Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

To say Izuku Midoriya was more tired than he had ever been would be an understatement.

Just about every event that occurred that day seemed to have been specifically designed to tire him out. Not only had classes been harder than ever, but Gran Torino himself decided to show up for a guest lecture. Of course, that lecture included a sparring session with Izuku’s entire class. And since Izuku had interned with him before, Gran Torino saw no reason to hold back.

After school was over, the rest of the boys dragged him along to Gym Theta for some Quirk training. Not that Izuku wasn’t grateful for his classmates’ commitment to heroics, it’s just that practicing his Quirk on Kirishima for several hours tended to expend a lot of energy.

After he got back to the dorms and finished his mountain of homework, Izuku decided he would unwind for a few minutes and take a look at the hero forums. What he wasn’t expecting was to get into an argument with M00N_BUNNY>:3 about the ethics of excessive violence on villains. That debate had lasted several hours, and while neither of them had yielded, they both walked away with a different perspective on the matter.

But that was neither here nor there. Izuku closed his laptop and stared at the digital clock on his desk, at 3:18 AM. Izuku groaned internally, both at the fact that he allowed the argument to last that long and that he was somehow expected to make it through another day at school tomorrow.

“Maybe I should ask Ojiro if he could lend me some caffeine pills,” Those were the last words Izuku said as his head hit the pillow and he fell into the deepest sleep of his life.

Deep inside the core of One for All, the Vestiges of seven dead heroes were currently looking over the unconscious body of the Quirk’s ninth holder.

“Did he… fall asleep inside the vestige realm?” Banjo asked out loud.

Hikage listened to Izuku’s quiet breathing, “It appears so. I don’t believe this has ever happened before.”

“It hasn’t,” Yoichi confirmed. “We called him here to let him know we’re ready to give him Float. But I guess he was so exhausted that his mind entered the deepest stage of sleep.”

“I don’t think that’s how sleep stages work,” En remarked.

“Well I’m not a doctor, are you?”

“I have a doctorate in fine arts,” Banjo stated.

“Does Ninth look like a painting to you?” En asked.

“He does to me!” Nana interjected. “He’s adorable when he sleeps. You can even hear him mumble to himself.”

“Regardless,” Yoichi said. “I think it would be best to let Ninth sleep for now. We can always tell him about Float tomorrow.” The rest of the Vestiges nodded in agreement, sans Second and Third, who made their way back to the wall to sulk.

Several hours later…

“THE MORNING IS HERE! THE MORNING IS HERE! THE MORNING IS HERE!”

As Izuku’s alarm clock blared, the Vestiges got up from their thrones to go wake up Izuku.

“Rise ‘n shine, kid,” Banjo whispered as he lightly tapped Izuku on the arm. This did not garner any noticeable reaction from Izuku, who continued to sleep.

“Good morning, Ninth,” Nana said a little louder as she gently shook Izuku’s sleeping body, this had no effect in waking him up either.

“Please open your eyes,” Hikage commanded flatly as he repeatedly poked Izuku on the forehead, with no reaction.

En turned and pointed away from everyone, “Look! Someone’s giving away free All Might merch!” He turned back to Izuku to see if that got his attention. Nope, still asleep.

Banjo sighed as he picked up Izuku by the waist, “Well, we tried the easy way.” He began to rapidly shake Izuku back and forth, “WAKE UP!” Izuku barely flinched.

En stared at the sight amusedly, “Man, he is out cold.”

“Well we can’t let him miss school,” Nana said as she paced around worriedly. “What are we supposed to do?”

Yoichi, still sitting on his throne, thought for a moment before standing up triumphantly, “I have an idea! We go to school for him!”

This got the other four Vestiges’ attention. En raised an eyebrow in suspicion, “I don’t think that’s possible, First. We’re a bit too dead to be attending school. Not to mention old.”

“Not literally,” Yoichi said. “Remember the Sports Festival? Where we made Ninth use his Quirk to break out of that kid’s brainwashing Quirk?”

Nana gave an unimpressed look, “You’re saying we puppet Ninth’s body and pretend to be him for a day?”

“Yeah, why not? Here, let me try something.” Yoichi closed his eyes and began concentrating hard on something. After a few moments, a large control panel split into five parts fell from the sky. “There. This’ll make the process a lot easier.”

Banjo stared at the control panel in wonder, “This just might be crazy enough to work.”

“I concur,” Hikage agreed. “Living can be hard. Sometimes, it’s best to let others take the wheel.”

“I don’t know,” Nana fidgeted nervously. “Are you sure this will work? Controlling a human body doesn’t seem like the easiest thing in the world.”

Yoichi nodded as he sat at the center of the control panel, “I’m as sure as En’s jacket is blue. Because it’s blue, it’s always been blue, not red.”

En sat down at the far right of the control panel, “He’s right, Seventh. We’ve all been alive before. How hard could it be?”

Nana sighed as she sat down between En and Yoichi, “Fine. But if this blows up in our faces, it’s your head on the chopping block.”

“What about you two? You wanna join us?” Banjo asked Second and Third as he took the leftmost seat. The two Vestiges simply grunted in response.

Hikage took the seat right next to Banjo, “Okay. First thing’s first, turn off the alarm clock.”

Izuku’s right hand slammed against his bedside desk repeatedly, failing to turn off the alarm clock with each hit.

“I thought you said this would be easy.” Nana frustratedly said to Yoichi.

“It’ll get easier. We just have to work on calibration. Watch.” Yoichi took control of the arm for the next swing, which hit the alarm clock right on point, turning it off.

“Very good. Next step, getting ready for the day.” Hikage said as he tried to pull Izuku’s body out of bed. This resulted in Izuku rolling over, falling out of bed, and faceplanting the floor. “It appears I may have miscalculated.”

“We got out of bed, now how do we get up?” Banjo pondered.

“With our hands, dummy.” En retorted as he had Izuku’s hands grab the desk, pulling up his top half.

“You forgot about the feet, dummy.” Banjo snapped back as he pulled the feet up, finally getting Izuku to stand up straight.

Yoichi clapped his hands together in amusement, “Great! Now we just have to get ready.”

As soon as Yoichi tried to move Izuku’s legs, he lost balance and faceplanted the floor yet again.

Yoichi slammed his head in the control panel, “Y’know what? This was a bad idea.”

“No, wait, I have a solution!” Nana interjected as she pushed a big red button on the control panel. As soon as she did, Izuku began to rise from the ground and float in an upright position.

Yoichi’s eyes widened as he turned to look at Nana, “You gave him your Quirk? You know we can’t undo that, right?”

Nana shrugged, “I mean, we were gonna give it to him anyway. Besides, he’ll only be floating a little bit, just enough so that he’s technically on the ground but we don’t have to worry about him tripping.”

Yoichi sighed, “Guess we’re in this for the long haul.”

“Hey, it was your idea,” Banjo pointed out.

“I know, and I’m already starting to question it.”

After getting the hang of walking and grabbing things with hands, the process of getting ready for the day went rather smoothly. Barring a minor argument on how his tie should be tied.

“I’m sorry, but the way Ninth normally ties it is an insult to ties.” En said. “As a father myself, I can’t stand for it.”

“Wait, you had sex?” Banjo asked, only for his comment to be ignored.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s terrible, we have to stay in character.” Yoichi argued.

Eventually, they settled on keeping the tie messy while they let En air out his grievances into the void.

Since they wasted so much time getting calibrated and remembering how to move, Izuku was the last to exit the dorm. The Vestiges were relieved by this, however, as that meant they didn’t have to interact with anyone. They were all painfully aware that the more people they interacted with, the more likely they were to slip up.

Though they may have gotten better at calibration, that just means Izuku’s movement went from looking like a drunk person to looking like a marionette. This jerky movement managed to turn a few heads as Izuku walked into the classroom and took his seat.

“Gravity Girl, two-o-clock,” Hikage stated as Ochako approached Izuku’s desk

“Each of us has a microphone on our part of the control panel. Just talk into it, and it’ll come out as Ninth’s voice.” Yoichi instructed.

Nana gave a confident grin, “Don’t worry, I got this.”

“Hey Deku, how’s it going?” Ochako greeted.

Izuku gave a cheerful smile, “I’m doing great, Ochako! But what about you? How’s my faaaaavorite person doing today?”

The Vestiges cringed a little at the delivery of that sentence, something Nana immediately picked up on.

“What? What was wrong with that? That was great.” She asked, a bit of annoyance seeping into her voice.

“I think you laid it on a little too thick.” Yoichi advised.

Hikage nodded his head in agreement, “Precisely. As close as they are, Midoriya and Uraraka aren’t yet on a first-name basis.”

“Plus, you were way too cheerful,” En criticized. “No one has that much energy at eight in the morning.”

Nana made a small grunting noise, “Alright then, why don’t you give it a shot.”

“If you say so,” En complied as he readied his microphone.

Izuku’s posture began to straighten as his eyes focused on Ochako’s face, “Sorry about that, Uraraka. What I meant to say is that it’s going fine. Yesterday was tough but fulfilling. But I’m hoping today will be a bit more easygoing. Of course, with this being UA, you can never truly tell. It seems that getting a moment’s peace around here has become harder than facing off against the top ten pro heroes. Speaking of heroes, have you seen-”

Izuku was suddenly cut off as Banjo yanked En away from his mic, “What the hell were you doing?!” Banjo asked angrily.

En dusted off his jacket as he glared at Banjo, “I was just doing one of Ninth’s famous mutter storms. He does those all the time!”

“While that may be true,” Hikage said. “Ninth usually goes into those when the topics of Quirks or heroes are brought up. Something as minor as a greeting is unlikely to trigger such a reaction.”

“Well you seem to know what you’re doing. Why don’t you give it a shot?” En said encouragingly.

“Very well.” Hikage leaned into the microphone.

Izuku’s posture suddenly became more hunched as he fiddled with his hands nervously, “Oh. H-hi, Uraraka. I’m d-d-doing just f-fine. No need to w-w-worry about me.”

“What’s with the s-s-s-stutter?” Banjo asked mockingly.

“Much like myself, I was under the impression Ninth has anxiety. I was only trying to be true to that part of himself.” Hikage explained.

“I think you’re forgetting that Ninth’s gotten way better since the start of the school year. He hasn’t stuttered like that in months.” Nana pointed out.

Banjo puffed out his chest to get everyone’s attention, “Yeah. Here’s how you’re supposed to do it.”

“‘Sup, baby. How’s it hangin’?”

Banjo had his talking privileges revoked for such an out-of-character line.

Yoichi cupped his head in his hands and let out a long audible groan, “You’re all terrible at this. Here, this is how you do it.”

Izuku’s posture and facial expression returned to a neutral position, “Hey, Uraraka. It’s going pretty well.”

“See? It’s not that hard. Not every line needs to be dripping with character.” Yoichi said frustratedly.

En sighed, “I feel like this is gonna be a long day.”

Ochako sat at her desk with a confused expression on her face.

“Good morning, Uraraka!” Iida greeted from the seat in front of her. “How‘s your day going?”

Ochako’s gaze shifted to Izuku, who was fumbling with his pencils as if he hadn’t picked one up in decades, “Deku greeted me five different times in one minute. I think he might be possessed or something.”

Chapter Text

Once homeroom had started, and the Vestiges figured out how to operate a pencil, things progressed rather smoothly. It was easy to just take notes and listen to the teachers, and they could easily raise Izuku’s hand to answer simple math and English questions without breaking character. The only minor hiccup occurring during history class, where the rest of the Vestiges could feel an aura of rage coming from Second and Third on account of ‘inaccurate depictions of the age of chaos.’ But Yoichi was well aware that if the history textbooks were at all accurate, most of the class would not be sleeping that night.

The bell was just about to ring for lunch as the Vestiges had Izuku pack up his things, his notebooks only slipping from his grasp a few times.

“So, lunch is after this.” Hikage stated, trying to break the silence that had built up in the vestige realm.

“Yeah…” Banjo said hesitantly. “I kinda wanna skip it.”

“Unfortunately, it’ll only make things look more suspicious for us if we do. We’ll just have to git gud at conversation.” Yoichi said

En nodded, “Yeah, he’s right. Despite his anxiety and general skittishness, Ninth’s a bit more extrovert than introvert.”

As Izuku walked down the halls on his way to the cafeteria, he was pushed aside by one Katsuki Bakugo, who power-walked ahead of him, “Out of the way, nerd.” He sneered.

“Oh, he does not get to talk to Ninth like that.” Banjo growled as he gripped his microphone with both hands.

Izuku grabbed Katsuki by the shoulder and turned him around. Staring him straight in the eye, he said, “Don’t call me a nerd, you short-fused, spike-headed, slump-postured, banana-smelling, foul-tempered, sweat-flinging, hand-crushing, eardrum-bursting, nickname-spitting, profanity-shouting, explosive Pomeranian!”

Katsuki clenched his fists as his entire body convulsed in anger, “WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY TO ME?!” He yelled.

“Oh, I guess I can add ‘terrible listener’ to the list.” Izuku retorted.

Katsuki just stood there silently while vibrating in place. It was clear he had gone catatonic from sheer rage. Pretty soon, Kaminari grabbed him by the arm and dragged him off, “Better take him to Recovery Girl, we’re gonna need some ice for that serious burn.”

Tears streaked down Kirishima’s face as he followed, “That was the manliest insult I’ve ever seen.”

Iida ran up to Izuku, robotically chopping both arms, “Midoriya, that language was unsuiting of a UA student!”

Izuku rolled his eyes, “I didn’t even say any swear words. And Bakugo insults us all the time.”

Iida paused his chopping and thought for a moment, “Very well! I believe it was my brother who once said, ‘Don’t dish it out if you can’t take it.’ You are excused from your verbal assault on Bakugo!”

As Izuku went back to walking down the hallway to the cafeteria, the Vestiges were angrily staring down Banjo.

“What the hell was that?” En yelled.

“Oh come on. I was just saying what we were all thinking,” Banjo defended. “Someone had to stand up for Ninth.”

Yoichi rubbed his temple, “Even if none of us like Bakugo very much, we still have to stay in character here. And giving Bakugo a twenty-second-long string of insults is decidedly not in character.”

Nana gave Banjo the ‘disappointed mother’ look, “Sorry, Fifth, but we’re putting you in time out for the rest of lunch.”

“What? No! You can’t do that!” Banjo pleaded, but to no avail.

“Sorry, but the decision is unanimous.” Yoichi said as he pointed to the wall where Second and Third were sulking. Banjo, accepting his punishment, slowly stepped over to join them.

As the four remaining Vestiges made their way to the cafeteria, they found that the easiest part about pretending to be Izuku was knowing what he would get for lunch.

“KATSUDON!” They all shouted simultaneously.

“Wow, you’re really excited about lunch,” Ochako said amusedly.

“The mic caught that, didn’t it?” Hikage asked rhetorically as he scrambled to fix the mistake.

Izuku scratched the back of his head as he gave an embarrassed grin, “Heh, yeah. I’m just really hungry.”

“Right,” Ochako agreed. “Anyways, me and Todoroki were just talking about that big hero fight yesterday.”

“I’m sure you have a lot to say about it,” Todoroki added.

“Does anyone know what they’re talking about?” Yoichi asked, only to be greeted with shrugs.

“It seems we’ll just have to guess,” Hikage said as he leaned into the mic.

A flash of nervousness appeared on Izuku’s face, “Of course, I remember the fight. It was the one with… ummmmmmmm…”

Nana carefully studied Ochako’s facial language, “She’s perking up at the ‘M’ sound, it starts with the letter M.”

Yoichi mentally went over every hero he could think of whose name started with M, “Mirko, Ms. Joke, Midnight, Majestic, Mandalay, Mr. Brave, Mount Lady… try Mount Lady. Anything she does is likely to make big news.”

“Pun intended?” En asked playfully

“Yes, now say something! We’ve been making the ‘mmmmm’ sound for like thirty seconds now.”

“Mount Lady!” Izuku blurted out with a forced smile on his face. “Yup. She certainly used her Quirk to beat that villain and/or save those civilians.”

“We were talking about Mirko,” Shoto deadpanned.

“Oh…” Izuku shriveled up in embarrassment.

“That’s okay, don’t worry about it,” Ochako reassured as she patted Izuku on the shoulder.

Izuku sighed, “Sorry, I just haven’t been feeling like myself today.”

“You got that right,” Ochako muttered to herself.

“What?”

“What?”

Shoto scratched his chin in suspicion, “Hmmmmmm… I sense a conspiracy afoot.”

“Well I sense someone talking about Mirko and Mount Lady,” Mineta said as he slid up to the group.

“Oh! This is the perfect time to nerd out!” En said excitedly

“And I’ve been paying attention whenever Ninth does research on female heroes. I’ll give you a hand.” Nana added with enthusiasm.

Izuku perked up at the mention of heroes, “Oh yeah, both of those heroes are amazing! Mirko’s strength and acrobatic capabilities make her unmatched in fighting and rescue!”

“And she’s got those thighs,” Mineta interjected.

“And Mount Lady has really improved since her debut. The difference in regards to her collateral damage is like night and day!”

“And she’s got an ass the size of a house,” Mineta drooled.

“…Moving onto other female heroes, the versatility of Midnight’s whip combined with her Quirk is-“

“Don’t even get me started on her boobs.”

“…Ryukyu-“

“Oh my god, she’s so god damn sexy!”

“That’s it. I’m done with him.” Nana said, completely deadpan.

Izuku grabbed Mineta by the leg, swung him in circles over his head, and threw him across the room, his body landing in the trash can.

Jiro gave an impressed whistle, “Nice shot, Green.”

Yoichi rubbed his temple yet again, “Nana, as much as he deserved it, that was still out of character. That means timeout for you.”

“Totally worth it.” Nana said confidently as she strutted over to the timeout wall.

“Apologies for being late,” Iida said as he placed his tray on the table. “I had to break up a scuffle at the lunch line.”

“That’s okay, Iida,” Ochako said. “You… didn’t miss much.”

“So, what do you think today’s heroics lesson will entail?” Iida asked, trying to start up a conversation.

“If it’s anything like the other heroics lessons, they’ll probably take us to an illegal fighting ring again,” Izuku said without missing a beat. Everyone looked at him like he had grown a second head.

Yoichi stared disappointingly at En, “Really, Sixth?”

“Sorry. I forgot I went to school during the collapse of society. Things were a lot more intense back then.” En blushed in embarrassment.

Yoichi pointed, “Timeout.”

“Yeah, I know.”

Hikage fixed his hands on the control board, “Don’t worry, I’ll handle this.”

Izuku chuckled nervously as he glanced at his watch, “Oh, would you look at the time? Lunch is almost over.” Izuku grabbed his bowl of katsudon and quickly slurped it down.”

Iida looked concerned, “Midoriya, we still have twenty minutes left to-“

“Okay, see you in class!” Izuku got up out of his seat and walked off.

“Fourth, we agreed that skipping out on lunch would be a bad thing.” Yoichi scolded.

“Apologies. My hermit instincts took over.” Hikage got up and walked to the wall, “I will escort myself to timeout.”

Yoichi breathed a sigh of relief as he sat as the only one at the control panel, “Finally, I can do things my way.”

“…”

“…”

“…”

Yoichi turned around to face the wall, “Guys? Please come back, I’m lonely.”

Chapter Text

As the Vestiges had Izuku change into his hero costume for heroics class, an interesting conversation brewed at the control panel.

“Wait, why don’t you want to tell Eighth about our current situation?” Yoichi asked Nana.

Nana sighed, “I know Toshi’s been aware of our existence for a while now, but I’m not sure I want to go up to him and be like, ‘Hey, it’s your dead master! I know I’ve been dead for years, but I’m back and currently puppeting your protege with several other dead heroes!’ I just don’t want our first conversation in decades to be like that.”

“I guess I can respect that,” Yoichi said reluctantly. “But that just means we have to be extra careful around Eighth, he’s the last person we want to find out right now.”

“That shouldn’t be a problem,” Banjo said. “We’ll only see him during heroics class, and then he’ll send us off to do the exercise.”

“Speaking of which,” En interjected. “Fourth and I just finished getting Ninth changed. Should we wear the bunny hood this time?”

“It’s not a bunny,” Nana argued. “It’s supposed to be an homage to All Might and his pointy hair tufts.”

Banjo chuckled, “Nah, it’s definitely a bunny. Watch.”

Izuku turned to Kirishima as he pulled his hood over his head, “Hey, does this look like a bunny to you?”

“Totally, man!” Kirishima replied sincerely.

Nana shot Banjo a pointed glare, “He only said yes because you asked him if it was a bunny. If you asked if it reminded him of All Might…”

“He woulda said no.” En completed, “Either way, Ninth’s only worn it like once or twice. It would be more in character to ignore it.”

As soon as Izuku made it to the entrance of the fake city, Toshinori began to speak, “Alright, class. For today’s exercise, you’ll be simulating a hero’s patrol. You and a partner will be given a patrol route through the fake city that you are both expected to follow. You’ll also be given an earpiece you can use to alert your classmates to your current location.”

Iida’s hand shot up, “Sir! What kind of scenarios would we be expected to alert other heroes of?”

“That will be a surprise.” Toshinori pulled out a series of folded-up maps from his pocket, “Your partners have already been decided, so come up and retrieve your maps.”

After Iida and Izuku got paired together, they entered the fake city and began jogging their given patrol route. Neither of them could shake the feeling that the city was eerily quiet. But they both assumed that came with the territory of walking through an unpopulated city.

Iida shot a glance at Izuku, “So… what do you believe we should be looking out for? Villains? Natural disasters? Petty thieves? Jaywalkers?!”

“Giant metal spikes,” Izuku muttered to himself.

“Shit. I was leaning on the mic.” Nana swore as she moved her arms off the control panel.

That earned a small chuckle from Iida, “As much as I appreciate your newfound sense of humor, Midoriya, we should treat this exercise with the utmost seriousness!”

Izuku lazily folded his hands behind his head, “If this is accurate to how most patrols go, we’ll fight for about fifteen minutes and spend the rest of our time twiddling our thumbs.”

Iida narrowed his eyes, “You seem oddly familiar with how patrols usually operate.”

“Oh no, too much information.” En scrambled to fix his mistake.

“Oh, you know,” Izuku said sheepishly. “I had a work-study, so I learned a lot from… both the patrols I did.”

Before Iida could press further, the two boys heard a rumbling sound from a few miles away. They turned to see a large part of a building collapse. Not even a second later, both students heard a distress signal from their earbuds, alerting them to where they saw the building crumble.

Izuku whipped around and turned to Iida, “You go help with the building, you’re faster. I’ll secure the perimeter and make sure there aren’t any villains waiting to strike.”

Iida gave a swift nod as he revved up his engines and took off in a flash.

“Nice job handling the situation, Fourth.” Yoichi complimented.

“I just wanted to get him away. I hate talking to people,” Hikage admitted.

“Guys,” Nana whispered. “I think Ninth’s being watched.”

“Yeah, that’s us. We’re watching him,” Banjo said as if that was the obvious answer.

“No, by someone else.” Nana slowly turned Izuku around, and they managed to spot a shadowy figure in the alley.

Izuku called upon Full Cowling and pointed a finger flick at the alley, “Who are you? Show yourself, or I’ll be forced to… uhhhh…”

“What’s my line?” Banjo asked.

“SHOOT!” The four other Vestiges yelled simultaneously.

“Okay!”

Izuku fired an air blast into the alley, only for the shadowy figure to dodge. Suddenly, several octopus tentacles shot out of the alley and wrapped around Izuku’s waist and arms, lifting him into the air, and immobilizing him.

When the shadowy figure stepped out of the alley, Izuku gasped in surprise, “It’s you! The guy whose name I don’t remember!”

The figure wilted and turned away out of embarrassment, “I’m Tamaki Amajiki.” He mumbled.

“We have to call for help!” Yoichi shouted.

“Did you forget that Ninth’s arms are currently tied up, or do you just have a short attention span?” En snarked.

“I’m upping the Full Cowling percentage!” Nana said as she slowly turned a dial on the control panel.

Red streaks began to appear on Izuku’s body as he burst out of Tamaki’s grip. He tapped his earpiece to alert the others, “There’s a villain on Jello Street, it’s Amajiki! Requesting backup, over.”

Tamaki continued to shrink in embarrassment, “Oh no, more people are coming. I gotta end this now.” Tamaki’s left hand turned into a clamshell as his feet shifted into bird talons, and wings grew from his back. He sent another wave of octopus tentacles at Izuku.

“Oh. Well, two can play at this game!” Banjo smirked as he pressed a big red button on his part of the control panel.

Several strands of Black Whip shot out of Izuku’s arms, each one wrapping around a tentacle and holding it in place.

“My turn!” En pressed his button, and pink smoke came billowing out of Izuku’s body.

When the smoke enveloped them both, Izuku took advantage of the confusion to dash up to Tamaki, aiming for a punch to the gut. But Tamaki blocked the hit with his clamshell. He then grabbed Izuku with his right talon and threw him back. This gave him enough time to use his wings to fly away.

“Fourth, do you feel Danger Sense going off?” Yoichi asked.

Hikage shook his head, “No, since this is just a training exercise, it’s unlikely he means any actual harm.”

“Forget about that,” Banjo interrupted. “The chimera kid’s getting away!”

“Don’t worry, I got this,” Nana pushed her red button. Izuku rose from the ground and began to take off after Tamaki.

Nana pushed Float as far as it could safely go, but the gap between Izuku and Tamaki was quickly widening, “Dammit, we’re still not fast enough.”

“Then it’s time to resort to drastic measures.” Banjo stood up and turned to en, “Give me a hand, Smokey.”

En complied, and they ran over to where Second and Third were sulking. They both picked up Second over their heads and carried him over to the control panel. All while Second was flailing around in anger.

“What the fuck are you guys doing?! Leave me out of this!” Second yelled as he tried in vain to squirm out of their grasp.

“We need speed.” En explained, “And your Quirk is speed. I know you didn’t get much in terms of formal education, but I think you can do the math.”

Second tried to fight back as Banjo and En lowered his hand on the big red button, “There’s no way I’m giving my Quirk to him!”

Banjo smirked, “You’re right, he’s just taking it.” When Second’s hand made contact with the button, Banjo and En tossed him aside. Second grumbled to himself as he turned and made his way back to the wall.

When the Vestiges activated Gearshift, Izuku’s body glowed a bright blue and his speed increased tenfold. As he rocketed towards Tamaki, who had just now noticed him approaching and began panicking, Izuku pulled back his fish and yelled, “DETROOOOIT SMAAAAAAAA-“

Danger Sense suddenly began blaring in Hikage’s head, “Guys, wait! He’s got an electric eel!”

He was too late, however. The moment Izuku’s fist made contact with Tamaki’s eel-like arm, his whole body began convulsing involuntarily as his Quirks deactivated and he fell to the ground.

The Vestige realm was dead silent after that, everyone recovering from the emotional whiplash of the situation.

Eventually, Yoichi broke the silence, “We are so bad at this.”

“I think we should let our grade decide that for us,” Nana suggested.

Overall, Izuku had gotten a B minus for the exercise. Good handling of the situation, slightly wonky Quirk control. Though Yoichi would still believe they did a terrible job, to which the rest of the Vestiges ignored him.

There weren’t any more surprises for the rest of the school day. On their way back to the dorms, the Vestiges planned on going up to Izuku’s room and calling an early night. But those plans went up in flames when they entered the dorms and felt the buzz of a notification from Izuku’s phone.

“Why did tonight of all nights have to be game night?” Yoichi bemoaned as he leaned back in his chair.

Nana waved her hand dismissively, “Eh, we’ll be fine. We’ve survived this long without raising suspicion, what’s a few more hours?”

“I wouldn’t be so sure of that,” Hikage said as he messed with the hearing dial on the control panel. “I believe someone’s talking about us.”

The rest of the Vestiges focused on the sound, where they could make out a conversation between Iida and Ochako coming from the kitchen.

“You believe he’s been acting strange too, correct?” Iida asked.

Ochako nodded, “He greeted me five separate times, he threw Mineta into the trash can, he left early during lunch, and sometimes he pauses for uncomfortable amounts of time during conversations. I’m worried about him.”

Iida scratched his chin thoughtfully, “I admit, I’ve noticed some less-than-normal behavior from Midoriya today. Perhaps it would not hurt to send him off to Hound Dog for a mental checkup.”

Ochako gave a wince of uncertainty, “You’re probably right, but I’m not sure I want to jump to any conclusions. He might just be having an off day.”

“Very well, then how about this? If he continues to act strange during game night, we’ll get him help. If not, then we just assume it’s a bad day.”

“Okay, we’ll do that,” Ochako said as she left the kitchen. “C’mon, let’s go set things up for game night.”

The Vestiges exchanged worried glances as the conversation they eavesdropped on wrapped up, “Okay, maybe we weren’t doing as well as we thought.” Banjo admitted.

Yoichi gave them all a look of ‘I told you so’. “This was the worst idea I’ve ever had.” He groaned and rested his head on the control board.

“Wait! We can still salvage this!” Nana insisted, “All we have to do is not mess up during game night. How hard can that be?”

Hikage shook his head in doubt, “Judging by today’s events, I’d say extremely.”

“Either way, we have to try. For Ninth! For Izuku!” Nana declared as she pumped her fist in the air.

“YEAH!” Banjo cheered as he, En, and Hikage mimicked Nan’s gesture.

“Fine, we’ll try.” Yoichi admitted as he weakly raised his fist, “But if this blows up in our faces, it’s your heads on the chopping block.”

Chapter Text

The five Vestiges all sat at the control panel in deep concentration. They knew it was all or nothing, that one slip-up could reveal their existence to everyone.

“First game, Monopoly.” Yoichi announced.

This seemed to snap Banjo out of his concentration, “Um, I don’t think I’ll be too much help with this one.”

“He’s not that good with finances,” En said. “He got evicted from his apartment every other week.”

“Don’t tell them that.” Banjo grumbled to himself.

“It matters not.” Said Hikage, “Our goal isn’t to win, but rather emulate the type of strategy Ninth would come up with.”

Nana scratched her chin, “Let’s see here, how does Ninth fight?”

“Mostly by breaking his bones.” En answered.

Nana’s face slumped in response, “Oh come on. He’s gotten better since he figured out Full Cowling.”

En began counting on his fingers, “Let’s see, there was the fight against All Might, Muscular, Nine, and I think he broke his hand against Stain. I could probably keep going.”

“Regardless, I think I know what you’re getting at, Seventh.” Yoichi interjected, “Ninth usually has a plan when he fights, but that plan can often be reckless in nature. Especially early on, he was a real glass cannon before he figured out a full Cowling.”

Banjo’s face lit up as he was struck with a bolt of realization, “So if we apply that to Monopoly, we just gotta buy the most expensive yet practical shit we can and hope for the best.”

“That’s right,” Yoichi fastened his hands on the controls. “Brace yourselves, because we’re gonna get that railroad if it kills us.”

They did end up getting both railroads, and it did kill them. As soon as they bought the last railroad, they landed on Iida’s only property and went bankrupt.

“Who the hell puts all their money on one property?” Banjo asked frustratedly.

“Tenya Iida.” Hikage answered, seemingly not understanding the meaning of a rhetorical question, “And it worked.”

“He just got lucky. It’s always the worst plans that get lucky.” Banjo muttered under his breath.

“What’s important is that Uraraka and Iida’s suspicion has simmered down.”

Nana nodded her head in agreement, “Yeah, those two were giving Nine some funny looks.”

“Clearly UA hasn’t taught them subtlety.” En snarked.

“Second game, chess.” Yoichi announced.

“Of all the people we could have gone up against, it just had to be the smartest person in class.” En groaned as Izuku sat across from Momo Yaoyorozu.

“At least we won’t be expected to win,” Hikage assured.

Yoichi began to think out loud, “Still, we need an in-character strategy. Does anyone here know advanced chess plays?”

None of the Vestiges seemed eager to answer. Eventually, Nana said, “I used to play chess with Sorahiko, but it always ended with one of us strangling the other.”

Yoichi slumped in his seat, “Welp, guess we’re screwed. We had a good run.”

“Let’s just try whatever and hope for the best.” En said as he had Izuku move a bishop.

“I wouldn’t fret about your loss, Midoriya,” Yaoyorozu assured as she checkmated her opponent. “Overthinking can be the greatest enemy of many newbie chess players.”

“Oh yeah, I guess that’s in character for Ninth, too,” Nana realized.

“Vestiges win by doing absolutely nothing.” Yoichi stated smugly.

“Third game, Super Smash Bros.” Yoichi announced.

“You know you don’t have to announce every game we play,” Nana said.

Yoichi’s head drooped, “I know.”

Banjo grinned, “This should be simple. We just pick Captain Falcon and spam Falcon Punch.”

Nana turned her head in confusion, “Why?”

“He’s the closest thing to All Might, and if there’s one thing we know about Ninth, it’s that he worships All Might like some kind of religious figure.”

Yoichi winced, “Ehhh… that might’ve been true a few months ago, but Ninth’s been stepping away from emulating Eight as of late. His choice in character should reflect that.”

“He must choose someone green then,” Hikage decided. “Might I suggest Link?”

En shook his head, “Too many weapons. I vote Luigi.”

“Ninth’s way more than player two,” Nana urged. “He should be Mario in his green alternate costume.”

“Don’t say alternate costume, just call it an alt like normal gamers do.” Yoichi said.

“Yoichi, you’re the only gamer here.” En retorted.

"Yoshi." Banjo chimed in.

This snapped Yoichi out of the argument, “Actually, yeah, let’s go with Yoshi.”

For some reason, the Vestiges could feel Tsuyu giving Izuku the stink-eye.

The last game of the night was one that tested the players’ mental fortitude. A game that could break even the strongest of friendships. It was a game all the Vestiges knew inside and out due to its sheer timelessness. That game, of course, was UNO.

Izuku’s group consisted of four people: himself, Ochako on his left, Bakugo on his right, and Iida across from him. Each of Izuku’s opponents sent silent glares his way, though the Vestiges suspected Bakugo’s was for a very different reason.

“I wonder if he’s still angry about that insult I gave him.” Banjo pondered.

“Normally I’d say yes,” En said. “But I feel like that’s just his normal resting bitch face.”

“And we all know how to spot resting bitch face.” Banjo agreed as all the Vestiges turned to Second.

“I only have this face because you’re all insufferable.” Second grunted, still refusing to turn away from the wall.

The Vestiges’ attention was brought back to Izuku as Bakugo put down a card and smirked at Izuku, “Draw four, Deku.”

Nana matched Bakugo’s smirk with an even more confident one, “I don’t think so.” She had Izuku pick a UNO Reverse card from his hand and place it on top of the Draw Four card.

“Midoriya, that is against the rules!” Iida scolded as he chopped his arm up and down.

“House rules,” Izuku replied bluntly.

“If you say so, Deku.” Bakugo smiled as he matched Izuku’s Reverse card with one from his own hand.

“Damn it. Should’ve seen that coming.” Nana grumbled as Izuku added four cards to his hand. Two of those cards caught the Vestiges’ eyes, a Draw Two and a Draw Four.

Banjo rubbed his hands together devilishly, “Now all we need is a Reverse, and we can give that sweaty pineapple his just desserts.”

“I once knew a man from school with a pineapple Quirk. He tasted good.” Hikage said, completely unprompted. The other Vestiges responded by slightly scooting away from him.

Soon, it was Ochako’s turn, and she slapped a blue Draw Two card on the deck, “Draw two, Iida.”

“In the spirit of house rules, I believe I shall pass it onto the next person,” Iida said as he placed down another Draw Two. “Bakugo, draw four.”

“No way in hell, Glasses,” Bakugo slapped down yet another Draw Two. “Deku, you wanna keep things going, or are you gonna have to draw six?”

En hopped up and down in his seat, “Use the Draw Four! Use the Draw Four!”

“That would mean Uraraka would have to draw ten,” Nana argued. “Ninth would never do that.”

Hikage raised his hand to speak like he was in a classroom,“He may be a hero, but it’s just a game. I believe Ninth would know that and would thus use the Draw Four.”

“What? No! We’re saving the Draw Four for Baku-brat!” Banjo yelled.

“Ninth would never carry out such a complicated revenge plot!” Nana defended.

“It’s. Just. A game.” Hikage repeated.

“Just use the Draw Four now! We might not get another chance!” En insisted.

Nana began to shake in anger, “Could you guys stop being difficult for, like, five seconds?”

“But Seventh, you’ve caused your fair share of problems as well,” Hikage stated flatly.

“Whose side are you on?!” Nana yelled accusingly.

“Since when are there sides?!” En screamed out in confusion.

“EVERYONE SHUT UP OR I’M GONNA KICK ALL YOUR ASSES! Yoichi shouted at the top of his lungs.

Banjo raised his brow, “Since when can you kick people’s asses? Aren’t you, like, the weakest out of all of us?”

Yoichi responded by lunging at Banjo and ripping into him like a wild animal. After that, it didn’t take long for the rest of the vestige realm to devolve into a five-person cartoon fight cloud.

The strong emotions from the fight going on inside Izuku’s head manifested in the form of Izuku beginning to tussle with himself. The other three UNO players began to panic at the sight of their friend and classmate beating himself up.

“Deku, what’s wrong?!” Ochako asked worriedly.

Iida jumped to pin Izuku down in order to prevent any further harm, and Ochako quickly followed suit, “Bakugo, go get Aizawa!” Iida yelled.

As Bakugo left to get a teacher, the Vestiges were interrupted from their brawl by the sounds of movement from inside the Vestige realm.

“Huh. What’s going on?” Izuku asked sleepily as he rubbed his eyes.

“Ninth, you’re awake!” Nana exclaimed with a smile.

“And you can talk in the Vestige realm.” Hikage pointed out, “I suppose those extra Quirks we gave you sped up the process.”

That statement shocked Izuku out of his sleepy state, “Wait, you gave me more of your Quirks?”

Banjo rushed over and picked up Izuku by the waist, “We’ll explain later. Right now, you gotta clear things up with your friends.” Banjo chucked Izuku out of the vestige realm, rocketing him back into his own body.

Izuku opened his eyes to see he was being pinned down by his two best friends, “What? What’s happening?”

Ochako breathed a sigh of relief, “Oh thank god you calmed down, Deku.”

“Are you feeling okay, Midoriya?” Iida asked in concern.

“Uhhhhhh…” Unsure of how to answer the question, Izuku’s fight or flight response kicked in. He chose flight. Immediately, Izuku charged up Full Cowling and forced himself out of his friends’ grasps, making a mad dash to his room.

Ochako and Iida stared blankly at the hallway Izuku had just escaped to. Eventually, Ochako broke the silence, “So we’re definitely getting him a psych evaluation.”

Iida nodded his head, “Most certainly.”

As soon as Izuku got to his room, he sprayed himself with his can of Midnight Knockout Spray™ and fell asleep on his bed. Inside the vestige realm, Izuku stood over the five Vestiges, looking like a disappointed mom. This was impressive, considering Nana was also affected by this, and she was an actual mom.

“So let me get this straight,” Izuku recapped. “You took control of my body, gave me three more Quirks, insulted Kacchan to his face, threw Mineta in a trash can, and now Uraraka and Iida think I’m insane. Am I missing anything?

The Vestiges winced as they hung their head in shame, “Nope, that’s just about everything.” Yoichi muttered.

Izuku rubbed his temple as he took in a long, deep breath inwards, then out, “I barely even know any of you. This is my first time being able to talk in the vestige realm. What possessed you to do this?”

“Well technically we possessed you.” Banjo said, only to be shut up when En elbowed his ribcage.

“What Fifth means to say is that we’ve been watching over you since you first obtained One for All,” En explained. “We thought we knew you well enough that we could make it through the day without anyone noticing.”

“But you didn’t,” Izuku sighed. “I understand you had good intentions and all that, but you possessed my body.”

Hikage spoke up, “In our defense, we only did it because you wouldn’t wake up.”

“You possessed my body. Now I’m probably gonna have to tell Uraraka and Iida about One for All.”

“Maybe that’s a good thing,” Nana said encouragingly. “It never hurts to have a larger support system.”

“Plus, you could do a lot better than Sir Explodes-a-lot,” Banjo muttered under his breath.

Izuku just sighed and slumped onto one of the empty thrones, “Maybe… maybe. God, I should have just skipped class today.”

“Maybe that should be the main takeaway from today,” Yoichi said as he slid up to Izuku and began rubbing his shoulders. “We all know you have a bit of a problem with overworking yourself. Nothing wrong with a personal day every now and then.”

Izuku turned to Yoichi, looking unimpressed, “As right as you may be, I feel like you’re trying to make yourselves look less guilty.”

“Um… Err…”

Izuku pointed to the wall, “Timeout. All of you. For a month.”

“A MONTH?!” Banjo yelled out loud, “That’s way too much time.”

“We’re ghosts. Time is meaningless to us,” Hikage said flatly as he placed his forehead against the wall.

Yoichi sighed to himself as he began his extremely long punishment, “This was the worst idea I’ve ever had.”