Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

All men are not born equal. Midoriya Izuku learned this lesson at a very young age. In the age of miraculous superpowers, known as Quirks, he was born quirkless. A member of a dying breed of human, only accounting for approximately 20% of the world’s population, the mere idea of being quirkless was seen as a disease by most people. A condition which either inspires pity towards the quirkless individual, or festers as an ever growing sense of cruelty and disdain. This fact would unfortunately lead to many untimely ends for quirkless individuals, whether it was at the hands of others, or by their own hands.

Izuku would not let that be his fate, his childhood dream of becoming a hero still burning strong within him, even as those around him grew to treat him with ever increasing cruelty. Over a decade of near constant harassment, Izuku was completely and utterly alone in life. His classmates, seeing him as an easy target, would spend most of their time harassing him. His teachers turned a blind eye to all of it, deciding it wasn’t worth wasting the resources on a quirkless child, some even going so far as to actively sabotage his grades in school though Izuku could never prove it to anyone. His Father abandoned him and his mother not even a month after his diagnosis at 5 years old. All of these things Izuku could handle, it’s not like he needed to impress all of them anyways.

The things that Izuku could not handle, however, were the things that came the closest to crushing his heroic aspirations. Bakugo Katsuki, his childhood best friend and first true romantic interest, quickly turned cold and callous to Izuku after his diagnosis. Katsuki had a truly magnificent quirk, Izuku would always praise him for that, it was just such a shame that gift was turned into an instrument of torment for Izuku on a daily basis. It would’ve been easy to deal with for Izuku, even the constant insults being thrown his way every day from Katsuki, if he had a safe space to call home. Life, it seemed, would not even be willing to grant Izuku this one singular mercy. His mother tried her best, he knew this, but as the years went by after his diagnosis she became more and more bitter by the day.

It started off with small things. A shorter temper towards Izuku, spending more time away from home, a cold glare directed towards him when she thought he wouldn’t notice. It wasn’t until his father stopped providing financial support, that the beatings started. They started off small, a slap on the wrist or a tug on his hair, but that didn’t last long. An open hand across the face, accompanied by ceaseless shouting about her ruined marriage, slowly escalated to a closed fist and a belt to the back. For the life of him, Izuku couldn’t figure out what he had done wrong. The only answer he ever received to that question was simple, but heart breaking for him.

“You were born a useless, quirkless freak!”

Izuku stopped asking questions after the beating he received that night. For six long years Izuku did his best to hide the bruises he would receive from his mother. For three, excruciatingly long years he would brush off the comments about the limp he had acquired overnight. He would ignore the pointed looks that Katsuki would give him every time he flinched away from physical contact. Izuku supposed that was a small bit of mercy in all of this, Katsuki seemed to tone down his harassment of Izuku once the beatings started. He would never stop their classmates from bullying Izuku, but he never went out of his way to participate anymore.

Today was probably the worst day by far. Izuku had made the mistake of watching hero fights on his phone the night before and his mother had not been merciful in her punishment. Sporting a black eye in his classroom, the bullies around him capitalized on the visible injury, mocking him more harshly than they had ever done before. It got even worse once his homeroom teacher exposed his application to U.A. High School to the rest of the class. No one made any moves until after school had ended for the day, when Izuku was cornered by three of his classmates by the window. They made short work of verbally tearing him to shreds, questioning why he thought he had any right to even think about applying to U.A. without a quirk. His quirk analysis notebook was hurled out of the window, landing in a small koi pond with a loud splash. Izuku could deal with it, he always put up with it decently at this point. He could even deal with those words his classmate hurled at him so nonchalantly.

“Why don’t you just put everyone out of their misery and take a swan dive off of the roof? Who knows, you might even get a quirk in your next life… If you don’t go straight to hell for being born quirkless that is.”

It was fine. Izuku would be fine. He could deal with the horrified look he saw on Katsuki’s face when he heard the words their classmate had said. After silently leaving the classroom to collect his notebook, thankfully it wasn’t too terribly damaged by the water, Izuku made his way off of the campus. Passing under the train tracks like he usually did, Izuku was helpless to fight against the living sludge that had burst from the sewer grate under the tracks. As his vision began to fade, Izuku vaguely registered a violent burst of wind as he was ripped out of the Sludge Villain’s grasp. Upon regaining consciousness, Izuku was awe-struck when he realized who had saved him.

All Might! The number one hero in all of Japan, if not the strongest hero to have ever lived! Izuku’s idol and personal favorite hero had swooped in to save him! Izuku could barely manage not to fumble over his words as he thanked the hero profusely, astonished that the man had already signed his notebook. Izuku was quickly ripped from his euphoria as All Might turned to leave. He couldn’t leave yet, Izuku had so many questions for the hero! Perhaps it was the adrenaline in his veins, or perhaps he had suffered some sort of brain damage from the Sludge Villain nearly suffocating him, but Izuku latched on to the hero’s leg as he launched himself into the air. He held onto the hero until they had landed onto an isolated rooftop, where All Might was quick to admonish Izuku for his rash actions, which Izuku understood was probably a fair thing for the hero to do. Izuku could barely get a word in as the hero turned to leave once again, and in his panic he blurted out the one question that had been burning in his mind ever since he was diagnosed as quirkless.

“Can I become a hero even if I don’t have a quirk?!”, Izuku hated how desperate he sounded as he asked. He hated how All Might froze in shock at his question. The pity on the hero’s face was causing alarm bells to begin screaming in Izuku’s ears. He registered All Might’s lips moving, but he couldn’t process the words. Most of them at least..

“I’m sorry young man, but I cannot in good conscience say that you can become a hero without a Quirk.. The risks are too great for me to tell you otherwise. It’s not a bad thing to dream, but you have to be realistic with those dreams.”

It was too much. Izuku couldn’t handle this anymore. His dreams were just torn to shreds by his idol, he was suicide baited by his classmates, his mother saw him as a waste of her time and effort, his father rejected his existence entirely, Katsuki thought he was something to be pitied or shoved aside, he couldn’t take it anymore. Alone on that rooftop, Izuku shattered. He lost track of how long he was up there, sobbing his eyes out and clutching himself tightly as the sun set. He hardly remembered pulling out his notebook and writing out three brief, but highly emotional, notes. When Izuku finally snapped back to himself, he had left his shoes by his notebook placed safely on the rooftop where it wouldn’t be disturbed by the wind. It was all too sudden, the rush of the wind blowing past him as he lurched forward, the world around him rushing past as he plummeted down to the ground.

For once in his life, Izuku felt at peace. That peace was suddenly ripped away as he realized what he had done. Replaced with pure, unfiltered, terror as Izuku watched the ground closing in. Izuku could hear shouting and felt something wrap around his torso, trying to halt his momentum. Whoever it was, they weren’t fast enough. The pain was brief, but world shattering as Izuku collided face first with the ground and everything went dark.

Maybe now Izuku would be at peace..

Chapter Text

Aizawa Shouta had seen a lot of things during his career as an Underground Hero and a teacher at UA High School. One of the few things that still disturbed him was incidents involving children. He’d seen too many cases of kids being exploited or killed by villains to not let it affect him anymore. Especially not after he took in Hitoshi, seeing how the foster home he had stayed in put a muzzle on the child out of fear of the boy’s quirk. The poor kid still had nightmares about it..

Aizawa couldn’t tell if it was some sort of sixth sense or just having been working for too long, but his patrol tonight took him way off of his normal route, straight towards downtown Musutafu. Perching on a rooftop, Aizawa let his mind slip into that of his hero persona, Eraserhead. As he scanned the cityscape before him, a sound cut through the noise of the city. The sound of a young boy sobbing was like a gunshot to Eraserhead as he whipped his gaze to the direction the sound was coming from. Four rooftops over, Eraserhead caught sight of a young boy with vibrant green hair stepping onto the edge of the rooftop he was standing on, his shoes and a notebook placed gingerly on the rooftop so as to not be disturbed. He recognized the situation before him immediately as the boy lurched forward off the rooftop.

Eraserhead was off like a rocket towards the rooftop as the boy began his descent to the pavement. Time seemed to crawl by as he jumped between the rooftops. His feet barely made contact with the rooftop the boy was on as he latched onto a radio antenna and slung his Capture Scarf towards the falling boy in an attempt to catch him before he hit the ground. He heard himself yelling for the boy as he desperately tried to stop him from ending his own life.

“I’ve got you kid, hang on!”

The boy had been spun around to face Eraserhead as he fell, and the look on his face would probably haunt the hero for the rest of his career. The kid looked absolutely broken. Tear tracks stained his face, a gruesome black eye marred his freckled face, and the pure despair in his eyes shook the hero to his core. As quick as Eraserhead was to react to help the boy, he was not fast enough to completely stop the boy’s momentum. The hero watched in horror as the boy spun back around and collided with the pavement with a sickening crunch. As he rushed his way off of the rooftop, Eraserhead dropped to his knees and cradled the boy in his arms, checking for a pulse or breathing, any sign of life in the poor child.

Nothing…

Several bystanders had gathered around the hero and the boy, a few of them already getting a hold of the authorities as Eraserhead held the child close, ensuring he wasn’t alone in his final moments. Letting his hero persona slip, Aizawa began to wonder who had hurt this boy so badly throughout his life to lead to this moment. Searching the boy’s pockets, Aizawa pulled out a small wallet and opened it, looking for some form of identification for the child. A school identity card was all Aizawa found in the wallet, save for a few coins. Reading the card, the hero quickly put the pieces of this puzzle together with a horrifying realization.

Alerda Middle School Student Identification Card
Izuku Midoriya
Age - 14
Birthday - July 15th
Quirk Status - Quirkless

Aizawa let out an exasperated sigh as he read the I.D. Card, knowing all too well the horrifying statistics concerning the causes of death for Quirkless individuals in this day and age. The sound of footsteps approaching him brought Aizawa out of his contemplation as he turned to face the source of the sound, sighing inwardly with relief as he saw his good friend Detective Tsukauchi approaching.

“What happened here Eraser?”, Detective Tsukauchi’s voice was soft as he asked the hero for details on the situation, knowing full well that incidents involving children had a particularly hard impact on the hero.

“Suicide, I saw this kid drop from the roof and I wasn’t fast enough to catch him before he hit the ground. His school ID card has him listed as Quirkless, and we both know how society treats quirkless individuals these days..”, Aizawa huffed out as he passed Midoriya’s ID card to the Detective, “I saw a notebook on the roof by his shoes, I’m going to check for a note of some sort. Don’t move the body until I get back down here, please.”

The Detective simply nodded as he took the boy’s ID from the hero, and began instructing the officers that were with him to begin securing the scene and take statements from the witnesses that were still around. The rooftop held an almost deathly chill as Aizawa made his way back up to it, carefully stepping around the boy’s shoes and notebook as he bent down on one knee to pick up the notebook. To the hero’s surprise, he found not one, but three hastily scrawled out notes. The pages they were written on were dotted with tear stains and the handwriting was incredibly uneven, the boy’s hands must’ve been trembling as he wrote the notes. Taking a deep breath to center himself, Aizawa began to read the first note.

Kacchan,

I know I’ve been too clingy with you all these years, and I’m sorry. You have what it takes to be a great hero, and I really hope you can get into UA when you go to take the entrance exam. I won’t get in your way anymore, I promise. I just wished that we had stayed friends all these years.. You were really the only person at Aldera that I admired, your quirk is amazing and you have such a strong drive to be the best you can be.. I know it might be selfish of me to say this… but I’m glad that you were the only one who seemed to notice what was going on with me.. It really meant a lot to me to see that you still cared, even if you didn’t want to say anything to me about it because of what our classmates would think. I’m sorry I couldn’t keep the promise we made when we were kids, but I’m sure you wouldn’t need a quirkless Deku like me to be on a hero team with you. With Love, Deku
P.S. - Please make sure that the police look into what my mother was doing to me. I can’t stand the thought of her getting away with everything she did to me.

The words hit Aizawa like a freight train. He had been expecting some sort of reference to bullying or abuse, but to see the kid talk about himself in such a negative way completely blindsided the hero. To think he seemed more concerned about this ‘Kacchan’ getting into UA and becoming a hero than he did about his own situation really spoke to the kind heart this young boy had. He’d be lying if he wasn’t concerned about that additional note the boy left at the end there, but as he turned the page to read the second note, the concern turned into a white hot rage.

Mother.

I’d say I’m sorry for what I’m about to do to you, but we both know that you wanted to get rid of me as soon as Father left you. It was always my fault that your marriage fell apart, right? Because I was born a useless, quirkless freak. Right? Well you’ll be delighted to know that I’m taking the advice of a classmate and taking a swan dive off of a roof. So the most you’ll have to do for me will be a cremation. Not that you would’ve bothered with a proper funeral to begin with. If there's at least, one simple little fucking thing I can ask of you, it’s that you give my ashes to Aunty Mitsuki and Uncle Masaru. Cause at least they didn’t care that I was quirkless and were still fucking concerned about my well being before you cut them out of MY LIFE. I just hope that you feel some bit of guilt for making my life a living hell for the past six years. But we both know that won’t be the case. Right, Inko?

Burn In Hell,
Your Son, Midoriya Izuku

The fact that a classmate of this kid had suicide baited him made Aizawa’s skin crawl with discomfort and rage. Given the contents of these notes so far, Aizawa could guess that the school did little if anything at all to help the poor child. That was an issue for a different time, and would probably require a conversation with the rat, but Aizawa could worry about that later. The last note struck the hero as an oddity, to say the least.

All Might,

You were right. I always knew that I realistically couldn’t become a hero without a quirk. I guess I had just deluded myself into thinking that I could be the exception to that. So thanks, I guess… for helping me realize that I was being childish and stupid. Thank you for saving me from that Sludge Villain, but I really wish you hadn’t. Maybe I wouldn’t have been so scared as I am now if I had died then and there. But honestly, what else could be expected of the #1 hero? You were always my idol, and I’m just glad I got to meet you before the end. Man.. even in a note I’m still a mumbling nerd huh? Sorry, I’ll keep this short so I don’t waste any more of your time. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for everything you’ve done for Japan. And thank you for being the only thing that kept me moving each day, you really are the best of the best..

Many Thanks,
Midoriya Izuku

As Aizawa closed the notebook and gathered the boy’s shoes, approximately one thousand questions were running through his head. This boy had been saved by All Might, and it clearly didn’t end the way the kid had expected it to. The hero groaned inwardly as he tried to guess what on earth that blonde idiot could have said to Midoriya to possibly inspire such a note needing to be left behind. He supposed that could wait for when the #1 hero started teaching at UA next school year, if the man kept his word and actually followed through with it that was.

Making his way back to the street, Aizawa made his way up to Detective Tsukauchi to hand over the boy’s notebook to be submitted as evidence. As he walked over to the man, Aizawa cleared his throat to get the detective’s attention.

“We’re going to need to open an investigation into the boy’s mother. The note he left her just screams abuse victim to me. Another thing that was weird to me is that the kid left All Might of all people a note. Mentioned something about a Sludge Villain, but I’ve never heard of any villain like that being apprehended by All Might before.”, Aizawa did his best to not let his gaze wander over to the corpse of Izuku Midoriya, which was now covered by a white sheet to prevent bystanders from having to see the corpse of a literal fucking child. The look on the detective’s face made Aizawa’s stomach curl with discomfort.

“All Might brought that villain in… today. He must’ve saved Midoriya from the villain and come straight to the station.. Hold on, let me give him a call and see if he remembers the kid, maybe we can learn a little bit more about what happened to him that way.”, the detective’s face was scrunched up in contemplation as he pulled his phone out and gave a call to All Might. It wasn’t that surprising to Aizawa that Tsukauchi had the number of the #1 hero, he knew that the two of them had worked on many cases together after all. As the detective began to speak into the phone, Aizawa did something he would probably regret later, and snatched the phone from the detective's hands and put it up to his own ear.

“All Might, it’s Eraserhead. I’m on the scene of a suicide with Tsukauchi right now and I don’t really have the time to be beating around the bush about things at the moment. So I’ll ask you as calmly as I can, did you save a young boy with green hair from a villain made of sludge today? If so, please tell me that you didn’t leave him on a rooftop after telling him that he couldn’t be a hero without a quirk.”, a few moments of silence passed before Eraserhead heard the voice of the #1 Hero respond to him. He could tell the man was shaken by what he had just said, but sugarcoating the situation would be illogical. Best to get the difficult stuff out of the way first, in his opinion, it was only logical.

“My god.. Please, tell me that boy is not the suicide you’re investigating right now.. If I had known how fragile his mental state was I would've never left him there..”, that was all Aizawa needed to hear before he started to lose his temper. Deciding not to repeat his mistake of making another illogical decision, he handed the phone back to the detective and made his way over the boy’s body. Time around him seemed to come to a crawl as Aizawa put one foot in front of the other, only to abruptly stop as he smelled something familiar. The unmistakable smell of smoke was coming from beneath the sheet covering the boy’s corpse. That alone wouldn’t have been concerning, seeing as some people’s quirks had a tendency to fire off one last time after death like a muscle spasm, if it weren’t for the fact that the boy before him was quirkless. As Aizawa picked up his pace towards the boy, he saw something that he would’ve never thought was possible before this day. He saw the boy’s body shoot up into a sitting position as the sheet was violently consumed in vibrant, emerald green flames coming from the boy.

Yet something was very clearly different about the boy. For one, he was very clearly alive when he had been very clearly dead mere minutes ago. Secondly was the boy’s hair, which had been curly and unkempt before, now looked like a raging inferno of those same emerald green flames. Midoriya Izuku was staring at his hands before he slowly turned to gaze at Aizawa. Tears were streaming down the boy’s face, which was still covered in blood, and his voice was hoarse as he asked the hero a simple question.

“Were you the one who tried to save me..?”

Chapter Text

Izuku had only registered the pain for a split second before everything went dark. The next thing he saw could only be described as his own, miserable life flashing before his eyes. The harassment from his classmates, the beatings from his mother, the Sludge Villain, All Might’s kind hearted but brutal crushing of Izuku’s dreams, that fucking doctor! The single worst day of his life, when he was told by that wrinkly old fuck that he could never become a hero because he would never develop a quirk. Rage seethed in Izuku’s heart as he was being forced to relive the worst moments of his life. Why this, WHY NOW?! It made no sense to him, he could feel the tears welling up at the corners of his eyes, but he willed himself to hold them back. He had shed enough tears over all of this shit already.

Those hurtful memories might not have been enough to make Izuku cry right now, but the next ones he saw definitely would break the dam holding back his tears. Bakugo fucking Katsuki. That stupidly arrogant blonde, with his perfect quirk and his features that just had to be sculpted by an artisan sculptor because Izuku just couldn’t catch a break. Every single hurtful word thrown at Izuku, every explosion and burn scar he received, was accompanied by a sickeningly sweet and heartwarming memory. Why did it have to be him that Izuku was head over heels for? Then again it’s not like Izuku had many options for potential relationships to begin with..

‘Just my fucking luck I guess..’, Izuku thought as he absentmindedly noted that his head felt like it was on fire. That realization snapped Izuku out of the little pity party he was holding for himself. He could still feel things. How in the hell could he still feel things? Was.. was he not dead yet..? That thought made the burning sensation he was feeling grow more intense and caused it to spread from his head down to his hands. That was when Izuku noticed the light. Vibrant emerald green light was flickering on the other side of his closed eyes. No, that wasn’t right. His eyes weren’t closed, there was a white sheet covering his face..

As quickly as Izuku realized this, his hearing came crashing back down on him, and oh boy wasn’t that fun. The sounds of sirens and countless voices bombarded Izuku’s ears as he slowly registered the smell of something burning. The sheet. Of course the sheet that had been used to cover his body was on fire. The odd thing was, that Izuku didn’t feel the slightest bit of discomfort at the heat. If anything, it felt comforting, which was.. Odd to say the least. The sudden gust of cold wind, however, was not comforting to Izuku. The sudden change in temperature caused Izuku to involuntarily shoot upright in shock.

‘I’m… I’m really still alive.. And my hands! They were on fire! Could.. could this be.. my quirk..?’ Izuku’s thoughts were running a mile a minute as he could feel tears running down his face as he stared at his hands before looking around at his surroundings. He was down on the street, so he definitely fell from the roof. That much was certain. But what about that voice he heard calling to him as he fell..? Izuku slowly turned his head in the direction of a set of footsteps that were approaching him, only to see what could be best described as a homeless man with a very expensive looking scarf hanging from around his neck. That get-up looked so familiar to Izuku, but where had he seen it before..?

“Were you the one who tried to save me..?” The hoarseness of his own voice shocked Izuku to no end, it was like he hadn’t drank any water for at least a week with how dehydrated he felt and sounded. Though that was to be expected with the amount of tears he had shed in just today alone. The man just stared at Izuku with a bewildered expression, watching as Izuku rubbed gently at his own throat, before he seemed to snap out of the shock from seeing this child sitting up and speaking when he had been dead mere minutes ago.

“Ahem.. Yeah I am, the name’s Eraserhead, I’m an underground hero. Kid, I know you’re probably just as confused as I am right now, but are you alright..?” Eraserhead’s voice was about as hoarse as Izuku’s was right now, the question notwithstanding. It was then that the realization about how the man had introduced himself hit Izuku like a fist to the face.

“E..Eraserhead?! I-I don’t believe it! You’re my second favorite hero after All Might, the way your quirk works means you have to fight practically quirkless! You’ve been a huge inspiration to me for so long andIcan’tbelieveyou’reheretalkingtomeandaskingmeifI’mokay-” Izuku quickly lost track of what he was saying as he began muttering incomprehensibly about how he had always wanted to meet the underground hero and ask him the same question he asked All Might earlier today. The feeling of a hand gently resting on his shoulder dragged Izuku out of the mumble-storm he had found himself in, as he quickly shook his head and turned to look at Eraserhead. Izuku then realized that he hadn’t actually answered the hero’s question before descending into a rambling mess as he slowly steadied his breathing.

“I..I’ll be honest sir.. I don’t really know if I’m okay.. It’s been a really long and rough day and I think I just want to go home right now..”, Izuku cringed internally at how childish he sounded at that moment. Here he was, still sitting on the ground after having tried to kill himself, and he was saying he wanted to go home like a scared child. It was only the exasperated sigh he heard from Eraserhead that managed to pull Izuku out of his own thoughts.

“If, by home you mean going back to your abusive mother, then I’m afraid I can’t let you do that. Not at least until an official investigation has been launched into how she has treated you all this time.” Now that was surprising to Izuku. He couldn’t remember having told anyone about how his mother treated him, the only time he brought it up was in the note he left for Kacchan and his own mother. Oh, Eraserhead probably had read the notes..

“I can see the gears turning in your head kid, and yes. I did read the notes you left. I’ve not handed the notebook over to the police yet, but seeing as you’re not necessarily dead I don’t see a reason to turn it over if you might be willing to tell the authorities about how bad the abuse has gotten. I need you to know that you will have to stay in a hospital tonight, seeing as you did fall from a rooftop no more than an hour ago.” Eraserhead’s voice was surprisingly gentle for an underground hero such as himself. There was only one problem with the hero’s statement.

“No hospital around here will take me.. They’d rather not waste their resources on a quirkless nobody like me when they could be better used to treat people who are actually useful to society…” The words hurt for Izuku to say, but he knew he would have to say them regardless. There were hardly any hospitals in Musutafu that even agreed to let quirkless individuals enter them, let alone treat them as patients. Despite being very overstimulated with the entire situation, Izuku did notice how the look on Eraserhead’s face took on one of very poorly concealed frustration.

“Kid, I don’t know who told you that to begin with, but it’s still illegal for a hospital to refuse you treatment based on your quirk status. It’s been that way for years, even if some people like to act like that isn’t the case. Regardless, I don’t think you’d qualify as being considered quirkless anymore. Unless that inferno you’ve got on your head isn’t part of a quirk that is.” Izuku turned his head to gaze at Eraserhead once more with an incredulous expression. What on earth was he talking about, an inferno on his head? Izuku reached his still trembling hands up to touch his hair, and to his surprise there was no solid feeling there anymore, it almost felt like he was holding his hand in a large cloud of steam. The flicker of green light in the corner of his vision brought Izuku’s attention to a storefront window where he could finally gaze upon his reflection.

The sight of his reflection sent a cold chill down Izuku’s spine as he took in his features, covered in blood as they were, and noticed the black eye he had been sporting throughout the day was no longer present on his face. In fact, there were no visible wounds on his face that he could make out from his reflection, and the blood that was there from his impact with the pavement was completely dried up. The most shocking sight was not the glaring lack of any wounds however, it was the raging inferno that had taken the place of his once messy mop of green hair. Those same vibrant flames flickering and flowing in a way that mimicked how a person’s hair looked whilst underwater. The color of the flames went from a deep pine shade at their base, to a strikingly vibrant seafoam green along the tips of each flame, swaying in a way that was almost mesmerizing to look at.

One would think that, with the amount of tears he had shed today, Izuku Midoriya’s tear ducts would’ve been unable to produce the amount of tears that began to fall from his eyes. It was something that was all too familiar to him, the salty sting on his tears rolling down his face, mixing with his own dried blood and leaving a sickening taste on his tongue as he began sobbing his eyes out. He could feel himself being pulled into a tight embrace as he continued sobbing unabashedly in the middle of the street. The sounds of people talking amongst themselves became muffled as Izuku registered himself being put into the back of an ambulance, however the embrace he had found himself in had yet to relent. The drive went by in a blur of gross sobbing that slowly quieted down into a low sniffle, all the while Izuku felt himself struggling to stay awake, his sudden burst of energy from earlier all but evaporated by the time the ambulance pulled into the hospital’s emergency access driveway.

The paperwork was handed off to Eraserhead as he and Izuku were led into an isolated hospital room away from any prying eyes. The doctors that came in took blood samples from an Izuku who was slowly starting to disassociate from the entire situation that was happening. A few of the doctors tried to ask him questions about how he felt, if he was feeling any pain, or if there was anything that felt broken. They only got short and concise answers from Izuku before he started to nod off into unconsciousness. The last thing Izuku heard before he fell asleep was the tail end of a conversation between Eraserhead, who had not left Izuku’s side up until this point, and a sharply dressed police officer.

“There’s no way I’m letting him go back to that woman. Consider this as me activating my emergency foster care license. I’ll look after him, this kid has been through enough as it is.” Izuku felt a small smile bloom on his face before he finally lost his battle with the ever encroaching bliss of sleep.

Chapter Text

Shouta stayed with Izuku for the time being as he waited for Detective Tsukauchi to look into the records pertaining to the boy and his family. Common practice when dealing with a Stress Manifested Quirk was to equip the affected individual with a Quirk Suppression Bracelet, but with his quirk Shouta thought it best to remain with Izuku while he slept. Maybe he felt responsible for the boy after the events of tonight, but that was beside the point. Erasure was a more than suitable replacement for Quirk Suppressants, and far more reliable in most cases. It was well into the next morning by now, and Shouta was mentally kicking himself for not taking a chance to get a few extra hours of sleep the day before. As his tired eyes studied the sleeping teenager, Shouta took note of two things. Firstly, the boys’ messy green curls had returned after he lost consciousness, the raging inferno having subsided shortly after their arrival at the hospital. The second thing he noticed was that it seemed like this was the first night of peaceful sleep that Izuku had gotten in a very long time. While he was closely watching the boy, he heard his phone ding with a notification. Pulling it from his pocket, Shouta found himself greeted by a message from Detective Tsukauchi.

“Heads up Eraser, I’ve notified the kid’s mother of his whereabouts. She should be arriving at the hospital within the next 20 minutes, so you might want to wake him up so she isn’t the first thing he sees when he wakes up.” Shouta furrowed his brow before he typed out his response to the Detective.

“Alright, I’ll wake him up. Thanks for the heads up, let's hope we can get the woman to slip up and give us a reason to detain her quickly.” Shouta pocketed his phone once more before he made his way over to Izuku’s bedside, laying a gentle hand on the boys’ shoulder and lightly shaking him to try and wake him. The greenette’s eyes shot open while he inhaled a sharp breath, looking around frantically for a moment before his gaze settled on Shouta. Izuku let out a soft sigh before raising his hand to rub the sleep out of his eyes.

“Figured you would want to be woken up for this, kid. Detective Tsukauchi has let me know that your mother is on her way here to see you. I want to reiterate that you are not going with her, and that her visit here will hopefully lead to her being arrested for what she’s put you through. Try to keep that in mind when she gets here, she won’t get a chance to hurt you again. Not while I’m here, kid.” Shouta spoke slowly and concisely, not wanting to overwhelm Izuku when he had just been woken up. It took a few moments for the teen to fully register what he had been told, nodding in understanding once he fully grasped what was going on. Shouta flagged down a nurse to get the boy something to eat, wanting to make sure Izuku had even the briefest moment of peace before the arrival of his mother. Before he started eating the food brought to him by the nurse, Izuku turned to face Shouta before clearing his throat to speak.

“What.. what did the detective tell her..? About why I’m in the hospital..?” Izuku’s voice was such a small, meek thing in that moment. The question was a good one, one that Shouta hadn't even considered until that point. He let out a curse under his breath before he pulled his phone out once more to ask the same question to Tsukauchi.

“Tsukauchi. What did you tell the kid’s mother about why he’s in the hospital?” It took nearly a minute before the detective sent back a response.

“I told her that he was attacked by a villain while on his way home from school yesterday, and that you were the one who insisted on the kid receiving medical treatment before contacting her.” Of course Tsukauchi had told her that. Shouta pinched the bridge of his nose as he let out an exasperated sigh. At least it would make things easier if the woman’s frustrations were directed mainly at him instead of Izuku. The teen nodded along as Shouta relayed the cover story to him, a thoughtful expression on his face. The cover they ended up agreeing upon was that Izuku had been grabbed by a villain whilst they were fleeing from Shouta’s pursuit, and that Izuku had been knocked unconscious by the villain, leading to Shouta insisting on him getting medical treatment so urgently. The sound of commotion from outside of Izuku’s hospital room was all the warning the two of them got before the door was ripped open, revealing a very stern looking woman with long green hair whose intense glare swept across the room before landing on Izuku, who visibly recoiled from the woman’s attention.

“How many times have I told you to stay out of the way of heroes, young man?! It’s bad enough that you ended up in the hospital this time! How on earth do you expect me to cover the bill for this, Izuku?!” Midoriya Inko’s tone was harsh, and her words had an immediate effect on her son, causing him to curl into himself in a futile attempt to shrink away from his mother’s frustration. When her gaze turned to him, Shouta could’ve sworn that he felt his blood run cold for a moment. Despite her expression softening, her tone was still laced with aggravation as she addressed Shouta. “I’m terribly sorry for any inconvenience my son’s reckless actions have caused you, I’ll make sure he has a written apology signed and sealed by the end of the day, sir.”

“Your son hasn’t caused any inconvenience for me Mrs. Midoriya, if anyone has been inconvenienced by all of this, it’s Izuku. He’s only here because of my mistake in letting the villain get away for so long to begin with. You don’t need to worry about the expenses for his hospital bill, my agency has already taken care of it. It’s only logical for me to pay for his treatment when he was injured because I wasn’t fast enough to get him out of harm’s way.” Shouta did his best to keep his voice level when speaking. Her son was in the hospital, and instead of worrying about his safety, she was more concerned about the cost of his treatment! Mrs. Midoriya seemed uncannily perceptive as she spoke again.

“Forgive me for my outburst, it’s just.. I have tried so hard to keep him from getting in trouble, and yet he jumps at every opportunity to watch Heroes doing their work without any regard for his own safety.” Shouta could feel the slightest of twitches in his eyelid as she spoke, and he opened his mouth to speak up once again, but it would seem that Izuku had other ideas.

“Since when have you cared about my safety..?”

A deathly silence fell over the room as Izuku spoke, only being disrupted by the sounds of medical equipment and the door to the room being cautiously opened. Shota shoots a glance towards the door, sighing internally with relief to see that it was Detective Tsukauchi arriving. The detective seemed to pick up on the tension in the room as he straightened his posture, keeping his eyes trained on Mrs. Midoriya. The woman’s posture had instantly tensed when Izuku had spoken up, and Shota could practically see the anger radiating off of the woman.

“That’s not funny Izuku. I have done everything in my power to keep you safe your whole life.” The Midoriya matriarch’s tone was short and clipped, like this was just something she was used to saying every other day.

“Oh you’re kidding me, right?!” Izuku had sat up straighter in his hospital bed at this point, and Shouta could see the pain in the kid’s eyes as he glared daggers into his mother. “Name one, single instance in past six fucking years where you have tried to protect me! You don’t even notice the cuts and bruises I have littering my body every day when I get home from school! And that’s not even getting into the scars I have from you!” Shouta had to hand it to the kid, he certainly had a way with his words.

“That is enough young man! I will not let you sit here and spread lies about me in front of this Pro Hero who was gracious enough to bring you to the hospital and pay for your treatment!” This woman was going to cause Shouta to lose what little of his patience remained, wasn’t she? He could feel the instinctive urge to reach for his capture weapon and restrain her, which was a very tempting thought as she started to approach the hospital bed, until Tsukauchi cleared his throat to draw the attention in the room to himself. What a relief.

“Mrs. Midoriya, I’m Detective Tsukauchi, we spoke on the phone earlier. I am obligated to inform you about the specifics of my Quirk ; True Man. You see, Mrs. Midoriya, my quirk allows me to tell when someone is telling the truth, as well as when someone tells a lie. I should also inform you that your son has not spoken a singular lie up to this point.” Shouta watches Inko Midoriya’s face pale at the revelation. ‘The phrase ‘so quiet you could hear the drop of a pin’ seems applicable here..’, Shota thinks to himself for a brief moment before he can see the faintest flicker of emerald light out of the corner of his eyes.

“Face it, Mom, you haven’t cared about me since Dad left you. Cause it’s my fault right..? Born a quirkless, useless freak?! Did you ever even stop to think about how you’ve treated me?!” Shouta can hear the venom dripping from the kid’s words, and turning to give the boy his full attention he can see his hair starting to flicker with those flames again. Noticing that Mrs. Mirodiya hadn’t turned her gaze back to her son yet, Shouta activates Erasure on the teen, causing the fluttering flames to die out before they could grow out of control. The woman finally turns to look at her son, her mouth open to speak until she is resolutely smacked in the face with a notebook. It’s so sudden, Shouta has to force down a huff of laughter at the woman’s sudden shock. That shock is quickly replaced by a sinking feeling of dread as Shota glances down at the notebook, seeing that it had been opened to the page with the note that Izuku was intending on leaving for his mother. It seemed that Shouta wasn’t the only one to notice this, as he heard the sound of a sharp inhale from Inko.

“Izuku.. what is this..?” As Shouta watched Mrs. Midoriya slowly tear her gaze away from the notebook on the floor, he realized that he had canceled his Erasure on Izuku as the room was bathed in a toxic green light coming from the hospital bed.

“It’s called a suicide note, Mom. I don’t even know how I’m still breathing honestly, but oh am I so glad that I am. Seeing that look on your face is almost worth all the suffering you put me through.” The words come spilling out through Izuku’s gritted teeth, his hair ignited once more and tears rolling down his face. Izuku slowly turned his gaze away from his mother to look at Tsukauchi with a fierce expression on his face. “Detective, I would like to press charges against Midoriya Inko for child abuse.” Those words seemed to be the tipping point for the woman, as her face scrunched up in rage and she threw herself at her son. She didn’t get very far, as Shouta slung his capture weapon out and around the woman’s torso, hauling her away from the teen as she screamed at him.

“You ungrateful brat! You ruined everything in my life by being quirkless and now you think you can just get me sent to prison now that you have a quirk?! You can’t even get a quirk correctly! You had to try and kill yourself to get one?! You should have let yourself become a stain of the goddamn concrete, you useless child!” Shota tightened his grip on his capture weapon as he began to drag the woman out of the hospital room, and right into the waiting arms of two police officers who had heard the entire exchange. After the officers began to escort Inko out of the hospital Shouta let out an exasperated sigh as he turned to look back at Izuku, who’s hair had thankfully stopped burning at this point.

“Y’know, kid.. That wasn’t exactly what we planned on happening, right?” Shouta narrows his eyes at the teen who simply shrugs, fucking shrugs, in response to his question. Shouta just shakes his head before grabbing the clipboard that had been left in the room by Detective Tsukauchi before his departure with his officers. “Right.. Well, once the doctors give you the green light for discharge, we’ll stop by your mother’s apartment to get your belongings.” The sound of a pen scratching on paper was all that filled the heavy silence of the hospital room for a few minutes.

Izuku’s voice was quiet when he spoke next. “Where will I go after that..? I don’t really have that much at home..” Shouta looked up from the paperwork he was filling out, taking in the desperation swirling in the teen’s eyes as he stared out the window. Sighing, Shouta set the clipboard down on the small side table next to his chair before snapping his fingers to get the kid’s attention. When those toxic green eyes finally found their way over to him, Shouta made his decision at that moment.

“You’re coming home with me, I’ve got more than enough space, and I think you would get along with my son. I’ll look after you, Izuku.” Shouta wasn’t surprised that the teen’s eyes started watering at his statement, if anything it was more of a relief that the kid wasn’t shutting down completely. Shouta crosses the room in a manner of seconds to pull the teen into a hug, letting him rest his head against Shouta’s shoulder. A mumbled out stream of “Thank you”s and “I’m sorry”s could be heard coming from the teen as he let out what surely must’ve been a lifetime’s worth of pain and suffering. All the while, Shouta simply held Izuku close and offered him that silent company, a reassurance in of itself that things will be okay.

It would take a long time for things to truly be okay for Midoriya Izuku, but Aizawa Shouta would be there every step of the way.

Chapter Text

It took another full day for Izuku to be discharged from the hospital. What with all the tests they needed to run regarding his quirk, and the questioning from Detective Tsukauchi that was needed to press charges against Inko. Eraserhead had ended up leaving at one point, given permission by Izuku to gather his belongings while he was still in the hospital, and in those hours while alone Izuku finally had a chance to really think about what led him to this moment. After 6 years of torment, he’s finally free from his mother. Not only that, his quirk finally came in. Sure, it could’ve manifested in a less traumatic way, but Izuku is just happy that he’s still alive at this point.

Izuku idly wondered if things will get better at school now that he has a quirk, if Kacchan will stop ignoring him now. Much to the greenette’s surprise though, Izuku finds that he doesn’t really want to go back to Aldera. It was something Eraserhead had mentioned to Izuku before he left that really got the gears turning in the greenette’s head. “When you get settled in we can talk about how you want to finish up school for this year, so don’t stress it that much, kid.”

That’s another thing that baffles Izuku, Eraserhead is kind to him. Not in the way that he’s grown used to from adults, with pitying looks on their faces as they speak to him, but genuine kindness. Not only had the Pro Hero been the first one to offer Izuku some semblance of comfort in the past six years, he was opening up his home to Izuku! He just… doesn’t understand it. He keeps waiting for the other shoe to drop, it always does, yet Eraserhead has made no indication that this is a temporary arrangement. Izuku is abruptly pulled out of his musings by a gentle knock on the door to his hospital room. After a few seconds, the door slid open and Eraserhead came striding in, along with the doctor that had been tending to Izuku for the past two days.

“Good morning, Midoriya-kun, how are you feeling so far today?” Izuku can’t help but flinch at the use of his family name, trying his best to play it off as a slight shiver. If the raised eyebrow is any indication, Eraserhead isn’t buying it. The doctor’s tone is soft and kind, as it has been since Izuku first met her. If he had to rank her against the other doctors he’s had in the past, Izuku would definitely rank her the highest with how thoughtful she has been. Definitely better than Dr. Tsubasa at the very least..

“I’m doing well, I think..? I still feel kinda tired though..” The doctor hums thoughtfully as she writes something down on her clipboard before responding. “Well, that is to be expected after such a traumatic quirk manifestation. Most individuals who experience a stress induced manifestation often report significantly decreased energy levels for a few days after the initial manifestation. The good news is that you should return to your usual energy levels within the next two days at the latest.” Izuku just nods along to the doctor’s explanation, glancing over to Eraserhead who has taken up a spot close to the door, leaning against the doorframe.

“Righty then, Midoriya-kun. We have a few things left to go over, such as your quirk’s classification and finalizing its registration, but then you will be all cleared for discharge.” That gets Izuku to sit up straighter in interest. He’s had a few chances to use his new quirk while he’s been in the hospital so tests could be run on it, but more concrete information on it is more than welcome. Izuku’s hands idly twitch with the desire to write down the details of his quirk in one of his notebooks as the doctor begins speaking again.

All in all, Izuku’s newfound quirk was relatively simple. Pyrokinesis, the ability to create and control fire, a fusion of his father’s fire breathing quirk and his mother’s telekinesis quirk. The flames Izuku can create burn at about 1,000 degrees celsius, and the vibrant emerald color of the flames was certainly unique when it comes to most flame-based quirks. The flames themselves seemed to be malleable in a way, though to what extent Izuku wasn’t sure, and it seemed that Izuku had gained a degree of resistance to fire and being burned. Normally, a quirk would be given a name chosen by a quirk specialist, but Izuku was given the option to name his quirk due to the… unorthodox manifestation that occurred.

It took a few minutes for Izuku to think of a name, while doing so he went through the final checks to ensure that he was healthy enough to be discharged from the hospital. It was after he had finally been allowed to change into something other than a hospital gown as he got ready to leave the hospital with Eraserhead, that Izuku remembered something from an old pre-quirk game that he had read about. Something about dragons and their dungeons? Izuku couldn’t quite remember the specifics about it. As Eraserhead finished the last of the discharge paperwork, Izuku looked to the doctor who had been so kind to him these past few days.

“Cambion. That’s what I want to name my quirk.” The doctor simply smiled and nodded to Izuku as she added the name to Izuku’s updated medical files. When all was said and done, Izuku found himself sitting in the backseat of a sleek black sedan being driven by Detective Tsukauchi, with Eraserhead sitting in the front passenger seat. The two men were holding a quiet conversation, and Izuku wasn’t particularly interested in what they were saying as he gazed out the car window. It wasn’t until he caught sight of a very familiar, and iconic, set of buildings getting closer as the car moved that Izuku finally forced his attention to the two men in the front of the car.

“Is… is that U.A.? Why are we going to U.A.?” Izuku watched the rearview mirror intently, making eye contact with Eraserhead through it as he waited for the man to respond to his question. Izuku was pretty sure that his eyes boggled out of his head when the tired Pro finally spoke. “Because I live in an apartment on campus. It would be illogical for me to live further away from U.A. when I teach first year Heroics students there, and when I patrol the surrounding area nightly.” Eraserhead’s voice was emotionless as he spoke, as if he hadn’t just blew Izuku’s mind with what he had just said. “You live at U.A.? You teach Heroics?!” Izuku was pretty sure he would’ve passed out from the information that he would also be living at U.A., if he hadn’t been so dumbfounded by it all. All the greenette got in response to his baffled questions was a simple huff of laughter.

The rest of the drive is silent, mostly because Izuku is too shocked to ask any more questions, and soon the car is being pulled into an underground parking garage. When the car finally stops, Izuku thanks the Detective once again for all of his help before stepping out into the parking garage, waiting patiently as Eraserhead grabs the last of Izuku’s belongings out of the car’s trunk. Once the Detective pulls out of the parking garage, Eraserhead motions for Izuku to follow him, which the teen does without question. They make their way over to an elevator which, to Izuku’s surprise, opens as soon as they get close to it. Izuku had been expecting the elevator to be empty so imagine his surprise when a small, white haired, rodent steps into the parking garage sporting a too human looking grin on its face.

“Ah, Aizawa-kun, good to see you back so soon. And this must be Midoriya Izuku, correct?” Izuku stares in wide-eyed shock as the Principal of U.A. turns to look at him with that unsettling grin, leaving the teen feeling like he is suddenly being examined under a microscope. “Am I a dog, a mouse, or a bear? What matters is that I am Nezu, the Principal of U.A., and I would like to welcome you to this fine establishment Midoriya-kun. I can assure you that Aizawa-kun will take good care of you. You are also free to use the facilities we have here on campus to train with your quirk, though I would ask that you make a request to do so with me or Aizawa-kun before you do.” Izuku catches himself flinching at being referred to as ‘Midoriya’ again, and he knows that he wasn’t fast enough to successfully hide it this time, if the look that Eraserhead and Nezu are giving him are anything to go off of. Izuku scratches at the back of his neck before bowing respectfully to Nezu.

“Thank you, Principal Nezu, I promise not to cause any disruptions for you or anyone else here at U.A.” After Izuku raises himself from his bow, he clears his throat nervously before continuing to speak. “Though, please, I’d prefer to just be called Izuku. I… I haven’t felt like a Midoriya for a very long time…” Nezu studies Izuku for a few moments, the rodent’s head tilted inquisitively as he does so. After a few moments of tense silence, Nezu simply hums in acknowledgement and steps to the side, leaving a clear path to the elevator. “Very well then, Izuku-kun. Please, do take some time to familiarize yourself with the campus layout, you’ll find that U.A. has quite a few facilities that you can make adequate use of. Aizawa-kun, you’ll find an access card for Izuku-kun in your office by the end of the school day today. Now then, gentlemen, I do hope you enjoy the rest of your day.”

Izuku steps into the elevator next to Eraserhead, keeping an eye trained on Nezu all the while, only to let out a weary sigh once the door to the elevator finally closes. As the elevator starts its ascent, Izuku lulls his head in Eraserhead’s direction, a question dancing along the tip of his tongue as he takes in the seemingly perpetually exhausted Pro. “Aizawa? Is that your name, Eraserhead?” Eraserhead shoots a glance towards Izuku, an eyebrow cocked in a questioning gesture. “Yeah, kid. Aizawa Shouta. You can call me either Aizawa or Shouta, whichever you’re more comfortable with. Just no honorifics, I’m not that old.” Izuku nods slowly, finding himself agreeing with the notion, honorifics being used when referring to him have always made him feel slightly uncomfortable. The pair fall into a companionable silence for the rest of the elevator ride, and the walk to the on-campus apartments is a short one.

The term ‘apartment’ doesn’t really apply to Aizawa’s abode, now that Izuku can see it in person. It’s a quaint, two story, western style house. Izuku removes his shoes at the genkan, absentmindedly noting the third pair of shoes resting there as well, and Izuku turns to observe the layout of the room around him. There’s a few pictures on the walls, the living room is amply decorated with a large couch and two armchairs surrounding a small coffee table with a generously sized flat-screen TV mounted on the wall between two windows. The strangest thing about the living room, however, is the messy mop of purple hair that's poking up from behind the couch. Izuku is hesitant to ask what that hair belongs to, that is until Aizawa drops his Capture Scarf onto the couch, eliciting a shocked yelp from whoever is on the couch.

“What the hell, Dad? You could’ve given me a heart attack!” The tone of the new voice, who apparently calls Aizawa Dad, is dry and sarcastic as its owner sits up from his position on the couch. Izuku blinks owlishly as he takes in the sight of a teenager, who can’t be much older than he is, sporting perhaps the second most tired facial expression that Izuku has ever seen after meeting Aizawa. It’s the amused scoff that comes from the man in response to the exasperated declaration that draws Izuku’s attention away from the purple haired teen on the couch. “Sure, and I get a perfect eight hours of sleep every night. Izuku, this is my son, Hitoshi. Hitoshi, this is the kid I told you about, Izuku. I have to finish filing some paperwork for Tsukauchi and Nezu, so I trust that you can give Izuku a proper tour of the house, right Hitoshi?” Izuku is surprised at first to learn that Aizawa has a son, but he then remembers the conversation he had with Aizawa in the hospital after his mother was arrested.

Izuku can’t help but hunch in on himself as Hitoshi’s gaze falls onto him. He stands there, fisting his hands into his shirt as Aizawa steps further into the house. Izuku suddenly feels hyper-aware of his surroundings, feeling the tears beginning to well up in his eyes. He doesn’t belong here. It’s not his home, he’s intruding in this place, just being kept here out of pity. Eraserhead had to watch Izuku kill himself, and now the man is giving him a place to stay out of obligation. Once the case involving his mother is resolved, he’ll most likely be put into the foster-care system, left to be swept away in the ever growing tide of unwanted children. Izuku can’t let himself get attached, he can’t-...

“Hey, you good?” Izuku is abruptly torn out of his spiraling by a gentle hand being placed on his shoulder. Izuku lifts his gaze to look into the worried gaze of Hitoshi. “You’re crying, man. Dad’s told me a bit of what’s going on, but if you need someone to talk to, you can talk to me okay? I… I know how shitty situations like this can be. When Dad first adopted me, I was so worried that he’d get tired of me eventually, or that he’d throw me back into a foster home because of my quirk. But he didn’t, you… you can trust him, okay?” Izuku just stares at Hitoshi for a few moments before taking a shaky breath, and nodding. He wants to believe the lavender haired teen, so desperately wants to believe that he can be safe here. Izuku’s so tired of walking on eggshells, waiting for the next thing to go wrong in his life. Maybe… maybe he can be safe here…? Everyone has been so kind to him since that horrible night, asking for nothing in return. Wiping the tears away from his eyes, Izuku tries to give Hitoshi a reassuring smile. The other teen doesn’t look convinced.

“Well, c’mon. I’ll show you to your room first, all your stuff is already in there. Still in boxes though, Dad and I weren’t sure how you would want stuff arranged, so we decided it would be best to leave it for you to figure out so we didn’t misplace anything by accident.” As Izuku finds himself being tugged throughout the house, he lets himself be enveloped by that burgeoning warmth in his chest.

‘Yeah…’ Izuku thinks to himself as Hitoshi shows him the layout of the house. ‘Maybe I can trust this…’

Chapter Text

Izuku tried his best to remain awake after he got settled into his new room. It had only taken him an hour to arrange what few belongings he has, but that gnawing lack of energy that has been plaguing him for the past three days got the better of him. It was a strenuous effort just to keep his eyes open while arranging his notebooks on the desk in his room, never mind staying awake long enough to get a tour of the rest of the house from Hitoshi. At some point, Aizawa had woken him up so he could eat something for dinner, but Izuku had crashed as soon as he sat back down on his bed afterwards. In his defense, the bed is incredibly comfortable.

Izuku didn’t know how long he had slept for, and he would have definitely slept longer than he did, if it weren’t for the nightmare he had. Trying to remember it was frustratingly difficult, but the greenette could recall the general gist of it. He was back with Inko. It was always her in Izuku’s nightmares, wasn’t it? Even with her having been arrested, Izuku still isn’t free from her torment.

Waking up in a cold sweat, Izuku frantically searched his room for any sign that he wasn’t dreaming. His notebooks were still stacked neatly on the desk, his garish yellow backpack hanging off the back of the desk chair that had been provided for him, and the one piece of hero merchandise he had managed to get set up in his room before he passed out. Izuku hadn’t really given it much thought when he was unpacking on autopilot yesterday, but now that he is lucid enough to really look at it, Izuku is completely caught off guard by the way he feels looking at the small piece of plastic.

Standing there, alone and undaunted, is the All Might Silver Age figurine that Izuku received as a gift from Katsuki for his 4th birthday. The last gift Izuku ever received from the blonde, and the last piece of hero merch Inko ever allowed Izuku to get. Only a few months later Izuku found himself in the office of Dr. Tsubasa with his mother at his side and well.. the rest is, as they say, history. Taking a few shaky steps over to his desk, Izuku reaches his trembling hand out to pick the figurine up. Despite everything it’s seen, the figurine remains spotless. As if the miasma of pain and suffering Izuku was engulfed in for most of his life just… bounced off the small plastic All Might figure. A scowl tore its way onto Izuku’s face as he glared at the figurine.

Anger was an… unfamiliar emotion for Izuku. Sure, he has felt anger before, but never on a level this intense. Izuku has always had to endure the anger of others, never getting a chance to truly be angry for himself. Words rang in his ears as he clutched the piece of plastic in his hands.

“I’m sorry young man, but I cannot in good conscience say that you can become a hero without a quirk.”

His grip on the plastic tightens.

“Why don’t you put everyone out of their misery and take a swan dive off a roof? Who knows? You might even get a quirk in your next life, if you don’t go to hell for being quirkless that is.”

The smell of melting plastic permeates the room around him.

“You ruined everything, you ungrateful brat! You were born a quirkless, worthless, freak! It’s your fault that Hisashi left me!”

Emerald light blossoms in the dark room.

“Wh… what do you mean you’re quirkless, Izu…? We… we promised we’d be heroes together!”

A scream tears its way out of Izuku’s throat as he hurls the now destroyed figurine at the wall across from him. His chest is heaving, breaths coming short and fast as Izuku tries to calm himself. Tears brimming in his eyes, Izuku turns away from the quickly cooling lump of plastic, his eyes falling on the access card and campus map laying on the desk behind him. Circled in bright red marker, was the closest gym that he could use for… quirk training. A thought came to his mind as he stared at the map and card. The small alarm clock next to his bed read 2:30 P.M., how did he sleep so long, so Aizawa would be teaching currently and Hitoshi would still be at school. All it would take would be a simple text to Aizawa…

Izuku - 2:35 P.M. ; Hey, Aizawa?

Aizawa - 2:35 P.M. ; Welcome back to the land of the living kid, sleep well?

Izuku - 2:36 P.M. ; Fine enough, I guess. I know classes are still going on, but do you think I would be able to head over to one of the gyms close to the house?

Aizawa - 2:38 P.M. ; Nezu says it shouldn’t be an issue, but you might run into some students while there. Any particular reason you’re asking?

Izuku - 2:39 P.M. ; I want to practice a bit with my quirk, I just want to make sure I don’t lose control over it.

It took a minute for Izuku to get a response from Aizawa, and the entire time Izuku could feel a gnawing anxiety creeping up his spine. What if he says no? What if he wants Izuku to stay at the house during school hours? What if Izuku’s asking for too much?

Aizawa - 2:43 P.M. ; Okay, just make sure you lock up the house when you leave. If you’re still at the gym by the time classes let out, I’ll come by the gym and stay with you until you’re ready to head home.

Izuku let out a weary sigh of relief before sending a message of affirmation back to Aizawa. After changing into a gym uniform, holy hell it’s a U.A. gym uniform, that Aizawa had given him the day before for whenever he decided to use one of the gyms, Izuku made his way out of the house after making sure the door was locked. It was about a 10 minute walk to the gym, and it was blissfully empty. The gym itself was impressive, filled with various workout equipment, but that wasn’t what Izuku was looking for. Sweeping his gaze across the room, Izuku found what he was looking for. Punching bags.

After making his way to the hanging bags, Izuku let himself fall into a rhythm as he began to feel the surge of his quirk grow. Emerald flames burst from his palms as he swung at the bag, hit after hit the intensity of the flames grew. Hit after hit, the anger grew. Swing after swing, the words rang through his head.

“I’m sorry Young Man, but I cannot in good conscience tell you that you can become a hero without a quirk.”

SLAM

“Why don’t you put everyone out of their misery and take a swan dive off a roof?”

SLAM

“You ruined everything, you ungrateful brat! You were born a quirkless, worthless, freak!”

SLAM

“We promised we would be heroes together!”

SLAM SLAM SLAM

“Lookie here, quirkless Deku is trying to play at being a hero!”

Why won’t they just leave him alone…?

“Sorry kid, you better just give it up. You’re not gonna get a quirk.”

“It’s not wrong to dream, kid. But you have to be realistic with those dreams.”

Quirkless

Useless

Worthless

Deku

Izuku lets out a heart wrenching scream as he lands a final hit on the punching bag, flames erupting from his hands as he did, and the chain holding the bag up snaps. The now untethered bag is sent flying across the room, and Izuku stands there frozen, the only movement coming from him being the heaving of his chest and the tears flowing down his face. The bag now lay on the far side of the room, smoldering from the impacts of Izuku’s flame-wreathed fists, and Izuku just stares at it while he trembles with a mix of fury and despair. Faces and voices passing through his mind as Izuku’s gaze is transfixed on the dancing green flames that cling to the ruined piece of workout equipment, as if the flames are calling to him. Izuku reaches a trembling hand out, eyes blown wide as he watches the flames swell in size, beckoning him closer… take the leap Izuku… burn furious and bright, like a supernova…

A voice calling out to him from across the gym startles Izuku out of his trance, and the greenette whirls around, coming face to face with a blonde teen looking at him with a mix of curiosity and concern. “Hey! You doing okay over there? You looked a bit uh… unfocused?” The teen gave Izuku a soft smile, rubbing the back of his neck anxiously as he did. Izuku blinks owlishly at the blonde teen before shaking his head to clear his thoughts before responding. “I… I’m fine, just… a bit overwhelmed, I guess? All this is new to me, so I guess I kinda went a bit overboard… I… I don’t have good control over my quirk yet…” Izuku sends the blonde a sheepish smile as he speaks, glancing over his shoulder at the still smoldering, enticing, beckoning punching bag before turning back to the blonde, who is still smiling at Izuku. An awkward silence settles over the two for a moment before a look of realization settles on the blonde’s face.

“Oh right! I forgot to introduce myself! I’m Togata Mirio, from the Heroics Course Class 2-A! I don’t think I’ve seen you around here before, are you a first year?” Izuku is a bit startled that he’s now talking to a Hero Course student a whole 2 years his senior, and incredibly flustered that Togata thinks that he’s already a first year student at U.A. and not just some random kid that’s still in junior high. Izuku clears his throat after a moment before shaking his head. “N…no I’m not even a student here yet, I’m still a third year in junior high. In all honesty… I’m being fostered by Aizawa and I got permission to use the gym from him and Nezu… I’m I…Izuku, by the way.” It was fascinating for Izuku to watch someone’s demeanor shift from casual student to hero in training, in real time. Togata’s eyes widened for a fraction of a second before his smile became more genuine and less anxious, reassurance swimming in his eyes as the whole of his presence just seemed to scream ‘It’s going to be okay, you’re safe here.’

“Aizawa-sensei huh? Well, it’s a good thing he’s looking after you, he may seem like a bit of a hardass but he’s a good guy. I won’t ask why he’s fostering you though, I doubt that you’d want to tell a stranger such personal info like that, am I right?” Izuku furrowed his eyebrows at the tone Togata was using with him, like he was speaking to a wounded animal in some dingy alleyway. Izuku is perfectly aware of how shitty his situation is, thank you very much. Opening his mouth to say as much, Izuku was preemptively cut off by Togata speaking once again. “You’re training with your quirk, right? Must be pretty intense if you managed to send the punching bag across the room like that! Y’know, I’m willing to help you out if you’d like!” Were all Hero Course students as upbeat as Togata? Izuku isn’t sure he could stand being in a room full of teenagers who acted like the equivalent of energetic golden retrievers all day if it was like this…

Though… the offer for help with his quirk was interesting, to say the least. Raising an eyebrow at the blonde’s words, Izuku decided to push for more info. “Why? I’m not even a student here… what’s in it for you to help me?” Okay, maybe Izuku was being a bit paranoid, but in his experience someone always wanted something in return for helping him. The greenette pointedly ignored the whispers in the back of his mind that were stating that Aizawa and Tsukauchi helped him without asking for anything in return. Togata’s smile only widens in response to Izuku’s apprehension, honestly how has his face not gotten sore from smiling like that?

“Well, you said that you’re having trouble with controlling your quirk right? My quirk, Permeation, is pretty difficult to control too. So, I was thinking I could help you with that!” Izuku scrunches his nose up at the mention of Togata’s quirk. Permeation… it sounds so… familiar, where has he heard about this quirk before? Togata’s a U.A. student, a Heroics Course student at that, so surely… Izuku’s eyes blow wide in recognition, and he can feel his face heat up from the secondhand embarrassment. “You… you’re the one who lost his pants during the Sports Festival, aren’t you?” That gets a laugh out of Togata, as well as a dusting of pink rising to the blonde’s cheeks. “Yeah… not my finest moment, but definitely the most memorable! But, I’d say that your quirk is probably a lot simpler to work with than mine! It’s just a fire based emitter-type, right?” Oh right. Izuku hasn’t even thought about analyzing his own quirk yet. He should probably get working on that, shouldn’t he?

“Y…yeah, pretty much. It’s a form of Pyrokinesis, along with some increased fire resistance. The quirk specialist that I talked to said that the flames I produce are malleable in some way, but we weren’t sure how. I… I could feel something earlier. Like… something was… reaching out to me. Like the flames were telling me to do something, but I just… can’t figure it out.” Now that he thought about it, there was something off about the feeling he got from the flames. That… urge to just jump was off putting to say the least. It wasn’t like the feeling he had on… on the rooftop, but it was more… urgent? Pleading? Encouraging? Come on Izuku, just take the leap…

“That’s pretty interesting! I think that Endeavor’s sidekick, Burnin’, has said something about her Blazing Hair feeling like that in an interview before… Maybe it’s something like what she can do?” Togata had taken to sporting a thoughtful expression as he spoke, though the mention of Endeavor and his sidekick did cause Izuku to grimace ever so slightly. He has nothing against Burnin’, her statistics are impressive and her demeanor is definitely approachable, but Endeavor… Well, he is the #2 Hero for a reason, but his civilian casualty and property damage statistics are alarming to say the least, and that’s not even touching on the lackluster attitude the #2 has towards his fans.

“Maybe..? I just don't know what to think about it? I…I’m a late bloomer, and I don’t really know how to use my quirk properly I guess. It’s just so frustrating!” Izuku can feel his eyes growing misty once again, and he brings a hand up to preemptively wipe the tears away before they fall. ‘Why am I getting so worked up over this?! It’s a quirk, I analyze quirks as a hobby! So why can’t I figure out my own quirk!?’ Izuku’s mind is running a mile a minute and, if he wasn’t so frustrated with himself, he would’ve noticed the downward tilt to Togata’s mouth as the blonde frowns in concern from Izuku’s words.

Izuku was about to apologize to Togata for his minor breakdown, but the words die on his tongue when the door to the gym is flung open with a resounding bang. It’s that moment, that sound, it sounds so similar to an explosion, that makes Izuku practically jump out of his skin. He can’t hear anything but the sound of his blood roaring in his ears, his eyesight goes blurry, his nostrils are assaulted by the scent of smoke, and Izuku leaps. The movement is so sudden, that Izuku has to take a solid ten seconds to reconcile the fact that he is now on the other side of the gym. The greenette whips his head around a few times to figure out what exactly happened, and his eyes land on the punching bag that is now at his feet, and the flames that lingered on the bag have finally gone out.

“Woah! What the heck was that?!” That’s a new voice, at least Izuku’s pretty sure that it’s not Togata speaking, unless his voice has suddenly gotten a few octaves higher. Izuku hesitantly turns to look towards the new voice, only to nearly pass out from the surprise of who the voice belongs to. Standing in the doorway to the gym, in all his over-the-top glory and wearing a slack jawed expression, is the Voice Hero ; Present Mic, and he’s not alone. Standing next to him is Aizawa, who is looking at Izuku with an expression of… is that concern? Though that expression is gone the moment the tired Pro turns his gaze onto Togata, who is standing stock still where he had been next to Izuku mere moments before.

“Togata, Izuku, what’s going on here?” Oh no, Izuku knows that tone of voice, it’s the same tone that his teachers would use when they blamed Izuku for doing something wrong in classes. Izuku doesn’t have a moment to dwell on the panic that tone brings out in him, because before he can even open his mouth to defend himself, Togata is speaking. “Oh! Heya, Eraserhead! I saw Izuku over here working with his quirk, and thought I’d offer him some help with it! He said he was having some trouble controlling it so I wanted to see what I could do to help him figure out some control.” How can this guy act so cheery and excitable still? Isn’t he afraid of being scolded by a teacher?

“Okay, but what was that flash of light? And what was with those embers floating around next to you Togata?” Izuku almost forgot that Present Mic was in the room, almost being the key word. It’s kind of hard for him to completely forget that one of his favorite heroes is just standing there, looking at him with a confused expression. Why is he still looking at Izuku? Wait, everyone is looking at Izuku, why are they looking at him like that? It’s not like he did… Oh.

“My quirk lets me teleport!” The words are out of his mouth before he can even think to word them properly, and it makes so much sense! Without offering a further explanation, Izuku ignites his palm with a fireball and hurls it to the other side of the room. He can hear the concerned voices of Togata and Present Mic but, strangely enough, not from Aizawa. As soon as the fireball connects with the wall, Izuku feels it again. That feeling again. Instead of ignoring it, Izuku leans into it, and the world goes white around him for a moment. When he can see again, Izuku is now standing on the far side of the room, right where the fireball he threw had landed! “That’s what I was feeling! The connection to the flames felt like a pathway!”

It’s an exhilarating feeling for Izuku, learning something new about his quirk. Short range teleportation between the flames generated by his quirk, what a unique application! Izuku loses track of how many times he leaps between his flames but the excitement of learning something new overrides his normal, observant state of mind. It takes five leaps for him to notice something is wrong. Five leaps, and a searing pain across his face. When he finally notices the pain, Izuku crumples to the floor because of it, holding a hand close to the new burn on his face. How did he get burned? Izuku’s the only one present with a fire-related quirk so how…? Oh no.

Next thing Izuku knows, there’s hands on his shoulders and a voice in his ear. “Izuku, talk to me kid, what happened?” Aizawa. Izuku looks up to meet Aizawa’s gaze, seeing that expression of concern once again. It’s such a sincere expression, that Izuku can’t help the tears that spring to his eyes from it. “I’m sorry, Aizawa… I… I don’t know what happened, I was fine! I was fine then it just… it just burned…” As Izuku struggles to keep his composure, honestly Deku you’re such a crybaby, he can feel Aizawa pull him into a comforting embrace before the man effortlessly scoops the teen up off the floor. “I’ll take him to get patched up by Recovery Girl. Togata, I appreciate you trying to help Izuku with his quirk, but next time make sure that I’m present so we can prevent him from getting hurt like this again. Mic, we’ll talk later about you disregarding the fact that I asked you to tone down your volume around Izuku.”

Aizawa’s words jumble together for Izuku as the Pro carries him out of the gym, and honestly how is this man able to so effortlessly carry Izuku like this? Things are a bit of a blur for Izuku after that. He knows that his burn gets treated by Recovery Girl, normally Izuku would be over the moon meeting her, but he can’t really focus on much else other than the fact that, yet again, Aizawa is providing Izuku with basic human decency. Before meeting Eraserhead, when was the last time anyone actually cared enough to get Izuku treated by a nurse when he got hurt? He… he can’t actually remember the last time, and isn’t that the root of the issue? No one has shown Izuku that they care about him in years and now, after his quirk finally came in, people are suddenly being very caring to him. Would they care if he was still quirkless…?

“Aizawa…?” Izuku’s voice is barely a whisper, and they’re walking back to the ‘apartment’ now that Izuku can actually recognize what’s going on around him. As Aizawa stops walking to give Izuku his full attention, Izuku can feel that swirling pit of anxiety begin to gnaw at his stomach again. “Would… would you still do all of this for me if… if I was still quirkless…?” Honestly, if there’s one thing that Izuku would look back on in the future as the moment he started to fully trust Aizawa Shouta, it would be this moment. When Aizawa placed a reassuring hand on Izuku’s shoulder, looked him directly in the eyes, and put to rest the doubts and self hatred that Izuku had plaguing his traumatized mind.

“Of course I would, Izuku. Quirks are just tools, and they shouldn’t define a person's worth in the world. What was done to you was wrong, on so many levels, and I am so sorry that you had to endure so many hardships at such a young age. I promised you that I’d look after you, and I don’t intend to break that promise.” It was like a switch was flipped for Izuku, and that wall he had carefully constructed came crumbling down as he surged forward to embrace Aizawa in a hug. His hesitance and apprehension won’t go away so easily, but this is definitely a step in the right direction.

Chapter Text

If there was one thing that Nezu had learned about humanity, it would be that its potential for cruelty often eclipsed its potential for compassion. His own experiences in the past were proof enough for this, though delving into those memories was not an activity that Nezu found himself doing often. No, the current example Nezu found himself drawn to would have to be the circumstances revolving around Aizawa’s new ward, Midoriya Izuku. It’s been two weeks since the teen had come to live in the Aizawa household, and to say that Nezu was intrigued by the teen would be a severe understatement.

The teen has an astoundingly intelligent mind, as Nezu learned when he had perused through one of the notebooks that Aizawa had so graciously provided to Nezu the day before the man had brought Izuku home from the hospital. It was a delightful experience for the chimera to get a glimpse into the analytical prowess that the teen displayed within the notebook, yet a question kept recurring in the back of Nezu’s mind while he read the notebook. Why would those around Midoriya Izuku try so fervently to suppress his talents and ridicule his aspirations? All of the pain the teen endured, simply because he was perceived as quirkless? That was another thing that confused Nezu, the teen had been adamant in his testimony to Detective Tsukauchi that he was quirkless, and yet the only defining factor the boy could provide was the existence of the double pinky toe joint. A supposed indicator for quirklessness that had been disproved and discredited in the majority of scientific and medical fields of study nearly seven decades ago, roughly around the time that Ujiko Daruma’s Quirk Singularity Doomsday Theory had been discredited as well.

In fact, according to many modern studies, the extra toe joint was more often than not a sign of an individual either possessing a minor mutation quirk, or a quirk with extremely convoluted manifestation requirements. As such, other tests were required to determine if an individual was truly quirkless in this day and age, such as a blood test to search for a quirk factor, or an ultrasound procedure to identify if an individual possessed the vestigial organ known as an appendix. Yet neither tests had been provided to Izuku by his childhood physician, Dr. Tsubasa. A worrying development to be certain, but one that Nezu would unfortunately be unable to dig further into, as Dr. Tsubasa had been declared missing roughly six years prior. Peculiarly, around the same time that Midoriya Inko had reportedly began the abuse of her son… Curious indeed…

Worrying incompetence from a medical ‘professional’ aside, Midoriya Izuku’s circumstances brought to light a slew of other worrying developments. Chief among them? The blatant quirk discrimination occurring within the Aldera School District and the root of that specific issue. It had been pitifully easy to dig into Aldera’s records at first, and what the chimera had found made his fur stand on end in barely contained fury. If it wasn’t bad enough knowing that this farce of a school district was actively sabotaging the education of one of the brightest minds Nezu had encountered in a long time, in addition to facilitating the systemic and continuous abuse of said mind, it was what the chimera found under a much stronger encryption that had brought upon this fit of rage.

The rhetoric Nezu had found woven into the lesson plans for many of the classes at Aldera’s schools was horrifying. Outdated statistics based on quirk discrimination, discredited scientific studies regarding ‘villainous’ quirks and the inherently false data on their effects on an individual's behavior, a nearly blatant hate campaign directed towards mutation quirks and the quirkless, and the idolization of those with flashy and ‘heroic’ quirks. It made Nezu sick. The wording in some of the lessons was strikingly familiar to the rhetoric of the Meta Liberation Army from ages past. While the MLA and their surviving supporters had been thoroughly routed in the years following their defeat and the death of their leader, Destro, many people had been inspired by their views and values. Afterall… it was those ideals that had led to what Nezu endured.

This was a problem that had to be dealt with. Preferably done so swiftly, and without any room for error. So with that in mind, Nezu set to work, and work he did. For 5 days straight, Nezu spent all of his time not taken up by running his school digging further. While he had found no connections between those working in the Aldera School District and any sort of resurgent Meta Liberation Army, he had found more than enough to set the entire charade of a school district aflame, circus tent and all. The chimera’s plan was unfolding perfectly. All it would take now was ensuring that the evidence reached the desk of Detective Tsukauchi, though Nezu supposed that he could pass that particular task off to Aizawa when the time came for that. Perhaps after the staff meeting later in the week? Yes, that sounds like an acceptable time frame.

Currently, however, Nezu would have to content himself with watching Kayama and Yamada bicker amongst themselves in the Teacher’s Lounge. Nezu had to admit that it was quite an enjoyable pastime, never a dull moment where those two were concerned. It would seem that the current topic for their debate had been something that Nezu had missed during his reminiscence though.

“I’m just saying Nem, he won’t let us anywhere near the little listener! Like, I get that the kiddo is skittish with everything going on, but letting him stay cooped up in the house all the time isn’t healthy! I just wish that Sho would at least try to get the listener to socialize some more!” Ah, now Nezu understands the topic of the debate. Ever since Izuku had his encounter with Togata and Yamada in Gym Omega, the teen had become incredibly withdrawn. From what the chimera had gathered from Aizawa, it would seem that Izuku was rarely leaving his bedroom unless it was absolutely necessary. It seems that Yamada has disagreements with Aizawa allowing the boy to continue this behavior.

“Hizashi, we can’t just force our way into the kid’s life. Shouta knows what he’s doing, and he knows the full details of what the kid’s been through. We just have to trust that Shouta will do what’s best for him. These things take time, you know that.” Never let it be said that Kayama Nemuri is incapable of subtlety and understanding when it’s better to take a step back from a situation. At first glance, many would assume that the R-Rated Hero ; Midnight was about as subtle as a freight train. That couldn’t be further from the case, and Nezu was quite proud of her progress ever since her days as a student of his. In fact, Nezu was tremendously proud of the trio of friends since they had graduated from UA all those years ago. The chimera would be the first to admit that he had been worried that the three of them would’ve broken from the untimely death of their friend, Shirakumo Oboro, but they had taken the death of their friend and used that trauma as fuel for their aspirations and had strove to become heroes that their friend would be proud of.

“I know that, Nem, but I’m just worried about the listener, ya dig? He looked so scared when I met him, and I just think that letting him isolate like that is doing more harm than good..” Nezu watched in languid fascination as Yamada dropped his head against the desk he was sitting at in an overly-exaggerated manner, always one for over-the-top displays. Yes, while much had changed in the twelve years since the trio had graduated, some things it seems will never change. The chimera decided the lull in the conversation was as good a place as any to express his own opinion on the matter. “I am in agreement with Kayama, it would be more detrimental to the boy’s wellbeing should he be forced into interacting with us all here. While I must admit, I am eager to speak with him myself, I also recognize that his circumstances have likely led to a severe case of social anxiety. Perhaps an appointment with Inui would be beneficial for the child…”

It would seem that Nezu’s opinion on the matter was all it took to end the debate then and there. Most individuals would often defer to the chimera’s opinion in most debates after all, one of the perks of being the most intelligent creature in the country, he supposed. The rumbling timbre of UA’s Guidance Counselor came from the other end of the Lounge, drawing the attention of everyone present in the room. “I agree, I have already let Aizawa know that I’d be more than willing to meet with Young Izuku whenever the boy feels up to it.” Yet again, Nezu is immensely proud of the faculty of his school. When Nezu had taken up the position of Principal of UA, he had removed the vast majority of the faculty members at the time. He had noticed in his time as a Heroics Teacher, that the framework of UA at the time would not prove beneficial to its students, as so many of the faculty were pushing the ever prevalent biases that society holds for Heroes. A focus on strong, ‘heroic’ quirks, while leaving all those with weaker or ‘villainous’ quirks behind without a second thought. Another cog in the ever eroding machine that was built by the HPSC, and Nezu refused to allow himself and his school to remain that way.

In the end, UA had become a bastion for progress and inclusion. The HPSC and the School Board had fought vehemently against Nezu when he had amended the process of applying to the school in order to allow the quirkless to enroll at UA, yet Nezu still got what he wanted. While he was unable to change the Entrance Exam for the Heroics Course, he had made it so any student could make it into Heroics through the Sports Festival, which had only happened once during his tenure as Principal. Regardless, Aizawa had earned his spot, and Nezu had taken great pride in watching the HPSC realize how useful Aizawa’s Erasure would be in Heroics. Speaking of Aizawa…

The door of the teacher’s lounge creaked open, causing all conversation to cease as those present turned to look at who was entering. There in the doorway stood Aizawa, his expression as deadpan as ever, though his eyebrow was arched in confusion towards all the stares directed his way. “By all means, don’t let me stop you from gossiping about illogical things.” Aizawa’s tone was flat, though to those who had known him long enough, they could discern the amused tint to his voice. As the man stepped into the lounge, he held the door open for the individual following him. To the surprise of most within the lounge, in stepped one Midoriya Izuku, whose eyes darted around the lounge in a manner that Nezu recognized all too well. The boy was surveying the room, taking stock of potential exits and escape routes. A habit learned from years of abuse and, despite how useful it can be, a habit that will need to be broken.

Nezu watched silently as Aizawa led the teen to one of the couches in the center of the lounge, which was quickly vacated by Kayama to give the boy some more space. Once Izuku had sat down, Aizawa spoke up once again. “Izuku wanted to get out of the house today, and I thought it would be best if he spent some time here while I teach the 3rd years this afternoon. If anything happens, call me first.” And with a parting ruffle of the teen’s hair, Aizawa swiftly made his exit from the lounge. The silence that had descended on the lounge was stifling for a solid minute as everyone present seemed to try and think of how to break said silence. Well, it looks like it was up to Nezu to steer a conversation once again.

“You know, Izuku-kun, I must say that I am highly impressed by your analytical prowess. I was only able to take a brief look at one of your notebooks, but what I saw was truly marvelous.” Was it cruel of Nezu to enjoy the look of utter surprise on the teen’s face? Perhaps, but never let it be said that the chimera was the most understanding of proper social interactions. “H…how did…? No, I don’t know why I’m surprised… but, wh…why? Why would you be impressed by me…?” Nezu watched as a storm of emotions flashed across the teen’s face in the span of a second. First confusion, then resignation, and last and most curiously, a mixture of disbelief and… anger? Curious indeed…

“Why would I not be impressed? It’s so very uncommon these days for individuals to show such a raw talent for analysis. I’d even go as far to say that you’d have a promising future as a professional analyst or a quirk counselor if you chose to pursue that line of work.” From the disapproving grumble let out by Hound Dog, Nezu knew that the guidance counselor knew what he was doing. It was a common tactic used when dealing with traumatized victims, get them talking about what plans they have or wish to pursue, all while avoiding asking the question outright. Nezu was well aware of Midoriya Izuku’s heroic aspirations, at least how they had driven the boy to cling to Yagi’s leg just to ask the #1 Hero if he could be a hero without a quirk. Nezu was still thinking of how to handle that particular issue, the sheer amount of hypocrisy that Yagi had spewed that day still managed to get under the chimera’s skin. If the briefest flash of a searing glare the teen gave Nezu said anything, it was that those aspirations were still in the forefront of the boy’s mind.

“I’m going to be a hero, sir. And I’m tired of people telling me what I can and can’t be.” Nezu couldn’t help the grin that had formed on his face at that moment. Anyone could say that they wanted to be a hero, but to say that they will be a hero? Well, Nezu was not about to let such a determined individual slip through the cracks. “Indeed, Izuku-kun. Though, in order for you to become a hero, you will have to make it into UA as a student. To that end, I would like to offer my services as a… personal tutor, so to speak. I am sure that with my aid, you can easily catch up to your academic peers, all while giving you a safe place to learn, in addition to allowing your natural capabilities shine. Of course, the decision is entirely yours, and I’m sure that Aizawa-kun will be more than willing to help you figure out what exactly you wish to do in regards to your education.”

Silence had once again fallen over the room as Izuku stared at the chimera in astonishment, yet with a calculating edge to his gaze. Kayama and Yamada had taken to glancing between the teen and Nezu in confusion, while Hound Dog had remained as a silent observer to the entire situation. Within a few moments, Izuku let out a shaky breath before hesitantly nodding. “I… I’ll need to think about it. Thank you for the offer, but I need some time.” Nezu nodded in understanding before hopping down from his seat and making his way over to the couch that Izuku was sitting on. Upon reaching the foot of the couch, Nezu held out his paw to Izuku with a soft smile on his face. After a moment's hesitation, Izuku took the paw in his hand before shaking it with a hesitant smile on his face.

“Well, regardless of your decision, I look forward to watching your progress. You will be a fine hero, Izuku-kun.”

Chapter Text

Yagi Toshinori has lived a long life, wrought with hardship and strife in equal measure to the comfort and pride he has experienced as well. That is not to say that he has not made mistakes, even as the #1 Hero ; All Might. Toshinori is only human, after all. Yet the world expects perfection from him all the same, and Toshinori will be damned if he lets the sacrifice of his mentor be in vain. And yet…

“Can I be a hero like you without a quirk…?”

That boy… Toshinori hasn’t been able to get the thought of him out of his head. So much had felt off about that entire interaction, yet Toshinori had brushed it all aside in favor of keeping his time limit hidden from the teen. Why hadn’t Toshinori paid more attention in the moment? The limp that the teen walked with, the black eye, the water damage to his notebook? Why had he just signed the damn thing and not taken the boy to a hospital?! When did Toshinori become more concerned with appearances than the wellbeing of civilians? Why did he just leave the boy on that rooftop…?

“All Might, it’s Eraserhead. I’m on the scene of a suicide with Tsukauchi right now and I don’t really have the time to be beating around the bush about things at the moment. So I’ll ask you as calmly as I can, did you save a young boy with green hair from a villain made of sludge today? If so, please tell me that you didn’t leave him on a rooftop after telling him that he couldn’t be a hero without a quirk.”

Toshinori had been so horrified by what Eraserhead had said, that it had taken him a solid minute to even formulate a response to the man’s question. By the time he did, Eraserhead had already passed the phone back to Tsukauchi, and that was when the commotion started. As Toshinori would learn a few days later, the teen had indeed attempted to take his own life that night, and yet somehow he had survived. Tsukauchi was being extremely tight lipped about it, stating that as All Might was not involved in the official case, he could not inform Toshinori about the teen’s wellbeing other than the fact that he was alive. Toshinori understood this of course, this was a matter for the police to handle, but he couldn’t deny that he was hoping for a chance to meet with the teen again. If only for a chance to apologize for what he had said.

That would have to wait, if indeed Toshinori ever found an opportunity to apologize to the boy, but for now there were other matters that demanded the attention of the #1 Hero. Chief among them being his upcoming employment as a Foundational Heroics instructor at UA High School, which is how Toshinori found himself arriving at the school nearly a month after that fateful night. It had been nearly 40 years since Toshinori had graduated from the school, and in the decades since his graduation, many things had changed. Admittedly, Toshinori had not kept up with most of the changes, so that was why he had come to the school 9 months before he was set to start as a teacher. Principal Nezu had requested his presence for a staff meeting which had, at least to Toshinori, gone quite well. If he ignored the near-murderous glare from Eraserhead, that is.

Now Toshinori found himself walking the halls of his alma mater, marveling at how things had improved in the school. It was one of the few things he was grateful for about his injury and time limit, he would not be recognized by the students, and the faculty had already been made aware of his injury when Nezu had agreed to take Toshinori on as a teacher. With that in mind, Toshinori made his way to the teacher’s lounge to rest for a few minutes before he inevitably had to rush off in response to an emergency. As he entered the lounge, Toshinori could feel the air in his remaining lung be ripped out as if he had been sucker punched.

There, sitting on a couch in the lounge, was that boy. Midoriya Izuku, alive and well, and sitting on a couch in the UA teacher’s lounge with his face buried in a textbook on… calculus? Wasn’t the teen in junior high? Why would he be learning calculus at such a young age? More importantly, why was he here? It seems that Toshinori had stood in the doorway for a few moments too long, as the teen’s attention had drifted from the textbook over towards the door. The two of them held eye contact for a few moments, before Toshinori coughed awkwardly as he stepped into the room. “My apologies, Young Man, I didn’t know the lounge was occupied when I made my way over here.” If the teen had any objections to his presence in the lounge, he did not make them known as Toshinori made his way to the coffee maker within the lounge. Toshinori had instinctively reached for the first bag of ground coffee he saw before he noticed the small post-it note attached to the bag.

‘If anyone other than myself or Izuku touches this bag of coffee, I will make sure that the authorities never find your body. -Aizawa Shouta’

Ah, Nezu had warned Toshinori of Eraserhead’s caffeine dependency. But wait, anyone other than himself or Izuku? Was Eraser close to the boy then? It was a logical conclusion to make, afterall Eraser had been on the scene of the boy’s suicide attempt. Pushing that line of thought to the side, Toshinori grabbed the second bag of coffee and set to work brewing a pot of the stuff. As he did so, he turned to glance at the teen, who had not taken his eyes off of Toshinori since he entered the lounge, nor had he spoken a word yet. “Would you like some coffee, Young Man? I’m sure there will be plenty for the both of us.” All Toshinori got in response to his question was a subtle shake of the teen’s head, though there was a calculating glint to the boy’s gaze that set Toshinori on edge. It reminded him too much of Nezu’s inquisitive gaze… Silence had fallen over the room as Toshinori waited for the coffee to finish brewing, and the teen had taken to reading through his textbook once more. The only thing that disturbed the silence was the telltale ding of a text message coming through to Toshinori’s phone. Pulling the device out, Toshinori could swear that he felt his blood run cold at the sight of who was texting him in that current moment.

Nezu - 3:45 P.M. ; Ah, Yagi-kun, it would seem that I neglected to inform you that my personal student would be on campus currently.

Nezu - 3:46 P.M. ; I would recommend that you do not reveal your status as the #1 Hero to Izuku-kun, he has yet to have his first appointment with a therapist and I fear you revealing your identity to him would cause quite a few… complications to his recovery.

Toshinori - 3:46 P.M. ; So I am to act as if I do not know him? I can’t say that I like this course of action, Nezu. There are quite a few things I have to make amends for with the boy.

Nezu - 3:47 P.M. ; Well, I am glad that you realize that you have made a mistake with him, Yagi-kun. However, I did not say for you to act ignorant of his identity. You have, in the past, acted as ‘All Might’s Personal Assistant’ have you not? If you truly wish to speak with him, do so under the guise of inquiring about Izuku-kun’s health on the behalf of All Might. I feel he may be more open to speaking with Yagi Toshinori as opposed to the #1 Hero ; All Might. Just remember, that I am listening, and should you hurt the pup again… Well, it would be safe to say that you would need to take your search for a successor elsewhere.

With that terrifying statement out of the way, Toshinori let out a weary sigh as he pocketed his cellphone and poured himself a cup of the now finished coffee. Steeling himself for the potential of the upcoming conversation blowing up in his face, Toshinori made his way over to the couch opposite from the one that the teen was currently sitting in. Once in his seat Toshinori took a gulp from the coffee cup, wincing slightly as the beverage burned his tongue, before lifting his gaze to the teen who had taken to glancing at him out of the corner of his eye. ‘Well…’ Toshinori thought to himself as he took a breath, ‘Here goes nothing I suppose.’

“Young Man, you wouldn’t happen to be Midoriya Izuku, would you?” That seemed to catch the full attention of the teen, as his gaze had snapped up from his textbook in an instant, the briefest hint of fear flashing through his eyes for a moment. “I… I am. Why… Why are you asking? Do I know you…?” Toshinori shook his head in response to the teen’s question before responding. “No, I don’t think we have met before today. My name is Yagi Toshinori, and I work for Might Tower as the personal assistant to All Might himself. He had asked me to inquire about your well being with Eraserhead today when I came for a meeting with Principal Nezu, but it would seem we came across each other first. How have you been, Young Midoriya?” If Toshinori had been expecting anything, it was not for the teen’s face to scrunch up in apparent disgust at the question. It was such a startling development that Toshinori had nearly dropped his coffee when it happened.

“Why does he care…? I mean I get it, he saved me from a villain attack, but he left me on a rooftop after telling me I couldn’t be a hero without a quirk! Why does he suddenly care to ask about me now?! Is it just because my quirk manifested after I hit the concrete?! Does he want to tell me that I can be a hero now that I have a quirk?!” The teen had stood up at this point, his hands clenching into fists as small emerald embers sparked off his fists, before relaxing as he slumped back down into the couch with a weary sigh. “I… I’m sorry. That was rude of me, it’s not your fault… I can’t even be mad at All Might, not really… he’s still an amazing hero, and I respect him a lot but… I just… I couldn’t even look at the Silver Age figurine I got when I was four without hearing what he said to me playing back on a loop… I looked up to him for my whole life and yet…”

“You can’t help but feel betrayed by him. I understand, my boy. When All Might had heard of what happened to you, he had expressed a tremendous amount of guilt for how your interaction had gone. That is partially the reason as to why he asked for me to inquire about your well being. He feels as though he has failed you, and wishes to ensure that you are safe and doing well.” It felt wrong deceiving the teen like this. While everything he was saying was true, he had felt horrendously guilty about how their interaction had gone, it felt disingenuous to relay that information via half truths. It would seem that Midoriya had taken his words at face value though, as his strained expression had softened ever so slightly into a hesitant smile. “That’s the #1 Hero for you… you can tell him that I’m doing fine. I’m alive, I’m being fostered by Eraserhead and I’m safe here at UA. If he asks about my quirk just tell him that it's a fire based emitter type with a short range teleportation application. I guess… I guess I have him to thank for it even manifesting. I have no idea if it ever would have if I hadn’t… yeah. Uh, I… I think I’m going to head to Nezu-sensei’s office now, I was only studying here because the meeting the staff was having earlier. It was nice to meet you, Yagi-san, and uh… thanks? For checking on me, I mean.”

Toshinori couldn’t help but smile at the teen as he hastily packed away his textbook into the vibrant yellow backpack that was resting on the floor next to the couches. After the teen had made his exit from the lounge, Toshinori made to stand up and make his own exit from the lounge, but a gruff voice from behind him made Toshinori stop dead in his tracks.

“Yagi.” Toshinori whirled around, only to come face to face with the tired visage of Eraserhead dangling from… a vent? Toshinori had been about to open his mouth to respond to the perpetually tired Pro, before the man dropped from the vent completely and spoke up once again. “I was listening to all of that. As much as I may hate you Limelight Heroes, I do respect your work. That being said, if you ever hurt Izuku in any way ever again… I doubt even Nezu would be able to find where I buried you.” With that, the man walked out of the lounge without another word, leaving Toshinori standing in the now empty lounge with his mouth agape in astonishment. Two threats within the span of half an hour? Midoriya Izuku was certainly in good company if so many were willing to threaten the Symbol of Peace with bodily harm in response to any form of harm dealt towards the teen.

Chapter Text

Inui Ryo has seen a lot in his career. Whether it be when he is actively doing heroics, or when he provides a comforting presence to the students of UA when the pressure becomes too much for them to handle on their own. To say the least, Inui knows how to handle trauma victims, and yet the case of Midoriya Izuku has definitely been one of the worst cases of abuse he’s ever seen. He had been granted access to the case file regarding Midoriya Inko’s arrest, and Nezu had supplied the man with a brief overview of what the teen had to endure during his time in the Aldera School District, as well as his disastrous encounter with Yagi. For the nearly two months since the teen had come into the care of Aizawa, he had yet to sit down with Inui for a much needed therapy session. Yet, today it seemed that would change. It was a single message from Aizawa early in the morning that had spurred this impromptu session for the teen.

Aizawa - 5:30 A.M. ; Inui, I’ll be sending Izuku to see you this afternoon. The trial for his mother starts later this week and Izuku had a bad nightmare because of it last night.

So, here Inui was, sitting in his office with one Midoriya Izuku just after classes had left for the day. The teen seemed to know why he was here, but he most certainly did not look happy to be in the office. He had been nervously fidgeting with his hands since he had sat down, and the two of them had yet to say anything to each other besides a simple greeting. Well, it wasn’t like Inui didn’t know how to strike up a conversation, but he would have to tread carefully if he wanted to keep the teen from leaving without accomplishing anything in this session. “So, how has your day been so far, Midoriya?” A flinch. Aizawa had mentioned that the teen had an adverse reaction to being addressed by his family name, no doubt in response to how his mother had treated him.

“It’s been… fine, I guess? I don’t really know what I’m supposed to be doing here, though…” Inui simply nodded in response as he wrote down the reaction to being addressed as Midoriya on his notes for the session before turning his gaze to the teen. “Well, Izuku, you’re here because your foster father thought it would be best to talk to someone about what you’ve been through. I would like to disclose that I have been made aware of the specifics regarding your mother’s case, but I won’t force you to talk about anything that you’re not ready to discuss. I want you to think of this as a safe space, one where you can talk about whatever you wish to without worrying about reactions. Whatever we talk about here stays between you and me, unless I deem it absolutely necessary to inform your guardian about. Though I won’t do that unless I’m concerned that you pose a risk to yourself or others.” The teen blinked owlishly at Inui for a moment before a soft snort of laughter broke his composure. An interesting response, considering what led to Izuku being under the care of Aizawa to begin with.

“You mean in case I get the urge to take another swan dive off a rooftop? Well that’s a relief, here I was thinking that it was a one time thing that someone cared enough to keep me from doing that.” Ah, sarcasm. A common response to a traumatic incident from Inui’s experience. The teen was talking though, so it was a good start. “Why would you think that it was a one time thing, Izuku? It’s a common thing to be concerned for the well being of a child, which you still are, despite your age.” Clenched fists to stop the trembling of the teen’s hands, a response to try and keep one’s anger in check. Inui was really hoping that he didn’t have to break out the fire extinguisher during this session, he’d had to do that one too many times in the past with students and their fire based quirks.

“Why wouldn’t it be? No one, and I mean no one, cared about me when I was quirkless. I know that Aizawa and Nezu have said that no one here would think of me any differently if I was still quirkless but… It’s hard to believe that still. I keep thinking about why I wanted to be a hero and… can I even use my justification for it still? I’m not quirkless anymore, I apparently never was quirkless, would me being a hero even be helpful for the quirkless community anymore? Can… can I even make a difference for them…?” There it is. The root of the issue, at least one of them. “Despite the fact that you now have a quirk, you lived nearly all of your life up until this point quirkless. You having a quirk now doesn’t invalidate any of your experiences, nor does it mean that you can’t use your experiences as motivation to be a hero. It’s a regrettable fact that most of Japan has negative views on the quirkless population, but wanting to be a hero to make things better for them is a noble goal. Who knows? Maybe your experiences could even lead to more quirkless youths trying to become heroes in their own rights. I, for one, think that you have the potential to be a wonderful hero. Regardless of your newly discovered quirk. I’m sure Aizawa has said this to you before, but quirks are just tools. They shouldn’t define a person’s worth, and they most certainly don’t define your worth, Izuku.”

“You’re just saying that to make me feel better…” Denial. Looks like they were dealing with the stages of grief a little bit out of order. Inui can work with this. “I can assure you, while there are a lot of counselors who will tell their patient whatever it is they want to hear, that is not how I do things. I mean every word I say here to you. So, with that being said, I know you told Nezu that you will be a hero. But is that something that you still, truly, want?” The shock in the teen’s face was more than enough to give Inui his answer, but he needed Izuku to say it himself. “Of course I do! It’s… it’s all I’ve ever wanted… I just… what if I’m too broken…?” Inui reached across the table to gently pry the teens hands out of his hair, as he had taken fistfuls of it while clenching his eyes shut, most likely to prevent himself from shedding tears.

“Look at me, Izuku.” A shake of the head, squeezing his eyes shut tighter. “Please, open your eyes and look at me. I promised you that this was a safe place, I won’t judge you for being emotional.” A shaky, bone weary sigh before misty green eyes are looking up at him from behind forest green curls. “You are not broken, Izuku. You have been wronged by so many people who were supposed to protect you. That is not your fault. Despite everything you have been through, you are still here. You’re still fighting for your dream. It’s okay to need some help along the way, even Heroes need someone that they can call a Hero. You’re a good kid, a strong one too. But you don’t have to carry all this weight alone anymore. You are not alone anymore.”

And with that, the dam breaks, and Inui finds himself cradling the teen as he slowly falls apart with heart wrenching sobs. There’s still a lot of work to be done if Izuku is to fully heal from what he’s been through, but this is a start, and Inui will be there every step of the way to help him.

Chapter Text

Shouta has honestly been dreading this day ever since he dragged Midoriya Inko out of her son’s hospital room. The trial had started a week ago, exactly two months since Izuku threw himself from a rooftop after a lifetime of suffering. It had been going smoothly, with Nezu himself having shown up to testify in Izuku’s favor. The recent shuttering of the Aldera School District was provided as evidence for Inko’s neglect towards her son, as she allowed him to return to those schools despite knowing full well how her son was being treated on a daily basis. Nezu had brought up the fact that Izuku had only ever been tested for the extra toe joint, and that was not a reliable indicator for quirklessness in this day and age with the ever increasing complexity of quirks and their manifestation requirements. The quirk factor blood test that Recovery Girl had done for Izuku was shown, as well as the results of the ultrasound procedure to search for an appendix. It was clear to everyone present at the trial that Midoriya Inko, at the very least, had taken one look at an outdated indicator for quirklessness and washed her hands of anything to do with her son once her husband left them.

All attempts to contact Midoriya Hisashi had been met with failure, either because he actively avoided being contacted, or because the information that had been provided was horrendously out of date. Regardless, Midoriya Inko’s attorney had yet to call anyone to testify on the woman’s behalf. That was until today. As Shouta sat in the back of the courtroom with Izuku, Nezu, and Hitoshi, he watched as the woman’s lawyer stood with a smug look on his face. As the courtroom settled into silence, the man cleared his throat to address the judge. “Your honor, the defense would like to call Bakugo Mitsuki and her son Bakugo Katsuki to the stand.” Shouta narrowed his eyes at the man before he turned his gaze towards Izuku, who had instantly tensed up at the names that were called. The teen was wide eyed as he watched a woman with ashy blonde hair and her son stood and made their way towards the front of the courtroom. Izuku’s eyes were trained on the woman’s son as he let out a shaky breath and a whisper of “Kacchan..” and suddenly Shouta realized who this woman and her son were. One of the notes that the teen had written flashed through his mind as he placed a hand on Izuku’s shoulder to keep him grounded in the moment.

‘Kacchan,

I know I’ve been too clingy with you all these years, and I’m sorry. You have what it takes to be a great hero, and I really hope you can get into UA when you go to take the entrance exam. I won’t get in your way anymore, I promise. I just wished that we had stayed friends all these years.. You were really the only person at Aldera that I admired, your quirk is amazing and you have such a strong drive to be the best you can be.. I know it might be selfish of me to say this… but I’m glad that you were the only one who seemed to notice what was going on with me.. It really meant a lot to me to see that you still cared, even if you didn’t want to say anything to me about it because of what our classmates would think. I’m sorry I couldn’t keep the promise we made when we were kids, but I’m sure you wouldn’t need a quirkless Deku like me to be on a hero team with you. With Love, Deku
P.S. - Please make sure that the police look into what my mother was doing to me. I can’t stand the thought of her getting away with everything she did to me.’

So, that teen was the mysterious ‘Kacchan’ that Izuku had been extremely tight-lipped about. Shouta was not impressed. Bakugo Katsuki had a scowl plastered on his face as he basically stomped his way up to the podium behind his mother. His disdain for the teen’s expression was only beaten out by the anger he felt at seeing Midoriya Inko’s smug grin as she sat next to her lawyer. He had tuned out the questions being directed to Bakugo Mitsuki until he heard her scoff in response to one of the questions.

“Honestly, I haven’t the slightest idea as to why my son and I were called to her defense. I haven’t spoken to Inko more than a passing greeting for nearly six years. We drifted out of touch when she stopped bringing Izuku around to visit with Katsuki. In fact, my son and I have been trying to get an investigation opened into Inko for the past two years but no one would take us seriously as soon as we mentioned that Izuku was quirkless!” Well then, this was certainly an interesting turn of events. If the look of abject horror on Inko’s face was anything to go off of, she hadn’t expected this development and neither had her lawyer if his frantic scrambling to ask for any redeeming information from Bakugo Mitsuki was anything to go off of. A swift strike of the judge’s gavel was enough to reign in the shocked murmurs of all those present in the courtroom, and Bakugo Mitsuki was sent back to her seat in the crowd. Had her son spoken already? Where was he? Then, the prosecuting attorney spoke up.

“Please state your name, age, and quirk for the record.”

“Bakugo Katsuki, 15, Explosion.”

“And could you tell us your relation to the defendant?”

“I have no relation to that woman. She’s not the Aunty Inko that I knew when I was little.”

A sharp gasp of breath from Izuku to his left made Shouta tighten his grip on the teen’s shoulder ever so slightly. There were a few ways that this could go, and Shouta wasn’t sure that he liked any of the directions it could go.

“Could you elaborate on that please?”

“Tch… Do I need to repeat myself or something? I stopped considering her an Aunt when I noticed De-, I mean Izuku, walking around with a limp about 3 years ago. I followed him home one day and heard Inko screaming at him about her ‘ruined marriage’. I couldn’t see what was going on inside the apartment but I had a gut feeling that she was hitting him.”

Izuku was trembling now. If it weren't for the quirk suppressing bracelet Nezu had given the teen, there would’ve likely been smoke curling from his now clenched fists.

“Did you have any evidence to back up your suspicions of physical abuse?”

“I noticed things about Izuku at school. He… he wasn’t treated well by our classmates or teachers. Hell… until the day I followed him home I was one of the people who bullied him. But he would show up to school with bruises or cuts that I knew for a fact he didn’t have the day before. Especially when coming back to school after the weekends or holiday breaks were over.”

“Just to be clear, you are openly admitting to actively participating in the bullying of Midoriya Izuku?”

“Yeah, that’s what I said. I stopped after I heard Inko yelling at him.”

“And what steps, if any, did you take in regards to ending the suspected abuse?”

“My mother and I went to at least 5 different police stations around Musutafu to try and file a report. We’d get them to start filing a report, but as soon as we would mention that Izuku was quirkless, they would just thank us for the information and wave us off. Nothing ever came from those reports. We had started to look for a private investigator to gather evidence of the abuse, but all this happened before we could find one.”

“Thank you Bakugo-kun. One more question for you. Were you aware that Midoriya Izuku made an attempt at ending his own life because of the abuse he suffered at the hands of his mother and those at Aldera? If so, are you speaking here today as an attempt to clear your own conscience for the part you played in the bullying?”

What the hell kind of question was that? This was a trial for Izuku's mother, not a witch hunt to crucify a kid who had bullied him!

“No. I know I fucked up, and I have to make peace with that on my own. I was unaware of Izuku trying to… but it doesn't’ surprise me.”

“And why is that, Bakugo-kun?”

“Because one of our classmates, I don’t even remember his name but his quirk let him extend his fingers out, had suicide baited Izuku that day before Inko was arrested. I remember the exact words he said.”

“Would you be willing to relay what was said to the jury?”

“Yeah. He said, and I quote, ‘Why don’t you just put everyone out of their misery, and take a swan dive off a roof? Who knows, you might even get a quirk in your next life… If you don’t go to hell for being born quirkless, that is.’ I had half a mind to throttle the guy when I heard that, but I knew it would cause more problems if I did.”

“Thank you, Bakugo-kun. The Prosecution has no further questions, your honor, and would like to present one final piece of evidence before moving onto our closing arguments.”

Shouta watched Bakugo Katsuki step back away from the podium and back into the crowd, but not before the teen made direct eye contact with him. The slightest hint of surprise was evident in the teen’s gaze as it flicked to Shouta’s left, directly to Izuku. The eye contact was over as quickly as it had started, with Bakugo making his way to sit next to his mother. Shouta turned his gaze back to the front of the courtroom, where the prosecution was displaying a still image of the note that Izuku had left for his mother. Those words drew shocked gasps from everyone in the courtroom as they had a chance to read them.

‘Mother.

I’d say I’m sorry for what I’m about to do to you, but we both know that you wanted to get rid of me as soon as Father left you. It was always my fault that your marriage fell apart, right? Because I was born a useless, quirkless freak. Right? Well you’ll be delighted to know that I’m taking the advice of a classmate and taking a swan dive off of a roof. So the most you’ll have to do for me will be a cremation. Not that you would’ve bothered with a proper funeral to begin with. If there's at least, one simple little fucking thing I can ask of you, it’s that you give my ashes to Aunty Mitsuki and Uncle Masaru. Cause at least they didn’t care that I was quirkless and were still fucking concerned about my well being before you cut them out of MY LIFE. I just hope that you feel some bit of guilt for making my life a living hell for the past six years. But we both know that won’t be the case. Right, Inko?

Burn In Hell,
Your Son, Midoriya Izuku’

It was a quick affair after that. The closing arguments were made, and it was clear that Inko’s attorney had lost the motivation to defend his client. The jury was given the chance of time to deliberate, and after only five minutes they had reached a verdict.

“On the charges of child abuse and neglect, how do you find the defendant?”

“Guilty, your honor. By way of unanimous decision.”

Shouta watched as Midoriya Inko was hauled away to live out the next 15 years of her life in a prison cell. In his opinion, she deserved a far worse punishment, but that was why Shouta wasn’t the one in charge of making laws and punishments. Nezu had offered to take Izuku and Hitoshi back to UA while Shouta remained at the courthouse to testify for a separate case he was involved in. One regarding a certain former vigilante from Naruhata that had recently returned from his time in America, but that wasn’t important right now. As Shouta was walking to the next courtroom he would be sitting in for an indeterminate amount of time, he was stopped in his tracks when he heard a voice call out to him. The voice of Bakugo Katsuki.

“Oi! You’re the one who's been looking after Izuku lately, right?” Shouta turned around to look at the teen, eyebrow raised in question as he did so. “I don’t see how that’s important to you kid. You did openly admit to being one of his bullies after all.” The way Bakugo scrunched up his nose in annoyance gave Shouta the slightest bit of entertainment as he waited for the teen to formulate a response. After a few moments and a shaky exhale, Bakugo spoke up once again. “Can I talk to him? Please? I… I fucked up a lot of things and today was the first time I’ve seen him in months.” Shouta was about to respond that he would have to ask if Izuku was up to seeing the teen, when his phone went off with a notification. A text from Hitoshi.

Purple Gremlin Child - 2:47 P.M. ; Heads up Dad, Izuku just had a breakdown in the car about that blonde kid. I had to use my quirk on him to get him to calm down but… Izu seemed super pissed that the guy was at the trial.

Well. That certainly complicates things. “No. No, I don't think it would be good for Izuku to see you, Bakugo. If you want to apologize to him you’ll need to find your own way to get in touch with him.” Without a further word to the conversation, Shouta stalked away from the now speechless teen.

Four hours. It took four hours for a judge to take one look at The Crawler’s case and toss it out the window. The whole affair could’ve been done via an email if there were no plans to indict the former vigilante for his actions in Naruhata. As Shouta stepped into his home, two things were on his mind. First was how much he hated the bureaucracy of the justice system, the second was a bit trickier. As Midoriya Hisashi had clearly abandoned Izuku, and no attempts to contact the man were successful, Shouta was given indefinite guardianship over Izuku as his foster father. However, the option of adoption was on the table now that Midoriya Inko had been sentenced. So, as Shouta walked into his living room to see Hitoshi and Izuku on the couch playing a game together, he decided that he would need to have this talk with Izuku sooner rather than later.

“Izuku, do you think we could talk for a minute?” Shouta couldn’t help but internally wince as the teen in question turned around with a panicked look on his face. Yeah, Shouta definitely could have worded that better. “It’s nothing bad, kid, I promise. We just gotta talk about something real quick.” Shouta knew that Hitoshi was giving him the ‘I know exactly what you’re doing’ look, but resolutely decided to ignore his goblin of a son. Shouta led Izuku over to the dinner table, absentmindedly noting that Lunch Rush must’ve provided the teens with dinner if the smell of Katsudon was anything to go off of, and sat across from the teen who was nervously worrying his bottom lip between his teeth. Shouta waited a moment for the kid to calm himself down a bit, before he started speaking.

“Like I said, it’s nothing bad. However, seeing as your mother has been sentenced and your father has so far been unable to be contacted, I have been granted indefinite guardianship over you as a foster parent.” Shouta could practically see the gears turning in Izuku’s head as he processed the words being spoken. “That being said. There is always the option of adoption.” Green eyes snap up to stare at Shouta in bewilderment as he continues speaking. “It’s your decision, ultimately, but I promised that I would look after you. Regardless of what you decide, I will always be here for you, Izuku.” Silence stretches out for several moments before Shouta notices the tears starting to fall from Izuku’s eyes. The kid sounds so hopeful when he speaks next. “You… you want to keep me…?” Shouta’s eyebrows furrow at the phrasing, the kid’s not wrong, but it’s not like Izuku is some stray cat he found while on patrol… Well, he did find Izuku while on patrol, but that’s besides the point. “Not exactly how I’d phrase it, but yeah kid… I would be honored to consider you my son.”

In what is becoming a very common occurrence for Shouta, he finds his arms suddenly full of a sobbing teenager. Shouta smiles softly at Izuku as he wraps his arms around the teen’s shoulders, letting the kid work through his emotions at his own pace. Izuku’s response is so quiet that Shouta nearly misses the teen even speaking.

“Yes… please, I don’t want to go anywhere else…”

Chapter Text

It’s late October now. Izuku can scarcely believe how quickly time has passed by since that night. Until his mother’s… No, she’s not his mother anymore, Inko’s trial, Izuku had been existing in a sort of limbo-state. Never really internalizing anything that happened unless it was important. He met Present Mic and a 2nd Year Hero Student, Togata Mirio, and learned that he could teleport between the flames generated by his quirk. He isolated himself for nearly two weeks straight by staying in his room unless he absolutely had to leave it. When Izuku finally decided to leave the house for a day, Shouta had taken him to the teacher’s lounge at UA for a few hours. While he was there he was offered personal tutoring from Nezu, which was going great in Izuku’s opinion, and he actually had a proper conversation with Present Mic as well as Midnight! Then he met Yagi-san, which still felt… odd, to say the least. All Might apparently felt guilty about what he said to Izuku, good he deserves to feel guilty for that, and had asked the man to check in on Izuku while he went to UA for a meeting with Nezu-sensei. Then he had his first session with Hound Dog, which went… not the greatest. Izuku spent most of it crying, if he’s being honest.

Then there was the trial. Seeing Kacchan, no remember what Inui-san said about holding onto problematic affections, Bakugo again was difficult. Same with seeing Mitsuki as well. To learn that the two of them knew and tried to do something about Inko’s abuse felt… strange. Lastly, Izuku got adopted. It was admittedly a bit more anticlimactic than he had expected, Nezu-sensei had gotten his paws on the adoption papers and had them fast-tracked, but he was Aizawa Izuku now. He has a family, a proper family, now. He hasn’t called Shouta ‘Dad’ yet, but that was more out of a crippling feeling of awkwardness than anything else. And he has a brother now too! Izuku was an only child for all of his life, so he wasn’t sure how the whole ‘sibling’ thing worked, but Hitoshi is super nice to him! Which leads Izuku to where he is now.

Sitting in the living room on one of the couches, on a Saturday… with nothing to do. He was caught up with his lessons from Nezu-sensei, he had quirk training tomorrow with Shouta, yet today? Nothing, nada, and zilch. No plans whatsoever and it left Izuku feeling… bored as hell. Izuku hadn’t felt boredom in months! He had already filled up two new notebooks with analysis of his own quirk and the quirks of the UA faculty, he had even gotten permission from Hitoshi to analyze his quirk too! Yet, Izuku had absolutely nothing to keep him occupied for the day. Hitoshi was in a similar boat, having sprawled himself across the loveseat across from Izuku about an hour ago, mindlessly scrolling through his phone while looking at cat videos. Well, that’s what Izuku assumed Hitoshi was looking at, quite frankly Izuku was the only one in the house that didn’t have an obsession with the fluffy little creatures. Don’t get him wrong, Izuku adores cats, but definitely not to the same degree that Shouta and Hitoshi did. Honestly, it had confused Izuku why there were no cats in the house until Present Mic had told him that Shouta was just too busy to look after a cat most of the time, so the man had contented himself with spoiling any stray cats he came across while patrolling. He’d even been let in on the secret behind the ‘rivalry’ between Shouta and Vlad King, and Izuku nearly passed out from laughter when he learned that it was because Vlad King liked dogs more than cats.

“What’s so funny, Izu?” Izuku lazily turned his gaze to Hitoshi, who was wearing a shit eating grin with an eyebrow raised. Had Izuku started laughing again? He hadn’t even realized it. “Oh, uh nothing really. Just remembered why Shouta hates Vlad King.” The response caused Hitoshi to snort in amusement before he rolled off the loveseat in an overly exaggerated manner. Izuku watched in amusement as Hitoshi dragged himself up off the floor before letting out an exasperated sigh before Izuku’s brother turned to look at him. “I’m bored Izu, wanna do something?” Tilting his head in confusion at the sudden question, Izuku had to seriously think about an answer. “Uh… I don’t know? I… I never really got out much to begin with so I don’t really know what’s considered a fun activity. Anything you have in mind Toshi?”

And that was how Izuku found himself being dragged out to the Kiyashi Ward Shopping Mall after an excruciatingly long lecture about what constitutes a ‘fun activity’. If Izuku was being honest, he felt a little overwhelmed by all the people around him and had absolutely no idea where to start at the mall. So, Izuku just contented himself with being dragged around by Hitoshi to the first store the lavender haired teen wanted to stop at. Some sort of clothing store that seemed to specialize in more… eccentric styles of clothing. Izuku couldn’t say that he’d ever considered punk as his style but some of the clothes that Hitoshi had shown him had caught his eye. However, the things that Izuku found himself constantly drawn back to were the ear piercings. Well… the clip on ones at the very least, Izuku didn’t know the first thing about how to get his ears pierced so that idea would have to be put on the back burner for a while. The two teens had ended up leaving the store with a pretty decent haul, Hitoshi getting an overly cartoonish cat mug, and Izuku getting a few graphic tees along with a sleeveless hoodie and a pair of parachute pants. Afterwards Hitoshi led Izuku to the food court so they could get some lunch, and that was where everything went wrong.

They had just sat down to eat when they heard a jeering voice calling over to them. “Oh hey guys look! It’s Shinsou, and it looks like he managed to con some poor sucker into going on a date with him!” Izuku knew that tone of voice all too well, the tone of a bully. If the way Hitoshi had tensed across from him was any indicator, he knew exactly who the voice belonged to. Steeling himself for a confrontation, Izuku turned around to glare at the trio of teens that were smirking derisively at Hitoshi. “We’re not on a date, he’s my brother. He wanted to show me some stuff at the mall, so that’s why we're here. You’re clearly making my brother uncomfortable, please leave us alone.” The way the trio of teens drew back in surprise and disgust made Izuku’s blood boil to a point where he had to actively will himself to keep his quirk from igniting his hair. “Who the hell would willingly want to hang out with a villain like Shinsou?” Oh Izuku was heavily debating whether or not he’d be able to get away with throttling these guys now. With Nezu-sensei’s help he probably could, but he’d have to deal with Shouta’s disappointed look for letting quirkists rile him up to the point of committing felony assault. “Yeah, he probably brainwashed this guy into thinking that they’re siblings. Honestly, I don’t know why you’re allowed outside without your muzzle, Shinsou.”

“In my defense, I did ask them to leave. It’s not my fault they didn’t listen.” Izuku replied as he sat in the security office of the mall while nursing a black eye with a very exasperated looking Detective Tsukauchi and a smug looking Shouta. Huh, Izuku had been expecting the man to be upset that he got into a fight with a trio of teenagers at the mall. Guess he was wrong on that one. A tired sigh drew Izuku’s attention back to the Detective who had taken his hat off to run a hand through his hair in exasperation. “Well, while I certainly can’t condone your actions, I understand that the situation was complicated. You’ll get a warning for this because you’re still just a teen, but please try not to get into a fist fight with other teenagers next time they start spouting quirkist nonsense, okay Izuku?” Izuku let a beaming smile split across his face as he nodded enthusiastically to the Detective, who just shook his head in defeat but had a small smirk as well. Soon, Izuku found himself next to Hitoshi as Shouta walked them back home. Izuku knew he was going to get a scolding from Recovery Girl later since Shouta had asked her to heal up Izuku’s black eye, but honestly? Izuku didn’t regret a single second of what happened today. He got some new clothes, got to spend some time with his brother, and got to teach some bigoted teens a lesson!

“Just so you know, Izuku… You did good standing up for Hitoshi like that, but I saw the security footage of the fight. Your form was sloppy. So, we’ll be doing some more hand to hand training tomorrow after we work on your quirk.” Ah. Maybe Izuku was starting to regret his actions, just a little.

Chapter Text

Bakugo Katsuki knew from a young age that he was destined for greatness. He had it drilled into him by those around him for years that he would be the next #1 Hero, even greater than All Might. The world practically revolved around Katsuki for so long that he actually started to believe it would always be that way. His quirk is powerful, his grades were perfect, and all of those extras at school would constantly praise him for those facts. He thought nothing would go wrong for him, that he’d be able to achieve his dreams without any sort of struggle because he’s Bakugo fucking Katsuki and he’s the best of the best. Everything was perfect.

“Kacchan… The doctor said I… I’m quirkless…”

Then, it wasn’t perfect. Katsuki didn’t even know when exactly it started. Everyone had turned on Izuku and he didn’t know what else to do but go along with everyone else. All the adults were saying that Izuku was weaker than everyone else, that he couldn’t be a hero without a quirk. Why would the adults be wrong? They knew more than Katsuki did back then, so surely they were right? Katsuki wasn’t sure when Izuku became Deku to him and everyone else, even the teachers. When had Deku become nothing more than an afterthought, instead of his first friend? Why did it take Katsuki so long to realize that something was wrong about all of it? Would he have ever realized that anything was wrong if he hadn’t heard what he did that day?

“Mom, please! It hurts, please stop! What did I do wrong?!”

“You were born a useless, quirkless, freak! It’s your fault that Hisashi left me, you worthless brat! Why couldn’t you have been normal like everyone else?!”

When did Aunty Inko become so cruel? Had she always been like that, and just hid it because she knew it was wrong? Why did it take Katsuki hearing that for him to realize that it wasn’t fair for Izuku to be treated differently just because he didn’t have a quirk? Those words haunted Katsuki’s thoughts for weeks as he started to notice things about the greenette that he hadn’t before. The bruises and cuts that the nerd didn’t have the day before, the limp he started walking with at the start of Junior High, the black eye he came to school with that day.

Suddenly, the praise from the extras around him started feeling less satisfying and more like meaningless ass-kissing. The way the teachers constantly praised him for his quirk, they weren’t even supposed to use quirks at school! Why had he just thought everything was normal for so long when it was so clearly fucked up?! What kind of hero would Katsuki be if he had just let all of it happen without saying anything about it? Yet, the one time he tried to get someone involved to stop the extras from picking on Izuku, no one listened to him. The teachers had hung on Katsuki’s every word before, but when he wanted them to actually do their jobs and help Izuku?

“You shouldn’t trouble yourself with a quirkless like Midoriya. He’ll just drag you down with how he keeps provoking his classmates, and you wouldn’t want to get a mark on your permanent record would you Bakugo? Afterall, hero schools don’t let kids in if they have marks on their records!”

It was one thing after another. He couldn’t stop the extras from hurting Izuku. He couldn’t stop Inko from hurting Izuku. He couldn’t make the teachers stop ignoring everything that was going on. Katsuki couldn’t save Izuku. It didn’t stop him from trying, no his old hag was livid when he told her what he overheard from Inko, and the two of them went around for 2 years trying to get someone to put a stop to it. But no one ever did anything about it. They had looked all over for a private investigator that would take the case, and when they had finally found one, they were approached by a lawyer asking them to testify in Inko’s defense. Something had happened, and Katsuki wouldn’t learn what until the day of the trial.

“One more question for you. Were you aware that Midoriya Izuku made an attempt at ending his own life because of the abuse he suffered at the hands of his mother and those at Aldera?”

Fucking what? It was bad enough to hear Fingers tell Izuku to take a swan dive off a roof, but to learn that the nerd actually did it? That just added to the guilt. Katsuki wasn’t supposed to feel guilt, he was the best! The best don’t feel guilty about anything! Yet, Aldera got torn to shreds by the police and the principal of UA. All of Katsuki’s teachers were arrested for quirk discrimination and encouraging illegal quirk usage. A few of the extras were even arrested, including Fingers. Inko was found guilty and sentenced to 15 years in prison, yet she deserved so much worse than that. As for Katsuki?

“No. No, I don't think it would be good for Izuku to see you, Bakugo. If you want to apologize to him you’ll need to find your own way to get in touch with him.”

And fuck if that didn’t sting. In Katsuki’s books that hobo looking motherfucker was already a better parent than Inko had ever been, but all Katsuki wanted to do was apologize! Yet... Katsuki couldn’t get that expression that Izuku had worn in the courtroom out of his head. When Katsuki was walking back to his seat in the stands, he only made eye contact with the nerd for a moment, but that expression held so much anger in it that Katsuki was stunned still for a second. And that was the first and last time that Katsuki had seen Izuku in nearly a year. Every attempt the blonde had made at trying to find the greenette was a bust. He’d even waited near UA for a few hours after remembering that Nezu, the fucking principal of the school, had said that he was giving the nerd personal tutoring lessons at the trial. Nothing ever came of that, and Katsuki once again had gone home without any progress made towards finding Izuku.

So you can imagine Katsuki’s surprise at seeing a familiar mop of green curls sitting in the back of an auditorium on the day of the UA Entrance Exam. Katsuki’s knee-jerk reaction to seeing the nerd was to march his way over and demand to know where the hell he’s been, but that was the old Katsuki. The one who thought that he was entitled to everyone’s secrets, that no one had any right to avoid him. That no one was better than him. He knows better now. Katsuki’s good, damn good with his quirk, but he knows he’s not the best of the best anymore. If things had been different, Katsuki might have raged at Izuku for even daring to think he could make it into UA as a Heroics student, but now? Katsuki is just relieved to see the greenette still trying to be a hero, despite everything that’s happened.

The written exams were a breeze for Katsuki, he didn’t have perfect grades for nothing, and Katsuki put his pencil down triumphantly only an hour and a half after the exam began. He turned to look towards where he had seen Izuku sitting… only to see that the seat was empty. Katsuki furrowed his brow in confusion as he got up to hand over the exam sheet to the proctor, some bony looking blonde guy with admittedly intimidating blue eyes who Ktasuki didn’t recognize. Must’ve been some retired Pro or something, maybe just a regular teacher for the Gen Ed classes at UA. As Katsuki walked down the halls of UA towards the cafeteria for the lunches that were being provided to examinees, he took a second to allow himself to revel in the fact that he was here at long last. UA, the top hero school in the country, the same school that All Might and a bunch of other Top 10 Heroes had graduated from. And Katsuki would add to that list, even if he didn’t particularly feel like the next #1 Hero anymore.

The cafeteria is empty when Katsuki gets there, so he just grabbed one of the bento boxes and made his way to the auditorium for the Heroics Exam. The auditorium was similarly devoid of occupants, save for two individuals. Down towards the front of the room sat some brunette with an overly cartoonish looking blush, scarfing down her food like her life depended on it even after she glanced up to give Katsuki a look that he had only ever seen on stray animals fighting over food. Katsuki merely shrugged at her look before making his way to the top row of seats, only to stop dead in his tracks at the glare he was receiving from the other person in the room. Katsuki could swear that he felt his blood run cold at the sight of Izuku glaring at him with such... disdain. For the life of him, Katsuki couldn’t remember a time when he had ever seen the nerd angry before the day of the trial. It was only for a moment that Katsuki let himself be startled, before he resumed his march up to the top row of seats. Stopping next to Izuku’s seat, Katsuki pulled out the chair next to the nerd and dropped into it with a huff. “Oi, nerd. Where the fuck have you been?”

“None of your business, Katsuki.” The vitriol that Katsuki found in Izuku’s voice left Katsuki speechless, as he watched the greenette get up out of his seat and start making his way to sit somewhere else. It took Katsuki all of five seconds to properly comprehend the fact that the nerd didn’t call him ‘Kacchan’ before he was snarling and stomping his way after Izuku. “What the fuck is your problem, huh?! It’s been months and I’ve only seen you once! Are you fucking avoiding me De-.., fuck, Izuku?!” For the briefest second, Katsuki felt a bit of hope spark to life in his chest when Izuku froze mid-step. Only for it to die as the greenette whirled around while scowling and mouth open to say something, only for a voice from behind Izuku to throw a wrench in the entire conversation. “Hey man, why don’t you leave him alone? You’re clearly bothering him!” Katsuki had to bite his tongue as Pink Cheeks shouldered her way in between him and the nerd. Katsuki had opened his mouth to tell her to fuck off, but the sounds of more applicants entering the auditorium caused him to snap his mouth shut. With a scoff, Katsuki turns around to make his way towards the back of the room again, all the while silently fuming that someone got in the way of him trying to get answers out of Izuku.

—

If Izuku’s being honest, he kind of zoned out during Yamada-san’s explanation of the Heroics Entrance Exam. His encounter with Katsuki just kept playing on a loop in the back of his mind the whole time. It wasn’t until some guy with blue hair and glasses had interrupted the explanation to try and call out a ‘mistake’ on the informational pamphlet regarding a fourth robot for the exam, that Izuku finally refocused. The exam contents themselves seemed way too simple, in Izuku’s opinion. Like, how could the only thing being tested be villain takedowns? There’s so much more to being a hero than that! So, as Izuku steps off of the bus that had taken him to the testing site, the greenette has the sneaking suspicion that Nezu-sensei has something else in store for the Exam. And something tells Izuku that he is not going to like it, as he stares up at the massive gate to Ground Beta while the other examinees in his testing site all take their last chances to stretch and prepare themselves for what’s to come.

Chapter Text

“LET’S GET THIS SHOW STARTED LISTENERS!”

It had been drilled into Izuku during his training with Shouta, that there were no countdowns in real life heroics. So that’s why Izuku bolted towards the opening door of Ground Beta when Yamada-san shouted for the test to begin. The rest of the examinees seemed confused as Izuku hurled a fireball through the gateway, only for them to break into motion when Izuku leapt through the flames to get ahead of the pack. The first robot Izuku came across was a 3-Point Bot, skittering down the side of a building like some demented scorpion made out of steel, as it raised its tail mounted laser to fire at Izuku. The charge-up was a bit too slow though, as Izuku slung a fireball straight at the thing’s head and kept running further into the testing site, leaving the crumpled wreckage of the robot on the ground without a second thought. From there things started to blur for Izuku as he tore through a pack of 2-Point Bots, just narrowly avoiding the shimmering blue laser that had been sent his way by one of the other examinees that had caught up to him. Izuku just sent the other an incredulous glare, as the blonde teen started ranting in French of all languages, before snapping back to attention in order to grab the back of someone’s shirt and yank them away from a mechanical claw that came dangerously close to taking their arm off.

This pattern repeated for several minutes, with Izuku leaping between fireballs where he could in order to descend upon more of the faux-villains, and pulling other examinees out of precarious positions that they had gotten themselves into. Despite Izuku having prevented quite a few of them from being seriously injured, many of the people Izuku helped just went on to stomp away from him while complaining about him ‘trying to sabotage them’. Izuku decided to ignore those comments though, and the swirling mass of anxiety they gave him, because seriously who would risk their spot at UA by sabotaging the other examinees? The rhythm that Izuku fell into was similar to the one he often found himself in when sparring with Shouta or Hitoshi. Izuku could almost hear the teasing lilt of Hitoshi’s voice as he narrowly avoided getting clocked over the head by a 1-Point Bot that had jumped off of a nearby rooftop to make an attack towards him. ‘I am so going to get questioned about my lack of situational awareness when I get home later…’ Izuku thought to himself as he scrambled back to his feet after driving a flame-wreathed fist through the abdomen of the robot that had jumped him. How many points was that now? Izuku had lost count somewhere along the way after he had shoved a blue haired boy, the one that had interrupted the exam explanation, out of the way of a 3-Point Bot that had lost its head yet was still rampaging around until it collapsed in a heap of melted paneling and wires. Was that five minutes ago, or two?

“ONLY 3 MINUTES LEFT LISTENERS!”

Oh. Oh. Has it already been that long? Izuku shook his head to gather his thoughts for a moment, only to immediately lose his balance as the ground violently shook around him and the sound of crashing metal rang out from behind him. Whirling around to face the source of the disturbance, Izuku felt the blood drain from his face at the sight of the outrageously massive 0-Point Bot. Izuku could practically hear the cackling of Nezu-sensei from wherever the rat was hiding. ‘Oh gods, I’m starting to sound like Shouta now…’ Putting aside that revelation, Izuku promptly turned away from the 0-Pointer to resolutely avoid that headache, only to freeze when he heard a voice call out from behind him.

“I’m stuck, someone help!”

Izuku’s moving before he can think about what he’s doing. Fireballs are thrown as far as they can be to the point that Izuku can still feel the pathway between them, and Izuku leaps as often as he can until he’s next to the girl who had stepped between him and Katsuki back in the auditorium. Well, at least now Izuku can repay her for her earlier kindness. “Grab my hand and hold on tight!” Izuku waits for a moment until the girl grabs his hand before he ignites his other hand to hurl another fireball down a nearby alley that’s out of the path of the 0-Pointer that is still getting closer. In a flash of emerald flames, Izuku leaps with the girl into the alley and out of any potential danger. Despite the relative safety of their new position, Izuku can’t help the frustration he feels simmering in his chest. Today was supposed to be a good day, yet Izuku has been dealing with headache after headache. First it was Yagi-san trying to give him some new All Might merch, which Izuku would have been excited for a year ago, then it was seeing Katsuki strut into the auditorium for the written portion of the exam as if he fucking owned the place. Then it was the arguably minor inconvenience of him dropping his bento, thus ruining half of his lunch, and finally it was Katsuki trying to pry information out of Izuku that he has no business knowing only minutes before the start of the Heroics Exam. All the while, the frustration just kept building and building until...

SNAP

Izuku strides out into the street, hair alight and raging wildly in time with his frustration as he picks up a small piece of concrete rubble and hurls it at the back of the 0-Pointer. A soft clink can be heard as the massive robot halts its movement in order to turn back to face Izuku. Taking a deep breath, Izuku drops to one knee and claps his hands together as they ignite in a burst of emerald flame brighter than any he had produced so far. That simmering frustration finally boiling over into a roaring anger as Izuku parts his hands, a long strip of flame connecting them as it curves at its ends to resemble the shape of a longbow. With a deep inhale, Izuku draws his left hand back, a massive arrow forming as he does so until he’s pulled his arm back as far as it can go. The 0-Pointer approaches slowly as it draws its massive fist back, ready to flatten Izuku where he stands. Time seems to slow to a crawl for Izuku as he feels the muscles in his arms straining against the tension of the bow in his hands.

One, the 0-Pointer lurches its fist forward.

Two, Izuku releases the breath he was holding and closes his eyes, a stream of smoke exiting his mouth as he does so.

Three, the sound of the brunette screaming for him to get out of the way.

Four. Release.

The Dragon’s Teeth clamp down on their prey.

Izuku’s eyes snap open as he lets the arrow fly toward the 0-Pointer, watching as it pierces into the robot’s head and explodes the machine from within in a burst of emerald light. With its metal plating melting as it’s torn asunder, the 0-Pointer lurches to the left, falling directly into a building. The dust and debris explode outward into the street as Izuku stands from his crouched position, and only then does Izuku notice the pain. Once he does notice it, the world around Izuku starts to grow dark as he tips backwards and he hears the now muffled voice of Yamada-san sound out throughout the testing site.

“AND THAT’S TIME, LISTENERS! THE EXAM IS OVER!”

—

Shouta bolted out of the observation room as soon as he heard Hizashi announce the end of the exam, with Nemuri hot on his heels as he made his way to Recovery Girl’s office. He knew that Izuku was going to do something horribly reckless during the exam, and of course it just had to be taking on the goddamn 0-Pointer. The move he used to take the gargantuan robot down was something that Shouta had been working on with Izuku for the past two months ever since they decided to start experimenting with the malleability of the teen’s flames. So far, Izuku had only been able to manifest the longbow a handful of times and it had consistently afflicted Izuku with severe quirk exhaustion every single time. He had warned Izuku to not take any risks today, that he could always take the recommendation exam in two weeks if he didn’t pass the general admittance exam, but of course Izuku just had to go and do his usual self-sacrificial thing only to end up hurt. Again. Even though Shouta wasn’t allowed to grade the performance of either of his sons, he was certain that both Hitoshi and Izuku would pass with flying colors. Though Shouta would be lying if he didn’t feel slightly off-put by how intently Yagi had been watching Izuku’s performance, he just hopes it’s out of regret for what had happened when the two had first met. Yet still, all of that was pushed to the back burner as Shouta tore open the door to Recovery Girl’s office only to stop dead in his tracks as he watched his son trying to bat away the nurse’s cane as she scolds him on his recklessness.

“I swear, you are going to give your father a heart attack with your reckless attitude, young man! You are just as bad as he was when he was a student here! All ‘move first and think about a plan later’! Gah, you youngsters give me conniptions!” As Shouta watched the elderly nurse repeatedly whack Izuku’s shin with her cane, he couldn’t help the snort of laughter he let out at the sight. It was then that both the occupants of the office turned to look at him, with Recovery Girl sending him a disappointing scowl, and Izuku looking at him with a pleading expression. The amusement that Shouta was feeling died as suddenly as it appeared, as Recovery Girl began stalking towards him with her cane raised threateningly. Flashbacks to his time as a student at UA came to Shouta unbidden as he felt the phantom sensation of that cane smacking his knees. “Aizawa Shouta, you need to teach your son some common sense! He shredded nearly all of the tendons in his arms with that final attack he let loose! If it weren’t for my quirk patching him up, he would’ve had to be on bed rest for a month at the least!” Shouta could only put his hands up placatingly as he sidestepped a swipe of Recovery Girl’s cane, before moving to stand next to Izuku’s bed in the office.

— One Week Later —

Izuku was a livewire of anxiety. He had been for the past week while waiting for the results of his performance in the entrance exam. Hitoshi had been similarly nervous, though Izuku was only able to tell as much after having gotten to know his brother’s tells when it comes to things like this. Anyone who didn’t know Hitoshi would simply think that he was as nonchalant and laid back about it as always seemed to be. It was comforting for Izuku, in an odd sort of way, that he wasn’t the only one stressing out about the exam results. It didn’t help either of the teen’s anxieties that Shouta had been tight lipped about how they did, stating that the UA Board of Directors hadn’t thought he could grade their performances impartially as their father. The twenty minute long rant about ‘how illogical that decision was’ had been mildly amusing for the two teens in the end though.

The sound of the front door opening caused Izuku to shoot up from where he was sitting on the couch, coincidentally causing Hitoshi to fall off of said couch after being practically thrown off of Izuku who he was using as an impromptu heating pad thanks to the greenette’s increased body temperature. It was something that the two did frequently after training, when both of them were sore as all hell. The two teens looked towards the hallway leading to the front door, only to see Shouta standing there with an eyebrow raised in question for their antics. That detail wasn’t what the two had focused on however, no it was the two envelopes the man held in his hand that were marked with UA’s signature red wax seal. Izuku and Hitoshi watched intently as Shouta stepped further into the living room and placed the envelopes on the coffee table in front of them. Hitoshi made the decision to reach for his, only to be stopped by Shouta clearing his throat to get their attention. “Before you two open these, I want to let you know that I was against having the idiot record the acceptance letters in the first place.” The rest of that sentence had kinda flown right over Izuku’s head at the mention of the word ‘acceptance’. “You... you mean we...?” Izuku didn’t even get to finish his sentence as Shouta simply nodded in response and passed the envelopes to the two teens. Izuku and Hitoshi shared a hesitant look for a moment before they both tore the envelopes in half in an overly exaggerated manner, only to stare at the two metal disks that had fallen out of the envelopes. As Izuku gingerly picked up the disk that had fallen out of his envelope, he didn’t catch the way Shouta tensed up when he pressed the activation button on the underside of the disk.

“BOOYAH! I am here, as a projection to give you the results of your Entrance Exam!”

Izuku felt his blood run cold as he dropped the projection disk onto the table. He could feel the way his legs wobbled as they gave out from underneath him, only for Hitoshi to quickly wrap his arms around Izuku’s torso and maneuver him onto the couch. He could tell that Hitoshi was saying something, and that Shouta was also speaking, but all Izuku could focus on was the projection of All Might staring back at him as the man went on about Izuku’s performance in the entrance exam, and announced that he would be a teacher for UA starting on the first day on the new school year. The smile on the #1 Hero’s face did nothing to reassure Izuku anymore, no it just made that boiling pit of anger surge up once again as Izuku absentmindedly noted that the living room had been bathed in the telltale emerald light from his hair igniting with his quirk.

“You scored a stunning 97% on the written portion of the exam, which on its own is more than enough to secure you a spot in the General Studies department of UA! But, that’s not what you applied to UA for now is it? Your performance in the Heroics Exam was truly a marvel to behold! An impressive 40 Villain Points is nothing to scoff at, Young Aizawa! That on its own would guarantee you your spot in the Heroics Department, but what kind of school would UA be if it was only looking for someone’s proficiency in taking down Villains?! No, there was another detail this exam was looking for! After all, prioritizing the rescue is one of the first things you will learn as a Heroics Student! With a monumental score of 60 Rescue Points, your final score on the exam is a grand total of 100 points! Congratulations, Aizawa Izuku, you managed to secure first place in the exam’s final ranking! You have earned this, my boy. Welcome, to your hero academia!”

The projection changed to display the ranking of the top 10 scores for the entrance exam and, if All Might hadn’t been the one relaying the information, Izuku would have been ecstatic that he got 1st place. Even seeing that he had beaten Katsuki in the final ranking wasn’t enough to lift Izuku’s spirits as he wordlessly got up from the couch and met the gaze of Shouta. The man’s eyebrows were furrowed in concern, and Izuku couldn’t honestly blame him for being concerned. “Am I going to be in your class?” The nod Izuku got in response was a small consolation to the inner turmoil that the greenette was dealing with at the moment. Izuku simply nodded in affirmation, before turning around and walking down the hall towards his bedroom. He heard Hitoshi getting up to follow him, only to hear Shouta stop him from doing so. “Let him go Tosh. He’ll be okay, just give him a bit to calm down.”

Izuku would eventually calm down enough to learn that Hitoshi would be in 1-B, ultimately because Nezu-sensei had decided that the two brothers in the same class could be perceived as an act of nepotism by the Board of Directors. So, for the next few days, Izuku and Hitoshi would sit down with Shouta to finalize their applications. When the day for orientation arrived, Izuku thought he would be sufficiently prepared for whatever happened. Oh was he wrong about that.

Chapter Text

Izuku stared at himself in the mirror with his brow furrowed in frustration. Nothing was wrong with his appearance really, his uniform fit comfortably, he had new shoes that weren’t scuffed and fraying, and his backpack was sitting by the front door already packed for the day. However, Izuku currently faced a conundrum. He didn’t know how to tie a tie. One could forgive Izuku for that fact, considering his sperm donor skipped out on him and Inko when he was 5 years old, and thus Izuku never really had anyone around to teach how to tie a tie. The only problem with that statement, however, is that it’s Izuku’s first day at UA. Forgive him for wanting to make a good impression on his teachers, nevermind the fact that he’s met most of the faculty already and most of them adore him for some reason, but he can’t exactly make a good impression if he can’t tie his own tie. Hitoshi would probably say that Izuku’s logic on this is flawed, but Hitoshi is just as bad at tying a tie as Izuku is so...

A knock on the door of his bedroom has Izuku jolting out of his contemplation, as he turns to look at Shouta leaning against the doorframe with an eyebrow raised in question. “Having trouble with your tie, Izuku?” Izuku’s shoulders slump in resignation as he nods in affirmation to Shouta’s inquiry. “I never learned how to tie one growing up. I don’t even know where to start with it.” Shouta just let out a soft chuckle before stepping into Izuku’s room and holding a hand out, gesturing for Izuku to hand the tie to him. Izuku quirks an eyebrow up in confusion for a second as he hands the tie to Shouta, who starts to tie it for him. “What, did you think that I wouldn’t know how to tie one up? I wore that uniform once, and I do know how to dress nicely. Just because I try to avoid the vultures that call themselves the media like the plague, doesn’t mean that I’ve never had to attend a press conference before.” Izuku can’t help the smirk that breaks onto his face at the thought of Shouta having to wear a suit and stand in front of a bunch of reporters. Oh what Izuku would pay to see that sight, it would be great blackmail material.

—

One of the perks that come with living on the UA campus, is that Izuku is the first one to arrive to the 1-A classroom. Shouta had gone ahead to the teacher’s lounge to do some last minute preparations for the day, and Izuku had split off from walking with Hitoshi when they had gotten closer to their respective classrooms. Izuku would be lying if he claimed that he wasn’t feeling a bit nervous about being in a classroom setting after having spent so long taking private lessons with Nezu. Despite reassurances from Shouta and Hitoshi that everything would be fine, Izuku couldn’t help the panic he felt towards the idea of meeting new people. Thankfully for Izuku though, it seemed that he would have at least a few minutes to get his emotions under control before interacting with his new classmates.

Entering the classroom, Izuku quickly looked through the seating chart that Shouta had written up on the chalkboard to find his seat. Seat #18, the last row of desks and right behind... “Fucking great...” Izuku couldn’t help the curse he muttered to himself as he saw just exactly who he would be sitting behind. Seat #17, Bakugo Katsuki. Shouta had to have done that on purpose, probably trying to help Izuku overcome his complicated feelings regarding the blonde. It would be an appreciated gesture if Izuku hadn’t been desperately hoping that Katsuki would be in 1-B, and thus making the blonde Hitoshi’s problem to deal with. Was it petty of Izuku to think that? Potentially, but the greenette knows that Hitoshi would be able to handle himself against the blonde. It wouldn’t be hard for Izuku’s lavender haired sibling to get Katsuki to fall for his quirk’s activation requirements, it was incredibly easy to get a response out of the blonde after all.

Izuku let out a weary sigh as he dropped down into his seat, thumping his forehead against his desk in an attempt to lessen the growing irritation he was already feeling for the day. He was really hoping for some peace and quiet for a little bit, but it seemed that the world didn’t even want to grant Izuku that small mercy, as the door to the classroom opened and Izuku heard the ever familiar stomping of a certain explosive blonde entering the room. Not even lifting his head to look at Katsuki, Izuku braced himself for an incoming shouting match... Only to lift his gaze up in confusion as he heard Katsuki drop into his seat with a huff. Izuku only had a moment to be confused about the blonde’s lack of volume, before the teen turned in his seat to stare at Izuku with a slight scowl on his face. “You beat me on the exam ranking.” Izuku could feel his eye twitch in irritation as he met the blonde’s scowl head on with his very own glare. “What, here to tell me not to look down on you? Going to tell me that I’m ruining your perfect origin story?” Izuku knew that he was walking a fine line between having a conversation and starting a fight in this situation, but he really couldn’t bring himself to care at this moment. For so long he had been told that he would amount to nothing, so what if he wanted to enjoy his own success a little bit longer? Katsuki looked like he was going to say something else, but the opening of the classroom door and the entry of more students seemed to rob the blonde of whatever words he had prepared.

Izuku was content enough to let the conversation drop, but he was really wishing that he would’ve had just a few more minutes of quiet. As it stands, Izuku was now stuck having to listen to the tall, blue haired teen try to lecture Katsuki about having his feet on his desk. Honestly, Izuku was just trying to tune out the bickering before he heard the authoritative voice of the blue haired boy address him. “Good morning! I am Iida Tenya, from Somei Academy!” Izuku lifted his head from where he had it resting on his forearms and gave a small, polite smile to Iida before responding. “Aizawa Izuku, I was homeschooled. Nice to meet you Iida.” To say that Izuku hadn’t been expecting every head in the classroom to turn and look at him after introducing himself would be a massive understatement, and Izuku wasn’t sure that he was enjoying the sudden attention from everyone. Nor was he enjoying the way that Iida was now staring at him with his jaw hanging open in astonishment. An excited squeal from across the room drew Izuku’s attention to a girl with pink skin and yellow horns, who was suddenly very, very close to his face. “You’re the guy that scored 100 on the exam! That’s so cool, how did you do it?!” Izuku drew back in surprise at the girl’s sudden closeness, and brought a hand up to nervously rub the back of his neck. “I, uhm... I’m not really sure? I wasn’t really keeping track of the points I got during the exam, I was just focusing on making sure I didn’t get hurt?” Izuku could swear that he saw sparkles in the girl’s eyes at the same time he heard someone whisper, “That’s so manly!” More and more people started to approach Izuku’s desk, and it was at that moment that the greenette caught sight of a yellow blob inching its way into the classroom very slowly...

“If you’re all here to socialize and make friends, then you are in the wrong course.” Izuku had to physically bite his tongue to prevent himself from laughing as he watched every student in the room turn to look at Shouta as he pulled one of his jelly packets out, and slurped it all in one go, before standing up and unzipping his horrendous sleeping bag. Once Shouta had the attention of everyone in the room, he reached back into his sleeping bag and pulled out one of the standard UA gym uniforms and held it up for everyone to see. “My name is Aizawa Shouta, and I’ll be your homeroom teacher for the year. You’ll each find one of these in your desks. Put them on and head out to Field Beta. Don’t be late, or you’ll be expelled.” With that, Shouta turned and walked out of the classroom, but not before making pointed eye contact with Izuku as if to tell him ‘Don’t give them any hints.’ Not one to ignore orders, Izuku was the first one out of his seat with his gym uniform in hand. He stopped at the door for a brief moment, turning back to look at his classmates who were just standing there in shock at what they had just witnessed. “He’s not kidding, by the way. He expelled his entire class last year.” With that, Izuku left his classmates to scramble their way out of the classroom as he took off towards the locker rooms closest to Field Beta.

—

It was a testament to the quality of Shouta’s training that Izuku was the first one out onto the field. Shouta stood silently in the center of the field as he watched his son fidget in place the longer it took his classmates to exit the locker rooms. It was going on ten minutes now, and Shouta just knew that he would end up expelling someone today if this is how they acted in response to being told to not be late. Unsurprisingly, the next people to arrive at the field were Tenya and the youngest Todoroki boy. Shouta had expected that they would be the second fastest at getting ready, considering they were related to other Pro Heroes, and Shouta was very grateful to whatever deity was listening that Tenya did not seem to be as much of a trouble maker as his older brother had been. To say that Shouta had been dreading teaching a carbon copy of Tensei would be an understatement. Though, time would only tell if Tenya would loosen up from his stiff behavior over the course of the year. The rest of the students all arrived in one large group after 15 minutes had passed, likely having waited for all of their classmates to finish changing before heading out to the field. Admirable, not wanting to leave your classmates alone when they could potentially get lost in the maze that is UA, but it could lead to a slew of bad habits later down the line. Clearing his throat to get the attention of his students, Shouta stepped forward to explain to them why he had them come to the field.

“It took most of you 15 minutes to get out here. That’s not good enough. In the field, the situation is ever changing, and every second is valuable. 15 minutes can mean the difference between rescuing civilians, or clearing their corpses from the aftermath of an attack. By the end of the year, I expect that time to be down to 5 minutes.” A hand shoots up in the crowd of students, belonging to Uraraka Ochaco if Shouta remembers correctly. “Sensei, why are we out here? Shouldn’t we be attending the orientation ceremony and meeting with guidance counselors?” A logical question, though one that Shouta hears every year. “You all have the next three years to learn how to be heroes. It’s our job here at UA to teach you what you’ll need to know in that time, so you don’t have the time to waste on pointless ceremonies. As for guidance counselors, there will be a syllabus on your desks when we finish here with all the relevant information you’ll need.” Shouta waited a second to let the information sink in with his students, before he reached into one of his pockets to pull out a softball with a distance tracker on it. “50 meter dash, grip strength, standing long jump, softball throw, repeated side steps, seated toe-touch, sit-ups, and an endurance run. These are all the contents of the physical apprehension tests you should have performed in Junior High. Izuku, step forward.” Shouta could see the nervousness in his son’s gaze as he hesitantly stepped forward. Shouta gave him a small nod before tossing the softball to Izuku. “You scored the highest on the Entrance Exam. What was the furthest you could throw one of these in Junior High?” Shouta could hear the confused whispers coming from his students as Izuku stepped closer, a few questioning why Shouta was using Izuku’s given name instead of his family one, and a few questioning if Izuku even took these tests while being homeschooled. Looks like he would need to work on the observational skills of these kids. Bakugo, for his part, looked like his brain was rebooting as he finally was putting the pieces together about where Izuku had been for the past year.

“Uh... 62 meters, Sensei.” Shouta nodded in acknowledgment to Izuku’s statement, before pointing to the small circle that had been drawn in the dirt of the field. “Do it again, but use your quirk this time. Anything goes, so long as you stay in the circle.” The gathered crowd of students went silent as Izuku stepped into the circle, staring intently at the softball in his hands. Shouta debated whether or not he had to remind Izuku of what he was supposed to be doing, only for that line of thought to come screeching to a halt as the teen’s hair ignited with his quirk as he drew his arm back to throw the ball. The field was bathed in a flash of emerald light as Izuku engulfed the softball in flames and launched it into the air with a burst of flames. Shouta heard the ding from the measuring tablet in his pocket about 30 seconds later, and upon taking it out of his pocket, Shouta couldn’t help the pride he felt in his chest at seeing Izuku’s result. 679.2 meters. Shouta turned to the rest of his students and held up the tablet for them all to see. “We’re out here, because you all need to learn your limits. The Department of Education is stagnant in many ways, including its thinking that every human is born equal. They have yet to learn that they are failing the youths of this country by not allowing those with potential to thrive in their own ways. During the next three years you will all learn what your strengths and weaknesses are, and you will learn to push past your limits.”

—

Izuku was trying his best not to grimace as he heard the pink girl from earlier shout about how fun the tests were going to be. He could tell the exact moment that Shouta heard what she had said, and knew exactly what was going to happen next. “Fun, you say? Well, if you think Heroics is all fun and games, then by all means. Have your fun. Whoever places last in these tests will be deemed to have no potential and will be removed from the Heroics Course, but don’t let that discourage you from having fun.” The jovial mood his classmates had gained died the instant the words left Shouta’s mouth. As Izuku stepped back into line with his classmates, he heard the voice of the brunette he saved during the entrance exam cry out. “That’s not fair! We haven’t even had a chance to prove ourselves yet!” Izuku should really start learning the names of his classmates, but he really isn’t sure how many of them will be left by the end of the day at this rate. The greenette could see the exact moment that Shouta decided that his threat of expulsion was no longer one of his ‘logical ruses’.

“Not fair? Do you still think that life is fair, Uraraka? Landslides, earthquakes, rampaging villains, and unchecked quirk discrimination. Life isn’t fair, and it will be your job as heroes to fight that unfairness. So let this be your first lesson, the world won’t wait around for you to consider it fair. So, show me what you all can do, go beyond your limits. Plus Ultra, and all that nonsense.” Izuku took a deep breath to calm his nerves, he’d improved so much in the past year, he’ll be fine. He just can’t let himself get complacent with these tests. Looking around at his classmates, he could see each of them having similar thoughts to him at that moment. Their expressions of fear had changed to ones of fierce determination. Shouta seemed to notice the demeanor change as well, and he held a hand up and curled his fingers in a beckoning motion to the class. “Let’s get started then, shall we?”

—

Katsuki was so fucking confused. Not by the Quirk Apprehension test, no that was a simple task. No, Katsuki was confused about the fact that Izuku has a fucking quirk now, and that the hobo looking motherfucker that was looking after the nerd was apparently a Pro fucking Hero. Katsuki knew that the man must’ve had some impressive connections, considering that the hobo apparently knew Nezu of all people, but this was way more than he had been expecting. Aizawa Shouta, the Erasure Hero ; Eraserhead. Katsuki was very glad he had listened in on some of Izuku ramblings about heroes right now, because he doubts any of these extras even realize who their homeroom teacher is. But the identity of their Sensei was not Katsuki’s priority at the moment. His mind was running a mile a minute as he watched Izuku step up for the 50 meter dash alongside the jackass who had been lecturing Katsuki about having his feet on his desk. The extra from Somei had what looked like engines coming from the back of his calves, so he was likely going to beat the nerd in this test.

At least, that’s what Katsuki thought until he saw Izuku throw a fireball towards the end of the track and fucking vanish in a plume of smoke and embers, only to reappear at the end of the track. The engine extra got a time of 3.04 seconds, which even Katsuki had to admit was impressive, but that didn’t even hold a candle to the nerd’s time of 2.05 seconds. Katsuki’s mind was reeling from that display as he stepped up for the dash next to some chick with audio jacks dangling from her ears. The robot on the end of the track fired the starting gun, and Katsuki rocketed forward while boosting his speed with small explosions from his hands behind him. Upon completing his dash, Katsuki whirled around to see what time he got, only to feel a spike of anger at seeing his result of 4.13 seconds. There’s no fucking way the nerd beat him in this test. No way Deku beat him again! Absolutely no fucking way, he shouldn’t even have a quirk, how the fuck does he have a quirk? How is he better than me?!

“Deku! What the fuck is this shit?!” Katsuki snarled as he stalked towards the nerd with sparking palms, who instinctively shrunk away from the blonde in response to the sudden noise. Katsuki was about to make a grab for the collar of Deku’s shirt when he suddenly felt something snap around his chest and wrists, pulling him away from Deku as he watched his quirk fizzle out into nothing. The voice of the hobo came from behind Katsuki, and his tone was not pleased. “Bakugo, this is your only warning. Use your quirk against any of your classmates outside of a training exercise and you will be immediately removed from the Heroics Course. You are already on thin ice as it stands. Do not spit in the face of the chance that you have been given here. And stop making me use my quirk, it gives me serious dry eye.” Katsuki struggled against his bindings for a moment as he watched Deku slink off to the side before the bindings went slack and Katsuki was free to move again. Gritting his teeth, Katsuki stalked back over to the spot where the rest of the extras had gathered, though none of them dared to try and get close to him once he stopped moving.

—

Izuku was utterly exhausted. The apprehension test was a brutal test of the student’s capabilities, and 1-A was definitely showing the results of their efforts. Most of his classmates were sprawled on the ground, groaning in pain, and those who were still standing were only just barely managing to stay upright. As if the physical exhaustion wasn’t enough, Izuku was currently doing his very best to fight off a panic attack because of Katsuki’s outburst after the 50 meter dash. Katsuki got too close to Izuku, and all the greenette could see in that moment was Inko rearing her arm back to hit him again. Now was not the time for Izuku to have a breakdown, so he was trying his very best to remain as calm as he could until he could go home and fall apart in the safety of his own bedroom. Shouta was standing off to the side compiling the results of each test, and Izuku could tell that he was displeased with something. When he looked up from the tablet and made eye contact with Izuku, the teen felt like he should probably prepare a farewell basket for one of his soon to be former classmates.

“Alright 1-A, form up. We’ll be going over the results of the apprehension test now.” The speed at which the rest of his classmates straightened up nearly gave Izuku whiplash as he watched them all scramble to attention. Shouta waited all of five seconds for the class to prepare themselves before he clicked a button on the tablet to project the results. Izuku scanned the projection with baited breath, desperately hoping that his unbalanced mental state hadn’t sabotaged his performance too badly. The rush of relief that Izuku felt upon finding his name was short-lived as he checked on who had gotten last place.

1.Yaoyorozu Momo
2.Todoroki Shoto
3.Bakugo Katsuki
4.Iida Tenya
5.Aizawa Izuku
6.Tokoyami Fumikage
7.Shoji Mezo
8.Ojiro Mashirao
9.Kirishima Eijiro
10.Ashido Mina
11.Uraraka Ochaco
12.Koda Koji
13.Sato Rikido
14.Asui Tsuyu
15.Sero Hanta
16.Kaminari Denki
17.Jiro Kyoka
18.Hagakure Toru
19.Mineta Minoru
20.Aoyama Yuga

Izuku turned his head to look over at the blonde teen who had gotten 20th place, only to see... relief? He barely had a second to contemplate just why the teen looked so relieved at getting last place, before Shouta was speaking again. “Aoyama, get changed back into your uniform and go wait for me outside of Nezu’s office. I hope you take this as a sign that you need to improve, and don’t take this as a punishment. Make a considerable enough improvement in time for the Sports Festival, and you’ll have a chance to be re-enrolled in the Hero Course. The rest of you are dismissed for the day, you’ll find a syllabus on your desks like I said earlier. Now go, get moving.” Izuku watched in confusion as Aoyama simply nodded once before heading off to the locker room ahead of everyone alongside Shouta. Uraraka tried to say something to the blonde, but he simply kept walking without responding to her. Izuku’s concern for the blonde was quickly shoved to the side as he heard an all too familiar voice come from behind him.

“Nerd, we need to fucking talk.” Izuku clenched his fists as he turned around to face Katsuki, only to take a step back in confusion as Todoroki stepped in between the two of them. The shock of the situation caused Izuku’s brain to stall for a moment as he watched the bi-colored teen square up to Katsuki, who seemed just as confused as Izuku was. “Fuck off, Half-and-Half. This is between me and the nerd.” Todoroki simply stared at Katsuki with an unimpressed glare before speaking in a tone that gave Izuku goosebumps. “I seem to recall our sensei preventing you from bothering Aizawa earlier. I don’t know what your problem is with him, Bakugo, but I suggest you walk away.” Katsuki simply scoffed before sending a glare towards Izuku and turning away from him to walk back towards the locker room. Izuku just watched the blonde walk away in astonishment before he turned to look at Todoroki with a confused expression on his face.

“Why did you help me?” Izuku was willing to give someone the benefit of the doubt the first time they do something nice for him, but he couldn’t help but wonder if there was an ulterior motive for Todoroki’s intervention. Todoroki, for his part, simply shrugged impassively before responding. “You seemed to be uncomfortable with his presence. If I’m being honest, I was getting tired of listening to his screaming as well.” Izuku could only blink owlishly at Todoroki as his confusion was only growing while the teen turned and walked away towards the locker room as well. Izuku shook his head to clear his thoughts as he followed his classmates back to the locker room, only to take a step back as several of his classmates crowded around him at once. Kirishima, Ashido, Uraraka, and Kaminari all had curious expressions on their faces as they looked at Izuku expectantly. Uraraka was the first one to speak up out of the group.

“Aizawa-kun! Are you and Aizawa-sensei related?!” Izuku blinked in confusion at the question for a moment. He and Shouta only shared a family name, but they looked absolutely nothing alike, right? Was the same family name enough for his classmates to suspect a relation between them? Though they weren’t wrong, technically speaking. Izuku scratched at the back of his neck for a moment with a sheepish smile on his lips before he responded to the enthusiastic inquiry. “Uh, technically speaking no. I was adopted by Aizawa-sensei a year ago, so I guess you could say that we’re related. Also, please just call me Izuku. It’ll get confusing pretty quickly with two people being called Aizawa in class.” Ashido was the next to speak up, coming a lot closer to Izuku and causing the greenette to lean back ever so slightly so the pink girl didn’t collide with Izuku’s face. “Do you think you could convince your dad to go easier on us?!” Izuku couldn’t help the way his nose scrunched up at Ashido’s request. He was used to classmates either ignoring him or beating the snot out of him, but asking him to use his connection with their teacher to have the man go easy on them was a new experience. “No, and don’t think that he’ll be going easy on me either. If anything, he’s going to be pushing me harder than everyone else in the class. We’re in the Hero Course, it’s not going to be easy.”

Izuku’s response seemed to cause Kaminari and Ashido to deflate in resignation, while Kirishima and Uraraka just nodded their heads in understanding. Izuku was content enough to leave the conversation there and started to continue walking towards the locker rooms, when Kaminari spoke up. “Wait, why did Aizawa-sensei adopt you?” Izuku stopped dead in his tracks when the question registered for him. He could feel the anxiety he had been beating back with a stick all day rear its ugly head once again. He was trying his best to prevent his hair from catching fire again, but he could see the wisps of embers coming off of his curls out of his periphery as he turned to look at Kaminari with a glare. “I don’t think that’s any of your business, Kaminari. My personal life is none of your concern, and I don’t feel comfortable disclosing why Shouta adopted me.” Izuku felt a little bad at the way his response seemed to cause Kaminari to shrink back in shame, but he really didn’t want to talk about Inko and what she had done to him with complete strangers.

—

Izuku collapsed, face first, onto the couch with a long-suffering sigh. Today was a lot, and it was only a half day dedicated to orientation for students. The real stuff starts tomorrow, and Izuku really hopes that it is less eventful than it was today. “Long day huh? What did Dad even have you guys doing? None of the faculty even seemed surprised that your class wasn’t at the orientation ceremony.” Izuku lifted his head to look at Hitoshi, who was sitting at the dining table with a cup of coffee. With a huff, Izuku sat up and rested his chin against the back of the couch before responding to his brother’s question. “He had us do a Quirk Apprehension Test, and it was brutal. He already expelled someone too. Though, honestly I don’t even know if Aoyama even wanted to be in the Hero Course... He looked really relieved to be removed from it.” Hitoshi nodded in response to what Izuku said, taking an obnoxiously loud sip of his coffee all the while. Izuku simply rolled his eyes before settling down on the couch again. “I just hope that tomorrow goes a bit more calmly…”

Chapter Text

Todoroki Shoto has seen a lot of things in his life as the son of the #2 Hero ; Endeavor. He’s seen the darker side of society and how willing it was to turn a blind eye to injustices if they proved to be an inconvenience. He knew far too well how easily society was willing to venerate the wrong people for the wrong reasons. How those that society viewed as ‘heroes’ were far too often truly rotten to the core. How those who are supposed to protect you, can and will betray your trust and hurt you. That power is all that matters to the world at large, and how it often does not matter what one does with that power, so long as they are the strongest. Shoto knew he was strong, it was the entire purpose behind his birth. For Endeavor to create the perfect weapon, the perfect quirk, to surpass All Might. To fulfill Endeavor’s ambition of reaching the #1 Hero spot.

Shoto refuses to do that. He refuses to be a tool for that bastard’s ambitions. Not after everything that man put his family through. Not after how the man bought his mother for her Ice quirk. Not after... not after Touya. Shoto has very few memories of his eldest brother, and what he does remember isn’t pretty. Touya seemed desperate for Endeavor’s approval, and one of Shoto’s earliest memories is of Touya trying to strike him with his quirk while he was in his mother’s arms. Hearing his eldest sibling scream about who truly deserved Endeavor’s attention, his approval, while wearing a manic grin and having tears freely flowing from his eyes. The callous dismissal from Endeavor to Touya’s desperation. Shoto can’t accurately articulate the rage he feels on his brother’s behalf. He never has been able to, and it frustrates Shoto to no end. The results of all of this pain? Shoto knows the signs of abuse when he sees them, and several members of his class show all the different signs that Shoto has come to recognize.

Aoyama, despite his evident flamboyant and over the top behavior, avidly tracks the movements of everyone who comes near him and minutely flinches at raised voices. Shoji, wearing his mask at all times and the way he only speaks using the appendages created by his quirk. Ashido’s exuberance and bubbly nature, but the way she puts herself forward in interactions in order to draw all the attention in a room to herself. Lastly... Aizawa Izuku. The greenette who apparently scored the highest on the general admittance Entrance Exam. The boy who is apparently the adoptive son of their homeroom teacher, Aizawa Shouta. Another person with a flame quirk, yet unlike Endeavor’s flames, Shoto couldn’t tear his eyes away from those emerald flames as they danced in a manner that no flames should be able to. Like they were responding directly to the will of their creator. The teenager who appeared to potentially be one of the strongest members of Class 1-A, yet Shoto sees the signs all the same. Flinching away from loud noises. Keenly observing the movements of everyone around him. Taking note of any and all potential exits in a room. Dodging the questions from their classmates regarding the greenette’s family situation, and most importantly to Shoto, his reaction to Bakugo’s outburst during the QAT. Shoto could see the instinctual fear response that the greenette had shown in reaction to the aggressive blonde’s screeching. Saw how the teen had flinched back, like he was preparing to be struck, yet the look in his eyes told Shoto that he wasn’t seeing Bakugo in that moment. Shoto was all too familiar with that kind of reaction, for he experienced it himself on more than one occasion. A sudden movement from his sister, Fuyumi? Endeavor rearing his fist back to strike Shoto. His brother, Natsuo, yelping in surprise at a spider in the kitchen? Endeavor shouting for Shoto to get back up and use his flames, not Shoto’s. Never Shoto’s, never his own power no. Always Endeavor’s power, or his mother’s power.

So, when Shoto saw Bakugo stalking towards Izuku after the end of the QAT, he stepped in between the two. Bakugo, in what seemed to be his normal reaction, proceeded to swear and demand that Shoto get out of the way. Shoto did not move, and simply reminded Bakugo of Aizawa-sensei’s warning to the blonde from earlier. Shoto’s words once again failed him when the greenette asked him why he stepped in Bakugo’s way, because how could Shoto explain to Izuku that he knows? That Shoto knows why Izuku reacts the way he does? That Shoto understands the reactions, and can sympathize? How could Shoto accurately put into words that he understands, and that Izuku isn’t alone?

There is no good way to have that sort of conversation, so Shoto simply told the greenette that he was tired of listening to Bakugo’s screaming. Shoto walked away before he could be asked for any further clarification, mainly so he could more easily listen in on the conversation that his classmates had sprung onto Izuku once the boy was no longer engaged in a conversation. The conversation was about what Shoto had expected, students hoping for the child of a teacher to get them to go easier on the class. Honestly, they’re in the Heroics class, they should know better than to ask questions like that by now. Shoto nearly tripped over his own feet when he heard the sheer amount of venom in Izuku’s voice when he responded to Kaminari’s question about why their sensei had adopted the greenette. He had used that tone with Endeavor countless times, always at great risk to himself, and yet it seemed so out of place coming from Izuku. Shoto had only known this boy for a few hours, at most, and yet that tone caused all of Shoto’s instincts to flare up. ‘Danger danger danger’, they screamed. As if that tone of voice promised pain to anyone who pushed further than they should.

—

It was with his thoughts focused on the enigma that is Aizawa Izuku, that Shoto made his way home for the day. Back to the domain of Endeavor, back to more lectures and relentless training regimes. Back to guilt ridden gazes from Fuyumi, and protective fury from Natsuo. Back to an almost empty house that in no way felt like home. The train ride was not as long as Shoto had hoped it would be, and he soon found himself standing in the entryway of his house with a displeased Endeavor standing in front of him. Why Endeavor was displeased, Shoto wasn’t exactly sure, but he was certain that he would be finding out soon. Endeavor simply stood in the doorway with his arms crossed over his chest, blocking Shoto’s path forward into the house, with a scowl that the man would often use to intimidate villains. Though Shoto knew that Endeavor was more than willing to use that scowl to intimidate his own family as well.

“Well? Have you gotten over your little tantrum and started using my flames now that you’ve made it into UA?” Shoto could feel his left eye start to twitch in aggravation, but he squashed that down as soon as he noticed it. Showing any emotion to Endeavor would just lead the man to put Shoto through more intense training to try and force him into using his left side. So, instead of giving Endeavor any sort of vindication, Shoto simply blinked slowly at the man in disinterest. The effect was immediate, as Endeavor’s scowl deepened and the man let out a scoff before turning away from Shoto. “Fine, throw your little fit. You’ll realize one of these days that you are nothing without my power. When that day comes, do not expect me to tell you that I told you so. No training for you today, I have a mission that will keep me out of the house until tomorrow night.” With that, Endeavor stalked away, further into the house, leaving Shoto to visibly deflate from the pressure that had been suddenly lifted from his chest. Normally, when Shoto refuses to answer his father, the man would just drag Shoto into the dojo and put him through drills for hours, mission or hero work be damned. Today must be a ‘good’ day for Endeavor then. Shoto set his shoulder bag onto one of the hooks in the genkan and took his shoes off before putting on a pair of slippers and making his way towards the kitchen.

Shoto could hear the voices of his siblings coming from the kitchen as he drew closer to it, so he slowed his steps to a halt just before reaching the door in order to listen in to the conversation. Fuyumi’s soft voice was the first one that Shoto was able to make out, as she spoke with a hushed tone. “Natsuo, you know saying things like that will just make Father upset if he heard you.” A scoff from Natsuo reached Shoto’s ears as he heard the clang of a frying pan against the stove followed by the sound of something sizzling in oil shortly after. “Yumi, you and I both know that bastard doesn’t care about anything you and I say. He only cares about forcing Shoto to make up for his own shortcomings as a ‘Hero’. I’m telling you, if we went to the right people, we could get Mom out of that prison Endeavor calls a ‘hospital’. Maybe we could even get his hero license suspended!” Shoto furrowed his brows as he listened to the conversation occurring currently. It wasn’t the first time that Natsuo had suggested bringing Endeavor’s actions to light, but his older brother always seemed to forget the sheer amount of influence that their father has at his disposal. Nothing they do currently would ever have an impact, and it ran the risk of ruining their lives should their attempt fail. Shoto let out a soft sigh before stepping into the kitchen, causing the conversation to come to a screeching halt. Fuyumi gained a panicked expression when she saw Shoto, where as Natsuo’s eyes widened with anticipation and mild concern.

“As much as I want to bring Father to justice for what he’s done, none of us have the level of influence for our efforts to make an impact or even succeed. We just have to wait until I’ve graduated and had relative success in the Hero Rankings for it to be taken seriously... but if really you want to try before then, I’ll help you, Natsuo.” Shoto slipped past his siblings, who were both staring at him with their jaws hanging open in shock. Shoto simply huffed and rolled his eyes before reaching into the pantry to grab something to snack on while his siblings worked on whatever meal they were making. With his snack in hand, Shoto made his way to exit the kitchen, but before he did, he turned back to look at his siblings once more. “Just... try to think about how it would affect all of us if things went wrong before you do anything reckless, Natsuo.” With that, Shoto stepped out of the kitchen and started down the hall towards his bedroom. After changing out of his uniform into some more comfortable clothes, Shoto hesitated on what to do next as he turned his gaze towards his desk and the laptop resting on it. He could simply try to relax, maybe finish reading that book Natsuo had given him, or...

—

‘Breaking News : Highly Respected Musutafu Pediatrician, Midoriya Inko, Arrested And Sentenced To 15 Years On Charges Of Child Abuse’

Shoto stared at the screen of his laptop in shock. He had been sitting in front of the damn thing for the past three hours, and finally he had found something. Staring back at him from the screen, was a woman who bore a terrifyingly striking resemblance to his classmate. The title of the article made Shoto’s stomach constrict in an unpleasant way, and that feeling only got worse as he read the article further. Mentions of the Aldera School District and its subsequent shuttering at the hands of Principal Nezu and the police, references to quirk discrimination and constant abuse for nearly six years, speculations of a suicide attempt, and yet no name had been mentioned for the child of the woman. That wasn’t surprising, cases like these almost never mentioned names of the victims, but Shoto didn’t need to be given a name. After scrolling through the article for about five minutes, Shoto found the most concrete of evidence he could ask for. A photograph. A photograph, which was primarily focused on Midoriya Inko being ushered out of the courthouse and into a transport bound for prison, that Shoto had to pull into the laptop’s built-in photo editor because of what caught his eye. After taking a few minutes to familiarize himself with the editor’s functions, Shoto set to work on zeroing in on what he had seen in the far left corner of the image.

After some effort, Shoto managed to clear up the section of the image, only to feel that knot in his stomach curl even further with dread. Shoto supposed that this should serve as a lesson that the media truly have no moral limits, because he could clearly see the teary-eyed face of his classmate glaring in the direction of the woman being hauled off to prison, and standing next to Izuku was their homeroom teacher, Aizawa-sensei. The man had a hand placed on Izuku’s shoulder in what appeared to be a reassuring gesture, which seemed to have worked because Izuku appeared to be mid-nod in the photograph. So now, as Shoto put the pieces together in his mind of what his classmate went through, he closed both the photo editor and the article that had delivered this revelation before shutting his laptop off entirely. Standing from his desk, Shoto stretched his arms to loosen the tension that had built up in them during his feverish search for information, and glanced towards the alarm clock that was sitting next to his laptop. With a slight wince Shoto realized that he should probably have set a timer before he started his search, as it was now 6:30pm, and he had definitely missed dinner. In the end, Shoto had managed to get the answers he had been looking for regarding his new classmate, but now that left him in the difficult position of knowing something that he most certainly was not supposed to know. Sighing, Shoto resolved himself to get to know Izuku some more before coming clean about what he knows... and hope that the greenette doesn’t hate him for digging up painful memories.

Chapter Text

“Absolutely not.”

Toshinori reeled back in surprise at the harsh tone coming from Principal Nezu. They had always been on amicable terms, very few people could actually say that they were truly on friendly terms with the mammal, and Toshinori had come into his meeting with the mammal with the utmost confidence that Nezu would agree with his decision. Toshinori furrowed his brow in confusion for a moment as he observed the mammal closely. Nezu’s whiskers and tail flicked mildly in clear irritation, and Toshinori could swear he saw the principal’s right eye twitch ever so slightly. Taking a moment to wipe away the blood that dripped from the corner of his mouth, Toshinori cleared his throat and pressed Nezu for further clarification. “I’m sorry, but could perhaps explain your decision?” A deep sigh of exasperation was Toshinori’s only response from the principal as he set his cup of tea down on his desk before folding his paws over one another. The mammal leveled the man with an intense glare for a few moments, causing Toshinori to fidget ever so slightly in his seat to dispel the sudden rush of anxiety that came to dwell in his chest at the intensity of the gaze.

“Of course, allow me to clarify to you just how idiotic your decision to try and pass One For All to Izuku-kun is.” Toshinori couldn’t help the slight flinch that wracked his body at hearing Nezu so thoroughly dismiss his choice of successor. “What shall I start with, I wonder? Perhaps, I should start with the fact that the pup is still deeply traumatized by what he has been through. Or, mayhaps, I should mention the fact that he has expressed a growing disdain for you and your very presence. Then we should also consider the previous interactions you have had with him where, in case you have forgotten, you told him that he could not become a hero without a quirk.” Toshinori opened his mouth to try and justify his actions, knowing full well that Nezu was aware that Toshinori was still deeply troubled by that day and the events that had transpired because of it, but the principal merely held a paw up to preemptively silence the #1 Hero.

“What do you think would happen if you, the man whose words were the deciding factor for the pup trying to end his own life, attempted to offer him One For All now? A quirk, that should Izuku-kun become aware of its nature, would only serve to deepen his negative feelings towards you and, by extension, heroics in general? While his motivations have remained unchanged in his desire to help people, what would happen should he learn that the man who told him he could not become a hero possessed the means to provide him a path towards his dreams? What do you think his reaction would be should he learn that you could have said yes to him on that rooftop, and made him your successor that day? That you could have given him a quirk?” Toshinori could feel what remained of his stomach curl in discomfort at the insinuation that Nezu was making. Aizawa Izuku showed the most promise out of any potential candidate Toshinori had observed in his search for a successor, surely Nezu didn’t think that the boy could be so easily swayed to villainy just by Toshinori offering him One For All? A piece of paper being slid across the desk to rest in front of him brought Toshinori out of his thoughts with a jolt. Toshinori hesitantly picked the paper up, and once he began reading its content, he could feel all his blood run cold in sheer horror.

‘All Might,

You were right. I always knew that I realistically couldn’t become a hero without a quirk. I guess I had just deluded myself into thinking that I could be the exception to that. So thanks, I guess… for helping me realize that I was being childish and stupid. Thank you for saving me from that Sludge Villain, but I really wish you hadn’t. Maybe I wouldn’t have been so scared as I am now if I had died then and there. But honestly, what else could be expected of the #1 hero? You were always my idol, and I’m just glad I got to meet you before the end. Man.. even in a note I’m still a mumbling nerd huh? Sorry, I’ll keep this short so I don’t waste any more of your time. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for everything you’ve done for Japan. And thank you for being the only thing that kept me moving each day, you really are the best of the best..

Many Thanks,
Midoriya Izuku’

“I can see that you are not understanding the true ramifications of your actions, Toshinori. Allow me to put it plainly to you here and now. Your words, in combination with the abuse that the pup suffered through on a daily basis for the vast majority of his life, directly resulted in him throwing himself from a rooftop in an attempt to end his suffering. He even went as far as to state that he wished that you had not saved his life earlier that day. Izuku-kun’s trust in the very foundation of heroics was shattered that day. Myself, Inui-san, and Shouta-kun have been working diligently ever since that night to rebuild the pup’s trust in Heroes. It has taken a tremendous amount of effort, and you offering him One For All runs the risk of undoing all of our progress with the pup. So I will say it once again, Toshinori. Under no circumstance are you to offer One For All to Aizawa Izuku. Do I make myself clear?” Toshinori shakily nodded in response to the harsh refusal from Nezu. Perhaps he had made a mistake in his choice of successor at the current moment, but Toshinori would stand by his words when he says that Aizawa Izuku is a worthy choice for the 9th Bearer of One For All. Though the boy needs more time to recover, and Toshinori understands that, but does Nezu understand that Toshinori is running out of time to find a successor?

“I understand, sir. Though... I am afraid to admit that I have not put much effort into searching for other potential candidates to choose as my successor..” Another twitch of the Principal’s eye clued Toshinori in to just how badly he had dropped the ball with this situation. Nezu was infamous for his lack of visible emotions, and to see the mammal so clearly frustrated with him put Toshinori on edge even further. “What of Sasaki’s intern, Togata Mirio? He is strong, and has had significant success in the field while working under your former sidekick. Surely Sasaki has already recommended the boy to you as a potential candidate?”

Toshinori instinctively scowls at the mention of Mirai, remembering the argument the two of them had the week after the Entrance Exams. Nezu clearly noticed the scowling, because he is looking at Toshinori with a slightly confused expression. Toshinori sighs and runs a hand through his hair in an effort to calm his nerves. “Yes, Mirai did recommend Young Togata to me as a potential candidate... However, it is not his place to decide who will be my successor, and Young Togata has already had great success with his own quirk and efforts. I am not blind to the young man’s potential, but Mirai has gotten so caught up in the fear of the vision he saw when I was recovering from my injury that he has taken it upon himself to try and mold Young Togata into a younger version of myself. Surely you have noticed the similarities between Young Togata and myself that became apparent after Mirai took him on as an intern, yes?” Nezu’s expression is unreadable to Toshinori, but the subtle flick of his whiskers is enough of a tell that Toshinori is willing to assume that the mammal has noticed the similarities, and that he is coming to the same conclusion that Toshinori did on the matter.

“Are you suggesting that Sasaki Mirai has been grooming one of my students to be a carbon copy of you? That you are positing that your former sidekick is driven by a manic obsession based on a fragmented vision he received from his quirk in a highly emotional state?” Toshinori nods solemnly in response to the questions, no matter how upsetting the reality of the situation is to the both of them. “I see. Well, I would not presume to make the same mistakes as Sir Nighteye in this matter. The decision of who you choose as your successor is ultimately yours to make. Though I will stand firm in my position regarding Izuku-kun. He is simply not ready to bear the knowledge of One For All.” That causes Toshinori to perk up, because it almost sounds like Nezu is giving Toshinori his tentative approval to make Aizawa Izuku his successor.

“Then perhaps, when the boy is in a better state of mind, I may offer One For All to Young Aizawa?” Nezu stares, wordlessly, at Toshinori for nearly a minute straight before letting out an exasperated sigh while shaking his head. “Perhaps. Give the pup some time, then we will discuss this matter again. Do not shirk your search for a successor, however. I will only discuss this with you again if you are unable to find a candidate to be your successor by the start of the second semester of this school year. Be sure not to take this as an excuse to ignore your search entirely, for if you refuse to even search for a different candidate, I will not discuss this matter any further with you.” Toshinori hastily nods in acceptance to the Principal’s demands. While Aizawa Izuku will remain his preferred choice of potential successor, Toshinori will keep his eyes peeled for another candidate in the meantime. “Of course, I understand completely. You have my word that I will not make you regret this decision, Principal Nezu.”

“Very well then, now I do believe the student’s lunch break shall be ending soon. You’d best be off to get ready for your first lesson with Class 1-A, Toshinori. I am allowing you to deviate from the lesson plan Shouta-kun wrote up for you, but only as a sort of test run. I would like to see how you can handle a class full of rambunctious teenagers without any sort of guidance, but make no mistake. I will enforce the lesson plan that was provided to you, should your lesson today prove to be a spectacular failure on your part.” Toshinori’s eyes widen as he takes a glance towards the clock hanging from the wall of the office. Scrambling out of his seat, Toshinori gives a respectful bow to Nezu before turning to make his exit from the office in order to finalize his planned lesson for 1-A’s Foundational Heroics lesson.

To say that Toshinori had not been expecting to nearly be bowled over by the youngest son of Endeavor as the office door opened, would be an understatement. Toshinori shot his hands out to steady the teen as he stumbled forward, missing the flinch from Todoroki at the sudden movement, and turned to look back at Nezu with a concerned expression. From the state of the teen, it looked like Todoroki had come running to the Principal’s office in quite the hurry, and Toshinori had no idea what could cause such a frenzied state in the teen. Nezu must’ve noticed the same thing, because he hopped down from his seat and began making his way towards the pair with his brow furrowed slightly. “Todoroki-kun, is everything alright? I don’t believe you’ve scheduled a meeting with me today, as far as I am aware.”

Toshinori let go of the boy as he looked towards Nezu with his typical blank expression. “No, I did not schedule a meeting with you, Principal Nezu. This is rather... impulsive of me, but I stumbled upon some information about one of my classmates that I fear would cause him a significant amount of distress should any more of our classmates become aware of it. I would like to request your help in removing it, and thus removing the threat to Aizawa Izuku’s privacy.” The sight of Nezu’s eyes widening in surprise would have been comical in any other situation but, given the topic of conversation currently, it was less than amusing to see. The mammal took a moment to regain his composure before nodding and gesturing for Todoroki to step into the office. “I have this handled, Yagi-san. I would hate to keep you any longer than I already have.” The dismissal was clear to Toshinori, who simply nodded once more in acknowledgment before finally exiting the office. Though, as Toshinori made his way towards the teacher’s lounge, a single thought remained present in his mind.

Just what had Young Todoroki found that would warrant such a reaction?

—

All Might stood outside the door to the 1-A classroom, listening to the excited chatter of the students within as he waited for the right moment to make his entrance. It was almost serendipitous hearing one of the students, Kaminari Denki if he remembered correctly, wonder aloud about just who would be teaching Foundational Heroics. Taking a deep breath, All Might grabbed ahold of the door handle before letting out a boisterous laugh. “I AM HERE…” All at once the chatter from the students came to an abrupt halt as All Might swung open the door and leaned in whilst hanging from the doorframe. “COMING THROUGH THE DOOR LIKE A NORMAL PERSON!” The chatter resumed quickly, and much more excitedly, as All Might began to strut to the podium at the front of the classroom. Upon reaching the podium, All Might gazed out across the students in front of him, taking note of the excited and awestruck expressions on most of their faces. Most being the keyword, as a certain greenette had gained a scowl on his face as he stared resolutely at his desk. Putting his hands on his hips, All Might continued with his opening speech, resolving to not let Young Aizawa’s dour expression deter him from providing the best teaching to his new students.

“I am here to teach Foundational Heroics! It’s a subject where you train in different ways to learn the basics of being a Hero. Most of your classes here at UA will be on this subject!” Seeing that he had the undivided attention of 1-A, All Might struck a boisterous pose while flexing his muscles. Just to add a bit of dramatic flair, as a little treat for the young students, as he pulled the display card out of his pocket to flash it to the class. “Let’s get right into it then! This is what we’ll be doing today… combat training!” There were a few confused mumbles from some of the students, but All Might carried on with his speech. “And to go with that, are these! Costumes made based on your Quirk registrations and requests you sent in before school started!” As he spoke, the far left wall of the room opened up to reveal 19 cases, one for each student in 1-A and organized by the seating chart for the class. “After you change, gather in Ground Beta! I’ll be waiting there for you all to explain the lesson plan for the day in greater detail! Don’t keep me waiting too long!” With that, All Might bolted out of the classroom to make his way to Ground Beta.

—

Izuku was not looking forward to the lesson today. He had gotten a bad feeling about Foundational Heroics when Shouta had told him to ‘try not to commit arson because of a certain blonde idiot’ earlier in the morning. Honestly, Izuku had thought he was talking about Katsuki in the moment. He couldn’t really think of anyone else that fit that description in his class. Sure, Kaminari and Ojiro were blonde as well, but Izuku wouldn’t go so far as to call them idiots. Kaminari had already apologized for prying into Izuku’s personal life, and Ojiro had been nothing but polite with Izuku so far. It wasn’t until Izuku heard the voice of the man that had been making frequent appearances in his nightmares for the past year, that Izuku realized just who Shouta had been referring to.

All Might was the Foundational Heroics teacher this year. Fucking fantastic. If that wasn’t bad enough, it was clear that the man was forgoing the lesson plan that Shouta had most likely written up for him for this class. Izuku distinctly remembers hearing Shouta mention that the first class for Foundational Heroics is often a costume and support equipment review, in addition to a light bit of physical training to give the students an opportunity to get used to doing physical activities in their new costumes. So either the #1 Hero was an even bigger idiot than Izuku had realized, or Nezu-sensei was playing another one of his little games.

Izuku’s money was on the latter.

Though, Izuku supposes, the matter was entirely out of his hands. Sure, if things went poorly he could, and would, let Shouta know about it… but that would come after whatever shitshow was about to happen had already occurred. Izuku would just have to roll with the punches, as per usual. So, with a healthy bit of pessimism, Izuku made his way into one of the stalls in the locker room to get changed into his costume. His very own Hero Costume! He was just a little bit giddy at seeing how the finished product had turned out, admittedly. Not even All Might could dampen Izuku’s excitement about this part of the day.

Cracking open his costume case, Izuku took a moment to assess the contents as he began to change. So far, everything appeared to be in order. The pair of black martial artists pants fit well, and weren’t too baggy to the point where they would get caught on things. The half sleeved black shirt was fit just snugly enough to act as a compression shirt, but not so much so that it would run the risk of cutting off his circulation while wearing it. The outfit itself was woven with flame resistant materials in addition to a generous amount of kevlar woven into the fabric as well for added protection. The padding around his joints would ensure that Izuku wouldn’t be scraping up his knees and elbows any time he tripped and fell, and the gray combat boots fit perfectly without any immediate signs of them being too tight for his feet.

All in all, the costume was perfect. As were the two pieces of support gear that Izuku had put in requests for. The first one was just a simple knife that would be attached to his waist, taking inspiration from Shouta’s costume of course, but the second one was the piece of gear that Izuku had been the most concerned about. Looking at it, one would be forgiven for just assuming that the featureless white mask was just an aesthetic choice more than anything. But when Izuku slid the mask onto his face, the built in communicator came to life, and he listened in barely contained excitement as the device linked up to the network that was only accessible by himself, Shouta, and Nezu-sensei. The program was, of course, just a temporary one. It would be the placeholder program while Izuku was attending UA, and once he graduated the communicator would link directly into the Hero Network and Police Broadcast frequencies.

Stepping out of the stall, Izuku took a second to take stock of his classmates' costumes. Iida was wearing something that looked nearly identical to his older brother’s costume, while Ojiro was wearing something similar to Izuku’s own outfit only in white instead of black and lacking the mask and knife. Todoroki was wearing some plain looking clothes with half of his body encased in fake ice and Tokoyami had a large black cloak covering most of his body. Kirishima was wearing… well almost nothing other than pants and a weird looking partial mask, yet Kaminari was wearing what looked to just be regular street clothes. Izuku wasn’t even going to comment on the atrocious metal diaper that Mineta was wearing without an ounce of shame. Lastly, Shoji, Sato, and Koda were all wearing jumpsuits of some form or another. Most were all good looking costumes, and Izuku found himself having to forcefully avert his eyes from Kirishima’s bare chest more than once, but there was really only one costume that stood out to Izuku.

“You’re fucking kidding me right?” Izuku’s voice came out slightly muffled from behind his mask, but his words had their intended effect, as Katsuki whirled around to face him with a surprised expression on his face. That expression quickly changed to a scowl, though. “What? Got a fucking problem with my costume, nerd?” Despite wearing his mask, Izuku was hoping that the blonde would realize he was being glared at.

“Oh, nothing really. Aside from the fact that when I showed you that design when we were 7 you told me that it was, and I quote, ‘The stupidest fucking thing you had ever seen, and there was no way in hell that you would ever be caught dead wearing it’. That ring a bell, Katsuki?” The relatively jovial attitude of the locker room had died the instant the words left Izuku’s mouth, and now everyone was staring at him. Great. Katsuki, surprisingly, just looked away from Izuku with a scoff. “Yeah, well, I changed my fucking mind and I couldn’t think of a different design. So quit fucking complaining and shut up about it already!” Izuku continued to glare at the blonde for a few more moments before letting out a huff and tossing his uniform into his locker. On his way out of the locker room, Izuku intentionally shoulder checked Katsuki as he passed the blonde, hoping to make his displeasure more evident to him.

—

Toshinori stood in the empty street of Ground Beta, waiting for his students to make their way out of the locker rooms so they could begin the lesson for the day. While he was alone, he couldn’t help but worry over the evident displeasure that Young Aizawa had displayed towards his presence. He had been trying for a while to get ‘All Might’ back into the teen’s good graces, but every attempt had been met by either a blunt dismissal or the attempt itself being ignored entirely. The teen had told his ‘Secretary’ that he simply didn’t blindly trust the #1 Hero anymore, but after his conversation with Principal Nezu earlier in the day, Toshinori wasn’t sure how to approach the situation anymore. He wanted the boy to feel comfortable around him, not like he had to be prepared for the slightest sign of hostility. It was certainly going to take some work, but Toshinori was determined to make proper amends with the boy for what had happened when they first met.

Though that would have to wait until later, as Class 1-A finally made their way into Ground Beta. All Might beamed with pride at seeing the students in their costumes, already looking like budding heroes-to-be, though some of the design choices were a tad bit concerning. He would have to pass a message along to Eraserhead and Powerloader about some of the girl’s costumes, as it seemed the design company that UA had contracted to provide the costumes for the first years had gotten a bit... overzealous in their manufacturing. That could wait for now, because All Might had a class to teach!

“You know, they say the looks make the Pro, and I have to say that you all certainly look the part!” All Might forced his ever present smile just a tad bit wider as he saw most of the students preen from the praise. Iida Tenya was the first student to speak, raising his hand but not waiting for All Might to call attention to him. “Sir! This is the same urban environment from the Entrance Exam, will we be fighting robots once more?” All Might shook his head in response to the question before gesturing over to the two boxes that were resting on a foldout table he had set up for today’s lesson.

“Not quite, Young Iida! Today you’ll be doing indoor battle scenarios! I’m sure most of you have a preconceived idea of heroics, that being the large fights on open streets against villains that you see on the news! But, in fact, those are not the most common places for heroes to do their jobs! Many of the villains you’ll face out in the field will be holed up in buildings a majority of the time, whether it be underground criminal syndicates, or an illegal black market deal! Today, you’ll be paired into teams determined by lots and face off against your classmates in the following scenario!” All Might pulled out the flash cards that Nezu had provided him with for this particular scenario, clearing his throat before explaining to his students. “Ahem.. ‘The villains have fortified themselves within the building, along with the dirty bomb they have constructed. The objective of the Hero team shall be to either capture the Villain team via the capture tape that has been provided, or to capture the bomb itself before the time expires! The villain team’s objective will be to either capture the Heroes in the same manner, or to run out the clock and let the bomb explode!’ There you have it, 1-A! Though, due to the uneven number of students in your class, I will have to ask for a volunteer to go at it alone!” All Might was not surprised when Young Todoroki volunteered himself to go alone, seeing as his father also preferred to work alone most of the time.

All Might could see that a majority of the students were confused by the nature of the lesson, and once again Young Iida raised his hand to call out his question. “Sir! Why are the teams being determined by lots?” All Might was about to answer Iida’s question, when he heard the slightly muffled voice of Aizawa Izuku speak up first. “Most of the time, in the field, Pros won’t know who they're being paired up with on a day to day basis. Unless you’re working in an agency with set patrol teams, you’ll oftentimes have no idea who you’re going to be working with at any given moment.” All Might nodded along as the greenette explained the reasoning behind the lots, before snapping his fingers and pointing to the boy. “You are absolutely right, Young Aizawa! This lesson is just a small taste of what you’ll all be experiencing as Pro Heroes one day! So, let's all Go Beyond! PLUS ULTRA!”

Chapter Text

Izuku would like to know who is in charge of fate, and he would like to file a complaint with their supervisor. If it wasn’t bad enough that All Might was teaching Foundational Heroics, then the pairings for the lesson today certainly made things worse. Izuku was on the Hero Team for his match, paired up with Uraraka, which wasn’t the bad part. No, the bad part was who he was going up against. Iida was fine enough to face off against, Izuku could easily use the Engine user’s speed against him in such a confined space. However, that would entirely depend on Iida’s team mate. Hence, the reason for Izuku wanting to file a complaint with Fate’s supervisor. Because Iida’s teammate was none other than Bakugo fucking Katsuki, and Izuku knows that Katsuki will not just leave Izuku alone during this match. So as Izuku stands outside of the building the match will be going down in, he tries to wrack his brain for a plan that would allow him to avoid confronting Katsuki while not just throwing Uraraka to face the explosive blonde. It’s not going very well.

“Izuku, you seem to know Bakugo pretty well, did you have a plan on how to beat him and win this?” Izuku glanced to the side to see Uraraka looking at him expectantly with her head tilted to the side. Izuku rubbed at the back of his neck before sighing. Having been unable to think of a plan that did not require a direct confrontation with Katsuki, Izuku grit his teeth before nodding. “I think I have a plan. Katsuki is going to come straight for me, so I think it would be best if we split up. If we can do that before we find either Iida or Katsuki then I can slip away when he finds me and group up with you. If I had to bet on where they put the bomb, my money would be on one of the higher floors, most likely the fourth floor. It’ll just be Iida guarding it, so all you’ll need to do is get your hands on him once then touch the bomb. While you’re doing that, I can distract Katsuki.” Uraraka nodded along to the plan as Izuku explained it, though he could see that there was something in her eyes that showed that she didn’t like the idea of splitting up.

The rest of the 5 minute planning stage went by without another word spoken between the two of them, and the silence did nothing to quell the anxiety driven pounding of his heart. He should have expected to have to fight Katsuki at some point, the Sports Festival was only about a month away after all, but Izuku hadn’t been expecting to fight the blonde on the first day of classes. A tap on his shoulder from Uraraka brought Izuku out of his thoughts as he turned back to look at his team mate for the exercise. Uraraka had a conflicted expression on her face, and opened her mouth to say something, but the booming voice of their instructor over their communicators effectively cut her off from whatever she had planned on saying.

“Alright Hero Team! Prep time is over, you may make your way into the building!”

Izuku cringed at the grating volume that All Might was using over the communicator, knowing full well that he was likely going to have a migraine by the time classes were over for the day. Uraraka appeared to have a similar reaction to All Might’s volume, but she forced a smile onto her face as she pumped her fists in determination. “Let’s go win this, Izuku!” Izuku blinked for a moment at the sudden shift in her demeanor before nodding in acknowledgment. The two of them sprang into motion, rushing into the building and heading straight for the central staircase. Things were going smoothly, almost too smoothly, until the pair reached the third floor.

It was the smell of burnt caramel that Izuku noticed first. He didn’t even have a minute to contemplate the source of the smell, not that he even needed to think about it. That smell had become so deeply ingrained with his bad memories that Izuku to this day still had a hard time being anywhere near caramel products. Katsuki had found them, and he was ready for a fight. Then, came the burst of sound as Katsuki launched himself around a corner and swung an open palm towards Izuku, causing the greenette to grab a hold of Uraraka’s arm and yank her back away from the explosion that was sent their way. Smoke filled the hallway around them and Izuku took a chance to glance back over his shoulder at Uraraka as she got back to her feet. This wasn’t going according to the plan at all, Izuku knew that and it set something alight in his stomach that he hadn’t felt for months now.

“What’s the matter, Nerd? Not strong enough to fight me for real? Gotta rely on dodging away from me, and not that fancy new quirk of yours, Deku?!” Izuku grit his teeth as he turned back to face Katsuki. The blonde was standing tall in the hallway, wearing the costume that Izuku had designed for him all those years ago. The same one Katsuki had laughed at and then threw away the notebook it was written down in. Izuku never found the notebook after that, though if he’s being honest he didn’t look very hard that day. That simmering fire in Izuku’s stomach just kept burning hotter and hotter as he took in all the small details about the costume that Katsuki had stolen. Stolen costume, stolen support designs, stolen stolen stolen STOLEN!

SNAP

—

Katsuki watched the nerd just standing there in the hallway, not moving. Just fucking standing there. Staring at him. Staring at him with a look Katsuki had never seen in the nerd’s eyes. A look Katsuki had seen so many times in the mirror on days he was especially pissed off. A look of pure rage.

Katsuki opened his mouth to try and say something again, but the words died in his throat as the nerd’s hair ignited and he shifted into a fighting stance. Then, the nerd spoke first, with his voice muffled by that stupid looking mask that only let Katsuki see his eyes. “Uraraka. Go ahead of me. I’ll handle this.” Katsuki barely had a second to react as the brown haired extra that was on the nerd’s team turned and began sprinting back towards the stairwell behind her, and the nerd let his hands ignite as he clenched his fists. Then, the nerd was moving towards him, and Katsuki acted purely on instinct with the right hook he threw towards the nerd in response.

It was a habit Katsuki was trying to break, starting fights with a right hook. It would make him predictable, and Heroes that got predictable ended up losing. Katsuki couldn’t let himself become predictable, because he couldn’t lose. So when Deku wrapped his hands around his right arm, Katsuki was utterly blindsided. He was further blindsided when the nerd shifted both of their weights in order to flip Katsuki onto his back and slam him against the floor. He lays there, motionless, for a few moments just to try and get the air that was lost back into his lungs. The hallway was dead silent aside from Katsuki’s heavy breathing, but the temperature was slowly rising around him. Then there was the sound of footsteps approaching him, and Katsuki could swear that he felt someone squeeze his heart when he heard the voice of the nerd come from behind him.

“Y’know, Kacchan, you always lead fights with a right hook... You’re just that confident I guess, you don’t even need to try and think, do you? Meanwhile I’ve had to do nothing but think! My whole damn life, I’ve been thinking and thinking and thinking! What else could I even do?! I didn’t even have a quirk to defend myself when you and your gaggle of idiot extras would beat me down every fucking day! Do you know how many scars I have from Aldera? How many scars I have from you?!” Katsuki rolled back to his feet just in time to see a fist heading straight for his face, but not enough time to dodge it as the hit connected and sent Katsuki straight back to the floor.

Katsuki pulled himself back to his feet in time to block the next punch that was thrown his way, and this time it was Katsuki’s turn to throw the nerd around like a ragdoll. Katsuki pinned the greenette against the wall and ripped that featureless mask off of his face, only to get the clearest look at the spiteful expression on the nerd’s face and the tears that were flowing freely down his face. The sight of Izuku crying was enough to snap Katsuki out of the anger that had been boiling over the top ever since he had been paired up with Glasses for this exercise. He... he hadn’t wanted to make Izuku cry, why was he crying? What did he do to make Izuku cry?

“You know what’s the worst fucking part of it all, Kacchan?” Katsuki knows. He’s known for years, and he’s hated himself for it. He’s hated himself, and hated everyone around him that reminded him of why he hates himself. Bakugo Katsuki has hated everything and everyone for years, because...

“You were too much of a fucking coward to say anything about it all until Inko got arrested!”

—

Toshinori held the microphone with a grip that was turning his knuckles white as he listened to Young Aizawa’s heart wrenching words. He was glad that the camera in the hallway did not have a good angle for those viewing it to see the boy’s face, because he could hear the tears in Young Aizawa’s voice. He should stop this. He should really stop this. He should have changed the order of the teams when he saw how Young Bakugo and Young Aizawa had frozen up when he announced their teams would be the first ones to face off. He should have prevented this from happening when he heard Young Bakugo tell Young Iida that he was going to fight Young Aizawa alone.

But he didn’t. He let this play out, because he had been eager to see Young Aizawa’s performance in the exercise. He wanted to see just what the boy was capable of with his own quirk. He wanted to see just how the greenette handled himself in a fight, and he had allowed this situation to progress to its current point. All because he was curious.

The remaining students of 1-A were all watching the screens with earnest excitement as they watched what they assumed to just be a simple tussle between two of their classmates. They could only do that because they had no way of hearing what Toshinori was hearing. Toshinori doesn’t think he would be able to even look at his students if they could hear the words being said by Young Aizawa. If they could hear just how poorly the boy was talking about himself, and how each word he said caused Young Bakugo to flinch back ever so slightly more. What would Nana say if she saw this?

Toshinori knew the answer to that. She would have stopped this the second she heard the emotion in Young Aizawa’s voice. She would have switched the teams when she noticed how the two boys froze up at the idea of having to fight each other. She would have been a much better teacher than Toshinori...

Shimura Nana wouldn’t have left a broken boy on a rooftop after telling him he couldn’t become a hero without a quirk...

“Woah, look at that!”

Toshinori was pulled out of his self-deprecations at the sound of Young Kirishima’s voice, and upon looking back at the monitor to see just what had gotten the redhead’s attention, Toshinori felt his face go pale at what he was witnessing. Young Aizawa had broken out of the grip that had him pinned against the wall, and had reversed the situation to the point where he had Young Bakugo pinned to the ground... with his knife against the blonde’s throat.

Toshinori didn’t even have a chance to turn on the microphone to try and get Young Aizawa to release the blonde, because the two teens became a jumbled mess of flailing limbs and thrown punches. It looked more like some back alley brawl than a proper fight, and Toshinori felt sick just listening to the way the two teens were screaming at each other.

“What did you fucking expect me to do, Deku?!”

“Anything at all would have been fucking nice, Kacchan!”

“I was at the trial, wasn’t I?! I tried to fucking report what that bitch was doing to you!”

“You didn’t fucking try hard enough then! One measly fucking appearance in a courtroom doesn’t make up for a decade of bullying and beatings!”

The two teens sent each other flying in opposite directions at that point, green flames and crackling explosions mixing for but a brief moment to block out all vision that the camera had of the hallway. When the smoke cleared, the two had created a significant amount of distance between them, and the hallway looked like someone had set off a pyrotechnics show within the confined space. Scorch marks and still raging blazes littered the hall and the two teens stood glaring at each other, their chests heaving as they took advantage of the momentary respite. Then, the support items on Young Bakugo’s arms lit up with a menacing red glow, and Toshinori felt his mouth go dry at the near manic tone the blonde gained as he spoke next as he began to lift his right arm.

“You thought up the design of these, so surely you know what these things do… Cause of your freaky fuckin’ notebooks you know all about how my quirk works too... My sweat is something like nitroglycerin, and all that excess sweat has just been gathered in these things the whole time… and if they made them like I wanted, all I have to do is pull this pin…”

The world seemed to slow to a crawl as everything clicked for Toshinori. He pressed the activator on the microphone hurriedly as Young Bakugo grabbed a hold of the pin on his right gauntlet, and shouted into the microphone. “Young Bakugo, do not use that piece of support gear in such a confined space! You could kill him if you’re not careful!”

“He won’t die if he fucking dodges!”

What happened next, Toshinori would blame himself for many years to come. The blonde let loose a gut wrenching yell as he ripped the pin out of his gauntlet, and the hallway exploded into light as the stored up nitroglycerin was ignited and sent careening towards Young Aizawa. Toshinori threw down the microphone as fast as he could and made a beeline for the exit of the observation room. In his hurry, he failed to notice Young Uraraka latch onto the faux bomb, and he missed the flash of viridian embers that burst into motion from behind Young Bakugo. All Toshinori could hear was the deafening sound of the explosion tearing a hole out of the building, all he could see was the rubble that was sent flying from the outermost wall of the building as the explosion made contact with it. Then, everything went silent for a few, painstaking moments.

That’s when Toshinori heard the screaming.

Chapter Text

Katsuki’s ears are ringing again. The headpiece of his costume could only dampen so much sound from his explosions, he knew this. He should have listened to Izuku more when the nerd told him that he should look into hearing aids in case his quirk starts to damage his hearing... Izuku. Not Deku, never Deku, never again... Where is he? He was just standing right there before Katsuki... Before he..

Before he pulled the pin on his gauntlet.

All at once, the air is ripped out of Katsuki’s lungs as he realizes what just happened. What he just did. The only sound Katsuki can hear is the sound of the rubble shifting around him as he stares at the gaping hole that the gauntlet left in the side of the building. The only thing he can feel is how suddenly cold everything feels around him as he begins to stumble forward towards the largest pile of rubble. There’s a siren that blares from within the building, but Katsuki doesn’t really care. He doesn’t care because he can see that mask Izuku was wearing in that rubble pile. If Katsuki squints hard enough, he swears that he can see blood on the mask. Was that always there? No, it wasn’t there when Katsuki ripped it off of the nerd’s face...

Oh gods… What did Katsuki do?

He falls to his knees in front of the rubble pile and reaches a shaky hand out to grab the mask. He closes his fingers around the damn thing and pulls it out of the rubble, only to immediately drop the half of the mask that he was able to grab a hold of. The thing has been split in half, a jagged line running down it as the featureless half face stares back at Katsuki. He can hear footsteps coming from further down the hall, voices too. It sounds like Glasses and Pink Cheeks... but not Izuku’s voice. Katsuki’s heart rate starts to pick up faster and faster as his hands shoot out to start pulling apart the pile of rubble in front of him. Just one more piece of debris, Izuku must be under it. He has to be. Katsuki can’t have hurt him again.

He’d been doing so well. He was getting better. He hadn’t been so angry all the time since his Old Hag made him start seeing a shrink because of his temper. Why did he backslide so much? Why did seeing Izuku have a quirk make him so upset?! It’s not fair! Katsuki should be so fucking happy for the nerd, he finally got a damn quirk! That shrink he’s been seeing had spewed some bullshit about a ‘superiority complex’ and ‘having difficulty accepting that people could be better than him’. Katsuki had outright dismissed the idea at the time but... was the man right?

There’s a glint of metal in the rubble, and Katsuki has to pull his hand back as he cuts his palm open on the knife that Izuku had on him earlier. The same knife that the nerd had pressed against his throat with tears in his eyes. He hadn’t stopped crying once.. Even when he was screaming at Katsuki, Izuku just kept crying. Like something visceral and bloody was being ripped out of him with every word he said.

“You always just saw me as a weak, worthless, Deku, right? Just like everyone else?!”

“I didn’t ask to be quirkless! I didn’t ask for my own mother to be so disgusted by my existence that she beat me every day for six years!”

“Even fucking All Might thought it was hopeless for me to be a hero without a quirk!”

Katsuki can feel something breaking in his chest as he contemplates the suddenly very real possibility that Izuku isn’t in the rubble. The explosion from his gauntlet was so much more powerful than Katsuki expected, and it was even worse in such a confined space. All Might had even warned him... Breaking, something is breaking further and further and further, and Katsuki can’t hold the pieces together fast enough. He’s the one crying now, and the tears mix with his sweat in the worst possible way and it leaves a horrible taste on his tongue as he screams. He screams, and screams, and screams until he can feel something tearing in his throat. “I’m sorry... Gods, Izuku, I’m so fucking sorry... Please, please be fucking okay.. Please you have to be okay, please please Izuku... I’m sorry, please be okay…”

He’s not making any sense now, he knows that. Katsuki’s not the type of person to break like this, but he just can’t fucking stop. He can’t hear Glasses and Pink Cheeks anymore, are they watching Katsuki slowly break apart? Why aren’t they helping him look through the rubble? Did they just leave the building? Do they not fucking care that Izuku might be... might be...

That Izuku might be dead, and that Katsuki’s the one who killed him?

crunch

Katsuki whirls around when he hears the footsteps from behind him, mouth open to yell at whoever it is to help him look for Izuku. All the bite and venom building in his throat dies when he comes face to face with who is approaching him. Standing there, chest heaving, is Izuku. He’s standing there, alive, but he looks so fucking hurt. There’s burns on his face and hands, there’s blood covering his face too. Katsuki has to seriously think about whether or not he’s seeing the living, breathing form of his first friend... or the bloody and broken ghost of the boy he just murdered.

“You... You have no fucking right to look like that…”

The words shock Katsuki out of his stunned silence, because what the hell? The greenette sounds so fucking pissed. Katsuki tries to stand up, but Izuku moves before he can even get off the ground. Izuku’s on top of him again, throwing wild strikes at Katsuki. He barely even had time to throw his arms up to cover his face as Izuku continues to wail on him, all the while the greenette is snarling at Katsuki in pure fury.

“You have no fucking right to look so upset! You could have fucking killed me! How can you sit there looking like someone just killed your fucking dog when you were the one who did it!”

Katsuki can’t even respond, all of his effort is focused on keeping Izuku from cracking his skull open with his hits. Even the blows they traded in their earlier fight weren’t this intense, and Katsuki doesn’t know how to react in any way other than keeping his guard up. Out of the corner of his eye he sees Pink Cheeks and Glasses standing by the stairwell, both with shell shocked expressions on their faces as they just fucking watch.

“How fucking dare you! Every fucking day I hoped, fucking prayed, that you would stand up and say something! That you would say something, that you stop them! That you would be my hero! I looked up to you since we were toddlers, Bakugou!”

There’s a gust of wind that blows through the building, and Izuku is being pulled off of him by a pair of large arms wrapped around him. Izuku’s kicking and thrashing in All Might’s grip, trying so desperately in vain to break free and descend back on Katsuki. Katsuki is, meanwhile, reeling from what Izuku just said. He knew that the greenette looked up to him, that’s not the part that has Katsuki reeling. No, it’s the fact that Izuku just called him Bakugou.

“For as long as I can remember, it’s always been you that I’ve been wanting to be like! I can’t believe it took me this fucking long to realize that I shouldn’t be like you! It took me trying to kill myself to realize that loving you isn’t healthy for me, Bakugou!”

All Might is pulling Izuku out of the room now, with Glasses and Pink Cheeks following closely behind the #1 Hero trying to calm Izuku down. All the while Katsuki just sits there among the rubble, speechless. He isn’t sure how long he sits there, staring at the spot where Izuku was. No one comes back to escort him out of the building, and Katsuki is pretty sure he hears All Might’s booming voice telling Glasses to leave him there. The first thing that breaks the monotony of the room around him is the sound of footsteps, then the small form of that damn rat of a principal rounds the corner with Aizawa-sensei following right behind him. Nezu’s expression is unreadable for Katsuki, but Aizawa-sensei looks furious.

“Hello, Bakugou-kun. Am I a mouse, a dog, or a bear? Well, I suppose that does not matter currently, I am Principal Nezu. It would seem there is much we must discuss, don’t we?”

—

Bakugou Mitsuki can say, with absolute certainty, that she was not expecting a call from UA first thing when she had gotten home from work. Quite frankly, she was thoroughly confused when she answered the phone and the chipper voice of UA’s principal came over the line when she answered the call. That confusion quickly turned to fear when the principal explained why he was calling.

“Good afternoon, Bakugou-san. Am I a mouse, a dog, or a bear? It does not matter, because I am Nezu, the Principal of UA High School. I know it must be quite the shock that I am calling you at this hour, but there has been a bit of an incident during your son’s Foundational Heroics lesson for the day. Before you panic, Katsuki-kun is perfectly fine, in fact he is sitting in my office currently as I make this call. However, I would like to request your presence on campus so we can discuss this matter further.”

Mitsuki had to physically remind herself not to break the speed limit about seven times as she drove to UA. Getting pulled over for a speeding ticket would not help her right now. Something happened during Katsuki’s class, and Mitsuki hopes to god that it didn’t have something to do with Izuku. She had been so happy to hear that they were in the same class for this first time in a safe school for them both. UA was not going to be a repeat of Aldera, and Mitsuki was sincerely hoping that this would help her baby boy reconnect with Izuku after everything that had happened.

God... When Mitsuki thinks about what Izuku went through on a daily basis, it makes her all that more pissed at Inko for all of it. The woman had been so excited to raise Izuku when he was born, but when Hisashi left her she just... changed. She stopped calling on the weekends, stopped letting Izuku come over for sleepovers with Katsuki, and seemed to actively avoid Mitsuki at every turn whenever she could. There were so many red flags, for so long, and Mitsuki just... missed them. The day that Katsuki had come home and told her what he had overhead when he followed Izuku home, she ended up crying herself to sleep in her husband’s arms. Masaru and her both saw Izuku like family to them, and when Katsuki told them about everything that the little green bean was going through everyday, it just made everything hurt that much more.

Mitsuki would never forgive herself for not doing more to stop the abuse Izuku was suffering through. She had given the names of every officer that neglected to investigate the abuse to the sharply dressed detective with that lie detection quirk, but Mitsuki never learned what the man actually ended up doing with the guilty officers. The private investigator she had been set to hire was highly renowned for her professional discretion and, even though Mitsuki ended up not needing her services, the PI had been emphatic about wanting to get proper justice for Izuku even if he was quirkless. And if that wasn’t another shock for Mitsuki to learn...

Izuku was never quirkless, but apparently had such a complex quirk that it took a Trauma Induced Manifestation for it to activate for the first time. She didn’t know the exact details, but when the D.A. had announced that Izuku attempted to end his own life at the trial? Mitsuki wasn’t stupid. She knows that was likely the traumatic event that caused the manifestation. She had a chance to speak with Nezu the day of the trial, and it had probably been one of the most stressful moments of the day. She had asked why so many heroes had gotten involved in the trial, out of a genuine curiosity. Recovery Girl, Nezu himself, Eraserhead whoever that is, and even a rumor that All Might’s agency had also gotten involved at one point. That had caused a big stir, as evidenced by the sheer amount of reporters waiting outside the courthouse that day. Sure, given Inko’s position as a pediatrician, her being arrested and sentenced for child abuse caused a stir in Musutafu, but not one that warranted that much of a press response.

Nezu’s response to her question was just as enigmatic to her now as it was then. The rodent had simply stated that a member of his school’s faculty had grown attached to the greenette, and that he had begun tutoring Izuku because of that. And wasn’t that terrifying to think about. Izuku had always been smart, even before Inko had cut them out of his life, and Mitsuki couldn’t help but feel a slight twinge of fear at the thought of the smartest creature in Japan teaching Izuku personally. Mitsuki just hopes that Nezu doesn’t try to rope Izuku into some sort of world domination scheme...

As Mitsuki pulled up to the visitor’s parking lot for UA, she quickly made sure that she didn’t look like she had just frantically drove to the school in a panic while likely breaking several traffic laws in the process. Stepping out of her car, Mitsuki had to quickly avert her eyes in embarrassment as the R-18 Hero ; Midnight walked over to her. Sure, Mitsuki was happily married to her husband but... damn what a woman. Though the short, clipped, tone of voice the heroine had when she spoke instantly put Mitsuki on edge once more in addition to the slight scowl on the woman’s face.

“Bakugou Mitsuki, I presume? Your son definitely takes after you in terms of looks, I suppose. Follow me, Nezu’s waiting for you in his office.” The heroine then turned around and began walking towards the main building of the school, leaving Mitsuki to hurriedly follow her. The walk through the school was accompanied by a tense silence, and the awkward glances from a few students that were walking through the halls as Mitsuki and Midnight passed them by. Soon enough, they arrive to Nezu’s office and the first thing Mitsuki notices is that someone is yelling on the other side of the door. Someone is yelling, and Mitsuki recognizes the voice. The door swings open on its own, and Mitsuki is met with the sight of Katsuki sitting in front of Nezu’s desk, his voice raised as he speaks, but most importantly to Mitsuki is the fact that he is not yelling at Nezu.

“I don’t know what I was thinking, okay?! I wasn’t thinking! That’s my fucking problem, I got too fucking angry and I can’t even tell you why I was angry in the first place! What’s the point of dragging me in here to ask me why I did that when you’re just going to expel me anyways! You’re wasting your time trying to get me to explain myself because I fucking can’t, okay?!” Mitsuki watches in complete shock as her son curls in on himself, fisting his hands into his hair as he shakes violently. Mitsuki has only ever seen Katsuki act like that once before, and it was the day that he broke down about what Izuku was going through on a daily basis. Nothing ever got Katsuki this worked up except when Izuku was involved. Just what the hell happened? The silence that descended on the office was almost suffocating, until Principal Nezu glances to make eye contact with Mitsuki and proceeds to wave her further into the office.

“It is a pleasure to see you again, Bakugou-san. Though I do wish that we were meeting under more pleasant circumstances. Please, come take a seat and I will explain the current situation to you.” Mitsuki glances to look at her son, who is now refusing to even look at her as she settles into the seat next to him. As Nezu taps a few keys on his keyboard and a small projection screen lights up, Mitsuki can’t help but feel like she is going to be sick once this explanation is over.

—

They called his mother. Why did they bother calling his mother when they would just be expelling him anyways? Did they just want to make sure Katsuki’s mother knew how horrible of a person her son is? She already knows that Katsuki is a piece of shit, he made it crystal fucking clear to her the day he told her about what was going on at Aldera. What more could they do to make him seem like a villain in the making? Because that’s what Katsuki feels like right now. He could have fucking killed Izuku today and he didn’t even stop to think about the consequences until after he pulled the pin. Speaking of which...

“He won’t die if he fucking dodges!”

Katsuki flinches as he hears the manic tone of his voice from the recorded audio. He hates this. He hates this so much. Katsuki hates that he said that, he hates that he pulled the pin, he hates that he let his anger get the better of him so easily. He doesn’t deserve to be here, not after this. He doesn’t deserve to be the next #1 Hero, he doesn’t even deserve to be a hero. It’s pathetic, Katsuki is pathetic.

The footage is still playing, but Katsuki can’t stomach looking up from the floor. He can feel Aizawa-sensei’s glare boring into the back of his skull, and the man has every right to glare at Katsuki right now. He nearly killed the man’s kid, Aizawa-sensei should have just put Katsuki in cuffs then and there. Yet he hasn’t. No one has even mentioned any consequences that he’ll be facing. Obviously they’re expelling him, they can’t have a student who nearly murdered a classmate. So why the fuck was no one saying anything about it?!

The sound of the projection powering off caused Katsuki to finally look up from the floor, instantly meeting the calculating gaze of Principal Nezu. The damned rat had not said a single thing to him since they had arrived in the office. Aizawa-sensei had been the one who had questioned what Katsuki was thinking when he pulled the pin, and Katsuki tried his best to keep his temper in check again. He failed. Katsuki wasn’t even yelling at either of them, he was yelling because he was so fucking pissed and he doesn’t know what these fucks want him to say!

“As you can see, Bakugou-san, your son’s behavior presents a very concerning conundrum for us. Katsuki-kun directly disobeyed an order from his Heroics Instructor, and in the process nearly caused grievous harm to another student. A student who he has a personal history with. Typically, such behavior would be grounds for an immediate expulsion. However, I wish to hear your opinion on the matter before I pass my judgment, Bakugou-san.” What a fucking joke. Of course his hag of a mother is going to agree with the expulsion. This shitshow is just another nail in Katsuki’s coffin. His mother was silent for a few moments, likely considering what punishment she was going to give him once they expelled him from UA.

“I don’t think you should expel him.” Katsuki whips his head to look at his mother, who is remaining as stoic as she can be given the circumstances. He doesn’t have a chance to question what the fuck she’s going on about before she’s speaking again.

“He fucked up, that’s for sure, but I don’t think he’d have a chance to be better than this if you expel him. Katsuki’s been in anger management for almost a year, but therapy isn’t a miracle solution. He won’t get better overnight, and it’s been over a year since Kats and Zuku have been in a class together. They didn’t part ways on the best of terms, in case you’ve forgotten Nezu. Izuku was just as pissed off as Katsuki was in that footage, and I think we all know the reason behind that. Quite frankly, I think it was a mistake for them to be placed against each other in the first place.” Katsuki is fucking speechless. His mother is defending him after what he did?

“So you are suggesting that we do not punish him for his actions today? I understand that he is your son, and you are certainly protective of him and his future, but I cannot in good conscience allow Katsuki-kun to remain at my school without facing consequences for what he has done.” Nezu’s voice betrayed nothing of the rat’s feelings on the matter, yet Katsuki could see that there was something going on behind those beady eyes. Though Katsuki couldn’t even begin to contemplate just what the rat was planning.

“Oh no, he definitely needs to face consequences for his actions, but expulsion might just be a bit too extreme in this case. Katsuki’s wanted to be a hero his whole life, and if UA expels him he won’t be accepted into any of the other hero schools in the country. Look me in the eyes and tell me if you seriously think that would stop Katsuki from trying to be a hero. Does UA really want to be held responsible for a former student becoming a vigilante? Because you and I both know that’s how the media would spin it if Katsuki did go vigilante. Detention for a month, suspension for the rest of the week, honestly I’ll agree to whatever you decide what to do, but I can say with 100% certainty that expelling him would be a mistake.” At this point, Katsuki is reeling from the back and forth between his mother and Principal Nezu. Aizawa-sensei has yet to add anything to the discussion, but Katsuki can still feel the man glaring at him.

“Hm.. Very well, though before I make my decision, why don’t we get the opinion of Izuku-kun’s father on the matter?” Ah. Now Katsuki is well and truly fucked. The man in question steps away from the wall he had been leaning against and moves to stand next to Nezu, a small scrap of paper in his hand. Katsuki tensed up as Aizawa-sensei set the paper down on the desk and pushed it towards him without a word. Katsuki glanced to his side, trying to see if his mother was going to reach for the paper, but she just sat there with an expectant look on her face as she motioned for him to pick it up. So, Katsuki does as he’s expected to do, and promptly drops the paper back onto the desk when he sees the familiar handwriting of Izuku.

‘Kacchan,

I know I’ve been too clingy with you all these years, and I’m sorry. You have what it takes to be a great hero, and I really hope you can get into UA when you go to take the entrance exam. I won’t get in your way anymore, I promise. I just wished that we had stayed friends all these years.. You were really the only person at Aldera that I admired, your quirk is amazing and you have such a strong drive to be the best you can be.. I know it might be selfish of me to say this… but I’m glad that you were the only one who seemed to notice what was going on with me.. It really meant a lot to me to see that you still cared, even if you didn’t want to say anything to me about it because of what our classmates would think. I’m sorry I couldn’t keep the promise we made when we were kids, but I’m sure you wouldn’t need a quirkless Deku like me to be on a hero team with you. With Love, Deku
P.S. - Please make sure that the police look into what my mother was doing to me. I can’t stand the thought of her getting away with everything she did to me.’

“I found that note in Izuku’s notebook the night he attempted to commit suicide. I want to make it clear to you now, Katsuki, that this note is the only reason why I am even entertaining the idea of allowing you to remain in my class. As your teacher, I should give you a final chance because you do have potential. But as Izuku’s father, I should throw you to the wolves and let you fend for yourself. So understand this, Bakugou Katsuki, if you ever do something like this again... I will not give you another chance. I sincerely hope that you don’t make me regret my decision.” Katsuki hears what Aizawa-sensei is saying, but his focus is still glued to the note. Izuku left him, of all people, a note when he tried to end his own life. The parting words that Izuku spat at him play on a loop in his mind as he tries to come to terms with everything that’s happening.

“It took me trying to kill myself to realize that loving you isn’t healthy for me, Bakugou!”

Katsuki doesn’t say anything when Aizawa-sensei removes the paper from the desk, nor does he say anything when his mother places a hand on his back reassuringly. He doesn’t deserve this. He’s not worth it. But they’re all still giving him a chance. Katsuki won’t let this go to waste. He’ll be better. He has to be better. For Izuku.

Chapter Text

[Half An Hour Prior To Mitsuki’s Arrival At UA]

Shouta knew it was a bad idea to let Yagi handle the first Foundational Heroics lesson for 1-A. The #1 Idiot had no prior experience teaching before coming to UA, he doesn’t even have a teaching license. Yet, Nezu had still insisted on allowing the walking blonde migraine to run his first lesson alone. When Shouta had suggested having Yagi teach 1-B first instead of 1-A, the damn rat had assured Shouta that he would be monitoring the situation. That had made Shouta feel slightly better about the situation, knowing that when Yagi inevitably fucked things up, Nezu would have his hide. So, Shouta went straight to the rat’s office after the end of his Ethics Class to observe the lesson as well.

Begrudgingly, Shouta had to admit that Yagi was making some cogent points about how most televised fights between Heroes and Villains was only scratching the surface of what actual Hero Work was like. It even brought a small smile to Shouta’s face to hear Izuku commenting on how most heroes are paired up on an ‘as needed’ basis. He’d be lying if he said that he wasn’t worried about Izuku withdrawing back into his shell because of Yagi’s presence, but so far it seemed like that wasn’t going to be a major issue. Of course, Shouta still had complaints about throwing 1-A straight into a combat exercise, but he would reserve judgment until after the first pairings went against each other.

That was probably Shouta’s biggest mistake of the day. A clawing feeling of apprehension gripped Shouta’s chest when he heard Yagi announce that the first pairs participating in the exercise would be the teams containing Izuku and Bakugou. That apprehension quickly turned to outrage when the two teens started fighting like rabid animals. Without a word to his boss, Shouta had bolted out of Nezu’s office to make his way to Ground Beta. The damn rat would probably get to the training ground first anyways...

Shouta had just reached the outer gate of Ground Beta when he heard, and saw, the explosion. The gate would take too long to open, so Shouta used his Capture Weapon to quickly scale the wall of the training ground, breaking into a sprint as soon as his feet hit the ground. He could hear screaming, and the only thing Shouta could do was pray that he wouldn’t find Izuku buried under the rubble of a building. He couldn’t go through that, not again...

Then, he saw Yagi carrying a still thrashing and kicking Izuku out of the building the exercise had taken place in, with a concerned Uraraka and Iida following closely behind the #1 Hero. Uraraka had her hands out, trying to calm Izuku down most likely, but Iida kept glancing back towards the building. He couldn’t quite hear what Iida must have said to Yagi, but the man’s booming voice telling him to leave Bakugou in the building made Shouta’s hair stand on end in anger. If it weren’t for the fact that using Erasure on Yagi would reveal the man’s weakened form, Shouta probably would have been using his quirk on all four of the people in front of him. Instead, Shouta shot his Capture Weapon out to wrap around Yagi’s neck, tightening it ever so slightly as he glared daggers into the man.

“You have about five seconds to let my son go, or so help me, All Might I will break your arms.”

Yagi stiffened at the dangerous tone to Shouta’s voice, not daring to move an inch while the man had his Capture Weapon so ready to strangle the life out of him. Izuku had stopped thrashing about in Yagi’s arms now, but he had become so still and quiet that Shouta was worried he lost consciousness. Uraraka had moved in front of Izuku now, holding one of his hands against the center of her chest in a manner that Shouta was all too familiar with when helping Hitoshi or Izuku out of a panic attack. Why the hell were these kids all so knowledgeable about how to handle these sorts of things? Shouta was about to tug on his Capture Scarf, because Yagi hadn’t let Izuku go yet, when he heard the single most terrifying thing he could think of in that moment.

“All Might. I suggest that you listen to Shouta-kun, and let Izuku-kun go. I would much prefer for my staff to not perform any further actions that could result in a potential lawsuit.”

Nezu had arrived, and he did not sound pleased. Shouta glanced over his shoulder, cursing to himself as he saw the rest of his students crowded behind the rat. He heard some shuffling, and upon looking back towards Yagi, Shouta saw the #1 Child Endangerment Case setting Izuku onto the curb with his back propped up against a small bench. The whole scene reminded Shouta too much of the night that he first met Izuku, with the greenette’s face covered in blood and a crowd of bystanders trying to see what was going on. Nezu cleared his throat while sending Shouta an expectant look and, with a slight growl, Shouta released the noose he had been ready to tighten around the throat of Skeletor’s Disowned Cousin. Shouta then turned back to look at the rest of 1-A with a scowl, seeing most of them standing there with their mouths hanging open like scandalized aristocrats who had just seen a court jester take a shit on the dinner plate of a king. Shouta really wasn’t sure which he was supposed to be in that metaphor.

“You’re all dismissed. This lesson should have never happened. Make your way over to Gym Gamma and wait for me there, I will be running you all through Costume and Support Gear checks instead.”

A threat of expulsion had been on the tip of Shouta’s tongue as none of his students moved, but Nezu preemptively cut him off from saying any sort of threats.

“No Shouta-kun, you will come with me. I will have Yamada-kun keep an eye on your students over in Gym Gamma while you and I handle this situation. All Might, if you would kindly escort 1-A over to Gym Gamma, then wait for me in the teacher’s lounge, it would be most appreciated.”

Shouta wanted to argue with the rat, but knew better than to do that at this point. Yagi was still hovering over Izuku, and it was clear that the presence of the World’s Worst Rooftop Inspector was making Izuku’s panic attack much worse. Shouta shouldered past Yagi in order to crouch in front of Izuku, next to Uraraka who was now looking at Shouta with a concerned expression. He was incredibly proud of the girl, given the circumstances, she was doing everything correctly. Shouta would question Uraraka about how she knew to handle someone else having a panic attack later, Izuku was his main focus at the moment. In any other circumstance, the girl’s efforts would have likely brought Izuku out of his panic, but these were certainly not normal circumstances.

“Izuku, you’re okay. I’m here, you’re safe. You’re on the ground still, you didn’t fall. I promise, you’re not on that rooftop again, just look at me kiddo.”

Shouta put a hand on Izuku’s shoulder as he spoke, unfurling his Capture Weapon with the other and placing one end of it in Izuku’s hands. It was something Shouta had noted many times now, the feeling of the Capture Weapon was a grounding point for Izuku when he was having a particularly bad panic attack. Inui had suggested it had something to do with Shouta’s use of the Capture Weapon the night he met Izuku, the feeling of the item that was used to save his life bringing a familiar sense of safety. Shouta decided to resolutely ignore the soft gasp from Uraraka, it wasn’t important at the moment if she heard what he was saying to Izuku.

Izuku inhaled sharply as he pulled the Capture Weapon closer to his chest, his shoulders shaking slightly as he finally looked up at Shouta. His eyes were blown wide, pupils dilated to the point that his irises were nearly fully eclipsed by them. They were both probably thinking the same thing in that moment, this whole wretched situation was too much like that horrible night. With a sudden rush of movement, Izuku threw his arms around Shouta’s shoulders and buried his face into Shouta’s chest.

“I’m sorry…”

Shouta said nothing in response to Izuku’s apology, simply returning the embrace and holding his son close. Izuku’s shoulders were shaking as the adrenaline and panic slowly left his system, no doubt being replaced by a bone deep exhaustion. Shouta could see the telltale signs of Izuku having overused his Ember Leap technique, small patches of second degree burns on his arms and neck and likely more hidden underneath his costume. No, none of this was Izuku’s fault. Begrudgingly, Shouta had to admit that it wasn’t even Bakugou’s fault. Not entirely. Yagi should have never gone through with this lesson, and Nezu should have never put Bakugou Katsuki in 1-A with Izuku. It had been a point of contention between them since the Entrance Exams. Having Bakugou in the same class with Izuku was a recipe for disaster, but the damn rat had not budged on the matter.

“It will be good for the both of them, Shouta-kun. Think of it as... exposure therapy”

Shouta had never wanted to drop kick his boss out of a window more than that moment.

“Shouta-kun, why don’t you let Uraraka-chan take Izuku to see Shuzenji? You still have a student in that building.”

Scratch that. Now Shouta was definitely going to dropkick the damn rat.

—

Ochaco had so many questions. To name a few ; Why the fuck was Bakugou so mean to Izuku? Why did All Might allow the training exercise to continue even after Bakugou blew a hole in the building? Why was Bakugou even allowed to have those gauntlets?! Questions like that, but there was one important question raging in her mind as she watched Recovery Girl fussing over Izuku in the Nurse’s Office. An important question, paired with a chilling reminder of what her green haired classmate screamed at Bakugou as All Might dragged him out of the building.

“It took me trying to kill myself to realize that loving you isn’t healthy for me, Bakugou!!”

Izuku tried to kill himself... and Aizawa-sensei adopted him...

“Izuku, you’re okay. I’m here, you’re safe. You’re on the ground still, you didn’t fall. I promise, you’re not on that rooftop again, just look at me kiddo.”

Just what exactly happened to Aizawa Izuku...? Ochaco wasn’t sure she’d get any answers to that particular question any time soon, because as soon as Recovery Girl used her quirk on Izuku, he passed out from utter exhaustion. She had wanted to stay with her classmate, not wanting him to wake up alone in the Nurse’s Office, but Recovery Girl had been insistent on shooing Ochaco out of the office and sending her back to class. While walking back to class, Ochaco had to do a double take as she saw Midnight-sensei walking briskly through the halls with a woman who was the spitting image of Bakugou. Same spiky ash blonde hair and blazing crimson irises, the woman had to be Bakugou’s mother, and neither woman looked pleased.

After changing out of her, now dust and ash covered, costume and back into her uniform, Ochaco made her way back to the 1-A classroom only to be nearly bowled over by Ashido as soon as she opened the door. There was a mix of shouting and panicked questions being thrown at her so fast that Ochaco couldn’t really make sense of any of it. It wasn’t until Iida had broken up the crowd around her that Ochaco was finally able to make sense of some of the questions.

“Is Izuku okay?! He looked really hurt from the camera footage we saw!”

“Did Aizawa-sensei expel Bakugou for what he did, kero?”

“Are you okay, Ocha? You looked really worried about Izuku when All Might pulled him out of the building…”

Questions like that, and so on. Ochaco didn’t really have an answer to any of the questions, but she did her best to answer what she could.

“Izuku’s still in the Nurse’s Office, Recovery Girl used her quirk on him and he passed right out. Uh.. I don’t know what’s going on with Bakugou, but I think I saw his mom walking down the hall with Midnight-sensei? And, I’m okay, just still worried about Izuku…”

Her answers seemed to have pleased her classmates, because they all started to head back to their seats after she finished speaking. Ochaco hadn’t even realized that Mic-sensei was watching the entire interaction from his spot at Aizawa-sensei’s desk until the Voice Hero cleared his throat with a soft smile on his face. Without a word shared between them, Ochaco quickly hurried back to her desk. Today was not what Ochaco had been expecting when she learned that they would be having their first Heroics lesson, but Ochaco really hoped that things would start to settle into some sense of normalcy soon...

Everyday couldn’t be this crazy... Right?

—

Everything hurts.

That was the first thing Izuku noticed as consciousness started to return to him. The second thing Izuku noticed was that he was not alone in the room. He could hear a hushed conversation off to his left, if he strained his ears enough he could just barely make out the voices of Recovery Girl, Shouta, and... Izuku had to bite back a yelp of pain as he shot up in the bed he was laying in. It had just now started to settle in with Izuku that he was in the Nurse’s Office. If he was being honest, Izuku didn’t really... remember what happened after he saw Bakugou sitting in the rubble left behind from his gauntlet’s explosion. He knew that he had passed his safe limit of 5 Leaps just to get away from the rampant blast, that was probably why he was in the Nurse’s Office now that he thinks about it, but when he saw Bakugou looking so... miserable...

All he saw was red. Izuku didn’t even think that was actually possible, he had always assumed it was just a figure of speech, but he just felt so... so angry, that everything just kind of faded into the background for him. Izuku vaguely remembers Uraraka trying to calm him down while someone was carrying him outside, but he can’t really piece everything together. Izuku would worry about the gap in his memory later, right now he was more worried about the third voice he can hear talking with Shouta and Recovery Girl. It almost sounds like... but it can’t be, right? She wouldn’t come all the way to UA just to see Izuku, would she? No, she was likely here because Nezu-sensei probably called her for a meeting about what happened during the Battle Trial.

So why was Bakugou Mitsuki in the Nurse’s Office talking to Shouta?

The sound of footsteps approaching his bed caused a swell of panic to form in Izuku’s chest as the privacy curtain in front of his bed was drawn back abruptly. That panic melted away to a mix of relief and apprehension as he saw Shouta standing there with his brows furrowed in annoyance, most likely directed towards the woman standing next to him. Because standing there next to Shouta, with a concerned expression on her face and the slightest hint of tears in her eyes, was Bakugou Mitsuki. With the privacy curtain pulled back, Izuku could see the rest of the Nurse’s Office much better now, and Izuku could feel his confusion ratcheting up as he quickly scanned the room to find that he was the only patient.

“You feeling okay, kiddo?”

Izuku’s eyes snap back to look at Shouta, who has moved to sit in the chair next to the bed by this point, but his voice fails him as he opens his mouth to respond. His throat is so dry, and everything still hurts. Is he okay? No, Izuku does not feel okay. He doesn’t really think that he has ever felt okay. He had started to feel okay when Shouta took him in, everything was so new and wonderful for Izuku. New home, new family, new quirk. All so new for him, and Izuku thought that he would be okay. Then, he didn’t.

It was little things, really. Yagi-san trying to get Izuku to feel better about All Might whenever they saw each other. The stress of cramming for the Entrance Exams, and the fact that Nezu-sensei had stopped tutoring Izuku by the time the Exams rolled around. Seeing Bakugou at the exam, the general anxiety Izuku was feeling that day. All Might announcing that he would be teaching at UA this year. A ton of little things, that just kept piling and piling up. It just... all came to a boiling point today.

A hand on his shoulder draws Izuku out of his own head, and there’s a cup of water in front of his face now. Izuku accepts the cup wordlessly and gulps it down like he was suffering from dehydration. It helps with his dry and scratchy throat, a little, and Izuku heaves out a sigh as he holds the now empty cup in his hands. His bandaged hands, now that Izuku is actually paying attention. There’s a lot of bandages on him, mostly on his arms, but Izuku can feel the distinct and familiar feeling of burn cream on his neck and face. He must’ve really gone overboard with his Leaps. Shouta is saying something again, but Izuku isn’t really listening. He just nods absentmindedly in acknowledgement to his adoptive father saying that he’ll be right back after he talks to Recovery Girl about something.

But Izuku isn’t just left alone there, because Mitsuki has taken the seat that Shouta was in. Izuku can’t bring himself to look at her, the woman he considered an aunt for most of his life, but he can feel her eyes on him as he picks at the foam cup in his hands. Izuku doesn’t know why she’s still here. There’s no one else in the infirmary, so why is she even here? A hand comes to rest over his own, gently pulling the cup out of his grasp before he can dismantle it completely, but despite the gentleness in the movement, Izuku still flinches.

Unannounced contact has always made Izuku flinch, for good reason. It used to be that every ounce of physical contact he received from others would only bring him pain, and that trauma has refused to go away even after Izuku was taken in by Shouta. Izuku can only curl up on himself in the infirmary bed, trying to make himself as small a target as possible out of sheer instinct. The hand retreats, and Izuku feels the knot in his chest start to lessen ever so slightly. Gods, Izuku feels pathetic. The familiar sting of tears start to prickle at Izuku’s eyes, so he clamps his eyelids shut to delay the inevitable breakdown that he knows he’ll be having after today.

“It’s okay to cry, Izubean... You’ve been through a lot today.”

Mitsuki’s voice is soft, uncharacteristically so, but it’s not her tone that breaks the dam for Izuku. It’s the nickname Mitsuki gave him when he was four, that breaks the dam. Even with his eyes screwed shut, the tears still fall freely. After everything, the fight between him and Katsuki, the burns, the blood, the rubble, it’s the damn nickname that breaks him. This time Izuku does not flinch when he feels Mitsuki wrap her arms around his shoulders, only leaning into the familiar embrace that he hasn’t felt in nearly ten years. Even after so long, it feels like just yesterday he was being hugged by his Auntie Mitsuki. Even despite all that Katsuki, Aldeara, and Inko did to him, Izuku can still feel that familiar feeling of comfort that came from the hug.

“I’m so sorry, Izubean... I should have been there for you more. If I had found out about what that bitch was doing to you any sooner than I did, I would have gotten you out of there. I’m just glad that you’re safe after everything, and that you found a place to call home. Aizawa seems like a good man, and I know that you’ll be safe with him.”

Izuku could do little more than hiccup miserably as he cried his heart out in Mitsuki’s arms. All the while, Mitsuki offered soft comforting words, small praises of how proud she was of him for coming this far. Little apologies about not doing more for him, about not catching that Katsuki was tormenting Izuku for so long, about not realizing that Aldera was practically a prison for him.

“When Kats told me about what was going on at home for you, and what was going on at Aldera, I tried for so long to get someone to do something about it. I should have gone straight to the top of the ladder instead of just trying to go through low level desk clerks. I put Kats in anger management therapy the day after he admitted everything that he had been doing to you... but I should have had him in it as soon as he started developing his temper. He’s... he’s been doing better, I know he has, but he’s still got issues with his temper. I’m so sorry, Izuku, you should have never had to deal with Katsuki being an asshole to you for so long... I’m not going to ask you to forgive him, I won’t even ask you to give him a chance. All I ask is that you don’t let him hold you back anymore. Promise me, Izuku, that you will move on from him. I... I heard what you said to him during that exercise, Izu.”

Izuku froze the instant the words left Mitsuki’s lips. Heard what he said? What did he...

“It took me trying to kill myself to realize that loving you isn’t healthy for me, Bakugou!”

Oh.

—

Shouta was many things. An insomniac, a workaholic, a high functioning coffee addict, etc. One thing he was not, however, was an idiot, nor was he a betting man. He knew that letting Bakugou Mitsuki stay with Izuku right now would lead to two potential outcomes.

The first outcome being that Izuku lashes out at a woman he had once seen as family, over a perceived idea of being abandoned by her. The second outcome being that Izuku would find comfort in the arms of the woman he considered an aunt. Shouta was betting on the second outcome.

Turns out Shouta had placed his bets correctly. He was standing off to the side, just out of Izuku’s field of vision, and he could see that Mitsuki was helping Izuku through a breakdown. It warmed Shouta’s heart just a bit, but it also made his chest tighten in discomfort as he had to force himself to not move to comfort his son. It hurt, hearing Izuku fall apart like this, it always did. But Shouta had to let this happen, it was important for Izuku’s continued recovery from the abuse he endured.

It helps, just a bit, that Bakugou Mitsuki is being so gentle with Izuku. A complete 180 from how she handled herself at Midoriya Inko’s trial and during the meeting with Nezu barely an hour prior to the current moment. Shouta can’t quite make out everything that’s being said, but he can see the fondness in Mitsuki’s eyes as she holds Izuku close to her chest, whispering small praises as she gently rocks the greenette back and forth. Then, Shouta sees Izuku go stock still at something that Mitsuki says, and the concern starts to claw its way up Shouta’s throat. But that worry comes to a screeching halt when he hears Izuku speak for the first time since he woke up in the infirmary.

“H..how do I just... move on? He’s been there my whole life, Auntie... I... I always looked up to Katsuki, he was... he was everything to me... I... I want to hate him. I want to scream and yell at him for every time he could have done something but did nothing. I did scream and yell at him for that today... but I just... Why don’t I hate him...?”

As stated previously, Aizawa Shouta is not an idiot. He read Izuku’s note to Bakugou Katsuki. He saw the way Izuku looked at Katsuki during the trial. He knows that Izuku had... feelings for Katsuki. Shouta had thought that Izuku had gotten over those feelings, but it seems that was still a work in progress.

“I know, Izubean... but believe me when I say this, you can do so much better than Katsuki. I know it seems awful of me to say that about my own son, but Katsuki isn’t good for you. I don’t want to see you waste away chasing after my brat, who wouldn’t even return your feelings. I know for a fact that Kats isn’t interested in boys, hell I don’t even know if he’s interested in girls. You deserve so much better, Izuku. I know it’ll be hard for you, but I know that you can do it. You’re one of the strongest kids I’ve met, Izuku. You can move on, you have to move on.”

It takes a few minutes, but finally Izuku does respond to Mitsuki.

“You... you’re right... I... Okay. I’ll... I’ll try…”

And that’s all Shouta can ask for from Izuku. For the greenette to try and move on from all the hardships of his past. It’ll be a long and arduous process, and it certainly hasn’t been easy so far, but Shouta will be there for his son every step of the way. With that, Shouta steps back towards the infirmary bed, placing a hand on Izuku’s shoulder in a reassuring manner.

“C’mon kiddo, let’s get you home.”