without anything .

He simply couldn’t bear it. He wanted nothing more than to shut his mind off and stop thinking about anything for the rest of eternity, yet he found himself doing nothing but thinking about it for the past three days. 

Honestly? He wished he was dead. Better off that way. Everyone else probably agreed.

That was the consideration he had to keep in mind for another moment, because right now, the issue of the door knocking and whether or not he should answer managed to seep into his mind and take over his thoughts for just a minute or two. Or ten. Time no longer felt real. He could have been moving in slow  motion for all he knew. Most likely was. Still somehow felt too fast.

One leg out, and then the other, they hit the rug below hard and heavy- pins and needles trickling throughout. He wondered when the last time he got up was. Decided not to remember the answer. Slow and melancholy, he dragged his way over towards the door. If a package was to be delivered, he supposed the least he could do would be to bring it in- rather than force his mother to go to all the extra effort of having to go collect it at the post office. 

He’d done enough to stress her out as it was. Would not allow himself to be even more of a burden.

He clicked the lock. Opened the door.

And there stood Aizawa and Toshinori. 

Izuku’s eyes widened, and the world fell apart around him all over again.

Chapter Text

He hadn’t known what to expect when the door swung open.

Maybe an empty hallway. Maybe a note. Maybe a courier, stiff and silent, here to drop something off and walk away.

But no.

Instead, it was them .

Aizawa stood tall—stoic as ever, but somehow smaller. Or maybe not smaller. Maybe just... deflated. His shoulders weren’t squared like they used to be. His scarf looked looser, almost forgotten around his neck.

And beside him, Toshinori.

Not All Might.

Not the towering, golden symbol of peace who had once knelt before him and smiled and said “You can be a hero.”

Just a man. One who looked worn and ragged and uncertain, hair more unruly than usual, and jaw clenched in a guilt so stark it felt like Izuku could hear it- buzzing beneath the  silence like the high-pitched hum of regret. 

Izuku’s hand dropped from the doorknob. He said nothing. Just stared.

“Izuku,” Toshinori breathed, voice paper-thin and frayed at the edges. “I… we were hoping we could talk. Just for a few minutes.”

Aizawa’s eyes were tired. He didn’t speak. He waited, as he always did, quiet and unreadable. But even in the silence, Izuku could tell. There was something wrong in him, too.

Izuku stepped back without a word.

They took it as an invitation.

The door shut softly behind them. It was somehow the loudest sound in the world.

He drifted back to the couch, sinking down into it like something waterlogged. They didn’t sit. They hovered—awkward, anxious, unsure of how to make themselves small in a space that wasn’t theirs, wasn’t safe, and certainly wasn’t welcoming.

The television still murmured in the background. Some sitcom or news channel—Izuku couldn’t tell. White noise that once tried to mimic normalcy, now just mockery.

A long silence hung in the air. Not comfortable. Not gentle. Like a scream being swallowed.

Now, it was Aizawa’s turn to speak. “I… we… we’ve been trying to figure out what to say,” and immediately winced at his own words. “That’s.. Not right. That’s not what matters. What matters is-,”

His voice cracked. He stopped. Started again.

“What matters is that we failed you,”.

Izuku said nothing. Didn’t blink. Didn’t move. Didn’t dare glance up at his teacher’s face, afraid of what he might see, or what it might lead him to reveal. He looked at the floor, eyes focused on nothing in particular, and let the words continue to wash over him. Drown him, almost.

Izuku saw Toshniori glance at Aizawa, then at him, open his mouth once or twice as though unsure how to go on.

“I thought it was the right thing to do,” He finally relented, running a shaky hand through his hair. “I thought that. That. that. I don’t know. I thought it was what was right. You had, you had so many eyes on you and I didn’t want people to look too deep- that keeping my distance might make it easier, that if I didn’t get involved, maybe things would calm down. Maybe people wouldn’t look at you and see me and jump to conclusions. I thought I was shielding you, us. From , from more. From worse,” 

He swallowed, and continued on, voice thick in his throat “But obviously that didn’t work,”

Izuku lifted his head slightly, saw Toshinori’s eyes downcast and how his whole body seemed to slump downwards. Truly no hero to be seen in the place where he sat. Just regret. 

He clenched his fists, as his voice dropped to a whisper. “I abandoned you. You needed me, and I left,” 

That word— abandoned —it echoed. Bounced off the quiet apartment walls and threaded itself into Izuku’s skin.

“I should have known better,” he breathed. “God, I should have known better,”

He closed his eyes, hard, in what looked to be a battle of a thousand unspoken words. 

Izuku thought. You did. You did know better.  

Aizawa rubbed a hand across his face, slow, like he couldn’t quite believe what he was doing. Or saying.

“I didn’t believe it at first,” he said, finally looking directly at Izuku, though the boy made sure his own gaze was averted. “The accusation. It sounded ridiculous. But I let their doubts bleed into my own mind. I let your notebooks, your intelligence—your compassion —be twisted into something sinister. And I was too much of a coward to say anything when it mattered. I watched you disappear right in front of us.”

“I’m sorry.” He said. “I can’t even begin to tell you how incredibly sorry I am,”

“I let them take you,” he said, and his voice was low. Weighted. “I didn’t protect you. I didn’t even try. I stood there and watched them put you in cuffs like you were some villain. Like you weren’t a student. Like you weren’t a child.”

At this, Izuku steeled himself, looked up. Voice croaky from disuse, and bland from forced impassiveness. 

“ You took me,” He said. “You didn’t let them take me. You took me,” His voice was constricted, as though that scarf was still tight around his neck. 

Shouta grimaced. “I-,” he faltered.

“I’m sorry,” 

The words didn’t wash over him like rain. They didn’t soak in. They didn’t reach him.

They just floated there. Heavy. Meaningful. But too late.

Too, too late.

He wanted to believe them. He wanted to scream and ask why, if they felt so terrible, he had to go through all of it alone. Why they let him sit in that interrogation room for hours with a man who smiled while cutting him apart from the inside. Why they let the world look at him like a villain.

Why nobody had cared until now.

But he couldn’t make his lips move.

His throat burned. His eyes stung. And he hated himself for it.

So he didn’t say a thing.

The silence stretched on for another few moments, the other two men, clearly trying to work out what they could possibly say next. Izuku contemplated whether or not he could just tell them to leave. No words could fix what was wrong, not now. 

Eventually, Toshinori spoke up again. “We didn’t just come here to apoligize,” he began. 

“You-,” he said, his voice almost breaking. “You are the most worthy hero out there. The most dedicated, most impassioned, most hardworking and kind and caring and you deserve quite possibly more than anyone, more than me, to be a hero. You deserve that chance.”

“We want you to come back to U.A.,” Shouta said.

Still nothing.

“You don’t have to decide right now. You don’t have to come back right away, either. Take your time. Rest up. Recover,” he said quietly, “But you belong there. With us. With your class,”

With a bunch of people who betrayed me. The mention of his classmates was a knife to the chest. He flinched, almost imperceptibly.

Toshinori looked down. “I know we don’t deserve forgiveness. I don’t expect you to trust us again. But we’ll do everything we can to make it right. I’ll—”

The front door clicked open.

All heads turned.

Inko entered, grocery bags in her arms and a thousand thoughts in her head—until she saw them.

And then the storm hit.

“What the fuck are you doing here!” she roared.

The bags hit the floor with a crash. Fruit rolled out in all directions.

Toshinori stood up, racing over to her, hand outstretched as though he expected her to shake it.

“Get away from me! Get away from him!” she stormed over across the living room and stood in front of Izuku, a fierce look in her eyes.

“We were just-” Shouta began, but she didn’t even let him start.

“Don’t you dare. Dont’ you fucking dare!” she screamed. 

“What makes you- what makes you think you have the right to step foot in my home. My home. And speak to my son . The son who you ruined!”

“ Look at him, ” she shouted, her face red with fury, and her arm shaking as she pointed behind her to Izuku.

He felt his heart racing in his chest. Looked around at the scene unfolding in front of him. The first sense of vigor in him in days of no energy. Even if it was this horrible, anxious one, at that. 

“ Look at him! You did that! You put him through that. You let my baby, my son, be taken and hurt and fucking tortured for hours and- and- and,” her voice was heaving

Aizawa held up his hands, cautious. “Mrs. Midoriya, please-” 

“ Don’t ,”  she snapped. Don’t you dare tell me to calm down. Don’t you fucking dare.”

Toshinori looked utterly broken. “I never wanted-”

“ It doesn’t matter what you wanted or what you wished for or whatever the fuck else. It happened. You let it happen. You did it! You all just stood by and let him be fucking torn apart by that man, by everyone. How dare you try tell me-”

“We know! We know”,” Aizawa cut in. “Please, we know. And we are so sorry for how badly we failed your son. But we want to help. U.A. wants him back. Welcomes him. We’’re here to-”

Inko barked with laughter, high pitched and without a hint of true joy in it. “You think-,” She could hardly get the words out, them being so heavily laced with venom, and hatred. “You think he’s going back? To there? That school. Full of all those people who made his life hell? Go fuck yourselves. Go fucking fuck yourself you stupid, nasty-”

Izuku stood.

It wasn’t dramatic. It wasn’t loud.

But it was enough to make everyone freeze.

He said. “I’ll go back,” 

He didn’t know that’s what he was going to say when he stood, but he felt like it’s the only thing that would make them all stop. Just all shut up and go away and leave him alone. 

Inko turned to him, eyes wide with disbelief. “Izuku-” 

“It’s fine,” he said. It wasn’t, but it never would be. So no point of acknowledging that.

Silence.

“No one’s making you, we just wanted to-” But Izuku cut him off.

“I said I’ll go,” He repeated, eyes still downcast. “So just.. Just stop yelling,”

Toshinoris mouth opened slightly, but no words came out. There was too much to say. No way to say any of it.

“I’ll go back,” Izuku whispered, voice flat. “If that’s what it takes. If it means you’ll all stop looking at me like that.”

He couldn’t bear the looks. Not of guilt. Not of pity. Not of sorrow. Not when all he could picture were the eyes of hatred or of disinterest they had shown him a mere few days ago. All of it felt so fake now. So. so. Fake.

“I’ll go,” he said again.

Inko looked at him, her face pale, hands trembling.

The room was heavy, like everyone was afraid of what it meant. 

Inko took a breath. She looked at the men. Voice low now, and calm, but the malice and hatred fueled every ounce of it. 

“Get out,”

Toshinori opened his mouth, as if to reply, but Aizawa grabbed his shoulder, and dragged him away and past, through the still open door and out of sight.

Izuku stared after them. 

“Why?” Inko asked him softly, eyes welled with tears as she looked down to her son. “Why would you want to go back there,”

“I have to,” Izuku responded dully. “I have to,”

“ No,” grabbing his shoulders, and forcing him to look her in the eyes. “ No you don’t. You don’t have to go Izuku. We can leave. We can move, start fresh. Go to-”

“I have to,” he repeated. 

To think about it, no matter how dreadful U.A. seemed, no matter how horrible. He didn’t know, really, what else he could do. Where would he go? He had built his whole life up around this, around becoming the best hero he could ever be. 

He couldn’t give that up. He didn’t know how. 

In a time now, where life was filled with so much uncertainty, and fear. Everyone he knew turned out to not really know him back. He lost them all. All Might, too. He couldn’t lose the idea of being a hero. Of Deku. That’s all he had.

That was all that was  left. The only thing that had kept him going in middle school. It was the only thing that would keep him going now.

“I’m tired, Mom,” He said. “So tired,”

He knew she had more to say about him going back to U.A., but she held herself back. For now. Instead. She knelt in front of him, bringing him down to his knees as well, and took his hands in hers, and held them close. 

For a long time, they sat there in silence. No heroes. No apologies. Just a mother and her son, in the ruins left behind by trust and betrayal.

Eventually, however, Izuku stood once more.

He walked away from his mother, who still kneeled, seemingly unable to move, and down the hallway, into the dark of his bedroom.

And he shut the door behind him.

Softly.

Like the final breath before silence.