Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

‘You know what? Maybe today will be a good day,’ 

Izuku woke up to another sunny day at the UA dorms, stretching his body as he rises from his slumber like a green haired cat. Today seemed like a good day at the start, the weather was good, it was nice and warm, and the birds were chirping. Izuku softly smiled to himself, ‘You know what? Maybe today will be a good day,’ 

After all things could be much worse than they are, I mean, here he was, a student in UA’s hero course, a place he’d dreamed of being his whole life even before his quirkless diagnosis. He could have cried enough tears to save an average size country from drought when he found out he passed the entrance exam, and very nearly did. 

Not only that but as of several months ago, he was no longer quirkless, he was given a quirk. GIVEN A QUIRK! He could still hardly believe a thing was possible, as if that wasn’t incredible enough it was given to him by All Might, the symbol of peace himself. Once again, ALL MIGHT! ALL MIGHT gave him his quirk saying he could be a hero. The one thing he had desperately needed to hear for years, he heard from the one person he most looked up to most in the world.  

His Mom called him the other day to ask how he was doing, that was a pleasant surprise, he was doing well in classes and exams and he had even made friends in his class, Iida, Todoroki, Asui and.... Uraraka. 

Well he at least had 3 people he could still really call friends, not that they didn’t still hang out but nowhere near as much as they used to ever since she.... 

Izuku shook his head, his curly locks shaking from side to side as he did so. ‘Nope, don’t think about that right now Deku, this is going to be a good day.’ 

He swung his legs over the side of his bed and stood up, wandering over to his wardrobe to put his uniform on and get ready for the new day of school. As he took off his t-shirt which boldly stated ‘Pajamas’ he looked at his mirror and looked over himself. 

Izuku was a modest guy but even he could admit he had a pretty good physique, his torso strong and toned from his months of workout/community service back at Dagobah beach under the instruction of All Might. 

He looked over his muscles for a moment before his eyes were drawn to what they are inevitably always drawn to whenever he sees himself, the scars. 

Lots and lots of scars, some cuts from his training or from one of the many villain attacks his class had to deal with, but mostly his torso was covered in burns. Some small, some large, all of them given to him by the same person. 

Katsuki Bakugo. 

Once upon a time, his friend, back in the days before he was announced as quirkless, after that, his bully and tormentor. For a while Izuku still thought of him as a friend, continuing to call him Kacchan like he used to, hoping that they could become friends again. 

But then came the end of High School and that fateful day when their teacher asked their class what they wanted to be. 

The answer was obvious and unanimous. Heroes. They all wanted to be heroes, Bakugo announced his intention to go right to the top, to UA’s hero course, to the astonishment of the rest of the class. His skill and power were there to see by everyone, but they could still scarcely believe that he would try to get into the best hero school in the country with such a low acceptance rate. He spat back saying he was the only one who could possibly get into UA because, of course he did, he’s Bakugo. Then the teacher spoke up once more “Oh yeah Midoriya, don’t you want to go to UA too?” 

That was maybe the worst thing he could have said then, needless to say, Bakugo was pissed. 

“Go and take a swan dive off the roof of the building, hope you’re born with a quirk in your next life.” 

That was a bad day. Then it got worse, he got attacked by a sludge villain. Then it got better. 

All Might saved him from the sludge villain. Then the day got worse again. He found out about All Might’s injury and was then told that he couldn’t be a hero without a quirk. 

That was rock bottom that day, Izuku thought for a moment about taking Bakugo’s advice, it had never seemed like a good idea before then but it was starting to look more appealing by the second. 

Told he didn’t have a quirk, beaten down nearly every day of his life, no friends, a mother who couldn’t bring herself to support his dream. Then the person he respects most in the world tells him he’ll never achieve his dream, the one thing he had held onto throughout his whole life. 

Yeah, that ledge was looking tempting for a second, but no, he wasn’t brave enough for that, he was just... Deku... useless. 

Izuku shook his head again. “What did I say, stop thinking like that, this might be a good day.” 

He buttoned up his shirt and grabbed his blazer before leaving his dorm room and heading downstairs to the common room. 

“Hmm, something smells good,” Izuku muttered to himself, breathing in through his nose. He walked out of the elevator to find the source of the smell. Many of his classmates were already sat across the common room in small groups, intermittent conversation between bites of something warm and fluffy 

‘Yeah this’ll be a good day, Satou is making pancakes’ 

Izuku grinned and ran up to Satou in the kitchen. “Wow, they smell great Satou, are you making enough for everyone again?” 

Satou looked down at Izuku and smiled. “Morning Midoriya, yeah I am, this next batch was for you actually” Satou responds, handing him a plate with a healthy stack of fluffy pancakes, “Enjoy man” He finishes, returning to his cooking. 

Izuku takes the plate gratefully, leaning down to breathe in the smell of fluffy deliciousness, eyes closed, savouring the smell. “Thanks Satou, you’re the best,” Izuku said turning to leave the kitchen. 

*SLAM*  

“Watch where you’re going you shitty nerd!” growled Bakugo pushing his way past Izuku into the kitchen, knocking his plate onto the floor, “HEY LIPS!” He shouted, “WHERE’S MY PANCAKES YOU USELESS EXTRA!?” 

Izuku sighed quietly, cleaning up his now dirty pancakes into the bin and leaving Satou to deal with the resident angry pomeranian of class 1-A. ‘Maybe this won’t be a good day’. Things like this were still a regular occurrence, at least whenever Uraraka wasn’t around, even Bakugo wasn’t stupid enough to mess with him when his girlfriend could see him. 

Izuku sighed sadly to himself once again. Bakugo had asked out Uraraka after the sports festival, surprising everyone, none more than Izuku, she accepted, and they began dating from then on. Izuku tried to be happy for her, but he.... 

He just couldn’t be, she was hanging out with their friends less and less and with Bakugo more. That wouldn’t have been so much of a problem if Bakugo hadn’t rubbed his face in that fact every opportunity he had to. 

That and the fact that she looked so much happier when she was with him than any other time. Despite his reputation as a crybaby, Izuku had gotten good at hiding his true emotions for the sake of other people, anytime Uraraka talked to him about it, he just smiled and said he was glad she was happy. 

But seeing them together... truly hurt him, it was a deeper cut than any villain had made and a worse burn than any Bakugo could give to him. But... for the sake of his friends and classmates, he wouldn’t show it. He would continue being the ‘Sunshine child of class 1-A' as Ashido had dubbed him one day. 

And he would just hope nobody could see just how hurt he was behind his smile. 

Mina was having a good day, she was eating more of Satou’s delicious pancakes and talking with most of the rest of the girls, making jokes. She glanced over towards the kitchen, hearing the commotion caused by Bakugo pushing past Midoriya. She smirked slightly and shook her head at the spiky haired boy's antics and gave a small sympathetic look to Midoriya, busy cleaning up his dropped pancakes, who didn’t seem to notice. 

She gave a small pout before returning to the girls’ conversation. While she had made friends with the rest of the girls in the class and the rest of the guys in the ‘Bakusquad’ as they’d dubbed themselves, much to the constant exasperation of Bakugo himself, she’d made it her mission to make friends with more of the other guys in the class. 

‘But who first?’ she wondered. 

‘Satou is pretty cool but he seems to focus on his baking and weightlifting most of the time, same with Shoji really, he doesn’t do a lot’ She continued, ‘Koda’s sweet but maybe a bit too shy to deal with me right now, Hagakure seems to have called dibs on Ojiro and Tokoyami is maybe a bit too into the whole darkness thing’ 

She put her empty plate down onto the coffee table and put her hand to her chin, thinking more on this dilemma, then glancing back over to Midoriya, who had gone to sit with Todoroki, Iida and Asui who had gone to join them. ‘Hmm, maybe Midoriya would be a good idea, he was always happy and cheerful but could also demonstrate moments of frankly exhilarating confidence and power,’ She looked a bit closer at him out of the corner of her eye, looking over his fluffy green hair, not dissimilar from her own and his frankly adorable face before her gaze drifts down to his shirt clad torso. 

She felt herself blush ever so slightly, her cheeks turning a mild shade of lilac as she looked him over, ‘Was he always that big?’ she wondered to herself, ‘I swear his shirts weren’t always that tight on him.’ 

She lightly slapped her own cheeks to snap herself out of it, shaking her head slightly, ‘Yeah, Midoriya seems like a cool dude, now just to think of an excuse to start hanging out with him a bit more,’ She smiled softly to herself, glancing at Midoriya smiling at Iida telling off Todoroki for trying to eat soba for breakfast. 

“Someone caught your eye there Mina?” 

Mina snapped her vision onto the one who had just spoken, apparently her repeated glancing at Midoriya hadn’t gone unnoticed. Jirou looked over at Midoriya and then back at Mina, smirking, “Midoriya eh? Wouldn’t have thought he’d be your type, would have thought he’d be a bit too shy for you,” 

Mina felt herself flush for a second before a sly smile crept its way onto her face briefly, “Yeah actually, I was planning on asking him out after school today,” she responded beaming brightly at the purple haired punk girl who seemed slightly taken aback at her immediate response, “Why? Did you call dibs?” Mina added, smirking lightly, “I don’t mind sharing if soooo,” she sang lightly. 

Jirou responded by very quickly blushing bright red, recoiling and drawing her jacks to the side of her head like coiled snakes. “N..n..no..t..t..that’s not it at all,” she stuttered, embarrassed and hiding her face in her hands. 

Mina laughed good naturedly and put a hand on the embarrassed girl’s shoulder, “Relax Kyoka, I'm only kidding, you don’t need to get so flustered,” 

Jirou parted her hands slightly to glare at the pinkette for a second before softening and lowering her hands, “Alright but.... w..why do you have to go and say stuff like that?” she asked, still blushing. 

Mina laughed again, “Because it’s funny, that’s why,” Mina giggled softly to herself. 

*Ding* 

Mina looked over to the opening elevator doors to reveal Uraraka skipping out and glancing around the room, clearly looking for someone. Mina smiled to herself, it was obvious who she was looking for, after all, she’d started hanging out with them a whole lot more since she started going out with Bakugo. 

Uraraka, clearly spotting her target leaving the kitchen, bounced over to him before throwing her arms around his neck and kissing him on the cheek, “Morning Kat,” she greeted cheerfully. Mina squealed quietly at the sound of the nickname, partly due to its cuteness, partly due to the teasing she could get up to with it. 

Bakugou responded by grumbling quietly to himself before softening just the smallest amount and the slightest hints of a smile gracing his features, “Morning babe, sleep well?” he asked, throwing his free arm around her, holding her close. 

Mina smiled at the cute display before noticing Midoriya, sat between Mina and the couple also looking at the pair still with a small smile on his face. Mina grinned, she knew the relationship between him and Bakugo was.... rocky, to put it nicely but she was glad to see he was still happy for his best friend. Then he turned back to continue his conversation with Iida as Todoroki and Asui listened on and she noticed something, he was still smiling, and the smile looked as it always did... but there was something about his eyes... 

There was something in them, but she couldn’t quite tell what it was. 

She narrowed her eyes at Midoriya somewhat, trying to tell what his look behind his eyes was before being snapped back into reality by the sudden loud voice of their class president. 

“Everyone!” Iida announced loudly to the common room, “Classes begin in 20 minutes, let us make our way to the classroom immediately.” There was a resounding groan that sounded out throughout the common room before everyone slowly dragged themselves away from their plates and comfy seats. 

Mina shook her head slightly, picking up her plate to put it in the sink on the way past, ‘Alright so maybe it’s a bit weird for him, seeing his best friend dating someone he’s not exactly friendly with but they’re still friends so it can’t mean that much to him’ She concluded before skipping forward to catch up with Jirou and Yaoyorozu on the way to school. 

Besides, he’s 1-A's sunshine child, nothing can get him down for long.... 

Can it? 

Chapter Text

Aizawa groaned, rubbing his eyes as he sat up on one of the sofas in the teacher’s lounge. He often slept in the lounge rather than the teacher’s dorms, after all, he often has lots of paperwork to do due to the... issues, constantly caused by his problem class. 

Besides, if he slept in the lounge, he was closer to the classrooms so he could sleep more. 

It was only logical after all. 

Aizawa sat upright on the sofa, unzipping his signature yellow, caterpillar-like sleeping bag down to his waist, exposing his upper body. His hero costume may have been good for stealth, but damn did it get hot sometimes. 

‘Ugh, what time is it?’ 

He looked at the clock hanging on the wall. 

‘Oh good, still 20 minutes till homeroom, heh, knowing Iida he’ll already have the class on the way there if he hasn’t forced them there already,’ Aizawa chuckled to himself, taking out one of his seemingly unlimited jelly drinks stored inside his sleeping bag and quickly draining it. 

He considered a second one when the lounge door slid open, causing his eyes to fall over the new figure. 

“Oh, hey Vlad,” Aizawa greeted the 1-B teacher 

Vlad King looked over towards the disheveled underground hero and gave an exasperated sigh. 

“Really? You slept in the teacher’s lounge again Aizawa?” Vlad shook his head, his eyes clenched shut in frustration “Why do you keep doing this? It can’t be good for you,” 

Aizawa shrugged, he wasn’t going to give his reasons. He knew they were good ones, that was enough. 

Vlad gave another quiet sigh before moving over to his desk, moving some papers out of the way to find 2 empty sheets underneath a pile of other assorted paperwork he neglected the day before. 

“Anyway,” he said with a huff, “Did you remember about the tutoring task we were doing?” 

Aizawa groaned into his hands, he’d barely been awake for 2 minutes, could he not at least have a bit longer before having to think about work? 

“Urgh, is that today it starts?” 

The 1-B teacher looked back to Aizawa with an incredulous look on his face. 

“Really? I reminded you about this last night, how did you already forget... you know what, never mind, I don’t want to know what goes on in your head anyway,” 

Aizawa gave a quiet huff, ‘Well that’s rude’ 

Vlad took a seat at his desk, keeping one of the sheets in front of him and pushing one towards Aizawa. 

“Anyway, I had a thought about how we could change the tutoring this year to prevent any.... incidents.” Vlad began, “Let’s be honest, our classes really do not get along well and while this normally serves to bring them together more, I think if we pair 1-A and 1-B students together then something terrible is going to happen.” 

Aizawa stood up from the sofa, nodding at the white-haired teacher. 

“You have a good point,” Aizawa responded, “Your Monoma kid will no doubt spend most of his time either complaining nonstop or try and bring down the entirety of Class A in some elaborate plot and I don’t even want to think about what Bakugo would do to any of your class who got on his nerves.” 

Vlad nodded, slightly annoyed he compared one of his students to UA’s resident anger problem masquerading as a human. 

“So, the idea I had, was that we just have people in our own classes tutor each other this time to prevent any more bad blood and then try and bring them together later on, perhaps with joint training or something.” Vlad explained 

Aizawa quietly dragged a chair over to Vlad’s desk, thinking to himself. 

“Yeah that’s probably the best idea right now, while it is important the classes learn how to work together, they are going to be here for 4 years, we don’t need to rush it if it’ll just backfire for now,” 

Vlad smirked, “Well that is if you don’t expel them all again,” 

Aizawa’s eyes narrowed at the blood hero, “You know I'd only expel students if they have no potential, I only had to expel 1 this year so far,” 

Vlad raised an eyebrow, “Oh yeah, don’t you get a new student in your class today as well?” 

Aizawa smiled to himself underneath his scarf, “Yeah, I’ll have to partner him up with someone reliable so he can catch up, he’s excelling at the standard Gen-Ed classes but he’s got a lot of hero knowledge to catch up on,” 

Vlad gave a small smirk, returning to his sheet, partnering up his own class into pairs. 

“Do mine ears deceive me? Is Shota happy about a new student?” A new, loud, voice asked from behind the tired teacher. 

Aizawa groaned, “Shut up Mic, it’s too early for your volume and I really don’t want to have to use my quirk on you this soon in the day,” 

The loud blonde cockatoo known as Present Mic maintained his semi-permanent wide grin, throwing an arm over Aizawa’s shoulders, “Oh come on Shota, It’s been so long since you’ve been excited about a new student, come on, spill the beans,” he chattered excitedly. 

Aizawa wordlessly pushed his arm off his shoulder and went to work on his sheet, aiming to finish it before his homeroom started. Present Mic pouted before sulking his way over to his own desk and groaning at the volume of uncomplete paperwork on it. 

Aizawa focused on the list of his students, deciding who would work best with who. 

‘Hmm, most of the class are all good rounders but I do have a few students who are stand outs in nearly every subject, then again we do have a few under achievers too.’ 

Aizawa stroked his permanently stubbled chin, ‘It would probably be best if I put the better students with the underperformers, they can help the underperformers but even they might help the more academic students, a fresh perspective can make things seem even simpler sometimes.’ 

While yes, some in Class A did perhaps perform slightly worse than you’d expect from the top hero school in Japan, they did all pass the entrance exams. None of them are unintelligent, some just don’t quite apply themselves as they should. 

Aizawa snapped his fingers, several ideal pairings coming to mind and a small mischievous smirk coming to his face, hidden by his capture weapon. 

Aizawa was a teacher first, he put the education of his students first, but he did also have a few ulterior motives for forming certain pairs. 

Aizawa would never admit it to anyone, he would rather die than have anyone find out but there was something about Aizawa that nobody else knew. 

Aizawa was complete shipping trash. 

And now he had an opportunity to play matchmaker. 

Aizawa smirked ominously to himself. 

‘Oh, this is going to be fun’ 

Izuku followed Iida to the main school building, chatting with Todoroki along the way, or rather, chatting to Todoroki as the two-tone boy nodded and hummed in response occasionally. He looked back to Asui, giving her a smile but catching sight of Uraraka walking hand in hand with Bakugo, the pair of them smiling at each other. 

Izuku’s own smile faltered for just a split second, imperceivably to most people. At least, imperceivable to people other than certain frog girls who have gotten very good at reading facial expressions. 

Asui tilted her head to the side, placing her finger next to her mouth in that admittedly cute little tick. 

“Are you alright Midoriya?” she asked, voice as monotone as ever. 

Izuku felt a brief surge of panic before quickly calming himself, making sure his smile was as bright as ever, “Oh yeah I’m fine Asui... s... sorry, Tsu, I just thought I forgot my notebook for a second, but I remembered where I put it so it’s fine now,” he responded widening his smile ever so slightly, hoping that would help clear any suspicions. 

Asui quietly hummed to herself, waiting for Izuku to turn back towards Todoroki before looking over her own shoulder towards the rest of their class behind them, her eyes drifting over the couple not far behind them, her own eyes narrowing slightly at them. 

She too was slightly frustrated about Uraraka hanging out with them less and less now but it was a fairly new relationship and she seemed happy, so she let it slide. She turned back to Midoriya, looking at the back of his head, looking over his fluffy looking green locks. 

She’d always liked his hair, not only because the colour was like her own but also because it just looked so damn soft. She’d always wanted an excuse to run her hands through it, especially since the USJ attack. 

She thought back to the time in that concrete dome, thinking about how brave he had acted against the villains in the shipwreck zone and then attacking the main villain Shigaraki to protect her. 

She blushed very faintly thinking about the raw power and confidence he had exuded in those moments. Despite being terrified himself, he stood up against dangerous villains to protect her. 

In her opinion it would have been near impossible for anyone to not develop a crush after something like that. 

It took her a few days after the USJ to admit it to herself but yes, she finally accepted she had a crush on Izuku Midoriya. 

That was a new feeling she hadn’t dealt with before and while her face stayed as almost expressionless as ever, there was a lot of emotional turmoil behind it, especially when she was around Izuku. Not for the first time she was thankful she was naturally so hard to read. 

After all, while she had a reputation for speaking bluntly, she did still know when to keep her mouth shut. 

Besides, it was obvious to everyone but them that Izuku and Uraraka had massive crushes on each other which is why it was so surprising that she started going out with Bakugo. 

At first Asui thought that meant she might have a chance but after a while she could see it, Izuku still had feelings for Uraraka that he was trying his best to push aside. 

Anyway, she was just a weird looking frog girl, why would someone as amazing as Izuku be interested in someone like her? 

Mina was one of the last ones in the class to take her seat before Aizawa arrived, she was always just so excited to talk to her friends. She barely made it before the oversized door slid open revealing the typically scruffy and surly homeroom teacher. 

“Good, you were all quiet when I came in, there’s improvement, very logical,” Aizawa said to the class, walking to the podium at the front of the class, “Anyway, I have a few things to go through with you before your English class with Mic.” 

Mina perked up slightly, she wasn’t exactly the best student in the world and she may not have liked English that much but she did always like being taught by Present Mic. 

“First of all,” Aizawa continued, “We have a new student joining our class today,” 

The entire class froze at that announcement, some looking surprised, some nervous and some like Mina looking excited. 

Mina giggled quietly, ‘As long as it’s not that blonde 1-B guy this’ll be fun,’ 

“He proved himself worthy of moving up to the hero course from general education in the sports festival, some of you will know him,” Aizawa gestured to the door, “Come in and introduce yourself,” 

A boy with lilac coloured hair, not to dissimilar from Aizawa’s in style and matching eye bags walked into the room, hands in his pockets. 

She vaguely heard Todoroki behind her mutter to himself, something about “Another one,” and “Love child,” 

“Hey,” the lilac haired boy said, “I’m Hitoshi Shinsou, glad to be joining you all, I’ll be sure to do my best here,” He gave a small smile towards the other side of the room, Mina following his eyes seeing him looking towards... 

Midoriya? 

She smirked to herself, thinking about it that sounds like something Izuku would say. 

“Anyway, if you didn’t already know from the sports festival, my quirk is Brainwashing, if you answer a question I ask you I can control you but don’t worry, I control when it happens and I’ll only do it during training,” Shinsou continued, looking over the class, his eyes then landing on Ojiro. “Oh yes, I didn’t get a chance to say it before but I’m sorry for my actions in the sports festival, I was willing to do almost anything to get into the hero course,” He said, bowing to Ojiro as he did so. 

The tailed boy frowned for a second before his expression softened and he gave a smile, “Don’t worry about it, water under the bridge, if anything it taught me to be more careful around others and not underestimating anyone so if anything I should be thanking you,” he responded. 

Mina heard her invisible friend give a small squeal at that and mutter “Ooh he’s so cool,” 

Mina winked in her direction before turning back to the front of the class. 

“Right now, that that’s done, go and take the desk behind Midoriya,” Aizawa droned in his usual uninterested way. 

Shinsou nodded and made his way to the desk, giving Midoriya another smile as he passed him. 

“Now then, the next thing I need to tell you about is the tutoring program we do every year,” Aizawa then announced. 

Mina froze up at that, ‘Uh oh, tutoring? That sounds bad for me,’ 

“What this program entails is we pair up people from the 2 hero classes and assign them to help tutor each other in subjects they struggle with, these pairs would also typically be used for duo work in hero training unless it proves too difficult, we do this to help encourage cooperation between the classes,” Aizawa explained. 

Mina sunk down slightly lower in her seat, ‘Oh no, whoever gets stuck with me is going to have a tough time, plus I bet I’ll get stuck with that annoying blonde guy,’ 

“WHAT!? WHY SHOULD I HELP SOME SHITTY D LIST EXTRA!?” Bakugo shouted angrily. 

Aizawa’s hair flew into the air and his eyes turned red as he glared at Bakugo, “Bakugo, I’ll ask you to not interrupt me again thank you,” he said calmly but coldly, “Anyway,” Aizawa then said, “This year it will be done slightly differently, due to the bad blood between the classes, due in no small part due some students in both classes antagonizing each other,” he continued, his gaze returning to Bakugo as he did so. 

Bakugo launched himself out of his seat, slamming his hands onto his desk, small explosions crackling out of his hands, “THOSE SHITTY D LISTERS NEED TO LEARN THEIR PLACE UNDERNEATH ME, IT’S NOT MY FAULT IF I....” Bakugo began, 

The teacher's eyes changed again, the explosions stopping, and he turned to Bakugo once more, “Bakugo, interrupt me again and you’ll have detention for the next 2 days, understand?” 

Bakugo, dropped back onto his seat, his arms crossed tightly across his chest, grumbling to himself, “Whatever...” 

“Anyway, to avoid any more incidents between to two classes, you are going to be paired together with your classmates,” Aizawa then continued, calming down quickly, “Once you are in your pair, make sure you exchange contact information if you haven’t already and meet in your own time to tutor each other, in hero training you will be partnered together automatically if the situation calls for it,” 

Several students began chattering excitedly, planning to get together with friends. 

“And sorry to disappoint you but your pairs have already been decided, by me,” he announced, a small smirk on his face. 

Most of the class groaned in annoyance. 

“Right then, here are the pairs,” he finished, projecting a list onto the board behind him. 

Mina scanned over the list, looking for her own name. 

Hitoshi Shinsou – Momo Yaoyorozu  

Fumikage Tokoyami – Yuga Aoyama  

Hanta Sero – Eijiro Kirishima  

Katsuki   Bakugo  –  Ochaco  Uraraka  

Tooru Hagakure – Mashirao Ojiro  

Shoto Todoroki – Denki Kaminari  

Tenya Iida – Koji Koda  

Tsuyu Asui – Kyoka Jiro  

Mezo Shoji – Rikido Sato  

Ashido Mina – Izuku Midoriya  

Mina’s eyes widened as a grin crept across her face, ‘Well, this makes this a lot easier, I don’t have to come up with an excuse to hang out with him now,’ Mina thought happily. She looked over at her new partner to see him with a full-face blush, looking like a deer in the headlights before paling and looking towards Mina for a second before letting out a high pitched ‘eep’ and turning back to the front of the class. 

Mina’s smile widened more. 

‘Oh this is going to be fun,’ 

Chapter Text

Ashido Mina – Izuku Midoriya  

‘Oh...’ 

Izuku’s eyes widened and he felt his face flush heavily as he read those words. He glanced over at Ashido, his face paling as he did so and saw her looking in his direction with a small smirk. “Eep,” he squeaked, desperately hoping nobody heard him. 

To distract himself from the prospect of being around the very cute pink girl a lot more he started muttering to himself, planning how their study sessions could work and what he could help her with. 

“Alright then, since Ashido is one of the less... academic members of the class she’ll probably need help with most subjects, I guess it’s a good thing I got paired with her, I’ll be able to help her more than someone like Kaminari would,” 

He looked over the list, still displayed on the blackboard behind their teacher, “Actually from the looks of it for the most part the more academic students have been partnered with the less academic ones,” His face twitched briefly as he read that Uraraka and Bakugo were paired up as well but quickly returned to his neutral expression. 

“While I can help Ashido with the regular school topics she should be able to help me quite a lot with hero training, despite her quirk not being useful for all of the tests she still ranked fairly high in Aizawa’s quirk assessment test and she’s clearly very skilled in use of her quirk...” 

Bakugo growled in front of him, “Shut up Deku, I can hear you from here,” 

Izuku slapped a hand over his mouth, “Sorry Kacchan, I didn’t realise I was talking out loud, I was just thinking about...” 

The spiky haired blonde growled again and released a few pops from his hands, “Just, shut it” 

Izuku looked at his desk, eyes downcast, deciding not to say anything else. He looked out of the corner of his eye at Ashido who was watching the interaction with a slightly tilted head and a small look of confusion on her face. 

Izuku gave her a weak, shaky smile and an even shakier wave of the hand, as if to say, ‘It’s nothing’ 

“Now that you know your partners,” began Aizawa, “I’d recommend that you meet up at lunch and organise a schedule, you can book study rooms in the school library if you need to, just give at least a day's notice to one of the staff there,” He looked around the room, his eyes switching from person to person, possibly matching up the pairs, “While this is not a project or examination of any kind and you will not be graded on it, if I find out you are not taking it seriously or wasting your time then you will be punished,” His eyes narrowed sternly as he said this, “Am I understood?” 

“Yes sir,” The class responded 

“Good, now I'm going to have a little nap before Mic arrives, wake me up and you’ve got detention,” he informed the class, already zipped up into his sleeping back and falling sideways onto the floor, some of the class wincing at the impact. 

As the sound of hushed talking came over the classroom, Mina allowed herself to grin again, glancing at Midoriya and giggling slightly, recalling his expression and adorable little squeak. She leaned forward slightly to glance at the sparkly French boy sat in front of her, his face locked into a dread filled grimace at the prospect of working with someone with almost an exact opposite personality and fashion sense. 

She smirked at his expression before turning and looking over her shoulder at the froggy girl behind her, seemingly sat in silent thought, “So, how do you think working with Kyoka is going to go?” Mina asked Tsuyu, seemingly interrupting her thoughts. 

“Oh, I don’t think there’ll be any problems, we’ve not really had much reason to hang out with each other before but I don’t think that’ll be any issue,” the froggy girl replied, turning her gaze to Mina’s, “How do you think working with Midoriya will be like for you?” 

Mina smiled warmly, turning her chair all the way around so she could face the girl behind her, “I think it’ll be really fun, I was actually planning on getting to know him a bit better anyway so this works out great for me, plus it’ll actually be really helpful for me, he is one of the top of the class after all,” 

Tsuyu put her finger next to her mouth again, thinking for a moment, a tick which Mina found absolutely adorable, “That’s a good point, plus I bet you’ll still be able to help him with hero training,” 

Mina smiled further, that idea hadn’t occurred to her, she had just thought it would just be Midoriya helping her but that seemed much fairer, also more fun. 

“HEY THERE LISTENERS! WHO’S REAdy for some English.....” Boomed Present Mic, suddenly bursting into the classroom, “Come on Eraserhead, why’d you erase my quirk?” 

Mina looked over to the yellow cocoon in the corner seeing the bright red eyes of her teacher with his quirk activated, ‘Hmm, does his hair still rise while he’s in the sleeping bag?’ 

Aizawa continued to glare at the blonde cockatoo, “I told you before, I can’t be dealing with your volume right now,” his eyes closed and he stood up, still inside the sleeping bag, “Anyway since you’re here now I’ll be heading back to the lounge,” he added, hopping over to the still open door and disappearing from sight. 

Present Mic pouted visibly for a second before his expression went back to his signature ‘I drink espresso like water’ smile, “ANYWAY, NOW THE SPOILSPORTS GONE, WHO’S READY FOR SOME ENGLISH?” 

Mina saw Kyoka recoil out of the corner of her eye and give the blonde Pro Hero an angry glare. She giggled a bit at the sight before rotating her chair back to the front of the class and settling in for what would be a long and boring English lesson, ‘Yeah this is going to be something Midoriya will definitely have to help me with,’ 

Soon enough the bell announcing the beginning of lunchtime rang throughout the school, prompting Present Mic to close his book and walk out the classroom, leaving the hero students to their own devices. 

Several members of the class immediately also left the classroom, heading out to get lunch, while some lingered for a few moments. 

Mina quickly stood up from her chair, looking to see if Midoriya was still at his seat. He was, he looked like he was writing something down in one of those notebooks of his, Mina still didn’t know where they came from, she added that to the list of things to find out about the greenette. 

She joyfully skipped over to his desk, promptly sitting down on the side of it, startling Midoriya out of his writing trance, she quickly peeked at his chaotic notes. 

She could barely make out anything that was written down, but she was pretty sure it looked like a kind of lesson plan, apparently, he was already planning their first study session. She gave the startled boy a kind smile, hoping to ease his mood. 

“So... we’re partners then eh Midoriya?” she asked, still maintaining her smile. 

He blushed a bit, looking down at the desk and rubbed the back of his head with his hand, making his hair shake slightly, showing off just how fluffy it was. 

Damn. 

Now she wanted to stroke his hair and feel how soft it is, that’s a new one. 

“Y..y..yeah I guess so A..Ashido,” he stuttered, clearly still nervous. 

Mina leant down a bit closer to the desk to see his face better and gave her sweetest smile, “Oh come on Midori, you can call me Mina, after all we’ll be spending quite a lot of time together from now on,” 

She couldn’t resist adding a wink to punctuate the statement, she practically lived to tease people after all. 

She was only a little bit ashamed to admit she kind of enjoyed seeing how flustered he got at the offer and the implications of the second half of the sentence. 

“Er...erm...o..o..ok then M...m...Mina..” He forced out, almost wincing, like he was expecting to be shouted at or something. 

That was something that set alarm bells off in the pink girl’s head, why did he seem so nervous about using someone’s first name? 

She gently placed her hand on his shoulder, her heart dropping slightly at the sudden flinch from the contact, “Hey...” she said softly, “You don’t need to feel nervous, I like people using my first name, I prefer it in fact,” she added with a bright smile, “Besides, I called you a nickname so it’s only fair you get to call me by my name too,” 

Midori slowly lifted his head to face her, his eyes slowly cracking open to meet hers, his bright green eyes meeting black sclera, he seemed temporarily lost for words. 

“T...thank you so much Ashi... I mean... Mina,” he said, a shy smile appearing on his face. 

Mina beamed and removed her hand from his shoulder, “No problem Midori, now, how about we go get some lunch and talk about how this whole tutoring thing will work?” she asked, jumping off his desk and starting to face the direction of the door. 

His smile widened slightly as he also rose from his seat, going to follow the pink girl, hoping she didn’t notice his quite heavily flushed face. 

‘How did I never realise her eyes were that beautiful?’ Izuku thought, remembering how he nearly lost himself looking into her sparkling black eyes. 

‘Hang on, did she call me ‘Midori’?’ 

He smiled a bit, that was a nice name. 

Well, maybe today will still end up being a good day after all. 

The rest of the day went by without incident, Mina and Kyoka joined Izuku, Iida and Tsuyu at lunch to discuss the tutoring, something which Iida very loudly encouraged to a slightly embarrassing degree. After the final class ended all the students headed back to the dorms. 

Izuku was still mentally planning his first study session with Mina, although even he began to think that maybe he was putting a bit too much thought into it when even Iida told him to relax about it. 

Once the class arrived back at the dorms, they all dispersed, clearly nobody wanting to go right into tutoring after a long day of school. 

Izuku found himself sat down in the common room, sketching a new hero who had debuted earlier that day in one of his many notebooks. He was so focused on his sketching and note taking that he didn’t notice a pink finger poking him in the forehead for a few seconds. When he did, he quickly jolted his head up, realising that Mina’s face was VERY CLOSE! 

He backed into the sofa a little bit more, beginning to blush furiously at the sight of Mina’s sparkling eyes and slight teasing smile. 

“Midori?” she said softly, “Didn’t you hear? Dinner’s ready,” she slowly stood up straight, still with the smile on her face. 

Izuku’s blush faded slowly as he calmed down, trying not to think about those...sparkling...beautiful eyes...  

‘Oh no,’ Izuku thought, ‘Right well this’ll just be more practice in staying calm,’ 

“Oh, thanks Ash...Mina,” he corrected, “Sorry, I was so focused on my notes,” 

She laughed, throwing her head back slightly, “Yeah, I could tell that much Midori, new hero?” 

His smile widened and his eyes started sparkling, he had a chance to do one of his favourite things. 

Fanboy about heroes and quirks. 

Mina slightly regretted asking that about 20 minutes later after he finally finished his rant on a new hero and their quirk, even coming up with some new ways he could use it. Despite that she did enjoy seeing him so excited and passionate about something, it was pretty cute... 

Her cheeks turned a pale shade of lilac, ‘Oh no, this might not be a great thing after all, how can he be hot, cute and an adorably enthusiastic nerd all at the same time?’ 

She squealed under her breath, her hands covering her face for a moment as she calmed down, ‘Nope, it’s fine, just because he looks like a puppy that could bench press half the class isn’t really a reason to like him is it?’ 

She moaned quietly once again, ‘Damnit, yes it is,’ 

“Mina? Are you alright?” asked a soft voice. 

She squeaked again, peering through her fingers at Midori, who had apparently at some point stood up and had gotten quite close to her, his head tilted to the side like a confused puppy. 

Nooooo, that wasn’t fair, that was her cute thing. 

She chuckled slightly nervously, “Oh yeah, I'm fine, I just remembered an embarrassing joke Kirishima told me yesterday,” she removed her hands from her face, having calmed down enough that her blush would hopefully go unnoticed. 

Izuku smiled brightly, “Oh that’s good, I thought something was wrong,” he said, messing with the back of his hair, “Can I hear the joke?” he then asked, his smile widening even more. 

Crap. 

“Errrr...I mean...hmm,” she stuttered, trying to think of a way out of this. She sighed, knowing she was probably going to regret this. “Anyway, didn’t a new hero debut last week?” she asked weakly, trying to distract him. 

Almost unfortunately, it worked as his eyes lit up once more and he began his classic Midoriya mumbling on another new hero. 

‘Right then Mina, we’ll be here for another 20 minutes or so, so you may as well get comfy, try and pay attention and try your best not to stare at him too much,’ she thought to herself, taking a seat on the sofa next to him, their food apparently forgotten for now. 

Finally, after yet another long-winded rant about heroes and a shorter but oddly passionate rant about what defines a villain versus a criminal, Mina at last managed to get him to eat his food. At least once it had been reheated to the slight insult of Sato who had cooked tonight. 

Mina looked over at the green haired boy, apparently realising just how hungry he was, shovelling down his dinner, at least as much as he could without looking impolite. 

“So, Midori,” Mina began, steepling her fingers, “Since I'm pretty sure you’ve put a lot of thought into it, do you want to do our first tutoring session tonight?” 

Midori stopped attacking his plate for a moment, swallowing what was already is his mouth before saying, “Yeah sure, we could do it down here if you want, or if you want we could go up to one of our... rooms,” he blushed slightly at the unintentional double meaning behind his words. 

Mina smirked slightly, “Well well Midori, very forward aren’t you?” she asked teasingly, “I thought we’d have gone out on at least a couple of dates first,” 

She’d made him blush before; she’d never made him turn as red as he did then. He also didn’t appear to be moving or saying anything. She waved a hand in front of his face. 

Ah crap, she broke him. 

“Alright, calm down Midori, I’m only kidding, sorry about that,” she explained, trying to calm him down. 

Eventually he seemed to snap out of whatever sort of fear induced trance she’d put him into and his face turned from bright red to a gentler shade actually not too dissimilar from her own for a moment before turning back to normal. 

“A..alright then, well since it’s a bit loud down here would you prefer to go upstairs?” he asked quietly. 

“Upstairs would probably be better, best if there’s no distractions right?” she responded, smiling, ‘Apart from the adorable one in front of me but we’re not mentioning that right now,’ 

He gave a smile in return, “Okay, would you want to go to yours or mine?” he asked, face blushing the smallest amount again. 

She gave a sweet giggle before responding, “Probably mine would be best, All Might staring down on me from about 12 different places might be a bit distracting,” 

He blushed a bit more, rubbing the back of his head, “Yeah that’s a good point, I can take some of it down if you’d prefer,” he offered. 

“No no no,” she waved her hands in front of her, shaking her head as she did so, “I’m not gonna make you take down anything from your All Might shrine, I know that stuff means a lot to you, I just think it’d be best to start the tutoring away from that and then once we’re into it a bit more I’ll be able to ignore it,” she reasoned. 

Midori sighed in obvious relief, while he would obviously have taken them down if he had to he was still glad he didn’t have to. 

Mina gave him another bright smile, standing up from the table they were sat at, “Alright then, let’s head up now and....” 

*BOOM*  

Mina flinched at the loud noise, looking over to its source. Apparently, some of her classmates were watching some old pre-quirk action film. “Hey, would you keep that down? Some of us are about to study over here,” She called over. 

Kaminari waved the remote in the air in apology, “Sorry, just accidently leant on the remote and turned the volume way up,” he responded sheepishly. 

Mina nodded in response as he turned back to the TV, “Alright then Midori let’s....” she stopped as she looked at the green haired boy. 

He was frozen again but this time he wasn’t blushing. 

He was completely pale, white as a sheet and trembling. She looked him in the eyes and saw the fear in them. 

“Midori?” she whispered, reaching a hand out to his shoulder. 

Even she flinched at the response Midori gave as her hand made contact, nearly throwing himself onto the floor backwards, his eyes still wide with fear. 

“Midori?” she whispered again, even more softly this time, like trying to calm a spooked animal. She reached out again, this time making sure he could see her hand moving so it didn’t surprise him. Even so he still flinched slightly as he felt her hand on his shoulder, but he didn’t pull away this time. 

He apparently began to calm down as she squeezed the top of his shoulder gently, rubbing her thumb along the side of his shoulder. Seemingly snapped out of it the colour returned to his face and he shook his head, making his hair shake like a bird's nest in a windy tree. 

“Sorry about that Ashido,” he said, before catching himself, “Sorry, I meant Mina,” 

She leant down slightly trying to meet his eyes, concern filling her own. “Are you alright Midori?” she asked, very concerned for her new friend. 

He shook his head again, smiling weakly, “Don’t worry about it, it’s nothing, I was just startled, that’s all,” he explained. 

Mina narrowed her eyes slightly, that wasn’t being startled, that was deep rooted terror. 

She tried to give him a reassuring smile, removing her hand from his shoulder and placing it on his upper back, for once ignoring the feel of his tight muscles, and turning him towards the stairs, rubbing his back gently, “Alright then, come on Midori, let’s head upstairs where it’s quieter,” she suggested, gently pushing him towards the stairs. 

He didn’t resist, seemingly grateful for the contact but as they passed the sitting area, he froze just for a second, looking over towards their classmates. 

Mina followed his gaze in that brief moment, apparently his gaze fell on Bakugo and Uraraka, sat next to each other with their arms wrapped around each other. 

Out of the corner of her eye she saw it, for a split second, that terror was back. 

And it was directed at Bakugo. 

She gently pushed him onwards towards the stairs, turning her head towards Midori. 

‘Midori was so scared then...he was so scared of the sound of an explosion...and then he froze on Bakugo...’ Mina’s eyes widened slightly, ‘Wait...didn’t they go to the same school before UA?’ 

She looked back towards Midori, his face slightly pale again but gaze focused on the stairs. 

She would find out what was going on. It doesn’t matter if they’ve only just become friends, she cannot bear to see him that scared again. 

It took Mina about 10 minutes to actually get Midori into her room, his bashful and embarrassed side coming out once again at the prospect of entering a girl’s room, although eventually she managed it. 

She decided she wouldn’t press the matter for now, and just let Midori calm down and focus on their studying so he didn’t clam up. 

“Alright then Midori, what are we starting with first?” Mina asked as cheerfully as she could, hoping a good mood would be infectious. 

Apparently, it was as he started smiling again, producing more notebooks from...somewhere, ‘Note to self, remember to find out where they come from,’ 

“Well first of all I thought we’d start with English since it’s one of the trickier subjects and it’ll be good if we can start with that and then move on to some of the easier stuff afterwards,” he explained, his passion for learning clearly shining through. 

Mina felt herself give a genuine smile at his lightened mood. She hung her jacket onto a hook on the side of the wall before throwing herself onto her brightly coloured bed. “Well?” she patted the bedsheets next to her, “Come on, the bed’s the comfiest place to sit on in here,” 

He visibly froze up again at the idea, his face turning a violent shade of crimson yet again. She thought she’d have to spend the next while convincing him to do so but then despite his very prominent blush and obvious embarrassment he perched himself on the very edge of the bed, looking a bit like he was ready for a getaway. 

She chuckled slightly at his embarrassment, “Well alright I guess that’s a start but come on Midori, I’m not gonna bite, you can get comfy” she gave him another smile, hoping to ease his discomfort. 

He slid onto the bed a little bit more, enough so that he was actually resting on it rather than seemingly balancing on it. 

She clapped her hands together, “Right then, where are we starting Midori?” she asked happily. 

His eyes lit up slightly once again before opening some of his notebooks, pushing them towards Mina. “Well first I thought we’d start with proper sentence structure and grammar,” he began. 

Mina internally groaned, this was going to be a long night. 

She was right, it was. 

Midori only decided to call it a night when he realised it was nearly 11 at night. Who knew his high energy and high-speed mumbling would bleed over into his teaching style? 

But despite how mentally exhausted Mina was afterwards she couldn’t deny that Midori was an excellent teacher. While his mumbling was slightly beyond the speed that human hearing can understand at times when he slowed down slightly she realised he was actually very good at explaining complex problems and making them easier to understand, using examples from his own notes to help occasionally. 

‘Phew, well that was exhausting, still, I guess Aizawa definitely made a good call assigning me to him, I wonder if he knew Midori would be such a good teacher?’ Mina thought, sprawled back on her bed. 

She looked towards said green haired mumble machine. He was packing away his notebooks into...somewhere, ‘Damnit, still no luck,’ 

She pushed herself up from her sheets, leaning back with her arms propping her up. “Thanks a lot for this Midori,” she beamed at him thankfully, “I think this really helped me, plus it was pretty good fun,” 

The boy blushed slightly at the compliment, rubbing the back of his head, ‘He does that a lot, is that his kind of tick?’ 

“No problem Mina, I was glad to help and...” he began, still blushing, “I was glad for the chance to get to know you a bit better today, and I thought it was a lot of fun too,” he added, his blush becoming slightly deeper. 

Mina gave him the brightest smile she could, “Same here dude, I was actually planning to try and get to know you a bit better anyway so the whole tutoring thing worked out pretty well,” 

She was expecting him to blush a bit more, what she wasn’t expecting was for his blush to fade and a look of genuine confusion to come across his face. 

“Wait...really?” he asked, seemingly baffled at the notion. 

It was Mina’s turn to look confused, as she tilted her head to the side slightly,” she responded, “uh...yeah of course, you seemed like a really nice guy so of course I would have wanted to get to know you better, I knew we’d be friends at the start of the year” 

“Oh,” was all the response she got, his tone was neutral but his mouth was beginning to turn up into a shy smile and it almost looked like there were tears forming in his eyes. 

He rubbed his eyes with his hand for a moment before standing up from the pink girl’s bed and looking down on her, smiling all the while. “Thanks Mina...that means a lot,” he says, his voice cracking just ever so slightly. 

Mina quickly stood up, looking at him for a moment before wrapping her arms around him in a gentle hug. 

“Of course Midori, I don’t see why anyone wouldn’t want to be your friend, you’re smart, you’re brave, you’re funny and you’re incredibly passionate, of course I'd want to be your friend,” she said, hooking her chin over his shoulder. 

He just stood there for a moment, seemingly stunned. It was unclear whether it was the hug or what she said that made him freeze up before he returned the hug, wrapping his arms around her tightly as if she was a literal lifeline for him. 

She could feel him nearly crying into her shoulder, “T...thank you Mina, you have no idea how much that means to me,” he almost sobbed. 

She felt her face flush at the feel of his chest against hers but she was too focused on comforting him to get flustered right now. 

She rubbed his back gently with both hands, not saying anything, just letting her presence comfort him. 

After a few more moments he slowly pulled away from the girl, drying his eyes against his forearm and stepping back towards the door, a smile gracing his features once again. 

“Thanks again for that Mina,” he said giving her a very thankful smile, “I’ll let you get some rest now,” he twisted the doorknob, opening the door and stepping to the other side before turning back, “See you tomorrow Mina, sleep well,” he added, closing the door and walking away. 

Mina just silently walked over to her bed and sat back down, sitting in silence for a few moments, replaying the last few minutes replay through her head. 

Then she threw herself onto her pillow, face first and screamed into it. 

“AHHHHH, WHY DID THAT HUG FEEL SO NICE?” 

She lay there for a bit longer, hugging the pillow tightly to her as if it was Midori himself, smiling happily the whole time. Then her mood darkened slightly, thinking about his reaction so just her saying she wanted to be her friend. 

That was very worrying, it was fairly clear he didn’t exactly have the most self-esteem at the best of times but that was something else. 

He seemed so convinced that she wouldn’t want to be his friend that he barely seemed able to understand being told otherwise. 

That was clearly a trained response. She thought about what could have caused it, ‘Bad home? No probably not, I’ve only ever heard him say good things about his mom, even Bakugo has said his mom was great,’ 

She thought a while longer before remembering seeing those kinds of symptoms before, except the last time she saw those kinds of expressions and emotions it was in a mirror. 

Bullying. 

Thinking about it, it must have been. What else could have caused him to feel so unconfident about himself. 

‘A bully would look at him and see a timid, bookish, baby faced kid, basically a perfect target,’ she thought, her face twisting with anger. ‘But who would bully someone like Midori? He’s one of the sweetest guys ever,’ 

Her eyes widened with a sudden realisation. His reaction to explosions. Him freezing when seeing Bakugo. Them going to the same schools before UA. 

‘Is...is Bakugo the one who’s been bullying him?’ she thought. 

She walked into her bathroom, turning the light on and staring at herself in the mirror, words she had so long pushed out of her memory forcing their way back in. 

‘Ugly’  

‘Freak’  

‘Alien’  

‘Monster’  

‘Villain’  

Her eyes began to water at the memories before she took in a deep breath and her expression hardened. 

She looked back into the mirror, her eyes now dry, her expression one of determination. 

While she had long since dealt with her own, she had always hated bullies. Some were people who just thought they were better than everyone else, some simply picked on people for things they couldn’t help, some were just plain evil. 

She looked down towards the sink, clenching her eyes shut for a moment, forcing her memories out of her head before looking back up towards the mirror and making a promise to herself. 

She would find out what had happened to Midori and she would protect him. 

After all, she was training to be a hero, and in her mind... bullies were no better than villains. 

She would protect Midori, this, she swears.  

Chapter Text

For Izuku, the next week was one of the happiest of his life. He was becoming good friends with Mina; he was helping her with her studies, and she helped him come up with a new technique in hero training, apparently, she was a dancer. Thinking about it that made a lot of sense, her moves in the sports festival were very fluid and acrobatic. While he had yet to master his new technique, he had made progress, after all, he hadn’t tripped himself up in the past 2 days. Mina claimed he had 2 left feet, but she’d soon turn him into a ‘dance master’ as she kept on saying.  

For Mina, the next week was one of the most stressful of her life. During their hero training she began to see just how deep Midori’s self-sacrificing streak went, if it wasn’t already obvious from his match with Todoroki in the sports festival. While yes that was an admirable quality for a hero it still frankly terrified Mina.  

Combining his almost completely absent sense of self preservation and his cripplingly low  self-esteem  she became increasingly concerned he’d developed some sort of martyr complex.  

She really did enjoy hanging out with Midori, and their studying and training was helping them both a lot...  

But she still hadn’t worked up the courage to ask Midori about his past, anytime she was going to, she looked at his genuine, happy smile that he always wore when they were together.  

She just couldn’t bring herself to break that smile, even if she really needed to know...she just couldn’t.  

One thing she could bring herself to do however, was almost entirely stop hanging out with  Bakugo . She’d still hang out with  Kirishima , Kaminari and Sero as normal if he wasn’t around but if he was, she would often just ignore him, trying to disguise her narrowed, suspicion filled eyes.  

She didn’t have any proof yet that it was  Bakugo  who had tormented the sweet green boy but it was the only conclusion that made any sense.  

Apparently aside from her new confidence in subjects she previously struggled with, she apparently picked up a few other things from Izuku.  

“It makes sense, his fear of explosions, their antagonistic relationship,  Bakugo’s  weird hate boner for Midori and Midori freezing up when he sees him,” Mina muttered to herself, jotting down notes in a brand-new pink and blue notebook. “At  first,  I thought it was that he was just uncomfortable with  Bakugo  and Uraraka being a couple given their rocky relationship, but it clearly goes deeper than that...”  

She wasn’t exactly sure how she’d apparently picked up Midori’s muttering habit, nor his obsession with notebooks. Maybe it was contagious? Anyway, even if it was, she only seemed to have a mild stage 1 infection, which she was grateful for, if anyone else picked up on it she’d never hear the end of it.  

Also,  despite this new habit she still didn’t know where he stored his own notebooks, she still had to simply keep it in a pocket, maybe that was a stage 3 or beyond symptom?  

*Knock Knock*  

Her head quickly snapped to the door, slamming her notebook shut and quickly shoving it in an open drawer in her desk and shutting it as soon as possible.  

She quickly tussled her hair about, returning it to her usual mess rather than her ‘stressed out of her mind’ mess, before walking to the door and leaning against it, her hand on the doorknob.  

“What’s the password?” she asked, her grin almost audible in her voice.  

A muffled chuckle came from the other side of the door before a voice came through, slowly building in volume, “ TexaaaAAAAASSSS  SMAAAAA...”  

Mina quickly  threw  the door open, her face paling slightly at the sight of Midori stood on the other side of the door, his arm pulled back as if winding up for a punch, thankfully, his quirk was not active.  

He dropped his arm to his side, a sly grin on his face, “I thought that would work,”  

Mina stared at him for a moment more before stepping closer to him and punching him in the shoulder, “Don’t do that, I thought All Might was about to break down my door,”  

Midori grinned and winced at the same time, rubbing his shoulder, “Yeah but it was funny,” he said with a proud grin on his face.  

Mina let her head drop into her hands for a second before beginning to laugh herself, “Alright yeah it was pretty good, just don’t do that again alright?” she responded, lifting her head out of her hands and giving him a grin back, “Anyway, come on in,” she waved him into her room.  

Amazingly it had apparently only taken him a week to mostly get over his nervousness around her as he entered without having to be told twice and with only a couple of seconds of hesitation.  

She sat back down at her desk, pulling out a spare chair she had...erm...’borrowed’ from one of the school storage rooms. She desperately hoped Iida would never find out or he would probably kick her door in with half of the  Musutafu  police behind him.  

Midori came over and joined her, taking a seat at the desk next to the pink girl.  

“So? What were we going to do today Midori?” she asked, turning to him to see him rubbing his chin, apparently deep in thought yet again.  

He thought for a few moments longer before turning to Mina. “Well,” he began, “I read on the syllabus that next week we’re going to be picking our hero names in preparation for work  studies  so I thought we’d do some work on hero art studies today,”  

Mina’s eyes and smile widened at hearing that, giving out an excited squeal, “Ooh that sounds cool, does that basically mean we’ll just be coming up with a bunch of names for each other?” she asked, her smile clearly conveying her excitement.  

His face crumpled for a moment before softening and giving a quiet sigh, “Well that wasn’t exactly what I had planned but...well we have been working pretty hard lately so a more chilled evening would probably be good so sure, we can do that,” he responded, his face turning up into a slightly exasperated smile.  

Her smile widened  further  and she leapt forward, throwing her arms around him again briefly, “Thanks Midori,” she said with a sweet smile.  

Midori went bright red as she hugged him, rubbing the back of his head as she pulled back, shaking around his fluffy hair yet again. “N...no problem Mina,”  

As Mina pulled back from the brief embrace, she ‘accidentally’ nudged her glass of  water  so it tipped over her green haired friend. Just as she was hoping, it splashed all over his shirt, causing it to stick to his chest slightly.  

Mina jumped backwards, throwing her hands over her face in what hopefully looked like embarrassment, “Uh oh, I’m so sorry about that Midori,” she said, voice muffled by her hands somewhat. She had to resist the urge to peek through her fingers at the clingy shirt, ‘focus Mina, this is important,’  

Midori jumped up from his seat in surprise, “It’s alright Mina, I’ll just go quickly put a new one on, back in a minute,” he blurted out, nearly dashing out of her room.  

Mina watched him leave her room through the cracks between her fingers. “Right, step one complete,” she whispered to herself.  

She gave him a roughly 10 second head start before also leaving her room, following the trail of the slightly frantic boy.  

She  made a plan  earlier that day. She still couldn’t bring herself to flat out ask Midori if  Bakugo  had been bullying him when she had no proof to speak of and she wouldn’t ask the spiky haired blonde. Mostly because she was  fairly certain  he’d either just deny it or ignore her...  

But  also,  because she was slightly  afraid  he’d actually admit to it, maybe even brag about it.  

She hated bullies with every fibre of her being, that was no question, yet there was still a small part of her that hoped she was wrong about  Bakugo.  

So then, since asking either of the boys was off the table, her next best option was physical proof. Her first thought wasn’t...the best one.  

Her first idea was basically just to stalk the pair of them to see if she could catch  Bakugo  in the act. Then she remembered she was bright pink.  

Yeah, sneaking was off the  table  so she had to think of something else.  Assuming that  it was in fact  Bakugo  that had been bullying Midori, she began a sort of profile on him. It did not escape her that this seemed a lot like something that Midori himself would do. She smirked at that thought, it seemed appropriate.  

She could admit that while  Bakugo  was loud, brash and violent, he was  definitely not  an idiot. She’d heard him talk about becoming the No1 hero enough to know that he wouldn’t risk anything getting in the way of it.  

A bullying record would certainly do that. One may have caused a permanent mark on his hero licence or possibly even rejected him from the entrance exam outright.  

She thought back to Midori’s reaction to the sudden explosion on the TV nearly a week ago, she had thought that to warrant that kind of reaction, his experiences couldn’t have just been from intimidation, especially considering his reaction to being touched shortly afterwards. He looked like he was expecting to be hurt.  

Considering all of that, it seemed fairly clear to Mina that Midori must have suffered some kind of physical abuse, besides, going from their experiences from the start of the year such as All Might’s combat training, the USJ and the sports festival, it was obvious  Bakugo  didn’t have a problem with using violence as a solution to most problems.  

Thinking about the state Midori was in after blocking the explosion from  Bakugo  during the combat training, she assumed that such injuries would leave burns or scars.  Bakugo  would know this and so would probably only use his quirk on him in places where it couldn’t be seen easily on a day to day basis.  

That probably meant any scars would be on his chest and/or back. So, ignoring how creepy it would be if their situations were reversed, she decided she needed to see him without a shirt so she could check for herself.  

Clearly,  she couldn’t just ask him, he would either get suspicious of what she was trying to do or just flat out die of embarrassment, either way all of the trust they’d built up would be wasted.  

So  she just had to figure out a way to get his shirt off in a way he wouldn’t find suspicious and have him in a position where she could spy on him to see if her suspicions were correct. Once again ignoring the dubious implications of her plan she began thinking about how she would go about it.  

Most of her early plans were possibly a bit overly complex, one of which involved a bouncy castle, a water gun and a lot of acid. She put that one away for later, that sounded like a pretty good  prank  but it maybe wasn’t quite right for this situation.  

Then it hit her.  

The old trope of spilling a drink on someone so they  have to  change clothes.  

Mina sighed, if this went wrong it had the potential to play out like a bad rom-com and that was the last thing Mina wanted right now.  

Still, the basic idea was solid, and frankly it seemed simple enough it would just seem like an accident and not seem suspicious or planned.  

All she had to do was get him wet...wait no, that came out wrong.  

Mina continued following behind the green haired boy towards the male side of the dorms. He was clearly focused on getting to his destination as quickly as he could so she didn’t even have to be that sneaky.  

He reached his room and threw the door open, dashing in, seemingly in such a hurry he forgot to close his door properly. Mina smirked, ‘perfect,’ she crept up to the crack left in the door, peering into the darkened room.  

Despite the purpose of her peeking the first thing that drew her eyes was the frankly ungodly amount of All Might merchandise is his room, she grimaced slightly, she was definitely glad they’d been studying in her room at first, seeing their teacher and the No1 hero staring down at them from every  conceivable  direction would have been  fairly distracting .  

She shook her head slightly, remembering why she was there, turning her gaze over to the lone occupant of the room, he still had his shirt on, he looked like he was rummaging through his closet for another one.  

Seemingly satisfied he pulled out a t-shirt which unbelievably just said ‘T-shirt’ on it. She  desperately  held in a snicker at the sight of the garment.  

Having retrieved a replacement, he quickly threw his wet shirt over his head allowing Mina to see what she came here for.  

Scars.  

So many scars.  

SO MANY.  

‘Oh my god’  

Mina was horrified.  

This was worse than anything she could have imagined.  

There was barely an inch of unscarred skin on his whole torso. His back was still covered in patchy burns, but his chest was almost entirely scarred.  

Some of those burns looked years old, some looked much newer.  

Some even looked fresh.  

‘WAS HE STILL BEING BULLIED HERE AT UA!?’  

Mina couldn’t remember a time she had ever been so angry before. This little cinnamon roll might still have been bullied under the noses of about a dozen Pro Heroes and their entire class.  

She didn’t know who she was the  angriest  with.  

Bakugo , for obviously tormenting Midori for years, the teachers, for not doing anything about it.  

Or herself...for not seeing this sooner.  

She had to fight back tears, maybe if she’d seen how much pain he was in sooner...maybe she could have helped him...he didn’t have to go through this alone...  

It wasn’t fair...  

Mina nearly dropped to her knees. Nobody deserved that. Especially not Izuku.  

She gave out a quiet sob, hunched over, almost in pain, not being able to hold it in any longer.  

“Mina?”  

Mina’s eyes widened and she looked up back through the crack in the door.  

Izuku was stood there, his new t-shirt half on and his eyes frozen in a look of fear.  

Mina quickly wiped her eyes, stood up straight and walked into his room, closing his door behind her.  

“ M..mina ?” Izuku said, fear evident in his voice... no... not fear... guilt.  

Mina walked closer to  him,  her face frozen in a mask of calm.  

She looked him in the eyes, looked back down at his scars, then looked back up at his eyes, tears appearing once again in her own.  

“Did  Bakugo  do that to you?” she asked, her voice breaking with emotion.  

Izuku just froze again, then looked away, refusing to meet her eyes. Then he sank to his knees, drawing into himself and giving out a loud sob.  

Mina couldn’t help it. She dropped down next to him and wrapped her arms around him as tightly as she could, burying her face into his shoulder, now also openly crying, her tears probably staining his new t-shirt.  

They just wept together for a few minutes, Izuku eventually throwing his own arms around Mina, desperately holding onto her as if she’d  disappear  if he let go.  

“I....I...I... I'm so sorry Mina,” he choked out in between sobs.  

Mina shook her head, still burying it into his shoulder, “No, don’t be sorry, this isn’t your fault,” she sobbed, arms wrapping around him as tightly as she could, “None of this is your fault Izuku...you don’t deserve this,”  

She attempted to stop her own tears, hoping that would help him calm down too.  

Eventually it seemed to, their tears finally apparently running out, yet neither of them could bear to break away from the embrace yet. They both still needed it.  

After what seemed like an eternity, Izuku began to pull away. She raised her head off his shoulder as he did and looked him in the eyes, her hands finding their way to his and intertwining with them.  

Mina took a deep breath before she started to speak, her voice still shaky, “I’m so sorry Izuku, I’m so sorry this happened to you,”  

He clenched his eyes shut before responding, “No...I’m sorry you had to see me like this,” he said, breaking contact and walking over to his bed, curling up into a ball on it, “I’m...so...so...so sorry for causing you trouble,”  

Mina felt her heart break a little at that, he thought she was being troubled by  him?  

He sat up just enough to look at her, eyes once again obscured by tears, and held out an arm towards her, as if grasping for a lifeline, “I...I... I'm sorry...just...p...p...p... please don’t leave me,” he choked out, his voice thick with fear.  

Mina leapt forward towards him, throwing her arms around him once again, trying not to cry again herself. “Don’t worry,” she began, her voice shaky with emotion but determination still obvious, “I’m here for you Izuku, I won’t leave you, I’ll protect you from now on,”  

Izuku just sobbed again, but it sounded different this time. Mina pulled away slightly to look at his face, he was still crying, but now he was smiling.  

She just pulled him further into her embrace, trying to convey as much as she could physically that she was there for him and would never leave him.  

He eventually sat up, keeping his right arm wrapped around her, his left busy drying his face.  

Mina gently cupped his cheek with one hand, looking into his eyes, their faces only a few inches away from each other, wiping tears away from his eyes with her thumb, “Now then Izuku, I want you to do something very, very difficult for me now,” she said, calmly as she could, “Can you do this for me?”  

He slowly and shakily nodded his head, “I...I. ..I  can try to,”  

“Alright then...I want you to tell me everything,” she said, “I want you to tell me your entire history with  Bakugo , why he did this, and why nobody ever did anything about it,”  

Izuku nodded, forlornly, sniffling slightly and wiping his nose with the back of his hand. “Okay then... I can do that,”  

Mina rubbed his shoulder with one arm, the other still gently cupping his cheek. “When did it start?” she asked, looking into his eyes, not looking away for a single second. Nothing else was important right now.  

“Well... I guess it started when we were 4 years old, we lived in the same neighbourhood and we used to be... well I don’t know if we were friends, but I was definitely one of his followers, he used to be so confident and capable, it was like he could do anything,” Izuku began explaining, “Then when he got his quirk, things started changing, he became more violent and got angry much easier but we still hung out for a while,”  

Mina said nothing, just nodding at him to continue.  

“I was waiting for my own quirk to appear but... it never did, eventually I was the only kid who didn’t have a quirk, it was around then he started calling me ‘ Deku ’ meaning useless, eventually my mom took me to a quirk doctor who told me I was quirkless,”  

Mina gasped at that revelation, “What? But you have a quirk,” she gasped, shock and confusion obvious in her voice.  

He shook his free hand slightly, “Yeah but I only got it recently, I was an incredibly late bloomer, I think it was something to do with my body not being able to handle my power when I was younger so it only manifested during the entrance exam,”  

That made Mina’s jaw drop, “Wait, so you did the entrance exam thinking you were  quirkless ?” she asked, horror and... something else in her voice.  

Izuku rubbed the back of his head, “Yes?” he offered weakly.  

Mina gave a small but genuine laugh at that, “I don’t know whether that was brave or  crazy,  but it definitely sounds like you,”  

He gained a small smile upon hearing that before his expression fell again. “Yeah maybe.... anyway,  Bakugo  always thought that I thought I was better than him because as far as anyone knew I was  quirkless  but I still wanted to attend UA and become a hero, because of that, he decided it was his mission to ‘teach me my place’,” he explained sadly.  

Mina’s hand gripped onto his shoulder a bit tighter as her anger got the better of her for a second. “That bastard,” she muttered, “He had no right to say that,”  

Izuku’s  eyes widened at Mina cursing but then his smile appeared again upon realising she was defending him, then almost snuggling into her shoulder more, apparently comforted for now.  

She smiled warmly at the feeling of him almost attempting to burrow his way further into her embrace, wrapping one arm around the back of his head, running her hand through his hair, finally feeling just how soft it was.  

She looked back down at Izuku, “Does he still bully you now?” she asked, quietly.  

He stays silent for a moment before responding, “Not as much as he used to, only occasionally now but... yeah,  he still does,”  

Mina inhaled through her nose heavily, holding back her anger. “When?” she simply asked.  

Izuku shrugged slightly, “He only burns me during combat training when he can get away with it, saying it was an accident or it was just part of sparring, although he does do other things too,”  

Mina leant her head onto his, continuing to stroke his hair. “Like what? What else does he do?” she asked, slightly scared of hearing anything else Izuku had to go through.  

“Well remember the other  day?  He knocked my plate out of my hands and knocked my food onto the floor, he also gloats about him being with...Uraraka a lot these days, saying things like ‘She’s realised what a useless Deku you are’ and ‘She’s going out with me cos she can’t stand being around your pathetic ass anymore’,”  

Mina, still trying to hold back her anger for his benefit then asked, “Anything else?”  

Izuku looked away then, trying not to meet her gaze, only causing her to pull his face back towards hers. “Izuku, what else?” she asked sternly.  

Panicked, he blurted out, “He told me to kill myself,” before slapping his hand over his mouth, too late.  

If Mina thought she was angry earlier then she clearly didn’t know just how angry someone could truly be.  “What?”  she demanded.  

Izuku pushed his forefingers together nervously before looking back up at Mina.  

“It was in the last end of High School, the teacher asked what we all wanted to be, of course everyone wanted to be heroes, then  Bakugo  said he was going to go to UA,” he started, “Then the teacher threw me under the bus, saying I wanted to go to UA too, then  Bakugo  attacked me, nearly exploding my desk,”  

Mina just nodded.  

“Then after class he tried to destroy one of my notebooks and threw it out of the window, then he... then he said that there was another way for me to be a hero...”  

Mina dreaded hearing what would come next.  

“Go and take a swan dive off the edge of the building, pray you’re born with a quirk in your next life,”  

Mina felt her heart sink at those words. She also felt a white-hot spike of fury shoot through her.  

She rubbed  Izuku’s  shoulder comfortingly again before detaching from the embrace and standing up. She turned back around to face Izuku and knelt down in front of him, taking one of his hands in hers and rubbing it gently with her thumb.  

“Izuku,” she said, her voice eerily calm, “Would you mind staying here for a little bit, I just need to go and do something, I’ll be back soon though, don’t worry,”  

Izuku looked nervous at the prospect of being alone but nodded sadly.  

She rubbed his hair again briefly, hoping to cheer him up.  

“I’ll only be about 15-20 minutes alright?”  

“A....alright,”  

She gave him a reassuring smile before standing up and walking to the door, opening it and leaving, but not before giving Izuku a small wave.  

Once the door closed her expression shifted, her mask of calm had broken.  

Now, her fury was plain to see.  

Now, she had a blonde bastard to find.  

Now, she would make him pay.  

Chapter Text

Mina stomped her way down the corridor away from  Izuku’s  room, her fists clenched at her sides in anger and probably  accidentally  dripping acid from them.  

She’d worry about that later, she had bigger problems to deal with right now.  

Or punch, probably punch.  

The small part of her brain that wasn’t currently consumed by rage thought that this was probably a really bad decision, that she’d pushed Izuku to tell her too much, too quickly and that she should focus on  comforting  him and not going on her own little revenge mission.  

The rest of her brain pushed those thoughts aside and instead focused on how exactly she should ruin  Bakugo’s  life.  

A straight up punch to the face was a good option.  

She could burn him with her quirk, see how he likes it but that would definitely get her expelled sooo ... maybe not that.  

Another option was telling Aizawa or maybe even All Might, they would take it incredibly seriously but that lacked the... personal touch.  

Or maybe...  

She stopped.  

Another option was to tell Uraraka.  

But... could she do that?  

Could she tell her about the kind of person her boyfriend really was? How would she react? Would she even believe her? Would she then tell  Bakugo  about it who would then take it out on Izuku?  

Even if  Bakugo  had ranked lower than most villains she knows in her list of people she liked could she really do something that might make Uraraka break up with him?  

Mina slumped against the wall, sliding down it on her back and pulling her knees up to her head.  

Mina  hated  Bakugo  but... Uraraka was happy with him, would she end that for her own revenge, as justifiable as it may be?  

Mina grabbed her hair and groaned in frustration.  

She wished she’d just settled for the punch to the face option and not thought on it any further. Yes, telling Uraraka would most likely hurt him more but it would hurt her as well. Could she bring herself to do that?  

She squeezed her eyes shut, thinking about  Izuku , h is self-esteem and confidence in tatters, so convinced he was some sort of lower class or inferior he seemed genuinely baffled when someone expressed a genuine interest in getting closer to him.    

The look of fear in his eyes when he thought she might leave him, as he had clearly suffered from so many times before.  

How tightly he clung to her as if she was the only thing keeping him alive.  

Izuku  curled up on the floor, sobbing violently, his normal happy and cheerful persona in ruins  and who knows how many years of built up pain released at once.  

Mina inhaled, attempting to calm herself. She would not let  Bakugo  get away with what he had done, he had to be punished. She had to do this.  

She had to. For Izuku.

Uraraka was in her room, fixing her hair before going to  Bakugo’s  room for studying. She knew her boyfriend was a good  student,  but she wasn’t  actually expecting  him to be a good teacher. She’d have thought he’d lost his patience more often that he did.  

Hopefully he was just nicer than he seemed  sometimes  and it wasn’t just because it was her he was partnered with. She shuddered at the thought of him getting partnered with someone like Todoroki or Deku, that would probably bring the dorms crashing down around their heads.  

Just finishing her  styling,  she heard a knock at her door, turning around at the door and then glancing at the time, ‘I’m not late for studying so it can’t be Kat, who’s here?’  

She called out, “Just a second!”, making sure her hair was right she stepped over to the door and opened it.  

“Oh Mina,” she said, “Can I help you with something? I was about to go and meet Katsuki  so would you mind if we do this later?”  

The pink girl shook her head, “Sorry, I just need to talk to you for a few minutes, I promise you it’s important,” she responded, her voice very different to her usual upbeat tone.  

Uraraka quickly glanced at her clock again before quickly pulling Mina into her room, “Okay fine but make it quick please,  Kat’ll  get mad if I’m late,” she said, huffing slightly.  

Mina shifted her weight from foot to foot, she looked a bit nervous... Ooh, was this one of those kinds of girl talks about  boys?  That seems like a Mina kind of thing.  

“Yeah...well...” Mina began, scratching her head nervously, “I wanted to talk to you about Izuku,”  

Uraraka stopped moving. Wait, she wanted to talk about Deku?  

This wasn’t exactly what she was expecting.  

She wouldn’t have thought Deku would be her type of...  

Her eyes widened.  

‘Wait did she call him Izuku?’  

“ Ohh ...okay then, sure,” Uraraka responded, unsure on the correct response.  

Mina gestured towards the bed, motioning for them both to sit down on it. “Well I wanted to ask you a couple of things,” she explained, “ Izuku’s  your best  friend  right?”  

Uraraka nodded with a smile, “Yeah, first friend I made at UA, I’ve told you all about how he saved me from the zero pointer in the exam didn’t I?”  

Mina nodded in response, “Yeah you did but I was wondering why you never seem to hang out with him or your other friends as much anymore,” the pink girl said, “Since you started dating...  Bakugo ... you seem to spend  all of  your time around him these days,”  

Uraraka felt a little bit guilty at that, it sounding like Deku was upset she hadn’t been around him as much lately... but he was still hanging out with Tsu , Iida and Todoroki most days right? Plus, Mina herself had been hanging out with him a lot over the past week since the tutoring exercise started.  

She rubbed the back of her hair for a moment, trying not to disturb it too much. “Well yeah I guess I haven’t been hanging out with him that much lately but... I mean it’s not like he’s been on his own or anything, besides why shouldn’t I be around my boyfriend?” she then responded, indignantly.  

Mina said nothing for a moment, letting her calm down slightly, “That was another thing I was wondering, how did you and  Bakugo  actually end up going out in the first place?”  

Uraraka, now calm, sighed almost wistfully before responding. “He actually asked me out not long after the sports festival finished,” she explained, “He said something along the lines of saying that I was much tougher than I looked and ‘wasn’t actually that bad, unlike the rest of those extras back there’ and then just sort of blurted out the question of whether I wanted to go out on a date, he actually looked a bit nervous afterwards, it was kind of adorable actually,”  

Mina tilted her head slightly, her expression a mix of confused and exasperated. “And you said yes?”  

Uraraka nodded excitedly, “Yeah, I thought about it for a few hours and then I went back and said yes to him once we were back at the dorms, I thought it seemed worth a go, besides I didn’t know him that well at the time but even I could tell he’d complimented me as highly as he could earlier so I was flattered at that,”  

Mina nodded a few times, humming in understanding, “Hmm, alright then but doesn’t it get a bit weird dating someone who clearly doesn’t get on well at all with your best friend?” she asked, seemingly trying to probe for something.  

Uraraka’s  eyes narrowed slightly in suspicion for a second. “Well I guess so yeah, I mean it’s like you said, I don’t hang out with him that much anymore because I know  Bakugo  doesn’t like him that much but I don’t really see what this has to do with...”  

Mina held a hand up, interrupting her. “Uraraka,” she said flatly, “Do you still consider Izuku to be your best friend?”  

Uraraka nodded tersely, quickly losing patience with this whole conversation and looking for an excuse to get her out of her room. “Yeah of course I do, what’s that got to do with Kat though?”  

“And you still care about him?” asked Mina, ignoring the second part of the question.  

“Yes of course I do, he saved my life after all,” she snapped back, frustration obvious in her voice.  

Mina closed her eyes for a second and took in a deep breath, steeling herself for what she was about to say. “Then why are you going out with the man who told your best friend to kill himself?” she asked, barely disguised anger behind her words.  

Uraraka froze, her eyes widening and her anger draining in an instant.  

“W...w. ..what ?” she stuttered, “What are you talking about Mina?”  

Mina shuffled a bit closer to her on the bed, holding up both hands like she was trying to calm her down. “In their last year of high school together,  Bakugo told Izuku to jump off the room of the school and pray he had a quirk in his next life,”  

Uraraka shook her head, refusing to believe it. “Well guys say things they don’t really mean all the time if they get angry, I’m sure you’ve done that before,” she snapped back.  

Mina nodded, “Fair enough, you have a point,” she conceded, “Do guys also normally physically attack and burn their classmates?”  

She froze again, her eyes wide with shock and disbelief. “What? But... Kat wouldn’t do that...” she weakly offered.  

“Think about our first combat training when you were on  Izuku’s  team, you saw the footage back, you saw  Bakugo  fire that huge blast at him even after All Might specifically said not to because it was too dangerous,” Mina said.  

Uraraka opened her mouth for a  counterargument  but no noise came out.  

“And then his actions at the sports festival, his violence there, hell you even fought him yourself, you know how vicious he can be,” she added.  

Uraraka felt her entire body droop, looking downwards to the bed, barely whispering, “But... that... he... he... he just wouldn’t do that,”  

Mina gently grasped her chin, raising her head so she could look her in the eyes. “I’ve seen his scars  Ochaco ...” she said, nearly choking up at the end, “He has so many scars... I couldn’t even tell how old some of them looked and some looked new, he’s still abusing him now,” she added, anger seeping into her voice as she continued talking. “He saw a weak, timid boy who wanted to be a hero like he did and because of that he beat him down nearly every day of his life, trying to kill his dream,”  

Even if Uraraka had anything to say to respond to this, she couldn’t even open her mouth, shock nearly  paralysing  her.  

“Izuku is covered in burn marks, in places where they couldn’t be easily spotted, places where people wouldn’t see them and so that  Bakugo  could get away with what he was doing,” Mina continued, “And then, after over a decade of physical abuse, he then gets told to kill himself, that he would never be a hero and his only hope to become one was to kill himself and hope for better luck in his next life,”  

Uraraka’s  face felt wet. Was she crying? She lifted a shaking hand to her face and wiped her cheek dry. Yeah, she was crying.  

She couldn’t believe it, her boyfriend did all of that to Deku?  

Her first instinct was to dismiss everything she just heard, like it was a lie or some sort of misunderstanding. Yet...  

She knew in her heart Mina was telling the truth.  

She could see the anger burning behind her eyes, hear the venom on her voice and she knew that it couldn’t be either of those things.  

Yet she could still barely bring  herself  to accept it.  

Mina just sat there in silence for a few minutes, allowing her to take it all in. “I’d understand if you don’t believe me,” she said, her voice calmer now. “If you don’t, then go and ask  Bakugo  himself, I doubt he’d lie to you, especially since he’ll probably think he did the right thing,”  

Mina stood up and brushed off her knees, “I need to go find someone else right now, think about what I said for a while and then go and talk to your...  boyfriend  about it,” she spat the word out with what sounded like disgust. Without another word, she turned around, walked away and left her room.  

Uraraka was still speechless, she collapsed onto her side, curling up into a ball, hugging her own legs. She did not want to believe Mina but... she did.  

After  maybe another 20 or so  more minutes  of reflection and deciding on what to do she sat upright again, dried her face and wiped her nose and set off to talk to her blonde-haired boyfriend.  

She would get the truth out of him.  

Mina closed the door behind her as she left, sighing sadly as she did. ‘That was painful to do... but it needed to be done, she needed to be told, she can make her own decision about what she’ll do,’ she thought, ‘Right now I need to get back to Izuku, I really shouldn’t have left him there after he poured his heart out,’, she walked towards the stairs, stopping upon looking down the boys’ hallway, seeing the grenade themed nameplate.  

‘But first...’  

She stomped her way down the blue hallway before coming upon  Bakugo’s  door. She slammed her fist onto it several times to knock,  definitely harder  than she should have.  

She hadn’t really   plan ned   for  what she was going to do when he opened the door.  

“Hey babe you’re...” A gruff voice came from the other side of the door, becoming easier to hear as the door swung open, “Oi, Raccoon Eyes, what the fuck do you want? I’m meant to be tutoring my...”  

‘Plan A should work here’  

*THWACK*  

He staggered backwards away from the door, his hand grasping his now blooded nose, almost frozen with shock at the sight of his own blood before his trademark explosive anger made a reappearance, “WHAT THE FUCK RACCOON EYES!? THE FUCK WAS THAT FOR?” he screamed, both hands dropped to his sides, small explosions popping from his palms.  

She took this opportunity to hit him again.  

*THWACK*    

“That’s for what you did to Izuku,” she said, coldly. “You deserve much worse but that’s probably the most I  can  get away with,”  

Bakugo’s  eyes burned with rage to nearly match her own, his nose now streaming with blood. “WHAT THE FUCK HAS THAT SHITTY DEKU GOT TO DO WITH ANYTHING?”  

She very nearly punched him again but barely managed to resist the urge. “You know what you did to him for all those years, what you’re still doing now,”  

His eyes narrowed even further, his rage still easy to see in them, “WHAT? SHOW HIM HIS PLACE?”  

Mina’s own eyes narrowed again, once more barely resisting the urge to break his nose. “Is that what you call bullying and physical abuse for over a decade?” she asked, venom dripping from her words. “ Personally,  I’d call that villainy but I am a hero in training, clearly unlike you,”  

Bakugo  growled loudly , like a rabid dog  in response but didn’t say anything for once.  

“ Bakugo ,” Mina said, her voice trembling with emotion, “I can’t believe I once called you a friend, you are the worst kind of person, a bully  like you really  is no better than a villain, and that’s all I can see you as now,”, she glared at him once more, not hiding any of her fury. “And I’ll do my best to make everyone else  see  exactly what kind of man you are too,”, and with that, she turned around and walked away, disappearing down the stairs.  

She barely heard his retort of “I DON’T CARE WHAT ANY OF THOSE EXTRAS THINK ABOUT ME ANYWAY,” before she heard a door slam and the dorms went quiet.  

She stopped once she reached  Izuku’s  floor, taking a few minutes to calm down, taking in deep breaths and rubbing her knuckles. Once she felt she had sufficiently calmed down she went over to  Izuku’s  door and knocked softly on it, “Izuku? It’s Mina, can I come in?” she asked, her voice quiet.  

About 30 seconds passed before Mina  heard the sound of  a lock opening and the door swinging open. There stood Izuku, his eyes still red but not filled with tears anymore. He turned back around and sat back on his bed, gesturing for her to follow.  

Mina did so, sitting on the bed beside him and gently resting her arm over his shoulders, gently pulling him towards her so his head was resting on her shoulder. They just sat there for a few minutes, Mina gently rubbing his shoulder, neither one saying anything until Mina broke the silence.  

“Izuku,” she started, “First of all I’d just like to say I’m very, very sorry for leaving you on your own, it was wrong for me to leave you on your own after everything you told me even if I was going out to try and help you,” she apologised.  

Izuku sniffled quietly, “T. ..that’s  okay Mina,” he said, still slightly upset.  

Mina pulled him in slightly closer and held him a bit more firmly, “And second of all I want to tell you that I’m very proud of you,”  

Izuku looked up at her, his green eyes swimming in confusion. Her black eyes met his for a moment before  she  continued sp eaking.  

“What you did earlier, telling me about what happened to you, that was very, very brave and I’m so proud of you for doing it, I know I probably made you share more than I should have in one go which to me just further shows just how brave you really are,” she whispered to him, a kind and reassuring smile on her face. “For coping with what you have been, and still becoming who you are, a kind, intelligent, and incredible guy is even more impressive, I know I’ve said it several times now, but I am proud beyond words of you,” she hugged him tighter, trying to get her words across to him physically too.  

His eyes began tearing up again before he threw himself into her, hooking his head over her shoulder and wrapping his arms around her, “Thank you so much Mina,” he choked out.  

She allowed herself to melt into the contact, sighing softly with a content smile on her face. “You’re welcome Izuku, and don’t worry, I will not let anything else happen to you, I will protect you,” she whispered into his ear, rich with determination.  

He sobbed again, “Thank you Mina, thank you for everything,”  

Mina said nothing but gently unwound herself from him, sat up on her knees and gently laid a kiss on his forehead, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and pulling him into her, gently rocking him backwards and forwards slightly.  

She could almost feel his  blush  but he soon seemed to calm down and after several more minutes of silence she realised he’d fallen asleep, still clinging to her and burrowed into her top. She smiled warmly and laid them both down on their sides, his head on a pillow and attempted to unhook herself from his arms but he seemed to stir slightly and continued gripping on, quietly mumbling in his sleep, “Don’t go...”  

Mina began to blush but stopped trying to escape from his arms, instead shifting her position slightly so her head was also on the pillow next to his, facing him. She looked over his sleeping face. He looked so peaceful now, he looked happy now.  

Not wanting to risk waking him up she simply decided to cuddle into him slightly, mewling softly, enjoying his body warmth.  

Yes, this would probably take some explaining in the morning but she felt  cozy  in his embrace and soon found herself drifting off to sleep aswell.  

Anything else could wait until the morning, for now...  

For  now,  she was perfectly happy to cuddle with Izuku, hoping her presence will make him feel better even while asleep.  

She looked over his peaceful expression once again, her own eyes growing dark. Her last thought before she joined him in sleep...  

‘Oh god, I think I really am falling for him,’  

Uraraka made her way towards her boyfriend’s room. She still didn’t want to believe what Mina had told  her  but she needed to hear the truth from  Bakugo’s  own mouth.  

She knocked on his door, waiting a few seconds for an answer.  

“WHO THE FUCK IS IT NOW?” came the angry voice from inside the room.  

She sighed, “It’s me Bakugo,”  

A few more seconds passed before the door opened, revealing  Bakugo  clutching a wad of bloodstained tissues to his nose with one hand, the other holding the side of the door. “You here for our studying? Hmph,” he snorted, “You’re late you know,”  

She waved a hand next to her head, “Never mind me being late, what happened to you?” she asked, pointing at his nose.  

He groaned in annoyance, “That pink bitch came  here  and fucking punched me for some stupid fucking reason,” he replied, his voice not loud but clearly angry.  

Uraraka recoiled slightly. ‘Mina did that?’ she thought, surprised at her friend, ‘Wait... that’s not a good sign... if it got to the stage where she punched him then maybe she really was telling the truth,’ she then thought, horror slowly creeping across her face.  

He turned around, walking back into his room, waving her in behind him. “Anyway come on, a bloody nose ain’t   gonna  stop me from studying,”  

Uraraka remained outside the door, clutching onto her skirt with both hands and taking in a deep breath. “ Bakugo  I need to ask you something, can you come here please?”  

Bakugo  turned around, rolling his eyes slightly but complying. “What?” he blurted out gruffly.  

She took another breath before speaking. “Did you bully Midoriya?” she asked, her voice level, making intense eye contact with him.  

He seemed taken aback at the question, “What? What are you talking about?” he asked, anger starting to seep into his tone.  

“Did. You. Bully. Midoriya?” she stated firmly, pausing between each word for emphasis.  

His anger clearly grew and became more visible in his eyes. “Who the hell car...”  

She cut him off. “Answer the question  NOW !” she snapped.  

He angrily waved his free arm in the air, groaning in annoyance. “ALRIGHT FINE WHATEVER, YEAH I FUCKING SHOWED HIM HIS PLACE, WHAT ABOUT IT?” he shouted at her.  

Her expression fell. That was it. He’d admitted it to her face. There was practically no reason to doubt Mina’s words anymore.  

She began welling up with tears slightly, shaking in place. “ So  you did it? You bullied him for years? You even told him to kill himself?” she asked, her voice quivering.  

He groaned again, pinching the bridge of his nose with his free hand. “Ugh, did the pink bitch talk to you?” he asked, barely looking at her.  

She nodded. He just groaned yet again.  

“WELL LISTEN, WHAT THE FUCK ELSE SHOULD I HAVE DONE? THAT SHITTY NERD WAS LOOKING DOWN ON ME, SAYING HE COULD GET INTO UA AND BE A HERO JUST LIKE ME, HE’S A USELESS NERD WHO NEEDED TO BE TAUGHT THAT HIS PLACE WAS UNDER ME, HE’S JUST A SHITTY DEKU WHO NEEDED TO STAY THE FUCK OUT OF MY WAY, IT PROBABLY WOULD HAVE BEEN BETTER IF HE HAD FUCKING OFFED HIMSELF!” He screamed, anger getting the best of him.  

Uraraka was shaking. This time in rage.  

“How dare you say that, and how dare you call him useless” she told him, her voice thick with anger.  

“WHO THE FUCK CARES, HE’S JUST A USELESS DEK...”  

*THWACK*  

If his nose wasn’t broken before, it probably was now. Blood once again streaming down his face, soaking through his fistful of tissues in an instant.  

“ Don’t call him that,”  she snapped at him, voice cold and furious,  “ His name is Izuku Midoriya,”  

She took a step back away from him, taking in a deep breath, trying to calm down. “He is a much better person than you, and he’ll be a far greater hero than you’ll ever be,” she spat at him, anger still present.  

She turned on her heels, facing away from him and about to walk away, “Oh, and if it wasn’t already obvious from me breaking your nose, I’m breaking up with you, frankly, I can’t believe I didn’t see this sooner, I probably should have but never mind that now,” she said, looking over her shoulder at a still speechless and pained Bakugo.  

Before facing forwards once more and leaving she finished with spitting out, “Go to hell Bakugo, where the rest of the villains like you belong,” and then walking away, back to her room.  

Once safely back within her own room she fell backwards against the door, sliding down it until she was sat on the floor. Despite her words, each of which she truly meant, that still hurt her deeply. She truly was happy with him but once she finally found out truly what kind of man he was...  

She couldn’t stay with him after that, not after finding out what he did.  

She tucked her legs underneath her and leaned against the door. ‘I really need to apologise to Midoriya,’  

She looked at the clock, seeing as it was much later than she expected she assumed the green haired boy would already be asleep. She sighed, saying she would do it tomorrow.  

Stricken with sadness and guilt, she undressed for bed before climbing under the covers and curling up into a ball again.  

She needed to fix things with Midoriya, he needed to know how sorry she was for not seeing what was happening.  

She hoped things could go back to the way they were but... she wasn’t too sure about that.  

She wasn’t sure she deserved it anyway.  

Chapter Text

Izuku woke up to sound of his alarm, just like every morning it announced that “MORNING IS HERE!” in All Might’s usual over the top voice. Still groggy he tried to get up from the bed but found himself unable too. He was still waking up and his vision hadn’t started working properly yet so he couldn’t see what was stopping him from getting up but he could feel it. He didn’t know what it was but he knew it felt warm and soft and it smelled nice too. It was at this moment he subconsciously realised he had a full night’s sleep without waking up or having any nightmares. 

Not being in the state of mind to do much else at the moment he just shrugged his shoulders, closed his eyes again and started relaxing again, enjoying the warmth of whatever else was in his bed. In his relaxed state he allowed himself to inhale deeply through his nose, he could smell something sweet, he didn’t quite know what it was but it smelt vaguely fruity or floral. As he inhaled he felt something tickle his nostrils as he did so. 

This made him wake up a bit more and he opened his eyes, still blurry, he could make out... something, whatever it was, it was pink and fluffy. That was a bit unusual, he was fairly sure he didn’t own anything both pink and fluffy. 

‘Huh? What’s this then?’ he thought, blinking several times, trying to clear his vision further. As he did so he noticed several things. One of his arms was trapped underneath it and it also appeared to be softly snoring. 

That snapped him awake fairly quickly. His vision now clear, he looked down to see a mane of fluffy pink hair with two small, hooked yellow horns sticking out of it. 

Now fully awake, the memories of yesterday’s events came back to him. 

‘Okay then so yesterday Mina saw my scars, I had a complete meltdown, then she hugged me a lot I think?’ he thought, attempting to remain calm. ‘At one point she left for a little bit and then came back, I vaguely remember her saying something nice to me and... I must have fallen asleep after that,’ 

He nodded gently, satisfied with that summary for now, ‘Alright then, now the next question... WHY IS MINA IN MY BED?’ he thought, panic quickly growing despite his attempts to stay calm, his face growing very warm, very quickly. 

He quickly glanced around the room, making sure they were alone. Satisfied they were he continued looking at Mina, her chest gently pressing against his as she breathed in. Growing flustered with the contact he tried to gently separate himself from the pink girl. It took him several minutes to remove his arm from underneath her without waking her up but he managed it. 

Now free from the contact he backed up as far away from her as he could, his back ending up against the wall almost immediately, unable to do anything else, he continued to stare at Mina with wide eyes, still wondering why exactly she was still here. Unable to come up with anything he resolved to just wait for her to wake up and hopefully give him an answer. 

As it happened, he wouldn’t have to wait that long for an answer as the pink girl began to stir quite soon. She gently stretched her arms above her head, letting out a soft mewling noise as she did. A noise that even in Izuku’s nearly petrified state he had to admit was absolutely adorable. Finishing her stretches, she pushed herself up from the bed, holding herself up with one arm and rubbing her eyes with the other. 

After a few seconds of rubbing she moved her arm she opened her eyes again which widened for a moment as she realised where she was, her gaze darting around the room until it fell upon Izuku. She froze for a second in surprise before her expression softened and she gave him a soft smile, gently blushing with a pale shade of lilac. 

“Morning Izuku, how are you feeling?” she asked, gently stretching once again, her smile remaining on her face. 

“EEP,” Izuku responded, his brain apparently not yet capable of coherent speech. 

Mina, realising his discomfort, backed away from the shy boy slightly, giving them more room between them. “Do you feel better than yesterday?” she asked again, voice soft with concern. 

He stayed quiet for a few moments, making sure words will come out once he opens his mouth and not just more noises. Hesitantly nodding he said, “Y...yeah, that was the best nights sleep I've had for so long, I do feel a bit better,” 

Rubbing the back of his head bashfully he then asked, “I’m thankful for you listening to me last night and for helping me calm down but... why were you still here this morning?” 

Quickly realising he may cause offense with that he quickly blurted out afterwards, “Not that I'm ungrateful or that it wasn’t nice but... I don’t quite remember what happened just before I fell asleep,” 

Mina, apparently not offended at all gave a soft giggle before responding, “Well I told you I was sorry for leaving, I said I thought you were really brave and that I was proud of you...” 

Izuku blushed at the compliment again. 

“Then we hugged again and you fell asleep on me, I laid you on your side and tried to get away without waking you up but you wouldn’t let me go, even while asleep you held on and asked me not to go,” she explained, a slight blush appearing at the last point, “It was really sweet actually and I hoped if I stayed then you might feel better today,” 

Izuku looked away, his own blush growing in intensity and a shy but happy smile appearing on his face. “Well thank you Mina, thanks for everything,” he said, still not meeting her eyes. Then a thought occurred to him, causing his eyes to snap back to hers. “Wait hang on, have you been calling me Izuku?” he asked, surprise on his face. 

It was Mina’s turn to face away before looking back and bashfully smiling at him. “Yeah, I guess I have, sorry if I overstepped... it just felt right,” she explained. 

Izuku blinked twice, letting that sink in. “Alright then, I don’t have any problem with it,” he said, his voice surprising even himself at how calm he sounded. 

Mina looked shocked for a second before her expression turned to one of excitement instead, “Really?” she asked, grinning widely. 

Izuku nodded, “Yeah, after all, you let me call you Mina so it only seems fair anyway,” he reasoned, not mentioning the fact he liked hearing her say his name more than he was willing to admit. 

Mina gave an excited squeal before bouncing forward on the bed and giving him a quick hug, “You’re the best Izuku,” 

He quickly returned the hug before she pulled away, blushing but enjoying it. 

Mina suddenly seemed to realise something, jumping back, “Hang on what day is it again?” she asked, sounding slightly panicked. 

Izuku felt himself begin to panic slightly, trying to recall the day. “Errrr it’s... sunday today,” he answered, his eyes widened. 

Mina immediately calmed down, letting out a sigh of relief. “Well that’s good,” she said, flopping onto the bed, face down on the pillow. 

Izuku cocked his head to the side, looking down on the pink girl, “Why’s that a good thing?” 

Mina turned her head so she could look at him with one eye, thinking for a second before pushing herself back up and facing him, “Alright then just to warn you,” she began, “Tomorrow, Aizawa will probably want to talk to you, me and probably a couple of others,” 

Izuku, still confused just responded, “Erm...why?” 

A sly grin crept onto her face for a moment before returning to her normal upbeat smile. “Cos last night I punched Bakugo in the face a few times and told Uraraka what he had done to you...not necessarily in that order,” she explained, her voice chipper as always despite what she said. 

Izuku blinked again, his brain temporarily shutting down. ‘She punched Bakugo,’ he thought, ‘And she’s still alive,’. He blinked again, ‘And she told Uraraka about Bakugo...’ 

His eyes widened in panic and he grasped his head in both hands, ‘Oh crap, that’s bad’ 

He began frantically rubbing his head in panic, ‘Oh god what if she didn’t believe her? What if she tells Bakugo? What if he takes it out on me?’ he thought, growing more frantic with every thought and beginning to hyperventilate. 

Mina, realising her mistake, gently pulled him in to an embrace, rubbing his back gently and humming softly to him, trying to calm him down, “It’s okay Izuku, don’t worry, I promise you’re safe and you’re not in trouble,” 

It took a few minutes but eventually he calmed down, finding himself returning the hug when he did. Torn between being embarrassed at needing to be calmed again and enjoying the contact he just froze up for a moment, then relaxing before pulling away slightly, the pair remaining close but not embracing anymore. 

Nodding slightly, he looked back at Mina, finding her smiling warmly at him. “Thanks Mina, sorry about that,” 

She waved his apology off, “It’s alright Izuku, you don’t need to be sorry about that, what sort of hero would I be if I didn’t even help my cru...my friend?” she asked, panicking slightly at her near slip of the tongue. That was a conversation for when he was more comfortable. 

With the skill of a professionally oblivious man Izuku didn’t catch the slip and instead just smiled at her. “Alright then, so you’re sure when you say I won’t be in trouble?” he asked, his smile growing nervous. 

“Yeah yeah, don’t worry about it, if anyone’s in trouble it’d be me and/or Bakugo, you don’t need to worry about it,” she reassured him. 

He still wasn’t happy about the idea she might be in trouble but he didn’t want to press the issue, instead asking, “Alright then... well since we didn’t actually end up doing any last night should we do some more studying today?” 

Mina groaned dramatically, flopping onto the bed again, “Urgh, do we have to think about studying this soon? I’ve just woken up and I'm hungry, can we go and get breakfast first?” she pleaded, turning her head his way and unleashing her best puppy eyes, her black sclera allowing her to achieve levels of cuteness that mere mortals should not be able to attain. It was a skill she had mastered over the years; it was the bane of her parents lives when she was younger, they never quite worked up a defence against it and would often give in to it quickly. 

Izuku, temporarily taken aback by the adorableness and the sparkle in her eyes stuttered for a moment before speaking, “Erm...yeah sure, of course we can, I could make you something if you wanted? As a thank you for yesterday,” he offered. 

Mina quickly wrapped her arms around his waist, leaning her head against the side of his hip briefly before pulling away, “You’re the best Izuku,” she announced, quickly bouncing up from the bed, nearly hopping from foot to foot in excitement. 

Izuku went to join her before a thought came across him and he stopped moving for a second, “Mina?” he asked nervously, “What if Bakugo’s downstairs?” 

Her expression shifted into a more serious flat expression, “Well if he is I’ll make sure he doesn’t try anything and if he does then I’ll melt his dick off,” she stated, causing Izuku to chuckle in surprise at the response, “Remember I promised to protect you from now on,” 

Izuku smiled at the pink girl towering over him, he did feel very safe around her and she had already made that promise and he had no reason to doubt her. That was enough for him. He stood up and walked over towards the door, Mina following in his wake. “Pancakes okay Mina?” he asked, looking backwards over his shoulder as he reached for the doorknob. 

“WOO HOO!” Mina responded, her usual energy suddenly reappearing. 

Izuku shook his head slightly and chuckled as he opened the door. 

Hopefully he wouldn’t burn anything this time. 

Most of the time, Kyoka was thankful for her quirk. Why wouldn’t she be? It was really useful. It gave her a method of self-defence, she could use them almost like extra appendages and the improvements to her hearing were exceptionally useful. 

Although... there were times when she didn’t like her quirk that much. The problem with her enhanced hearing was that she couldn’t turn it off. Due to this she had heard many things she really would have rather not, she shuddered at some of the unpleasant memories. 

And then... there was the problem that there was no such thing as a private conversation when she was around, even when she wasn’t trying to, she would often overhear private conversations that weren’t meant for her. It made her feel terrible sometimes, like she had betrayed their trust even though she couldn’t control it. 

Like last night... 

Kyoka lay in bed, an arm draped over her forehead, recalling the conversation she had overheard. 

Again, she wasn’t trying to listen to anything, she was in Tsu’s room studying with the froggy girl when she heard a loud knocking on a door from the floor below. While she hadn’t intended to start listening in, the overly forceful knock was enough to draw her attention. 

She only barely heard a few muffled words before she heard something that sounded like an impact of some sort, then she definitely heard the screaming. She’d heard him enough before to recognise Bakugo’s voice immediately, but it sounded slightly more muffled than it already would be, as if something was in front of his mouth but she could still make out his words; “WHAT THE FUCK RACCOON EYES!? THE FUCK WAS THAT FOR?” 

Raccoon Eyes? That was what he called Mina right? What had she done? Without thinking she raised a hand to her face to partially cover her mouth like it sounds like he was. Upon realising her thumb and forefinger were in a perfect position to pinch her nose she realised what the noise was. 

‘Holy shit did Mina just deck Bakugo in the face?’ she thought, her expression becoming one of shock but also respect, ‘Well that’s fucking brave, fucking stupid as well but brave,’. That was definitely enough to actively draw her attention, temporarily tuning out Tsu as much as she could. 

*THWACK* 

‘Holy crap did she just hit him again? Alright then Mina, where’d this bravery come from?’ she thought, genuinely impressed with her friend, an almost smug grin appearing on her face. 

“That was for what you did to Izuku,” 

Kyoka froze, her eyes widening in shock and her mouth dropping wide open and hanging there, that was not a voice she’d ever heard from Mina before. It was clearly her but... she’d never heard her sound so... angry before, the kind of cold anger she had thought was normally reserved for Aizawa to use. 

And this was something to do with... Izuku? Since when was she calling Green by his name? 

She thought about her words, “That was for what you did to Izuku,” 

‘Hang on, Bakugo did something to Green that Mina thought was bad enough she fucking punched him twice?’ she thought, ‘What the fuck did he do to make someone who was one of his friends hit him twice because of something he did to someone else?’ 

She almost didn’t want to, knowing this conversation wasn’t meant for her, but she listened on, hearing Bakugo’s signature explosive retorts and Mina’ new cold anger in her voice. 

“You know what you did to him for all those years, what you’re still doing to him now,” 

With each new sentence she heard, Kyoka grew more and more horrified. 

“SHOW HIM HIS PLACE?” 

“Bullying and physical abuse for over a decade,” 

“Personally, I'd call that villainy,” 

Unable to say anything or even attempt to stop listening, she heard a last few exchanged lines before a door slammed shut. It was only then that Kyoka remembered she wasn’t alone in the room... and that apparently, she’d been thinking aloud. 

At least she assumed that was the reason why Tsu was looking at her with a horrified expression on her normally neutral face. 

“What was that about Kyoka?” Tsu asked, her voice shaky with... fear? Shock?... something. 

Kyoka gulped nervously, “Erm... I don’t know the details but... I think Bakugo did something really bad to Green,” 

Tsu’s expression changed again, this time it looked like...anger. Yeah that was definitely anger. Seething silently, Tsu sat there staring angrily at the floor, vaguely in the direction of Bakugo’s room. 

‘Oh yeah she’s friends with Green, makes sense she’d get pissed,’ Kyoka thought, assuming the reason for her anger. 

A while later, Kyoka heard knocking on the door again, quieter this time. Her attention drawn once again she listened in, trying to figure who it was this time. 

She soon recognised Ochaco’s voice, asking about what had happened to Bakugo. She was about to stop listening after that, assuming it would just be a normal conversation between them, then she heard Ochaco say; “Bakugo I need to ask you something, can you come here please?” 

Kyoka smirked to herself, ‘Ooh that’s something you never want to hear from your girlfriend,’ 

She continued to eavesdrop, expecting some juicy gossip. “Did you bully Midoriya?” 

Her eyes widened again, ‘Oh... oh crap this might end up bad,’ 

Tsu, noticing her study partner’s wide eyes asked what was happening. 

Kyoka gave her a running commentary as she listened to their argument, her face dropping as Bakugo admitted to what he did to their class’ green bean. 

Her own expression grew in horror as she listened, Tsu’s grew more furious as Kyoka told her what was said. 

Shocked into a near catatonic state at what she had heard, Kyoka barely even reacted to what she assumed was the sound of Bakugo getting punched yet again, although did continue relaying the events to Tsu. 

Tsu only cheered up even the smallest amount when she found out that Ochaco had punched him and then confirmed she was breaking up with him. 

Once the floor below became quiet again Kyoka turned to her study partner, thinking about what else to say. 

Before she had a chance to say anything, Tsu spoke up, “We need to make sure that Bakugo can’t do anything else to Midoriya,” 

Kyoka was a bit shocked at that, “Erm...we? I mean I know you’re his friend but why me as well?” 

Tsu looked at her, face a mix of confusion and annoyance. “Well you like him too don’t you?” 

Kyoka felt her face grow red, quickly hiding her face in her hands and her jacks coiling next to her head, “Don’t know what you’re talking about,” she blurted out in panic, “Yeah he’s a nice guy but I don’t like him or anything,” 

Tsu cocked her head, genuinely confused this time, “Well if you think he’s a nice guy then why don’t you like him?” she asked, “I really don’t know what you’re getting so flustered about, I just asked if you liked him too, if you do then surely you’d not want him to get hurt?’ 

Kyoka, now terrified she’d misread the situation peeked out from between her fingers, “Wait...” she began nervously, “Do you mean like as in like a friend?” 

Tsu cocked her head even further to the side, “Yes, what else would I have meant?” 

“Oh,” Kyoka squeaked, “Never mind,” she said, removing her hands from her face. 

Tsu put her finger to her mouth, apparently thinking. “Oh, did you think I was asking if you were attracted to him?” 

Aaaaaaand her hands went back to the face. Kyoka just began mumbling rapidly, not making any sense. 

Tsu, still calmly watching on, said, “I don’t know what you’re getting embarrassed about, he’s a kind and attractive guy, there’s nothing wrong with saying you’re attracted to him if you are,” 

Kyoka practically felt her brain stop. ‘Well I mean... she isn’t wrong, he is a nice guy and he is... pretty good looking but you can’t just say things like that,’, taking a few moments to calm down Kyoka looked at Tsu once more. “Sometimes I’m really jealous of your ability to apparently not get embarrassed Tsu,” she admitted. 

Tsu just shrugged, “I just don’t see the point in getting embarrassed about something that your mind and body are basically designed to do,” 

Okay, that was enough for now. Kyoka slammed her book shut and stood up. “Alright, I think that’s enough for tonight, I’ll start getting ready to go to bed now so I’ll see you tomorrow,” she said, panicked. 

Tsu nodded politely, closing her own books but not moving. They both just stared at each other for a moment before Tsu spoke. “This is my room Kyoka,” she reminded her. 

Oh yeah, well it’s good to know getting that embarrassed makes her very forgetful. 

“AHHHH, SHUT UP!” Kyoka squealed in panic and embarrassment, quickly darting from the room towards the stairs. 

Kyoka groaned at the memory of how she left the night before. She’d need to apologise for being like that. 

More to the point though... 

What to do about Greenie? 

She wanted to help him but she couldn’t exactly walk up and say, “Hey I overheard a very private conversation last night I had no business listening to but I want you to know I’d like to help,” 

That’d probably just freak him out. 

Also, she’d probably clam up before finishing it due to nerves. 

‘No, never mind that you idiot, you can’t let someone as nice as Greenie deal with a bully by himself,’ she thought, rubbing her nose between her fingers. ‘Well not by himself as clearly Mina’s helping him, and Ochaco too... and probably Tsu too thinking about it...’ 

She shook her head. ‘Nope, stop overthinking, you can help him, so suck it up and just do it,’ she resolved, getting up from bed and changing out of her normal sleep shorts and shirt. 

‘Just go downstairs, walk up to him and offer a helping hand if he needs it, how hard can it be?’ 

Mina was sat on top of a kitchen counter next to Izuku, preparing batter for pancakes, giggling to herself. “I think Kyoka might want to talk to you,” she told him, gesturing over to the purple haired girl who had just turned around. 

Izuku quickly glanced over his shoulder, looking back into the common room. “Jirou? What makes you say that?” 

Mina giggled again, “Because she walked towards you, opened her mouth, went bright red and then turned around and walked the other way,” Mina explained, “That was also the fourth time she’d done it,” 

Izuku chuckled too, “Heh, wonder why’s she’s nervous all of a sudden?” 

Mina grinned, leaning closer to Izuku before stage whispering into his ear, “Maybe she has a crush on you or something?” 

Surprisingly, Izuku didn’t seem that embarrassed, he just laughed instead. “Hah, yeah right, like that would happen,”. Mina frowned at him putting himself down again but didn’t say anything. “Besides, I thought we’d all just assumed she had a thing for Yaoyorozu?” 

Mina was slightly surprised at that, also kinda proud too. Apparently, he wasn’t actually as dense as he seemed sometimes. It was pretty obvious that Kyoka had a crush on the black-haired vice president at the start of the year... at least to everyone apart from her and Izuku, at least until now.  That didn’t seem to go anywhere though, Momo seeming far too sheltered to even begin to recognise a potential partner when it was staring her in the face. 

‘Shame, they would have been cute together,’ Mina thought, her eyes running over the retreating girl’s form, appreciating her slim figure. ‘Oh well, we’re here for 4 years, plenty of time for things to change,’ she shrugged her shoulders. 

“How are the pancakes coming Izuku?” she asked, looking back down at the greenette, now flipping a pancake. 

“Well actually, better than I expected, once this last one’s done your batch will be ready,” he informed her, a proud smile on his face. 

Mina hummed happily in anticipation, quickly turning around, opening a cabinet and grabbing a bottle of syrup before hopping off the counter and then bouncing in place. 

With a last flip that looked like he put a bit of an extra flourish into, he slid a final pancake onto Mina’s plate creating a healthy, steaming stack of pancakes. “Go ahead and sit down if you want, I’ll join you when mine are... uh oh,” 

Mina followed his gaze to the new arrival in the common room. Uraraka had appeared and was looking around the room, looking for someone. Mina, having a feeling she was looking for Izuku, quickly pushed him out of sight of the brunette. 

She leaned in close to the nervous boy, “You don’t have to talk to her if you don’t feel like you can right now you know,” 

Izuku rubbed the back of his head, “Well... yeah but I think I should...” 

“Nope,” Mina interrupted, “You unloaded a lot on me yesterday, you shouldn’t have to unload anymore for a while longer, if she tries to talk to you about... him... or anything like that and you don’t feel comfortable with it then just tell her, she’ll understand and hopefully won’t push it,” 

Izuku sighed, “Could I not just act like I normally do around her?” 

Mina shook her head, “I think after yesterday she’d have a much easier time seeing through it, I think it’d be better just being honest and just telling her you don’t want to talk about it,” 

Izuku smiled, wrapping one arm around Mina’s waist in a gentle hug briefly, “Thanks Mina,” he said before removing his arm. 

Mina gave him a smile back, rubbing his arm gently, “No problem buddy,” 

Izuku turned back to the pan and leftover batter, “Would you mind staying here while I cook mine? Just so I don’t get caught off guard or anything?” 

Mina smiled, retaking her place on the counter, still helping herself to her pancakes. “No problem bud, we’ll go sit over there when you’ve made yours,” 

Izuku nodded gratefully, returning his attention to the pan. Several minutes later, he also had a nice stack of fluffy looking pancakes. Gesturing over to the dining tables in the common room, Izuku asked, “Shall we?” 

“Yep, come on,” Mina responded, abandoning her seat on the counter, careful not to drop any of her frankly delicious breakfast. 

Together they made their way over to the nearest table, currently occupied only by Tokoyami sat on the opposite end, currently nursing a cup of black coffee and rubbing his forehead in one hand. 

“Rough night Toko?” Mina asked as the pair sat down. 

Tokoyami looked up at the brightly coloured pair, “Ah, greetings, yes I did indeed have a rather troublesome night, Dark Shadow took control while I was asleep once again, I found myself screaming into the uncaring void from the roof at about 3 in the morning,” he explained, taking a deep sip from his strong smelling coffee. 

“Is that like your version of sleepwalking or something?” Mina asked, simultaneously wondering if he ever burnt his beak while drinking coffee and if he did, what it felt like. 

Dark Shadow appeared from the avian headed boy’s back to answer. “I see it more like bird boy here leaving his car unlocked with the keys in the ignition, I mean, what else should I do? It gets boring being cooped up in his head all day,” the sentient quirk answered, folding its arms and attempting to pout. 

“Hush troublesome beast,” Tokoyami responded, barely acknowledging its presence. 

Mina and Izuku just chuckled at the exchange. Settling into a quiet conversation between them before a new visitor joined them at the table, sat opposite the pair. 

“Morning you two,” greeted Uraraka, a slightly forced smile on her face and her tone uncertain. 

“Morning Ocha,” 

“Morning Uraraka,” 

Uraraka just looked between them nervously for a second before leaning in slightly. “Is it okay if I talk to you about... you know?” she asked cautiously. 

Seeing Izuku freeze up next to her, Mina moved her right hand on top of his left, gently stroking it to remind him she was there. 

Snapping out of it, Izuku gave her a quick appreciative glance. Seeing his improvement, she removed her hand, going back to eating her breakfast. 

Izuku took a second before looking at his brunette friend. “We can... just... not today please...” Izuku requested, “I didn’t have a great day yesterday, I’d rather just not think about it for now please,” 

Uraraka nodded, slightly disappointed, “Yeah okay... just... you know I want to help you right?” she asked. 

Izuku nodded slowly, “Yeah... thanks, I just... just not right now okay?” 

Uraraka nodded again, respecting his choice. “Alright no problem then Dek... I mean... Midoriya,” she said, an awkward silence falling upon the table. “Well I’ll leave you two be then, have a nice day,” she said, standing and walking towards the kitchen. 

Izuku and Mina just gave each other slightly awkward smiles before Mina looked back towards the other hero in training sat at the table. Tokoyami was sat there, looking in their direction with a questioning look on his face. 

Mina just shook her head in his direction slightly, holding a finger to her lips to indicate quiet. The bird-headed boy nodded, turning back to his coffee once more. 

Mina carefully took Izuku’s hand in her own again, gently rubbing it like earlier. “You did well there, well done” she congratulated him. 

He gave a thankful if nervous smile. “Thanks Mina... you don’t think she was insulted by that do you?” 

She shook her head slightly, “No I don’t think so, she knows you’ve not had the best time of things so she’s being respectful,” 

Izuku nodded, relieved at the answer. “That’s good... I’m still nervous about tomorrow though,” he confided in her. 

“About the grumpy caterpillar talking to us or that blonde prick upstairs?” she asked, giving him a cheeky grin, hoping to make him laugh. 

Succeeding in getting a small laugh, she relaxed a little bit. “Both really,” he admitted, “More the second one though,” 

Mina just continued rubbing his hand, “Don’t worry, like I promised, I’m not going to let him near you tomorrow, I’m your protector now remember?” 

He looked back at Mina, giving her a wide smile, Mina could barely look at him, the smile he was giving was as bright as the sun. 

Yeah, she was definitely going to make Bakugo pay more for trying to darken his light. 

Mina returned his smile with one of her own. “Anyway, wanna do a bit more studying after we’re done with our pancakes?” she asked. 

Izuku nodded, apparently thankful for the distraction. 

Mina smiled. ‘Well I’ll be able to keep him occupied for a good chunk of today, hopefully tomorrow will be alright,’ she thought, ‘Even Bakugo should be able to keep his rage under control for one day right?’ 

‘Right?’ 

Chapter Text

Class 1-A were all in their seats in their classroom, awaiting the arrival of their sleeping bag clad homeroom teacher/class dad. Some, more nervous of his arrival than others. Those people being Mina, Izuku and  Ochaco .  

Luckily for the first two,  Bakugo  didn’t appear in the common room at  all the day  before, thankfully meaning there was no confrontations. Still... Izuku watched the  blonde-haired  boy sat in front of him. He could practically hear him frothing at the mouth with barely restrained rage.  

The class sat in silence, most of the uninvolved students feeling the tension in the air and wisely keeping their  mouthes  shut.  

After what seemed like an eternity, but was closer to 5 minutes, the door slid open and the black-clad teacher swept in, his capture weapon already slightly unfurled, as if he was prepared to use it. He stepped up to the podium and cleared his throat.  

“Right then, good morning class," he began, "Now the pleasantries are out of the way, there are no announcements to be made and you all have hero training with All Might and myself just after this,” Aizawa announced, “since there is no reason to remain here, most of you should go and begin getting ready,” he said, clicking a button on a remote, revealing their hero costume cases inside the wall, then holding up a finger to stop the class, “However I do need to talk to several students before that, those students should know who they are but just to make it clear; Ashido, Midoriya, Bakugo  and Uraraka, I need you to remain seated until the rest of the class have left,”  

The class didn’t move for a second, prompting Aizawa to glare at them, “Well? Get out of here everyone who doesn’t need to be here,”. This began a mad dash, first to the costume cases and then to the still open door. Once the last student had left Aizawa shut the door behind them, turning back around to the remaining students, still in their seats. Aizawa just rubbed his eyes, groaning in exasperation and taking a seat on the teacher’s podium facing towards the students.  

“Right then, while I don’t know the details or reasons, I do know about several incidents that took place in the dorms over the weekend,” he began, causing 3 of the 4 assembled students to break out in a cold sweat. “Even without the terrifyingly omniscient principal Nezu knowing almost everything that happens in this place, it’s pretty obvious to see something serious has happened,” he gestured at Bakugo’s crooked nose, still red after Recovery Girl’s quirk treatment.  

“So then,” he began. “Who has an explanation?”  

Nobody spoke, well unless you count the gnashing of  Bakugo’s  teeth as talking, for a few moments, the other 3 students looking at one another, seeing who was going to speak first. Drawing the mental short straw, Mina shakily raised a hand and spoke up. “Should I start?” she asked timidly.  

Aizawa nodded impatiently, “Please do Ashido, we don’t have all day,”  

She nodded too, collecting her thoughts. “Well... since we’d been partnered together for the tutoring  assignment  I’d noticed a few... unusual things about  Izu ... Midoriya,” Mina began, “I started to notice a few signs of what I thought was trauma of some sort, I didn’t want to just... ask about it so I tried to find proof on my own,”  

Aizawa just groaned, rubbing his forehead, “Skip to the important parts please Ashido, I don’t have time for an essay right now,”  

“Alright sir, long story short, I noticed Izuku was showing signs of trauma related to  Bakugo  and then later on I found out that Izuku had been the victim of bullying for most of his life, from Bakugo,” Mina went on to explain.  

Bakugo  just snorted indignantly, “Yeah right, like you’d call it bullying, not my fault if the stupid Deku can’t handle it,”  

Aizawa shot a glare at the explosive boy, prompting him to remain quiet. Turning his gaze back to the pink girl he asked, “And you are certain that  Bakugo  had bullied Midoriya? Did he confirm that?” he asked, looking between Ashido and Midoriya.  

Midoriya, looking around nervously, shakily raised a hand, not taking his eyes off the back of  Bakugo’s  head, watching for the slightest reaction. Aizawa, noticing him, nodded, permitting him to speak.  

“Y...y. ..yes  sir... I...I told her after she... after she...” he stuttered out, trembling in his seat, still staring at  Bakugo  in front of him, seemingly about to have a panic attack.  

Aizawa pointed towards the door, “ Bakugo , wait outside, Midnight is waiting there, she’ll keep an eye on you until we’re ready to bring you back in,” he ordered. Bakugo  looked like he was about to respond when Aizawa cut him off, “That wasn’t a request  Bakugo , get outside now if  you want  to remain at UA much longer,”  

Bakugo  obeyed, angrily grumbling all the way to the door. As soon as he had left and shut the door behind him,  Aizawa’s  posture and expression changed. He dropped off the podium and knelt down in front of  Midoriya’s  desk, a genuinely concerned expression on his face.  

He had never seen his problem child like this before. Even during the USJ attack, facing down that black All Might killer the villains brought in, he still wasn’t as afraid as he looked then, staring at Bakugo . This worried Aizawa greatly, he was gruff and stern on the surface sure but he deeply cared for his students and didn’t like seeing them go through trauma like he had clearly experienced.  

Aizawa hated things like this, if a villain attacked one of his students, he could jump in front of them, that was a danger he could protect them from. But watching one of his students almost having to fight himself for breath and nearly losing that fight hurt him deeply.  

Looking at the two girls remaining in the room, and his voice much softer than normal, he asked the  greenette , “Do you want to speak alone or are you alright with these two staying here?”  

It took him a few seconds to respond but he shakily nodded his head, signifying he was alright with them staying. Aizawa nodded, placing a hand on top of his students for a moment before removing it. “Alright then, now then, this is clearly much more serious than I expected so please... take your time... I don’t want you to rush this,”  

The other two girls were both sat in their seats uncomfortably, wanting to help their friend but not knowing how to.  

Midoriya took a few seconds to calm down, slowly opening his eyes and looking into the worried expression of his teacher. He slowly looked towards the two girls, hesitantly gesturing for them both to come closer.  

Not hearing an objection from their teacher, both girls stood up and slowly made their way over to the green-haired boy, both  kneeling down  similar to their teacher nearby his desk.  

Seemingly reassured by their presence, or at least, the presence of at least one of them... he seemed to almost imperceptibly move towards Ashido and away from Uraraka. Aizawa cocked an eyebrow, that was an interesting insight, he thought Midoriya and Uraraka were close friends. Putting that information to the side for now, he returned his focus to the scared student in front of him.  

“Yeah... I told Mina... Ashido about what had... happened after she... after she saw my scars,” he squeaked out, clenching his eyes shut while finishing.  

Aizawa’s  eyes widened, scars? This was clearly much worse than he expected before this conversation. “How bad are these scars?” he asked gently.  

Izuku  took in a deep breath, steeling himself for something. Then he stood up, took off his blazer and began to unbutton his shirt. Mina quickly darted forward and grabbed his hands.  

“Izuku... you don’t have to do this,” she said, almost sounding like she was pleading.  

Izuku looked at her, giving her a shaky smile. “I know but... I think it’s better if I do...”  

They had a silent conversation through only eye contact before Mina released his hands, looking like she was already about to start tearing up.  

Aizawa was growing more and more nervous by the second, how bad really was this? He almost didn’t want the answer... but he was Izuku’s homeroom teacher. He was responsible for him.  

Izuku took another deep breath, undoing the last buttons on his shirt. Still holding it closed for another few seconds before he quickly slid it off his shoulders, the shirt sliding down to his wrists and staying there, revealing his torso to the three people in the room.  

Everyone in the room was horrified, even Mina, who had seen them before but... not this close... not close enough to see truly how many there were... how severe some of them looked.  

Izuku just stood there, his body tensed up, his eyes clenched shut, expecting something.  

It took anyone at least 20 seconds to say anything, everybody present was frozen at the horrible sight in front of them.  

Aizawa was the first to react, quickly pulling his student’s shirt back up and over his shoulders, gesturing for him to do up his buttons again. “Izuku...” Aizawa began, shock and horror in his voice. “Was it  Katsuki   Bakugo  who did all of this to you?”  

Izuku just nodded, his eyes still clenched shut, doing up his shirt once again.  

Aizawa turned to the two girls, noticing  both of them  had tears streaming down their faces. Frankly Aizawa wasn’t that far behind them, he was that close to tears  himself  but he couldn’t allow himself to break down when he had to remain strong for them. “H... how did you both find out about this?” he asked the pair, his voice heavy with shock.  

Mina spoke up first, “I found out first from... from seeing his scars and then him telling me,” Mina choked out, “I told Uraraka not long afterwards,”  

Aizawa nodded. “And I’m assuming that  Bakugo’s  injuries are to do with this discovery?” he asked. Both girls nodded. “Who was responsible?”  

“Me,” both girls said at the same time.  

Aizawa looked between them, then looking at the pink girl first. “Alright then, Ashido, in your own words, how did  Bakugo get his injuries?”  

Mina attempted to clear her eyes before responding, only being partially successful. “Well I punched him in the nose twice,” she admitted.  

Aizawa nodded, not willing to pass judgement yet, then turned to the Brunette, busy drying her own eyes. “And what do you say happened?”  

“Well... I hit him after an argument about Dek... Midoriya,” she began, “His nose was already bloody before that and he said that Mina had already hit him, during the argument I punched him in the nose again... so I think I was the one who broke his nose,” she confessed.  

Aizawa nodded to them, he would deal with that later, he had a more pressing issue first. He stood up, gently placing his hands onto his student’s shoulders. “Izuku... can you please look at me?” he asked gently.  

Izuku slowly cracked his eyes open, looking up at his normally stern teacher, for once seeing his eyes filled with emotion.  

“First of  all ... I want to apologise that something like this has happened to you, you shouldn’t have had to go through anything like this,” he began, maintaining eye contact with Izuku.  

Izuku just nodded shakily, “T. ..thank  you sir,”  

“Second of all,” Aizawa continued, “I need to know if any of this has happened during your time at UA,”  

Izuku nodded once again, “Some of it has... not as much as he used to... probably because he knew it’d be more difficult to get away with here,”  

Aizawa nodded in acknowledgement, turning to Mina. “Ashido, can I ask you to take Izuku to the changing rooms to get ready for the training?” Aizawa asked, “I’ll deal with  Bakugo  and be down shortly, Uraraka, you can go and join the other girls and get ready too,”  

The two girls nodded, Uraraka grabbing her own case and darting off, opening the door and very pointedly not even glancing at  Bakugo apparently shadow boxing with the air, apparently building up a sweat, Midnight watching him with folded arms.  

Mina grabbed both her and  Izuku’s  cases, handing  Izuku’s  to him and gently tugging him behind her until he began moving on his own, almost clinging to her side as they passed the blonde boy.  

Aizawa calmed himself before recalling  Bakugo  into the room, dismissing Midnight as he did so, her presence no longer needed. He gestured to the boy’s desk, silently ordering him to sit down. Once he had, with no small amount of angry muttering, Aizawa slammed his hands onto the desk in front of him, making the blonde boy flinch slightly.  

“Listen well  Bakugo , listen and remain silent,” Aizawa ordered, “Because of what I have learned today, I don’t think anybody would have any arguments with me expelling you right here and now,”  

Bakugo  began silently fuming but wisely kept his mouth shut, not wanting to ruin his chances.  

“However despite this I am willing to give you another chance on several conditions,” he announced, “The first condition is this; there will be an investigation, if we find any evidence of physical abuse committed by you on UA grounds then you will be expelled immediately,”  

Bakugo  smirked, they wouldn’t find anything, he wasn’t an idiot, he only did it where they wouldn’t be seen such as in corridors with no or broken cameras.  

“The second condition is that you will attend weekly anger and quirk counselling session for the foreseeable future until I decide you have made enough improvement,”  

Bakugo  just scoffed, yeah, like talking to some shrink would do anything. He wasn’t some weakling who would be changed by some egghead in a fancy chair somewhere.  

“And the third and final condition is that if there is even a single incident with Midoriya again, at any point while you both remain at UA then you will be expelled immediately,” he explained, then adding, “Not only that, but while you all don’t often act like it, you are all adults now, using a quirk with intent to harm without a license is against the law,”  

Bakugo’s  cocky  demeanour  faded somewhat at this.  

“If another incident happens again, UA will not protect you, you will be tried as an adult in the legal system, if your quirk is used then you will be tried like a villain,”  

Bakugo  grew furious again, who was this loser telling him he was acting like a villain? Besides, they wouldn’t fucking expel him, he was the best future hero here, and the future No1 hero in the whole world.  

“Do you understand  Bakugo ?” Aizawa asked, his voice cold and dangerous.  

“Sure thing, whatever,”  Bakugo  responded offhandedly.  

Aizawa glared at the blonde boy but he was barely paying attention to him anymore. “Change into your costume here and stay here afterwards until I’m back, I need to notify the principal,” Aizawa informed him, leaving through the door, leaving  Bakugo  on his own.  

Bakugo  scowled darkly to himself. He had heard basically everything, ‘So, Deku told Pink Bitch and she told Round Face,’ he thought to himself, beginning to unpack his costume and equipment. ‘Of course it was fucking stupid  Deku’s  fault,’  

He tugged on his tank top with both hands, nearly tearing it in two, in anger. ‘That little bastards still looking down on me, well I’ll fucking show him,’ he thought, finishing donning his costume and attaching his grenade bracers, a twisted smile appearing on his face.

‘I’ll finally show him just how pathetic he is once and for all’  

Mina was waiting with Izuku outside the changing rooms, waiting for all the other male students to finish changing before he went inside. She was rubbing his shoulder gently, trying to keep him calm. The other students appeared out of the changing rooms in small groups, some looking towards the pair in concern, Mina just waving them away.  

Once Mina was certain the boys changing room was  empty,  she gently led Izuku through the door, leaving him on one side of a row of lockers and her beginning to get changed on the other side.  

Izuku, apparently finally realising the situation, begin to blush harder than he probably ever had before. “Mina what are you doing?” he hissed.  

Mina just continued undressing on the other side of the lockers, “I’m getting changed, we still need to get ready for training but I need to keep an eye on you,”  

Izuku began to hesitantly unbutton his shirt again, “I don’t think this is what Aizawa meant,” he said.  

Mina giggled slightly, the sound making  Izuku’s  heart feel slightly lighter. “Probably not but who cares right now?” she asked, now basically naked apart from underwear and pulling her costume out of its case.  

Izuku just shook his head and carried on getting changed in comfortable... if still slightly awkward silence from then on. Once they had both gotten changed with neither of them peeking at the other once, to Mina’s slight disappointment, they left the changing room and followed the rest of the class to the training city where they had their first training.  

Stood at the back of the group, neither Mina nor Izuku were really listening to what All Might was saying, Mina was too busy trying to keep him calm. Just catching the tail end of All Might’s speech, Mina figured out they would be helping each other train individually today in the pairs we were assigned to by Aizawa.  

Mina smiled at that, thankful Izuku would be kept away from  Bakugo  for a bit longer. She leant in close to him before whispering, “I’m just going to go and tell All Might to keep  Bakugo  away from you since Aizawa isn’t here yet,” she informed him, “Just stay here, I’ll be back in a minute,”  

She began jogging after the hulking hero, himself leaving to assist some other students.  

Izuku just stood there, nervously twiddling his thumbs when he felt a firm grip on his shoulder and heard a small explosion next to his head.  

He froze.  

“Deku,”  Bakugo  snarled from behind him, “Let’s talk,”  

Izuku felt himself getting dragged away from the rest of the class, still frozen and unable to say anything,  Bakugo  only stopping when they were about two blocks away from the others.  

Bakugo  slammed him against a wall, releasing an explosion next to his head, a malicious grin on his face.  

“You still think you’re better than me huh Deku?”   Bakugo  asked, his voice sounding... unhinged almost, his tone filling Izuku with deep, primal terror.  “That’s okay, after today, you’ll never  look  down on me again,”  he  announded  with a menacing cackle, putting emphasis on the single word.  

Even in his terrified state, Izuku recognised the red flash from next to his head.  

Bakugo’s  gauntlet was full.  

Kyoka looked around at the dispersing students, no longer seeing their green haired classmate. She saw Mina job past her and start talking to All Might in a hushed tone but there was no sign of her partner.  

That made her very nervous, she knew they had come here  together  and that Greenie definitely wasn’t the kind of guy to just wander off. She quickly plugged her jacks into the ground, pushing her heartbeat through it, attempting to locate their missing classmate.  

After a few  attempts  she felt two people a couple of blocks away, she was about to grab  Tsu  and ask her to come see what was happening when she felt a hand on her shoulder. Turning around she saw Mina glancing around frantically.  

“Kyoka did you see where Izuku went?” she pleaded, “I told him to wait over  there  but he’s gone now,”  

Kyoka pointed in the direction where she felt the two presences, “Maybe he’s over there,” Kyoka suggested, I think there’s two people over there but I didn’t see anyone go over there, maybe he’s one of them,”  

Mina’s eyes widened in horror, “Two people?” she gasped. She quickly ran around the corner of the building they were stood next to, Kyoka following her a second later. “Where is he?” she asked, sounding terrified.  

Kyoka attempted to sense the presences again, finding them easier this time due to what sounded like angry shouting adding more sound waves. “Over there, about two blocks down,” she said, pointing towards a standard looking shop like building.  

The pair watched on,  Kyoka’s  arm still extended, as the building she was pointing at was ripped apart by a cataclysmic explosion.  

“IZUKU!” Mina screamed.  

“Shit, shit, shit  shit ,” Aizawa panted to himself, he had informed Principal Nezu of the situation with  Bakugo  and returned to the classroom to escort him to training, he would only train under a watchful eye for the foreseeable future.  

Then he arrived back to the classroom to find it empty,  Bakugo’s  costume case lying there, open and empty.  

Aizawa quickly sprinted towards the training area where his class would be. He couldn’t help but assume the worst.  Bakugo  was planning revenge.  

His capture weapon was already  unfurled  and his goggles were already covering his eyes. He had barely reached the open gates to the training zone when he saw Ashido and  Jirou  standing nearby with  Tsu  just appearing around the corner,  Jirou  pointing a few blocks to the left when he saw a building explode.  

“Oh no...”  

Tsu  had overheard a bit of Mina and  Kyoka’s  brief conversation so when they both dashed around the corner,  Tsu  couldn’t help but follow. She didn’t know what was going on but it seemed bad and it involved  Izuku  so she was nervous. She had only just turned the corner when she saw a colossal explosion tear a building several blocks away to pieces.  

Her hand covered her mouth instantly, holding back a horrified scream. “ Izu ...” she whimpered.  

Kyoka couldn’t move. That was new. So was watching an entire building explode. A building that she knew Greenie was right next to... along with someone else...  

Her eyes widened, ‘ Bakugo !’ she thought, it had to be,  Bakugo  must have been the other person... but that does mean that he...  

Finally snapping out of her shock, she screamed.  

Kyoka’s  scream finally snapped the others aware. Mina and Aizawa were the first to move. Aizawa was a trained pro hero, of course he was  fast  but Mina was powered by pure desperation. They both rounded the pile of rubble that used to be a building at the same time.  

The scene they saw was a nightmare.  

Bakugo , his hands crackling with explosions still, surrounded by smoke and fire. Cackling evilly with a dark and twisted wide grin on his face.  

Izuku... lying still and motionless on his side...  

A pool of blood already forming underneath his head...  

A large and savage wound horizontal across his face...  

And now missing both eyes...  

Chapter Text

Nobody could move.  

Nobody  present  could tear themselves away from the sight in front of them.  

A green-haired man was lying there, still and motionless, a large pool of blood forming underneath his head and staining his green hair a dark crimson red. His costume covered in soot, dust and debris.  

There was a horrific wound going horizontally across his face, skin burned black and bleeding, two holes in his face where his eyes used to be, now leaking blood and goo.  

And all the while, a blonde man standing over him. Surrounded by flames and smoke, laughing down at his victim, a sick and twisted expression on his face.  

Nobody could move.  

A pink girl could barely even see anything through the tears in her eyes, crying for the man she promised to protect.  

A purple-haired girl was stood perfectly still, white as a ghost, thinking she must have been able to do something.  

A frog-like girl was on her knees, hands grasping her mouth, trying to hold back a flood of emotions.  

Not even a pro hero could bring himself to do anything, brought to a halt by the sight of his failure.  

“HAH! TAKE THAT DEKU!” The blonde screamed, “SEE HOW USELESS YOU ARE?! YOU COULDN’T EVEN PROTECT  YOURSELF,  HOW COULD YOU EVER BE A HERO YOU STUPID FUCKING USELESS DEKU?!”  

The shouting brought those present back to their senses, shocked out of their frozen states.  

Aizawa looked upon the scene in front of him, one of his prized students lying still and bleeding underneath a classmate. The classmate mocking the still body, and suddenly he remembered what he had to do.  

Aizawa hardened his heart and dropped to a fighting stance. He was a hero after all.  

And there was a  villian  in front of him.  

Mina watched the red slowly seep into her friend’s normally forest green hair, watching his very life force stain the ground beneath him. She looked at the man standing over him. The one who did this to her friend.  

Her eyes dried in an instant, her skin producing a powerful acid, hissing as it dripped off her to the floor. She failed to protect him as she promised...  

But she would make him pay.  

Aizawa glared at his ex-student. As far as he was concerned,  Bakugo  was now a villain. He had been warned not even half an hour ago what would happen should an incident occur. But he did this anyway.  

He was  fairly certain   Bakugo  would not go quietly, he wasn’t even sure he would even want him to anyway. Neither would...  

He looked to his right, seeing Ashido stood there, trembling in fury, her fists raised and acid dripping from them, burning deep holes into the ground. He activated his quirk on her, cutting off the flow of acid.  

“Ashido,” he began, his voice deep and cold, “Control your quirk, no matter what he has done, we can’t kill him, we will take him in alive,”  

The pink girl next to him just nodded, not taking her eyes off the blonde man in front of her. He released his quirk, the acid not appearing regardless.  

‘Good,’ Aizawa thought, ‘She’s holding back her anger for now,’  

Aizawa stepped forward, “ Katsuki   Bakugo , step away from my student, you are now under arrest,” he announced, voice strong and clear.  

Seemingly only noticing he wasn’t along for the first time,  Bakugo turned towards the onlookers, his twisted grin not leaving his face. “What are you talking about teach? We’re just training, I was just showing Deku how much better than him I am,” he replied, his voice completely level yet completely mad all at once.  

“This has gone far beyond training,” Aizawa spat back, “Surrender now or we shall have to use force to restrain you,”  

Bakugo  just scoffed, watching an explosion go off in his hand. “ Oh  don’t make me laugh teach, there’s no way you could do that... after all,” he began.  

Then he leapt towards them, explosions from his hands propelling him forwards towards his former teacher and classmates. “I’M GONNA BE THE NEXT NUMBER ONE!” he screamed, a crazed grin on his face.  

Aizawa reacted quickly, the instincts of an experienced pro hero kicking into gear almost instantly. He activated his own quirk, cutting off  Bakugo’s  explosions although his momentum was still carrying him towards them at a huge speed. Quickly turning to the side and flinging one end of his capture weapon at the approaching human missile, it wrapped around one of his arms. Using that, Aizawa spun around fully, pulling his capture weapon attached to  Bakugo’s  arm over his shoulder, adding more speed to his movement.  

As  Bakugo  drew close to the underground hero he attempted to throw a punch at the back of his head. Aizawa simply blocked it with his arm and used the impact of  Bakugo colliding with him and rolling over his shoulder to use his capture weapon to fling him up into the air and then quickly pull his scarf taut, pulling the blonde down, slamming him into the concrete floor.  

Annoyingly,  Bakugo  was always tough and he was soon back up and throwing another punch, one which Aizawa deflected with ease, pushing  Bakugo  past him and almost tripping him, the explosive man then stumbling his way towards Ashido.  

Seeing a new target, he attempted to throw a wild right hook at her head which she easily ducked under, got in close and slammed her elbow into his gut, knocking the wind out of him. Taking this opportunity she released a vicious jab into his cheek, her hand covered in an adhesive and moderately corrosive acid.  

Despite how unheroic it sounded, both Aizawa and Mina would later admit to quite enjoying the sound of  Bakugo’s  scream of pain as the acid slowly burned away at the side of his face.  

Taking advantage of his distraction, Aizawa quickly darted in behind  Bakugo , who was holding his face with one hand and staring hatefully at the one who burned him, and swiftly kicked him in the back of the knee, making his right leg buckle under him, knocking him off balance.  

Seeing their opportunity,  Tsu  and Kyoka chose this moment to get involved,  Tsu  using her tongue like a whip, slamming it down onto the top of  Bakugo’s  head and Kyoka stabbing him in the left arm and leg with her jacks, attempting to take them out of commission.  

Crying out in pain,  Bakugo aimed his other gauntlet at the three girls, grabbing the firing pin in between his fingers. Aizawa quickly wrapped his scarf around the gauntlet from behind and pulled, pulling his forearm backwards so it fired into the air, not harming anyone but breaking lots of windows that survived the last blast.  

With one arm restrained and him down on one knee Mina saw her chance to move forward again, getting in close to  Bakugo , knocking his arm away that he tried to use to defend with one leg before spinning the opposite direction and landing a roundhouse kick to his temple. This knocked him down to the ground but he quickly tried to get up.  

Mina didn’t give him the  chance,  she raised her leg up to her head and brought her heel down on his head in a brutal axe kick. She felt and heard a slight *crunch* noise from under her boot as his head was slammed into the concrete and finally,  Bakugo  went silent and stopped moving, knocked unconscious by that last attack.  

Panting from exertion, it wasn’t until Mina went to wipe the sweat off her brow that she realised she was crying again. She dried her face as much as she could before she looked back at the now unconscious  Bakugo , Aizawa busy tying him up with his capture weapon and removing his gauntlets so they couldn’t be used again.  

Once Aizawa was satisfied with  Bakugo’s  bindings he turned to his students stood nearby, each of them still calming down from the adrenaline. “You did very well you three,” He congratulated them, “You fought well against a skilled opponent and nobody else was injured,”  

He focused on Mina, “Ashido you performed admirably, those kicks, while  potenially  dangerous if done incorrectly and quite reckless were very good,”  

Mina, both confused and terrified, looked down on their teacher. “Aizawa I’m thankful but is this really the time?” she asked, voice slightly manic.  

Aizawa’s  face grew still and vacant for a second. Seemingly remembering where he was. “Yes of course,” he said. Quickly darting over to the unmoving Izuku, assessing his condition.  

Thankfully he was still breathing although it was uneven and wheezing. His skin was growing paler by the second as the pool of blood beneath him continued to grow. Aizawa gently lifted his head off the ground, attempting to find where the blood was coming from. Easier said than done when his face and hair was completely caked in blood.  

Izuku appeared to have some sort of wound on the side of his head, it looked almost like part of a bullet exit wound, like force pushed it out.  

Aizawa looked at his face again. He probably tried to dodge by jumping to the side but got caught by the edge of the blast, just enough to damage part of his face and take out a chunk of the side of his head.  

He needed to get him to Recovery Girl as soon as possible. Luckily, the fight had drawn the attention of the rest of the class and the other teacher present, All Might.  

“All Might!” Aizawa called out, waving the huge hero over to him. All Might appeared next to him almost instantaneously.  

“Aizawa what happened here? My god is that young Midoriya?” he asked, horrified at the  sight.  

“Focus!” Aizawa shouted at the other hero, “You need to take him to the nurse as soon as possible, you’re fastest so you need to take him,”  

All Might nodded darkly, bending down and picking up  Izuku’s  limp body with surprising gentleness for a man of his strength and size. He then dashed off, still moving unbelievably quickly but not causing any more damage to his body.  

“Mr Aizawa sir,” Mina called, “Please can I go with them?” she pleaded.  

Aizawa was about to reject her when he saw the look in her eyes. Against his better judgement, he decided to let her. “Very well, follow them, Asui, Jirou, you two go to the principal and inform him about what happened,” he commanded. He turned to the rest of the class, stood further away, all stood frozen in shock. “Iida, go and find another teacher and bring them here,”  

The robotic looking Iida didn’t respond for a few seconds, then snapping into a quick salute and darting off, powered by his quirk. Mina was surprisingly hot on his heels, heading towards the infirmary. The other two girls ran off on their way towards the principal’s office.  

Aizawa stood up to address the rest of the class. “Alright everyone  listen , this training session has been cancelled due to an assault by a classmate,”  

Kirishima  was the first one to speak up, “Wait Aizawa what happened? What happened to Midoriya? Why is Bakubro on the ground?”  

Aizawa’s  expression turned angry. “I will explain the details later, all you need to know for now is that  Bakugo  attacked Midoriya and now Midoriya is in a critical state,” he announced. “Everyone go back to homeroom and wait there until I arrive,”  

The class did nothing for a few moments, still in shock at the scene of devastation caused by one of their classmates. One by one they began to leave the scene, shuffling their way back to the classroom.  

Aizawa was left alone with the unconscious, tied-up  Bakugo . He looked down on him and sighed sadly.  

“Why did this happen? Why did you do this?” he asked.  

The unconscious body gave no reply.  

The next day, several cities away, in a dark warehouse, a looming figure sat hunched over a set of computer screen. On one was a view of a bar with no-one currently in it. On the other was a news report, a news report about how the winner of the first-year sports festival at UA had been expelled and arrested for savagely attacking a classmate.  

This figure had his eyes on this volatile hero-in-training since he showed great power and aptitude for violence in the sports festival... but this?  

This was perfect.  

The figure smiled underneath his dark life support mask.  

“I have found Tomura a promising new recruit,”  

Chapter Text

Izuku saw only darkness.  

It wasn’t that he couldn’t see anything, it was just that all he could see was darkness.  

Well that was a lie, he could see himself after all.  

So,  he saw only darkness and himself.  

He looked down at his gloved hands, at the sleeves of the bright green costume his mother had made for him. He really did love his mother, and he loved that she did that for him...  

But he looked like a bright green rabbit.  

Yes,  he wanted to  honour  All Might with things like the ear like protrusions on his hood and the smile on his  mask  but nobody could take him seriously when he became a pro hero if he was still wearing this.  

Hmm, he’d have to come up with a redesign.  

He blinked.  

“Oh yeah the murky abyss of darkness, forgot about that,”  

He looked back up, staring into the darkness. He hoped he didn’t sound like Tokoyami when he thought that he wished the darkness wouldn’t stare back.  

“Okay let’s take stock,” he said to himself. He patted himself down, “Alright, I can feel myself, I can see and I can hear myself talking so that’s all good at least,”  

He carefully stood up, pushing off from his knees, he was a bit unsteady on his feet. The whole infinite darkness thing was kind of throwing off his sense of balance.  

He tried to look at the darkness itself, it wasn’t darkness like shadow, it was more like a huge sea of black ink. The darkness seemed to  actually be  present rather than just being the  absence  of light.  

“Hello?” he called out, “Is anyone here?”. As he did so he took one step forward.  

Then suddenly there was light.  

He was blinded for a moment, his retinas overloaded by the sudden appearance of bright light.  

He slowly cracked his eyes open and looked upon a city at sunset.  

He seemed to be stood on the edge of a roof, facing towards the sun,  disappearing  over the horizon behind a skyline of buildings.  

Although the sun was bright, it wasn’t blinding at all, it felt warm and soft.  

Izuku felt the sun’s rays wash over his skin, dispelling the lingering cold clinging to his body from his time in the dark, and smiled.  

He didn’t know what this was, but it felt familiar. The city even looked slightly familiar. It was  definitely older  than Izuku remembered but it looked a lot like  Musutafu  from where he was standing.  

“Beautiful sight isn’t it?” A voice asked from his left.  

He probably should’ve been alarmed by the sudden appearance of another person but all he felt was a sense of warmth and familiarity. He felt like he knew this person.  

It was a black-haired woman wearing a hero suit of some sort. Her hair was at about shoulder length, kept straight apart from bangs above her forehead. Her suit looked like a sleeveless bodysuit, she was wearing yellow gloves, white boots, a long white cape from her shoulders and a shorter white cape wrapped around her waist.  

Izuku had never seen this woman but he felt like he knew her. It was the mental equivalent of a name being on the tip of your tongue.  

“I used to come here to relax,” the woman continued, sat on the edge of the roof, “No matter how busy, dark or scary the world really is, it all looks so peaceful from up here,”  

She  still had  yet to take her eyes from the horizon, watching the sunset.  

Feeling no sense of danger or urgency, Izuku took a seat next to her, also just silently watching the sun dip below the horizon.  

The pair sat there for what felt like   hour s  until the sun finally disappeared.  

Satisfied, Izuku turned to the woman and got a better look at her face. She had a small mole underneath her lip and wrinkles around the sides of her mouth. This was a woman who smiled a lot, just like she was now.  

The woman turned to him. “Hey Kid,” she said, casually. “You’re probably a bit confused right now so let me explain a couple of things,”. She held up a hand, counting a finger. “First of all, obviously this isn’t real, it’s a memory from my life,” she explained.  

She counted off more fingers as she continued talking. “Second of all, you’re currently unconscious after an injury and this is happening in your head,”  

Izuku opened his mouth to speak up but the woman beat him to it, “Thirdly, since I know you were about to ask, nobody else was injured, at least nobody you have to worry yourself about, it was just you,”  

Izuku let out a sigh of relief, waving his hand at her to tell her to continue. “And finally, while this is happening inside your head, it is still real, when you wake up you will remember this and anything  else  we talk about in here,” she finished.  

Izuku nodded, a little bit dumbfounded. “Alright then, those are all good things to know but what I was really wondering is who exactly are you?” he asked.  

The woman stared at him for a second, then laughing and slapping herself in the forehead. “Oh yeah, I knew there was something I’d forgotten,” she chuckled. She adjusted her posture, turning her upper body to face Izuku more and offered him a hand. “I’m Nana Shimura, the seventh holder of One for All and Toshinori’s master, please just call me Nana, I already know who you are, it’s good to actually meet you in person Izuku Midoriya,”  

Okay then, that was enough weird for Izuku for now.  

He just shook his head slightly, accepting the handshake. He spoke up hesitantly. “Erm... I don’t mean to be rude but aren’t you...”  

“Dead?” she finished.  

Izuku just nodded. Nana shrugged with a small smirk on her face. “Yeah it’s true, happens to everyone, had to happen to me  some time ,”  

Izuku held up a finger, still confused. “So then why are you in my head?” he asked, his own mind going a mile a minute.  

Nana smiled again, thinking for a moment before responding. “I don’t know why to be honest... well that’s kind of a lie, I know it’s because of One for All, I just don’t know how it works,” she explained. “Each time One for All is passed on, the wielder passes on part of their own power to the inheritor, some of the old timers theorised that the wielder literally gives up part of their soul in that moment too, literally becoming part of the power,” she shrugged, explaining it as best she could. “A few of the others think that for One for All users, maybe this is our own personal heaven, or maybe it’s an eternal duty or something,”  

That was a lot for Izuku to take in. “Wait others?” he asked, suddenly catching something she said.  

She nodded, “Yeah, everyone who has ever wielded One for All is in here somewhere, you’ll probably meet the rest of them  someday  but I wanted to meet you first,” she replied. She then pointed backwards over her shoulder, “Toshinori’s in here somewhere too but he’s not all... there right now seeing as he’s still... well, alive.”  

Izuku thought on that for a few moments, turning away from the black-haired hero. ‘So part of All Might’s power, and the power of all the past wielders is a part of me?’  

He turned back to Nana. “While I feel like this should be blowing my mind more than it is I’m just not going to think about that right now but something else I want to know is how did you know I was injured and that I’m unconscious?” he asked, confused yet again.  

“Oh we can all see through your eyes, hear what you hear, feel what you feel and know what you think,” she answered nonchalantly, “It’s pretty cool actually, we get most of the sensations you do but we also act like an outside observer, I guess you could think of us as other  consciousnesses  sharing your head with you,”  

Maybe his mind was already blown, maybe that was why he wasn’t really reacting to much of this. “Have you always been here?” he asked, accepting that today was just going to be a weird one.  

“Well we have since you ate one of Toshi’s hairs, which was hilarious by the way,” she added with a boisterous chuckle.  

Izuku groaned, remembering the unpleasant experience of inheriting One for All. Shaking his head to clear his mind, he asked, “If you’ve been here for this long then why have I never known about this?”  

Nana shrugged, “I don’t know, this is nearly as weird for me as it is for you, according to the others, we’ve never been able to talk to the current holder like this before and I don’t think any of us really tried before with you, just  kinda  assuming it’d be the same,”  

Izuku stroked his chin, thinking. “ So  after I wake up, will I be able to talk to you then? Or will it only be when I’m asleep?” he asked.  

She just shrugged again. “No idea kid, I didn’t even understand One for All very well even when it was my quirk and it’s only gotten weirder since I gave it to Toshi,”  

Izuku shook his head. “It’s still weird to hear you talk about All Might, the Symbol of Peace and call him ‘Toshi’,”  

She laughed again. “Eh when I knew  him  he was basically still just a teenager who desperately wanted to be something called a ‘Symbol of Peace’, something that could still help people even when he wasn’t actually there,” she chuckled to herself. “It was a great  idea  but the title didn’t suit his personality so... ‘Toshi’,”  

Izuku just smiled to himself.  

“You should try calling him that yourself if you ever want to get a reaction out of him,” Nana helpfully suggested.  

Izuku sputtered and chuckled at the same time. “Yeah right, the day I do that is the day he Texas Smashes me into lower orbit,”  

Nana laughed but waved him off, “Nah he wouldn’t do that, he’s too nice for that, he’d probably just turn into a spluttering mess,”  

A comfortable silence fell upon the rooftop as Izuku pondered what Nana had told him. “Nana...” he began.  

She looked over at him. “Yeah kid?”  

“Can you see what’s happening to my body right now? Because I can’t”  

“ Yeah  I can actually, you’re in the Nurse’s office, I’m not sure exactly what they did but they did something to you to help heal your injuries,”  

Izuku started thinking again, “Did Mina come and see me? Do you know that?” he asked hopefully.  

Nana laughed, “Kid, she’s still there, I won’t ruin the surprise but make sure you thank your girlfriend when you wake up,”  

Izuku flushed,  apparently  he can still do that even in his own head. “She’s not my girlfriend,” he  squawked .   

Nana chuckled almost smugly. “Not yet she isn’t but we both know it’s  gonna  happen, just make it quick will you? Me and the others are getting sick of seeing you dance around your feelings, mutual pining is only cute if you  actually end  up together”  

Izuku just went quiet, not quite ready to deal with the fact she said ‘Mutual pining’ just yet.  

After a few more minutes he spoke up again. “When am I  gonna  wake up?” he asked.  

Nana shrugged, “Whenever you want to, I can just poke a neuron here or there and give you a bit of a jump start,”  

That took Izuku by surprise. “Wait you can just wake me up like that?” he asked incredulously.  

Nana chuckled and crawled over to him. “Sure, it’s as easy as...”  

She held a finger over his nose.  

“BOOP”  

If she was being totally honest, Mina was having a  really shitty  day. She was currently chasing after her teacher carrying the unconscious and heavily bleeding form of her friend in his arms. At first the day seemed alright, she could have done without Izuku getting panicked earlier but at least Aizawa found out what happened, that was a good thing. Then of course... he happened.  

Bakugo.  

She tried to hold her angry tears back as she ran. She was angry at both  Bakugo  and herself.  Bakugo  for being a psychotic bastard and herself for not being able to fulfil her promise and protect Izuku. She shook her head, she could feel sorry for herself later, first she had to make sure Izuku was okay.  

She quickly lost sight of All Might, the pro’s immense speed giving him a commanding lead over her, but she knew his destination. She briefly wondered if she’d get in trouble for melting a few holes in a couple of walls to make shortcuts when she  realised  she’d made it.  

She stopped outside the door, her hand frozen halfway to the handle.  

‘I don’t know if I want to see what’ll happen in there,’ she thought, then she shook her head determinedly. ‘NO, if the situation was reversed, Izuku would be in there without a second's hesitation,’  

She grabbed the handle and slid the door open forcefully. She had hoped it would have looked dramatic but none of the occupants of the room seemingly noticed her.  

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU CAN’T HEAL HIM!?” All Might shouted, towering over Recovery Girl.  

“I told you All Might, I can’t use my quirk on him until he regains some energy, which he can’t unless he gets a transfusion and my trainee can’t use his quirk to try and mend his eyes until he does,” the elderly nurse explained, trying to remain calm but All Might’s panic was infectious.  

It was only then that Mina noticed there was a third person in the room (Not counting Izuku), He was wearing the UA uniform underneath a white doctor’s coat.  

“WELL GIVE HIM A TRANSFUSION THEN!” All Might nearly screamed.  

“I can’t,” Recovery Girl explained, “We don’t have any O-type blood on hand and it’ll take too long to get any from the nearest hospital or blood bank,”  

Mina then stepped up, drawing the attention of everyone in the room. “Actually...” she announced, her voice quivering yet still confident, “You have all you need, I have O-type blood, use mine,”  

Recovery Girl and her assistant immediately sprang to work, gathering everything that they would need for a blood transfusion.  

All Might dashed up to her and grabbed both of her hands in his own giant mitts. “Thank  you, Miss Ashido , thank you so much,” he thanked, nearly crying with relief.  

Recovery Girl waved Mina over to a chair next to Izuku, holding the needle to put in her arm, already connected to Izuku. Mina quickly took her position, not even wincing as the needle was pushed in.  

As Recovery Girl started drawing her blood into her friend Mina began to calm down.  Actually  she had quite a long time to calm down as apparently, blood transfusions take quite a long time.  

Whenever Mina had seen people in hospital shows with injuries as bad as  Izuku’s  there’s always a constant rush of activity, about a half dozen people doing everything they possibly can to save a life.  

She didn’t realise the reality would be her sitting there for ages with a needle in her arm as the medical professionals checked monitors, making sure Izuku wasn’t in any danger. This did however, give her plenty of time to ask Recovery Girl some important questions.  

“ So  when he has all the blood he needs, you’ll be able to heal him?” Mina asked the elderly nurse hesitantly.  

Recovery Girl nodded although she looked slightly unsure. “Partially yes, my quirk can heal the scarring on his face and make sure they don’t get infected but... there’s nothing that I can do about his eyes,”  

Mina’s heart sank, she hadn’t realised that Recovery Girl’s quirk might have limits. She had just always assumed she could heal nearly anything  as long as  the person had enough energy to fuel the healing.  

Seeing her distressed mood, Recovery Girl raised her hand, drawing the  pinkette’s  attention. “However,” she began, “My trainee here is a 4 th  year from General Education, he has a quirk that allows him to use a person’s blood to heal injuries, regrow limbs and even regrow or heal organs,”  

Mina turned to the assistant, thankful tears in her eyes. He was quite tall, probably a little over 6 foot and not without muscle. He had close cropped sandy blonde hair and bright blue eyes.  

The assistant just smiled at Mina, nodding to confirm what she had heard. “ Yes  that’s true,” he added, “My name’s Masaru Iwata, I wanted to become a surgeon after leaving UA but Recovery Girl offered to train me so I can take over her place,”  

Mina just looked at him, she had barely heard anything he had said, all she heard was that she can heal his eyes. She wiped her face dry before responding. “Thank you Iwata, thank you so much,”  

He just smiled, “It’s okay, it’s my job after all... or it will be at some point when Recovery Girl eventually retires  or.. . ”  

*THONK*  

Recovery Girl hit him on the back of the head with her cane.  

“Ow, ow, sorry Recovery Girl, you’ll outlive all of us,” he blurted out, rubbing his head.  

The elderly nurse put on a self-satisfied smile. “You’re damn right about that sonny,” she said before turning to Izuku. “Right then, he should have enough blood now so I’ll take that needle out and then I’ll heal him as much as I can,”  

She carefully took the needles out of both the student’s arms before kissing Izuku on the forehead, the light green shine of her quirk washing over him.  

The wound around his eyes mostly healed, scarring over, it was still clearly visible and left an almost perfectly straight line about 3 inches tall of burned scar tissue running across his face surrounding his eyes and running along the bridge of his nose.  

The heavily bleeding wound on the side of his head, which had been heavily bandaged, also stopped bleeding and apparently had healed up underneath the dressings.  

Recovery Girl carefully examined him, inspecting the scar on his face and the wound on his head. Apparently satisfied with the healing, she removed the dressings from the side of his head showing a fresh patch of skin where the wound had healed over.  

The elderly nurse then leaned in to examine his complexion. “Alright his skin has regained enough of  it’s  colour for you to use your quirk, go ahead Iwata.”  

The trainee nurse stepped up to his patient, took in a deep breath and then placed his hands over  Izuku’s eye sockets, showing an expression of intense concentration.  

Mina leant over and gently grasped onto one of  Izuku’s  hands, seemingly not realising, as she watched a gentle red light appearing between his fingers.  

A short while later, after much concentration and not a little bit of sweating from the nurse in training he removed his hands to reveal a pair of new, slightly pinkish eyelids. He exhaled heavily and gripped onto the side of the bed, clearly drained but also relieved. “It’s done, I’ve repaired his eyes,” he announced to the room, taking a seat nearby, every other occupant releasing a tense breath they didn’t even realise they were holding.  

Recovery Girl walked over to Izuku, asking Iwata if she could examine his eyes to make sure they were healthy. Once she had permission, she gently lifted open one of his eyelids with a finger holding a small torch in the other hand. Almost as soon as she opened his eye she flinched. “Ooh, erm... Iwata come and look at this,”  

The trainee nurse broke out in a cold sweat, as did Mina, upon hearing those words and slowly creeping his way closer to the patient and leaning over him to examine him.  

“Huh,” he muttered, “That  hasn’t happened before ,” his voice more curious than worried.

Mina was beginning to panic now, “WHAT? WHAT’S WRONG?”  

He shook his hands towards her, “Don’t worry, nothing's wrong it’s just... I’ve never actually used transfused blood to heal an organ before, apparently if I use someone else's blood to regrow organs, then they’ll take on the properties of the person who gave the blood,” he explained.  

Mina stood up from her chair to look for herself.  

“Oh” she said.  

Izuku opened his eyes, at first the light coming in from outside was blinding and  painful  so he shut them again, giving off a pained groan as he did. Taking a moment to prepare himself, he spent the next few minutes slowly widening his eyes, letting them naturally adjust to the light.  

After a while he could open his eyes fully.  He looked over to the window, apparently he’d been here for a long time, he could see the sun setting through the window and he was fairly certain it was morning when he’d been injured.  

Wait hang on...  

How could he see?  

He was fairly certain the injury to his face was severe enough to damage his  eyesight  but they seemed fine. He flipped open one of his notebooks with one hand, turning to the pages he had written on Recovery Girl and began reading through his theorised limitations of her power.  

Then he noticed someone was holding his other hand.  

He looked to his right, Mina’s head was resting on the bed next to him, softly breathing in her sleep, and one of her hands were tightly wrapped around his.  

Powered by a strange surge of confidence he untangled his hand from hers and leant over to ruffle her hair. It was soft, almost like fluffy cotton. He grinned and ruffled her hair a bit more, attempting to wake her up.  

As she began to stir and stretch, she seemed to almost unconsciously follow his hand with her head.  

Once she was  awake  she met  Izuku’s  eyes and tears appeared in hers.  

“IZUKU YOU’RE OKAY!” she cried, throwing her arms around him and beginning to softly cry into the pillow next to him.  

Izuku wrapped an arm around her, pulling her tighter into the hug, enjoying the contact, keeping his other hand in her hair, gently holding her head and stroking it softly.  

“Yeah... I’m alright Mina, I'm fine,” he confirmed, closing his eyes and j ust  enjoying the embrace.  

Neither moved until they heard a short cough from nearby. Mina released him and  quickly  spun round, revealing an awkward looking All Might and a smug looking Recovery Girl.  

Recovery Girl quickly whispered something to All Might before approaching Izuku with a small mirror.  

“Good to see you’re awake Midoriya, how are you feeling?” she asked kindly.  

He nodded slowly, suddenly lethargic. “I feel fine, just tired,”  

She nodded, relieved. “Good, now then, do you remember what happened?”  

He thought for a minute. “Vaguely,” he began, “I remember  Bakugo  pulling me away from training, shoving me against a wall, shouting some things at me and then he... then he fired his gauntlet directly at my head,”  

He raised a hand to his face, touching his cheek just below the scarred line on his face.  

“I tried to jump out of the way but I think I still got caught by the blast... then I don’t remember anything after that until now,” he lied, he still remembered the rooftop with Nana but that wasn’t a conversation for now, that was between him and... Toshi.  

The nurse nodded, “With what I’ve been told of the situation that sounds right, it sounds like your memory is intact and you’re speaking with no issues which are all good signs,” she informed him, slowly  walking closer, holding the mirror away from him. “Now, as much as I hate to admit it, I wasn’t able to heal all of your injuries, you had a severe burn running along your face and the explosion had even taken a small chunk of the side of your head off... I was able to heal those, at least partly, the wound on the side of your head has healed completely but there is still a heavy scar line across your face,” she admitted, shaking her head almost shamefully.  

She offered him the mirror, it still facing away from him. He took it but she didn’t release her hold on  it  just yet.  

“And one more thing, a trainee of mine managed to heal your eyes but... now they’re a bit different than they were, they still seem to work completely fine but...” she said, releasing the mirror, “It may take some getting used to.  

Izuku turned the mirror around, focusing first on the line running across his face, he raised his hand to it, running his fingers along it. Then he smirked, looking towards the others.  

“I actually kind of like it,” he admitted. He was then met with a lot of dropped jaws from the other occupants of the room. “What? I think it looks pretty cool,” he defended before looking back to the mirror and looking himself in the eyes.  

“Oh...” he said.  

His eyes were nothing like what they used to be, his iris was a deep forest green, slightly darker than what they used to be but what really drew his attention was his now completely black sclera.  

He looked at himself for a minute, taking it in.  

Then he smiled excitedly, “MINA!” he squealed happily, “MY EYES LOOK LIKE YOURS NOW, THEY LOOK SO COOL!”  

He was met with even more dropped jaws.  

He smiled, placing the mirror down at his side. “I actually prefer how my eyes look now, it’ll take some getting used to and I’d like to know what happened but I’m actually happy with this result,”  

Recovery Girl nodded, she looked... sheepish?  

“Well, lately I’ve been training a new nurse to work here, one of the students from gen ed in his 4 th  year, he can use blood to heal injuries and regenerate limbs or organs... but he had never done so with blood from a transfusion before and we then learned that organs made from someone else’s blood will take on properties from the person it came from,” she explained, not meeting his eyes, “Even if you do like your new eyes, that was still a failure on our part and I cannot apologise enough,”  

Izuku just shook his head, “Don’t worry about it, at least you know for the future now but... if my eyes are like this now and they take on the properties of who gave me the blood, does that mean?” he asked, turning towards Mina.  

Mina nodded, proud of herself. “Yeah, they said they were out of your type of blood but as it happens, we had the same type so I offered to let them use my blood,” she announced, her expression then turning a bit sheepish, “Sorry if that was a bit weird,”  

Izuku just waved her closer, prompting the pink girl to come nearer. He then leaned up and gave her a small peck on the cheek. “Thank  you Mina ,” he said, “You saved my life,”  

Mina quickly blushed heavily, colour quickly returning to her slightly paler skin. “IT’S OKAY, DON’T EVEN MENTION IT,” she loudly squeaked.  

Izuku chuckled and ran a hand through his hair, stopping when he felt something.  

He froze for a moment, his hand feeling two pointed bumps on the top of his head, whatever they were, they felt like bone but they also felt like they had nerves on them.  

Slowly, it dawned on him what they might be, his eyes drew back towards Mina, slowly looking up towards her hair...  

And the pair of horns sticking out of it.  

He chuckled slightly. “Hey Recovery Girl...” he began, his tone amused.  

“Yes Midoriya?” the old nurse asked.  

“You may want to go and grab your trainee, I think there might be a side effect or two from using his quirk on me with Mina’s blood,”  

Her eyes widened, “Why? What’s wrong?”  

He looked down, revealing the top of his head, pulling his long locks aside...  

Revealing two small, black pointed horns growing out the top of his head.  

Chapter Text

Izuku felt kinda sorry for Recovery Girl’s trainee. He watched as the 4th year hobbled his way out of the clinic with several brand-new lumps on his head, courtesy of the elderly nurse. 

“Whatever happened to ‘Do No Harm’, Recovery Girl?” Izuku asked, still chuckling. 

The nurse glared at him, brandishing her cane at him in warning. “Watch it young man, I don’t know what happened to you to make you this cocky but I'm not sure I like it, now I'm worried you’ll end up with even more broken bones from now on,” she warned. 

Izuku just laughed. “But if I break a bone it grows back stronger so if I break all of them constantly I’ll eventually become invincible,” he reasoned, still smirking. 

She swung her cane above her head and very nearly brought it down onto his head, only stopping herself at the last second. “THAT’S NOT HOW IT WORKS YOU KNUCKLEHEADED IDIOT!” she screeched. She rubbed the bridge of her nose with a gloved hand, sighing. “You’re lucky you’ve just recovered from a serious injury or I’d be giving you the chance to test your theory on your skull,” 

Izuku smirked again, “Oh come on you’d never do that,” he said, “If you killed me you’d be out of a job, how could you survive without your most loyal customer?” 

Izuku could see Mina out of the corner of his eye, desperately trying to hold in laughter, nearly failing. 

Recovery Girl turned back to Izuku, smoke nearly coming out of her nostrils. “Alright then young man, since you’re clearly well enough to crack jokes at an old woman’s expense, you’re clearly well enough to leave,” she announced, pointing her cane towards the door. “Get out of my clinic, I don’t want to see you in here for at least another week,” she warned. 

Izuku smiled, sitting up and swinging his legs over the side of the bed, slowly putting his weight onto his legs until he was fully stood upright. Satisfied he could hold himself up, he took a confident step forward... 

And fell flat on his face. 

The elderly nurse sighed, deeply debating the pros and cons of retirement or at least of cracking open her liquor cabinet. She looked towards the pink girl still in the clinic. “Could I ask you to help him back to the dorms young lady?” she asked. 

Mina nodded, “No problem RG,” she replied, bending down to help Izuku off the floor, wrapping one of his arms around her shoulders and allowing him to put his weight on her. 

They slowly made their way out of the clinic, Izuku turning around and waving at the nurse before rounding the corner. “See you tomorrow Recovery Girl,” he called, a smug grin on his face. 

Right, Recovery Girl was fairly certain she had a bottle of 15 year old Glenlivet in her cabinet somewhere, she was definitely opening that later... 

Or now, now was good. 

Now out of sight of the elderly nurse, Mina finally released her pent-up laughter, cackling madly, her sides almost splitting with the force of her laughter. “What the hell Izuku? Where’d the sass come from?” she asked in between laughs. 

Izuku just shrugged, “Don’t know really but I did just get half my face blown off by Bakugo, that’s about as scary as things get really, after that why should I be scared of being a little sassy?” 

Mina stared at him for a moment. “That was a little sassy?” she questioned, “Izuku, that level of sass would put Aizawa to shame and that was ‘being a little sassy’?” 

Izuku nodded, “Oh yeah, I spent most of my life coming up with comebacks I've been too scared to use, now I've got a chance to use some of them, I’m not gonna let this chance go to waste,” he responded, rubbing his hands together in mischievous glee. 

Mina just looked at him for a second, watching his newly black eyes sparkle with the familiar glint of someone up to no good. Exactly how much more could she fall for this guy? 

“Can I keep you?” she asked, a wide smirk growing on her face, “I think you’re going to end up being incredibly entertaining,” 

Izuku chuckled in return, “If you think you can handle me then yeah sure,” 

Mina just laughed, hoping her slight blush went unnoticed. They made their way to the 1-A dorms, just enjoying each other’s company, thankfully not running into anyone else on the way. Izuku wondered if his mom had heard about what had happened yet and whether he should worry her with telling her since he was alright now.

Just as they reached the stairs to the dorm Izuku stopped. 

Mina turned around to him, confused. “Something wrong Izuku?” she asked. 

He shook his head, a sly grin on his face, “Nope but I’ve got an idea for a joke we can play on the others that’ll seriously freak them the hell out, wanna help?” he asked, his eyes twinkling with mischief. 

Oh yeah, yeah she definitely wanted to help. 

Izuku leaned in to whisper the plan into her ear, her own grin growing wider as he went on until it threatened to split her face. 

Where did this Izuku come from and where had he been all her life? 

Todoroki watched Ashido walk into the common room, her posture unusually straight, her arms still by her side and her expression flat. 

All conversation halted and all eyes turned her way, her subdued expression deeply worrying some of his classmates... 

Alright and him too, he just wouldn’t let anybody know. 

“Hey Mina,” Kirishima called, “Where’s Midoriya?” 

Ashido turned to face her red-haired friend slowly, turning her whole body like a robot. “Master will be here shortly,” she announced, voice completely flat but loud and clear. 

‘Erm... what?’ Most of the class thought, ‘Master? What the hell?’ 

Todoroki looked towards Uraraka and Iida, both of whom were sat with their mouths wide open, Iida with an arm mid chop, hanging perfectly still in the air in non-comprehension. He then looked to his right at Yaoyorozu who looked just as confused as everyone else. 

“Erm...” Kaminari began to speak up, “What exactly do you mean by master?” 

Ashido turned to him, her whole body rotating once again, her voice and expression unchanging. “I believed it to be perfectly clear, Master Izuku Midoriya is my only Master and I do his bidding,” she explained, her voice not showing any hint of emotion. 

People in the room quickly began to become deeply worried, what exactly had happened and why was she calling Midoriya master now? 

Ashido then turned towards the door, “Master has arrived, everyone bow immediately,” she announced, quickly dropping into a perfect 90 degree bow towards the door as it opened. 

Confused and a little bit terrified, several members of the class immediately complied such as Kaminari and Sero, some others, seeing others do what Ashido said, hesitantly began to bow towards the door as well, leaving only Todoroki, Yaoyorozu and Asui stood upright, all of them very confused and a little bit concerned. 

Todoroki watched as the doors swung open, seeing Midoriya saunter through the doors incredibly casually like he owned the place, a pair of sunglasses sat upon his nose. “Ah very good,” he said, looking around the room at his classmates, his voice quite a lot deeper than Todoroki remembered. “Most of them are bowing, you did very well Mina,” he congratulated the pink girl. 

“I live only to do your bidding master,” she responded, still in her perfect bow, her voice still unchanged. 

“That’s very good to hear,” Izuku said, then waving his hand in air dismissively. “Oh, all of you can relax, stop bowing now,” he added, walking over to the closest unoccupied sofa and sitting down on it. 

The other members of the class began to right themselves, some like Kaminari immediately snapped up straight, their arms held still by their sides, confusion and terror ripe on their faces. Most of the class exchanged confused glances at each other. 

Midoriya snapped his fingers and pointed at his leg, immediately, Ashido walked over to him and sat down on his lap, like a child with Santa Claus. 

The room was silent, nobody knew what the fuck was going on and nobody wanted to be the first one to ask. 

Midoriya seemed content to simply sit there, basking in the silence. 

“Soooo...” Uraraka spoke up, clearly nervous, “Did Recovery Girl manage to heal your injuries Midoriya?” she asked, sweating intensely. 

He shook his head casually, “Oh no, the damage was much too severe for her to heal,” he responded nonchalantly. 

More confused and scared glances were exchanged. “But... you can see?” she then asked, sweating even more than before. 

He nodded, equally as casually. “Oh yeah I can, no problem at all, speaking of which you might want to get a towel, you seem to be sweating quite a bit,” 

Iida then spoke up, his arm still frozen in place. “But if your injuries were too severe for Recovery Girl to heal then how is it possible for you to be able to see? I was under the impression your eyes had been destroyed,” 

Midoriya smirked, snapping his fingers in the air, prompting Ashido to begin doing something to his hair. “Well you see...” he began to say, as Ashido parted some of his messy locks revealing... 

Black pointed horns, about half the size of Ashido’s own, sticking out of the top of his head. 

Everyone’s eyes widened in shock upon seeing the new appendages on his head. 

“It helps to have friends in... low places,” he finished, putting a hand on the side of his sunglasses. 

Swallowing nervously and trying his best to not burst into flames, Todoroki stepped forward. “What do you mean... low places?” he asked, trying to not look as terrified as he felt. 

Midoriya chuckled, slowly removing his sunglasses. “What do you think it means Shoto?” he asked, standing up, dropping his sunglasses to the floor at his side, revealing a long, rough looking scar running across his face... and his pitch-black eyes, his dark green irises shining with a terrifying new light.

“I made a deal with the devil,” he announced, voice sounding simultaneously smug and casual. 

It was at about that time that Kaminari fainted. 

And Sero. 

And Iida. 

Actually, about a quarter of the class seemed to be unconscious now. 

Midoriya sat back down, snapping his fingers as he did so, Ashido retaking her place upon his lap. He looked at the now unconscious students, frowning slightly. “Is something the matter with them? That shouldn’t have had that much of an effect on them,” 

He looked at the rest of the students still standing, nobody responding. “Well? Either help them or sit down and relax,” 

The rest of the class decided to leave their fellow students where they were, all retaking their seats hesitantly, all of them prepared to run at the first sign of danger. 

Midoriya clapped his hands together, making most of the class flinch. “Very good, now then, since I had half my face blown off today I was hoping some of you would be willing to indulge me with some questions,” he announced, looking around the room. Nobody objected. 

“Hmm, first of all,” he wondered aloud, snapping his fingers, “Ah, Kirishima,” 

The spiky red-haired boy froze up at the sound of his name, slowly turning to face the terrifying green haired classmate of theirs. “Y...yeah?” he asked, terror making him stutter. 

“I was wondering about your quirk,” Midoriya went on to say, “I believe I’m right in thinking that you can harden any part of your body?” 

Kirishima nodded slowly, nervous to speak. 

“Does that mean...  everywhere ?” he asked, his voice dropping an octave on the last word. 

Kirishima looked a mix of terrified and confused, not knowing what he meant. Midoriya’s eyes dropped to Kirishima’s crotch for a few seconds before looking back up at his face. 

The hardening hero’s face was now the same colour as his hair but he nodded slowly. 

Midoriya smiled, “Good to know, I may have to give that a go at some point,” 

Todoroki could almost see Kirishima’s brain begin leaking out of his ears as his mind clearly just gave up on whatever the hell was going on right now. 

Midoriya’s newly dark eyes shined with a light that Todoroki had never seen from his friend before as he turned towards the raven-haired Vice President of the class. 

“Now then, Yaoyorozu...” he began. 

Midoriya then proceeded to spend the next hour asking many... disturbing questions about possible uses of most of the rest of the class’s quirks, leaving most of them either blushing heavily, nearly catatonic or flat out unconscious. 

After he was satisfied, Midoriya clapped his hands several times, prompting Ashido to stand up, still as emotionless as she had been all night. “Right then, I think that’s more than enough for now, I could do with a good night’s sleep,” he announced, standing up, throwing an arm around Ashido’s shoulders and leading her towards the stairs. Just before he reached them he turned over his shoulder, looking towards their bird-headed classmate. “Oh yes, Tokoyami, once he wakes up, would you tell Aoyama that you both should find somewhere else to sleep for tonight? I fear you may not want to be nearby my room tonight,” 

The bird-headed boy, still clinging to Dark Shadow for safety, slowly nodded. “Y...yes... of course sir,” he whimpered. 

Midoriya nodded, pleased. “Very good, well then in that case, I shall see you all for school tomorrow morning,” he announced, his smile then turning dark briefly.  “Good night and sweet dreams everyone,”  he said, his voice turning deep and harsh before disappearing from view up the stairs. 

Todoroki watched his green-haired friend disappear. He wrenched himself from his self-made ice prison and looked around at his few remaining classmates who were still in a state of mind capable of speech. 

“What the fuck happened to Midoriya?” 

Izuku and Mina made their way to his room, Mina still maintaining her stiff style of walking in case anyone followed. Once they were safely in his room they looked at each other for a few seconds. 

Then both fell to the ground laughing. They both had tears streaming from their eyes. 

“Holy fucking shit Izuku, that might be the best thing I ever saw,” Mina chortled, taking about 5 times longer than normal to talk due to her uncontrollable laughter. “I’ve never had to stop myself from laughing so much in my entire freaking life,” 

Izuku could barely respond, in a similar state to his pink friend. “I am so glad I did that, that’s something off the bucket list,” He mimed holding up a long list and striking a line across it, “Make people think I made a deal with the devil for dark powers,” he said to himself. Sighing contently, calming down from his laughing fit. “They’re gonna be so confused tomorrow when we go back to acting like normal,” 

Mina was still laughing, less than before but still laughing. “I know, oh, I’m so looking forward to seeing their faces when we pretend last night never happened,” 

The pair took a few more minutes to calm down fully, then sitting next to each other on the floor, leaning back against Izuku’s bed, Mina resting her head on Izuku’s shoulder. 

“Fun as that was, they are going to want an actual explanation at some point,” she told him, still smiling. 

Izuku shrugged lightly, “I know, I’ll tell them tomorrow, it just seemed like a perfect opportunity,” 

Mina shrugged too, “Fair enough,” she admitted. 

They sat together in silence for a while longer until Mina stood up, brushing herself off. “Well you could probably do with some actual sleep so I’ll go...” she started saying, stopping upon seeing Izuku’s odd smug looking grin. 

“I hope you know I’m definitely not going to be sleeping on my own tonight,” he told her, voice amused and confident. 

Mina just stared at him. “Huh?” 

“The past two nights have been my best night's sleep in my entire life, I’m not letting that end by choice,” he explained, still grinning. “So go on and get changed and get back here, I’m not gonna be able to fall asleep without my new bubblegum teddy bear,” 

Mina blushed, possible the hardest she ever had in her life, but she quickly dashed out of his room towards her own, her smile wide with glee. 

She’d never been this excited to go bed before but then again she didn’t think she’d ever been in love before so who knew what would happen now? 

Aizawa woke to the sound of several pairs of fists hammering on his door. He groaned, he had been forced to start staying in his apartment on the top floor of his class’s dorms on Principal Nezu’s orders, something about needing to be close if they needed him or something. 

Irrational, they were all adults, they could look after themselves. 

He thought on that for a second. Actually, no they couldn’t. But still, couldn’t someone else have done it? 

The knocking showed no signs of stopping so he begrudgingly flopped out of his bed and staggered towards the door, rubbing his eyes as he went. 

He opened the door, too tired to even bother glaring at whoever woke him up. As it happened, it was Todoroki, Yaoyorozu and Uraraka. 

“What is it?” Aizawa asked, not wanting to waste any time. 

Todoroki quickly spoke up. “We think Midoriya made a deal with the devil and got a demon to possess Ashido,” he said with no hint of it being a joke in his voice. 

Aizawa just stared at the trio, none of them showing anything other than sincerity. 

He groaned loudly again, rubbing his face with a hand. “It’s too late for this shit, just go away, I’ll call a priest in the morning,” he replied, waving his students away and moving to close the door. As he tried to, a foot appeared in the doorway, stopping it from closing all the way. 

“Please Mr Aizawa,” pleaded Yaoyorozu, “We think something’s seriously wrong with them,” 

Aizawa just groaned exasperatedly, “When is there ever not something seriously wrong with all of you?” he asked rhetorically. “Just please let me get back to sleep and I’ll deal with it tomorrow,” 

Yaoyorozu nodded, removing her foot from the door, allowing Aizawa to slam it shut. 

He walked back towards the open door of his bedroom, passing a list on the kitchen table as he went. He groaned again, seeing it out of the corner of his eye. ‘Urgh, suppose I better make some new rules for those idiots,’ he thought, moving towards said list, grabbing a pen from nearby and beginning to add to it. 

Dorm Rule Number 37. No bargaining with dark powers beyond our understanding

Dorm Rule Number 37b. This includes Principal Nezu

Dorm Rule Number 38. No allowing demons to possess classmates outside of training exercises  

Dorm Rule Number 39. If  anything  involving the presence of a priest is required more than three times, the involved students will have to begin paying for the services themselves  

Aizawa nodded, satisfied with the new rules, then turning to a smaller notepad and writing something down on that as well. 

Personal Reminder- Make sure Midoriya and Ashido aren’t actually possessed , if they are, restrain them during the exorcism and try not to punish them too severely afterwards.  

Chapter Text

The last thing Izuku remembered before falling asleep was lying in bed with his best friend, the both of them gently entwined together under the covers. He was pretty sure that nobody in the history of the world had ever been that comfy. 

All things considered; he was having a pretty great night. 

So of course, it didn’t last. 

He opened his eyes to see the familiar inky blackness that he saw when he was unconscious in the nurse’s office earlier that day. He was lying on his side, still in the position he fell asleep in, his arms wrapped around nothing, his pink friend not being here with him. 

Huffing frustratedly, he pushed himself up to his feet and stood with his hands on his hips. “NANA!” he called out, “YOU HERE?” 

His surroundings changed, the area around him becoming a replica of his dorm room. His dream room apparently didn’t include Mina. ‘Well that’s wrong,’ he thought, pouting slightly. 

“Oh don’t be so dramatic,” a voice said. Izuku turned around, seeing the black-haired hero sat on his desk, examining one of his All Might figures. “She’s still there in the real world, you’re just asleep remember?” she asked, not looking away from the figure. 

“No I didn’t forget, and can you put that down please? It’s a limited-edition bronze age figurine and it’s fragile,” he warned, holding his hands out placatingly. 

Nana shrugged, “I still find it kinda weird there’s so much merchandise of Toshi out there, to me he’ll still always be the kid I watched get the crap beat out of by Sorahiko,” she said, throwing the figure over her shoulder, it exploding against the wall in a spray of plaster and plastic. 

Izuku nearly had a meltdown until he saw her holding an identical figure. “This is in your mind remember? None of this is real,” she reminded him. 

“Oh... oh yeah, thank god for that,” Izuku sighed in relief. 

Nana chuckled, “You need to stop being so protective of this stuff, what if a villain tries to take advantage of it and holds some All Might merch hostage?” she asked, a teasing grin on her face. 

Izuku’s face set into a flat hard expression. “Then they get smashed into orbit,” he responded, voice completely serious. 

Nana put her hands up as if surrendering, “All right kid, fair enough,” she said, hopping off the desk and standing upright. “Anyway, I'm guessing you wanted to ask me something?” 

Izuku nodded, “Yeah actually, it was just that earlier you said you could poke neurons in my brain and make things happen,” he began. Nana nodded in confirmation. “Well I was wondering if you did something to make me... frankly, worryingly confident?” 

Nana just nodded again, “Oh yeah I did that, I thought you might like it, also it was hilarious and we don’t exactly have many opportunities to have much fun stuck up here in your head,” she answered casually. 

Izuku blinked, not expecting that much honesty that easily. “Alright then, first of all how, and second of all why?” he asked, a finger held up in the air. 

Nana smiled before responding, “How was relatively simple, I just shut down everything to do with embarrassment and boosted your self-esteem,” she explained, “And as for why, well I kind of said earlier... but it was also because I wanted you to have a chance to get used to your... new additions without freaking out, especially since you’d have enough to freak out about even if you ignored your new eyes and horns,” 

Izuku scratched his head, confused. “So you basically stopped me freaking out about what happened by fiddling with my brain?” 

“Yeah, I knew that normally you’d have an intense panic attack after what happened, given it both involving an explosion and Bakugo being the cause of it, adding the shock of having new eyes and horns on top of that may have caused some sort of mental damage,” she explained, voice guilty but concerned. 

Izuku nodded in understanding. “I get it, but isn’t it bad to repress things like that? What if it all explodes out of me at once? That could end horribly,” he argued. 

Nana nodded, conceding his point. “Yeah that’s true, that’s why I was going to let you ease into it, take it a bit at a time,” she reasoned. “Since you saw your new eyes and horns while calm and confident, and having a few hours to come to terms with them so far, I don’t think you’ll have any issues with them so that just leaves dealing with the trauma of what happened...” she trailed off. 

Neither spoke for a minute. “To be honest, I don’t like seeing you suffer like that... but I think it’s necessary at the same time, especially since Mina will be there to help you through it,” Nana admitted. 

Izuku sat down, drawing his legs closer to his body. “But what if she gets sick of me? What if I start being a burden?” he asked, his self-esteem issues apparently already returning. 

Nana knelt in front of him, putting a hand on his shoulder. “Don’t worry kid, she wouldn’t do that, even if she didn’t already love you, I really doubt she’s the kind of person that wouldn’t help someone who needs it,” she reassured him. 

Izuku looked up at her, “You think she loves me?” he asked, voice nervous but hopeful. 

Nana laughed and grinned. “Oh yeah definitely, call it female intuition if you want but she is head over heels for you,” 

Izuku scratched his head, “Then why wouldn’t she say anything?” Izuku asked, genuinely confused. 

Nana patted his shoulder again before sitting down in front of him. “Because you’ve been going through some pretty tough times recently, she probably didn’t want to pressure you into anything or take away from your problems at all,” she explained. 

Izuku nodded, smiling slightly, “Yeah that sounds about right for her,” he admitted. 

“You don’t need to worry about her kid, she’ll still be around when you’re ready to admit it to her, she won’t abandon you, not like the others,” Nana reaffirmed. 

Izuku smiled, thankful for what he heard. “Thanks Nana,” he said, looking at her and giving her a bright smile. 

The hero gave him a thumbs up and a wide smile of her own. “No problem kid, that’s what I’m here for after all, I’m here to make sure you can become the best hero you can be,” 

Izuku smiled again. “Thanks for that, would you mind if I went back to sleep now?” he asked, yawning gently. 

Nana smirked, “Oh yeah sure, you get to go back to sleep as soon as you’re bored talking to the old woman,” she chuckled, “Sure thing, just make sure you have a talk with Mina soon,” she suggested, reaching a finger out to his face. 

*Boop* 

Izuku found himself awake several hours later, the sun just barely beginning to peek in between his curtains. He enjoyed the warmth and comfort of his embrace with Mina for a while longer before carefully sitting himself up, leaving Mina’s head resting on his lap with his back against the wall. 

He was content to sit there for a while longer, gently stroking Mina’s hair, enjoying the small mewls she occasionally let out as a result, thinking about what he would say when she woke up. 

That time came sooner than he expected as the pinkette began to stir and stretch after only about half an hour. She stretched her arms above her head, letting out a loud yawn as she did, her eyes still closed. 

She slowly cracked her eyes open to look up at Izuku, her head still in his lap and his hand still stroking her hair. 

“Good morning Mina,” Izuku said, a sad smile on his face. 

Mina’s expression, which had turned bright upon seeing him began to sour slightly. She pushed her head off his lap, sitting upright and then sitting on his lap instead, gently wrapping her arms around her friend and crush. 

“Morning Izuku, have you been awake long?” she asked, her voice concerned. 

Izuku wrapped his own arms around her, pulling her towards him, Mina placing her head on his shoulder. “About an hour or so,” he admitted, “I’ve just been thinking... about what happened yesterday,” 

Mina nodded, “You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to,” she told him. 

“Thanks but I probably should,” Izuku responded, giving her a grateful smile and a brief squeeze. “I was just thinking... what will happen to Bakugo?” he asked, his voice worried. 

Mina shrugged slightly, “I don’t know to be honest,” she admitted, “The last I saw him though, he was tied up in Aizawa’s scarf...” 

She thought for a second, wondering how to word what she wanted to say. “But... I think he’ll probably be expelled Izuku, he must have been warned about his behavior by Aizawa, after what he did there’s probably no way they could let him stay here as a student,” she told him. 

Izuku went limp for a second, his heart clenching, “Oh...” he said. He looked down at his legs, “That’s a shame, he could have been such a great hero... now he won’t... and that’ll be my fault...” he choked out, his eyes beginning to water. 

Mina looked up at him, placing a hand on his face and turning it so he faced her. They looked at each other for a moment, green and gold irises surrounded by black being reflected by each other’s gazes. 

“Izuku...” she began, “That is in no way your fault... Bakugo did a terrible thing to you, that was his own decision, you didn’t make him do that,” she told him. 

Izuku clenched his eyes shut but nodded the smallest amount. 

Mina continued, “And even if he had the potential to be a great hero, that doesn’t excuse a lifetime of abuse followed by a villain like act like he did,” she told him, her voice level and determined. “Yes, he could have been a great hero, so could so many villains if they chose a different path, but they chose to use their powers for their own gain or to hurt others, that, is in no way your fault,” she finished, pulling him into a tight hug once again. 

Izuku nodded shakily, tears leaking from his clenched eyes. “I’m sorry Mina,” he said quietly, “I’m sorry I keep doing this to you, you don’t deserve to have to deal with me all the time,” 

“Maybe not, but I want to,” she told him, her voice resolute. “I want to be the one to help you, I want to help you become one of the best heroes in the world like you deserve to be, I want you to know that people here love you and care for you,” 

She paused for a second, taking in a breath before speaking, “I...” she began. 

“Love you,” Izuku finished, his eyes still clenched shut, still clinging to her tightly. 

Mina’s eyes widened in shock and began watering too. 

Izuku shook his head slightly, burying his face further into her shoulder. “I’m sorry, I just needed to get that out,” he admitted, pulling his head back and looking her in the eyes, his own, still wet with tears but shining with affection. 

He placed a hand on the side of her face before continuing. “I... I don’t really know what I’m feeling... I don’t think I've felt it before and I know this is probably a bad time... but I think I love you Mina,” he admitted, his eyes not leaving hers for an instant, a scared smile on his face. 

Mina stared deep into his eyes, his eyes, now so much like her own, in a way, they were her own. She looked deep into them, at the pain, the suffering of the past... 

And the love and hope of the future shining brightly in them. 

She didn’t speak, letting her actions do the talking. She grabbed his sleep shirt and pulled it towards her, locking her lips onto his. 

A while ago, she had heard Momo describing the feeling of a true kiss according to one of her romance novels she enjoyed so much. She had described how the character felt their heart skip a beat, how their lips felt like they had been electrified, like how everything else in the world melted away to insignificance and that in that moment, nothing existed except the two lovers. 

Mina thought that sounded like crap at the time. Oh how she wanted to go back and slap past Mina in the face for thinking that. 

No matter how trashy and cliché Momo’s books may have been, they at least got that feeling exactly right. 

If anyone would have asked her to describe the feeling, she wouldn’t have been able to do so in any other way than just sighing like a lovestruck maiden. 

It was intoxicating, she didn’t think she could get enough of it. Their lips pressed against each other, the sensation like nothing she had ever felt before, the feeling sending shivers down her spine, the both of their bodies trying to get as much contact with each other as they possibly could almost by themselves. 

They both remained locked together for as long as their lungs would allow, eventually pulling away from each other to take in desperate breaths. 

Mina laughed softly between deep gasps, “Does that give you an idea of what I was going to say?” she asked. 

Izuku chuckled too, his face flushed heavily, gasping like a nearly drowned man. “I think I got the idea,” he responded. 

Once they both recovered their breath, they sat in front of each other, one hand on the back or side of each other’s heads, their other hands intertwined with the other’s. 

“I don’t think I need to say it but I want to,” Mina said, giving him a blissful smile, “I think I love you too Izuku,” she admitted, pulling him into another kiss. This one not lasting as long and not as desperate but no less passionate. 

She didn’t think she’d ever seen Izuku look so happy, not even his fake happiness from earlier in their time together. Right here, right now, he looked the happiest she’d ever seen him and she knew this was true, genuine happiness. 

As they pulled away from each other once more, she looked at Izuku’s expression, his eyes were still glistening but tears had stopped falling, his mouth was in a wide grin, almost looking manic with glee, like he couldn’t believe what was happening. 

“Thank you... thank you so much Mina,” he said, voice quivering with emotion. “I don’t think I deserve this... but thank you so much for giving me the chance,” 

Mina leant forward and gave him a quick peck on the nose. “Of course you deserve this Izuku, you’ve gone through so much, I’m just really happy I can help you,” 

Izuku nodded happily, cheeks flushed again. “You’ve helped me more over the past week than basically anyone else ever has throughout my whole life, I can’t thank you enough for what you’ve done for me, this almost seems like too much now,” he admitted, rubbing the back of his head. 

“Hush now,” she playfully bopped him on the nose, “I’ll not hear any more of that kind of talk, you’re an adorable, lovable nerd who’s going to be the best hero in the world one day and I’ll hear nothing saying otherwise,” 

Izuku laughed, his laugh sounded genuine this time rather than self-deprecating. “I still think you’re giving me a bit too much credit but I don’t particularly fancy getting hit again so I’ll not argue,” he responded, jokingly rubbing his nose. 

Mina giggled, snuggling into his side, enjoying his warmth and the feel of his strong muscles. The new couple stayed like that for a while, the sun growing brighter outside, alerting them to the passage of time. 

Izuku groaned disappointedly, “As much as I'd love nothing more than to stay like this all day... we do have to get ready for class,” he said, his voice unenthusiastic at the thought of having to stop cuddling. 

Mina gave a disappointed huff before untangling herself from her new... boyfriend? I guess? 

“Urgh, I know we need to... but do we really need to?” she moaned. 

“Unfortunately, yes, we need to get going Mina,” Izuku responded. 

Mina gave another small huff before jumping off his bed to her feet, stretching as she landed. “Alright, I guess I’ll go get dressed, see you in a bit Izuku,” Mina said, walking towards the door. She nearly reached the handle when Izuku spoke up. 

“Hang on Mina... can I just ask you something first?” he asked, sounding shy and hiding his face from her slightly, apparently suddenly self-conscious. 

Mina nodded at him, giving him a reassuring smile. “Of course, Izu, what is it?” she asked. 

He stayed silent for a moment before replying. “It’s just... do you think I’m ugly?” he asked, still hiding his face. “I mean... do you think my scar or... eyes or anything are ugly?” 

Mina hopped over to him, gently grabbing his face in both hands, gently rubbing her thumbs along the wide scar running all the way across his face surrounding his eyes. “No Izuku,” she responded simply. “Of course I don’t think you’re ugly, I think your new eyes are beautiful and I actually quite like your scar, I think it makes you look pretty badass,” she admitted, a wide, genuine smile on her face. “Plus, I love your cute little hor... WHOA!” she added, suddenly jumping back as she looked up at his hair. 

Izuku panicked slightly, “What is it, what’s wrong?” he asked, nervous she was scared of him or something now. 

Her grin grew even wider and she pointed up at the top of his head. “Go and look in the mirror,” she ordered. 

Izuku followed her instruction although unclear as to why. He then also jumped back at noticing the same thing she had. 

His horns had grown substantially overnight, they were black, gently ridged pointed horns, sweeping backwards across his hair. His new horns looked almost draconic and in Mina’s humble opinion... 

Really fucking hot. 

Ibara Shiozaki was not expecting to be summoned by 1-A's teacher, Eraserhead but here she was, being led to the 1-A dorms, the scruffy looking teacher mumbling something about priests and exorcisms. 

She didn’t exactly know what was going on but she was always prepared to deal with the forces of evil. As they travelled, she checked her bag, making sure she had all her equipment ready. 

Holy water, check. 

Holy cross, check. 

Holy bible, check. 

Wooden stake, check. 

Silver dagger, check. 

Aaaand, book on exorcism rites, check. 

“Excuse me sir, but what exactly am I required for?” she asked the teacher. 

He grumbled under his breath before responding. “A few of my students woke me up last night saying they thought another one of their classmates had made a deal with the devil and had another classmate possessed by a demon and forced to obey his commands,” he explained, his voice tired and grumpy. 

Shiozaki could barely believe her ears. A student in UA’s hero course, making a deal with the dark lord? How could this have happened? She set her face into a stern and rough expression, preparing herself for walking into a possible den of evil. 

The teacher and student reached the doors leading into the 1-A common room, Shiozaki stopping beforehand to calm herself. Once she felt sufficiently prepared she walked through the door confidently to find most of her sister class in scattered hiding places around the room. In the middle of the room she saw a green haired boy and pink haired girl she recognized from the sports festival tied to two chairs in the middle of the room, it looked like they were secured with some sort of tape. 

Assuming these were the lost souls, she walked closer to examine them, immediately she saw signs of demonic influence on the both of them, they both had pitch black eyes with coloured irises and horns poking out of the top of their similarly styled hair. She was almost certain that the boy did not have those dark eyes or horns during the festival so he must be the one who made the bargain, inviting the demon into the body of his classmate. He probably chose her due to her apparent demonic heritage and therefore, ease of possession. 

So far, all of what she had seen pointed towards demonic possession... however she wouldn’t have expected either of them to have been acting so calm. After all, they were bound only by earthly constraints, they could easily used their dark powers to break free but they remained where they were. 

The pink one just looked fed up while the green one looked both embarrassed and exasperated. 

Shiozaki turned to the sleep-deprived teacher stood next to her. “Are these the two possessed students?” she asked. 

Eraserhead nodded, “Apparently so although I’m pretty sure they were trying to give an explanation earlier but the rest of the class seemed pretty freaked out so they tied the both of them up and wouldn’t let them go until an exorcism was performed,” he explained, rubbing the bridge of his nose. He turned to the vine-haired girl. “Look, I don’t think they’re actually possessed but I need you to do this anyway just so the rest of my kids stop freaking out,” 

Shiozaki nodded, opening her bag and walking towards the restrained pair. 

The green haired one looked at his teacher with what looked like betrayal. “Mr Aizawa? You brought someone her to try and exorcise us?” he asked incredulously. “You realise what happened last night was a joke and that we were trying to explain that before we got tied up?” 

The scruffy teacher groaned and then responded. “Yes Midoriya, I realise that but whatever you did you sufficiently freaked out the rest of your classmates that they’ll need to see this happen to be satisfied,” 

Midoriya, apparently, sighed in defeat, dropping his head and looking down at the ground. “Fine, go ahead,” he said before muttering, “Of course something like this happens the one time I play a joke on someone else god fucking damn it,” 

Shiozaki nearly reached for the silver dagger upon hearing the Lord’s name being said in vain but she restrained herself, instead taking out her cross, holy water and book on exorcisms. 

“May I ask for a volunteer to assist me with the exorcism?” she asked, looking around the room at the cowering students. Most of them didn’t move or respond for a few moments before a blonde-haired one stood up from behind an armchair. She recognised this one, he was the one she fought against in the first round of the 1 on 1 matches in the sports festival. 

Kaminari his name might have been? 

Kaminari walked up, one arm raised hesitantly. “I’ll help, what do I have to do?” he asked nervously. 

She handed him her cross in one hand and the open bottle of holy water in the other. “I need you to hold up the cross in front of them to protect us from the demonic energies and to sprinkle them with the holy water as I read the exorcism ritual,” she explained. 

The blonde nodded, taking both items. 

Shiozaki opened her book, holding it in her left hand as her right hand hovered over the silver dagger still in her bag and began chanting in fluent Latin. 

As she did so, Kaminari held the cross in front of them in a trembling grip and shook the holy water over the pair, apparently thoroughly annoying the pair of them. 

About halfway through the chant, Shiozaki saw the pink one begin to smirk mischieviously. Believing she was about to attempt to break out, she quickly grabbed the handle of the silver dagger when the green-haired one... Midoriya, began talking. 

“Don’t do it Mina, I know what you were thinking, yes it would be funny but then we’d have to sit through all this again so please don’t,” Midoriya pleaded, his voice tired. 

Mina, as the pink one was apparently named, pouted slightly and slumped down in her chair as much as she could, seemingly sulking. 

After several more minutes Shiozaki finished the chant. 

There was no reaction, no twitching, no screaming, no black smoke pouring from their mouths. They didn’t react at all. That either meant that the demons they were possessed by were far too powerful for her or that they were not actually possessed. 

She decided to hope for the latter. “Very well, the exorcism is complete, since no apparent change has occurred, I can therefore only assume that they are not in fact, possessed by demons,” Shiozaki announced. 

With that, the entire class breathed a sigh of relief and began emerging from their hiding places. Several popped out of cabinets in the kitchen, the frog-like girl dropped down from the corner of the room and a brown-haired girl floated down from the chandelier. 

“Well finally, that took long enough,” Mina said impatiently, her bindings suddenly melting away as she stood up from the chair and began helping her classmate out of his own. 

The scruffy teacher exhaled through his nose, absolutely done with the whole situation. “Right then, now that you know your classmates aren’t possessed I expect to see you all in homeroom in the next 10 minutes, they can explain exactly what happened then,” he announced, turning on his heel and walking for the door. “Thank you for the assistance Shiozaki, apologies for wasting your time,” 

Shiozaki merely gave a respectful bow before making her own way out of the building, intending to go and meet back up with her own class. 

Until today, she had brushed off Monoma’s claims that 1-A were nothing but a bunch of chaotic hooligans who would bring shame to UA. 

Now... she kind of thought he may have had a point. 

Chapter Text

Izuku was dreading what came next. Sure, most of his classmates weren’t scared of him anymore and some were even impressed he managed to play a joke like he did on them but now he was probably going to have to explain everything what happened between him and  Bakugo  and he didn’t want to have to go through that again.  

He took a deep breath in, trying to calm his nerves. Sensing his nerves, Mina squeezed his hand as they were walking with their hands entwined. Her presence helped calm him  down  but she wouldn’t be able to do that forever, especially not if Aizawa has him come up to the podium to talk.  

He’d just have to hope he doesn’t have a panic attack if that happens. Maybe some of the confidence Nana gave him was still there and would be enough to get him through the next trial without breaking down.  

He was walking at the back of the group, the rest of his class ahead of him, all talking between  themselves  but they were subdued and most kept sneaking peeks back at Izuku.  

Izuku looked away, not willing to meet their eyes. Mina wrapped an arm around his shoulder and gave it a quick squeeze as they walked. “Don’t worry Izuku, if you don’t think you can do this then I’m sure Aizawa will let you do it another time or just do it himself,” she reassured him.  

Izuku gave a slight smile but didn’t say anything, knowing he had to do this didn’t make it any easier, even if he could put it off for a while longer, that was probably a bad idea. Probably best to just rip it off in one go.  

The class made it to their homeroom with barely a minute to spare from  Aizawa’s   ten-minute  deadline. Silently, they all went and took their seats, most looking towards Izuku before looking up at the teacher at the front of the class.  

Aizawa sighed loudly, apparently dreading this just as much as Izuku. “Alright then class,” he began, his voice tired. “What’s going to happen is that right now, I’m going to explain the events of yesterday to the best of my knowledge to those who are unclear what happened. After that, you can ask questions if you want clarification on something and after all of that, if he’s feeling up to it... Midoriya will give his own account of the events,” Aizawa explained, looking over to Izuku as if asking for permission.  

The class simply nodded,  no one  dared speak in a moment like this.  

Aizawa sighed again, “Right well I suppose I better start from the beginning, due to some conflicts that arose in the dorms over the weekend, I learned about  Bakugo’s  past behavior before coming to UA and even his continued behavior right under our noses,” he spat out, sounding angry with  himself .  

“While I will not give details, as they are not mine to give, I learned that Midoriya had suffered greatly from the abuse of  Bakugo  for over a decade,” he went on to say.  

Some of the class were shocked at this. Most of all, the self-proclaimed ‘ Bakusquad ’. Everyone in the class knew about his temper and willingness to resort to violence but nobody would have thought he would have been abusive.  

“Having learned of his past abuses, I set him several conditions, the failure of any of which would result in his expulsion from UA,” Aizawa added. Several of the more pragmatic members of the class, such as Iida and Yaoyorozu nodded along, believing that seemed fair.  

“One of these conditions was that there would be no incidents or any form of hostile interaction with Midoriya, after he had accepted these conditions, I went to speak to Principal Nezu, to inform him of the situation. In hindsight, that was a mistake, I should never have left such a volatile young man alone in such a situation.” Aizawa admitted.  

“ So  in part, what happened yesterday was my fault,” Aizawa bowed towards Izuku. “I failed as a teacher and a  guardian,  I hope you can forgive me Midoriya,”  

Izuku just nodded, trying to remain as calm as possible. “That’s okay sir,” he choked out, “You couldn’t have known what would happen,”  

Aizawa nodded, his expression still deeply set in a look of guilt and failure. Righting himself, he continued to talk. “As I spoke to Principal Nezu, I made him aware of the situation and he agreed to start an investigation of the bullying on UA grounds immediately,” he explained. “Once that was done, I returned to the classroom to find  Bakugo  missing, fearing the worst, I ran to the training field you were all at and I arrived just in time to see a building explode,”  

Most of the class were just looking on in shock. They had all heard the explosion but didn’t know what it was at the time.  

“As quickly as I could, I ran towards the ruined building to check what happened, I arrived at the same time as Ashido,” he added. “We turned around the corner to see...” Aizawa had to stop and collect himself before continuing. “We saw  Bakugo  standing over a grievously wounded Midoriya, laughing and mocking him,”  

The rest of the class who weren’t present for this were horrified, Mina was just growing more and more angry at the memories, even Aizawa was growing agitated.  

“I ordered  Bakugo  to step away from him and to surrender, at which point he attacked myself and Ashido.” he informed them.  

Nobody in the class was taking this well. Iida looked like he was near to having a stroke, Kaminari was sparking unconsciously and  Kirishima  was slamming his hardened fists onto his desk, leaving several cracked craters embedded within it, an anguished look on his face.  

“After a brief fight myself and Ashido were able to overpower him, knocking him unconscious and I then tied him up,”  

Izuku was listening with wide eyes. Since he was unconscious at the time this was the  first  he had heard of this.  Bakugo  had attacked Aizawa and Mina? Why? Why would he do that?  

“At this point most of you arrived on the scene, as did All Might who then took Midoriya to the nurse’s office as quickly as possible,” Aizawa added. “You should all know roughly what happened then, several of the witnessing students were sent off in different directions and I told the rest of you to come back to the homeroom immediately, during that time I made sure that  Bakugo  was secure before handing him off to the police,” he finished.  

The silence in the classroom was almost deafening. It seemed like nobody was even breathing. The class remained in silence for a few minutes before  Kirishima  raised his hand in the air, refusing to meet the eyes of his teacher.  

“Yes  Kirishima ?” Aizawa asked, his voice patient for once.  

At  first  he opened his mouth but no sound came out, unable to get any words out before he managed to force out a question. “What will happen to  Bakugo ?” he asked, his voice almost quivering with rage.  

Aizawa let out a quiet sigh. He knew this question would come but not this soon. “As of yesterday, immediately after the incident, due to his failure to meet the agreed upon conditions, he was expelled from UA under my own authority,” he explained. “As such, he was no longer a student and therefore was no longer permitted to use his quirk under any circumstances. Despite this, he then used his quirk to assault a pro hero and a student, at that point, his actions were villainous and nothing else,”  

Kirishima  forced his eyes to meet  Aizawa’s . “ So  what’s happening to him now?” he asked, his voice sounding hollow.  

Aizawa closed his eyes for a moment, bracing himself for what he was about to tell his class. “As of today,  Katsuki   Bakugo  is under police custody and due to illegal and malicious use of his quirk to assault others, he will be tried as a villain and ultimately sent to prison,”  

Most of the class were just in shock, several were furious. Izuku was...  

He didn’t know what he was...  

He was happy that  Bakugo  couldn’t hurt him again...  

He was sad that something bad had happened to  Bakugo ...  

He was thankful for Aizawa and Mina defending him...  

He was guilty for causing a great future hero to be treated as a villain...  

Izuku was a swirling maelstrom of conflicting emotions, he could feel himself begin to hyperventilate and begin sobbing when a pair of arms wrapped around him from his side.  

“ Mr  Aizawa,” Mina said, “May I please take Izuku outside until he calms down?” she asked, her voice calm.  

Aizawa nodded, gesturing to the door.  

Mina gently coaxed Izuku out of his chair, shuffling him over to the door.  

Once they were outside the classroom, Mina pulled him into a tight hug, kissing his forehead gently and gently rubbing his back to try and calm him down.  

“It’s alright Izuku, what happened wasn’t your fault,” Mina told him, “ Bakugo  deserves to be punished for what he did, it doesn’t matter if he could’ve been a great hero, he didn’t deserve to and that is not your fault,”  

It took the green-haired boy a few minutes to calm down, almost collapsed into Mina, putting nearly  all of  his weight on her, his arms tucked up against his chest.  

Once he had calmed his breathing and dried his  eyes  he just continued to lean into his girlfriend’s comforting embrace, rubbing his head against her like an affectionate cat.  

She just stroked his hair for a while longer, occasionally running a few fingers along his new draconic horns, Izuku apparently finding the sensation soothing.  

“Are you alright now Izuku?” Mina asked concerned.  

Izuku nodded, pulling away and completely drying his face. “Yeah, thanks Mina, sorry I do this all the time,” he  apologised .  

Mina shook her head, “I told you, you don’t have to feel bad about that, it’s a traumatic situation you’ve been through, that doesn’t make you weak or a burden,” she reassured him.  

Izuku smiled at her, thankful for her support. “Alright, I think I’m ready to go back in now,” he said, breathing deeply and trying to remain calm.  

Mina gently rubbed his shoulder from behind as he walked in, separating as they returned to their seats. Most of the class were just looking down at their desks, what they have learned truly sinking in for some of them.  

Aizawa nodded at the pair as they entered. “Good, hopefully you’re feeling better Midoriya,” he said.  

Izuku nodded, “I am sir, thank you,”  

“Good to hear, are you well enough to tell the class a bit about what happened in your own words?” he asked, his voice soft.  

Izuku took in another breath before responding. “I should  be  but I don’t think I’ll cope with saying that much,” he admitted.  

Aizawa nodded, “That’s fine, just tell us what you’re comfortable with,”  

Izuku shakily walked to the podium at the front of the class, his eyes clenched shut for a moment before he began to tell the rest of the class about what had happened.  

He told them the basics of how he changed after he was diagnosed as  quirkless , the constant physical abuse and the social distance forced upon him by both events.  

After a moment to steady himself, he told the class of the time  Bakugo  told him to kill himself, most of the class horrified at that, even Aizawa couldn’t hide his disgust.  

The memories brought back by telling them these things began to make him panic again so he stopped, Aizawa allowing him to stop and go back to his seat before retaking the podium himself.  

“Thank you for telling us about this Midoriya, well done for staying strong during it,” Aizawa congratulated him. He turned to the rest of the class. “There you go, now you all know what happened and what resulted from it, and just so you know, since Midoriya didn’t mention it, his changed eyes and new horns are merely a side effect of a healing quirk of a trainee nurse, I would like to make it clear once again that he is not possessed,” Aizawa told them, hoping to lighten the mood slightly.  

He was slightly successful, several students chuckled but then returned to their collective silence.  

“Now then, soon Midnight will be here for your hero art history lesson but I would like to speak to Midoriya in private first,” Aizawa announced, looking at the green-haired boy.  

Said student snapped out of his thoughts and began looking nervous at the request. Aizawa walked towards the door, gesturing for him to follow. Slowly, Izuku forced himself out of his seat, looking over to Mina as he did. She looked concerned herself but gave him a smile and a quick thumbs up to try and reassure him.  

Once they were out of the classroom, Aizawa led him to the teacher’s lounge which was currently empty. He gestured for Izuku to take a seat, sitting down on a sofa himself. After a moment’s hesitation, Izuku complied, sitting next to his teacher but looking away from him.  

“Can you please look at me Izuku?” Aizawa requested, “I promise you’re not in trouble or anything,”  

Izuku turned to face his teacher, still only barely meeting his eyes. His teacher’s expression was completely absent of his usual sternness and was relaxed and comforting, he was even gently smiling. Not even his usual slightly sadistic grin, this was a genuine caring smile.  

Aizawa leant in a bit closer to his student, still maintaining a respectful distance. “I just brought you here Izuku, because I want to tell you something,” Aizawa began, his voice soft. “I want to tell you that I’m very proud of you, I’m proud of you for going through the terrible things you have and still becoming a kind and intelligent young man who I'm certain will make a great hero one day,”  

Izuku smiled at the praise, his eyes beginning to shine again upon hearing that someone else believes in him, and it being his teacher too.   

Aizawa slowly extended an arm, reaching for  Izuku’s  shoulder. Seeing no movement or discomfort, he gently laid his hand on his shoulder.  

“I’d also like to sincerely apologise; I can only blame myself for not seeing the signs sooner and for allowing him to continue his  behavior  right under my nose,” he apologised, his face dropping.  

Izuku gave a small smile and gently patted his teacher’s arm awkwardly, “That’s okay Mr Aizawa, you’ve still done more for me than any other teacher ever has,” Izuku told him.  

Aizawa looked back up at his student, a grateful smile having appeared on his face. “Thank you Izuku, I’m not sure if I deserve your forgiveness but I’ll do my best to continue to earn it,” Aizawa responded. “One last thing is I want you to know that UA is not like any of your other schools, the teachers are here to help you, you can trust each and every one of them,” He told him. “We will not let anything else like this to happen to you again, I promise you that, and I want you to know that if you ever have any problems then I will be there for you,”  

Izuku began to tear up slightly, so grateful that he seems to finally have people who are willing to help him.  

Aizawa gave a smile once again. “You’ve been doing a lot of sharing today so let me do some of my own,” Aizawa said, Izuku cocking an eyebrow in curiosity. “I know I always act so stern, strict and gruff around the students but that’s all an act,” he admitted. He took in a deep breath before continuing. “If I'm being completely honest, I’m very proud of all of you and frankly I care for you all like you were my kids, that’s why I can’t stand to see any of you in pain or danger and why I push you all so hard, so I know that when you leave UA and go on to become heroes, that I know you’ll all be the best heroes you can be that can protect yourselves and others,”  

Izuku’s  eyes were wide open in surprise, his teacher’s normal demeanour was completely gone, he was being entirely honest and open with him right now. He never realised how much he  actually cared  about all of them. He knew he must have cared for them on some level, he wouldn’t have thrown himself into a potentially lethal situation back at the USJ if he  didn’t  but he didn’t realise he felt this strongly about them all.  

Aizawa chuckled softly, “However I do have a reputation to maintain, tell anyone about this and you’re definitely expelled,” he said teasingly.  

Izuku smirked, “Oh come on you wouldn’t do that, after all, who else would keep your blood pressure as high as it is and turn your hair grey if I wasn’t here?” he responded, chuckling all the while.  

“Literally the entire rest of the class,” he replied, deadpan before breaking into laughter along with his student.  

Now that his regular persona was gone, Izuku spent a bit of time getting to know the real Aizawa. As it turned out, his teacher was more than happy to joke around and relax with his student. Izuku definitely felt more at ease around him that he did with most people. Frankly the only other people he felt as safe around were All Might and Mina.  

After a good twenty minutes of relaxing and joking around Aizawa reluctantly stood up. “As nice as this has been, I should probably get you back to Midnight before the rest of the class starts thinking I’ve expelled you or something,” he said, chuckling.  

Izuku gave a sad pout for a second before standing up too. “Aww but I was enjoying the happy, jokey Aizawa, now I have to deal with grumpy, tired Aizawa all the time again?” he moaned, slightly smiling underneath his words.  

Aizawa snorted, “How dare you, I am a fucking delight to be around,” he snapped back, voice light and amused.  

The two laughed together for a minute before leaving the lounge, heading back towards the classroom.  

“Just so you know Izuku,” Aizawa spoke up, “If you ever want some peace and quiet from the rest of our idiot class, I can give you a key to my apartment on the top floor of the dorms,” he offered.  

Izuku was staggered by the offer. “Really?” he gasped. Aizawa nodded.  

“Yeah, I know you’ll be quiet and respectful if I’m working and it’ll give you a bit of a safe space away from the rest of the class if you don’t want to be bothered by them,” he replied, seemingly genuine.  

“Well... I wouldn’t want to intrude...” Izuku began.  

“Nope, none of that, I offered, you wouldn’t be intruding at all,” Aizawa reassured him, cutting him off. “You don’t have to be there all the time, I’ll just make sure you have a key so you can get in if I’m not there for whatever reason, you’ll just have a safe space you can go to if you feel like you need or just want to,”  

Izuku thought for a minute before responding. “Alright then, I think I’ll take you up on your offer, thanks Mr Aizawa,” he said, gratefully.  

“Shota,” Aizawa responded.  

“What?”  

“If we’re on our own or you’re in my apartment you can call me Shota, being called Mr Aizawa makes me feel old anyway and when I’m in my apartment I don’t want to be treated like a teacher,” he offered.  

“O. ..okay  then, thanks... Shota,” Izuku stuttered out nervously.  

Aizawa gently slapped him on the back. “See? Not that difficult eh?” he said, smirking.  

As the classroom door came into view Aizawa stopped him for a second. “If at any point in the next couple of days you feel you need to leave a class, just let the teacher know, they’ll let you go for as long as you need,” he informed him.  

“Alright, thanks Shota,” Izuku said.  

“No problem kid,” Aizawa said, turning back towards the lounge, calling over his shoulder. “Come and see me at lunch, we’ll go over a few ground rules for when you’re in my apartment,”  

Izuku just stood there for a minute longer, watching his teacher walk back down the corridor. This was not how he expected today to go.  

He shrugged and walked back towards the classroom, sliding the door open, still in a good mood.  

“Ah, good to have you back Midoriya,” greeted Midnight. “Take your seat quickly, you haven’t missed anything important,”  

Izuku quickly made his way to his seat, meeting his girlfriend’s eyes along the way. She seemed relieved to see him again and gave him a cute little smile. Returning her smile with one of his own, he took his seat.  

Midnight looked between Izuku and Mina several times, having noticed the smiles and gave a subtle grin but didn’t say anything.  

“Right then, let’s continue,” she said.  

The rest of the lesson carried on with no issues, as did Present Mic’s  English  lesson afterwards although the mood was still a bit more subdued than normal despite the DJ’s efforts to change that.  

Soon enough, lunch came around. As most of the class shuffled out, talking amongst themselves, Mina and Uraraka approached the green-haired boy, still putting away his textbooks. He looked up at the pair, turning to Uraraka first.  

“Can I help you with something?” he asked, voice slightly cold.  

The brunette was holding onto her skirt nervously. “Well... I was hoping we could talk for a bit...” she said, not meeting his eyes.  

Izuku saw Mina give her a dirty look through squinting eyes. “Erm... sure I guess, but we’ll have to talk later, I need to go and speak to Sho... to Mr Aizawa,”  

Uraraka shrunk down slightly, “Oh... okay then, I’ll talk to you later then Midoriya,” she replied, sounding slightly upset and walking away.  

As she left Izuku turned to Mina, giving her a confused shrug. “Not entirely sure what that was about,” he said, scratching his head, bumping his new horns as he did so.  

Mina gave an exasperated sigh, “Either she wants to talk about  Bakugo  or she was going to finally admit her crush on you,” she told him, amazed at his obliviousness.  

“Oh,” he merely said, face beginning to heat up, “Well either way that’s a conversation I definitely want to put off as long as I can,”  

Mina smirked, “Don’t blame you but don’t ignore her, you used to be great friends and I don’t want to see that end,” she told him, sitting down on his desk and holding one of his hands in hers. “Just make sure she knows who you belong to if it’s the second one,” she added, a sly grin on her face.  

Izuku squeaked and blushed heavier. “Alright then... can do,” he replied nervously.  

Mina gave him a smile and a peck on the cheek. “Good boy, now go talk to Aizawa, I’ll see you in the cafeteria,” she said, walking towards the open door.  

Izuku took a minute to calm down before gathering his things and heading towards the lounge, running into Midnight on the way.  

“ Oh  hey Midoriya, where you off to?” she asked him, thankfully dropping her seductress persona.  

“Just going to the teacher’s lounge, Mr Aizawa wanted to speak to me at lunch,” he responded.  

“Oh okay, mind if I walk with you? I’m heading there too,” she asked.  

Izuku nodded, “Of course, no problem,”  

They walked in silence for a minute, not running into any other students on the way.  

“By the way Midoriya,” Midnight began, “I was wondering what the story was behind... well those,” she said, pointing to his new horns and eyes.  

Izuku chuckled. “Well apparently they’re a side effect of the quirk used by a nurse that Recovery Girl is training, it uses a person’s blood to heal injuries and even repair organs but apparently if you use transfused blood then it’ll result in a few side effects based on the physical features of the person the blood came from,” he explained, his passion for quirks shining through slightly.  

Midnight gave him a sly smile, “And judging by the colour of your eyes, the new horns and the looks I noticed I'm pretty sure I can guess where the blood came from,”  

Izuku began blushing slightly but tried to keep his cool, “I’m sure you can Miss Midnight, you’re a great pro and teacher after all,”  

Midnight laughed. “Hah, thanks for that but don’t you know it’s bad to be flirting with another woman when  Ashido’s  already your girlfriend?” she asked teasingly.  

Izuku squealed nervously, “Huh? T. ..that  wasn’t flirting... that was just being nice... she wouldn’t mind that...s. ..she  wouldn’t right?” he asked, apparently thinking aloud. He then squeaked again, realising what she said. “Wait... how did you know she was my girlfriend?” he asked, his face burning hot.  

Midnight gave a satisfied smile. “I didn’t until you just told me,” she admitted.  

‘Oh crap,’ Izuku thought. “That...that’s not against the rules or anything is it?” he asked nervously. That thought had never occurred to him as he had never bothered reading the school rules on relationships, assuming they’d never affect him.  

“Oh no  no   no ,” She responded, “Of course not, even if it was, who am I to stand in the way of young love?” she asked, a teasing smile on her face.  

Izuku was very glad the lounge was near at this point. He dashed ahead of the R-rated heroine and swiftly knocked on the door. It was opened rather quickly by All Might in his hero form.  

“Ah, young Midoriya, can I help you with anything?” the hulking hero asked.  

Izuku shook his head, “No thanks All Might, I just need to talk to Mr Aizawa,”  

“Very well then,” said the symbol of peace, allowing his successor into the room.  

As Izuku entered he saw the distinctive yellow sleeping bag poking out from the end of one of the sofas and headed towards it. Sure enough, his teacher was wrapped up inside, his eyes closed.  

Apparently suddenly possessed by a spirit with no fear of death, he leaned close to the sleeping teacher, took in a deep breath...  

And shouted in his face.  

“WAKEY  WAKEY  EGGS AND BAKEY!” He shouted. All Might paled in the background, believing he was about to watch his successor be murdered. Midnight, who had just walked in herself was desperately holding in laughter at the shy student’s sudden surge of almost suicidal confidence.  

“WHO THE FUCK IS SCREAMING!?” Aizawa shouted, suddenly snapping awake and sitting upright in an instant, his face set in a furious snarl. Seeing Izuku stood there, his expression softened into a merely annoyed one instead. “Seriously problem child? You’re  gonna  do me like that?” he asked, voice annoyed but secretly impressed with his guts.  

Izuku shrugged, “Eh, just felt right, been feeling pretty good today and thought if there was ever a day to do that, it’s today,”  

Aizawa glared at him, just taking a jelly pouch from the inside of his cocoon and quickly slurping it empty.  

Izuku cocked his head. “Where do they come from sir?” Izuku asked, his notebook suddenly in hand. “I’ve seen the inside of that sleeping bag before and there’s no pockets and none of the pockets on your hero suit are big enough to fit any of those in them, so where do they come from?”  

Aizawa grinned and shrugged, “Don’t know what you’re talking about,” he responded. Unzipping the sleeping  bag  he pointed at the notebook in  Izuku’s  hand. “Where did that come from? It’s too big to fit in any pockets and your bag is still on your back, so where did that come from?  

Izuku started grinning  and also  shrugged. “Don’t know what you’re talking about sir,” he responded, a shit eating grin on his face.  

All Might and Midnight were just looking at this scene absolutely lost for words. Not only was Midoriya currently not being murdered by an angry Pro, they were bantering. What the hell was going on? The two heroes looked at each other confused, both shaking their heads and going back to their work.  

Aizawa chuckled and motioned for Izuku to sit down. Once he had, he withdrew a hand from his sleeping bag and held a key out to him. “There you go, as promised,” he said as he dropped it in  Izuku’s  outstretched hand. “Now then, a couple of ground rules for my apartment,” he began. “First of all, if I'm doing paperwork, I’d appreciate quiet, you don’t have to be silent but don’t be causing too much chaos,” he said, counting on his fingers. “Secondly, I will permit guests as long as you give me at least a bit of warning and if it’s only one or two at a time of the more sensible ones... and I suppose Ashido as well,” he added, smirking at the end.  

Izuku crossed his arms and pouted slightly. Aizawa chuckled at his expression.  

“Thirdly, if you need to, I will permit you to sleep there, there is a spare room with a bed in it but you will keep it clean if you use it, the same thing goes for anything in my apartment,” he told him, making sure the importance of cleanliness was made obvious.  

Izuku nodded in understanding, prompting Aizawa to continue. “Next of all, while I am perfectly happy with being casual in my apartment, what happens in the apartment, stays in the apartment, if you tell anybody else in the class about what I’m actually like then I will expel you,” he said, mostly joking.  

Izuku chuckled but nodded. “And finally,” Aizawa added, closing his fist as he counted off the last finger. “If you intend to tie the knot with Ashido, please keep that to your own rooms, I can do without that going on in my apartment,” he finished, entirely joking with that last one.  

Izuku choked for a second but soon calmed himself. “Alright Aizawa, I think I can live with those,” he said. “Is that all? Can I go and get some food now please?”  

Aizawa waved him away. “Yeah  yeah , go eat problem child, you’ll need your strength for training tomorrow,”  

Izuku smiled and walked away, giving All Might and Midnight a small wave as he left.  

Aizawa smiled and lay down on the sofa again, looking up at the ceiling. Then a face appeared above him. “Shota, did you just give Midoriya a key to your apartment?” Midnight asked, mock hurt in her voice. “I don’t even have a key to your place but you’re giving the bone breaking king of Class 1-A a key?”  

Aizawa frowned and gave a dismissive shrug. “I trust him a hell of a lot more than you to not bother me while I’m working or trying to sleep,” he defended.  

Midnight gave him a hard stare with her hands on her hips. “He just screamed in your face to wake you up,” she reminded him.  

“A notable outlier,” he responded, voice deadpan as usual, “Besides, even if he was the type to bother me I’d still have offered, kid needs another place to go right now, he’s been through some tough stuff that he shouldn’t have had to,” he went on to say, his voice sounding rather protective.  

Midnight gave him a smirk. “ So  how’s the adoption process going? I’m guessing you’ve already got his papers written up,” she asked teasingly.  

Aizawa glared at her again. “Have you been going through my desk again  Nemuri ?” he asked, voice annoyed but entirely serious.  

Midnight was taken aback by that. “Wait have you seriously got adoption papers for him?” she asked incredulously.  

Aizawa just blinked. “I appear to have made an error,” he observed.  

Midnight clapped, “Anyway, swiftly moving on,  wanna  hear something interesting?” she asked, hoping to  break  the tension.  

Aizawa groaned, closing his eyes. “Sure, whatever,”  

Midnight giggled, like she always does when there’s gossip to be shared. “Well...” she began, “Did you know our little horned green bean has a girlfriend?” she asked  conspiratorially .  

Aizawa’s  eyes snapped wide open again and he shot upright. “Who?” he demanded.  

Midnight gave a small grin, glancing over at All Might, making sure he wasn’t listening. “Ashido,” she whispered.  

A wide grin spread across  Aizawa’s  face as he resisted the urge to shout in triumph. His grin only grew stronger when Present Mic walked in.  

“HIZASHI! YOU OWE ME 10000 YEN!”  

Chapter Text

Mina found herself sat with Iida, Uraraka, Tsu, Todoroki and Kyoka in the cafeteria. ‘Hmm, this reminds me of the Bakusquad, maybe I should come up with a name for this group too?’ she thought, smirking to herself. 

“What are you thinking about Mina?” asked Tsu, noticing her smile. 

“Nothing really, just thought of something funny,” she responded, shrugging her shoulders casually. 

Tsu nodded in response and went back to her food. “I wonder, where is Midoriya?” Iida asked, looking up from his beef stew. 

Mina replied after swallowing a mouthful of food. “He said he had to go and speak to Mr Aizawa, he’ll be here when he’s done,” 

“Oh I see, I wonder what he needed to talk about?” he wondered. 

“I’m sure he’ll tell us if it’s anything important,” Tsu responded. “If he doesn’t think it’s something we don’t need to know about he probably won’t tell us,” 

Uraraka pouted slightly. “He never used to do that, he used to tell us everything,” she said, sounding kind of upset. 

Mina gave her a brief glare but bit her tongue. She wanted to tell her that she was meant to be his best friend but didn’t notice how much pain he had been in and that Mina was the first person he told about what had happened. 

“Well he’s been through some pretty big things recently, he’s bound to be a bit different, besides, he doesn’t need to tell us anything if he doesn’t want to,” She said instead. 

Uraraka continued pouting for a second before looking guilty. “I suppose so... I guess he didn’t really tell us everything after all, suppose I can’t really blame him for that given who I was going out with,” she replied, voice quiet and somber. 

“Speaking of different,” Kyoka began, “What exactly was the deal with his eyes and his new horns? They kinda look like yours actually Mina, apart from the colours and shape of the horns you’re both pretty similar now,” she observed. 

“Their hair styles are even nearly identical,” Tsu added. 

Mina saw Todoroki pull a notebook from his pocket and begin scribbling furiously in it. She saw the cover read ‘SECRET RELATIVES AND LOVE CHILDREN’. She didn’t know whether to laugh or cringe so she did both. 

“Yes, that is true, all Mr Aizawa said was that it was a side effect of a healing quirk but he didn’t give us any of the details,” Iida added. 

All eyes turned to Mina, looking for an explanation. “What? Why do you think I know what happened?” She asked, trying to look surprised. 

“Because you nearly overtook All Might going to the infirmary and came back to the dorms with him after he had been healed,” Tsu stated in her usual deadpan manner. 

Mina frowned, slightly disappointed. “Damnit... ah well fair enough, tell you what, when Izuku comes back, I’ll tell you about it if he’s comfortable with it,” She offered. 

The rest of the table nodded, apparently satisfied. Aside from Todoroki that is, he looked disappointed at not being able to get information for his little conspiracy book. 

Kyoka cocked an eyebrow. “That’s something I actually meant to ask about too, why do you call Greenie by his first name? Even Ochako doesn’t do that,” she asked curiously. 

Mina froze. Of course the girl with super hearing would pick up on that. ‘Ah crap, I don’t know if Izuku would want to know anybody to know about our relationship yet. Do I just pass it off as being good friends? Or... I could actually just tell them what basically happened.’ 

Mina cleared her throat before responding, hoping she wasn’t visibly blushing. “Well... because of the tutoring assignment we ended up spending a lot of time together, I asked him to call me Mina since I preferred it, I called him Midori for a while and then after finding out what had happened between him and Bakugo I just kind of started calling him Izuku and he never corrected me so I just kept on doing it,” she explained, hoping the answer would satisfy them. 

Apparently it did, the group turned back to their own trays, talking about different topics such as homework, classes and tomorrow’s training session, the first since the... incident, with Izuku. 

Not too much longer, Izuku appeared from over Iida’s shoulder, holding a tray of his own, a bowl of steaming Katsudon sat on it. Mina smirked, she wasn’t sure she’d seen him eat anything else at lunch the whole time she’d known him. 

“Hey guys,” he greeted, a wide smile on his face, sitting down next to Mina and opposite Tsu. 

“Hello Midoriya,” greeted Iida, “How did your conversation with Mr Aizawa go?” 

Izuku just shrugged. “It went fine, was just something else we didn’t have time to talk about earlier,” he responded. 

Iida and Uraraka looked like they were both about to ask for further details but remembering Mina’s earlier words, they stopped. 

“So Greenie,” Kyoka said, one of her ear jacks pointing at Izuku’s face accusingly. “I think it’s time to explain what exactly happened to your eyes and why you have horns now since you’re apparently not actually possessed,” 

Todoroki’s eyes narrowed slightly. “At least not by anything that could be forced out by an amateur exorcist,” he added, his voice completely serious and almost suspicious. 

Izuku chuckled, reaching a hand up and running his fingers along the length of one of his horns. “Well didn’t you ask Mina this? She knows what happened, frankly she knows better than I do, I was unconscious,” he said, chuckling slightly again. 

Tsu nodded. “We did but she said she’d only tell us if you were comfortable with it,” she informed him. 

Izuku turned to Mina who was blushing gently. “Thanks for that Mina,” he said gratefully. “But I've got no problem with it so go ahead and tell them,” 

Mina nodded, looking at the rest of the table who had all leant in slightly to listen in. 

She told them about how the nurse’s quirk used blood to heal injuries but that Izuku didn’t have enough blood to use to heal him without potentially putting him in more danger. She then explained that she had the same blood type as him so she offered the use of her own blood, which was then used to heal his injuries. She smirked as she then explained that nobody was aware that if blood was used to heal organs or anything visible, it would take on the physical properties of the person it came from. Hence the black sclera and growth of horns. 

The rest of the table smiled and laughed at Recovery Girl’s reaction to her nurse, pummeling him with her cane as she does to many students. Several present had felt the sting of her cane before and knew the old lady had a hell of an arm on her. 

“I see, that makes sense,” Iida concluded, “But while I can understand the eyes changing colour as they needed to be repaired, why did he grow horns?” he asked. 

Mina and Izuku looked at each other, both unsure as to the answer. 

“Don’t know,” they replied at the same time, looking back to the blue-haired speedster. 

“To be honest though I actually kind of like them, I think they make me look cooler, I kinda think the same about the scar on my face actually, nobody can call me plain looking anymore,” he joked, staring pointedly at Uraraka. 

Remembering how she attempted to describe him to Present Mic after the entrance exam, she stuck her tongue out at him and giggled slightly. 

“I agree,” said Tsu, “I think they all make you look even more attractive now,” she admitted, seemingly without thinking. Upon realising what she said, her eyes widened slightly and she began to blush. 

The rest of the table had frozen. Uraraka had gone bright red and had begun floating, Iida was stuttering, his arms waving around like a faulty robot, Kyoka was muttering to herself and Todoroki was literally frozen. 

After the rest of the table had calmed down again, Iida spoke up hesitantly. “Well... I suppose I have to agree, you do look more rugged now which does make you more physically attractive to many more people now,” he admitted, blushing slightly. 

Todoroki nodded but almost looked insulted. “What are you talking about? He’s always looked attractive,” he responded indignantly. 

Kyoka gave out a faint squeal and quietly muttered to herself; “Well they’re not wrong but they don’t have to say it like that,” 

Mina looked around the table, looking at each person in turn before an amused smile broke out on her face. 

‘How many people on this table have a crush on Izuku?’ she wondered. 

The rest of the school day went by without incident. After several more hours of lessons, Izuku found himself sat on a sofa in the common room, sat next to Mina with the rest of his friends sat nearby. They had been watching a documentary that Tsu had put on but he noticed Uraraka constantly fidgeting and glancing over at him. 

Contrary to what people thought about him, Izuku wasn’t that dense about feelings. He knew full well that both he and Uraraka shared a mutual crush at the start of the year. That was one of the reasons he was so confused that she started dating Bakugo. Sure they were both horrendously awkward and shy but those feelings hadn’t gone anywhere. 

He had a sinking feeling that was what she wanted to talk to him about. He was debating whether to try and put it off and just rip off the band aid and get it over with. 

He decided to ask the expert. 

“Mina, should I?” he began to ask. 

“Oh yeah, definitely talk to her before she explodes,” she responded before he could even get the question out. 

Izuku nodded nervously, gulping quickly before speaking up. “Oh yeah Uraraka, didn’t you want to talk to me about something earlier?” he asked, his voice sounding like he had only just remembered. 

The brunette squeaked at being called out, quickly growing red. ‘Oh crap, I think I'm right,’ Izuku thought. She took a few moments to try and calm down before responding. 

“Erm... yeah, just... can we talk in private?” she asked nervously. 

Izuku nodded, “Sure, let’s go for a walk outside,” he responded, standing up and walking towards the door. He could practically feel her blush from behind him as she caught up. He sighed and shook his head, was he this bad? That’s embarrassing. 

The pair found themselves in the cool air of the late evening, taking a lap around the dorm building. 

“So then Uraraka, what was it you wanted to talk about?” he asked, certain he already knew the answer. 

She didn’t reply for a good minute, just letting out incomprehensible squeaks and squeals. Izuku stopped them both and put a hand on her shoulder. “Uraraka, just say what you need to, don’t bottle it up, that’ll end badly,” he suggested, feeling a little bit hypocritical in doing so. 

She froze up at the contact briefly but soon started to gain some confidence. “Well...” she began. “First of all I wanted to say I’m sorry, sorry for ignoring you while I was dating Bakugo, sorry for dating him at all... sorry for not seeing what he had done to you...” she said, her voice trailing off and growing quiet. 

Izuku gently shook her shoulder as they started walking again. “It’s alright Uraraka, I don’t blame you for that, it’s my fault for hiding it as long as I did,” he reassured her. 

Hearing him forgive her gave her a boost of confidence. 

Which for her meant she managed to start speaking again after only two minutes instead of not at all. 

“And well...” she continued. “I know it might be a bit of a weird thing but...” she hesitated. “While I was dating Bakugo, I was actually happy... but I still couldn’t stop thinking about you instead,” she admitted. 

Izuku had to desperately resist the urge to groan or hide his face or anything like that, instead setting his face into as neutral an expression as he could at the time and picking up the pace a bit quicker, hoping this conversation would be over if they got back to the front doors of the dorms. 

Slightly panicked, Uraraka sped up, ending up in front of him and nearly jogging backwards. “I’m sorry if that’s too sudden or something but please listen to me,” she begged. “I know I’ve been terrible at hiding my feelings for you... at least to the rest of the class... but you never said anything about it and I didn’t know if you felt the same so I latched on to the first person who seemed to show an interest in me,” she confessed, voice frantic and eyes beginning to tear up. 

By this point the doors of the dorms were in sight, Izuku was praying she wouldn’t say anything else before they got there. Unfortunately, he’s never that lucky so he didn’t get his wish. 

“Look Izuku, I know this is a bad time but I wanted to know if you’d go out with me?” she asked, clenching her eyes shut and almost squealing it out as they reached the doors and Izuku reached a hand for the handle. 

Izuku’s hand froze in midair. He knew what he had to do but... he really didn’t want to have to do it. But at the same time... he couldn’t lead her on when she wanted something he couldn’t give her anymore. 

His hand found its way to the handle on the door but made no movement to open it. He turned around to face Uraraka, still holding onto the door. 

“Uraraka,” he said, making her look up at him. “I know I seem it but I’m not that dense, of course I knew you had feelings for me.” he told her causing her to look panicked. “And although I wasn’t the best at showing them either, I had feelings for you too,” he admitted, causing her expression to light up before he continued talking. 

“But then you started dating... him.” he said. “I know that you had no way of knowing what had happened between us and that it was in no way your fault...” he continued. “But you were my first real friend in over a decade... and then you started dating the man who had tortured me almost my entire life,” he spat out, his anger getting the best of him for a moment before calming down. “I know it wasn’t your fault... but it felt like a betrayal,” he admitted. “The first person who was genuinely nice to me and wanted to be my friend since I was four started dating the one who ended up doing this to me,” he added as he pointed to his eyes. 

Uraraka was fully in tears now but Izuku couldn’t stop now. “yes, once upon a time, I had feelings for you but now... now I don’t... and I don’t think I ever can again,” he admitted. 

“I still want us to be friends, despite what happened, you were still my first real friend and I don’t want that to stop... but I can’t give you what you want anymore... my heart isn’t mine to give to you anymore,” he admitted. 

Uraraka stared at him through tear filled eyes. “Mina?” she asked, almost blubbering. 

Izuku nodded. “She was the only one to see what I was going through, was the only one to help me out of this... dark pit I was in for most of my life... the only one to truly show me that even a person as broken as me can be put back together... and even loved,” 

Uraraka, despite her tears, smiled. “Well I’m glad someone could do what I failed to do... I just wish I'd been the one to do it,” she said mournfully. 

Izuku nodded and pushed the door open, leaving Uraraka where she was to compose herself. He felt terrible for doing so but he knew there was one more thing he’d have to do to really make it sink in for Uraraka and he had to build up the courage to do so. 

He quickly rejoined his friends and girlfriend, putting an arm around her shoulders and pulling her into him so her head was leaning on his shoulder. While surprised, Mina wasn’t going to let this opportunity go to waste and she turned on her side, supporting herself on her legs and leaning against Izuku, almost lying on him with her hands in between their chests. 

The others were taken aback by this display of affection but soon composed themselves and turned their attention back to the documentary, displaying innocent creatures dying in brutal and godless oblivion at the hands... or claws... or teeth of predators. Thinking about it why did Tsu want to watch this? 

After a while, Uraraka joined them, her eyes still red but no longer wet. She looked at Mina almost draped over Izuku and her heart sank, seeing evidence for his words outside. Izuku saw her expression and it made him feel terrible but he knew he had one last thing to do. 

Deciding to just go for it, he tapped Mina on the shoulder, prompting her to look up at him. As she did so, he wrapped an arm around her torso and lifted her up towards him, bringing her in for a deep kiss. 

It was a strange sensation. He never thought he’d feel so guilty about doing something so naturally enjoyable. He shut his eyes, he couldn’t bring himself to look at Uraraka’s no doubt crushed expression. He knew he had to do this, he knew what would happen but he still wasn’t brave enough to watch it happen. 

With that thought, he wrenched his eyes back open and slowly pulled away from his girlfriend, a small strand of saliva linking both of their mouths. 

With no small amount of trepidation, he turned to face his brunette friend. As expected, she looked absolutely devastated... but there seemed to be some kind of almost begrudging happiness there too. 

While Uraraka was hurt by the sight, deep down, she was happy for him. It would take her a while to admit it, even to herself, but she was happy he had found someone to love him who could protect him much better than she could. 

Meanwhile, their friends were watching this scene with wide open mouths. Iida had turned some strange shade of red the world had never seen before, steam literally coming from his ears in small puffs like leaky pipes. 

Todoroki had somehow managed to simultaneously freeze half the sofa he was sat on and set the other half on fire. 

Tsu’s tongue had dropped out of her mouth and was lying almost in a knot on the floor and she stared with wide eyes and a heavy blush. 

Kyoka was attempting to hide her blush, rivalling Tsu’s, with her hands while her jacks tried, and failed, to cover her eyes which she couldn’t bring herself to close. 

As Izuku pulled away from his girlfriend, Mina looked almost dazed or drunk, her eyes not quite being able to focus because of the suddenness and passion of the kiss. After a few moments of silence, she began to come back to full awareness. “Where did that come from Izuku?” she gasped, still trying to catch her breath. 

Izuku just gave a smile, blushing himself. “Just... felt right I guess,” he responded before turning to his friends. “Sooooo... surprise?” he offered weakly. 

“O.M.G!” he heard from behind him. He looked over his shoulder, seeing a floating set of clothes, a sparking Kaminari and Kirishima, shedding his usual tears of manliness with a hardened hand clenched over his heart. 

“Erm...” Izuku groaned nervously. Hagakure quickly leapt forward and pointed accusingly at Mina. At least, he thought she did, she wasn’t wearing anything on her wrists so it was kind of hard to tell if she was or not. 

“Mina Ashido!” she exclaimed, sounding scandalised. “I can’t believe you went and got yourself a boyfriend and didn’t tell me, how dare you,” she added although her tone was lighter than her words. 

Mina shrugged sheepishly, “I mean... this literally happened like... this morning,” she defended, “And there’s been some more pressing concerns since then,” 

Izuku could practically feel the disappointed pout coming from the invisible girl. “Well alright then, I’ll let you off this time but seriously? Midoriya? That I was not expecting,” 

Izuku put a hand over his heart, “Ouch, that hurts Hagakure,” he said, grinning slightly. 

“And?” Mina said defensively. “I wouldn’t have thought that you’d have a crush on Ojiro but here we are,” she responded, hands on her hips and a smug grin on her face. 

Hagakure responded by squeaking and... possibly curling up into a ball on the floor? 

Kaminari looked like he had short circuited without even having to overuse his quirk. “So wait... you and Midoriya? You’re together now?” he asked. 

Mina nodded proudly, leaning over and giving Izuku another peck on the mouth. “Yep, he’s my new horn buddy and adorable boyfriend,” she announced happily. 

Kirishima clenched his fist harder and more tears escaped from his eyes. “Manly,” he muttered. 

Kaminari looked at Izuku, then at Mina, then back at Izuku. Then he leapt towards him, hands sparking with electricity. “HOW DID YOU DO THAT DUDE?! TELL ME YOUR SECRET!” he shouted excitedly. 

Izuku yelped and leapt over the sofa, sprinting towards the stairs. 

“OH NO YOU DON’T, YOU’RE NOT GETTING AWAY FROM ME THAT EASILY!” Kaminari called after him, beginning to chase him up the stairs. 

Most of the remaining students in the common room looked towards the stairs for a moment before all eyes turned to Mina. 

“Alright then girl,” Hagakure said, forcefully sitting herself down next to her and grabbing onto her so she couldn’t escape. “Spill,” she commanded. 

Mina gulped. This was going to be a long interrogation. 

Izuku sprinted up the stairwell, luckily he was naturally faster than Kaminari so he was getting quite a lead in front of him but where to go? He couldn’t go to his room, that would be too obvious. He couldn’t go to Mina’s, he had no way to get in. 

A jangle of a key in his pocket reminded him. He now had a new safe space to go to. He didn’t think he’d need to use Aizawa’s apartment as a literal place of safety this soon but beggars can’t be choosers. 

He continued sprinting to the top floor, dashing towards the only thick wooden door on the whole floor. He quickly grabbed the handle and twisted. It was open. With no hesitation, he swung the door open and slammed it shut behind him, immediately locking it from the inside. 

Not hearing Kaminari anymore, Izuku sighed in relief and turned around to face into the apartment. 

And came face to face with his teacher wearing boxer shorts and a pale pink cat t-shirt. 

Izuku desperately tried to keep his eyes on his face but his eyes kept falling to the bright, frankly adorable looking garment he was wearing. 

Aizawa sighed, holding a cup of coffee in one hand and rubbing his nose with the other. “I was just starting to relax and you had to burst in,” he moaned. 

Izuku blushed and rubbed his head. “Sorry Mr Aizawa,” he apologised. 

Aizawa waved his apology away. “Eh don’t worry about it kid, and call me Shota remember?” he reminded him. 

“Oh yeah, sorry Shota,” Izuku said. 

Shota shrugged, taking a long slurp from his oversized mug, also shaped like a cat, and walked towards the kitchen. “Well since you interrupted my time of relaxation, you get to make it up to me by cooking for us,” he said. 

Izuku followed him, confused. “Cooking? You want me to cook for you?” he asked. 

Shota nodded. “Yeah, I’ve heard nothing but good things about your cooking from the rest of the class and it’s not the same eating leftovers out of the fridge,” he admitted. 

Izuku rubbed his chin. ‘Oh, so that’s where they went,’ he thought. 

Izuku shrugged and walked towards the fridge. “Alright then sure thing, what you want?” he asked. 

Shota shrugged and just gestured toward the fridge and cupboards. “Whatever, just find whatever you need and make us something good,” 

Izuku examined the contents of the fridge and cupboards. He had everything he needed for Katsudon, both his favourite dish and the one he was best at cooking. Izuku grinned and started grabbing the necessary ingredients. 

He'd make Shota the best damn Katsudon he’d ever had if it killed him god damnit. 

Chapter Text

Izuku opened his eyes to find himself being dangled from the roof of a building.  

‘Well, this is new,’ he thought, looking down at the ground, over thirty  metres  below him and the familiar skyline in front of him.  

Then he felt the  fist  holding him by the collar and looked over his shoulder. “ Nana,  why are you dangling me over a ledge?” he asked, trying to remain calm.  

Said hero was giving him an intense look of disappointment. Saying nothing, she brought him closer to the ledge.  

And then flipped him over her shoulder and slammed him into the concrete floor of the rooftop they were on.  

Izuku pushed himself onto his feet, spitting dust out of his mouth. Apparently getting slammed into concrete still hurts even when it’s in his head. Good to know.  

“Alright first of all, Ouch,” Izuku said, coughing up more concrete dust. “Second of all, why did I deserve that?” he asked.  

Nana just looked at him like she couldn’t believe her ears before chopping him on the head. “Why do you think you idiot? You left that talk with Uraraka basically exactly where it needed to be, why did you go and kiss your girlfriend right in front of her after that?” she asked, voice frustrated. “That’s not so much rubbing salt in the wound as literally tearing her heart in two,”  

Izuku looked down at the ground, kicking a small chunk of debris left by his face. “I know...” he said, voice guilty. “I know I should have left it at that now but at the time I just thought it’d be best if she saw it... make sure she knew that it wasn’t a possibility anymore,”  

Nana responded by chopping him on the head again. “THAT’S NOT HOW YOU DO THAT!” she screeched.  

Izuku rubbed the top of his head and gave her a withering stare. “Yeah, it’s almost as if I've gone my entire life being physically and mentally tortured by someone who I couldn’t help but respect and want to be closer to and have barely known love or support from anyone my entire life,” he said, voice flat. “I wonder if something like that would affect me or make me not understand the best way to handle feelings other than crushing sadness?” he asked, voice coldly sarcastic.  

Nana rubbed the bridge of her nose and sighed. “Alright that’s fair enough I suppose but still, you basically just crushed her right there and then ended up running away not long after without even talking to her,”  

Izuku nodded in acceptance. “Yeah, everything’s better in hindsight but you already know I'm useless at this whole relationship thing, I don’t know how the hell this works, that’s why I was asking you about it, I’ll apologise to her at some point today,”  

Nana sighed again but looked back up at Izuku. “You better,” she warned, “Remember I can mess with your brain in here and I'm guessing you’d rather not have me mess around with your emotions anymore,”  

Izuku put his hands up as if surrendering. “Yeah  yeah  don’t worry, I’ll do it later, I just need to think of exactly the best way to do so,”  

Nana smirked. “I’d recommend self-deprecation, in my experience, when you’ve messed up, acknowledging how much you messed up and calling yourself a massive idiot helps the apology go down smoother,” she suggested.  

Izuku looked up at the black-haired heroine. “Have you been reading my thoughts or something because that was basically my entire plan?” he asked, his head cocked to one side in confusion.  

Nana laughed. “Kid, we really need to deal with those self-esteem issues at some point but for now, stick with those instincts, they’ll take you far when it comes to apologies,”  

Izuku shrugged, rubbing the back of his head again. “Is that it? Did you just bring me in here to slap me around for slightly fucking up with something I barely understand or was there something else?” he asked impatiently.  

Nana gave him a brief glare but calmed down quickly. “Actually yeah, I wanted to tell you to please stop breaking your bones with One for All,” she said. “Please figure out a way to use it without breaking your bones because there’s only so many times I can watch the first bearer’s arms shatter before it starts becoming seriously disturbing,”  

Izuku looked surprised. “Wait, how does me breaking my arms make one of you break their arms?” he asked.  

“We can feel everything you can remember?” she reminded him. “The rest of us could handle a certain amount of One for All’s backlash but the first bearer never actually used it, I’ll let Toshi tell you about the origins of our quirk but basically, he never adapted to be able to use it so he suffers all of the possible backlash whenever you use it,”  

Izuku facepalmed, “Oh great, I wish I'd known that sooner, I bet he hated the sports festival,”  

Nana nodded, “Oh yeah that sucked for him, he had a bad time,”  

Izuku looked at Nana. “Can’t you just tell me how to control it better?” he asked. “I mean, you held this quirk once and all that All Might could suggest was ‘clench your ass and yell smash’,”  

Nana laughed. “Yeah that sounds like him, he was never good at teaching or explaining anything,” she said. “Great hero, terrible teacher,” she summarised.  

Izuku gestured between them. “Well? Are you going to help me?” he asked.  

Nana shook her head. “Nope, sorry kid, that’s something you’ll have to work out yourself, if I tell you how I did it you’d just end up copying me like you’re copying All Might now, you need to find out a way to make the power your own,”  

Izuku was confused, make the power his own? What does that mean?  

“ Anyway,  I'm sure you’ve got lots to think about right now so you better get going, I need to get back to the One for All holders poker game,” Nana said, reaching out to his face.  

“Wait hang o-”  

*Boop*  

Izuku opened his eyes, seeing he was in his room with All Might looking down on him from all directions. He shuddered, he never realised All Might looked so creepy in the dark. Maybe he should take some of it down...  

Anyway, more important things to think about right now.  First of all , apologise to Uraraka, second of all, stop drinking the bone hurting juice.  

He didn’t know which one would be easier.  

“Right, apologise to Uraraka first, focus on the whole not breaking bones thing during training,” he said to himself.  

“Urgh... Izuku what time is it?” asked a voice from his right.  

Izuku looked in that direction and saw Mina lying next to him. He was  fairly sure  she wasn’t there when he went to sleep.  

“Erm... like 6 in the morning I think...” he answered confused. “ Also  when did you get here?” he added.  

His girlfriend shrugged, snuggling up to his chest. “Not sure, probably at about midnight? I couldn’t sleep and I wanted cuddles so here I am,”  

Izuku wrapped an arm around her and scratched his head with the other. “How did you get in here?” he asked.  

“Melted your lock,” Mina mumbled sleepily.  

He looked over towards his door. Sure enough, the door was slightly ajar and there was a conspicuous hole where the lock should have been.  

He sighed, making a note to talk to Yaoyorozu about replacing it at some point today when he realised something.  

Someone was looking into his room.  

He quickly snapped upright and stared intently at the gap in the door. There was a sudden sound of movement and the sound of running going down the hallway. He couldn’t be sure but he  think  he saw a bit of green hair.  

Was that  Tsu ?  

Izuku gently prodded Mina, trying to wake her up again. “I think  Tsu  might have been spying on us,” he told her.  

Mina mumbled sleepily. “Not surprised, pretty sure half the school has a crush on you... too cute for your own good,”  

Izuku just stuttered for a minute. “You’re kidding right?” he asked.  

Mina shook her head, her fluffy hair shaking like a tree in the wind. “Nope, I’m pretty sure everyone we ate lunch with yesterday at least has a crush on you,”  

“Wait really?”  

She nodded, “Yeah, Iida, possibly, Todoroki, probably, Uraraka... well maybe not anymore... and  Tsu  and Kyoka, definitely,”  

Izuku rubbed his temples, this was too much to deal with this early, he still had to deal with apologising to Uraraka after all, he didn’t need more emotional turmoil on top of that.  

You know what, never mind. Izuku was  pretty dense  apparently and still had no idea how feelings worked. Good to know.  

At the end of the corridor, Kyoka and  Tsu  were listening in using  Kyoka’s  jacks. “Shit, they’re on to us,” Kyoka hissed.  

Aizawa was in deep, deep thought that morning. His subject of thought? Izuku.  

He was debating whether Izuku would be better as a hero or as a chef. The kid  definitely had  a heroic spirit, his self-sacrificing tendencies were worrying, and made a lot more sense now than they did but they were very noble and if he could control that quirk of his he could be an incredibly effective hero...  

But at the same time his cooking could bring about world peace...  

He was certain that he had never eaten anything as good as  Izuku’s   katsudon  that he made last night. He was fine with acting a lot more relaxed and casual in front of Izuku  now  but he refused to let him see that his cooking brought a tear to his eye with how good it was.  

So, hero, or chef?  

What if he expelled Izuku from UA and sent him off to culinary school? He could become an even better cook than he already is and frankly he’s one of the best ones Aizawa had ever known already. What if he could convince All Might to finance opening a restaurant for him?  Izuku’s  food served in a restaurant could bring people just as much joy and happiness as All Might’s very existence did.  

Hell, Izuku could bring villains over to the right side of the law with promise of his food.  

Was Aizawa overreacting? Probably.  

Was he being overly dramatic? Definitely.  

Was that food still the best he’d ever eaten?  Oh  fuck yes.  

That was even including food cooked by Lunch Rush. Izuku managed to cook better than a pro hero who’s entire thing is being an incredible chef.  

At the very least he had to get Lunch Rush to teach Izuku everything he knew, assuming he could teach him anything new anyway, if not then maybe Izuku could teach him and make the food served in the cafeteria be worthy of a  five - star  restaurant.  

Aizawa’s  stomach grumbled, just thinking about  Izuku’s  cooking was making him hungry again. He groaned in displeasure. Normally he didn’t eat that much so he always had big portions that would last him a day or two but  Izuku’s  food was so good he didn’t have any leftovers he could have for breakfast.  

‘I mean... I could always ask him to do me breakfast too,’ he thought. He grimaced, that would involve either going to the common room and asking him to cook for him in front of potentially the whole class, or...  

Kidnapping him and spiriting him to his apartment to cook for him.  

Yeah  the second option sounded better although that may have just been the hunger talking.  

Aizawa stroked his permanent stubble, Izuku lived on the second floor. Normally he would probably already be up and exercising or something by now but he’s been sleeping in a lot more these days since he’d started hanging out with Ashido...  

Or dating her now apparently.  

Aizawa felt himself grin, at least his plan worked for one pair he thought would be cute together. Anyway, back to planning a kidnapping.  

While Izuku had been more confident lately, he was still  pretty jumpy . If he made a sound come from his  balcony  he would probably come to investigate it. He could use that opportunity to grab him from above with his capture weapon and quickly bring him back up to his apartment. He did specifically request potential handholds to be made on the building for a reason after all.  

Aizawa grinned, this was going to be great.  

*Clatter*  

A noise came from the balcony. Izuku quickly shot up from his comfortable embrace with his girlfriend to look in the direction it came from. Was someone trying to break in? Was there a villain on the UA grounds?  

He felt his girlfriend pat his leg. “Come on Zuku, it was probably nothing, can we please just lie here for a bit longer? You did wake me up earlier after all,”  

Izuku gently stroked her hair, the girl giving out a content mewl at the contact. “I’ll be back in just a minute, I’ll just make sure there’s nothing there and then come back,” he said, pushing the covers off himself.  

“ Mmm  fine... just be back soon, you’re warm and comfy,” Mina mumbled, already trying to grab him and pull him back in.  

He gave her a quick kiss on the cheek, causing another adorable mewl. “It’ll just be a minute, don’t worry,” he reassured her, standing up and walking towards the  french  doors leading to the balcony.  

He quickly unlocked them and opened a door, peering out onto his balcony. Seeing nothing, he stepped out onto it and found a coin on the ground. He bent down to pick it up. Where had that come from?  

He looked up to try and see where it might have come from. All he had time to see was a dark shape above him before something grey and strong shot towards him, wrapping around his mouth and constricting his arms to his body.  

He barely had time to let out a muffled ‘ eep ’ before he was pulled into the air and the figure carried him over its shoulder, climbing up the side of the building with ease. Izuku couldn’t do anything, his arms were bound too tightly to his side for him to use One for All without doing too much damage to himself.  

He couldn’t even see who  had him , Izuku was being held along his back, looking away from the building. All he knew was they were going up.  

All of a sudden  Izuku felt whoever was holding him climb in through a window and he was suddenly released. He quickly got to his feet in a fighting stance, spinning around to see whoever had tried to abduct him.  

“Well looks like I'm  gonna  have to drill you all in  spacial  awareness for a couple of weeks,” Shota said, smirking. “You didn’t even know I was there until you looked up,”  

Izuku let his shoulders relax but he was still unnerved. “Shota? Why exactly did you basically just kidnap me?” he asked him.  

“I want you to cook breakfast,” he answered as if it was the most logical thing in the world.  

Izuku blinked. “So... you kidnapped me... because you want me to cook you breakfast?” he asked slowly and almost not believing his ears.  

“That is what I just said yeah,” Shota responded, crossing his arms impatiently.  

“Well why didn’t you just ask me to make you something rather than kidnapping me?” Izuku asked him, exasperated.  

“If I'd asked you to make me something, it would have been in front of most of the class, I can’t have the rest of those idiots knowing I can be bribed with food,”  

Izuku gained an expression of absolute bafflement. “You could have just asked me to do that from the balcony rather than kidnapping me,”  

It was Shota’s turn to blink. “Oh yeah, that would have made more sense,” he muttered, then he shrugged. “Oh well, what’s done is done, you’re here now so get cooking kid,”  

Izuku facepalmed, thinking for a minute. “Alright then, how about we make a deal?” he offered. Shota cocked an eyebrow in curiosity. “I’ll make you a meal every night and something you can heat up the next day for breakfast if you agree to not kidnap me anymore,”  

Shota thought on this for a moment. “I mean that sounds good but you’re not getting much out of this deal,”  

Izuku shrugged, “I’m happy with just not getting abducted again but I would like a favour if you’re willing?”  

Shota nodded, “Depending on what it is, it shouldn’t be a problem,”  

Izuku nodded, “Could you get a costume modification fast  tracked?  I have a new costume and equipment in  mind  and I’d like it to be ready in time for the work studies,”  

Shota raised an eyebrow but nodded. “Sure, just give me the designs and I’ll tell the support department and power loader that it’s high priority and needs to be done by next week,”  

Izuku clapped, “Great, I’ll get those designs to you before homeroom and I’ll get started on some breakfast for you,”  

Izuku marched off to the kitchen, determined to make a good meal.  

After all, now he knew Aizawa could be bribed.  

This would be useful.  

It was about half seven in the morning by the time Izuku got back to his room. He opened the door to find Mina frantically typing into her phone. The door opening caught her attention and she grew a huge and relieved smile at seeing her boyfriend.  

She threw herself at him, clinging to him like a koala bear. “Where the hell did you go  you  big dummy?” she demanded.  

Izuku wrapped his arms around her and shrugged. “Eh you know, got abducted by aliens, no big deal really,”  

Mina stared at him for a second before punching him in the shoulder. “That’s not funny, I thought you went missing,”  

Izuku rubbed his shoulder, cringing slightly. “ Oww ... alright, I’m sorry, something... unexpected came up that I had to deal with,”  

Mina cocked her head at him, deploying her secret weapon.  

Immense cuteness.  

Izuku began sweating under the intensely adorable stare of his beautiful girlfriend. He was finding it very hard to not spill the beans. But... he had to resist. He would rather not get expelled.  

“Nope, sorry, I've got a secret to keep and it’s not mine to tell,”  

Mina pouted, “Aww come on Zuku, that’s not how gossip works,”  

Izuku shook his head, amused. “Nope again, sorry but I can’t tell you,”  

Mina’s pout deepened for a second before fading entirely. “Alright fair enough, I’ll drop it,”  

“Thanks Mina,” Izuku said, giving her a quick peck on the lips.  

Mina laughed, “Hah, you’re not getting off that easy, you owe me a lot more than that for letting me get so worried,”. And with that she grabbed the back of his head and pulled him into a soul searing kiss. Izuku was momentarily taken off guard by the force and passion behind the kiss but soon succumbed to it, letting his eyes close and returning the kiss as good as he was getting it.  

With Izuku pinned against the door, Mina pressed her body against his, craving closeness and contact. The two remained locked in mutual bliss for several minutes until Mina had to pull away to breath. Izuku was left with a dumb grin on his face.  

“I might need to go missing more often if that’s what you’re  gonna  do when I get back,” he said, still grinning like a madman.  

She gently bopped him on the nose. “Nope, go missing again and I’ll melt some of your stuff,” she replied with a mischievous smirk.  

Izuku’s  expression immediately turned to one of horror. “Please don’t do that, I love that stuff almost as much as I love you,” he begged.  

Mina blushed but giggled. “Well good to know I rate higher than All Might,” she giggled again before calming down. “By the way, didn’t you have something to do?”  

It was  Izuku’s  turn to cock his head. “Did I?”  

Mina nodded, “Yeah, at least I’m pretty sure you did, I was at least assuming you were planning on apologising to Ochaco?”  

He snapped his fingers. “ Oh  right yeah, I forgot about that after the whole kidnapping thing,”  

Mina took a surprised step back. “Kidnapped?”  

Izuku shook his head and waved his hands in front of him, “Don’t worry about it, it was nothing, anyway I was planning on going and doing that sooner rather than later so do you mind if I?”  

Mina shooed him away. “Yeah sure, go on, just don’t take too long, I want some of your pancakes,”  

Izuku chuckled, “Sure thing, I’ll try to make sure it doesn’t take too long,” he replied as he opened the door. “See you in a bit,” he said as he walked towards the stairs leading up.  

Izuku soon found himself standing in front of  Uraraka’s  door, completely unsure of what to say. He had intended to just knock on the door, explain what had happened and apologise for pushing it too far but his nerves got the better of him.  

He took in a deep breath, raised his fist to the door...  

And nearly punched Uraraka in the face.  

Well this was going well so far.  

“Ah, Uraraka... erm... hi... I was...” Izuku stuttered, quickly withdrawing his fist.  

The brunette’s eyes were wide with surprise and she half hid behind the door shyly. “Do... do you need something Midoriya?” she asked timidly.  

Izuku shook his head again and slapped himself with both hands simultaneously, startling the girl further. “Well...” he began. “I wanted to apologise for what happened yesterday, I did things that I really didn’t need to because at the time I thought it would be the best option,” he explained.  

Uraraka still didn’t meet his eyes but nodded slightly.  

“I still stand by what I said yesterday... but what I did afterwards was pushing it too far, it was just unfair to you to make you watch me kiss Mina in front of you just to prove I was serious,”  

Uraraka nodded again and spoke up quietly. “Yeah... it wasn’t a good thing to see so soon after being turned down,” she agreed.  

Izuku cringed slightly before continuing. “And well... I wanted to say that I'm a massive idiot for doing that to you when I’d already hurt you enough just before and that I hope you can forgive me for being a massive fucking moron,”  

Uraraka stayed silent for a moment before meeting his eyes and replying. “Well I didn’t realise how much I was hurting you by dating  Bakugo  which I probably should have, I knew you didn’t have a good relationship between you and you were my best friend, I should have seen how hurt you were but I didn’t, it took Mina to finally see what you’d been through... so why don’t we call it even?” she suggested. “We’ve both done things to hurt the other so why don’t we say we’re even now and agree to forgive each other?”  

Izuku nodded hesitantly. “I... I don’t think I deserve that Uraraka... but if you’re willing to forgive me then I can forgive you no problem,”  

Uraraka nodded in agreement. “Then it’s settled, we’ll both just agree to try to not let anything like that happen again,”  

The two stared awkwardly at each other for a minute before Izuku scratched the back of his head and asked her something. “Uraraka... do you think we can go back to being friends like we used to?”  

Uraraka started poking the pads on her fingers uncomfortably. “I’m... not sure... if we can it’ll take a while... but I’m willing to give it a go,”  

Izuku nodded, smiling, “Good, me too,” he said, voice cheering up considerably. He began to turn around to leave but looked over his shoulder as he left. “I’m  gonna  be making pancakes downstairs, do you want me to make you some?” he offered.  

‘That’s not fair, he’s trying to buy me back... and it’s working’ Uraraka thought, pouting slightly. She sighed quietly before giving a small smile. “Sure thing, thanks Midoriya,”  

Izuku nodded and walked a few steps away before turning around again. “Oh yeah by the way, you can still call me Deku if you want, I liked you calling me it because you gave it a new meaning so if you want to then you can keep calling me that if you want, plus it seems like a good middle finger to  Bakugo  so I'd quite like it if you did actually,”  

Uraraka gave a genuine smile at that, she was kind of relieved, it had been weird calling him Midoriya, she preferred calling him Deku. “Alright then, thanks Deku, I’ll see  you  downstairs in a minute,”  

Deku nodded and strode off down the stairs.  

Uraraka closed her door and leant against it for a minute. It would take some time to mend their friendship and it’d still take her some time to get over her lingering feelings but...  

She was hopeful, she was sure they could do it and she was looking forward to the day they could go back to how they used to be.  

Meanwhile, miles away, a spiky blonde-haired young man was sat in a quirk suppressive cell. After he had assaulted Izuku, he was arrested and locked up in the medium security, Hades Prison.  

A bunch of cops had asked him a bunch of stupid questions, he didn’t bother answering them, why should he bother helping a bunch of useless extras like the cops. He was still going to show Deku his place one day and everyone would know his name.  

He grinned madly to himself in his cell. He’d show that useless fucking Deku just how much of a bug he really was.  

He quirked an eyebrow upon hearing a weird noise, it sounded like a faint alarm. He watched on with interest as his cell door just... collapsed.  

No... not collapsed...  

Decayed.  

With that realisation, he saw an arm creep into vision, an arm with many hands clinging to it, soon after came a face with another pale hand covering most of it.  

Bakugo  snarled. “What the fuck are you doing here hand job? You my new fucking cellmate or something?”  

The creepy hand fucker just gave a raspy laugh. “No  no  not at all  Katsuki   Bakugo , I’m here to get you out,”  

Bakugo  froze. “The fuck? Why the fuck would you do that?” he demanded.  

The hand freak stretched his arms out to his sides theatrically. “Because you’ve been a victim of this rotting society too, why should you be in a place like this, just for showing how powerful you are on a pathetic little weakling, after all, the strongest don’t need to give a shit about what the cattle think,”  

Bakugo  gave an angry chuckle. The weird guy was making a pretty good point. He was so much better than everyone else, why the fuck should he be being punished for proving it?  

“ So  what was your plan? Just get me out and turn me loose?”  Bakugo  asked, more than a little bit curious now.  

“Actually no, we were looking for a powerful fighter to join our party and I’d say you’d be perfect, plus I think you’d want to join us when you hear what we can offer you,”  

Bakugo  leaned closer, now definitely intrigued. “And what’s that then?”  

Shigaraki leaned in close to the blonde man, reaching out and disintegrating the cuffs still on his hands, giving a manic grin.  

“Revenge”  

Chapter Text

So far, Izuku’s day was going pretty well. He had two jobs to do and he’d already apologised to Uraraka. It was a bit of an awkward conversation and them hanging out with Izuku making pancakes was only slightly less so but it was a step in the right direction. Now he just had to figure out how to stop his quirk from breaking his bones like glass. 

That would probably be the more difficult task. 

Especially since All Might would be no use whatsoever. All he had said in the past was “You have to feel it” and just “Clench your ass and yell smash,” 

He was starting to see why Shota thought he was a rubbish teacher, he kind of was. Nobody could fault him as a hero but he still did sometimes resemble the man with a hammer to which everything looks like a nail. Izuku needed advice that would actually help. 

He'd talk to Shota about it but he’d have to tell him the secret of One for All for him to really be able to help so that was a no go. Maybe Todoroki could help? He was probably the most powerful student in the class, he’d be used to controlling his power. 

Or then again, he had only just started using his fire by choice, he still lacked control with it for the most part. So maybe he wasn’t the best option either. 

Izuku shrugged, oh well, he’d just have to figure it out somehow. Anyway, the class were approaching the training grounds where their first combat training had taken place. Everyone else were wearing their costumes but Izuku was just wearing a UA tracksuit with elbow and knee pads. 

As promised, Izuku had given Shota his new designs and he had taken them and his costume to the support department to be modified under threat that it had to be done by the next week. Understandably frightened of the teacher who defeated about thirty villains by himself in the USJ attack, the support students had agreed to work day and night on it until it was complete. 

He walked alongside his girlfriend, their hands together since there was no longer any need to keep it secret at all since Hagakure was one of the ones who witnessed the kiss the previous day. Izuku wouldn’t have been surprised if the entire school knew by now and he’d only be slightly surprised if it ended up on the news somehow. Hagakure seemed like the kind of girl to get a bit overexcited about finding out about a new relationship. 

Speaking of which, Izuku glanced at his notebook detailing the relationships between his classmates. He had started this section as an analysis exercise at the start of the year but it had ended up being a bit of a hobby for him. 

Most of his classmates were just friendly with each other and each student had their own section, detailing who they hung out with and how regularly as well as how different groups interacted. Recently though, he had made a new page based around budding romantic relationships. 

So far the most obvious one was Hagakure herself and her barely hidden crush on Ojiro. Izuku wasn’t sure if Ojiro was really just not seeing it or whether he wasn’t interested and was just hoping it’d go away. Izuku hoped for the former, he thought they’d be good together. Maybe she could get him into some hobbies that aren’t practicing martial arts or meditation. 

Another one which had seemed to gain traction among the class was Jirou’s interest in Yaoyorozu. Izuku was fairly sure that Yaoyorozu was too sheltered to recognise when someone was genuinely interested in her. The pair had seemed quite close before and shortly after the USJ attack and the sports festival but recently Jirou had been hanging out with his friends more recently, specifically Tsu. 

Izuku hummed to himself, making a note on that, could there be something there? He glanced up at the frog girl in question. She was actually talking to the punk girl at the time, he couldn’t hear what they were talking about but they both looked quite happy talking to each other. 

With the urge to tease someone rising, he recalled his theory that Jirou’s hearing was permanently enhanced and that she would be able to hear basically anything said, even in the middle of a group. 

Under his breath he muttered to himself, too quiet for anyone but Mina to hear but loud enough he was sure Jirou would hear him. “I think you two would be good together Jirou, plus, you haven’t seen how Tsu looks at you when you’re not looking,” He muttered with a smirk on his face. 

Apparently, he was correct as the punk girl spun round to face him for a second, turned to Tsu and then turned bright red and squealed, hiding her face in her hands. 

Mina, having overheard him began laughing. “Well look at you, you little matchmaker, who gave you cupid’s arrow all of a sudden?” 

Izuku shrugged, “Just testing a theory and teasing her a bit at the same time,” he whispered, attempting to go unheard by the punk girl. 

Getting the idea, Mina began whispering too. “Have you really seen Tsu looking at her or did you make that up?” 

Izuku gave a soft chuckle. “I made it up but to be honest I wouldn’t be surprised if it ended up being true anyway, Tsu’s always been hard to read,” he whispered. 

Mina giggled. “To be honest I wouldn’t blame her for checking her out, she’s a cutie,” she admitted. 

Izuku began to blush slightly and scratch the base of one of his horns. “Erm... I mean I guess you’re right,” he agreed hesitantly. 

Apparently they had been overheard once again as they both heard another high pitched squeal come from up ahead, drawing more attention than just them. 

“You alright Jirou?” Kaminari asked, looking towards the girl. 

Jirou nodded quickly, “Yep, no problem, just thought about something embarrassing,” she shot out quickly. 

Kaminari smirked and began to weakly flex. “Thinking about this hot bod?” he asked teasingly. 

Jirou responded by jamming one of her jacks into his side. 

“Oww,” he whined, rubbing his side, “Just a joke, calm down,” 

Jirou huffed, “Don’t waste your brainpower on making bad jokes, you need all of it you can get to burn away with your quirk,” 

Kaminari clenched his hands over his heart as if wounded. “Oh no, shots fired, I’m hit,” he announced, dramatically falling to the ground, letting his head roll to the side and his tongue to hang out of his mouth. 

Barely missing a beat, Kirishima picked him up and slung him over his shoulder, continuing to walk with barely any reaction to the situation. 

Behind them, Mina and Izuku were quietly chortling to themselves. 

“Well good to know Jirou’s two reactions to being flustered are embarrassed squealing and violence, we’ll need to figure out how to stay on the side of the first one,” Izuku said. 

Mina looked at him, smirking. “We eh? Why we?” she asked curiously. 

“When have you ever missed out on an opportunity to mess with someone? Plus I’ve started kinda started enjoying the same recently ever since the whole possession thing,” he answered casually. 

Mina shrugged, still smiling. “True enough,” she conceded before turning her gaze back to the green and purple-haired pair. “So now we know you think Jirou’s cute, what do you think about Tsu?” she asked conspiratorially.  

Izuku flinched at this line of questioning. “Why are you asking me these things? I’m dating you remember?” 

Mina nodded, smiling widely. “I know but I want to know what you think, there’s nothing wrong with appreciating hot people as long as you don’t do anything about it,” she replied. ‘Especially if you don’t mind sharing,’ she thought. 

Izuku was blushing heavily again but began to speak nervously. “Well... even with her being hard to read, she’s still good looking, her hair looks really silky and smooth and that little tick she does with her finger is adorable,” he admitted. 

Mina nodded, fully in agreement. “I know right, I tried to find out what she does to her hair but she refused to tell me and that tick is soooo cute,” she agreed enthusiastically. 

Izuku gulped before continuing. “And... she... erm...” he stuttered out before being cut off by Mina. 

“Has a great ass and awesome body?” she suggested, smirking mischievously. 

Izuku was almost completely red now. He held his hands up to the sides of his head, shrugging widely. “Well you said it not me but... yeah... that’s definitely right,” he whispered. 

Mina patted him on the shoulder playfully. “Come on buddy, no need to sound so shy, you’re complimenting her after all,” she reassured him. 

“Are you sure she wouldn’t mind us saying this stuff?” he asked, glancing at the green-haired frog girl. 

Mina shook her head. “I really doubt it, she definitely seems like the kind to like honesty, I think she’d be really happy to find out you think she’s hot,” she answered. ‘Especially since she definitely has a crush on you,’ 

Mina threw her arm around his shoulder and pulled him in close to her so she could whisper to him. “Now, what do you like about Kyoka?” she asked, grinning widely the whole time. 

Izuku’s blush had just started to fade but now it was back full force. “Do I really have to answer that?” he asked quietly. 

Mina nodded, “Yep, I’m curious what you’d think about a bunch of the others in the class too but that can wait, just tell me what you think about our dear punk cutie,” 

Izuku took a deep breath before replying. “Well I really like her hair, I think it’s a beautiful colour that suits her perfectly, I really like that she goes from being all confident to shy really easily, I think that’s really cute... and... even though she’s definitely the most petite girl in the class I think she still has a really appealing body,” he admitted, being very careful to keep his voice as quiet as possible. 

Mina nodded again. “Yeah I completely agree, she’s really fun to tease but also just hang out with and she’s got one of the cutest butts I've ever seen,” she admitted. 

Izuku nodded in agreement, still blushing furiously. “I mean, you’re right but why are you asking me this stuff?” he asked, both confused and a little bit uncomfortable. 

Mina shrugged casually. “I was just curious what you thought of them, apparently we like basically the same things about them,” she replied. ‘That could be good for the future, after all, three’s better than two,’ she thought, her grin widening slightly. 

Izuku rubbed the back of his head. “Mind if I ask you a question like that?” he asked nervously. 

Mina clapped her hands together excitedly. “Ooh yeah, go ahead,” 

“If you didn’t start going out with me, who do you think you’d have ended up with?” he asked. 

Mina stroked her chin, having to think about that for a minute. “I’m not sure to be honest, there’s so many options here, I’d just come out of a relationship when I started UA and then all of a sudden I was surrounded by a class full of hot people,” she answered. “It’s kind of like a starving guy going to a buffet, there’s too much choice but you’d probably end up going with the first thing you got to,” 

Izuku cocked his head. “You’d just come out of a relationship?” 

Mina nodded. “Yeah, it was a classmate of mine, I was coming here to UA but she was going to a place on the other side of the country, she didn’t want a long distance relationship so we agreed to call it quits,” she explained. 

Izuku cocked an eyebrow, ‘She huh? That explains the questions,’ he thought. He nudged her with his elbow. “Well? Let's say just going off looks, who would you have wanted to date?” 

Mina glanced around the class, silently judging them all in her head. “I’m not sure, going off looks alone, probably either Momo or Todoroki,” she answered. “If I had only just met them I would have said they were the most attractive people in the class but basically the whole class are attractive in their own ways,” 

Izuku nodded, “So in this list of attractive people, where would I have placed in it?” he asked curiously. “Keeping in mind this is theoretically at the start of the year,” 

“You’d probably be somewhere just above the middle,” she admitted, “I thought you looked absolutely adorable but not necessarily hot at the time,” 

Izuku nodded, that seemed fair. “Fair enough, being cute was what got me through most things in life before UA so that sounds alright,” 

Mina giggled, “Yeah I can just imagine you being all cute to your parents and them cracking and giving you whatever you wanted,” 

Izuku shrugged. “You’d think so but my mom eventually managed to build up a resilience, she still gave me quite a lot because she loved me... and because I think she felt sorry for me but apart from that, cuteness carried me through most things,” he said, giving a small smile. 

Mina gently booped his nose. “And now you’re even cuter, your new eyes give you an entirely new level of potential cuteness now,” she told him. 

Izuku laughed. “Yeah maybe, I’ll have to try it on her at some poi...” he said, slowly trailing off. “Oh shit...” he suddenly gasped. 

“What’s wrong Zuku?” Mina asked. 

Izuku turned to her in panic. “I just realised I haven’t told her about any of what happened yet, she doesn’t know what happened with Bakugo... but she probably knows he was expelled and arrested, she doesn’t know about my eyes and horns and she also doesn’t even know I’ve got a girlfriend now,” 

Mina just stared at him for a second before laughing. “I wouldn’t have thought you’d forget to tell your mom anything,” she teased him. 

Izuku pouted for a second before a sly smile appeared on his face. “I’d say that’s your fault,” he replied. “Hard to focus on much else when you’re all I can think about all the time,” 

Mina gently shoved him but began blushing a cute shade of lilac. “Oh shut up you smooth operator, you’ll get me all flustered,” 

Izuku leaned in closer to her and growled huskily into her ear. “Oh, I intend to do much more than that,” 

Mina then couldn’t decide between pulling him into a corner or side room somewhere and sucking the life out of him through his mouth or just turning an even more vibrant shade of lilac. 

She eventually decided on the second one for now, promising to do the first later. 

They heard a weird noise from in front of them, looking towards the source they saw Jirou standing there, looking back at them with a bright red face. Apparently she had heard them. 

Mina giggled and turned to her boyfriend. “I think she heard you,” 

Izuku smirked, glancing at Jirou out of the corner of his eye. “And she’ll be hearing a lot more of us at some point,” he replied, voice loud enough for just her to hear and winking slyly at her. 

Jirou looked like she nearly fainted but she was caught by Tsu who helped her along, leading her towards the training grounds. 

Mina, now blushing even more furiously asked, “What’s gotten into you all of a sudden?” 

Izuku shrugged, sly smirk still on his face. “Not sure, maybe you’ve started rubbing off on me a bit more,” 

Mina saw a chance to turn the tables and so fluttered her eyes at him and whispered seductively into his ear. “Well... if you want I could...’rub you off’ a bit better later,” 

Izuku went bright red at that. Mina chuckled, good to know he still wasn’t immune to being teased. 

“Erm... I was kidding, that’s maybe a bit soon,” he replied nervously, still bright red. 

Mina giggled again, patting him on the shoulder. “Don’t worry about it, you set the boundaries on that, I’ll leave that kind of thing up to you, I’ll not pressure you into anything” she reassured him. 

Izuku sighed in relief. “Thanks Mina... not that I wouldn’t want to do anything like that... just maybe not yet, it’s still a bit early in our relationship for that,” 

Mina nodded before giving him a small peck on the cheek. “No problem Zuku, just good to know you do think I’m hot too,” 

Izuku looked slightly baffled. “Erm... yeah? I’ve always thought you were really hot, pretty sure everyone else does too,” 

Now it was Mina’s turn to blush again. This seemed to be a regular occurrence around Izuku, maybe that was contagious as well, not just the muttering and notebook usage. 

The class soon after entered the training grounds. Damage from the last time they were here still visible in the distance. 

All Might stopped the class, calling for attention. “All right then everyone, as you’ve probably realised by now, we’re in the zone where we had our first heroes vs villains training exercise. We are going to be repeating this exercise now that you all know your own and your classmates’ capabilities more to see if there is improvement.” he loudly announced. 

Iida raised his armour-clad hand. “Are we going to be split into pairs once again?” he asked. 

The mountainous hero nodded. “Yes, you’ll be split into pairs with one exception, due to... due to now missing a student we are an odd number, therefore the odd one out will join another pair at their discretion, that group will most likely have to fight two battles due to the odd number of students” he announced, the mood growing somber and several students glancing at Izuku out of the corners of their eyes. 

“Anyway,” the hero continued, as upbeat as usual despite the soured mood. “Once again we shall draw lots to make pairs,” he announced shaking a box of slips of paper. 

One by one the class stepped up to the box and withdrew a slip of paper each with a letter on it. Izuku’s read ‘D’. He looked around, trying to find who else had the same letter when he felt a tap on his shoulder. 

He span around to see Mina with a wide smile on her face. “Good news Zuku, we’re partners,” she announced, revealing her slip, also reading ‘D’ 

Izuku beamed, glad to be working with her again. Once the rest of the class had paired up, with the exception of Tsu who was the odd one out, All Might called for their attention once again. 

“Now then, we will now decide who will face each other, young Asui will decide who she wishes to join afterwards,” he exclaimed, rooting around in two boxes. 

The first match turned out to be Jirou and Shoji vs Kaminari and Shinso. 

The second was Yaoyorozu and Uraraka vs Todoroki and Sero. 

The third match was Aoyama and Tokoyami vs Koda and Hagakure. 

Fourth was Midoriya and Ashido vs Kirishima and Sato. 

That left Iida and Ojiro paired together and Tsu on her own. 

Whoever Tsu joined would end up fighting their own fight and then Iida and Ojiro afterwards as well. 

“Well then, now we know the matches, who will you be joining young Asui?” All Might asked. 

She put her finger to her mouth in that cute little tick of hers that meant she was thinking. She was looking between the pairs before her eyes fell upon Izuku and Mina. “I’d like to join Midoriya and Ashido if that’s alright All Might?” 

All Might nodded, “Very good, go and join them now and we’ll begin the first match,” 

Tsu nodded and went to go and join the pair. They greeted her with a pair of wide smiles as she approached.  

“Good to have you Tsu,” Izuku said, “I know we’re certain to win with your help,” 

Tsu nodded. “Thank you Midoriya, I hope I’ll be able to help you two win,” 

Mina grabbed the two from both sides, drawing them both into a side hug. “Yeah, we’ll kick some ass, this’ll be great!” she exclaimed excitedly. 

Both the greenettes blushed slightly at the contact. 

“All right then, pairs A and E, make your way to the test building, the rest of you, follow me to the observation room, the rules are the same as last time so you should know how this works,” All Might called out. 

Tsu tilted her head to the side and gave her partners a wide smile with closed eyes. “This’ll be fun,” she said before turning and going to follow All Might. 

Both Izuku and Mina needed to calm down a second from the cuteness overload they just experienced. Then, as they watched the frog girl walk away, their earlier conversation came back to them and in unison, their eyes drifted to Tsu’s shapely butt and strong legs, the spandex of her costume clinging tightly to her figure as she walked away, hips swaying slightly. 

‘Oh no’ they thought in unison, ‘Those legs are going to kill me’ 

On the way to the observation room, Izuku was deep in thought about how he could solve the problem of his bones. He knew it was best to avoid breaking bones but right now he couldn’t see any way to use his quirk without cracking open a new bottle of the bone hurting juice. 

“What’s up Zuku?” Mina asked, seeing his scrunched-up expression. 

Izuku snapped out of his thoughts for a second. “Well... earlier I promised someone I’d try my best to figure out a way to use my quirk without it causing me any damage,” he explained. “I just can’t think of any way to really do that,” 

Mina nodded thoughtfully. “Alright then so let’s think about this, why does your quirk injure you?” she asked. 

“Well... my quirk is too powerful for my body to handle, using 100% of it is too much for my body to handle, I can partially control it by focusing it on specific body parts but it’s still too much power to handle,” he answered. 

Mina thought on this for a minute. “What you were doing in the sports festival, that was 100%?” she asked, cocking her head towards him. 

Izuku nodded, “Yeah, I flicked my fingers using 100% of my power to break apart Todoroki’s ice,” 

Mina continued stroking her chin. “But you punched him a few times using your quirk but it seemed much weaker, how did you do that?” 

Izuku blushed slightly, he still hadn’t come up with a better metaphor than the egg in the microwave and he was embarrassed to tell her about it. 

“Well... I sort of pictured my quirk like pressure building up, using 100% was just letting it explode, trying to hold it back was the weaker punches,” he explained, thinking on his feet. 

Mina nodded but looked confused. “Alright then... but why are you holding it back?” 

Now Izuku was confused. “What?” 

“You’re trying to hold back 100% of your power, of course that’ll be tricky but... why don’t you just use like 1% of your power instead?” she asked. 

Izuku blinked. Then facepalmed violently. Why the hell had he never thought of that? Of course, All Might just told him to try to hold back the 100% so he didn’t kill anyone, not to just use less power in the first place. 

Mina gestured at her own arm. “When you use your quirk, your arm or whatever you use starts crackling and gets red sparkly veins on it, that I’m assuming is your power being moved into your arm, can you just do that a tiny bit at a time until you find your limit?” she asked. 

Izuku facepalmed again. Thank god for this beautiful, brilliant woman. “Well, I can definitely give it a go, maybe not here though, I don’t want to hurt anyone,” 

Mina nodded, looking over towards All Might. “All Might?” she called out, drawing the attention of their teacher. “Izuku thinks he has an idea on how to use his quirk better, do you think we could go and practice it for a bit?” she asked. 

All Might frowned for a second but waved his hand at them. “Alright sure, just try not to disturb the rest of us as we watch the matches,” 

Mina nodded, “No problem,” she replied, grabbing Izuku’s shoulders and pushing him out of the room. She noticed Tsu following them, fair enough, she was on their team, she probably wanted to know what his idea was. 

They found a small courtyard just outside the observation room, perfect for what they needed. 

Mina took a few steps away from Izuku and faced him. “I think we should spar to see if you can actually use this new idea but first, you better try it to make sure it’ll actually work,” 

Izuku nodded, focusing on the core of power granted to him by One for All. Carefully, he drew a very small amount of power from it into his right arm, it was what he could best approximate to be around 1% of his total power. He seemed to be able to maintain it with no problems so he tried throwing a punch. 

Despite it being much weaker than his normal smashes, his jab was still able to displace the air around it and make Mina lose her balance slightly. 

Mina and Tsu applauded. “Good job Zuku, you managed to control it,” she congratulated. 

Izuku nodded happily but then frowned, while his arm wasn’t broken it still hurt. It felt like a deep ache, similar to pulling a muscle but not as bad. “Well sort of,” he admitted. “I managed to turn the power down but it still hurt my arm,” 

Tsu put her finger to her mouth again. “I’ve only ever seen you use it in your arms and legs, can you use it anywhere else?” she asked. 

Izuku turned to her and nodded slowly. “In theory yeah but I’ve never tried before,” 

Tsu still seemed deep in thought. “So when you use it in your arms, that’s you focusing the power there?” 

Izuku nodded in confirmation. 

“What if you spread the power out throughout your whole body so it was more evenly spread so it doesn’t cause as much damage to you, like trying to spread weight out on thin ice so it doesn’t break,” she suggested. 

Izuku resisted the urge to headbutt a wall. Why did these two girls seem to have much better ideas about how to use One for All than him? 

Mina clapped her hands excitedly. “That sounds like a great idea Tsu, I knew you were smart as well as having a rocking body,” she complimented her without thinking. 

Tsu gave out a startled ribbit before beginning to blush slightly. 

Izuku nodded about to try out her suggestion before Mina stopped him. “Hang on, I had another idea,” she said quickly. “Whenever you use your quirk, there’s always a second or two for it to charge up and you just let go of the power whenever you’re not using it, why don’t you just try always having it on at a low level? It’ll deal with the charge up time and it’ll help you adapt to your quirk better,” she suggested. 

Izuku had to try very hard to not offer One for All to Mina that very second, she was clearly much more suited for it since she managed to come up with a way of using it that wouldn’t result in broken bones after like five minutes. 

“I thought I was meant to be near the top of the class, how come I never came up with this but you two did?” he asked, almost rhetorically. 

The girls both shrugged. “Sometimes it helps to hear an outside opinion,” Tsu stated in her usual tone. 

Izuku just looked at them both, barely resisting the urge to kiss them both. 

Well, he’ll kiss Mina later, Tsu... 

Maybe that can come later... 

Chapter Text

Izuku took in a deep breath as he looked at the building his team would soon be entering. The rest of the matches had already happened as Izuku, Mina and  Tsu  practised his new low powered form of One for All. It had been... partially successful.  

He was able to move around and punch with the lowered power without damaging  himself  but it didn’t seem as powerful as it maybe should have been. Izuku couldn’t quite figure out why. He estimated he was able to use 5% with no problems with around 10% as an upper limit he can use without damaging himself immediately although using that much he thinks will cause damage if he over does it.  

Still, even if it wasn’t as powerful as it could have been, it was still the power of One for All. It would do for the purposes of a training exercise. If  anything  it might be better, it’ll give him an idea on the effectiveness of a low powered smash against sturdy opponents like  Kirishima  and Sato and therefore will give an idea for how much power he can use without causing too much damage to someone.  

“Are you all right Midoriya?” asked  Tsu , tilting her head slightly.  

Izuku nodded, broken out of his own thoughts. “Yeah, sorry  Tsu  I was just thinking,”  

She nodded, “Thinking about how you’re going to use your power now that it’s weaker?”  

“Yeah, I’m glad I’ve found a level where it won’t injure me, I'm just not sure how effective it’ll be,” he replied.  

“ Oh  don’t worry about it,” Mina said, waving a hand dismissively. “You nearly knocked me over just from the wind from what you said was 1%, I’m sure you’ll still be way too OP,”  

Izuku chuckled, “Thanks Mina,” he replied, looking down at his clenched fist. “Sometimes it feels like I’m cheating, like I don’t deserve this power,” he muttered.  

Tsu  cocked her head again. “Why? Because it developed much later than everyone else’s quirk and it ended up being such a powerful one?” she asked.  

Izuku flinched at being overheard but nodded solemnly. “Yeah, I don’t feel like I earned it,” he admitted.  

Mina put her hands on her hips sternly, “And everyone else did?” she questioned. “We all pretty much just got given our quirks when we were kids, we didn’t earn them, if anything, you’re the only one out of us who did earn them,” she retorted. “You said it developed late because it was too powerful for your body to handle and only manifested once you had become strong enough to handle it, that sounds to me like you earned your power,”  

Izuku stared at her, eyes watering slightly. “You think I earned it? You think I deserve to be this strong?” he asked, nearly crying already.  

Mina nodded immediately. “Of course I do, you trained to be able to use this power, you went into the entrance exam thinking you were  quirkless ... which was a terrible idea by the way... and you still passed just by saving someone, breaking yourself to do it,”  

Tsu  also nodded. “If that’s not being heroic and deserving something good, then what is?” she added.  

Izuku was smiling widely now, eyes still watery but not crying. “Thank you both... but it still feels like I shouldn’t have this power, like it isn’t mine,”  

Mina groaned exasperatedly. “Did you forget what you told Todoroki in the sports festival?” she asked him.  

Izuku looked at her, “What?”  

“It’s yours, your quirk, not his,” she quoted. “You told Todoroki that his fire side wasn’t his father’s quirk, it was his, it wasn’t something given to him, it was something that was just his,” she explained. “How is your quirk any different? Your quirk belongs to you, nobody else, that quirk is your own,”  

Izuku felt a strong feeling of pride coming from the back of his mind. Was that Nana?  

‘Is that what’s been holding me back? Thinking of One for All as something given to me, not something that belongs to me?’  

“TEAM G, YOUR TIME STARTS NOW! ENTER THE BUILDING!” came the booming voice of All Might, shaking him out of his thoughts yet again.  

Izuku nodded and walked towards the front door of the building, his partners following him. ‘ Kirishima  and Sato are two straight up brawlers but they’re not planners, they’re probably just both guarding the bomb wherever it was placed in the building,’ he thought to himself. He turned to Tsu. “Tsu, climb around the outside of the building and check the windows, try and look for the bomb from the outside, let us know through the earpieces if you find it” he ordered.  

Tsu  nodded wordlessly and leapt onto the wall, crawling her way along to another side of the building, checking windows as she went. Izuku then turned to Mina, “You know  Kirishima  well, do you think he’d use a surprise attack like what  Bakugo  did to me in the first exercise?” he asked, already quite confident in the answer.  

“ No  he wouldn’t,” Mina responded quickly, “He even said it was a cheap move when  Bakugo  did it, even if he’s playing the part of a villain he’d still act honourably or ‘manly’ as he’d say,”  

Izuku nodded, so he had been correct. With that settled he stomped towards the door. “In that case, let’s keep them distracted,” he decided, raising his foot to the door and pushing 5% of One for All into his leg. “Let’s make some noise,” he said with a grin, kicking the door clean off its hinges and sending it flying into the opposite wall, resulting in a resounding crash.  

Mina smirked, “Think they heard that?” she asked.  

Izuku smirked too, “Probably but just in case...” he replied, raising a powered fist to the side of his head, aiming it at the door embedded in the wall.  

“Let’s wreck some shit,” he announced, a wide grin on both their faces.  

As  Tsu  was scaling the side of the building, she would hear the  fairly regular  sounds of very loud thuds, crumbling masonry and shouting. She hadn’t heard from the other two that they’d found the bomb or were being attacked so she assumed they were making as much noise as possible to keep their opponent’s attention on them.  

Tsu  gave a small smile. That almost seemed like something that  Bakugo  would have done, who’d have thought Izuku would come up with an idea like that...  or, maybe  it was Mina? Who knows really?  

She was inspecting windows on the fourth floor when she suddenly spotted familiar spiky red hair in the room on the other side of the  window  she was closest to. Carefully peeking inside, she spotted the hulking form of Sato too, they were both staring at the only door leading into the room, their fists held up in what looked like boxing stances,  Kirishima’s  arms already hardened and Sato clutching an open container of sugar in his hand, ready to scoff it down as quickly as possible.  

They were both stood in between the door and the bomb. If she moved quickly and quietly, she might be able to get to the bomb before they could stop her. She tried to open the window but unfortunately it didn’t budge, it was locked.  

‘That means I’ll have to break it to get in and that’ll definitely draw their attention,’ she thought to herself. She put a hand to her ear and quietly whispered into her earpiece. “Midoriya, Mina, I’ve found Sato,  Kirishima  and the bomb, they’re in the corner room on the fourth floor,”  

“Good job  Tsu ,” she heard the voice of Izuku praise her through the earpiece, “Anything you can tell us about the room?”  

“There’s only one door, they’re both facing it with the bomb at their backs, I’m on the other side of a window behind them but its locked, if you two can distract or engage them for long enough I can break the window and get to the bomb before they can stop me,” she informed them.  

“Alright, good idea, I’m approaching the door now, when you see the signal, move quickly,” Izuku ordered.  

Tsu  nodded, “What’s the signal?” she asked.  

She could practically hear the grin in his voice. “Oh... you’ll know when you see it,” he responded.  

Tsu  watched as the ceiling just behind the pair suddenly gave way and Mina dropped down from above, acid dripping from her hands as she swiped at them while still in mid-air. The pair ducked out of her reach as she swung for  them  but it fully drew their attention, both of them turning their backs on the door.  

They soon regretted that as the door then flew off its hinges from the explosive force of one of  Midoriya’s  kicks. The door impacted squarely with them both from behind, nearly knocking  Kirishima  down and smacking Sato’s sugar out of his hand.  

Assuming this was the signal,  Tsu  pulled a leg away from the wall, drew it back and swung it forward through the window, sending a spray of glass into the room. Taking advantage of their opponents temporary stunning, she leapt through the window, powered by her strong legs, directly at the fake weapon.  

Impressively,  Kirishima  managed to react quickly enough to recover, grab the door and swing it at her, clotheslining her out of mid-air and nearly taking Mina’s head off.  

Tsu  was left sprawled on the floor, having been sent flying backwards, nearly back out the window again, groaning in pain. She looked up through foggy eyes to see several coloured blurs engaging one another. She saw a green blur leaping towards a large, mainly yellow shape and a pink blur weaving around a red one.  

Taking a second to rub her eyes and shake her head, attempting to dispel the fuzziness, she then looked back up at the fight in front of her.  

Midoriya was using his low powered form to quite literally run circles around Sato, who just couldn’t keep up with her fellow  greenette’s  speed who was taking the occasional opportunistic jab at the hulking student.  

Kirishima  was throwing repeated heavy jabs and haymakers at Mina but the pink girl was dodging with almost no issue, her skill as a dancer apparently making her limber and skilled at dodging. Then  again ,  she’d already proved that in her match against Aoyama in the sports festival.  

As of right now, the fights were at a stalemate,  Kirishima  nor Sato could land a hit on their opponents, but they weren’t giving them any time to effectively fight back. Mina too busy dodging to respond and  Izuku’s  weakened punches not quite being enough to deal with Sato.  

Tsu’s  eyes darted towards the fake weapon again, she’d apparently been forgotten about for now, she could go for the weapon now while they were distracted. Her eyes went back to the fights in the room. If  Kirishima’s  never-ending attacks ceased for a second, Mina could retaliate and put him on the back foot.  

Still slightly groggy,  Tsu  shot her tongue towards the hardening hero in training, wrapping it around his ankle.  

It did the  job,  he was momentarily distracted by it and it made him lose his balance with his next attack. This gave Mina the opportunity she needed to follow up her dodge with a counterattack. She got in close to him, driving an acid covered elbow into his gut, the acid apparently affecting  Kirishima’s  hardening enough for him to be affected by it.  

Capitalising on this,  Tsu  gave a hard tug, pulling  Kirishima’s  foot out from under him, his own hardening working against him now as he hit the ground much harder than he would have normally. Mina took this opportunity to lift her leg up high.  Tsu  recognised this as the same axe  kick  she used to put  Bakugo  out of commission.  

Mina swung her foot down, bringing it down on his head, resulting in a loud crunch noise, like something being dragged across gravel and the floor underneath him gave way,  Kirishima  falling limply through the new hole in the ground.  

Sato, seeing his disadvantaged position, backed up closer to the bomb, not letting anyone near it.  

The trio surrounded him and the bomb, nobody wanting to make the first move.  

Izuku watched Sato plant his feet and ground himself, it would be difficult to move him now. Fortunately, he had an idea.  

“ Tsu !” he called out, “Use your tongue, swing me around,” he demanded, running away from Sato and the bomb, running in an arc.  Tsu  was confused but obliged, shooting her tongue towards her teammate.  

As it reached him, Izuku wrapped it around his wrist and slid along the ground, still maintaining his arc. “Throw me at him!” he shouted. He saw Sato’s eyes widen and he raised his stance further to prepare for his attack.  Tsu  carried on the momentum, swinging her teammate around in a wide arc, ending with Midoriya flying towards Sato in a flying drop kick, his legs sparking with One for All’s energy.  

As he hoped, the over the top technique completely drew Sato’s attention towards him, leaving Mina the chance to close the distance, skating on a trail of acid and launch a ball of acid at him, breaking his guard and causing him to panic just as Izuku collided with him.  

With the combined force of 5% of One for All and  Tsu  increasing his momentum, Sato was sent flying away from the bomb, slamming into the wall, apparently knocked out by the impact with the concrete.  

Izuku barely had time to slam his open palm onto the fake weapon before the booming voice of All Might came through the speakers. “THE HERO TEAM WINS!” he announced.  

Mina was beaming the whole way back to the observation room, they’d kicked ass, just like she said they would and Izuku even managed to use his controlled power effectively.  

And that kick... that was awesome!  

Mina was still giggling excitedly at the memory. “That swing kick thing you did was crazy Zuku, crazy but really cool,”  

Izuku rubbed the top of his head with one hand, gently stroking his horns and patted  Tsu  on the shoulder with the other. “Well I couldn’t have done it without Tsu,”  

Tsu  smiled softly at the praise, it was nice to be helpful.  

The trio soon found themselves at the observation room. All Might gesturing towards them as they entered, the pair of villains dragging themselves in not too long afterwards, battered and bruised but still able to stand and move.  

“Very good Heroes,” All Might congratulated, “You executed a well  concieved  plan which resulted in the defeat of both villains and the capture of the weapon, it would have been best if you had kept the property damage to a minimum since in a real situation, that could be a civilian building but give the reasoning behind it I’d be willing to accept it given the circumstances,”  

The trio nodded happily. The two villains giving them congratulatory smiles.  

“Now then, who can tell me who the MVP of the match was?” All Might asked, already looking towards...  

“I can sir,” Yaoyorozu piped up, “I believe the MVP of the match to be Ashido,” she answered. “She caused little property damage aside from a few stray acid splashes and was instrumental in the defeat of both villains, she was the one to finish off  Kirishima  and she allowed Midoriya to break through Sato’s guard and was also completely unharmed during the exercise,” she went on to explain.  

All Might  sweatdropped  at the girl’s analysis, she was completely right but would it kill her to let someone else answer for once? “Once again Yaoyorozu, you nailed it,” he congratulated with a thumbs up.  

“Now then,” he continued, “We’ll be moving straight on to the final match,  Midoriya’s  team are the villains and Iida’s team are the heroes,” he announced. “Follow me to the building,”  

The five students followed along quietly behind their teacher, each group quietly planning as they went. Izuku, Mina and  Tsu  were sent into the building to prepare.  

They found the bomb on the second to last floor, in a small room at the end of a long corridor. Izuku surveyed the scene and began to smirk.  

Mina began to smirk too, she knew what that meant.  

He had a plan.  

The match was over surprisingly quickly. Iida had simply sprinted through the building,  Ojiro  clutching to his back as he went until they came across a corridor with an open door at the end. Beyond that door, in plain view? Midoriya, standing right in front of the bomb, fists already raised and ready to fight.  

As planned,  Ojiro  dismounted from Iida’s back as the class president revved his engines. He dropped down into a runner’s start and shot forward like a bullet. He immediately began to slip on a slick surface on the corridor’s floor and was sent flying forward as he reached the doorframe, his ankles colliding with what he believed to be  Asui’s  tongue. Now flying forward in mid-air and with no way to stop himself, he flew face first into  Midoriya’s  primed fist, cracking his helmet open and knocking him out cold.  

Midoriya then casually dropped his friend’s unconscious form to the side, turning his gaze to  Ojiro , who was alternating between using his tail to bounce along the corridor and briefly running along the walls to avoid the grease.  

He tried to avoid  Asui’s tongue which he had seen disappear from the doorframe to one side, as he knew it would be coming but instead was met face to face by Ashido, suddenly appearing in front of him and acid dripping from her palms as she grinned at him. Caught off guard by her sudden appearance, he stopped just after leaping through the doorframe, allowing Asui to drop from her position just above the door, bringing her strong legs down onto his head, knocking him to the ground and sending him through the pockmarked and acid damaged floor beneath him.  

Once again, the voice of All Might came through the speakers, congratulating their team on their victory and once again, they celebrated another victory.  

Chapter Text

The rest of the week went by uneventfully. The only notable thing that happened was the news of what had happened with Bakugo began to spread throughout the rest of the school, despite the teacher’s attempts to prevent it. 

Of course, Monoma immediately took this opportunity to approach 1-A in the cafeteria and, as usual, berate them all for allowing a villain into their own class, say they were all going to become villains someday too and finish with saying that whoever it was that got attacked was clearly too weak to be a hero. 

As usual, he didn’t know when he had pushed things too far and didn’t realise how close he was to being murdered by about half of the class. Izuku was sat next to Mina, noticed her trembling with rage and acid beginning to drip from her hands, he decided to save the idiot blonde’s life, stood up and lead him away to a distant corridor. 

Izuku came back a couple of minutes afterwards, alone. Monoma came staggering back into the cafeteria about five minutes later, pale and trembling in fear, refusing to meet the eyes of any of class 1-A, especially the pitch-black eyes that would now haunt his dreams. 

“What did you do to him?” Kyoka asked from nearby. 

Izuku chuckled, “I choose to use my right to not self-incriminate,” he answered, smirking before giving a short, evil cackle. “All I will say is I informed him of several things, some things including exactly how sharp my horns are, the length of a broom handle, the average diameter of an asshole and exactly how hard I would have to shove it to see the other end,” 

Several of his classmates paled slightly at the thought, Mina and Kyoka laughed, Tsu just looked towards the staggering 1-B blonde, apparently doing the mental maths as well. Iida shook his head disapprovingly. “What’s gotten into you Midoriya?” he asked, “You have been acting very differently lately, and not necessarily in a good way,” he added, resulting in another glare from Mina. 

Izuku tapped her hand gently, telling her to calm down. “I don’t know really, maybe it’s something to do with recovering from getting  half my fucking face blown off!”  he snapped, pointing to the long scar running its way across his face. “Just add that to a life of bullying, abuse and constant and complete loneliness,” he added bitterly. Nobody spoke for a moment as he calmed down slightly. “Did you know that before I came to UA, I hadn’t had a friend since I was four years old?” he asked sadly. 

A somber mood fell upon the table. “When I was younger, people thought I was quirkless because my quirk didn’t manifest when everyone else’s did, that meant I was bullied by everyone who didn’t just ignore me instead,” he explained, a pained expression on his face. “Nobody except my mother even remotely cared about me and she never even believed that I could become a hero... the one thing in my life I hadn’t given up on... the one dream I ever had... and she told me I couldn’t do it...” 

Mina wrapped an arm around him and pulled his head onto her shoulder, rubbing his shoulder comfortingly. The rest of the table just looked down at the table, all feeling deep sympathy for their classmate. 

“I... I apologise Midoriya...” Iida said, “I spoke out of turn... I had no way of knowing what you had been through and no way to know how it would affect you... I shouldn’t say such things without attempting to understand someone better...” 

Izuku waved his hand and gave a small smile. “It’s alright Iida... it’s not exactly like I've been upfront about what happened to me... but I’m going to try and change that, I want to start being more honest with you all, I think that’ll help me,” he responded softly before looking back up at the rest of the table. “I just... I don’t want you all to treat me like I’m fragile and I’ll break in I get bumped, if anything, what I’ve gone through should show you that one thing I'm not, is fragile,” 

Tsu nodded, “Of course, going through all that you did and making it into UA and still being a really good person obviously proves how strong you are,” she agreed. 

The rest of the table nodded in agreement, some more enthusiastically than others. Mina and Kirishima appeared particularly enthusiastic about it, his usual manly tears falling from Kirishima’s face. 

Izuku gave a wider smile, sitting upright again. “Thanks guys,” he said happily, receiving many thumbs up and smiles in return. 

Aside from that, the week went by as normally as any week had done at UA. Of course that didn’t mean everything went brilliantly. Kaminari burnt out two toasters and a microwave, Sero broke and tried to tape up a window, Mina melted a doorknob in stress, Todoroki froze up the dorms plumbing and Izuku destroyed half of the dining room with an accidental One for All powered sneeze. 

Aizawa was very disappointed in all of them. At least in public he was, privately, he would admit to Izuku he found it hilarious and had cancelled his cable subscription in favour of watching the security cameras in the dorms for entertainment instead. 

Over the course of the week, as promised, Izuku would cook for Shota everyday but he also started joining him in his apartment other times as well. Sometimes he would ask for help with something, sometimes they would just hang out in comfortable silence. Izuku actually really liked those moments, it was probably the most comfortable he was apart from when he was with Mina. 

One day, Shota had jokingly said that since Izuku was there so often he may as well move into the spare room. Of course, since he had said that in jest, he was surprised to wake up the next day to find Izuku sleeping in the spare room and to find it suddenly decorated like his dorm room downstairs. 

Thankfully it was not an All Might shrine as it was downstairs, instead it actually looked fairly normal. There were a few posters of heroes scattered around the room, he hid a smile as he spotted a homemade but surprisingly well-done poster starring himself. Izuku had clearly drawn it himself, it depicted a scene showing him leaping down the stairs in the USJ, goggles on his face, hair billowing behind him and his capture weapon unfurled behind him. 

It was definitely not due to him being incredibly flattered that Izuku had made a poster of him that informed his decision to allow him and the decoration to stay. No matter what Hizashi or Nemuri said. He definitely also did not sneak the poster out of Izuku’s room to make a copy of it for himself and anyone who said otherwise was definitely lying. 

But most importantly of all, he was definitely not having to resist the urge to shove the pre-filled adoption papers into Izuku’s hands every time he saw him and demand he sign them. I mean, Izuku Aizawa wouldn’t be the worst name in the world would it? Yes, it was true he still had a mother but who really cares? If it came to it they could have shared custody. Besides... he just couldn’t help feeling like he needed to protect him. 

One night was particularly hard for this reason. He had been sat in the kitchen, grading some papers. He had noticed a definite improvement in average scores in the class since he had assigned them all study partners. While that was now officially over, most of the class continued to work in the pairs he had assigned or in small groups. He smiled as he marked Kaminari’s paper, despite being generally stoic and reserved, Todoroki had definitely helped the electric student to improve. While he was previously bottom of the class... well okay he still was but now his marks were at the mid-tier of previous marks before the study assignment so there was definite improvement. 

He put that sheet to one side to pick up the next one and smiled at the sight of it. He was definitely right to assign Izuku and Mina together, even if it was partially motivated by an attempt to get them together since... come on, that would be adorable, he knew that Izuku would make an excellent tutor and as it happened, he was right. 

Mina was now fifth in the whole class after this last test. Yaoyorozu still claimed the top spot with Izuku not far behind in second but what was really surprising was the fact that she got higher marks than even Todoroki and was only a few scant marks behind Iida. Shota smirked, in the morning he’d have to get some tips from Izuku on how to better teach people like Mina and Denki. 

Speaking of Izuku, he was currently sleeping in the spare room in the apartment. Shota wasn’t really sure he needed to; he was pretty sure he just liked to. After all, he was coping admirably considering what had happened to him. 

Shota stacked the papers in a neat pile on the table and quietly pushed his chair away from it, trying to not wake him up. As he walked towards his own bedroom, he passed Izuku’s and stopped upon hearing something coming from the room. 

He put his ear to the door, he could hear what sounded like muffled movement and fearful sobs. Shota’s eyes widened, he had been informed of the escape at Hades Prison but had decided not to inform Izuku, not wanting to affect his recovery by adding a new fear to it. Was... 

Was Bakugo here? 

Quickly unfurling his capture weapon, he shouldered the door open and burst into the room. A quick scan showed that Izuku was the only occupant of the room, but he was twisting and writhing in the bed. The sheets were tangled around his body as he convulsed, sweat practically pouring from him. 

“Please... no... please don’t hurt me anymore...” Izuku sobbed. 

That was it, Shota couldn’t take any more of this. He quickly ran to his student’s side and gently grasped his shoulders, attempting to shake him awake. “Izuku, wake up, you’re safe,” Shota attempted to reassure the manic student. 

Slowly, he seemed to calm down, the convulsions stopped and he began to slowly crack his eyes open. “Shota?” he asked, voice cracked with fear. 

Shota nodded, gently pulling Izuku upright, still maintaining his gentle grip on his shoulders. “I’m here kid, you’re safe,” 

Izuku looked at him for a second through the tears in his eyes before throwing his arms around his torso and pulling himself in close to him. At first Shota didn’t know what to do with his arms but soon gently wrapped one around Izuku while stroking his head softly with the other. 

Izuku sobbed heavily into Shota’s jumpsuit. “I’m sorry,” he moaned. 

Shota rubbed Izuku’s shoulder a bit more. “It’s alright kid, don’t feel ashamed, and you don’t need to feel scared anymore, I’m here for you,” he reassured him. 

Izuku was still sobbing but... not as much as he was, and he was still clinging to his teacher, but he was slowly beginning to relax. Shota just continued to gently rub his shoulder and run his fingers through his hair. 

Shota spent most of the rest of the night with Izuku, still gently embracing him, trying to keep him calm, while he was mostly successful, Izuku refused to go back to sleep, just saying the nightmares would come back if he did. 

“What was the nightmare about?” asked Shota softly. 

Izuku sniffled. “I... I dreamt that Bakugo was back... that everyone had decided I'd lied about what he did to me and nobody stopped him...” he gave another sob before continuing. “Nobody even tried to stop him hurting me in revenge... not Mina... not you... nobody...” 

Shota pulled him in a bit closer, trying to make his student/future son feel protected. “That’ll never happen, you know I’d happily die protecting each and every one of you and you know that Mina would throw herself in front of you any day to protect you,” 

Izuku nodded shakily, “I know... but it doesn’t make the dream seem any less real... it doesn’t make me forget what he did to me in the dream...” 

Shota got off the bed and knelt in front of Izuku, gently holding him by the sides of the shoulders. “Izuku, please look at me,” he asked. Izuku did so. “I promise you here and now, I will protect you to the best of my ability, I will protect you from any dangers and I will always be here to help you,” 

Izuku gave a soft smile and leant forward, giving Shota a soft hug. “Thank you...” 

Eventually Shota decided that sleep wasn’t on the table for either of them so he led Izuku into the living room of his apartment, sat him down on the sofa and put on some old Disney movies to try and make him feel relaxed. 

The two ended up watching movies together the whole night, Izuku enthusiastically singing along to most songs with Shota subtly lip-syncing along with him. 

As the sun began to creep its way through the heavy black curtains of the apartment, Izuku began to stretch and move to stand up. 

“Thanks for letting me stay here Shota... I know I basically just sort of moved in without really letting you agree to it but I’m really thankful,” 

Shota rubbed his eyes but waved dismissively with the other, a soft smile on his face. “Don’t worry about it Izuku, like I said, my doors always open to you and you’re welcome to stay here whenever you want,” 

Izuku gave a bright grin. “Thanks Shota,” he said before practically skipping over to the door and leaving the apartment with a happy wave goodbye. 

Shota just grinned and returned the wave. “See you in homeroom,” he called after the disappearing student. He still smiled after Izuku had left. He shook his head, chuckling at himself, he seriously loved that kid. 

That was why he couldn’t bear to see him in pain... 

Shota let his head drop into his hands, he desperately wanted to always be there for him, to be able to look after him. 

For now, he would have to do that as a teacher, maybe someday they could consider that other option, he thought as he looked towards the locked cabinet on the other side of the room. The one containing the adoption papers. 

If he said that Izuku was the only one who had papers in there, he’d be lying. He had papers for several of his students in there and several blank sheets too. He had papers for Todoroki, Ashido, Uraraka, Iida and Asui... 

Actually, thinking about it he apparently wanted to adopt Izuku and all of his friends... 

He shook his head, deciding to not think about that anymore, his expression darkening as he remembered what he used to have in there as well. 

Once upon a time, he had papers for Bakugo in there too. Not anymore. 

The night after Bakugo had attacked Izuku, Aizawa took those papers up to the roof, burned them and scattered the ashes into the midnight winds. All things considered, it meant very little to anyone, it was just a few burnt papers. 

To Shota, it meant a lot. That was him acknowledging to himself that one of his students, one he cared for and wanted to nurture, no longer mattered to him. He had lost that when he became a villain. 

Shota stood up from the sofa, dusting himself off as he did so. That was enough self-pity for now, he had a class full of brilliant kids to look after and guide. 

He walked towards the kitchen, eager for Izuku’s pre-made breakfast and as always, excited for another day of teaching his class. 

It was on the Friday of that week that Aizawa called for attention from his class. “All right guys listen up, as you should all know, you’re going on your internships next monday for the full week, you’ve already submitted who you will be working with so hopefully none of you have changed your minds... because I don’t care,” 

A quiet chuckle spread throughout the class. “Now all that’s left to do, is to pick out your hero codenames,” he announced. 

As expected, the class immediately burst into excited chatter. He thought about using his quirk to calm them down but decided against it, he’d let them be excited for once. 

Damn, Izuku must be making him go soft. 

“Anyway, as you may be able to tell, I’m not exactly the best person to talk to about hero names,” he admitted, cringing at the memory of allowing Hizashi to pick Eraserhead for him. 

The door slid open, “So you’ll have me to help out instead,” announced the newly entering Midnight. 

Aizawa nodded, “Right, so I'll be taking a nap while she helps you out with this, try not to wake me up,” he requested, zipping himself up into his cocoon and falling from the podium as soon as he had finished talking. 

The whole class apart from Izuku cringed at this, he had gotten more used to seeing such things. 

Most of the class decided on their names quickly. Always wanting to be the centre of attention, Aoyama shared his first. 

“The Shining Hero, Shimmer,” he announced. 

Tsu spoke up next. “The Rainy Season Hero, Froppy,”. The rest of the class beamed at the adorable sounding name. 

Mina hopped up to the podium excitedly. “The Acid Hero, Alien Queen,” she announced happily. Midnight shook her head from nearby. 

“I don’t know if that’s gonna work, if you mean the thing from the old films then that’ll come under copyright... plus it’s kind of scary for a hero,” 

Mina pouted sadly and started to rub the name out before Izuku spoke up. “Erm... excuse me?” 

Midnight nodded at him, “Do you have a name Midoriya?” 

Izuku shook his head, “Not yet, I just wanted to say, I actually did some research into that a while ago, the name ‘Alien Queen’ wouldn’t be copyrighted anymore, film copyright only applies until seventy years after the death of the film’s director,” he explained, Mina brightening up quickly. “The films came out around two hundred years ago now, it won’t be under copyright anymore,” 

Midnight stood in quiet thought for a moment. “He’s right Midnight,” a voice came from the corner of the room. Everyone turned to face the bright yellow cocoon. “That name wouldn’t be copyrighted anymore, besides, if she wants a scary name, let her have one,” 

Midnight shrugged her shoulders. “Well, the caterpillar has spoken, you can be Alien Queen if you want,” she conceded. 

Mina whooped and leapt in the air in excitement, her excitement being as contagious as normal, the rest of the class grew wide smiles as well. 

“The Turbo Hero, Ventus,” Announced Iida with a proud smile. 

“The Gravity Hero, Uravity,” said Uraraka bashfully. 

“The Tail Hero, Tailman,” Ojiro announced, slightly too proudly. The rest of the class cringed slightly. 

“The Stun Gun Hero, Chargebolt,” announced Kaminari, giving off a small spark from his hand. 

“The Sturdy Hero, Red Riot,” Kirishima announced confidently. 

“The Animal Hero, Piper,” Koda wrote on his board. 

“The Sweets Hero, Sugar Rush,” Satou proudly said. 

“The Tentacle Hero, Tentacole,” said Shoji neutrally. The class gave a slight cringe, but it wasn’t the worst name they’d heard. 

“The Hearing Hero, Earphone Jack,” announced Jirou. 

“The Tape Hero, Cellophane,” said Sero. 

“The Shadow Hero, Tenebrae,” Announced Tokoyami dramatically, Dark Shadow giving a thumbs up over his shoulder. 

“The Ice and Fire Hero, Duality,” Announced Todoroki, uncharacteristically proud. 

“The Invisible Hero, Prism,” Hagakure practically cheered. 

“The Brainwashing Hero, Mister Whisper,” Shinso announced, giving Izuku a small grin. 

“The Creation Hero, Deus Ex Machina,” announced Yaoyorozu. 

This just left Izuku sat there, staring at his blank board, desperately trying to come up with a name. He thought about calling himself Deku, he had even told Uraraka he was happy for her to call him that... 

But he couldn’t call himself that. 

“Midoriya? Are you struggling?” asked Midnight concerned. 

Izuku nodded sheepishly. “Yeah... I had one idea but I decided against it...” 

Midnight nodded understandingly. “It’s no problem, if you want, you can just use your name for now and come up with a new name later?” she offered. 

He thought on this for a moment before nodding. “Thanks Midnight, I think I’ll do that,” 

And with that, Aizawa stood up from the corner, miraculously no longer in his sleeping bag which nobody saw him get out of. “Alright then, thanks for the help Midnight, now get lost,” he said flatly. 

Midnight pouted slightly, folding her arms across her chest. “Well that’s rude Eraserhead, I just did your job for you but fair enough, I know when I'm not wanted,” she said, slowly backing out the room, an exaggerated look of sadness on her face. 

Aizawa rolled his eyes watching her leave. “Anyway, now... most of you have your names, you’re all ready for your internships,” he summarised. “Just a reminder, you’ll need to be up early on Monday to get the trains to where you’re going so no late-night parties on Sunday and make sure you bring your hero costume with you,” 

With that, he tapped a stack of papers against the podium as the bell rang. “Right then, that’s all from me, just one last thing,” he started. “Midoriya, All Might wants to see you as soon as possible so please go and see him soon so he stops annoying me,” 

The class laughed as Izuku gave a slightly embarrassed nod. 

Several uneventful but long lessons later, the class was heading to lunch. Well, most of them were. Izuku was walking towards one of the employee lounges, the one where he normally meets All Might in school, with the promise to come and join Mina and his friends as soon as possible. 

Quickly reaching the door, he tapped several times and waited for a response. Only a few seconds later, All Might opened the door in his hero form. “Ah, good to see you Young Midoriya, come in,” he offered, his usual booming voice echoing down the hallway. 

As soon as Izuku had entered the room and the door was closed, All Might immediately dropped into his skinny form, gasping and panting. 

“Are you all right All Might?” Izuku asked concerned, “Does your hero form hurt now?” 

Toshinori shook his head after taking a seat. “No it doesn’t hurt, at least no more than it usually does, these days it just feels like a muscular version of holding your breath for too long, it takes the breath out of me when I release it,” he explained, hoping to relieve his successor’s worries. 

“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that, is that what this was about?” 

Toshinori shook his head again. “No actually, it was a bit more of a personal matter,” he admitted. 

Izuku gulped, that never meant good things were about to happen. 

“I actually wanted to talk to you about your new relationship with Miss Ashido,” Toshinori explained. 

Izuku grew slightly flushed at this, he was not expecting All Might to be asking about his relationships. That sounded more like something his seven-year old mind would have dreamt up in some elaborate fantasy where All Might was his dad and they went around saving people and beating up bad guys all day. 

“O...okay then, what did you want to ask?” Izuku asked nervously. 

Toshinori leant back, resting his hands in his lap. “Just so you know, I’m not disappointed in you or anything, since I'm pretty sure that’s what you're thinking and I don’t necessarily disapprove, I just want to know the circumstances that caused it,” 

Izuku nodded, rubbing the back of his head, slightly relieved but still nervous. “A...alright then, so you want to know how we got together?” he asked. 

Toshinori nodded wordlessly. Izuku gulped before continuing. “Well... it just sort of... happened,” he admitted. “We got paired together for the tutoring assignment so we started hanging out quite a lot, at first it was just really nice having a new friend who I could help learn,” he explained. 

Toshinori nodded with a small smirk. “Not surprising you’d like helping people like that,” 

“Then... as the days went on, I think she started noticing things wrong with me, I think she first noticed when I froze up after hearing an explosion on the TV and she started putting it together after that,” Izuku went on to say, voice quivering slightly. “After about a week, she found me changing my shirt and saw all my... scars...” 

Toshinori nodded, listening intently, trying to hold his own feelings of guilt down for the minute. 

“After that, I kind of just had a breakdown, I told her everything that had happened between me and Bakugo,” he continued, beginning to sniffle slightly. “She left for a little while after that but came back a bit longer, she helped calm me down again and she promised to help me, she promised to protect me,” 

Toshinori gave a wide smile, feeling very proud of Ashido but at the same time feeling incredibly guilty for not being the one to see what was really happening. 

“Then... then I guess our relationship really started the day after... you know...” he said, growing quiet as he did. 

Toshinori nodded, feeling slightly guilty for making Izuku tell him this. 

“I think we’d both started having feelings for each other since we got partnered together, that was just when we admitted them,” he explained, a small but happy smile appearing on his face. 

“So that’s how it started?” asked Toshinori. 

Izuku nodded. 

“Alright then, to be honest that wasn’t quite how I expected it but at the same time I'm not surprised,” Toshinori said, smiling and rubbing his chin. “I just want to ask you a few more things if that’s okay?” 

“Yeah sure,” Izuku responded, leaning forward slightly. 

“Does she make you happy?” he asked. Izuku nodded enthusiastically, making his wild hair shake like a tree in a storm. “Do you trust her?” 

Izuku nodded again, “Of course, she’s done everything she can to help me and she’s been the only one there for me throughout this whole thing... no offence,” 

Toshinori held up a hand. “None taken, it’s just... one more thing...” 

Izuku leant forward again. “Yes?” 

Toshinori took in a deep breath before also leaning forward and giving Izuku a firm stare. “I forbid you from telling her about One for All, at least until I am certain that she can be trusted,” he stated. 

Izuku was shocked at this, then felt a sense of frustration in the back of his mind that only fed his own building anger. “And why’s that then?” he snapped angrily. 

Toshinori was slightly taken aback at this, he had never heard this kind of anger coming from Izuku before. “Because this is my secret, it’s the secret of my quirk and if it gets out, it could bring down society, imagine it, if villains everywhere knew the symbol of peace was weak, they’d rise up, their fear wouldn’t hold them back anymore,” he responded indignantly. “Besides, if they find out it can be transferred, they’ll come after you, this is for your own safety too,” 

Izuku slumped back into his seat, All Might made some good points. 

“Plus, if we’re being honest,” Toshinori continued casually. “While I don’t doubt she’s a good girl, Ashido isn’t exactly bright, and she has a reputation as a gossip in the school already,” 

Izuku quickly grew angry again. “So what? I can’t tell her because she’s too dumb? Because she’ll tell as many people as she can because it’s a huge secret?” Izuku spat out furiously. 

Toshinori just nodded. “Yeah,” he said, matter of factly. 

Izuku saw red. 

The next thing he knew, the sofa that All Might was sat on was flat on its back, he was clutching All Might’s collar in one hand while sat on top of him and All Might was sporting a bright red mark on his jaw. 

Still consumed with anger, Izuku barely stopped himself from screaming.  “YOU WILL NOT TALK ABOUT HER LIKE THAT!”  he boomed, his voice sounding guttural and primal.  All of  Toshinori’s instincts were telling him to get away from the incredible danger in front of him.  “WHAT SORT OF HERO ARE YOU!? TALKING ABOUT ONE OF YOUR OWN STUDENTS LIKE THAT! DO YOU NOT TRUST ANYBODY!?”  

Toshinori, in pain and absolutely terrified of his student, slowly responded. “I...it’s not that... it’s just that my secret... it’s too important to let anybody else know about it,” 

Izuku growled furiously, the primitive parts of the human brain telling Toshinori that there was a predator on top of him. 

“THAT WAS YOUR DECISION! THAT WAS YOUR DECISION WHEN IT WAS YOUR QUIRK! BUT GUESS WHAT? IT ISN’T YOUR QUIRK ANYMORE!”  Izuku nearly screamed,  all of  his pent-up frustrations and anger at All Might coming out at once.  “YOU GAVE IT TO ME, YOU PUT A TARGET ON MY BACK AND YOU TOLD ME TO KEEP THIS ALL-IMPORTANT SECRET OTHERWISE SOCIETY WOULD CRUMBLE! BUT THAT WAS YOUR CHOICE, YOU CHOSE TO STAND ALONE, I CAN’T DO THAT! I’M ALREADY THE TARGET OF A PSYCHOTIC VILLAIN AND I’M STILL A STUDENT!”  

Izuku took in a deep breath, trying to calm down, releasing All Might’s collar and getting off the hero.  “When One for All was yours, it was your secret to keep, now it's mine, so now it’s my choice to decide who knows about it,”  he snarled, still angry but having slightly calmed down. 

Toshinori slowly picked himself up, keeping as far away from Izuku as he could. 

“I'm not going to tell everybody about it, I'm not that stupid, I still know how important the secret is, I know that people need to believe the symbol of peace is as strong as ever, but some people in my life deserve to know,” Izuku finished, having calmed down enough to keep his voice under control, even if he still felt angry. 

Toshinori was going to respond, to tell him he still didn’t understand, that his secret was too dangerous to spread... but he didn’t. 

As he really thought on it, Izuku was completely right. Toshinori had been lucky all things considered, he knew people who also knew the secret who could help him; besides, he hadn’t gone through anything even remotely close to what Izuku had until after he graduated. 

Izuku didn’t have that luxury. The only person he could talk to about One for All was All Might, and frankly, he could even admit to himself that he was a terrible teacher. Plus, like he said, Shigaraki seemed particularly angry when it came to Izuku, it wouldn’t surprise him if he’d developed a grudge. 

And... he was right... One for All was his now, his own shortening time limit was a constant reminder of that. It was his decision on how it was to be used, who should know about it, and who it would be passed on to. 

Toshinori just said nothing, thinking for a minute before eventually sighing in defeat. “You’re right Midoriya, it is your choice now,” he admitted, hesitantly looking up at Izuku and meeting his eyes. 

Izuku nodded, his face growing paler as the rage drained out of him. 

“Just... who would you tell about it?” Toshinori asked. 

Izuku thought for a second. “Definitely Mina and Shota,” he answered quickly. “Maybe my mother later on,” 

‘Shota?’ Toshinori thought. “Oh, you mean Aizawa?” he clarified. 

Izuku nodded. “Yeah, I trust him, besides, if he knows about it, he’ll be able to help me with it a lot more,” 

Toshinori nodded, thinking to himself. ‘Again, he makes a good point, Aizawa definitely proved himself trustworthy and he’s a much more experienced teacher than I am,’ 

“Alright then, if you really trust them both that much, you can tell them,” he relented. 

“Of course I can, it’s my decision remember?” Izuku snapped back quickly, before walking towards the door. 

He was stopped by the door opening and Principal Nezu entering the room. “Greetings Midoriya, I was looking for you and... oh hello All Might, why are you on the floor?” 

Izuku smirked, “I sneezed and it knocked him over,” 

Nezu’s semi-permanent smile widened slightly. “I know for a fact that's not what happened but I’ll not push any further,” the small principal replied, sounding rather amused. “Anyway Midoriya, I actually needed to speak to you about your costume and the equipment you requested for it,” 

Izuku nodded. “Is there a problem with it? Will it not be done in time?” 

Nezu shook his head. “Oh no, it’s already complete, I've never seen a complete costume and equipment overhaul be done so quickly as a matter of fact, it’s just that some of the equipment you requested requires you to go through a weapons course to be allowed to use it,” 

Izuku nodded. “I knew that, I just assumed I wouldn’t be given it until I had done that course,” 

Nezu nodded, pleased. “Quite right, as it happens though, Snipe teaches the lethal weapons course, he can give you the basics needed to be able to carry it with your hero costume over the weekend,” 

Izuku grinned, “Really? That won’t be too much trouble will it?” 

“Not at all Midoriya, we are teachers after all, who are we to stop our students from learning?” Nezu responded happily. “Come with me to my office and we’ll discuss the details,” he added, turning to leave the room. 

As Izuku went to follow, Nezu poked his head around the door. “Oh yes, you should put some ice over that injury All Might, you don’t want it to bruise too badly,” Nezu recommended, almost sarcastically. 

As the two walked towards Nezu’s office, the principal deftly climbed up onto Izuku’s shoulder and whispered into his ear with a grin on his face. 

“Nice punch by the way Midoriya” 

Chapter Text

Once again, Izuku woke up in the now familiar inky blackness of his own head. ‘Does that mean something?’ he thought to himself.  

He shook his head, “Nana? Are you here?” he called out.  

The scene changed to the regular scene on the rooftop at sunset with Nana perched on the edge of the roof. “You can basically make anything happen in my  head  right? Why do you keep having us talk here?” Izuku asked sarcastically.  

Nana smiled. “This was my  favourite  place while I was alive, why would I not want to be here as much as possible?”  

Izuku shrugged, sitting on the ledge next to her. “Fair enough,”  

Nana turned to look at him with a sly grin on her face. “I wanted to make sure we saw  right,  did you tackle and punch the symbol of peace in the face?” she asked.  

Izuku smirked, “Apparently so, didn’t think that would ever happen,”  

Nana started cackling. “Oh god that was hilarious to see, I am so glad I got to watch Toshi get decked in the face,” she chuckled before her expression darkened slightly. “But besides that, you were completely right about One for All, it is your quirk now, and therefore your decision about what is done with it,”  

Nana leant back, supporting herself with her arms. “I’m sorry about what Toshi said, I’m sure he didn’t mean it, it’s just that he was so obsessed with his whole symbol of peace idea, it’s kind of like you and wanting to be a hero in the first place, nothing could stop you from doing it and you wouldn’t let anything jeopardize it,”  

Izuku nodded, still slightly angry about what he said. “I get that, I know how important the secret is and it’s not like I'd go shouting it from the rooftops, I just hated that he wouldn’t let me decide what to do, he still thought it was just his secret, and I don’t care if he wanted me to keep the secret and not tell Mina, but what he said about her was unforgivable,”  

Nana put a hand on his shoulder. “You don’t need to tell me that Izuku, he went way too far with that, I know  that  and I don’t want to make excuses for him but keeping his secret is basically the most important thing in his life,”  

“He still shouldn’t have said it, besides, he barely even knows her, he can’t make judgements like that about someone without knowing them,”  

Nana nodded, fully in agreement. “As usual, you’re right,” she responded, a slightly sad smile appearing on her face. “If I'm being honest, I think he’s slightly jealous of you,” she admitted.  

That was not something Izuku expected to hear. “What? Why would, ALL MIGHT be jealous of me?” he questioned, baffled.  

“Because his entire life revolved around becoming the symbol of peace, he never thought he had room in his life for anything else,” she explained. “He never loved anyone enough to bring them into the know, fearing the consequences, he never really had any family either, I was basically his family after I met him,”  

Izuku’s  expression also turned  slightly  sad. “I never really thought about that, it sounds lonely,”  

Nana nodded. “He was, but he still never tried to change that because he was too scared of losing someone or his secret being exposed, I think that’s why he’s jealous of you, you have people you love and trust enough to tell them your secret,”  

Izuku gave a soft smile. “Who’d have thought it? All Might being jealous of an originally  quirkless , bullied kid because now I've got a girlfriend,”  

Nana chuckled. “Yeah you do, and a good one too,” she admitted, smiling widely.  

Something occurred to Izuku then. “Erm... Nana?”  

“Yeah kid?”  

“You said that you and the other bearers can feel what I feel right?” he asked nervously.  

Nana nodded, seeing where this was going and having a sly smile on her face.  

“Would that mean... if me and Mina... you know... would you feel it?” he asked blushing madly.  

Nana laughed, “Pretty sure yeah, it’s not happened before but we can feel everything else that happens to you so it’d make sense, Mina’s a great kisser by the way,” she added with a slightly flushed face.  

Izuku’s  blush deepened. “Does... does it bother you at all?” he asked timidly.  

Nana shook her head quickly. “Oh god no, I'm pretty sure it’s basically all of our favourite thing in here these days,”  

Izuku pulled his knees up to his head to hide his face. “Oh god, how am I going to explain you when I tell her about One for All?”  

Nana laughed again, “Just make a joke about voices in your head, pretty sure she already thinks you’re crazy, in the good way at least,”  

Izuku chuckled nervously. “I think I might leave that until after the internships, don’t want to blow her mind and then disappear for a week, she’ll probably burst,”  

Nana nodded. “Probably a good idea,” she agreed.  

They sat quietly for a while longer before Izuku spoke up again. “Hey Nana, why do I seem to be getting angry lately?” he asked.  

Nana avoided eye contact. “Ah right... that’s partially my fault... apparently if I or the other bearers experience a strong emotion, it can apparently influence yours, not necessarily change it, but influence it,”  

Izuku thought back to just before he lunged at All Might, he recalled a feeling of frustration in the back of his mind. “Oh yeah, was that you then?” he asked.  

Nana nodded. “Yeah, I got really annoyed at him being overly cautious with ‘his’ secret,”  

Izuku nodded in thought. “But that wouldn’t make me angry on  its  own would it?”  

Nana shook her head, “No, it might have put you in a more negative mood but it wouldn’t have changed it, most of that anger came from you,”  

Izuku looked slightly guilty. “I guess thinking about it, I’ve had a lot of problems with All Might, he was next to useless in teaching me how to use One for All, he was controlling with how I kept the secret... and... I think I was angry that he never saw what was happening to me...” he admitted, sniffling slightly.  

“He’s the symbol of peace, the number one hero in Japan, if not the world... and he couldn’t even tell when his own successor was being assaulted and abused right under his nose,” he practically spilled out.  

Nana reached over and wrapped an arm around his shoulder, pulling him into a one-armed hug saying nothing.  

“Sorry Nana, I'm sure you deal with me being sad enough without me actually crying on you,” he apologised.  

Nana shook her head gently. “Don’t worry about  it  kid, it’s alright,”  

Izuku sat there quietly for a minute, thinking again. “I should talk to All Might about that, and probably apologise for hitting him,”  

Nana nodded, “That’s probably a good idea but again, leave that until after your internship, it’ll give you more time to collect your thoughts,”  

Izuku nodded, “Thanks for the advice Nana but speaking of the internship, I should probably start getting ready for that, I’m at the train station early remember?”  

Nana pouted but nodded. “Alright fine, just please keep cuddling with Mina for a bit longer after waking up, she’s warm and soft and I think the first bearer is a bit touch starved,” she requested, smirking slightly.  

Izuku nodded happily, “I think I can do that,” he promised.  

“Good,”  

*Boop*  

As promised, Izuku didn’t stop cuddling his girlfriend for at least another half an hour after waking up, hopefully that would tide them, and him, over for the next week. Izuku smiled happily, taking in the sweet, fruity scent of Mina’s hair.  

He still didn’t know how he ended up like this, he never knew he could be so happy. Apparently, this was what love felt like. If that was true, then he  never  wanted it to end, and right now, he didn’t think it would.  

Begrudgingly, he looked over at his alarm clock and begin to gently shake his  bubblegum  teddy bear awake. She stretched  slightly  and gave one of her usual, and always adorable, little mewls as she did.  

“Morning Zuku,” she greeted, black eyes meeting his own and giving him a wide smile.  

He leant in and gave her a kiss before responding. “Morning Mina,” he responded, voice still slightly husky from sleep.  

Mina gave a low groan and clenched her eyes shut. “Oh god that was hot,” she muttered, quickly pulling him into a soul searing kiss. He felt a feeling of pleasure coming from the back of his mind and silently chuckled. ‘Apparently Nana enjoyed that as well,’ he thought.  

“Well I’ve got to keep you wanting, need something to look forward to at the end of the week,” Izuku responded teasingly, pulling away from the kiss.  

Mina pouted cutely. “No fair, why not now?”  

Izuku gave her another quick kiss on the lips. “Good things come to those who wait,” he responded.  

“ Oh  you’ll come all right,” Mina muttered, smirking.  

Izuku flushed and quickly crossed his legs, keeping anything from getting... out of control. “Well... that definitely makes me want this week to be over now already,” he admitted.  

Mina gave him a seductive look, her eyes half lidded and gently biting her bottom lip. “Who says we can’t have a bit of fun right now?” she asked, her voice low and almost needy.  

With immense  disappointment , Izuku pointed towards his alarm clock, showing they only had about half an hour before they had to leave. “Time and the very universe itself apparently,” Izuku responded bitterly.  

Mina also looked at the clock and dropped her flushed face into the pillow and gave a loud moan. “God damn cockblocking universe,” she moaned frustratedly.  

Izuku gently rubbed her back over her bright pink  pyjamas . “I know, we both hate the universe right now but unfortunately we do need to get ready,”  

Mina moaned again before literally rolling out of bed, hitting the floor with a dull thud. “Ow,” she muttered. “You need better carpets or a rug or something in here Zuku,”  

After assuring himself she was alright, Izuku chuckled slightly. “Yes ma’am, I’ll get right on it,” he replied sarcastically, getting up from the bed and bending down, offering Mina a hand up.  

She took it, Izuku pulling her to her feat with unsurprising ease. “Good boy, right, I guess I’ll go get changed and grab my costume,” Mina said, dusting herself off, making her chest bounce slightly as she did,  Izuku’s  eyes being drawn there immediately.  

“Erm... yeah, I think I’ll, do the same... I'll need to go and get my costume from the support department though,” he said, quickly averting his eyes and blushing furiously.  

Mina smirked at him, looking at him from the corners of her eyes, pleased he seemed to enjoy what he saw, even if he was still shy. Oh well, there’d be plenty of time to make him blush once they got back. Or now, now was good too.  

Stretching her arms above her head and giving out a loud yawn, Mina noticed again how  Izuku’s  eyes were immediately drawn to her exposed midriff as her top rose up slightly. Mina  smirked,  she had an idea of how to keep him all hot and bothered while on their internships.  

She began to cheerfully skip away, her chest bouncing as she did so, Izuku once again growing flushed as the sight. Mina grinned widely. Teasing him was too much fun. She bounced over to the door, quickly throwing it open and giving her boyfriend a wave goodbye. “See you at breakfast,” she said before disappearing down the hallway.  

Izuku stood staring at where she was for a minute before shaking himself out of it. “Alright, focus Izuku, stop being horny, you’ve already got horns, just get changed and don’t think about how insanely hot Mina is for at least a few minutes,” he said to himself, nearly trying to psyche himself up.  

Taking a few deep breaths to calm himself, he quickly got changed into his uniform, his tie being as stubborn and badly tied as ever before locking his room behind him and heading towards the support department.  

He was  fairly confident  that if Power Loader wasn’t there, Hatsume would be. He kind of doubted she  ever actually slept,  he was also pretty sure she had caffeine running through her veins instead of blood.  

He jogged most of the way to the workshop, hoping that if he got the costume and got back to the dorms quickly  enough,  he could fit in some breakfast for him and Mina before Shota dragged them all to the train station.  

Soon enough, he reached the large metal doors. Waiting a second to make sure they weren’t about to explode, he knocked on the solid metal doors.  

About a minute went by before the doors swung open, revealing the frizzy and overworked looking Hatsume. “What do you want? Who are you?” she demanded impatiently.  

“Erm... I’m Izuku Midoriya, we were on the same team for the cavalry battle, I’m here to pick up my costume,”  

Hatsume grinned excitedly. “Ooh, so it was your costume Power Loader told me to work on? I loved your ideas Ten Million, they were great fun to build,”  

“Thanks?” Izuku replied, rubbing the back of his head, slightly confused.  

She quickly grabbed him by the wrist and pulled him into the workshop, leading him past piles of scrap metal, half complete projects and something that a more paranoid person would have called a death ray.  

She bounded over to what was, by far the messiest workbench in the whole place. Tools and pieces of metal scattered across it and the wall behind it and the floor surrounding it covered in burn marks and what looked like craters from explosions.  

Sher cheerfully reached underneath the bench and pulled out a costume case, quickly spinning round and thrusting it towards him. “Go on, try it on, I need to be sure I got the measurements right,” she demanded excitedly.  

Izuku grimaced slightly and looked at a nearby clock. “I can’t really, I need to get back to my dorm in time to go to the train station for my internship,”  

Hatsume looked disappointed for a second but cheered up again almost immediately. “Oh well, just make a detailed report on how the costume fits and the new equipment works,” she demanded once again. Then something apparently occurred to her and she cocked her head. “Hang on a second, you didn’t have horns a while ago did you?” she asked.  

Izuku shook his head, “No, something... something bad happened to me and this happened when I was healed,”  

Hatsume zoomed in on his face slightly, looking closer at the long scar stretching its way across his face. She’d caused enough of them to know what a wound caused by an explosion looks like.  

“Oh, it was about that  explody  guy wasn’t it? The one from the festival?” she asked, voice unusually subdued.  

Izuku nodded. “Yeah, things went bad and I ended up needed my eyes and face healed, the horns just ended up being a side effect of the healing process,”  

Hatsume nodded  somberly . “I’d ask you what  happened,  but I get the feeling you don’t want to talk about it,”  

Izuku grimaced again. “No, not really,”  

The pair stood in awkward silence for a minute before Izuku broke the silence. “So, while we’re going on our internships, what are you guys doing?” he asked.  

“Oh we’re all going on internships too, the whole year is actually, it’s not just the hero course,” she replied as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.  

“Oh,” Izuku said, feeling a bit sheepish about apparently knowing nothing about the other courses. “So where are you going?”  

Hatsume beamed. “I’m going working with a company that invents support gear for heroes, I'm meant to be going as an ‘assistant technician’ but by the time I'm done the company will be  practically  working for me,” she announced proudly.  

Izuku nodded, beginning to turn around towards the door, his costume case in hand. “Alright, well, enjoy Hatsume, see you later, I’ll be back if I need any more work done,” he called over his shoulder, waving as he did.  

“Later Ten Million!” Hatsume called after him.  

On the bus to the train station, Mina was lying her head on her boyfriend’s shoulder with her eyes closed. Not napping, just relaxed. Iida had already tried telling them off for acting so affectionate in public but surprisingly, Aizawa spoke up and told him to lay off, saying “If they want to act all lovey  dovey  then let them,” with a smirk.  

That was unexpected but Mina just shrugged and went back to using her boyfriend as a pillow. Soon enough, the bus slowed to a halt and Aizawa called for everyone to get off and to not forget their costume cases.  

To Iida’s immense disappointment, he wasn’t needed to repeat the instruction as the whole class began moving immediately.  

A short while later the class were surrounding their teacher in the middle of the station as he began handing out tickets. “Right then, Midoriya, your train is much earlier than everyone else’s so you’d better get going,” Aizawa suggested.  

Izuku nodded, grabbing his ticket, running over to Mina to give her a quick kiss on the cheek, resulting in about half the class  awwing  and then running off in the direction of the platform, waving over his shoulder as he went. “ Bye guys,  see you in a week,” he called out.  

The rest of the class waved him goodbye, including Aizawa as Mina spotted out of the corner of her eye. She shrugged,  it  kind of seemed like they were pretty close these days so it kind of made sense.  

Aizawa then turned to the rest of the class. “Now then, you all know where you have to be and where to go, just don’t wander off for now and I’ll let you just hang around until you’re ready to go,” Aizawa announced.  

The rest of the class then broke off into small groups, chatting amongst each other. Mina looked down at her ticket, her train was  soon  and she was the only one taking it so she’d better move soon but first...  

First she needed to satisfy her curiosity about something.  

“Hey guys!” she called out, drawing everyone’s attention. “Just before we all go, I just wanted to ask you all something,” she told the class.  

Several people nodded, as if to say ‘go ahead’.  

“I just want you to be honest, and I promise I won’t be mad or anything, I'm just curious,” she added, making most of the class slightly nervous as to what the question would be. Aizawa raised an eyebrow in interest.  

“Who here has even a slight crush on my boyfriend?” she asked, grinning widely. “Hands up if you do,”  

The class went silent for a few seconds, Mina saw Aizawa nearly doubled over trying to hold in laughter. Then, one by one, hands started going up.  

Surprisingly, the first hand to go up was Todoroki, then  Tsu , then Kaminari,  Kirishima  and Shinso. Kyoka also raised her hand not long after, blushing furiously all the while. Shortly after, most hands were raised. The only people whose hands weren’t raised were Shoji, Sero, Ojiro, Hagakure and Uraraka.  

Mina grinned widely at the sea of hands in front of her, she quickly took a picture with her phone before turning away and beginning to skip away. “Good to know, thanks guys, see you all next week,” she called over her shoulder.  

She made it about ten metres away when she heard Aizawa crack, turning to look over her shoulder, she saw her grumpy, stoic teacher lying on the floor, clutching his stomach and laughing like crazy.  

Always the opportunist, she took a short video of that too, partly to watch it back later, partly to show Izuku, partly because of the potential for blackmail.  

Mina giggled and went on her way to her platform, both looking forward to the internship but also to it being over.  

Izuku found himself outside of an incredibly run down and dilapidated looking house. He double checked the paper that All Might had given him. Why would someone who trained All Might himself be living in a place like this?  

Rereading the address and being confident he was in the right place, Izuku shrugged and stepped up to the door, knocking on it once. As he did so, it opened immediately.  Apparently  it wasn’t closed properly.  

He gently pushed the door open, calling out as he did. “Hello? I’m Izuku Midoriya, I'm here for my internship,”  

He  looked into  a dark room, the lights were off, the only light in the room coming from the now open door. The light revealed a small body lying on the floor, blood and entrails surrounding him.  

Izuku went to scream before he noticed something. He didn’t smell blood. And looking even closer, those entrails were sausages... and the guy was still breathing.  

Smirking, Izuku leant back against the door frame with his arms folded. “Alright, nice try old man but I know you’re not dead,”  

The ‘body’ suddenly sprang to its feet, showing a very short old man in a white and yellow hero costume, most of it now stained red.  

He tapped his foot on the ground and crossed his own arms, an unamused expression on his face. “All right runt, how did you know?” he asked.  

Izuku gave a slightly cocky shrug. “It didn’t smell like blood and I noticed they were sausages, also, on closer inspection, the ‘blood’ looks like ketchup,” he explained. “So sorry, but it didn’t work and now you’ve got a costume to wash and nothing out of it,”  

The old man huffed. “Well guess that means I’ll just have to get some actual blood next time I try that,” he grumbled slightly before waving him in. “Alright then come on in kid, you go and get your costume on while I sort out this mess,”  

Izuku entered the house. “Do you want any help?” he offered. The old man waved him away.  

“Nah I'm fine, I'm old, not useless,” he responded. “At least you offered though, guess you do have some manners,”  

Izuku nodded, walking towards the stairs on the other side of the room. “Bedrooms up here?” he asked.  

“Yeah  yeah , you can use the one at the end of the hall,”  

Izuku nodded again and began going upstairs. The house was dark but  fairly clean  and well looked after despite its appearance from the outside. Maybe that was on purpose?  

Izuku soon reached the door at the end, he tried the doorknob, it opened. The door swung open showing a relatively small bedroom with a basic bed, an end table, a full length mirror on one wall and a desk with a chair. Izuku stepped in, closing the door behind him and put his case on the bed, carefully opening it.  

As he looked over the contents he grinned. It was exactly as he wanted. Eagerly, he began to change into his new costume.  

After he  finished  he looked himself over In the mirror. He really liked what he saw. Gone was the bright green and white jumpsuit.  

Now, he was wearing a dark green muscle tight long-sleeved shirt which matched the colour of his new irises. He had very dark brown combat pants, covered in pockets and pouches with jet black combat boots, tipped with a matte black metal plate at the toes. Over his shirt he wore a thin, dark forest camouflaged  kevlar  vest with matching upper arm guards, thigh protection and knee pads, not dissimilar to what SWAT officers wear but more streamlined. Given that it was Hatsume that made it however, Izuku was  fairly certain  it would be just as, if not even more protective. It was light as well, together, all the armour probably only weighed about 15 pounds. He also had black matte gauntlets over his hands. They were modified combat gloves with a metal plating, quite like medieval plate mail gauntlets. To finish off the look, he had a dark brown half cloak with a hood. It went down to just below his lower back and the hood had two small loops in the material to hook around his horns to help the hood stay up while on the move.  

Izuku grinned. His new costume was exactly as he had imagined it. He looked back to the case to see what remained. One last addition to his costume and his new equipment. He took out a jar of dark green face paint and used it to cover up his scar, leaving a dark, forest green line of face paint covering his eyes. Not only did it help obscure his face and would help camouflage him more, he thought it made him look kind of awesome.  

He then reached into the case and pulled out the last two items. One of which looked like a small metal block, the other was a small mask. He took out the metal block and held it in his hand, testing the weight. Smiling at how light it felt, he flicked it down at he pressed a hidden switch and a black metal blade just under a metre longer folded out, leaving him holding a black metal, folding short sword.  

He tested the edge, it was sharp. He grinned to himself and looked at himself in the mirror holding the blade. Spinning it around, the blade retracted into the hilt and he tucked it into a small holster on the side of his thigh.  

He then reached into the case and pulled out the mask. It was small and  made out of  the same black, matte metal the rest of the metallic items on his costume was. He hooked it over his face, covering his lower face, only leaving his eyes and above visible. If Hatsume had fulfilled  all of  his requests for the mask, it would filter out smoke and toxins and if he switched it on it would change his voice.  

Seeing an opportunity, he took his phone out and got ready to have it take a picture. He set a timer on it and propped it up against the wall on the desk and got ready.  

Once the phone flashed Izuku took it off the desk and looked at the picture. He saw himself in his new costume, hood pulled low over his eyes, just allowing enough light onto his face to see the green line, one hand holding the extended blade in a reverse grip in front of him and one hand holding the mask in front of his face, just exposing enough to see the edge of a grin.  

He smiled at the picture and then noticed something. He quickly looked at himself in the mirror, pulling his lips open. His canines appeared more... fang like than they used to, they weren’t any  larger  but they looked sharper and a bit more bestial.  

He smirked again. He’d need to chat with recovery girl when he got back, apparently there were even more side effects of using Mina’s blood to heal him.  

Satisfied with the picture, he sent it first to Mina, then to Shota and then finally to the class group chat. He didn’t have to wait long for a response. Mina was the first to respond. At first the message was just the wide eyes emoji. The second message was a surprisingly long one talking about how badass and hot he looked and how when they got  back  she was, A, getting him to help her redesign her costume, and B, fucking his brains out.  

Shota also responded fairly soon with a simple message saying he approved of the costume even if it wasn’t what he expected.  

Over the next hour or so the group chat exploded with a mix of jealousy, compliments and thirst. All three from several people, mainly Kaminari,  Kirishima ,  Tsu  and Kyoka.  

Smiling over the messages, Izuku walked back downstairs, his blade sheathed once again and his mask in a pouch on his waist.  

“Holy shit kid,” Gran Torino exclaimed as Izuku entered the now clean room. “That, I was not expecting,”  

Izuku shrugged, pulling his hood down, thinking it unnecessary for the minute. “It’s pretty different from my old one but I like it a lot,”  

Gran Torino nodded. “But can you fight in it?”  

Izuku smirked. “I should think so,” he responded.  

Gran Torino also smirked. “Good, now, fire a One for All smash at me,” he commanded.  

Izuku grinned, winding his fist back. “Sure thing, 100% or 5%?” he asked.  

Gran Torino looked surprised for a few seconds before giving a proud smile. “Ah, so you figured out how to control One for All then eh? Guess Toshinori isn’t as useless a teacher as I thought,”  

Izuku shook his head slightly. “I wouldn’t say that, it was actually my girlfriend and another friend of mine that helped me figure out how to control it,”  

Gran Torino just facepalmed heavily. “That useless idiot, he couldn’t teach you how to use  it  so you had to get other students to help you?”  

Izuku nodded, smirking slightly.  

The old pro just sighed exasperatedly. “ So  I guess you told them about One for All then?”  

“Nope, neither of them know about it, I was going to tell my girlfriend about it after the internship actually but I hadn’t planned on telling any of my other friends,” Izuku responded.  

Gran Torino looked almost impressed. “So without even knowing how the quirk works, two other students managed to help you figure out how to control it when Toshinori couldn’t when he had the quirk for over thirty years?”  

Izuku nodded. “Yeah,” he replied, deadpan.  

Gran Torino shook his head before returning to a combat stance. “Well remind me to send them a fruit basket or something, but now let’s test your control and see if we can increase your limit at all eh?”  

Izuku grinned as the pro shot towards him.  

Hours later, Izuku practically had to drag himself up the stairs to his bedroom, battered, bruised and aching all over. He eventually made it to his bedroom for the next week and immediately collapsed onto the bed, sighing in relief as he did.  

He had only been lying there for a few minutes when his phone rang. He looked at the screen, Mina was calling him. He accepted the call and put the phone to his ear.  

“Hello, Henderson’s Morgue, you stab  em , we slab  em , this is Eight Ball speaking,” Izuku greeted sarcastically. He was met with the sound of heavy laughter from the other side of the call.  

“Oh my god you need to answer every call from now on with something like that Zuku,” Mina informed him in between laughter.  

Izuku smiled, “I’ll do my best, anyway, how was your first day?” he asked.  

“Actually pretty good, I met a load of heroes and sidekicks and they all seemed to really like me although I’m pretty sure one of the sidekicks got a crush on me,” she said chuckling.  

“Did you melt his dick off?” Izuku asked teasingly.  

“I didn’t say it was a guy,” Mina responded teasingly.  

Not missing a beat, Izuku responded. “Did you melt her tits off?”  

He was met with more laughter, “No it’s fine, I'd be way too out of her league anyway even if I didn’t already have someone way better,”  

Izuku chuckled but smiled happily. “ Oh  stop it, you’ll make me blush,”  

“Oh I didn’t mean you, I meant  Tsu ,” Mina replied teasingly.  

Izuku nodded, “Not surprising, she is adorable and has a great butt,”  

Mina chuckled, “Careful, you’ll make me jealous,”  

Izuku shrugged, “I didn’t say it was better than yours,”  

More laughter. “Oh, stop it  you  big flirt,” she chuckled. “Anyway, how was your day?”  

Izuku groaned slightly. “Oh, you know, the usual, got kicked around by an old man for about six hours,” he responded, rubbing a particularly sore patch on his ribs. “And looks like tomorrow will  be more or less  the same,”  

“Sucks for you, Native’s going to take me out on patrol around  Hosu  tomorrow,” Mina responded cheerfully.  

Izuku chuckled, “Well good for you, hope you enjoy it,”  

“I will, although speaking of enjoying... your new costume makes you look so fucking badass and  it  kind of made me want to jump you the instant I next see you,” she admitted, voice sounding slightly breathless.  

Izuku’s  own voice dropped an octave even as he began to blush. “ Oh  I know, I read your message,”  

Mina giggled, “Did you read the group chat? Seems like half the class was thinking the same too,”  

“No, haven’t had time yet, I'll have a look in a minute,”  

“Alright then, well you sound tired so I’ll let you go, talk to you tomorrow Zuku,”  

“Alright, night Mina, love you,”  

“Love you too Zuku, and watch your phone later, I've got something for you,”  

Izuku ended the call, dropping his head back onto the pillow and opening the group chat, grinning over his  classmates  reactions to his costume. Not long after he got a new message off Mina, this one had a picture.  

He opened the message and immediately was awake again.  

It was a selfie of Mina... wearing nothing on her top half and only wearing small black panties on her lower half. She had a wide grin, was winking at the camera and was pinching one of her nipples between two fingers.  

Izuku looked at the picture, looked at the locked door, looked at his pants and then looked at the picture again.  

Fuck it, he had time to sort out his business.  

Chapter Text

All in all, the hero killer Stain was not having a very good month.  

First, he missed his opportunity to attack his highest profile target yet. The fake Ingenium was his next target and he was nearly ready to make his move when Ingenium left the city.  

He never managed to find out why or where he went.  

While still bitter at the loss of his target, he watched the footage of UA’s sports festival. As always it was nothing more than a showcase for those fakes. Simply showing that a heroic spirit didn’t matter  as long as  you were strong. The one who went on to win the  first-year  tournament was a prime example.  

Powerful, yes but tainted by rage and a deep, unsettling hunger underneath those wild eyes of his. Stain noticed that during his first match.  

Then there was the son of Endeavor.  Also  powerful but showing almost no spirit at all aside from one of defiance. There was no heroism there, just more rage.  

There was only one student that intrigued him. That green haired one who lost to the son of Endeavor.   

Izuku Midoriya.  

Stain grinned widely, he seemed like the only one there who may have had the potential to become a true hero. Despite displaying devastating power of his own, he did not immediately annihilate his opponent as he could have done.  

Instead he seemed to be trying to talk to him. It seemed clear what his goal was when his opponent burst into flames.  

This boy... this one boy in that school for fakes... threw away his chance at winning to aid an opponent.  

Izuku Midoriya.  

He may be a true hero yet.  

It was just under two weeks later when Stain watched the news again. It was another story about UA, this time, apparently about some form of scandal.  

Stain rolled his eyes. Even student “heroes” were only seen as entertainment these days.  

As the story went on, Stain grew more interested. Apparently the first-year festival winner had both been expelled and arrested because he attacked a classmate. Surely that should show the public the folly of popularising the ones with power despite having no innate heroism at all.  

While they did not report on the victim, apart from reporting that they had been in a critical condition due to the assault, Stain was fairly certain he knew who the victim would be.  

Izuku Midoriya.  

If there was anybody who was diametrically opposed to his attacker, it would be him. One with what seemed to be a true heroic spirit, and one who only saw the world through fire and rage.  

Stain snarled angrily. Perhaps he should pay a visit to this...  Katsuki  Bakugo...  

Punish him for potentially killing a true future hero.  

He shook his head. By now the former student would be in a prison, most likely Hades if not Tartarus. He relished a  challenge,  but he wasn’t a fool.  

Still... he would remember this.  

This thought came to him once again around a week later. The day that black smoke appeared, claiming to wish for him to talk to his ward.  

That was enough for Stain’s interest to be piqued. He followed the  smoky  man through what was apparently a portal, leading him into a dark bar.  

At first, he noticed only two other figures in the room. One was the one who brought him here, the other was a younger looking man with blueish hair and hands clinging to him all over his body.  

The handy one started some speech that Stain barely understood, he seemed to be using video game references instead of actually speaking properly. Stain snarled in annoyance. This was the league of villains? A smoky bartender and a man-child?  

Growing impatient, Stain demanded that the immature young man simply tell him what he wanted. He responded that he wanted Stain to join the League of Villains, claiming his skills would be useful.  

Stain rolled his eyes, demanding to know what his group desired, what their goals were.  

“Right now, I really just want to kill All Might,” the blue haired one responded.  

In a flash, Stain had cut and paralysed the smoky bartender and had pinned the blue haired child to the ground with a knife through his collarbone.  

He was about to end this scum’s life when he was suddenly thrown backwards with a loud bang. His back slammed against the wall and his vision became blurry. Shaking his head to clear the fuzziness he looked up to see what had happened.  

He saw the familiar spiky blonde hair of the one who won the UA sports festival, the one who was arrested for assaulting a classmate.  

Katsuki   Bakugo .  

He looked  more or less the  same as he did during the sports festival, apart from two differences. One was a deep burn on the side of his face. The other was his eyes.  

There was a hunger behind them before, now there was true mania.  

Stain watched him help the blue haired scum to his feet.  So  they were working together?  

An immature man-child who wanted to kill All Might and an unhinged psychotic glory hound who assaulted a future hero.  

Stain would do the world a service right now and end the lives of everyone in this room. He lunged forward, blades in hand, and suddenly found himself back on the roof where he was before the smoky one appeared.  

He growled angrily and sheathed his blades. He would have to find them again later, for now he better get back to tracking his new target.  

Coincidentally, his target came into view that very moment.  

The “hero” Native.  

Stain’s eyes narrowed, there was someone else with him. A girl with bright pink hair and skin, horns, a gaudy costume and a wide smile.  

He recognised  her,  this was another one of the UA students from the festival. He did not recall her name, she did not do enough to warrant his attention either way.  

Stain growled slightly. He did not wish to end the life of a girl like that, she may yet turn out to be a true hero also, but if she got between him and his prey then he would have to cut her down just like the rest.  

What was one more life among those he had already taken?  

Izuku yawned loudly, Gran Torino shooting him a dirty look from opposite him.  

“ Oh  I'm sorry, am I not entertaining enough for you kid?” he asked, annoyed.  

Izuku shook his head. “Sorry Gran Torino, I just didn’t get much sleep last night,”  

The old pro grumbled. “You were sweating like a pig this morning, were you doing more training overnight?”  

Izuku paled slightly. Yeah, let’s go with that. There was no way he was telling him what he was  actually doing  last night.  

Izuku nodded nervously.  

Gran Torino grumbled again, turning to look out the window. “Didn’t seem like it earlier, there was no difference in your power or technique from yesterday,”  

Izuku rubbed the back of his head with his gauntleted hand. “Well... I was focusing more on... fine movements,” he replied, hoping the answer was vague enough he wouldn’t push further.  

Gran Torino looked at him suspiciously but shrugged and went back to looking out the window. Izuku did the same. The sky was growing dark as night fast approached.  

The two were on a train bound for  Hosu  city. It being the closest major metropolitan area to Gran Torino’s home, and therefore, a good place to find villains to practice on.  

Izuku smiled. He wondered how Mina’s internship with Native was going. Maybe they could meet up while they were both in the city, it could give Gran Torino a chance to thank her for helping him learn how to control One for All.  

Well... assuming he  actually was  thankful. It was hard to tell, he just looked grumpy most of the time.  

An announcement rang out through the train, claiming that they were approaching  Hosu  city and would arrive in around ten minutes.  

Izuku leant back in his seat with his arms resting on his legs. One of his hands brushed against the folded sword on his thigh which reminded him of something.  

“Oh yeah, Gran Torino,” Izuku spoke up.  

The old pro looked towards him with a questioning glance. “Yeah kid?”  

Izuku tapped the hilt in its sheath. “I got permission from UA to carry  this  but I don’t have full permission to use it yet, they said I needed permission to use it from the hero I was working under,”  

Gran Torino’s eyes widened for a second, his gaze changing between the folded sword and Izuku. He thought for a minute before responding. “You seem like a level-headed kid, I give you permission to use it at your discretion, I’ll trust that you know when it should and shouldn’t be used,”  

Izuku nodded before bowing slightly. “Thank you for your trust in me, I’ll do my best to not abuse it,”  

Gran Torino waved a hand in the air, “Ah there’s no need for that, it wouldn’t make sense for me to not let you use it, after all, a blade is just a tool, it isn’t dangerous on its own, it’s the person wielding it that makes it dangerous and I don’t think you’re the sort to even put villains in danger unless it can’t be avoided,”  

Izuku nodded again. “Thank  you Gran Torino ,”  

“Eh don’t worry about it kid,” the old pro responded, the ghost of a smile on his face.  

The train began to slow down as it pulled into the station, as it did, Gran Torino stood up from his seat, slapping his knees as he did. “Well come on kid, let’s get going,”  

Izuku nodded, following the old pro off the train and through the station. They soon walked into the lights of  Hosu , the sky now entirely dark. “Well? What do we do now?” Izuku asked.  

Gran  Torini  shrugged. “We basically walk around waiting for something to happen that he can do something about,”  

Izuku’s  shoulders drooped. “Is that what patrolling is?” he asked, voice disappointed.  

“Pretty much kid, it’s not as glamorous as it seems like from the outside,” Gran Torino responded, already walking away.  

Izuku followed, pouting slightly as he did so. He began to think he might have built up the whole hero thing a bit too much. Then again that’s probably what these internships were for.  

The pair went on to patrol for a while with nothing of note happening. At  one point  Izuku thought he saw a glimpse of someone on a roof but once he looked a second time there was nothing there so he didn’t think any more on it.  

Then there was an explosion nearby.  

Izuku quickly ducked down, seeing the explosion come from several blocks away. Gran Torino immediately shot off in that direction using his quirk. “COME ON KID! KEEP UP!”  

Izuku activated his controlled One for All and went after him, then froze as he passed an alley. He couldn’t explain it...  

He just had a terrible feeling about something down there. He looked towards the direction of the explosion, Gran Torino was already out of sight, he looked back towards the alley.  

All Might once said that a hero should always trust their gut. Then  again  he also said clench your ass and yell smash so maybe not everything he says is gospel but that first one was probably right.  

Already planning his apology, he darted down the network of alleys, hoping his bad feeling was unfounded.  

Stain grinned. This night had been a success.  

The fake, Native, lay bleeding at his feet, his throat gashed open and pouring blood. He had  intended  to only wound him, to let him spread the word but he tried to fight back so he simply slashed out with a knife and watched the light drain from his eyes.  

The girl who was with him was lying against the brick wall, paralysed from a cut on her shoulder, but glaring at him with an intense look of rage despite the tears in her eyes.  

“YOU BASTARD! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?” she screamed at him.  

“I’ve made the world a better place, I’ve rid it of another fake, one who would ruin the word hero,” Stain responded calmly.  

The girl let out an incoherent scream. “WHY? WHY WOULD YOU KILL HIM?” she demanded to know.  

“Because heroes these days care only for fame, fortune and glory, no longer do they care about being heroes,” he replied, growing impatient. “Heroes should not seek or accept rewards, heroic deeds should be entirely selfless, yet fakes like that one would take money in exchange for so called noble deeds,”  

“BUT THINK ABOUT ALL THE PEOPLE HE SAVED! EVEN IF IT WAS FOR MONEY, HE HAS SAVED LIVES!” the girl shouted in defiance.  

Stain sighed, almost sadly, drawing his sword from its sheath. “That is a shame, it is clear to me now that you’ll never understand what I do, you’ll never understand just how rotten this society is and what must be done to change it,”  

He  knelt down  to her level, looking her in the eyes. “What is your name girl?” he asked.  

“Mina Ashido,” the girl spat out, “Remember it, it’ll be the name written over your obituary,”  

Stain sighed again. “ So  I was right, a hero you will never be, no true hero would say something like that,” he said, standing up to his full height, drawing his sword back to over his shoulder.  

“Goodbye Mina Ashido, may your death bring about a better world,”  

He swung the sword.  

*CLANG*  

Mina slowly opened her eyes which had been clenched shut as she saw the sword come down, and she saw the blade, stopped only inches from her throat by another blade, this one was black, shorter than the jagged katana wielded by the hero killer and razor sharp.  

But more importantly, she recognised it. She followed the blade to the hand holding it, then followed the arm to the man holding it.  

Standing there in front of her, was her boyfriend Izuku. New, dark costume making him nearly invisible in the dark alleyway. Hood pulled low over his eyes, the slight glint of his black sclera just barely shining from underneath it. Mouth, set in a snarl, revealing the sharp canines within.  

And holding the hero killer’s blade back with his own.  

It was at that moment Mina realised something.  

Izuku had just saved her life.  

Stain was apparently as surprised as Mina at his appearance, as he froze at his blade being met with another, allowing Izuku to quickly pull the blade back and slash at the hero killer, carving a deep gash across his face, severing the small mask across his eyes.  

Stain leapt back, clutching his face in one hand and hissing, blood dripping through his fingers, his sword held out with the other. “What? Who are you?” he demanded.  

Izuku looked away from him for a second, his gaze darting to his girlfriend. Apart from the small scratch leaking blue blood on her shoulder, she looked  unharmed,  but she wasn’t moving. Assuming this was the Hero Killer’s quirk at work, Izuku turned his attention back to his opponent.  

His sword felt off and unfamiliar in his hand. While he earned the certification to carry it, he was no expert with it by any means, he knew some basics but no way near enough to go up against the Hero Killer with it.  

He had gotten lucky with that slash, he had reacted quickly enough to get in an attack, capitalising on the Hero Killer’s surprise. He couldn’t count on that again. He’d have to rely on One for All for movement to try and get an opening.  

“I don’t recognise you, and you’re hiding your face... are you a vigilante?” Stain asked him.  

Izuku used his free hand to pull his mask out of its pouch, quickly attaching it to his face and switching it on. His voice came out in a deeper, modulated tone. “That doesn’t matter to you, all you have to know is that I will stop you,” Izuku warned him.  

Stain snarled, allowing his hand to pull away from his face, the blood having slowed slightly. “Typical, another fake hero, just here to come after me, you couldn’t care less if I killed that  girl  could you?”  

Izuku’s  eyes narrowed and sparks began to fly off him as he activated One for All. He turned to his girlfriend, still looking at him with wide eyes, tears streaming down her face.  

Shota would later beat the crap out of him for doing so, but Izuku ignored Stain for a moment, leant down to his girlfriend, and gently wiped the tears from her face. “It’s okay Mina,” Izuku said, turning around once again to face Stain. “I’ll save  you,  I will not let him touch you,”  

Stain seemed taken aback by this. Flinching slightly in surprise. That was his opening.  

Izuku leapt forward with One for All, swinging his sword vertically as he did so. Stain parried it with ease but couldn’t block the kick that landed firmly in his chest, knocking him back several feet.  

Stain quickly leapt forward, slashing his sword indiscriminately. Izuku just barely blocked every strike, then lunged forward for several strikes of his own followed up by a spinning kick, knocking Stain back again.  

“Hmm... you’re actually not so bad, you’re clearly an amateur at swordplay, your stance is all off and your grip is off but there is some talent there,” Stain admitted.  

“I don’t need compliments from a murderous villain,” Izuku responded angrily, his mask making him sound even angrier.  

Stain cracked his neck and then lunged forward at a speed Izuku had barely seen before. He just dodged out of the way in time, barely dodging the sword aimed at his head, merely cutting part of his hood off instead, making it fall loose and expose his head.  

Stain’s eyes narrowed. “You... who are you? You look like that boy, Midoriya, but you have horns, and your eyes are different,”  

Tutting slightly, Izuku removed his mask with his free hand. “ So  you know who I am huh? Wouldn’t have expected that,”  

Stain continued to glare at him. “ So  it is you? Why do you look so different?” he asked.  

Izuku darted forward, their blades locking together. “Less talking, more fighting,” he responded angrily.  

The pair were locked into a near endless flurry of sword blows, colliding limbs and the clangs of metal and occasional sparks.  

Izuku was holding his own better than he expected, he surprised himself at that. Which unfortunately gave Stain an opening of his own. Izuku managed to block the heavy overhead swing but was sent flying back by a heavy kick to the torso. Izuku ended up sprawled on the floor, maybe fifteen feet away from Stain.  

“You fought well Izuku Midoriya,” Stain congratulated. “I think I will spare you this night, but as for her...”  

Stain locked eyes with Mina, who was another fifteen feet behind him. Then he was upon her in an instant.  

In less than a second, he had reached Mina, pulled her to her knees and faced her towards Izuku, holding a knife against her throat.  

“You seemed to know this girl, you even seemed close, so for that reason, I apologise, but she is not a true hero, and so must be purged,” Stain snarled, applying pressure to the knife.  

Izuku saw a line of blue appear underneath the knife. He was still on the floor, thirty feet away from them.  

There was nothing he could do.  

But...  

He had to...  

He had to do something...  

HE HAD TO SAVE HER!  

Izuku suddenly felt a deep rush of power flow throughout his entire body but... this didn’t feel like One for All, it felt... like something else.  

All of a sudden , it was like he could see the world more clearly and the sword suddenly felt much more natural in his hand.  

And his free hand? He felt... a buzzing coming from it.  

Not knowing fully what he was doing, operating entirely on instinct, Izuku threw his hand forward, his other hand raising his blade over his head as he shot upright.  

Suddenly , he was stood right in front of Stain and Mina, a shocked expression on both their faces.  

Izuku acted, bringing the bottom of his sword’s hilt down on the Hero Killer’s forehead, a loud crunch sounding out through the alley and the Hero Killer’s eyes rolled into his head, his grip on his knife growing limp as it dropped out of his hand.  

And the Hero Killer collapsed onto the ground.  

Izuku quickly pulled his girlfriend away from the limp body. Once he was sure he was no longer moving, he quickly examined her throat.  

Relief flooded his body as he discovered it was only a thin cut running along her neck. Supporting her with one arm, he reached into his pockets with the other, pulling out bandages and applying them to her neck.  

“I. ..Izuku ?” Mina gasped.  

Izuku nodded, tears beginning to appear in his eyes. “Yes, I’m here Mina,”  

Mina was fully crying at this point, she pulled herself into his embrace, sobbing into his  Kevlar  vest. “You saved me, thank you so much,” she sobbed.  

Izuku wrapped his arms around her tightly, kissing the top of her head. “It’s alright Mina, I'm here now, you’re safe, he won’t hurt you anymore,”  

The two sat there for a while, Mina sobbing into her boyfriend’s chest as he tried to hold his own tears back.  

For the two of them, nothing else in the world mattered right now.  

And that was the problem.  

Izuku... felt something more than he saw or heard something. He whipped round to face Stain. The Hero Killer was on his knees  now and  had just pulled a knife out of a sheath on his vest.  

With no hesitation, he threw it at them. Izuku saw the knife approaching in slow motion, the blade spinning end over end. He could almost see its trajectory. It would strike Mina right in the heart. And there was no way he could stop it in time.  

And then it shattered.  

A split second later, Stain was thrown backwards, a large spout of blood shooting from his shoulder of the arm that had thrown the knife.  

Less than a second later, he heard a distant crack. He knew what that sound was.  

A sniper.  

Chapter Text

Archangel was having a hell of a night. It was entirely coincidental that they happened to be in the city with their equipment. Then things started exploding and huge blue guys with exposed brains started tearing stuff up. 

Archangel was pretty sure these things were similar to the Nomu creature that had attacked the USJ with the league of villains, that probably meant they were responsible for this too. 

They quickly donned their gear and ran out onto the rooftop of the building they were in. Darting from rooftop to rooftop towards where the explosions were coming from. As they went, one of these Nomu creatures flew past them, barely flinching, Archangel threw a metal disc at it, it sticking to its wing and releasing a strong electrical charge, making the creature’s muscles seize up and causing it to begin falling to the ground. 

Hopefully the heroes in the area would be able to deal with that one, Archangel needed to get to the epicenter, try and stop what was happening. 

They found a gap between rooves that was too far for them to jump. So, they pointed a tube attached to their bracer at the other roof, a jagged grappling hook firing out and firmly embedding itself in the other side. 

Satisfied it was secure, Archangel leapt off the roof, pressing a button on the tube as they did. With the whir of a very powerful rotor, Archangel was pulled towards the opposite roof, leaving them dangling from the ledge. Planting the soles of their boots into the wall gave them enough grip to climb their way up as the soles attempted to attach themselves to the wall. 

Practically walking up the wall now, Archangel pulled themselves onto the rooftop and spotted something in the distance. About three hundred metres away, two figures were stood atop a water tower. 

They had never seen these two before, but they knew who they were, these were Tomura Shigaraki and Kurogiri, the leader of the league of villains and his right-hand man. She had heard enough reports of what happened at the USJ to know the descriptions of them well. Well... hacked their way into enough reports but that’s not important. 

Quickly setting themselves up behind the ledge on the roof, kneeling behind it so the ledge was roughly at chest height. Then, they pulled several pieces from assorted cases and pouches attached to their body. Assembling them with the speed and precision of a master, Archangel was left holding a custom long-range sniper rifle of their own make. 

Setting up the bipod on the ledge, they aimed at the pair on the water tower. They were going to go for Kurogiri first but his body was hidden so they knew they weren’t guaranteed to hit and they knew he had fast reactions based on the events of the USJ. 

That left Shigaraki. Archangel shrugged, they could do much worse than shooting the leader of the league of villains. It would be better if they made sure the pair couldn’t escape but they’d take what they could get. 

Taking in a deep breath, allowing their heartbeat to slow, Archangel waited. 

Then fired twice. 

The first bullet ripped through his upper thigh, immediately making him drop to his knees, crying out in pain as he did, the second shot found its mark in his shoulder. Shigaraki cried out in pain again, his hand quickly flying to his shoulder in reflex, then he screamed again as all five fingers made contact, making part of his own shoulder quickly decay. 

Archangel was about to try and take another shot, but the water tower was then surrounded by a black smoky vortex and when it dissipated, they were both gone. 

Tutting in disappointment, Archangel quickly made their way to the water tower where they were stood, finding a discarded pair of binoculars. They looked in the direction that the pair had been facing. Far off in the distance, she spotted something. There was a fight in an alley, this wasn’t one of the Nomu though, someone was fighting the hero killer. 

Archangel set up the rifle as quickly as they could, aiming at the alley, using the attached rangefinder to determine how far it was. 

“Range: one point two kilometres,” Archangel muttered to themselves. “Adjust for wind and gravity,” 

They looked at what was happening in the alley and froze. The Hero Killer had been defeated. He was lying on the ground, apparently unconscious. They looked at his opponent, seeing the dark armour and razor-sharp black blade. Archangel knew who this was. This was Izuku Midoriya. 

They saw slight movement in the corner of her scope, Stain was back up and clutching a knife. He drew his arm back to throw it. 

Archangel fired. 

Izuku was left gobsmacked. He heard the crack and saw Stain get thrown backwards, a spout of blood coming from his shoulder, some of it landing on his face. Then Stain froze.  

He wasn’t dead, he hadn’t gone limp, he had just... frozen, like he couldn’t move anymore. Making sure Mina was alright, he gently sat her down, creeping his way over to Stain. 

He was looking around, but he didn’t seem to be moving. Izuku noticed some of the blood had landed in his mouth. Izuku turned back to his girlfriend. “Mina, is Stain’s quirk some kind of paralysis?” 

Mina nodded. “Yeah, he cut me on the shoulder and then I couldn’t move anymore, I still can’t,” 

“Did he do anything else or was it just the cut that paralysed you?” 

Mina thought for a second, her hand going to her chin, not realising she was now free. “I think he did something with the knife, he brought it near his face but I didn’t see what he did,” 

“Oh thank god, you can move again,” Izuku said, relieved. 

Mina jumped slightly, moving her arms and shakily getting to her feet. “Phew, thank god for that,” she muttered. 

Izuku looked back to the Hero Killer. “So then Stain, is your quirk to do with blood? Can you paralyse someone by tasting their blood?” Izuku asked smugly. 

Stain growled but smirked slightly. “Well done Izuku Midoriya, you figured it out, that’s more than anyone else has done,” 

Izuku looked down on him. “I’m guessing that since Mina can move again, there’s either a time limit, or you can only paralyse one person at a time,” Izuku chuckled. “And apparently you’re not immune to the effects of your own quirk,” 

Stain continued to smirk slightly. “Very good, it is a time limit, can you guess what determines it?” 

Izuku thought for a second. “Does blood type have something to do with it?” 

Stain was grinning widely now. “Well done Izuku Midoriya, you’ve figured out my quirk, you, a trainee hero, managed to figure out the hero killer’s quirk when not even pro heroes had been able to, not even those I allowed to live manged to figure out what I did to them,” 

Izuku looked over his shoulder to Mina. “Mina, can you look for something to tie him up with? We need to restrain him for when his quirk times out,” 

Mina nodded, darting over to the nearest dumpster and throwing it open. 

Izuku began removing all of Stain’s blades, which was easier said than done, he had enough to arm a small army. Eventually, one jagged katana, eight serrated knifes, six throwing knives and one hidden folding knife which was hidden in his wrist were lying on the ground. 

Mina had found a coil of rope, who throws away good rope like that, Izuku didn’t know but he was thankful they did. Mina set about tying Stain up, making sure his arms were pinned against his torso and his legs were tied together so he couldn’t run. 

He could probably still try and hop to freedom, but she was confident he wouldn’t get far if he tried that. 

Izuku was at that moment, crouching over the body of Native, laying a hand on the dead pro’s shoulder. “I’m sorry... If only I got here sooner,” Izuku muttered, eyes beginning to water slightly. He then looked up and out of the alley. He was almost aware of the direction the bullet came from as it passed him. 

If his instincts were right, it came from a long way away, from a rooftop with a view of the alley. Izuku peered as far as he could but he couldn’t see anything that far away. 

Izuku frowned. Who was there? Who saved them? 

Izuku shook his head. There would be time for that later, right now he had to make sure that Stain was secure. He walked over to Mina and put a hand on her shoulder. “Mina, can you lift or pull Stain?” he asked. 

Mina nodded. “I’ll be able to drag him behind us no problem,” 

Stain cringed. “I am not a trussed ham,” 

“No, you’re a murderer, you don’t get to complain about being uncomfortable,” Izuku snapped at him. 

Stain grumbled, “Fair enough,” 

“Right, you grab Stain... I’ll carry Native...” Izuku said, looking back at the body. 

Mina nodded, not looking at the body for fear she’ll start crying again. Izuku knelt next to the fallen pro, gently closed his eyes and whispered. “Rest in peace, thank you for your service,” 

Izuku then gently picked up the body, holding it against his chest in a princess carry. Izuku turned to face Mina, holding a length of rope attached to Stain. 

“Alright, let's get out of this alley and find a hero,” 

“IDIOT!” came a shout from nearby. Izuku flinched slightly before a familiar boot found its way to his face. “WHERE THE HELL DID YOU GO? WHAT THE HELL DID....” Gran Torino trailed off, seeing what Izuku was carrying. “My god... is that?” 

Izuku nodded, laying the body of Native on the ground gently. “Yeah, the hero Native, killed by Stain,” Izuku responded sadly. 

Gran Torino looked a combination of terrified and furious. “THE HERO KILLER!? WHERE IS HE?” 

Izuku pointed over his shoulder, Mina was trailing behind slightly, dragging Stain behind her, who was still frozen by his own quirk. 

Gran Torino’s jaw dropped. “You... did you defeat the Hero Killer?” 

Izuku rubbed the back of his head, quickly pulling it away when he realised it was still covered in blood. “Well... sort of... I defeated him, but someone else finished him off when he got back up,” 

Gran Torino’s eyes narrowed. “Two questions, first of all, who else finished him off? Second of all, who is that?” he asked, pointing at Mina. 

“Right well, first of all, that’s Mina Ashido, she’s a classmate of mine, she was interning under Native this week,” Izuku informed him. He then leant in a bit closer. “She’s also my girlfriend and one of the ones that helped me learn to control One for All,” he whispered. 

Gran Torino’s eyes widened in understanding for a second. “Ah I see, I’ll thank her for that later, but who was it who finished off Stain?” 

“I... I don’t know... I don’t know who it was, all I know is that it was a sniper from a very long way away,” Izuku responded. 

“A sniper eh?” Gran Torino muttered. “So... Archangel is in the city,” 

“Archangel? Who’s that?” Izuku asked. 

Gran Torino grumbled for a second, not realising he spoke aloud. “Eh, they’re a vigilante, nobody knows who they are, all they know is they appear, save someone in danger and disappear, often without ever being seen,” He explained. “The news started calling them a guardian angel, then the public started nicknaming them Archangel,” 

Izuku thought for a second. “And they’re a sniper?” 

Gran Torino nodded. “Yeah, most of the time they save people from a long way away but once or twice they’ve appeared much closer and seemed to use support gear to incapacitate villains, apparently their stuff looked custom made so they assume whoever they are, they’re a skilled craftsman,” 

Izuku nodded, that was worth having a think about. However, his thoughts were broken by a shout coming from down the street. 

“LOOK OUT, ABOVE YOU!” 

Izuku quickly looked down the street, seeing the imposing form of Endeavor standing further down the street, Todoroki stood behind him, eyes wide. 

Izuku felt sharp pains in his shoulders and then he felt himself leave the ground. He looked at the talons in his shoulders and followed them upwards, seeing the thin but still strong blue body of a winged Nomu. 

“WHAT? A NOMU!?” Izuku cried, the pain in his shoulders growing as he rose into the air. Izuku was quickly whisked at least twenty metres into the air, now above the roofline of the surrounding buildings. Too high for anyone to do anything. 

In another world, Stain would use this opportunity to break out, paralyse and kill the Nomu. 

But here, he was still securely tied up and still under the effect of his quirk. Izuku and the Nomu were too high for Gran Torino to reach him and Endeavor couldn’t attack it for fear of catching Izuku in the line of fire. 

Izuku tried using One for All to break the Nomu’s hold on him but it was embedded too deep into his shoulders to dislodge without causing too much damage to himself. Just out of the corner of his eye, he saw a tiny glint far away on a rooftop. He'd estimate it was at least three kilometres away. 

Then he felt the Nomu go limp and its hold on him loosen. 

A second later, he heard the familiar crack of a rifle as he and the Nomu began to plummet. As he approached the ground, Izuku tried to call upon that fizzing feeling that was in his hand earlier, the one that let him reach Stain in an instant. 

He was only about three metres away from the ground when all of a sudden, his momentum died and he was now lying on the ground near Mina and Gran Torino. 

“What the?” Gran Torino gasped. “What the hell just happened?” 

Izuku leapt to his feet, “I... I think Archangel just saved me,” Izuku muttered. 

Gran Torino punched Izuku in the side. “I know that much you dolt, I mean how did you get here so quickly, that wasn’t your quirk,” 

Izuku looked at the limp body of the winged Nomu, its brain now mostly being gone, a large pool of blood forming underneath it, he wandered towards it as he answered. “I don’t know, a weird fizzing feeling in my hand, I’ll explain later, just give me a sec,” 

Izuku walked towards the Nomu, inspecting it. He noticed a small metal disc on its wing, electrical burns surrounding it. He subtly examined it closer, there was something almost familiar about it. As quickly as he could, he ripped it off and stuffed it into a pocket to examine later. 

He then knelt to examine the brain, or rather, lack of one now. He felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked up to see Todoroki. 

“Midoriya, are you alright?” he asked. 

Izuku nodded but winced as the movement hurt his injured shoulders. “Mostly, just this thing’s talons really dug in deep,” 

Todoroki nodded, “My father called an ambulance a minute ago, so you’ll be alright,” 

“Thanks Todoroki,” 

The heterochromatic hero nodded and walked away to rejoin his father who was currently fuming over the bound form of Stain. 

Izuku got up to join them shortly after. 

“So then... an explanation would be good,” Endeavor said sternly. 

Izuku and Mina looked at each other, Mina gesturing for Izuku to speak. 

“Alright then... I was patrolling with Gran Torino when there was an explosion, he dashed off towards it and I followed, then when I passed and alley... I just got a really bad feeling in my gut, I could feel that something was wrong,” Izuku explained. “I ran into the alleyways, looking for anything wrong, then I heard shouting, I followed the sound and I found Stain about to kill Mina... and Native was already dead,” 

Endeavor turned to face the pink girl, “So what were you doing there?” 

Mina spoke up, “I was interning with Native, we were cutting through the alley to get to where the explosion came from then Stain cut me on the shoulder from behind and paralysed me,” She gulped slightly before continuing. “I fell against the wall and ended up sitting against the wall on the ground, Native heard me fall and turned around to see Stain, he jumped at him, shouting at him to get away from me, then Stain just lashed out with a knife and cut his throat...” 

Izuku wrapped an arm around her shoulder, pulling her head onto his as she began sobbing, trying to comfort her as best he could, ignoring the pain from his shoulders. 

Endeavor nodded, “I see, then what?” 

Izuku continued, “Well he was about to kill Mina, so I leapt in and blocked his sword with my own,” 

Todoroki spoke up, “Yes, I was going to ask about that, your costume is completely different, and you have new equipment,” 

Izuku nodded, pulling the blade out with his free hand and spinning it, releasing the blade. “Yeah, I wanted this all done before the internships, guess that was a smart decision,” 

Endeavor huffed. “You’re only a first year student and my son hasn’t mentioned anything about taking any lethal weapons courses, there’s no way you should have been allowed to even carry that, let alone use it, as I assume you did, going by the cut on Stain’s face,” 

Gran Torino chose that moment to speak up, “He was apparently given permission to carry it, but he needed permission to use it from a hero, I gave him permission to use it at his own discretion, trusting his judgement,” 

Izuku nodded, spinning the blade around again and sheathing it. “I started fighting the Hero Killer, mainly sword to sword but there was some hand to hand combat in there too, at one point he capitalised on an opening and kicked me in the chest, sending me flying away,” 

Mina continued, “Then he forced me to my knees... and he held a knife against my throat, he said he wouldn’t kill Izuku but that I would never be a true hero, then he started to push the knife in... but then all of a sudden, Izuku was right in front of us,” 

Endeavor crossed his arms, gaze suspicious. “How? I saw your power in the festival, it’s powerful and could probably launch you a good distance quickly but it would break you, not to mention destroy the surrounding area,” 

Gran Torino then added; “And your controlled version wouldn’t give you enough speed to get there quickly enough,” 

Izuku nodded, “I know... I don’t really know how to describe it... but I felt a rush of power and a fizzing kind of feeling in my hand, I didn’t really know what I was doing, I just threw my hand forward as I got up and all of a sudden I was right in front of Stain, I smacked him in the forehead with my hilt and that knocked him out,” 

Endeavor knelt down next to Stain, examining his injuries, ignoring the venomous glare the Hero Killer was giving him. “So, what happened to his shoulder?” 

“Well... he woke up again not long after and he threw a knife at Mina, then the knife broke and he got flung backwards, a second after I heard a gunshot... I think Archangel shot him and saved Mina at the same time,” Izuku explained. “Some of the blood from his wound landed in his mouth, activating his own quirk on him which paralysed him, I then disarmed him and Mina tied him up,” 

Endeavor nodded. “And then you brought him and Native here, trying to find a hero? That’s what happened?” 

Izuku nodded. “Yes sir, that’s what happened,” 

“Alright then, I called an ambulance a few minutes ago, it should be here shortly so you and your friend there can go to the hospital, the police will want to interview you when you’re there, just tell them what you told me and you should be fine,” Endeavor said, pinning Stain down as his quirk apparently timed out and he began trying to escape. 

“Thank you Endeavor,” Izuku said, sitting down against a wall, Mina joining him. 

Soon, a pair of ambulances appeared and Mina was whisked away in one, the paramedics anxious to examine the wound on her neck. As Izuku was being led to one by the paramedics, Endeavor gently grabbed him by the arm and leant in to whisper into his ear. 

“If the chief or someone similar comes by and says that you didn’t have authority to engage the villain, tell him that in such a crisis situation, even trainee heroes are authorised to use their own judgement on how to act, if he tries to pull you on your use of the sword, tell him to speak to the hero you were interning with to confirm he gave you permission,” Endeavor instructed him. 

“I mean... thank you but... why are you helping me?” Izuku asked quietly. 

“Because you helped my son,” Endeavor responded. “I know I’ve been a terrible father and I suspect Shoto told you what I did, but you managed to help him, you broke down his walls and taught him that it was okay to use his power, that was something I could never do,” 

Endeavor took in a deep breath. “I don’t normally do this but...” 

And then Endeavor bowed to Izuku. 

Endeavor bowed to him. 

“Thank you Izuku Midoriya, thank you for succeeding where I had failed,” 

Izuku gave him a smile. “It’s alright, after all, isn’t that what heroes do?” 

Then he allowed himself to be brought away in the ambulance. One thing he knew for certain, Todoroki would treasure the sight of his father bowing in thanks to a classmate of his. 

Once in the ambulance, Izuku started laughing hysterically to himself, deeply worrying the paramedics. 

“Holy shit... I beat the Hero Killer,” Izuku laughed to himself. 

“How about that huh Bakugo? Who’s useless now you bastard?” 

Chapter Text

“WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN YOU FOUGHT THE HERO KILLER!?” Shota screamed on the other side of the phone. Izuku winced, with the benefit of hindsight, maybe he shouldn’t have opened with that. 

“I mean... I fought the Hero Killer,” Izuku responded, not quite sure how to respond properly. 

Izuku heard a deep sigh from the other side. “Right, so walk me through this again, you were patrolling, there was an explosion, you separated from the hero you were with and then you had a sword fight with the Hero Killer Stain? When you’ve only had the bare minimum amount of training with that sword?” 

Izuku nodded, realising he couldn’t see, he responded, “Yep, that basically sums it up,” 

Another sigh. “Alright then, I’ve got two things to say to you for now, first of all, I’m very proud of you for saving your classmate from a murderer and then defeating him, but secondly, you’re a massive idiot and I'm gonna beat the shit out of you when you get back,” 

Izuku shrugged, wincing at the pain from his bandaged shoulders, “Fair enough, still worth it,” 

Yet another sigh. “You’re gonna put me in an early grave problem child,” 

Izuku chuckled, “Nah, you’ll outlive all of us,” 

Shota chuckled quietly, “Wouldn’t surprise me, anyway, I’ll let you get some rest for now, but I’ll be expecting a more in-depth report in the next few days,” 

“No problem Shota, goodnight,” Izuku responded. 

“Goodnight Izuku, hope you’re better soon,” Shota replied before hanging up. 

Izuku sighed, lying back on his uncomfortable hospital bed. He’d been at the hospital for a little over an hour, he was currently waiting for a doctor who apparently had a ‘flesh knitting’ quirk to come and repair the wounds in his shoulders. 

Almost as soon as he had gotten there, he asked the nurses where Mina was, after explaining their connection they informed him that she had arrived a few minutes earlier and was currently being examined by a doctor although they reassured him that she had no serious injuries as the cut on her neck was not deep enough to cause any major damage. 

Although relieved she was mostly unharmed, Izuku was still worried about her so he requested that they be in adjacent rooms. It took some convincing but Izuku soon won the argument by pointing out that he defeated the Hero Killer Stain and still had a sword and a history of impulsive actions. 

Any arguments were quickly quelled. A sword did generally beat the Hippocratic oath. 

After Izuku had removed his costume and gotten changed into a hospital gown, one of the nurses had tried to not so subtly take Izuku’s sword off him. He let her, he didn’t think he’d need it right now anyway. 

Instead, he reached over to his costume and pulled a small metal disc out of one of the pockets. 

He looked it over, this was the disc he had taken from the corpse of the winged Nomu. It was a simple looking metal disc, he’d guess it was made out of copper or some similar metal, what was interesting about it, was where the two halves of the disc met, they were joined by a strip of red leather with metal studs in it. 

He looked at it closer, then started laughing as the realisation hit him. “Oh wow, didn’t see that coming, well that’ll be an interesting conversation later,” 

“What’ll be interesting?” came a voice from nearby. Izuku looked towards the source of the voice, seeing Mina stood in the open doorway, smiling widely, also wearing a hospital gown and with dressings on her shoulder and neck. 

“Mina, I'm glad you’re alright,” Izuku said happily, waving her over carefully, trying to not agitate his wounds. 

Mina walked over, gently sitting herself down on the edge of Izuku’s bed. “Never mind me, I'm fine, how are you?” 

Izuku shrugged slightly, “Eh you know, the usual, at least this time it’s not my bones that are broken and it wasn’t even my fault this time,” 

Mina chuckled quietly for a second, “That’s true, I still don’t like seeing you injured though,” 

Izuku got a distant look on his face. “Maybe, but my injuries are literally meaningless to me as long as you’re safe,” 

Mina leant in and rested her head on top of his, careful to avoid his shoulders. “You shouldn’t say things like that, you’re not expendable,” 

Izuku wrapped an arm around her waist, gripping tightly. “Mina,” he said simply, locking eyes with her. “I do not care what happens to me as long as you survive... if you had died there... I wouldn’t be able to cope... I wouldn’t want to be here anymore, I’d finally take Bakugo’s advice...” 

“No, don’t say that, you’re not going anywhere, and neither am I,” Mina interrupted, wrapping her arms around his head and pulling it into her side. 

Izuku allowed the contact for a second before gently pulling away and locking eyes with her once again. “Mina... I love you... and I’d rather see myself broken than see anything happen to you,” 

Mina stared at him for a moment, tears growing in her eyes before she pulled him into a deep kiss. The couple remained locked together for at least a few minutes, neither willing to pull away from the other. Eventually, Mina ended the kiss, slowly pulling back and placing her head on top of his, wrapping her arms around him tightly. 

“I love you too Izuku... so please stop talking like that... I don’t want to lose you either...” she pleaded. 

Izuku nodded. “A... alright... I’ll try... I'm sorry, I don’t want to scare you... I just can’t lose anyone I love, I wouldn’t cope,” 

Mina gently held his face in her hands, pulling it to look up at her. “You haven’t lost me, you saved my life... you saved my life Izuku...” she sobbed quietly for a second. “Thank you... thank you so much...” 

Izuku wrapped his arms around her and pulled her in to a tight hug, injured shoulders be damned. The pair stayed like that for as long as possible, finding comfort in each other’s warmth. 

“Hmph, typical teenagers, can’t keep their hands off each other,” huffed Gran Torino from the doorway. The pair quickly separated in surprise, causing a chuckle from the aged pro. “Calm down kids, I'm just teasing, anyway, you’ve got a visitor,” 

The elderly pro moved out of the way, allowing a hulking figure wearing a suit to enter the room. 

Aaaaaand he had the head of a dog... 

Well they had a classmate with the head of a bird, so it wasn’t the weirdest thing they’d seen. 

“Hello, I’m Hosu’s chief of police, Kenji Tsuragamae, just call me chief if you’d like, I know my name’s a mouthful,” the tall dog man greeted. 

Izuku went to stand up to bow but he was quickly stopped. “There’s no need for that young man, I know you’re injured,” said the chief. 

Izuku halted, halfway stood up and slowly lay back down again. “Alright, what can I do for you chief?” Izuku asked, already knowing the answer. 

“Well I was originally going to come here to get a statement but Endeavor already filled me in on the situation and as it happens, there was a security camera that just barely caught the fight from the neighbouring street,” the chief explained. 

Izuku nodded, “Is that footage being kept private?” he asked. 

The chief awkwardly scratched his cheek with a hand. “Unfortunately, no... the footage has somehow already made its way into the hands of the media, I'd expect to see it on the news tomorrow morning,” he admitted. 

Izuku sighed. Great, now he’d be on TV again for the second time in like... two months of being at UA. 

“While I do apologise for that, there are two things I need to discuss with you,” the chief then added. 

Izuku sighed again, already knowing this would be a tiring conversation. “And what are those sir?” 

“First of all, you are still a trainee hero who doesn’t even have their provisional license yet, you didn’t have the authority to harm the villain, even if they were a murderer,” the chief stated. 

Izuku resisted the urge to scoff, it would be justified but wouldn’t help his case. “I believe that in such a crisis situation, even trainee heroes are authorised to use their own judgement on how to act,” Izuku responded as diplomatically as he could, parroting Endeavor’s words. 

The chief’s eyes narrowed slightly. “And what gave you that impression?” 

“Endeavor did sir, he told me that before I was brought here, why? Do you have a reason to doubt the number two hero?” Izuku responded, a little bit of sarcasm leaking into his words. 

The chief huffed. “Well... he isn’t wrong I suppose but there is still my second point, the fact that I haven’t seen any paperwork saying that you are allowed to even wield the weapon you used, never mind use it to harm someone,” 

Gran Torino then stepped forward, pulling a sheet from his pocket. “Actually sir, I do, I had it sent to me just before you arrived,” he handed the paper to the chief, who had to bend down rather far to be able to reach. 

The chief spent a minute reading the paper. “Very well, this does give you permission to carry it, but not to use it,” the chief said triumphantly. 

“Actually sir, I am allowed to use it as long as I received permission from a hero and Gran Torino said he would leave it to my discretion as to when to use it,” Izuku responded, just a tiny bit smug. 

The chief looked down to the elderly pro. “That is true chief, I said I'd trust his judgement and I gave him permission to use it if he deemed it necessary, given what happened, I would have deemed it necessary,” 

The chief just looked at the old pro for a few seconds, looked back to the paper and then handed it back to Gran Torino in silence. Then he started laughing to himself. 

“I came here to give you a slap on the wrist and warn you about not endangering your career with things like this but your defences are all legitimate,” the chief laughed to himself. He looked down to Izuku. “Fair enough, there’s no way I can say you weren’t allowed to do what you did and given the fact that the security footage was leaked there’s no way we can deny it happened in the first place,” he took in a deep breath before finishing. “So you’re off the hook Midoriya,” 

Izuku and Mina let out relieved sighs. “Phew, I was worried you were going to get in trouble Zuku,” Mina said, wiping sweat from her brow. 

Izuku gave her a smile before turning back to the chief. “Sir... permission to speak freely?” 

The chief nodded. 

“With all due respect, I believe those laws are wrong, I don’t believe that someone should be punished for using their quirk with the aim to do good, that’s the reason we have vigilantes in the first place, because some people want to do good, but for whatever reason, they couldn’t become heroes.” Izuku said confidently. 

“While I understand the need for controlling people’s quirk usage to maintain order, treating people as villains because they used their quirks to help someone without a licence is just flat out wrong,” he finished. 

The chief stared him down for a moment. “In the official opinion of the police, actions such as that are a slippery slope to vigilante justice supplanting police justice,” he said, scratching his chin as he did. 

Izuku’s eyes narrowed slightly. “But in your personal opinion?” 

The chief sighed. “In my personal opinion, I agree with you, I don’t necessarily agree with these laws and I believe they need to be changed to be more flexible,” 

“Then why not campaign for these law changes? Surely as a chief of police your voice would give it some weight?” Izuku asked. 

“Because while I wish for change, a chief of police like myself can’t be seen opposing the government, that could lead to a volatile situation that villains could capitalise on, that, is something best left to the people to do,” 

Izuku nodded, not pleased but understanding his reasoning. 

“However, while I cannot do anything about the laws I disagree with, I can thank you here and now, as the chief of police and on behalf on the whole city police force and the city as a whole, for catching a dangerous villain and bringing him to justice,” the chief said gratefully, bowing deeply. 

Izuku smirked slightly. “Thank you, but it might have been better to start with that,” 

The chief grinned as he stood up, “I’ll keep that in mind for next time, I have a feeling this will not be the last time we meet, but for now, I shall say goodbye,” the chief said, turning to walk out the door. 

“Wait a second,” Izuku said. The chief paused in the door, looking back over his shoulder. “The leak of the security footage... was that you?” Izuku asked. 

The chief didn’t respond for a second before a sly grin appeared on the corners of his mouth and he held a finger to his lips before walking away. 

Gran Torino snorted in amusement, “Well, didn’t see that one coming, well done kid,” 

Izuku looked at the aging pro. “I wonder why he did it?” 

Mina tapped him on the shoulder, he turned to see her with a wide and proud smile. “He probably wanted you to get the recognition you deserved for doing what you did, even if he couldn’t support you officially,” 

Gran Torino snorted again. “You were right kid, she is a smart one, first she helps you figure out your quirk and now this? You’ve got a good one there,” he said approvingly. 

“I know, thanks grandad,” Izuku responded sarcastically. Gran Torino rolled his eyes in amusement as Izuku gave his girlfriend a peck on the cheek. 

“Anyway, the doctor should be here soon, I’ll go find a place to stay for the night, make sure you don’t keep each other awake too late,” he said teasingly as he turned to leave the room. 

The pair blushed as the old man walked away, quietly laughing to himself as he went. 

Not long after, the doctor arrived to examine his wounds. While he cringed at the depth of the wounds, he reassured them both he would be able to mend them, it would just take a while and a lot of concentration. 

Around an hour later, the doctor left, having used his quirk to stitch Izuku’s wounds back together but warning him to not aggravate them at all or they may open again, giving a rather pointed look at the pair of them as he did so. 

The pair lay there together for a while longer, just chatting, trying to keep their minds off the events of the day for now until eventually, the exhaustion from the fight caught up to Izuku and he fell asleep, Mina joining him in sleep not long after, her head resting on his chest. 

During the night, a figure wearing black peered into the room and saw the pair lying there together. They smiled and crept into the room, once they reached the bed, they gently pulled the sheets further over the pair, making sure they would stay warm before giving them a warm smile and taking a seat nearby. 

Izuku woke to feel the sun on his skin and sand underneath him. He sat up to find himself on a beach, specifically, Dagobah beach. Looking down at himself, he realised he was in a very small speedo and nothing else. 

“Ha ha, very funny Nana, can I at least have some proper shorts?” Izuku asked sarcastically. 

He heard the snap of fingers behind him and now he was in a pair of swimming trunks. “Well that’s better I suppose,” he admitted, turning around to face the woman behind him. 

Nana was lying on a deckchair behind him, wearing only a small black bikini and a pair of sunglasses. Izuku groaned, “What’s up with you Nana? Why are you doing this?” 

Nana took her sunglasses off to look at Izuku. “Remember how I said our emotions could affect yours?” she asked. Izuku nodded. “Well it also works the other way too, you’ve been all horny for most of the past day so that’s affected us too,” 

Izuku shrugged, “Can you really blame me?” 

Nana smirked, “No not really, Mina is a hottie but seriously, please do something about it sooner rather than later because we can’t do anything about these feelings you’re giving us,” 

Izuku blushed. “I’ll keep that in mind... but for now, there’s something a bit more important on my mind,” 

Nana put her sunglasses back on her nose. “There’s not a lot more important than good sex in my opinion but I'm guessing you’re talking about that teleporting thing you did?” 

Izuku nodded. “Yeah, is that a part of One for All?” 

Nana sighed. “Alright look kid, normally I'd leave this to Toshi to explain but he’s not been doing a good job of it so guess I'll have to,” she started. “As each person passes on One for All, they pass on part of their power, you know that much already,” 

Izuku nodded again. “Yeah and you said some of the others thought it handed down part of their souls too,” 

Nana nodded. “Right, but what is also passed on, are the previous bearer’s quirks,” she explained. 

Izuku took a minute for that to settle in. “Wait... so I can use their quirks?” 

Nana shrugged, “Maybe, not everyone had been able to, most of the time they come out in a time of crisis or desperation which sort of ‘unlocks’ them,” she explained. 

Izuku nodded, hand on chin and already deep in thought. “So that teleportation was one of the previous bearer’s quirks? It must have come out because of my desperation to save Mina,” 

Nana scratched the back of her head. “Well that’s the thing... none of them had that power,” 

Izuku froze. “Wait... so it wasn’t any of the bearer’s?” 

Nana shook her head, “No kid, we’re as confused about it as you,” 

Izuku stuttered incomprehensibly for a while before Nana interrupted him. “Look Izuku, you can mutter about it as much as you want but I seriously think you need to get Recovery Girl to give you a check-up, try and find out what it is,” 

Izuku looked up at her, still confused. “Why would that help?” he asked. 

“Because she’ll be able to do more tests to find out what it is, if it is some part of One for All that just never appeared before or something different,” 

Izuku nodded, “Alright, that makes sense, I’ll go see her as soon as I can,” 

Nana nodded, standing up from her deckchair and moving to sit in front of Izuku on the sand. “Well, you’ve got a lot to think about now but you’ve been through a lot today so you could do with some sleep now,” 

Izuku nodded, looking at his surroundings. “Sure thing, just... why are we at Dagobah this time?” he asked. 

Nana chuckled, “Because last time you complained about always being on the rooftop and this way, I got to see you mostly naked,” 

Izuku groaned. “Just boop me and get it over with,” 

“With pleasure,” 

*Boop* 

Izuku yawned and stretched with one arm as he woke up, one arm still being underneath his girlfriend who was still snoozing contently. After rubbing his eyes with his free hand he smiled, looking at her peaceful expression as she slept. He leant down and gave her a small kiss on the forehead, making her smile slightly in her sleep. 

“Well isn’t that sweet?” asked a voice from next to him. 

Izuku quickly whipped his head round to the source of the voice, apparently disturbing Mina enough she began to wake too. 

As Mina groaned in displeasure at being woken, Izuku looked over to see the constantly sleep deprived looking teacher of theirs sat in a chair next to the bed, grinning widely. 

“Hey Izuku, sleep well?” Shota asked, entertained. 

Izuku’s eyes were wide open now. “How long have you been here?” he whispered. 

Shota shrugged, “Since about two in the morning I think,” 

Izuku blinked, “Alright... why are you here?” he asked, prompting another groan from Mina. 

“Zuku? Who are you talking to?” she asked as she lifted her head off his chest, rubbing her eyes as she did. As soon as she removed her hand, she locked eyes with their teacher and she froze. 

“Morning Ashido, hope you slept well,” Shota said with a genuine smile. 

Mina just blinked a few times, then looked between Shota and her boyfriend several times. “Am I dreaming or something because Aizawa looks happy right now?” 

Shota chuckled, “Nope, you’re awake, I'm pretty sure you are anyway, this is just what I'm like in private,” 

Mina gained an expression that was somewhere between confused and amused. “Okay then... so you’re actually friendly and the whole strict thing is an act?” 

Izuku nodded. “Yep, this is what he’s actually like when he’s not teaching, it’s what he’s been like when I’ve been hanging out with him,” 

Mina looked at her boyfriend, both surprised and impressed. “So that’s where you were going? You were hanging out with our teacher,” 

Shota chuckled, “Yep, I gave him a key to my apartment in the dorms, he’s half moved into my spare room by this point,” he said teasingly. “By the way, you can call me Shota if you want Ashido, at least when we’re not around the class,” he offered. 

Mina beamed happily. “Well this was not what I was expecting when I woke up but I'm completely okay with this, just call me Mina then, alright Shota?” 

Shota nodded. “Will do Mina, now then, you asked why I was here?” 

Izuku nodded, Mina copying him a second after. 

Shota shrugged, “I came to see how my favourite student was doing and make sure you were both safe,” he admitted. 

Izuku chuckled. “Hear that Mina? Big old scary Shota was worried about you,” 

Mina buried her face into his chest and giggled before looking back up at Shota. “Favourite student? I thought teachers didn’t have favourites?” 

Shota shook his head, smiling widely. “Every teacher has favourites, they just don’t say it, Izuku’s top of the list, you’re getting pretty far up there yourself actually Mina,” 

Mina looked at Izuku, grinning. “Oh, look at you, you big teacher’s pet, calling him by his first name and everything,” 

Izuku booped her on the nose gently. “Oh yeah? Who else is calling him by his first name now?” 

Mina squealed in realisation and buried her face into Izuku’s chest in embarrassment, making Izuku and Shota laugh. 

“Anyway, I'm glad you two are alright, I was so scared when I heard what happened,” Shota admitted, standing up and placing a hand on each of their shoulders. 

Izuku just barely saw Mina’s smile widen as Shota gently held her shoulder and chuckled internally. Who’d have thought it? She liked Shota when he was all friendly and caring like this. 

“Thanks dad,” Izuku joked, making Mina snort in laughter. 

“Oh, don’t even joke about that, I will adopt you in a heartbeat if you let me,” Aizawa responded, apparently completely seriously. 

Izuku and Mina just stared at each other for a second, both then looking at Shota before looking back to each other and both laughing. “Who knows? I might actually take you up on that one day Shota,” Izuku responded. His voice was joking but inside he was actually beginning to think about it. 

“Ooh, can you adopt me too?” asked Mina, turning the cuteness way up. 

Shota smirked, “I would if you two weren’t going out, that might make it a tiny bit weird then,” 

Mina shrugged, still grinning widely. “True, let’s just say I'm adopted in spirit then,” 

Shota laughed. “Sure thing, you’re part of the family now Mina,” 

Izuku looked up at Shota nervously. “Am I?” 

Shota nodded. “Oh yeah definitely, you’ve also been unofficially adopted by most of the faculty too by the way, if I were you, I'd get ready for Present Mic to start calling you his nephew and himself Uncle Zashi or something,” 

Izuku laughed but was also surprisingly happy. “Well I've just had my mom for most of my life, I could probably do with a bigger family,” 

Coincidentally, both Mina and Shota both leaned in and ruffled his hair at the same time. “Yep, that’s us, UA and the Aizawa’s, one great big dysfunctional family,” Shota said happily. 

Izuku nearly purred at the contact, feeling immense comfort from both his girlfriend and the closest thing he’s had to a father figure his whole life. 

Izuku just lay there with a satisfied smile on his face before something occurred to him. He carefully extracted his arm from underneath Mina and quickly hopped up from the bed, walking over to the door to the room and looking around, making sure nobody was nearby. 

“Something wrong Izuku?” Shota asked concerned. 

Izuku walked back over to them both and sat back down on the bed with his legs crossed. “I just... I need to talk to you both about something... well... rather I need to tell you the truth about something,” 

Shota retook his seat as Mina leaned in closer to Izuku. “Alright then... what is it?” Mina asked, slightly nervous. 

Izuku scratched the back of his head nervously, “Well... it’s about my quirk... I... haven’t exactly told you the truth about it,” 

Shota pulled a small notebook from a pocket and flicked through it until he reached a page a short way in. “Izuku Midoriya, Quirk: Superpower, this quirk massively increases his physical strength but damages his body when he uses it,” Shota read aloud. “That was what you told UA about your quirk, what didn’t you tell us about it?” Shota asked, more curious than angry or disappointed. 

“Well... the real name of my quirk... is One for All...” Izuku admitted. Mina and Shota looked at each other, confused. 

“Okay... a bit more information would be good,” Shota requested. 

“Right... well... I guess it’d be best to start right at the beginning to explain it properly,” Izuku said. “It’s a long story but I'll cut it down, the most important thing to know, was that for most of my life, I was quirkless,” 

Shota and Mina nodded. “Yeah, All Might told me that your power only manifested recently, he said it was something about your body not being able to handle in until you’d trained enough to use it at all,” 

Izuku shrugged. “Well that’s sort of half true... except it didn’t manifest naturally... it was given to me,” 

Mina eyes widened. “What do you mean given to you?” she asked, then her eyes widened further. “Wait, is that why you said you didn’t feel like your power was yours?” 

Izuku nodded. “Yeah, One for All is a special quirk that can be passed on from person to person, growing more powerful each time as each bearer adds their own power to it,” 

Shota was staring at the ground, running his hands through his hair. “Alright so let me make sure I’ve got this right, you were actually quirkless most of your life... and you got... given... an incredibly powerful quirk?” 

Izuku nodded again. “Yeah, it was given to me by...” 

“All Might?” they both said at the same time. 

“It would make sense, seeing how your powers are so similar,” Shota said. 

“And why he seems so interested in you,” Mina added. 

Izuku nodded, smiling shyly. “Well, guess he’s not very good at hiding things,” 

“No he isn’t and this would explain a lot of things actually,” Shota said before taking in a deep breath. “Alright then, I want you to tell us everything,” 

Izuku nodded and then spent the next hour telling the pair everything he knew about One for All, including his ability to speak to Nana in his sleep and her claim that he may inherit the bearer’s quirks. 

By the end of his explanation, the pair were completely burnt out from an information overload. After another ten or so minutes for them to accept everything they were told, Shota stood up from his chair and knelt on the floor next to where Izuku was sat on the bed, placing a hand on his shoulder. 

“Izuku, I want to make it clear that I'm not angry with you, but why wasn’t I told about this so much sooner? I could have helped you so much more than I have been if I was made aware of this earlier,” Aizawa asked. 

“Because All Might was obsessed with keeping this secret, terrified if the secret got out, villains wouldn’t be scared of the symbol of peace anymore, and he just didn’t seem to trust anyone with the secret,” Izuku explained. 

“I get that, but I leapt into a situation that meant almost certain death to protect you all, does that not make me deserving of All Might’s trust or something?” 

Izuku nodded, “I completely agree, that’s why I’m telling you both now, because I trust you both with my life,” 

Mina, although quiet through this whole explanation, leant forward and planted a kiss on his cheek, giving him a soft smile. “Thanks Zuku, that means a lot,” 

Shota nodded, smirking. “I agree but I think you’ll forgive me if I don’t kiss you too,” 

The trio started chuckling, the slight tension that had built up dissipating. 

Shota retook his seat again. “So why did you suddenly decide to tell us this?” 

“Well... it was when All Might wanted to speak to me last Friday, he wanted to know about me and Mina actually, he wanted to know about our relationship,” Izuku explained. 

Mina both blushed and started chortling. “So, you mean the symbol of peace basically asked you about your sex life?” she asked teasingly. 

Shota snorted as Izuku blushed heavily. “I mean... I didn’t think about it like that...” he said shyly before shaking his head and getting back on track. “Anyway, he told me that he forbade me from telling Mina until he was certain that she could be trusted,” 

Mina recoiled with an insulted look on her face. “Ouch, rude,” she muttered bitterly. 

“So why did you ignore him? What happened?” Shota asked. 

Izuku rubbed the top of his head, “Well, Nana kinda fed into my anger a bit and I might have... I may have tackled him to the ground and punched him in the jaw,” he admitted sheepishly. 

Mina and Shota stared at him, mouths wide open. “You... you tackled All Might to the ground?” Mina gasped. 

“And punched him in the face?” Shota finished. 

Izuku rubbed the back of his head and gave a weak smile. “Yes?” 

The pair stared at him for a second before Shota scooped him off the bed and spun him around in the air, holding him in a tight hug. 

“Oh my god, if you weren’t already my favourite student you definitely would be now, you fucking punched the symbol of peace in the face? You absolute maniac, I love it,” Shota nearly shouted. 

Watching her heavily muscled boyfriend be spun around the room by their teacher was not helping Mina’s current mood of LOSING HER FUCKING MIND! Mina was doubled over, lying sideways on the bed, laughing so hard her stomach felt like it was splitting open. 

This was not the reaction Izuku was expecting. But he would take it. 

Chapter Text

After Mina and Shota had calmed down, the conversation turned to what would be done about their internships. Something would have to be done with Mina due to the unfortunate death of Native and Izuku would still be unable to do much until his shoulders healed better. 

It was eventually decided that they would all head back to UA early, Izuku would have time to recover and if he recovered before the end of the week, he could join Mina and Shota on nightly patrols around Musutafu. 

Another reason that motivated this decision was the revelation of Izuku’s new power, specifically, the teleportation one. If they returned to UA, Recovery Girl would be able to examine him. 

It would also be good to keep them both out of the public eye for a bit, due to a certain news report that came on that morning... 

Tsu yawned as she got her breakfast. She was enjoying interning underneath Selkie, but he worked her hard and didn’t give her a lot of sleep. 

She sleepily staggered her way over to a table in the agency’s cafeteria to join Sirius, the sidekick she was working directly under. 

“Still not used to this little sleep?” Sirius asked, smiling empathetically. 

Tsu shook her head, “Nope, how do you get anything done like this?” 

Sirius shrugged, “You get used to it, if you stay here for too long, you’ll start getting used to it as well,” 

Tsu groaned quietly, slowly picking at her breakfast. The pair settled into a comfortable silence as they ate, until a news report came on the TV. 

Everyone in the cafeteria looked up at the one TV in the room in interest. The reporter announced that the Hero Killer Stain had been captured, resulting in a series of cheers from everyone in the room, then as they heard what she said next, surprise. 

“And amazingly, the Hero Killer was not brought down by a Pro Hero, but by a first-year student of UA,” the reporter announced. 

Tsu’s eyes widened and she shot out of her seat, getting as close to the television as she could, Sirius joining her quickly. 

The TV showed footage of a security camera with a warning that the footage may be upsetting to some people. Tsu nearly shrieked when she saw Stain standing over Mina who was slumped against the wall. She did shriek as he swung the sword at her, thinking she was about to watch her classmate die, then everyone in the room gasped as a figure came from out of nowhere and blocked Stain’s sword. 

There were sounds of disbelief from people in the room as they watched this dark figure fight Stain, blade to blade. Tsu just stood there with a hand covering her mouth in shock. She slowly removed her hand, “Izuku?” she muttered disbelievingly. 

“Do you know who that person is?” Sirius asked, barely overhearing her. 

Tsu nodded, “That’s my classmate, the pink girl he saved is too,” 

The whole room exclaimed worriedly when Izuku was kicked away from Stain, then everyone gasped in horror as he held a knife to Mina’s throat. Tsu’s eyes were tearing up at this point, barely able to carry on watching, completely believing Mina was about to die, there was no way Izuku could make it in time. 

Then... he appeared right in front of them both and slammed his sword hilt into Stain’s forehead, sending him crumpling to the ground, the entire room bursting into triumphant cheers. 

Tsu just looked on in surprise. What... what was that? That wasn’t his power. 

Several other members of the class were having similar thoughts at that moment, most of them recognising his new costume. Kyoka was watching on in disbelief in death arms’ agency, Todoroki was watching proudly from his father’s office and several other students were watching at their respective internships. 

Izuku, Mina and Shota were also watching the news report at that moment, that only supported their decision to go back to UA early.

Izuku was kind of surprised he hadn't heard anything from his mom yet, she must have been watching the news at this sort of time and the media had even announced his name so it's not like she wouldn't have known it was him. Izuku cringed, he realised he'd forgotten to tell her about his new appearance... and Mina... and actually quite a few things.

Still, it was odd she didn't try to get in touch, she never wanted him to go to UA or become a hero, that was why he had to hide the reason for his training from her but she was always worried about him getting injured. He was sure she'd have called the instant she saw his face on the news.

Thinking about it... she never got in touch after the mention of him being assaulted by Bakugo either...

Izuku shook his head, dispelling those thoughts for now, he'd try and get in touch later.

Soon, Izuku was given permission to check out with a warning to not do anything strenuous for the next few days as to not aggravate his injuries anymore and the trio made their way towards the train station to head back to UA. Izuku was wearing his costume again as he had nothing else to wear which unfortunately led to a crowd constantly trailing them although they seemed reluctant to come close, considering his dark eyes, horns and dark green face paint he didn’t look as friendly as they’d hoped. 

They were also acutely aware that this was the person who defeated the Hero Killer in a one on one fight, nobody wanted to be the one to anger him. 

Shota was constantly chuckling to himself after he noticed the forming crowds. “Looks like you’ve got yourself a fan club already Izuku,” 

Izuku scratched the back of his head, “I guess I do, huh. Did the news really have to tell them exactly who I was?” 

Izuku was still annoyed at being outed by the media as the news report had shown a picture of him before his injuries and had announced his name. 

Mina was also laughing at her boyfriend’s expense. “I bet after the picture they showed of you they weren’t expecting you to look all badass and demon like, they’re probably scared of you now,” 

Shota laughed out loud, reaching over and pulling Izuku into a gentle headlock as they walked. “Oh, who could be scared of him? Look at him, he’s adorable,” 

Izuku half-heartedly attempted to escape from the grapple, grinning slightly. 

They soon made it to the train station and Shota quickly got them tickets and herded them onto the next train back to Musutafu. 

While Izuku was recognised on the train as well, Shota’s sour expression turned any who would approach away to his immense relief. He didn’t exactly want to be hounded by media or fans right now, he had important things on his mind. 

Thankfully, Principal Nezu had sent a car to wait for them at the train station for when they arrived so they could get back to UA with as little hassle as possible. 

Shota parked the car in the faculty car park and led them both towards the dorms. Izuku and Mina looked around uncomfortably, since the rest of UA were also away doing internships with only a few exceptions, it felt incredibly empty and quiet. 

“I know, it’s weird isn’t it? You’re used to it being so busy and loud and suddenly it’s empty, it doesn’t feel right,” Shota said from just in front of them, looking over his shoulder at them. 

Izuku nodded, “The dorms are gonna feel weird with nobody being there too,” he agreed. 

Shota smirked, “What? Am I not good enough company for you two?” 

They all chuckled. “Are we going to be seeing friendly Shota until the class come back?” asked Mina. 

He nodded, “Yeah, at least unless another teacher comes by, I have a reputation to uphold after all,” 

Izuku noticed a figure approaching them from behind, “Oh, speaking of which, here’s Present Mic,” he said casually. 

Shota whipped round, looking behind Izuku and then giving him a very confused look. “How did you know he was there? I didn’t even know and I'm pretty much the most paranoid person in this school,” 

Izuku stopped walking, also gaining a look of confusion. “I... don’t know, I just sort of felt it,” he said quietly. 

Shota narrowed his eyes at him for a second before relaxing slightly. “Alright then, we’ll head over and see Recovery Girl after you’ve dropped your stuff off back at the dorms,” 

“HEEEEEEEY GUYS!” came the screech from behind them that signified the arrival of Present Mic. 

Shota sighed, apparently mentally transitioning back to grumpy Shota. “What do you want Mic? We’ve only just got back, do we need to deal with your volume this soon?” 

“Oh, quiet you grumpy guts, I've just come to see if our babies were alright,” Mic responded, leaning over to inspect the pair of students. 

Shota rolled his eyes, “They’re fine Mic, they’ve been through some rough stuff but they’re tough kids, ask them,” 

Mina nodded, grinning widely and flexing over exaggeratedly. “Yep, not even the Hero Killer could keep us down,” she announced proudly. 

Izuku gently shoved her shoulder, “What are you on about? I did all the fighting,” he added playfully. 

Mic leant in close to Izuku’s face, his hands held out in front of him in excitement. “I KNOW! THAT WAS SO COOL, YOU BEAT THE HERO KILLER AND YOUR NEW COSTUME LOOKS AWESOME!” Mic screeched excitedly. 

Izuku slowly backed up, wincing and holding his ears but then grinning. “Thanks, Present Mic, I'm glad you like the costume,” 

He nodded eagerly, “Yeah, you look badass as hell, and feel free to just call me Hizashi if you want little listener,” he said, pointing finger guns at Izuku, then turning and shooting them at Mina too, “You too if you want little listener number two,” 

They both nodded, “Sure thing, thanks Hizashi,” they said at the same time. 

Shota shook his head and groaned, “Can I take these two back to the dorms now or are you going to drag them away to appear on your radio show?” 

Hizashi stroked his chin in thought, “I hadn’t actually thought of that, I’d be up for having them on if they wanted to but that can wait for a bit,” he suggested. 

Izuku looked at Mina for permission, she nodded her head after a moment’s thought. “Alright then, we can work that out some other time, for now we’ve got some stuff to do,” Izuku responded. 

Hizashi nodded gleefully. “Alrighty then little listeners, see you on the flip side, later,” he said before sprinting in the opposite direction. 

Mina chuckled, “Does he drink espresso like water or something? How is he always that energetic?” 

“He was always like that, even when we were students here, if anything he’s just gotten more excitable as he’s gotten older,” Shota replied, smiling fondly. 

Shota then led the pair back to the dorms so they could leave their bags there before he and Izuku went to go and see Recovery Girl. Having nothing better to do, and also being very curious, Mina decided to tag along. 

Soon enough, they were all stood outside of the elderly nurse’s clinic. Shota was about to open the door when it flew open and a livid looking Recovery Girl appeared, grabbed Izuku by the kevlar vest and dragged him into the clinic with surprising strength, slamming the door shut behind them. 

Mina and Shota just looked at each other for a second. “Should we...” Mina began. 

“Give them a minute? Yeah,” Shota finished. 

“YOU ARE SUCH A RECKLESS, KNUCKLEHEADED MORON, WHAT MADE YOU THINK FIGHTING THE HERO KILLER WAS A GOOD IDEA!” screamed Recovery Girl, hitting Izuku over the head with her cane with every word. 

Izuku was nearly driven to the ground by the nurse’s relentless flurry of blows. “Look, I didn’t really have a choice, he was about to kill Mina,” he defended. 

“YOU COULD HAVE GRABBED HER AND RAN, I KNOW YOU’RE STRONG ENOUGH TO HAVE DONE THAT, INSTEAD YOU FOUGHT A SERIAL KILLER!” She was still screaming but had stopped trying to hit him. 

“Maybe, but it was a bit of a high pressure environment and I nearly watched the girl I love get murdered, I think I could be forgiven for not thinking straight in that moment,” Izuku defended, rubbing the top of his head, slightly worried she might have cracked a horn. 

Recovery Girl sighed, apparently having calmed down. “Fair enough, even the most sensible people do crazy things when their loved ones are in danger so I can’t really blame you for that, even though I want to,” 

With that she opened the door again, allowing the pair stood outside to enter. 

“Right, anyway, what are you all doing here? I was actually enjoying having some time where my services weren’t necessary for at least a few days,” she grumbled. 

“Well, Izuku here displayed some sort of... new power that he didn’t seem to have before, one that wasn’t his superpower quirk,” Shota began to explain before Izuku cut him off. 

“Oh yeah, Recovery Girl knows about One for All too, sorry, I forgot to mention,” he interrupted sheepishly. 

Shota facepalmed and sighed. “Alright then, while it’s on your mind, who else knows about it?” 

“Principal Nezu, Gran Torino and a friend of All Might’s in the police, Detective Tsukauchi,” Izuku listed, “That’s all the people I'm aware of that you don’t already know about,” 

Shota sighed again, “I’m not surprised Nezu knows but I'm still slightly annoyed even he didn’t tell me but whatever, that’s not important right now,” he groaned into his hand. “Anyway, back to my point, he seemed to display a new power that apparently doesn’t belong to any of the previous holders,” 

The nurse tilted her head and hummed in thought. “Interesting, so what do you want me to do?” she asked. 

“I want you to run a quirk test on him,” Shota requested. 

Izuku looked confused, “But I did have one when I was four, the doctor said I was quirkless,” 

“What tests did he do?” Recovery Girl asked. 

“He took an X-Ray of my foot and decided I was quirkless because I had the extra toe joint,” he explained. 

Recovery Girl growled angrily. “That idiot doctor should have his license revoked, the X-Ray test was determined to not be 100% accurate about twenty years ago, at least a tenth of people with quirks still have the extra toe joint,” 

Izuku’s jaw was wide open. “So... I... I might have had my own quirk all this time?” he asked, quietly enough it was like he thought if anyone heard him, it may not be true. 

“Well, that’s what we’re going to find out now sonny, sit down and I'll draw some blood and then we’ll do some scans,” the nurse said, pulling on some latex gloves. 

Izuku sat down in a chair as the nurse drew some blood into several vials, which she then loaded into a machine nearby. As the machine was working, she brought him into a side room and took a scan of his brain activity. 

As the results of the scan printed out, the machine also finished its process. Recovery Girl spent the next ten minutes or so intently examining the results of both the tests before she looked up at Izuku who was sat waiting impatiently. 

“This power, was it some sort of teleportation?” she asked. 

Izuku nodded, “It felt like it, I seemed to move quite far in an instant both times I used it,” he explained, “Is that right? Do I have a teleportation quirk?” he asked, eyes shining with barely restrained excitement. 

“Well... yes and no,” the nurse answered, leading to the confusion of everyone else in the room. “You can teleport with your quirk but if I'm right, that’s not all there is to it,” 

She then opened a drawer and took out a few laminated pieces of paper. “Get ready,” she warned, barely a second before holding one up in front of his face for maybe only two seconds before removing it again. 

In the brief time Izuku saw the picture, it looked like a medicine cabinet of some sort, but not a modern one, more like one you’d see in an old stately home or something. 

“How many bottles were in that picture?” she asked quickly, barely giving him any time to think. 

“Thirty-seven,” 

“What was the cabinet made out of?” 

“Hardwood, possible dark oak and glass,” 

“What colour was the bottle in the top right corner?” 

“Dark green,” 

Recovery Girl nodded, “That was all correct,” 

The other three occupants of the room just looked at the nurse with dropped jaws. 

“How the hell did you do that?” asked Shota in disbelief. 

“I have no idea,” replied Izuku. 

“I believe you have an eidetic, or photographic, memory now,” Recovery Girl explained. She then repeated this process several more times, each picture completely different and with different questions. 

Once again, Izuku got them all right, even after only seeing the picture for around a second or two. 

“Now, as amazing as that is, I don’t think that’s it, your senses appear to be in a constantly heightened state too,” Recovery Girl went on to say. “Now, I want you to try and sense how many people are in the area around us, we’ll stay as quiet as we can, just try and concentrate,” 

Izuku nodded, kneeling and placing a hand on the ground and closing his eyes. It was almost like how echolocation was described, it was like he could see pulsing waves emanating from him that showed him silhouettes of where people were. 

He could see Recovery Girl sat at her desk, leaning forward on both arms, Shota and Mina were stood behind him, Shota standing with his arms crossed and Mina looking like she was resisting the urge to start hopping around the room in excitement. 

He could also sense the presence of people further away, he could sense Midnight, Snipe and Present Mic in the teacher’s lounge at least thirty metres away, he could even sense Ectoplasm sparring against one of his clones with Nezu watching on one of the sports fields, but that was at least a hundred metres away, apart from that, there was nobody else in the area. 

He relayed this information to the room, Shota immediately calling Present Mic to confirm if that was true, Recovery Girl doing the same with Nezu. Not twenty seconds later, they had both confirmed that Izuku was completely right. 

Once again, everyone was gobsmacked, including Izuku. 

“So... I can sense people? Even through walls and up to at least one hundred metres away?” Izuku gasped, barely believing what happened. 

“Apparently so Midoriya, I knew your senses were enhanced but that was way beyond anything I expected,” Recovery Girl replied. 

Shota stood there, stroking his chin. “That would explain how you knew Hizashi was behind us earlier, although you didn’t notice until he was within maybe thirty metres, maybe that’s because you weren’t concentrating,” he theorised. 

“Oh, that would also explain something that happened with Stain, after I knocked him out, I went to comfort Mina and I think I felt him begin moving behind us as he got up and threw a knife at us,” Izuku realised. 

Shota collapsed backwards onto one of the beds, “So, you can teleport, you have a perfect memory and you can detect people even through walls, that’s a slightly insane quirk,” he summarised. 

Izuku and Mina were both inclined to believe him, then Recovery Girl spoke up again. “Actually, I don’t think that’s quite everything,” 

The other three groaned, what else could there be? 

“According to your scans, something seems to have changed with your coordination and for lack of a better word, skill,” She explained, “Did anything like that change?” 

Izuku thought back to the fight with Stain, he recalled as the Hero Killer told him that his stance and grip was off but then after he teleported, he noticed that the sword felt much more natural in his hand. 

“Actually yeah, as soon as I used my power, holding my sword felt more natural,” he recalled. 

Shota’s eyes narrowed. “That’s something we’ll have to test, you and Mina go to the lethal weapons range, I’ll go and fetch Snipe,” he instructed before turning to the nurse. “Would you come with us to observe?” 

She nodded, “Of course, I’ll walk over with them now,” 

Still confused, Izuku led Mina and Recovery Girl to the range where he worked with Snipe to get his certification to be able to carry his sword over the weekend. 

A few minutes later, Shota appeared, Snipe in tow, confusion apparent even through his mask. “Alright Eraser, I'm here, what’s the big rush?” he demanded. 

“Go and fetch a handgun from the armoury, field strip it and take it to the range,” Shota instructed. 

Snipe grumbled at being given orders but complied, going off to a secured room nearby and entering a code into the keypad next to the door. Izuku just barely caught the code out of the corner of his eye. 

Subconsciously, he tucked that away if he ever needed it. 

“Now then Izuku, while Snipe prepares that, I want you to run through the basic blade exercises you went through over the weekend again,” Shota instructed, gesturing at a pair of training dummies. 

Izuku looked to Mina who just shrugged and pointed towards the targets. “Go ahead Zuku, I kinda wanna see this,” 

Izuku nodded, walking toward the dummies and drawing his blade, spinning it around in his hand to extend the blade. 

The last time he did these exercises, it took him maybe thirty seconds to go through all the coordinated moves and he only left shallow gashes in the dummies. 

This time, he performed a lightning fast flurry of slashes that left the dummy disembowelled and decapitated in less than ten seconds. 

“Okay then, what in tarnation was that?” came the shocked voice of Snipe from behind, who was standing there holding a closed handgun case. “There’s no way you improved that much in just a few days, even if you fought the Hero Killer, that level of improvement that quickly shouldn’t be possible,” 

Shota nodded in agreement, “Indeed, that’s what we’re investigating now, the cause of his improvement and exactly how much his weapons skills have improved by,” 

Snipe just stared at the beheaded dummy for a second longer before walking over to the range, placing the case down on the table and taking out a small calibre handgun, quickly removing the magazine and field stripping the gun. 

After that was done, he left the pieces on the table and gestured towards them. “Alright, that’s done, why did you want me to do that?” he asked. 

Shota looked at Izuku. “Izuku, you’ve never held a gun in real life before?” he asked. 

Izuku shook his head, “No, never even seen one apart from Snipe’s revolver,” 

Shota nodded, “Alright then, this should be a good test,” he pointed at the disassembled gun. “Put that gun back together and fire at the target downrange,” 

Once again, everyone looked at each other in confusion. “Erm... alright then... with no instructions?” he asked, slowly walking towards the range. 

“Correct, this’ll satisfy a hunch of mine about this quirk of yours,” he replied. 

Izuku gave a small shrug and soon was stood in front of the table. Then, entirely by instinct, he reached forward and began reassembling the pieces with the skill of a professional, within fifteen seconds he was holding a fully functioning and loaded handgun when it had taken Snipe about thirty seconds to disassemble it. 

Looking at the gun in his own hand in shock, Izuku looked back over his shoulder, instinctively keeping the gun pointed downrange and his finger away from the trigger. 

Recovery Girl, Mina and Snipe were all watching in disbelief. At least he assumed Snipe was, it was hard to tell through his mask. 

“Okay, I call bullshit that he’s never held one of those before,” Snipe said indignantly. 

Shota shook his head, “I believe him, he’s never held a gun until now,” he responded. “Go on Izuku, empty the clip, shoot the target,” 

Izuku looked back downrange, seeing a paper target set up at least forty metres away. 

“Oh come on Eraser, I'd struggle to hit a target that far away with a handgun without my quirk, let me move it close-” Snipe was cut off by the sound of gunshots. 

Izuku had settled into a grounded stance, handgun held with both hands and held at eye level. Within seconds of being told to shoot, he opened fire on the distant target, emptying all twelve bullets out of the magazine in around five seconds, then removing the magazine, laying it and the gun down on the table and pressing a button to bring the target closer and stepping away from it, letting the others get a better look. 

Once the target reached the table, everyone’s jaws were once again on the floor. All the shots had found their mark on the target’s chest, all perfectly hitting the centre of mass, each one, definitely a kill shot. 

“How in the hell?” Snipe gasped, “I could barely manage that and you’re telling me you’ve never picked up or fired a gun before?” 

Izuku nodded. “I promise you, I’ve never done that before,” 

“Then how the hell did you do that?” Snipe demanded. Shota leaned in and gave him a brief and edited explanation of Izuku’s new powers, and his theory that part of his discovered quirk was some kind of weapon mastery. 

Snipe stood deep in thought for a few minutes before slamming his fist into his palm. “Alright then kid, this is what we’re going to do, you’re going to come to my range for two hours every day after your classes are done, you’re going to spend half the time practicing with different bladed and blunt weapons and the rest, field stripping and completely disassembling and reassembling guns and then firing them,” 

Izuku nodded, slightly taken aback. “Once I'm satisfied with your training, which I suspect will not take too long, I will sign the certification that will allow you to carry and use deadly weapons, even as a trainee,” Snipe finished. 

Izuku bowed. “Thank you for this opportunity, I will do my absolute best,” he promised. 

Snipe nodded, looking back to the target. “I have a feeling you will, go ahead and take that target with you, think of it as a memento if you want, for possibly being the most promising student I've ever seen do this course,” 

Izuku nodded. “Thank you sir, I'm flattered,” he walked to the target, pulling it from the rail and rolling it up like a poster. 

Snipe nodded. “Our extra lessons will start next week when regular classes resume, for now, get some more rest, you could probably do with it after the Hero Killer,” he suggested, turning to leave before turning back around briefly. “By the way, well done on that, you did an incredible thing and I'm very glad you’re both safe,” he said before then leaving. 

Shota nodded. “That sounds like a good idea to me, you seem almost attracted to danger so being able to use weapons like that will probably help you stay alive,” he said, approving of Snipe’s decision. He then turned to Recovery Girl, “I’m assuming that’s all the things that his new quirk has changed right?” 

The elderly nurse nodded, “From what I saw, yes, that should be it now,” 

Mina held up a hand and began counting on her fingers. “So that’s teleportation, photographic memory, ability to sense people through walls and apparently, weapon mastery as well,” she summarised, then started laughing. “Just when I thought my boyfriend couldn’t get any cooler you go and get an entirely new quirk that’s insanely useful,” 

Izuku rubbed the back of his head and blushed slightly, “So I've got two quirks now? This kind of feels like cheating,” 

Shota shook his head but chuckled, “I don’t think so, I’d say if anybody in the class deserved two quirks I'd have said it was you,” 

Izuku blushed further but then his expression soured slightly. “Thanks but... why did my quirk never manifest before now?” he wondered aloud. 

Recovery Girl stepped forward. “If I'm right in saying this, you believed you were quirkless most of your life?” 

Izuku nodded. 

“And you were bullied for it for years, weren’t you?” she continued.

Izuku’s mood darkened slightly but he still nodded, prompting Mina to gently grip his shoulder and rub it gently. 

“Maybe, you ended up believing that you were quirkless so much that you mentally repressed your quirk from ever manifesting in the first place,” she theorised. 

Izuku looked at the floor sadly for a minute before looking back up, glancing at his girlfriend and a smile beginning to grow on his face. “Maybe so, but I've got it now and it’ll let me be an even better hero than before,” he announced proudly. 

Shota chuckled, “So what are you going to call your quirk? It seems like a perfect quirk for an underground hero, frankly I'm really jealous, combining your quirk with your existing skills for analysis, it’d make you a born infiltrator,” 

Izuku froze, then began grinning widely. 

“I like the sound of that,” he said, stroking his chin happily. 

“Born Infiltrator,” 

Chapter Text

Later that same day, Recovery Girl used her quirk on Izuku, making sure his injuries were healed enough that he could join Mina and Shota on night patrols.  

Over the next few days, they went out on patrol every night, running into a few minor villains and criminals each time. Shota let the students take the lead, only stepping in if he was needed, although he never was, he noted that their teamwork was impeccable, each covering each other’s flanks and using openings left by the other.  

During the day, Izuku trained the more active parts of his new quirk, learning to teleport faster and without having to point where he wanted to go. By the time the weekend rolled around, he had just about learned the ability to teleport purely based on where he wanted to go mentally, even combining his sensory abilities to be able to teleport through walls and even into an air vent once.  

He also combined this new ability with his sword skills, using several of Ectoplasm’s clones to practice with, he would rapidly teleport next to one, slash it and then teleport to either around the clone to attack it from a different angle or to a different one entirely.  

Eventually, he was able to use these abilities to destroy ten of ectoplasm’s clones in under ten seconds, Izuku barely even being visible the whole time, just a blur as the instant he slashed, he would teleport to another target, using the momentum from the first slash to lead into the next.  

They also managed to learn the limits of his detection abilities, as far as they could tell, he could detect people up to one hundred and fifty  metres  away when he concentrated, even if they were being completely silent and still and he could detect people around forty  metres  away even if he wasn’t concentrating as long as they were making at least some noise.  

He also learnt that his regular senses were improved as well, particularly his hearing. He learnt this when passing Hizashi as he was practicing his own quirk one day, making  Izuku’s  hands fly to his ears and wince in pain, and the quirk wasn’t even directed at him.  

Shota immediately erased  Hizashi’s  quirk when he saw this and began chewing him out, Izuku just looking horrified. “Oh god,  Jirou  has this even worse? How the hell does she cope with English lessons?” he said to himself, deeply worried for his purple-haired classmate.  

“You okay Zuku?” Asked Mina, gently laying a hand on his shoulder.  

He nodded, “Yeah,  Hizashi’s  quirk just hurt my ears, hang on a second, I just need to go talk to him,” he said, walking towards the voice hero.  

“Hey, excuse me Hizashi,” he greeted, interrupting Shota’s scathing tirade of admonishment.  

“Yeah little listener?” he asked, grateful for a chance to escape.  

“Call me Izuku if you want, Shota told me the teachers have basically all adopted me anyway so it’s fine,” he replied nonchalantly.  

Hizashi grinned, shooting a smug grin at Shota. “Oh no, look Shota, I've stolen your kid off you,” he teased.  

“Oh no, you’re Uncle Zashi now, Shota’s Dadzawa,” Izuku responded cheerfully. He could vaguely hear Mina try to hold back laughter behind him, muttering “Dadzawa? Holy shit,”