Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Enji’s next year was ruined by a simple email.

It’s not every year that he gets this particular email, and it’s never been sent to the Commission first but he figures there’s a first time for everything- who knows maybe there’s a new protocol for the commission to approve of prospective teachers at the U.A. God, he hopes there’s a new protocol

If there was one thing Enji didn’t want to do, that was teaching a bunch of brats about being heroes, when most of them wouldn’t even make it past the first year. He didn’t want to be a teacher. He wasn’t meant to be a teacher. The only reason he had taught Shouto and Touya was because they shared his Quirk and he was the only one who could hope to get them to their true potential when everyone else would surely fail. They were his masterpieces and he was responsible for them.

                He should not be responsible for forty-something brats who thought that being a hero was something one did for fun and tax benefits.

                In short, Enji did not want to be there. So, why was he in the teacher lounge at seven thirty in the morning, waiting for the hero class to do the mandatory Quirk training so he could observe and tell if they were worth their salt? Simple.

                The god damn fun park mascot smiling happily from the top of his chair.

                He had no idea how Nedzu had gotten his hands on his files before him, but the mouse knew his shit. Truth was, he had gotten pretty injured in a fight with the recently escaped Toxic Chainsaw, hurt enough for the Commission to put him on rest for an indeterminate time until he was better, which meant that he was currently unemployed. Nadzu had sunken his manicured claws into the opportunity and went to the Commission with the absolutely brilliant idea of making the No.2 hero the heroics teacher at UA.

                Apparently, the person who was supposed to be the teacher that year had found something more pressing, a family connection or some shit he had to take care of, and the position was free for the taking. The rat had went on to mention that Enji teaching the new generation would bring the advantage of good media towards him, since PR was a department he was solely lacking in.

                Enji felt a little bit betrayed at the act. Like sure, him and Saito weren’t close or anything, but he had considered her one of the least incompetent leaders in the Commission. Apparently he had been wrong.

                Nedzu had made him the offer to teach there every year and every year he refused and went on for another year. It was never a fight, never more than a polite question and then nothing else.

                The first time he had gotten the email about the teaching position at UA, Enji had been sure it was about asking him what teacher could be good. He hadn’t expected to be offered the position.

                Because the mouse seemed to purposefully ignore one key factor:

                People should do the jobs they were trained and hired for. A teacher had to teach, a baker had to bake and a hero had to fight villains. People should do the jobs they were prepared for. A hero was good in the field, but putting someone who usually dealt with high risk situations in the position to care for kids with high likability to drive someone insane was probably not the best idea he could have come up with.

                Enji didn’t have any illusions for himself. He wasn’t the best of teachers, but he had been the only one who knew how to deal with the destructive particularities of Shouto’s and Touya’s Quirks.

                He was not meant to be put in charge of kids. He wasn’t good with kids. He wasn’t good with civilians. The moment he had been told that he’d have to teach, he silently asked himself if he could fight all of Japan’s villains at once, because that had to be a quicker death than dragging on with something he was obviously not qualified for.

                Then, the Commission more or less bullied him into taking a babysitting position for at least a year or so, which pissed the hell out of Enji and made him most likely need replacing his private gym.

                Especially since he couldn’t find out which teacher gave up the job. He had called his contacts and all the people that might have been in the know, but it all remained blank, a deep dark hole where no one could find out what or who happened.

                But no matter, the time had passed, the nerves had been blown and the man was now sitting in the teacher lounge, waiting for the rat to pour his god damned tea so he could finally go on his merry way of business.

                The rat kept chattering.

                Finally, he managed to extract himself from the true horror of being chained by the laws off hospitality and made his way to the training ground. Apparently, the test had already started.

                “What are you doing here?” Eraserhead asked.

                Enji crossed his arms. “I want to see what they’re made of before I try them on” he curled his lip “By the looks of it, most of them had never used their Quirks for combat and I don’t want any paperwork on dead kids.”

                Eraserhead let out a huff that might have been both a laugh or an exhale, but Enji didn’t care enough to find out.

                At some point, the kids looked at him and started awing  and oogling at him (except for Shouto, who was glaring as usual) but Aizawa sent them back to their places with nothing above an undignified glare.

                The kids had potential, but there were very few who actually had any real well worked talent. The ones who had were Shouto, the explosive kid, the Iida boy and the Yaoyorozu heir. The others looked like they had done basic training with their Quirks, a little over not using them randomly in public, but not much above that.

                How disappointing.

                He’d have to start from the scratch.

                With a little luck, Aizawa would expel a few of them, maybe even half and he wouldn’t have to deal with the ones truly incompetent.

                Eventually, they reached the ball toss, and Enji had to admit that some of the uses were very creative in a way he wouldn’t have thought of. Look at that, some of those kids might have something worth in their brains after all.

                Eventually, they reached the green haired kid.

                Unremarkable.

                He hadn’t used a Quirk for the whole duration of the test and, if he were to make a prediction, he was going to fail. For the better. The boy either had a useless on or lacked the skill to pull something off…

                Then he tried to throw and Aizawa cancelled it before scolding him and telling him to try again. Apparently, the kid broke all his bones at the entrance exam with his Quirk. The hero felt a bit of sympathy for the kid. Self destructive Quirks were a pain and a half.

                Then something else happened, one thing that Enji would soon learn to source for ever making its way into his existence.

                The kid threw the ball. And, with the tip of his finger, he launched it so so far it broke the sound barrier and let out a shock wave enough to move some of the kids a few steps back.   

                The brat seemed pretty proud of himself for not breaking his bones, only the tip of his finger, but he had suddenly gained Enji’s attention. Why?

                Because that force, that Quirk was oddly familiar in the exact way he hated.

~O~

                The next day, Enji was ready to get it over with as soon as possible, so he marched into the 1A classroom at eight o’clock sharp and looked at the kids. “Put your Gym uniforms on and follow me to Ground Theta. You got fifteen minutes.”

                More information wasn’t necessary, and he wouldn’t stand for tardiness.

                He was especially cranky this morning because he had woken up to the stack of papers and unfinished work that had brought no results when it came to figuring out the rat’s secret incentive. He hoped for the greater good of the kids that they knew not to be too annoying.

                They did manage to make it there quick enough, but not as fast as Enji would have liked. Oh well, these were kids, not sidekicks, so he couldn’t exactly cut from their pay for their inability to be on time.

                Yet.

                He looked at the costumes and promptly wondered if he could expel someone solely based on those. Most of them were fully form over function, left a lot of vitals open and they didn’t even look all that good. He made sure to check the rule book to see if he could send them back to the blueprint phase and to remind the company that these were soldiers!

                No matter how many times his fellow colleagues pretended not to notice, heroes were soldiers. They were meant to fight villains, not be god damned show monkeys! And apparently, the industry had successfully brainwashed the younger generation to think that.

                This was going to be a pain, wasn’t it?

                “All right” he said “Today I want to test your Quirks and see what they are capable of.”

                “Sir?” a girl with a brown bob said.  “Aizawa-sense did that yesterday.”

                “No” Enji took a deep breath and reminded himself that he couldn’t snap at his students. Remember Enji, you could be court martialled. “Aizawa tested your Quirks with standardised tests to see if you could use them in a way that you weren’t used to” he looked at them “I’m testing your limits and actual control over your Quirks.”

                “I can control my Quirk” the kid with a grenade fetish who had apparently scored first at the entrance exam said. “Why do I have to be hold back because this extras can’t?”

                Enji narrowed his eyes. Arrogant. Arrogant and willing to show it, little respect for authority and an inclination for violence. The pro could see it in his eyes.

                I should watch their entrance exams, he noted before he turned his full attention on the kid.

                “Oh really” he quirked an eyebrow. “Attack me.”

                The boy didn’t need more incentive, launching himself with a grenade and aiming for his head. Enji looked him in the eye before he sidestepped, grabbed his gauntlet and slammed him into the gym wall, hard enough to leave a dent.

                The boy grunted in pain but Enji shoved his arm between his shoulder blades. “What were you aiming for? Capture? Kill?” he pushed harder until he heard the brat cry in pain. “Believe it or not, you are not allowed to kill every villain you see and one can be charged for too much injury depending on how good the lawyer is.” He looked at the rest. “This blow was strong enough to kill any of you if you lacked the reflexes to dodge it” he let go of the kid and he fell to the ground. “Were you planning on killing someone on the first day?” he took a step forward. The boy didn’t get up, but he kept glaring at the man as he cradled his arm. “Were you going to maim one of you classmates to assert dominance and prove that you are the strongest?”

                He was pretty sure he heard a meek “Yes” but he didn’t turn to check.

                “If you are nothing but brute force lusting for violence, then you have no place in this school. I won’t waste my time training a boy who will most likely turn villain when it becomes more entertaining than being a hero.”

                “Shut up, you know nothing!” the boy jumped to his feet and poked glared at the man. “I will become the no.1 hero, I will surpass All Might and I will sure as hell surpass you! I will never turn a villain, so don’t you dare insult me.”

                Enji looked at the kid, too much bark, too much bite and no restraint. No better than a rabid dog. Yeah, the kid wasn’t going to last. He quirked an eyebrow. “You? Number one?” he let out a huff of air “What a joke”

                Then, not giving the kid a second glance he turned toward the rest of the class. “Each one of you, go to a corner and start to warm up your Quirks. I will pass every one of you and see what you can do. You also have till the end of the class to prove to me that your costumes have uses other than aesthetic or they go back to the factory.” he turned towards his son. “Shouto, you start the normal exercises.”

                The boy nodded and headed for the matts.

                The kids were not terrible, in Enji’s expert opinion. They knew they had Quirks, they mostly knew how to use them well and all that. That was until he reached the green haired kid. He wasn’t doing anything, only fidgeting and looking at his feet.

                “If you’re here to waste my time, you might as well walk out that door” he said, looking sternly. The kid pulled into himself a little bit more.

                “It’s not that.” He rubbed his hands together. “It’s just that my Quirk is very…. Self destructive and I don’t know how to control it, so if I were to show you how strong it is, it’s a one time shot.”

                Oh damn. This one will be a piece of work, won’t it?

                Enji sighed and rubbed his eyebrows. “How does your Quirk work, kid?”

                “Well, it stockpiles huge amounts of force and then releases it in bursts of power that are too strong and break my bones” he looked at his arm “I have yet to control the output. But I’m trying.”

                “How are you trying?” The boy blinked. Enji sighed. “Let me guess, you use it again and again until you can’t.” the boy nodded. “Bad strategy. Really bad strategy” he looked at the ceiling. Why were all kids these days like this? “I’ll watch your entrance exam tonight and come up with an alternative tomorrow. Right now, go and ask Shouto to teach you some basic hand to hand” the kid nodded and started walking away. “Oh, and that costume?” the boy turned around “Send it back and get something that gets you actual protection.” and, with that, he went for the next student.

~O~

                Quirkless.

                Midoriya had been passed as Quirkless for the first fifteen years of his life until he magically updated his registry with the most generic name ever: Superpower.

                Was this kid kidding him or something?!

                Enji groaned. There was no such thing as such a late bloomer. A year, maybe two, but not ten. And this wasn’t some kind of invisible Quirk that would take such a specific circumstance to verify. The kid had super strength, that was all.

                The man tsk-ed and moved through the next of his files. Father was working overseas for the past decade. A perfect excuse for the theory Enji had in mind.

                The boy’s Quirk felt exactly like All Mights. The footage for the exam proved it too. Not to mention the scourge’s secretary, Toshinori Yagi, walking around and talking to the boy.

                Enji opened his main and sent it to one of his contacts at the hospital and forensics to run the boy’s DNA against the blond apes. He vividly remembered a doctor swearing his gratefulness for stopping a villain, and now it came in handy. He would get to the bottom of this.

~O~

                It turned out, the kid did indeed share DNA with the blond ape. What a surprise.

                So, he had All Might’s child in his class. He would probably see this as an opportunity of sorts, had there not been this tiny bit of rage at how utterly incompetent the man was. What, did he abandon this child then sent him to UA with no control over his Quirk and told him to survive?! And then put his secretary in place?

                Enji was beyond mad about this, for a reason he couldn’t really point out at the moment.

                His previous day didn’t really go all that well, since that god damned media were like sharks who wanted to know how the no.2 hero was as a teacher, so they destroyed the gate and Enji had to spend more time than he had to in that school, checking the security protocols.

                But he didn’t need to get mad right now, he could study the brat in the middle of the rescue exercise.

                They reached the USJ where Thirteen spoke their speech when a hurl of black smoke appeared and about a hundred villains spilled out, with the leader looking like a duck and telling them that he was there to kidnap and torture the children.

                It was the third fucking day of school.

~O~

                Shouto knew he was only a hero in training, but these villain were really weak. He had taken them down so lightly and had found out that the  big hulking monster was there in order to get All Might to come for backup and kill him.

                Not only weak, but also stupid villains.

                One could not kill All Might. One could not defeat All Might. If anything was going to do the No.1 in, it would be old age or heart failure. Not a villain and certainly not his father.

                He was walking though the place when he saw the green haired kid fly over the lake and onto the land. Shouto remembered the conversation on the bus and how flustered the kid had been at the mention of All Might’s Quirk.

                Shouto also remembered the files on his father’s desk that said the two had shared DNA.

                So, in conclusion, Midoriya was All Might’s son.

                He was also terrible with his Quirk and his combat, which was very weird if you took into consideration who the NO.1 hero was. After all, All Might wouldn’t have let his son enter UA unprepared. But there had never been any real news of anyone related to All Might, so maybe the kid was his illegitimate child. It was possible.

                Said illegitimate child was running face first towards the villains, even if he himself said he broke his bones when he used his Quirk.

                Was stupidity genetic? Because he didn’t want to agree with his father when he called All Might an idiot, but he couldn’t deny that the green haired kid lacked one too many brain cells in the self-preservation area.

                Shouto approached the boy who was going towards the hand faced villain and promptly pulled him out of the way and behind a glacier. “Are you an idiot?”

                “Aizawa sensei needs help!” the boy said with stubbornness.

                “Yeah, I’m pretty sure that you dying on the spot will be a great help because you decided to jump in when real villains are involved!” he glared.

                While the others were small fry, Shouto had seen the hand villain fight and he was the real deal. And, from how his classmate fought, he didn’t stand a chance.

                Their shield was shattered by the powerful villain called a Noumu apparently and Shouto pushed the kid back.

                The Noumu raised his hand to punch them, but Shouto didn’t give him any chance. Instead, he covered the monster in ice and grabbed All Might’s heir to drag him away. “What villain is that?!” he asked as he stumbled behind the dual Quirk user.

                “They call it a Noumu” Shouto said. “He’s here to kill your father.”

                “My what?!”

                “His what?!” said the hand villain and the boy at the same time. Izuku gulped and looked at the other two villains. The hand villain was looking positively murderous, like a particularly nasty corpse who was pissed to be woken from its deep sleep and the mist villain was floating menacingly behind them. Shouto opened his mouth to say something, to do something, but that was the moment the No.2 hero and No.1 annoyance popped into view and attacked the still frozen Noumu.              “Shouto!” he yelled “Get the other out!”

                He can’t focus if he has to protect the rest. Shouto nodded, grabbed Midoriya by the arm and dragged him away, towards the entrance while Aizawa was taking down the mist villain.

~O~

                Enji studied the papers once again, eyebrows furrowing at the words. It was late, he was tired and he had school to teach the next day. He, by all accounts, should have been asleep. But he wasn’t.

                Why?

                He had gotten the results on the Noumu. Apparently, they were more than monsters.

                They used to be humans. Humans genetically engineered to contain multiple Quirks. The one they captured had traces of four different people in them. Enji remembered what Shigaraki had said: they had come to kidnap the kids and use them as Noumu material in order to shatter the trust people had in heroes. They wanted to turn all those kids into this type of monsters.

                But that wasn’t what Enji was focused on right now.

                No.

                What Enji was desperately searching were the Midoriya files. Because he could swear there had been something fishy about them.

                The clock was ticking and the man was getting angrier until, finally, he found what he was looking for.

                Midoriya shared DNA with All Might.

                He also shared DNA with seven other people.

                The man rubbed his chin. He would have liked to think that the boy was a Noumu, but at the same time….. it was too well done.

                One of the perks that came with being the No.2 hero was that you had access to a lot of private files and a lot of documents you otherwise weren’t allowed to see. And he had had access to the Noumu files, had had access to scientists who told him how it worked.

                Midoriya’s tests seemed too clean. Too clear for the USJ abomination.

                The man shook his head and thought about his second theory.

                All for One.

                The man was rumoured to have died in a battle that remained outside his disclosure. But that didn’t mean that he didn’t leave any things behind.

                And the profile seemed to work too well. Quirkless kid up until fifteen, suddenly developed a Quirk a few weeks before the certain proof of the man’s very much alive status came into picture.

                The man took a deep breath and shut his computed. It was late and he shouldn’t make conclusions at this hour. Midoriya being the spy was a possibility, yet he was a terrible actor, so he wasn’t all that sold on that one. He didn’t have enough information. But he could.

                He’d just have to keep an eye on the kid.

~O~

                Enji stood tall in front of the kids, glaring at each and every one of them to make sure he drove the point. Most of them were cowering in their seats, except for Shouto, who looked unbothered and for Bakugou, who acted like he couldn’t have possibly done anything wrong.

                The teacher gritted his teeth and glared at them once more before he spoke.

                “You were all utter idiots and the fact that I didn’t murder you the moment I walked in speaks a lot about my patience” he growled. “Really now, I should expel all of you for the simple fact that, when villains attack and you don’t have experience, you stay the fuck away!” he punched the desk and they all pull back. “I have no idea what your parents taught you, and I frankly don’t care what you do outside my class. But while you are in my class, you are expected to follow a minimum amount of logic, and that means not running around like headless chickens during a fight. You do not actively get in each other’s way, you don’t run towards villains instead of away from them!”

                At this one he glared pointedly at Midoriya and Bakugou. Bakugou rolled his eyes and Enji had to remind himself that he was not allowed to defenestrate his students while not in the gym.

                “Bakugou” he said and the boy snapped up to glare at him. “That is addressed especially to you.” Midoriya seemed ashamed enough already and singling one out got more attention.

                “What?!” he snapped up straight and glared at him. “But I took out the villain!”

                “NO” he said “You and Kirishima actively got in the way of Thirteen destroying the villain for no other reason than what I can assume bragging rights” he said “Well, that was idiotic. Especially when you were told to stay back.” The blond was boiling. Enji sneaked a look at the redhead. He seemed ashamed enough, so that was good for the moment.

                “What school did you come from?” he asked out of the sudden.

                Bakugou blinked and responded while crossing his arms. “Orudera”

                “Small school in a small district. Let me guess, you had the flashiest Quirk, the strongest, everyone told you that you’ll be the greatest hero?”

                “I will be the greatest hero!”

                “No you won’t” Enji spit. Bakugou froze. “News flash for all of you” he glared them into the ground. “You might have been the strongest in your little schools, but now you are in a place where everyone is as strong if not stronger than you” he pointed at Bakugou “This kind of attitude will not be tolerated. Just because you have a strong Quirk it does not mean that everyone will bow at your feet” he looked at them once more “You are nothing more than government schooled soldiers with a shit load of publicity and propaganda to carry and the industry will eat you whole if you don’t grow up” he sat back behind the desk “The USJ was proof that you don’t know what you are doing. Proof that you are still children, still learning and you should be glad you made it at all” he looked at all of them and straightened his back “Take this as a warning. The Sports Festival will be coming and you better train and make a good impression if you want to get any offers” he looked at his watch. The class was ending.

                “Midoriya” he said and the boy stood straighter. “A word.”

                He walked towards the office Nedzu had given him to have a place to vent and not kill the kids he was supposed to teach and the boy followed him dutifully behind. He entered the room and sat at his chair.

                The boy looked at him, back straight, face laced with anxiety.

                “I noticed that you don’t have the best control over your Quirk” he started because he needed a way to start this particular conversation. The boy stilled as if held at gunpoint, and started sweating profusely.

                “Well, I’m trying to get better control at it….”

                “Well, it’s failing” he said bluntly and the boy looked down, hands trembling before he shoved them behind his back. Enji pulled out a post it note. “Meet me at ground alpha after class sharp.”

                The boy blinked. “Sir?”

                “I’ll help you figure out your Quirk.” It was the best way to keep an eye on the kid and his skills, and it might get Nedzu off his back for being anti-social.

                “Really?” the boy’s eyes widened and he almost started to glow.

                “Yes. Don’t be late and don’t be lazy. I don’t take kindly to that.”

                “Thank you thank you thank you!” he bowed deeply, head almost touching the ground in what looked like a particularly painful way to commit suicide, but Enji just took a deep breath.

                “Show me your gratitude by gaining some skills till the Sports Festival. Now get out, I have things to do.”

                “Thank you again!” the boy beamed before he dashed out of the office at what could be considered a second Quirk.

~O~

                Enji had watched the video once again to know exactly what he has been dealing with. And he didn’t like it.

                From the USJ, he had realised exactly how similar Midoriya’s Quirk was to All Mights. It was also very dangerous and the boy obviously had no training with it. He wouldn’t have had time to have training if he had gotten it before the school. But the man didn’t see why All for One would send a spy so obviously to be a spy to be a spy.

                So, since Saito wasn’t going to help, it remained his duty to see if the boy was a spy or just stupid.

                Midoriya, for all his recklessness, wasn’t tardy. He had appeared on the step of his office at the exact hour, dressed in gym clothes and positively vibrating with pent up energy.

                Enji was getting exhausted just by looking at him.

                This would be such a drag.

                Why did he agree to it? Oh. Yeah.

                The spy thing.   

                He walked towards the Alpha training grounds with the boy skipping in step behind him. He could feel the excitement and the way the boy obviously wanted to start talking, but he held his tongue for various reasons. Good. He didn’t have time to waste.

                They reached the gym and Enji walked towards one of the matts. “So” he said, eyeing the small kid up and down. “How does your Quirk work?”

                “It stockpiles energy and releases it in big chunks” the boy said.

                “All right. And what have you been doing to train it?”

                “Well” the boy moved from one foot to the other. “I managed to keep the power in one limb and in the tip of my finger” he flexed said fingers “I still can’t tone it down without  breaking anything.”

                “If you don’t tone it down, you will not get to be a hero” Enji said.

                “But if I worked hard….”

                “It doesn’t matter!” Enji barked. “You will be no use to anyone if you don’t have arms to fight.” He frowned “I watched your entrance exam and I’ve watched you at the USJ. You are reckless. You don’t care about your own safety or collateral damage” and he didn’t have the money or lawyers to deal with collateral damage. It had taken Enji a lot of work to be able to go all out on villains.

                “But I want to save people!” the boy clenched his fists and glared at Enji with a kind of determination the man saw for the first time.

                Huh. So you’re not a lost cause quite yet.

                “And what good will you be if you die on your first day?” the boy shut his mouth. Enji sighed. he recognised the type. He wouldn’t be able to get anywhere if he didn’t shatter the way of thinking the kid had. Thankfully, he seemed up for critique, unlike two other overpowered fifteen year olds he had to train. “Look kid, this is an industry. I don’t know how much propaganda you have been forced to swallow, but the idealist view you have will not run anymore. Heroes don’t save people for the sake of saving people anymore. There’s a reason this is an industry in the first place.”

                 The boy started outright glaring, giving away a pure, terrifying vibe. Enji was impressed.

                “I don’t care!” he yelled, holding his stance with the most backbone the hero had seen in a long long time. “I want to help people. This is the sole reason I want to be a hero in the first place. And if I have to die by that, so be it!”

                Conviction. This was new.

                Why the hell did it have to come with ideals?

                Enji sighed and rubbed his temples. He was wasting time. “Fine then, how many people do you want to save?”

                The boy blinked. “Ummmmm…”

                “Tell me a number” he crossed his arms. “Come on now, tell me a number of people you saved after which you will be satisfied with your work. Tell me a number of people over which you will consider good enough, tell me the number of people you want to save before you retire.”

                “I don’t have a number.” The boy glared.

                “Why?”

                “Because I want to save as many as I can!”

                “So tell me” the man leaned forward “How many can you save if you have to retire in your first week because you crippled yourself?” he took a step forward. “How many people can you save if you die before you finish highschool?”

                The boy looked down.

                “There’s a reason I am one of the oldest heroes still in the business. Most careers last five years, a decade at most before they retire because they smashed their kneecaps or something. They make enough money so they can live in luxury. Well, most of them that is” he looked at the boy who was looking at the ground. “You have a powerful flashy Quirk. You will get high in the rankings only based on that. If your purpose is to retire early, then fine, shatter your bones, it will be enough.”

                “I don’t.” the boy clenched his fists “I don’t want to retire early. I want to save people.”

                “Then make sure to make it longer than most. If you truly want to help people, make sure you live long enough to do so.” The boy looked up. The fire wasn’t dead, only a little bit tamed. The man shook his head. “Both you and Bakugou have the same problem. You lack restraint.”

                The boy froze. He looked up, eyes wide, filled with something Enji couldn’t quite read. “What do you mean?”

                “You both go all out. You have no mind for yourself, he has no mind for anyone else” Enji rose his eyebrows. “If he doesn’t change his attitude, he’s already a lost cause. Are you?”

                “He’s awesome!” the boy jumped, fists clenching “He’s got an awesome Quirk, and ….”

                “Strong Quirks are everywhere nowadays. It’s hard to find someone who is mentally fit for heroics, and he is too far down the line.” He looked at the kid. “Can you prove that you are more than a flashy Quirk, or am I just wasting my time here?”

                Shouto and Touya had been strong, but that only gave them a shot at the top ten. He had tried to make sure they weren’t complete idiots so they could actually hold their own in the industry.

                “I am more than just a flashy Quirk!” the boy yelled. “And I will be a hero.”

                “Fine. We’ll see about that. Now prove your statement and try to think why your Quirk doesn’t work.”

                The boy fell into a stance. “Activate it” Enji said.              

                The boy focused and his arm quickly got covered in sparks. “Wait” the man said. The boy stopped. “Why do you keep it in your arm?”

                “I don’t…..?”

                “You do” the man sighed. “No wonder it breaks you, the pressure it too high!” he sighed. “Try to even it out!”

                It took one hour, but finally, the boy managed to spread it evenly.

                “Good” the man said absentmindedly and the boy beamed. “Same time tomorrow.” And, with that sparse goodbye, he left.

Chapter Text

Same time tomorrow proved that the kid was a masochistic reckless idiot if the complete exhaustion he felt was any cue. Don’t get him wrong, Midoriya was still up and running, ready to improve…..

                But that was hard when it was obvious he was keeping from face planting into the ground.

                Now, Enji was fully aware that he couldn’t physically go any longer that it wasn’t healthy.

                He was also very aware that that wouldn’t stop the boy. So he decided to test exactly how far did his stamina match his resolve.

                Answer:

                To a T.

                Now, Enji was no stranger to forcing people past their limits. It was, after all, the only way to improve.

                But the No.2 hero didn’t become the No.2 hero with at least some loose knowledge in that little thing called politics and he didn’t feel like getting sued for putting the kid in the hospital for exhaustion. It wasn’t his kid, for a start.    

                So, right about the time Midoriya was ready to collapse, Enji stopped him.

                “You trained while at home.”

                “Yeah” he tried to stand straight. Tried.

                He collapsed and the man made no effort to catch him. Let him smell the mats if that’s what will convince him not to kill himself on school grounds.

                The man took a deep breath and crouched near the kid. “Look” he moved his head a little so he could stare him in the eye. “I get that you want to get better and get better fast. But, do you remember what we talked about yesterday?” the boy nodded. “Killing yourself off school grounds is still bad for your health and general future career.”

                “But I can’t stop” he tried to sit up, but failed again. Tried again. Enji had to give it to the kid. He was determined. “I need to get stronger.”

                “Well, let me put it like this” the boy looked at him. “You have a limited level of energy you can use for physical exercises. A limited amount of energy you can use for training in general. It’s just the way your body is build.” The boy nodded. “Now, you can chose to train alone and probably rip some muscles because you have no idea how to do it. Or you can train with me and actually learn something.” He pushed the kid on his back with the tip of his foot. “If you’re going to train on your own, at least tell me, I don’t like wasting my time.”

                “I won’t waste your time!” the boy said, fire back in his frame.

                “You are doing it right now” he growled. “I’ll give you one more chance. Go home, sleep, and you’ll make it for the lost time tomorrow. If you are not up and running the moment I enter this gym, I give up on helping you.”

                “I won’t disappoint!” Midoriya said, sitting up.

                “I’ll say it when I see it” Enji left the gym.

~O~

                Oh, look at that, the kid actually followed his advice. He wasn’t in the best shape, but he could still move and was enough well rested. Enji looked at him and nodded in approval before he motioned towards the matt.

                The exercise started. They were barely five minutes in and Enji could already see a glaring problem.

                “You’re trying to imitate All Might!” he growled. The boy stopped.

                “Yeah?” he said, as if it was the most normal thing in the world. Enji asked the gods for patience.

                “Why?”

                “Well” he started to fidget, “Our Quirks are so similar, I was thinking that I could do it the same as him.”

                “Well you can’t” he poked the kid in the chest and Midoriya yelped. “That fighting style implies that you can actually use that Quirk in a fully functional way. You can’t. You need to know how to use it.” he looked at the kid who was rubbing his chest “You are shackling yourself following that idiot. So don’t.”

                “What do you suggest?!” the boy snapped and Enji Quirked an eyebrow. Midoriya clamped his mouth shut and looked away. Enji sighed.

                “Try running round a little bit. Try moving as you would naturally do. Try anything but punching.”

                Midoriya nodded and started to run and jump around. Enji watched as the kid ping ponged around the room. He was three minutes in and already spotted a problem. He called the kid back.

                “Your moves are too stiff” he said as he crossed his arms. “You don’t act as if your Quirk is yours.”

                “But it is mine!” he said, too fast to do anything but confirm Enji’s suspicion.

                “No. you are thinking too much”

                “What do you mean?”

                Without warning, Enji violently chucked a bottle of water at the boy’s head. Midoriya yelped but caught it and was left to stare at it.

                “Did you think when you caught it?”

                “No….”

                “Yeah. It was muscle memory” he took back the water and placed it on the bench “Quirks are the same. You have to use them like an instinct, like an extension of yourself. You have to use them without thinking.”

                “I sincerely doubt you got into the top ten without thinking, sir” the boy deadpanned.

                “Don’t go cheeky on me, boy” Enji growled. Midoriya closed his mouth. “Try to think of it as a muscle. Go.”

~O~

                The next month till the Sports Festival passed fast enough. The kids were putting more and more effort in their training, willing to become the strongest they could. Enji was always one for pushing the limit, but it was the first time he had to actively stop children from killing themselves because no one seemed fit to teach him the god damn meaning of restraint.

                Oh, wait.

                This was his job.

                He didn’t need to see Nedzu to know that he was most likely smirking somewhere behind a screen.

                Needless to say, the time flew and Enji found himself, once again, in a situation he would much rather fight a hundred villains at once than be a part of.

                Presenting the Sports Festival.

                Why why why did PR matter so much? Why? He talked short and on point on the stage while the kids and the public brimmed with excitement. Bakugou made everyone his enemy by declaring that he was going to win, which, point to him for attention he guessed. Now he absolutely had to make true on that promise.

                Now, Enji would have loved to say that he had no doubt that Shouto would win. Even without his fire side, he was still a very powerful, very well trained soldier.

                But Bakugou was a force of nature in itself.

                And, lastly, one did not have to forget Midoriya.

                It seemed like he was hell bent on gaining a decade of Quirk training and knowledge in a month. And, while surely admirable, it didn’t change the fact that he was scarily close to succeeding. Enji had to admit that the kid had promise and was willing to learn. He was also very skilled.

                And the last point was not to forget.

                He was smart. Very smart. In their small moments of reprieve, the boy had questioned him on his Quirk and asked him about certain strategies. And his brain wasn’t just the common sense all heroes should have but little met the standards. No, it was more than that.

                The most dangerous people were the ones with brain behind their Quirks. Anyone could land a nuke, but there was a certain thought process needed for it to be effective to your purposes.

                This was one of the main reasons he wanted to make sure his heirs had strong Quirks. While one might control the outcome of a Quirk, there was no tell on what would end on the intelligence lottery.

                The kids from 1B were nothing to sneeze at either.

                Enji was proud, but he wasn’t stupid. He knew there was a high chance that one of the others could win.

                And he was honestly too curious to watch.

                While Shouto was his masterpiece, he did spend a lot of time training Midoriya. And, there was a part of him, small and insignificant, that wouldn’t have minded that the boy won. It might also be his satisfaction at someone finally appreciating all the effort he put in training them.

                The boy better make it to the finals.

                The first round started and, predictably, Shouto trapped most of his classmates in ice. Well, actually no, most of the kids in ice. His classmates seemed to have predicted it and dodged. Him and Bakugou took the lead fast enough, leaving everyone else in the dust.

                It was towards the end of the race when something unexpected happened.

                Midoriya launched himself over the field…..

                …..using the bombs.

                The kid just blew himself to get the first in race.

                Enji didn’t know if he should be pleased at the conviction or mad at the lack of brain cells. Maybe a mix of both.

                By the time of the second task, Enji had honestly forgotten that he was supposed to have favourites. There was something quite entertaining in seeing Midoriya’s and Shouto’s strategies at play. For some reason, Midoriya wasn’t using his Quirk, but, as long as he didn’t need to, Enji didn’t have any real complaints about it.

                He had lost most hope for the boy when Shouto snatched his band, but the miraculous recovery was something one should not overlook.

                Enji used the break to walk around and get rid of the pent up energy and also stay away from that ape who was asking for teaching advice. Really now, how dense was the man? Enji wanted to ask him how the fuck did he teach his own kid when he remembered that Midoriya might not, in fact, be his kid, so he just glared and stomped away.

                Shouto was as much of a brat as always, which was to be expected but no less disappointing. The third round rolled around quite fast.

                Midoriya broke out of brainwashing with…… not really ease, but Enji could appreciate the ingenuity. And also be mad at the still going self maiming the kid was so fond of, but he digressed. The rest of the fights were mediocre, although Uraraka did have a chance to beat Bakugou.

                She just made the fatal mistake of revealing her trump card before he was dead.

                Enji felt like cupping his forehead. At least one good thing would come out of this Sports Festival: he’d know what bad habits to beat out of the kids. And what types of heroes to put on his shit list. Really now, they thought a villain would go easy on her? Pathetic.

                Also, she needed more stamina. A lot more stamina.

                The ever present Bakugou problem was still in the air, still very annoying. He’d have to talk to someone to talk to the kid. If he didn’t change his behaviour, Enji was not going to pass him.

                Shouto threw a bitch fit and went overkill. Did this kid care about his stamina?! Did he do it to spite Enji?

                Scratch that, it wasn’t even a question.

                Iida made a fool out of himself. What a pity. While he didn’t particularly like his brother all that much, he couldn’t say he enjoyed the humiliation that came out of being chased by machines and use as a publicity stunt on live television.

                The second and most expected round came, mostly because he wanted to see how well did Shouto far against Midoriya and how well Midoriya could use his Quirk after training. While he wanted Shouto to win, he couldn’t deny that he was curious. He knew that the green haired kid would put on a good show and a good fight.

                Now all that was left was to watch.

                The match started and, predictably, Shouto tried to trap Midoriya in a block of ice. The green haired boy launched himself into the air and then plummeted towards his opponent. Shouto responded by a second block of ice, which the boy shattered with a punch.

                The lack of broken bones was good.

                The match went like that until Midoriya started yelling at Shouto. Enji couldn’t hear what he was saying, but it clearly affected Shouto, for he stopped trying to attack and yelled back.

                It was honestly very weird and what wouldn’t have the man given for some input on what the hell they were talking about?!

                Eventually, Midoriya did something Enji could not believe, for he had tried for Years and nothing happened.

                He said something that made Shouto use his fire.

                Enji yelled at the same time with the rest of the stadium, flames surrounding his body as he did so.

                Both boys ignored him and went back to fighting with the full force of two people who were trying to murder each other.

                Enji was excited.

                Eventually, fire and wind met and both boys were blown away. Shouto smashed into the wall of ice he had placed there to avoid being thrown out of bounds.

                Midoriya flew across the ring and slammed into the wall behind him before falling boneless to the ground.

                For a few seconds, there was silence before the stadium was drowned in the noise.

~O~

                Enji tried to talk to Shouto, but the boy had vanished from the infirmary before he could get there. The man was pretty pissed, but he resigned himself to visiting the other kid.

                Midoriya was laid on a bed, hand in a sling and eyes tired from healing. The man crossed his arms and dodged a syringe hit from the elderly woman before he approached the bed.

                “You still broke your bones” he said.

                The boy blinked before he looked at him. There was something new, something judging in his eyes that hadn’t been there before. The boy nodded and leaned back onto the pillow. “Yeah. But I didn’t shatter it.”

                Enji frowned. “The fact that it broke is still a problem.”

                “Yeah sir” the boy said dryly “My bones tend to do that.”

                The man let out a puff of air. Try as he might, he couldn’t be mad at the kid when he had finally gotten Shouto to use his fire side. Midoriya, too, seemed to be surprised at the lack of anger, especially at the lack of more scolding. Enji’s look turned serious once again.

                “Rest for the next week. The internships will be gruesome.”

                He waited for the boy to give a defeated nod before he turned and walked away.

~O~

                One little loophole he had found to make sure he didn’t waste a week doing nothing, was that he could technically go back to hero work as long as he took at least one student in internship.

                He had originally been planning to offer only to Shouto, but then he found himself offering one for Midoriya too. And then he came with a problem.

                He couldn’t train both at the same time. Each one of them would demand full attention if they wanted to make something out of this internship, and Enji knew he was good, but he was also realistic. And he hated half assed jobs.

                Logically, he should have picked Shouto. He was his masterpiece after all.

                But then again, he always had time to train Shouto. He lived with the kid. Midroiya though….

                Not believing that he was actually doing this, he went ahead and offered the green haired-possibly-All-Might-possibly-Noumu an internship.

                Shouto did look weird at him for the first few days before the internship started, but that was to be expected. The boy had chosen to intern with Best Jeanist, the same agency as Bakugou, and Enji didn’t need to be a genius to know that disaster would come soon enough.

                The week passed, the internship came and Enji found himself face to face with Midoriya once again. The boy had made some decent improvements to his costume. There were still a lot of things left to fix about it, but it was at least decent so far. The man leaned over his desk and looked at the kid.

                Midoriya was looking at him, but there was something more than pure adoration in his eyes. There was something deeper, darker, more focused, more close to reality. His face still bore a hopeful smile, but gone was the naiveté he had before.

                Midoriya knew what he was getting into. And he looked ready to fight.

                “I hope you know that this internship won’t be easy.” Enji said.

                “I know.” the boy said before he fell into a bow at the middle “I am very grateful that you allowed me this opportunity.”

                “Good” the man sat up. “First thing” he placed a stack of papers on front of him. “Paperwork!” the boy’s eyes widened and the man felt a mocking smirk crawl its way up his lips. “Sorry to disappoint, but not everything heroic is flashy or entertaining.”

                The boy eyes the papers critically before he lifted one as if checking for traps “Huh. They never said that on the pamphlet.” he grabbed them and sat at the desk where he started working without further complaint.

                This was unusual. Not really surprising, but most of the interns Enji took had some kind of reluctance when it came to this part of the work. But while he was working on his own, the hero couldn’t help but feel like he was being watched. Yet when he looked up, the boy was dutifully doing his tasks.

                After the sun was up in the sky, the man finally stood up. “All right.” he cracked his knuckles “Training time.”

                For all the calm he had had when he started the paperwork, Midoriya all but sprung out of his seat in excitement. Enji quirked an eyebrow but the boy looked as bright as ever, almost skipping in step as he followed the older man.

                Training went like usual. The boy still had a little bit of trouble when it came to maintaining the Quirk on for too long, but he was doing all right. Then was then it hit him.

                “The way you are using your Quirk is pretty close combat.” the man said “Do you have any combat abilities?”

                The boy froze like a deer under the headlights. “Unbelievable” the man sighed before motioning for the other to follow.

                The rest of the internship went more or less like that, except for the patrols, where the boy was too good.

                He wasn’t all that good with the fans, but they surely appreciated the shy and stammering attitude to the cold and brash one of the no.2 hero.

                At least he won’t have PR problems, the man mumbled, because PR would forever remain the bane of his existence.

                It all went, predictably, to hell, because, apparently, this class and the green haired brat were cursed.

                Enji had been called to UA to solve some teacher problems or something, and he let the boy in the capable hands of his sidekicks for the night patrol.

                Which was, coincidentally, the same day the Hero Killer decided to show up and the Iida brat decided to be in the vicinity for some good old revenge plot.

                Enji only found out about this because he was in the middle of a meeting when he got a distress signal with the location and Nedzu turned on the TV.

                Hosu was burning and the No.2 hero was miles away.

~O~

                Shouto didn’t particularly fancy hospitals, but he did guess that this one would have to do for his wounds. He didn’t think it was all that necessary, especially not after how wounded Midoriya and Iida had been.

                They had captured the Hero Killer. Which was supposed to be a good thing. The fact that both Midoriya and him were in the vicinity when Iida had been attacked was a relief.

                His internship had gone pretty well. Well, for him at least. Bakugou had gotten the short end of the stick, because Best Jeanist didn’t take to his looks or attitude. The only thing the NO.4 hero had to comment about Shouto though was his costume and his cold demeanor. Otherwise, he did help him improve his finer control over ice and fire, which was something the old man hadn’t really been all that interested in.

                Plus, as it was, their internship was over and with the paperwork, it was most likely that bastard wouldn’t be home for the weekend.

                But the heterochromatic teen couldn’t really relax.

                There was something…. Off about Midoriya. True, the boy did help him get over his father and use his fire. But at the same time…..

                His classmate had been training with his father. Willingly.

                And he was getting better. They shared a gym and he didn’t seem bothered by the bruises, didn’t see them as an impediment towards his victory. Whenever they had exercises, there was something uncomfortably familiar about the strategy and the way of thinking the greenette had.

                He had told the grenette about his father, and it did seem to touch the other a little. And, while Shouto understood someone’s desire to get more powerful, he didn’t think that his father was the right way to do so. And he had told his classmate.

                The boy still remembered Midoriya’s response.

                Big green eyes looked at him with something he couldn’t understand yet he didn’t like.

                “Don’t worry about me, Todoroki-kun” he had said and Shouto could see the gears turning in his head. He could see the other planning. “I know what I’m dealing with.”

                Now, Shouto didn’t like to be one to judge, but he wouldn’t lie and say that he didn’t feel better for requesting to be moved to a different room.

Chapter Text

Enji was coming back to school with a crick in his neck and five expressos into his coffee. He didn’t even like coffee. He hated coffee.

                But.

                He had to if he ever hoped to survive this day. The paperwork for the weekend with the Hosu incident, the hero killer and the green haired menace capturing the Hero killer, getting almost kidnapped by a noumu and dropped onto the crowd was not something normal people could achieve while still being human.

                Enji had forsaken his humanity long ago to be in the system, yet he didn’t enjoy losing the last scraps he had because of paperwork.

                Exams were a few weeks away and now he had to test the kids to see what they learned over the internships and how he could improve or get rid of any bad habits. Which meant, of course, train though combat.

                Enji had waited for so long for them to be ready to fight without fear of maiming.

                When he made the pairs, he made sure to keep Bakugou and Midoriya away from each other. One had to be blind to not see the animosity and the bad blood between them and, while a match between them two would have surely been entertaining, the death of a student, or at least the dismembering of one included too much hassle to deal with afterwards, and he wasn’t going to undo months of training Midoriya by breaking his bones himself.

                So, now, he watched them.

                Bakugou was still volatile, still  angry. No, scratch that, he was even more angry. In comparison, Shouto was almost serene and more focused in his fighting. He wasn’t using his fire to its full potential, but he was trying, so Enji only pulled out minimum points for that.

                Now, the animosity between Bakugou and Shouto was something to watch. His son seemed to have a slightly stronger vendetta against the blond, and the blond reciprocated it, but not with the hate he held for Midoriya. This was going to be interesting, if he said so himself.

                Midoriya was getting better. Not it wasn’t so much a matter of Quirk control, but a matter of training and muscle memory. His reaction time was getting better too, so Enji allowed him to pass with full points, even if he had to deal with the sparkles afterwards.

~O~

                “Are you kidding me?!” Enji’s voice rang in the conference room and everyone stopped to stare at him. Aizawa was glaring particularly vicious at him, but it wasn’t like Enji was giving a fuck. “Midoriya and Bakugou in the same team? Are you actively trying to kill them?!”

                “Interesting, Todoroki-san? Care to share your opinion with us?” the hell rat said from his cushion.

                Enji rubbed his eyebrows. He turned towards Aizawa. “You said you want to put them together because of their animosity, right? Well, their rivalry is one sided and one sided from Bakugou. He will insist to fight on his own and will try to murder or injure Midoriya if he tries to stop him, which he will” the man leaned back into his chair. He glared at everyone at the table who hadn’t seen this already. “They are most likely to fight each other than work together.”

                “And what do you suggest?” Midnight asked.

                “Pair Bakugou with Shouto” Enji said. “For one, their rivalry is two sided, so there won’t be any power imbalance. Also, Shouto is more likely to handle Bakugou’s volatile personality and Bakugou will be more inclined to work with Shouto because he’s not Midoriya.” He leaned back into his chair. “There’s less bad blood.”

                “Yeah, but the bad blood is the exact reason we need Bakugou and Midoriya to work together.”

                “And forcing them into a high stress environment when they both react poorly to it and to each other is the best place to go?” Enji spit.

                “All right then” Nedzu clapped his hands, like he expected it. “Then I hope that you don’t mind you being the teacher they fight.”

                “No, I won’t have a problem.”

                Plus, knocking some sense into Bakugou was always a good opportunity.

                “But” Snipe said “Who do we pair Midoriya with?”

                Enji looked over the files “You said that Yaoyorozu had confidence issues?” he said “Place them together. Midoriya basically vomits sunshine and positivity.”

                “Perfect!” Nedzu clapped his paws.

~O~

                Shouto was sure that there was some ancient force wishing his demise. Because he had been paired with Bakugou. Against his father.

                In a forest.

                Shouto was sure that Nedzu was having a good laugh. The boy was currently ten minutes into arguing with Bakugou about the best strategy to take and, so far, it wasn’t working. It was like talking to walls.

                “You do realise that you both have fire powers, but he has more resistance than you, right?”

                “I don’t care!” the boy yelled “I will beat him and make him regret making fun of me!”

                That was making fun of him? Shouto took a deep breath, remembering that trapping his partner into a block of ice wasn’t the smartest choice one could or should make when it came to these kinds of things.

                “Look” the dodged a stray piece of wood the other placed his way. “Can we at least make a strategy in case “Kill it with Fire!” doesn’t work?”

                “Fine!” The blond yelled and turned around “You stay back while I beat him. When you see him weakened, cover him in ice and I’ll put the cuffs on.”

                Why couldn’t they do that from the beginning?

                The boy shrugged. No, he wasn’t going to deal with this bullshit any longer.

                Shouto sighed and nodded, looking just to make sure he knew where the exit was. There was no talking with the blond. He turned back to tell Bakugou something, but the other was already very far away.

~O~

                Shouto looked at the forest, at the trees that were on fire and would argue he made the good decision when he noped out of there the moment his father and his partner started to brawl. The question was…

                How the fuck did they manage to set the whole forest on fire without him noticing.

                He didn’t even move that fast or used his ice, since that bastard would have noticed, so he must’ve been able to feel something.

                He hears steps behind him and turned around to see Midoriya run and pant before he looked at the magnificent fire and let out a low whistle. “How... “he stopped for a second before he took in a deep breath. “Was it Kacchan?”

                Shouto blinked. “No idea.”

                Midoriya looked at the forest before he let out a hysterical laugh. “They fought fire with fire….. in a forest!” Midoriya grabbed his stomach and almost choked on his laugh before he wiped away a stray tear. “You know” he said as he looked at Shouto “I want to say that this was all Kacchan but…..” his expression turned sombre “I did meet your father.”

                Shouto nodded.

                “This” Midoriya pointed at the fire “Was a team effort.”

~O~

                As the kids were making a ruckus, Enji reconsidered weather or not he should have insisted to go on the camp, but the alternative was to remain at home and do nothing for a whole month, which was out of the question.

                The kids were having fun, even Midoriya, who had recovered pretty well after being attacked by Shigaraki a few days prior. He had asked Tsukakuchi for the report and had talked briefly to the kid afterward, and he seemed fine, if the way he was hogging his son and Uraraka in a debate was any clue.

                The ride was a lot longer and more annoying than he had predicted, and he was willing to give Aizawa some credit for putting up with the noise. But then he noticed that the other was wearing headphones and the credit melted into grudging respect and frustration for not having thought at the same thing.

                Hearing the pussycats introduce themselves was annoying, but totally worth it when the clueless kids had been thrown over the edge. Midoriya had tried to hold up, but Enji, unceremoniously kicked him over the edge.

                He would have to suffer with the rest of them.

~O~

                The food had been good the previous night and right now his students were half asleep but that didn’t mean that he would half ass their training. Not one bit.

                They most likely hated him for it….

                Meh, what was new?

                Midoriya was as lively as ever, Shouto as grumpy as ever and Bakugou as angry as ever.

                Everyone else was in pain.

                The day lasted pretty long and the fact that they were starving didn’t help them cook better. But beggars can’t be choosers and Enji didn’t doubt they would have eaten dirt had it been edible.

                The next day went predictably the same except for the evening.

                They were attacked. By the League of Villains. Who had enforcements this time.

Sigh

 This class really was cursed, wasn’t it?

                It had all started with that stupid exercise and Enji had went into the woods, because his power would have no use in small quarters. He had found some kids, found Iida who told him that Midoriya had run after Muscular, found Muscular, threw Midoriya over the wall while holding the kid and then fought Muscular.

                Enji wouldn’t fool himself and say that it was an easy fight. It wasn’t. Muscular was a powerful villain with a powerful Quirk, but he had the same problem he had grown to notice in most of his students:

                He lacked creativity.

                And no matter how strong your muscles were, they still burned and they still bled.

                Enji left the rock covered in blood and with a charred corpse behind. The eye on the stone was shining in the moonlight.

~O~

                Dabi couldn’t say that he was particularly fond of his siblings, but even he winced as Toga stabbed Shouto and threw him over into a tree. He had joined mostly because they were attacking UA and that bastard was working for UA and this training camp seemed like a perfect opportunity to get some good hits in.

                His brother would be fine, he had already gotten up and….

                Toga got drop kicked by something green and slammed into a tree.

                Huh.

                So this was All Might’s brat. They had orders to kidnap both him and the angry brat who reminded him too much of that bastard with that winning obsession he made no effort to hide on national television.

                Minimight stood in front of his brother, glowing like a Christmas tree as if his puny body was immune to flames.

                Cute.

                Dabi didn’t move. He stood behind to analyse.

                Toga got to her feet and attacked the kid. The kid dodged before he jumped back when Shouto threw a wave of ice at her. A few of Twice’s clones appeared and the kids were surrounded. He was ready to offer them to turn themselves in and spare the pain when that flaming bastard arrived.

                No.

                You.

                Fucking.

                Don’t.

                Dabi was smart enough to know that he couldn’t beat that fucker alone, so he might as well distract him. Since he wasn’t that keen on hurting Shouto, the only target available was the green haired kid. The boy froze as the blue fire approached him and, for a few seconds, Dabi felt almost bad…

                And then that bastard jumped in, grabbed the kid and used his own fire to deflect the flames.

                Dabi.exe had stopped working.

                Did…… did his father just protect All Might’s kid?

                What.

                The actual.

                Fuck!?

~O~

                Ok, Enji was not panicking. He was too well trained to panic. That said, he could recognise a dire situation and, damn, this was a dire situation.

                Shouto was stabbed. He was bleeding and didn’t look all that well. Midoriya was standing right over him, protecting from any sides Enji couldn’t.

                Still, this was bad. Very very bad. A lot of clones appeared all of the sudden, surrounding them. Enji had seen how brittle they were, how fast they dissolved once hurt. Logically, he could just burn them all.

                But the kids were in the way.

                Shit.

                “Give up” the patchwork villain said as he took a step forward.

                Like hell was Enji going to listen to a villain. The man smiled and. At that moment, another kid stumbled in the clearing, on the other side of the villain circle. It was someone from 1B and Enji could see the moment the fire started, could see the moment they would get charred. Enji was too far away….

                The fire started.

                Only trees got burned.

                There was silence for a moment as everyone stared at the black tendrils coming out of Midoriya’s arm and wrapping tightly around the other student.

                Oh shit, the kid really is a noumu.

                Midoriya had a completely horrified expression on his face.

                Oh shit, the kid doesn’t know he’s a noumu.

                Thankfully, if there was one thing Enji had above everyone else there, it was his reaction time. In no time, he grabbed all the three kids while putting a wall of fire between them and the villains. “Take them to safety!” he yelled at MIdoriya “I’ll hold them back!”

                The boy nodded before he was covered in green sparks once again and disappeared from the view.

~O~

                Clones were….. a bitch.

                Enji was hating this night more and more and was wondering how long would it take for reinforcements to arrive. He had killed all the clones but he couldn’t be sure for the villains themselves. There weren’t enough.

                Thankfully, he didn’t get any more wounded. The moment he was sure Midoriya was out of range, he had charred the part of forest he was in the middle of, no regard for the villains. He was sure there were still enough left to interrogate.

                Now, he just had to find the last kids remaining and …..

                Wait…

                Was that Midoriya?!

                In one swift motion, the no.2 hero grabbed the kid by the scruff of his neck and slammed him into a tree. “What the hell are you doing here?!” he barked because he did not have the energy to deal with this right now. The boy squirmed in his grasp but came out useless.

                He was panting and bleeding from effort, but he was angry and spiteful when he yelled at Enji. “They are after Kacchan!” he tried to kick the hero.

                “They are after you too, are you going to make it easier for them to take and torture you?!”

                The boy looked down, teeth gritted in trademark stubbornness, fists clenching.

                “I can’t…. I can’t let them hurt him!”

                God damn this kid and his god damned ideals.

                Enji dropped Midoriya who stumbled onto the ground. He didn’t seem to have any broken bones, which was good, but there was a gash in his shoulder that could need stitching. Enji grabbed him by the shoulder to check if there were any other wounds that were of utmost importance at the moment before he sighed and let go.       

                “I would send you back to the camp, but I know that you won’t remain there and I can’t waste any more time with you” he turned heel and started walking in the direction of the screams. “Just sit tight and don’t engage unless I tell you to, got it?!”

                “Yes sensei”

                “And remain behind me.”

                “Yes.”

                Enji didn’t believe Midoriya but it was the most he was going to get out of him.

                They were silent, the fire incredibly loud as it ate away the trees.

                And then the hell came loose.

                Good thing, they found Bakugou.

                Bad thing, Tokoyami had went feral.      

                Enji wondered if Karma used this night to score as many points in his book as it could.

                Yes. The answer was yes. Also Moonfish was there.

                Eni was pretty sure he was disassociating at this point.

                “Let’s lead Tokoyami to Moonfish!” Midoriya yelled from behind him. Bakugou agreed reluctantly and Enji pulled the kids out of the way before the demon bird tore the villain too shreds. Then, after it was done, Enji lit his arms on fire and until the monster was back to a kid.

                “What was that?!”

                “Your fucked up luck, that’s what it is.” Enji spit before he grabbed Midoriya and Bakugou and pushed them forward. “You don’t leave my sight or I murder you, got it?”

                Bakugou glared but Midoriya nodded in a tired way that Enji knew it meant he didn’t take him all that seriously.

                And it all went well, until the lizard guy and the tall villain appeared and attacked him. Enji took his eyes off the kids for a moment. A god damned moment….

                And they were gone.

                The magician was flying in the air, not a worry on his face and that was officially the point where Enji stopped giving a fuck.

                He couldn’t remember the last time he had been this royally pissed.

                He didn’t even bother to care about the forest anymore. In retrospect, he had no idea how exactly had he gotten to the villain meeting point, but he knew that he slammed the masked villain in into a tree hard enough for him to spill two marbles, which he crushed, releasing the two kids.

                “I don’t care how exactly, but get the fuck out of here!” he growled.

                Midoriya opened his mouth to answer when a wave of blue flame forced the two to separate. The greenette jumped in his direction while the blonde was thrown to the other side of the clearing. The patchwork villain went in his direction, black mist appearing everywhere.

                Enji knew what was going to happen even before he saw Midoriya move. One thing the boy failed to understand, for he was still young, was that, even of you tried, there were people you couldn’t save. Sometimes, it was a matter of priority. Sometimes, one had to choose.

                And Enji knew how to make that choice.

                He didn’t need to see Midoriya jump after Bakugou to be able to clamp his hand around his neck and hold him back.

                He didn’t need to look at his face in despair as the warp gate closed.

~O~

                Shouto couldn’t believe that he was doing this. It seemed crazy, yet there was an internal part of him (that sounded suspiciously like the bright green battery beside him) that it was the right thing to do. That he should do it all sights be damned.

                They were going to rescue Bakugou.

                Shouto had woken up with a stitch in his side and two previous sunshines somewhat attached to the blond near his bed asking him if he wanted to join their suicide mission in rescuing Bakugou. They had a plan, they had Yaoyorozu and, by the time they made it to the elevator, they had Iida too.

                It was surreal.

                Which is why dread filled him to the brim when they walked out of the hospital and Shouto saw his father, leaning on a wall, scrolling through his phone. He almost didn’t recognise him at first because of his civilian clothes, but, without the flaming beard, he was surprisingly inconspicuous.

                When he noticed them, he righted himself and glared them into the ground. “Predictability is a weakness, you know?”

                Shouto froze. He didn’t know how he was supposed to react, not when those cold blue eyes bore into him.

                Midoriya stepped in front of him, shielding him and stealing the attention off the heterochromatic teen. Shouto couldn’t help but feel grateful.

                “Are you going to stop us?”

                “Yes” the man said. “While I do understand your reasoning, I’m still your teacher. I can’t legally allow you to do that.”
                Legally. Of course. Not like he cared.

                Midoriya didn’t let up though.

                “We’re not breaking any laws” he said. “We won’t be using any Quirks”

                “And I’m supposed to believe you” the man tilted his head “You’re not fooling me. Go home or I’ll have you arrested.”

                His father was focusing entirely on Midoriya. He wasn’t looking at him and, if Shouto wouldn’t have known better, he would be sure he forgot that he was there.

                Midoriya stood straighter. “It’s your fault he got captured” he said and his voice was filled with venom. Enji froze. The boy went on and, even if he didn’t see his face, Shouto could feel the waves of chilling anger coming off of him. “You said you are a teacher. Your job was to protect us” he got a step closer “Yet you got him captured. You stopped me from trying to save him!”

                “They would have gotten you too!” the man howled.

                “Yet they got him, so how is that better?!”

                They were yelling. They were full on yelling right now, yet there was no one but the kids to notice.

                Midoriya continued. “Kacchan got kidnapped because you, the No.2 hero couldn’t save him. Now, are you going to help us get him back or not?!”

                And that was the first time, in all his life, the first time Shouto saw his father step back. The first time he saw his father do anything he didn’t plan to, the first time he saw his father grunt but nod in agreement.

                Shouto remembered the Sports Festival. He remembered asking the kid if he was his illegitimate brother, because that was the only way he could explain his father’s sudden interest in the boy.

                But now….

                Shouto didn’t want to admit it, but he didn’t like how much Midoriya seemed to…. Get his father. To understand him. It was jarring, seeing something so hauntingly familiar in someone so happy and so pure.

                Back then, Shouto had thought that the interest was the only clue to heritage….

                Now he wasn’t so sure.

~O~

                Enji waited for the kids to get their disguises and gruffly accepted the baseball cap to hide his hair.

                The man knew that Nedzu was planning something. He had to, it was in his nature. But he hadn’t been filled in on the news. He had had to spend too much time in hospital and Saito forbid him from attending the apologising conference, so he did have a lot of free time.

                He also knew that Midoriya would try to do something, also knew that it was likely to drag Shouto into it, so he waited for the kids to walk out of the hospital so he could jump them.

                He had been right.

                While he initially wanted to send them home, he knew that Midoriya was right. He had failed. He couldn’t stop the villain from capturing his student and he was sure that All Might would have stopped them. He had failed and he hated it.

                He also knew that there was no stopping Midoriya. It took him a few months, but he had finally realised exactly why he liked the kid.

                He was a force of nature. A force of nature who it would be easier to follow than fight.

                Which was why he was now looking at a bunker where Noumus were stored, looking at Midoriya to see if he saw any sample of familiarity in it.

                Because some things didn’t add up.

                Midoriya was a Noumu. But he was too good, too functional for him to be of the recent ones. Also, Shigaraki had tried to kidnap him more than once, which wouldn’t make sense if he was a spy, or he was on their side.

                The kidnapping attempt at the camp was also proof. Not to mention that everyone else seemed surprised, including the kid.

                Not to mention the boy fighting tooth and nail for the rescue.

                Enji didn’t know what to think, but he had to keep an eye on him and stop him from being kidnapped. There were too many questions at the moment and the man didn’t like it.

                Which was why, the moment he saw All for One appear and spear Best Jeanist, he had enough of a mind to keep the kids hidden. All for One was too strong, he couldn’t risk attacking him without backup and possible hostages.

                He was also pretty sure Midoriya was trying to chew his arm off to get away. Once again, good determination, horrible timing, kid!

                The man started to monologue when, all of the sudden, blotches of tar filled the air and Bakugou, along with the villains, popped up.

                And All Might appeared a second later.

                Enji growled and let go of Midoriya. “The moment you get Bakugou, you run, got it?!”

                The boy nodded and the man launched himself at Shigaraki.

                Alf of the villains were unconscious, and none of them were prepared, so it was quite easy to grab the blond and throw him in the direction of the wall. Bakugou stumbled a bit, but Shouto and Midoriya caught him and dragged him out of the way.

                From the corner of his eye, Enji saw them run away, out of the range of the attack while All Might was yelling at All for one.

                Good, he thought as he eyes the villains. Time to go all out.

~O~

                There are always a few seconds of silence before the world is blown to pieces, before the chaos starts, before the sound fills the room and kills the peace.

                Enji was well acquainted with it as he walked the halls of UA.

                The Commission and Nedzu still didn’t let him return to hero work, so he was stuck. At least All for One was in prison. All Might was out of commission for the moment.

                Things could be worse, he guessed.

                The man pushed the doors to Ground Gamma, seventeen anxious faces, one angry, one neutral and one cheerful welcoming him into the room. The man eyed them, eyed the way Midoriya was vibrating with energy at the prospect of training a new Quirk.

                “So” the man said as he looked over the kids, over their costumes “I see you finally learned to put function over form. Good. Your original aesthetic sucked anyway.”