Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Nedzu’s tail was flicking with irritation. One of the few humans he counted as a friend was in the hospital, having her baby, and Nedzu was stuck here, listening to the board complain about his decision to let the Gen Ed student who won the Sports Festival enter the Heroics Course.

Nedzu was just barely paying any attention to the complaints, he was going to stand firm in his decision. Aizawa Shouta had more than proven himself worthy of the position. The boy was determined, logical, quick on his feet, and he didn’t depend on his quirk to win his fights. Nedzu was thinking of offering the boy a spot as his personal student, in addition to joining class 1-A.

His phone pinged, and Nedzu had to use all of his self-control not to check it. He knew that Inko was going to be sending him a picture of her son as soon as she could, and he was certain that he had just received the picture of the little pup.

Great, now his ears were twitching, and every member of the board could tell that he was getting irritated with them. But they still wouldn’t. Stop. Complaining.

“If I may interrupt,” Nedzu finally spoke. He wanted to get this over with, he wanted to see Inko, he wanted to see the newborn pup, he wanted to defenestrate the entire board. “Aizawa Shouta has more than proven himself capable of joining the Heroics Course. His grades are at the top of his class, and he managed to defeat every opponent he went up against in the Sports Fest, proving that—”

“He’s a villain in the making!” one of the board members exclaimed. “He only won because he removed the quirks of each of his opponents! Someone like that doesn’t deserve to be a hero!”

“Oh dear,” Nedzu tutted. “It sounds to me as though you are discriminating against a student based solely on their quirk.” Nedzu’s beady eyes took on a sharp glint as he exposed more of his teeth in a vicious grin. “I do hope you are not discriminating towards my students?”

The board member paled at the look Nedzu was sending him and shook his head.

“Good. Now that that is settled. Aizawa Shouta will be joining Class 1-A for the next semester. My decision is final.” Nedzu picked up his phone and checked the message – it was a picture of a small, red, wrinkly baby, in the arms of his mother Inko. Nedzu’s grin turned softer, and he hopped off his chair. “I have places to be. Have a nice day!”

~*~*~*~

“Are you sure he’s human and not a little rat?” Nedzu joked as he was holding the small infant.

Inko laughed sweetly, “Yes, Nedzu, my son is a human.”

“I don’t know, he’s so small, and wrinkly! He’s an adorable little pup!” Nedzu nuzzled the baby with his snout. “You’re going to be an amazing little pup, aren’t you?”

Inko just smiled at them. “I have a question for you, Nedzu,” she started. “Would you be willing to be Izuku’s godfather?”

Nedzu looked up in surprise. “Me? Are you certain?”

“Yes. I don’t imagine anything will happen to me, but on the off chance that something does, I want to make sure my son is cared for by someone I trust. And there is no one I trust more than you.”

“What about Hisashi? What if he wants to take his son should the unthinkable happen?”

Tanaka Hisashi was the name of Izuku’s father. Inko had been dating him for a few months, but when they found out she was pregnant, he had left, telling her to get an abortion as he didn’t want anything to do with a child. In the past few weeks, however, Hisashi had started reaching out to Inko again, wanting to have some kind of relationship with his son.

“Absolutely not,” she stated. “He had his chance. When he insisted I abort my child, he lost all rights to my son. That is why I am not giving Izuku that man’s name. My son’s name is Midoriya Izuku, and Hisashi is nowhere on his birth certificate. That man will not have any rights to my son.”

Nedzu looked back to the small child in his arms. “What do you think, Pup? Do you want me to be your godfather?” Nedzu grinned at the baby. “Well, since he hasn’t refused, I suppose I can accept.”

~*~*~*~

Aizawa Shouta wasn’t sure what to expect from this meeting with the principal. He knew that the principal had had a meeting with the school board the other day regarding his upcoming transfer to the Hero Course, and he wasn’t sure if the offer was going to be rescinded or not.

He didn’t know what he’d do if he wasn’t allowed to join the Hero Course. He had worked so hard for this, had put up with so many people calling him a villain in the making, all the taunts and jeers, what if his dream was taken away at this point? What if everyone was right, and that he’d never be a hero? What would he do then?

He had been so engrossed in his own thoughts he hadn’t noticed he had reached the principal’s office until he was right there. He raised a hesitant hand up to knock, but the door swung open on its own.

“Come in, come in!” came the cheerful voice of the principal. Shouta hesitantly walked in and took the seat that was offered to him. “Would you like some tea?”

Shouta nodded, and the principal poured him a cup.

“Now, I’m sure you are worried about your position in the Hero Course for the upcoming semester, yes?” Principal Nedzu asked.

With that question, Shouta felt his mouth go dry and he could barely manage to nod. Here it was, the offer was going to be rescinded. He was going to be stuck in Gen Ed, he’d never be able to be a hero. His fosters had probably written in to the principal letting him know that Shouta was never going to be anything more than—

“Well, let me ease your worries! Your new uniform is right here, and your transfer is completed. You will be reporting to class 1-A,” he said with a smile, cutting off Shouta’s worried, self-depreciating inner monologue. “The purpose for this meeting is two-fold, Aizawa-kun. I did want to supply you with your new uniform, but I also have another offer for you.”

Shouta took a careful sip of the tea to help with the dry mouth. “An offer?” Shouta asked once he was sure his voice wouldn’t crack.

“Yes!” Nedzu jumped up onto his desk and walked across to be eye to eye with Shouta. “You are an incredibly talented young man, Aizawa-kun, and I believe you will be an amazing hero. That said, since your quirk is not combat orientated, you would do very well to increase your skills in analysis and strategy. In that course, I would like to offer to teach you these skills personally.”

Shouta’s eyes widened. Was he really offering to let Shouta be his personal student?

“It is not very often that a student catches my eye, Aizawa-kun, but your mental strength and determination, not to mention the analytical thinking you showed in the tournament round while defeating your year mates with mutation quirks, caught my attention. I would like for you to become my personal student. Will you accept?”

Even with as stunned as Shouta was, he still had the sense to nod his agreement. This was the absolute best-case scenario he could ever imagine. With his quirk and personality, Shouta would be best suited as an Underground Hero, and they worked a lot more closely with the police, and took more cases that used their intelligence to solve crimes, not just jump in to a flashy fight while wearing bright spandex. A spot as Nedzu’s personal student would give him a major jump-start in his career as an Underground Hero. He’d have to be an idiot to turn down this offer!

~*~*~*~

Nedzu was very pleased with his student’s progress. Over the past year, Shouta-kun had become one of the top students in his class. If things kept going the way they were, Shouta-kun would be among the Big Three of his year, along with the young man that has caught his student’s reluctant affections.

Right now, however, Nedzu had to provide comfort to his student. One of his good friends, Shirakumo Oboro, had died while on his internship, and Shouta-kun had been there to witness it. He had admitted to Nedzu that he was considering dropping out of the Hero Course, feelings of inadequacy cropping up, making him doubt himself.

A knock at the front door sounded, and Nedzu adjusted his hold on his godson and went to open it. Nedzu had invited his student over for a chat and had managed to convince Inko to let him watch Izuku for the night. He was going to introduce his student to Izuku, and hope that the adorable pup could help Nedzu talk Shouta-kun into believing that he could still be an amazing hero.

Shouta-kun was standing in the doorway, eyes wide as he saw the small child Nedzu was holding. “H-hello, Sensei. Um.” Nedzu had to suppress a giggle as his student struggled to form his thoughts into a coherent way to ask about the child. “You have a kid?” is what Shouta-kun finally settled on.

Nedzu lost the battle over his giggles. “Izuku is my godson, Shouta-kun. Please, come in!”

Shouta-kun took his shoes off at the door and took a look around the sitting area, and then took a seat on one of the couches. Nedzu handed Izuku to Shouta-kun. “Izuku, this is my student Shouta-kun! Keep him company as I make some tea.”

“Ok Nezzie!” the Pup said brightly, turning a grin to his student.

Nedzu then left the 16-year-old boy in the sitting room with his godson and stepped into the kitchen. He was going to make some tea, but he was going to take his time, unless he heard Izuku fussing or if Shouta-kun was too uncomfortable with the toddler.

He was about to hurry the process for making the tea when he heard his student talking to Izuku. Poking his head into the doorway to watch the two interact, Nedzu allowed a soft look to grace his eyes. Shouta-kun would be just fine.

~*~*~*~

Over the past two years Shouta had been the personal student of Nedzu, and he had started seeing the little rat as more of a father figure than any foster parent he’d ever lived with in the past. Nedzu had seemed to honestly care about him and wanted to spend time with him after school for special lessons that occasionally included his godson Izuku.

Shouta was half-sure the kid had an intelligence quirk, after all, most kids started stringing words into simple sentences around 18 months, but Izuku had been talking in simple sentences from about a year old. Currently, at 2 years old, he was clearly speaking, even if he was still only using short sentences. He was, however, already recognizing words in books. He was sure the boy would be reading by the time he was 3.

Shouta was hoping to take the boy for a few hours during the weekend. He and Hizashi were going to go to the park and have a picnic, and Shouta wanted to take Izuku to feed the ducks at the pond. He just needed to get Nedzu to ask the kid’s mom, and then he’d be able to tell Hizashi. Shit, he really did like that kid. And it didn’t help that little Izuku kept calling him Nii-chan.

Ducking his head to hide his grin, Shouta approached the door to Nedzu’s office. Odd, it usually opens before I knock, Shouta thought to himself before he knocked on the door. After a few moments of no reply, he knocked again. “Sensei?”

When he still got no reply, Shouta tried the doorknob and was surprised when the door opened. “Sensei? Are you here?” he called out hesitantly. The room looked empty, and Shouta was about to turn around and leave, assuming Nedzu had stepped out for something, when he heard a slight whimper. Instantly, Shouta was alert and stepped into the office, looking around for where the sound had come from.

He heard the sound again, by the desk. Carefully, Shouta moved to the desk to see what the noise was, and gasped when he saw Nedzu curled into a ball under his desk, gripping onto a framed picture. “Sensei, are you okay?” Shouta whispered.

Nedzu shook his head. “She’s gone,” he whimpered again.

Shouta was finally able to see the picture that Nedzu was holding – it was a picture of Inko, Izuku’s mother. Something must have happened to her, and if Nedzu’s behavior was anything to go on, she must not have survived whatever happened. Shouta sat down next to Nedzu and was a little surprised when Nedzu shuffled into his lap, still holding the picture and whimpering.

Shouta gently started petting Nedzu’s head, providing as much comfort as he could.

The two sat like that for almost an hour before Nedzu was finally able to pull himself together. “Thank you, Shouta-kun,” he said quietly. “I need to go pick up Izuku from his daycare.” Nedzu placed the picture back on the shelf where it had been originally. “Would you be willing to accompany me?”

“Sure. Just let me text Zashi, he’s probably waiting for me.”

~*~*~*~

Nedzu usually didn’t have any issues with the fact that he was an animal, but times like this were hard for him. He wanted to cry, but animals didn’t cry.

Inko’s funeral was nice, and fortunately Izuku was still too young to understand what was going on. He didn’t question why his mom wasn’t coming home, why she didn’t say goodbye, why she hadn’t been calling to say goodnight before bedtime.

Shouta-kun had come to the funeral with them, just in case Izuku acted up. That boy had really stepped up as a brother for Izuku, and Nedzu hoped he would continue to be close to his Pup in the years to come. Nedzu was certain he’d need the extra help, and Shouta-kun had already said he’d be willing to babysit when he had free time.

As much as Nedzu wanted to simply mourn the death of his good friend, he couldn’t help the fact that his mind would not stop working, so he might as well plan his son’s educational future. Izuku was already quite advanced for his age, thanks in part to how often Nedzu had watched over him and applied various teaching techniques, so if he keeps up this style of learning…

Nedzu was no longer Izuku’s godfather. Now he was his father. Midoriya Izuku would always be Inko’s son, but now, he was also Nedzu’s son. His legacy.

Nedzu let a grin spread on his face. “Don’t worry, Inko,” he whispered quietly. “I’ll take good care of Izuku.”

Chapter Text

Nedzu walked into the observation room, getting himself seated in the chair next to his son. Izuku was pouring over the applicants, sorting out a few students that looked as though they had potential for Underground Heroics. This would be the second year in a row that Izuku had done this – Nedzu and Izuku had noticed that there had been a significant decrease in the number of new Underground Hero graduates in the past decade, and Izuku blamed the entrance exams for that.

As did Nedzu and Shouta, honestly.

Nedzu had decided to let his son pick out applicants that would do well in Underground Heroics and observe them during the practical, and then if any of those applicants didn’t earn enough points to make it into the Heroics course, Izuku would have the opportunity to argue a case to have two passed into Heroics regardless of their scores. The previous year his two picks had been the only two to survive the purge from Shouta’s class and were transferred to the 1-B class.

“What are your picks this year?” Nedzu asked Izuku as he had leaned back into his chair, clearly having finished looking through all of the applicants.

“I have six I’m looking at, some will probably be able to get in without my help, though,” he said with a grin. “This one can talk to and control animals. Just imagine, an army of birds or mice being able to scout out an area for either rescue or information gathering! He’s also a pretty big guy, so it looks like he hasn’t been skimping on physical exercise, and he’s got a few mutations that seem to hint at slightly augmented strength. I think he will be able to make it into the Heroics Course without my help.”

“The next one,” Izuku continued, “looks as though he’ll need my help. He’s got a brainwashing quirk, and according to his file, it’s call and response based. I can imagine he’s had a pretty rough upbringing, probably been called a villain most of his life because of it. It’s impressive he’s trying to make it into the Heroics course, even if his main purpose is spite. He doesn’t look like he’s really able to put up a fight, especially against the robots, but he has the build of someone who knows how to run and dodge. Nii-chan could work wonders with this guy, I just need to make sure he’s got the determination to make it before I submit him to Nii-chan’s tender care.”

Nedzu nodded in agreement. He loved listening to his son show off his intelligence like this. He was so proud of his son, and it was times like this that he reminded him of how smart his mother had been. Oh, how he missed Inko.

“The third one also will likely be able to make it into the course on their own,” Izuku said. “She’s got a Chameleon quirk. She can stick to walls, has a prehensile tongue, and she can blend into her surroundings. I can see her being good at reconnaissance and able to use her tongue as a weapon or as a way to help rescue civilians.”

Izuku continued, “The fourth one, just like the second, will most likely need my help if they’re going to be able to get in, so I’ll be looking at them very closely. She’s got the ability to change her hair and eye color. It’s useless in combat but could be great for infiltration. I’ll be looking at her very closely, making sure this is what she really wants to pursue. Most applications have something from the student stating why they want to join the Hero Course, but this student didn’t submit anything. There’s the chance that her parents are pressuring her to apply, and if that’s the case, then I’d suggest Gen Ed instead.”

“This next one, her reason for wanting to join the Hero Course sounds a lot like a toned-down Zashi-nii, her quirk is a pair of earphone jacks that dangle from her earlobes, giving her extremely enhanced hearing as a primary factor. This hearing causes her to learn a lot of secrets and she has been able to hear people’s troubles and she wants to be able to help them. I can see her taking psychology courses and maybe joining Zashi-nii’s radio station later on and having an advice talk show some day.” He paused for a moment, and then added on, “I don’t think she’s going to need me to help her get in, though, she has a sound-based attack when she jabs her earphone jacks into something.”

“And the last one?” Nedzu asked.

“She’s invisible. That’s it, that’s what her registration says.” Izuku’s face was screaming that he didn’t believe it, but that’s what all her paperwork said. “I want to see her in action, I want to see her up close. I don’t think her quirk was accurately registered, but without meeting her in person I can’t really do anything.” Izuku tilted his head slightly. “Since she thinks all her quirk is is invisibility, she’ll probably need help getting into the course.”

“So out of six students, you think three of them will need your backing in order to get in,” Nedzu asked for clarification.

Izuku nodded. “I know I’m limited to only two, and honestly, the girl with the hair and eyes quirk doesn’t seem as though she really wants to be in Heroics, so unless she really proves herself in the exam, I’m going to put more effort into the brainwasher and the invisible girl.”

The teachers had finally started coming into the observation room, each greeting Izuku cheerfully, with Snipe leaning on Izuku’s head and looking at the six profiles Izuku had singled out. “Those look like some decent prospects,” he said. “Which are you rootin’ for?”

“Not telling,” Izuku said as he shoved Snipe off him. “You’ll find out when I submit my final arguments.”

“Fair enough,” he chuckled and moved to his own seat after ruffling the kid’s hair.

Shouta slinked into the room and dragged a chair next to Izuku and picked up the profiles of the six applicants that Izuku would be paying extra attention to and started looking at them. He had the final say after Izuku gave his arguments, after all.

“Do you like them, Nii-chan?” Izuku asked sweetly.

“Not your Nii-chan,” came Shouta’s automatic reply.

It had become their thing over the past few years, as Izuku got older, Shouta had assumed he’d start calling him something less childish – after all, he had started calling Hizashi Zashi-nii, was it really too much to expect to be called Sho-nii? What part of Shouta looked like a ‘chan?’ At least call him Nii-san! And that’s when Izuku showed that he was definitely Nedzu’s son, and with a sadistically playful gleam to his eyes, Izuku started calling him Nii-chan even more often than he ever had before.

Shouta glanced up at Izuku. “They’ll do,” he said as he placed the files back on the console in front of Izuku and then leaned back in his chair. “It’d be nice to have more competent Unders on the streets, I haven’t had a full eight hours of sleep since I graduated,” he grumbled.

Izuku giggled. “That is totally your own fault, and you know it!” he pointed out. “You didn’t have to accept a teaching position.”

Shouta quirked an eyebrow at him. “You know full well how to weaponize those eyes of yours, brat. I didn’t have a choice.”

“Hmm, weaponizing my cuteness, I wonder where I learned that?” Izuku grinned sharply.

A tall, sickly thin blond walked in, and upon noticing Izuku asked, “Why is there a child in here?”

Izuku looked at him for a few moments, clearly analyzing him, before he turned towards Nedzu, pointing at the newcomer. “Really? Him?”

“The Commission insisted. Play nice.”

“Ugh, fine.” Izuku turned a bright smile to the newcomer. “Hello, and welcome to Hell – er, I mean UA! My name is Midoriya Izuku, and I’ll be your TA this year!”

The newcomer turned to Nedzu, ignoring Izuku. “Exactly who is this child? Shouldn’t he be out with the rest of the examinees?”

Izuku turned to Shouta and pinched him. “Ow, hey!” Shouta slapped his hand away.

“Okay, so I do still exist, I was worried for a second when I was completely ignored but I guess All Might’s just rude,” he said with a shrug.

“Pup,” Nedzu warned.

“I tried to be nice,” Izuku defended himself, and then turned back to the monitors. “If he’s going to ignore me, though, I’m going to ignore him.”

Nedzu sighed and shook his head. “All Might, this is my son, Midoriya Izuku. He’s not participating in the exams since he’s already gone through High School and all of the training to be a Hero. The only reason he’s not licensed is because the Commission won’t give him a license until he’s at least seventeen. He is going to be participating in 1-A’s Heroics classes as a Teaching Assistant but will also be teaching his own classes on Analysis. Unlike you, Izuku has a teaching license and has been a TA for the Heroics classes for two years, so please use his expertise for your own classes.”

All Might turned to Izuku. “What’s your quirk, my boy?”

Izuku turned to him and with a brilliant sunshine smile replied, “I’m a 15-year-old analysis teacher at UA, what do you think my quirk is?”

“Ah, yes, of course. My apologies.”

Thirteen snorted. “His quirk isn’t that obvious, don’t let him fool you.”

“Kurose-chaaaannnnn!” Izuku whined, causing Thirteen to giggle.

“I’m sorry,” Maijima interrupted, “but is no one going to mention how our resident Ratling just called this blond twig All Might?”

“No,” Nedzu stated calmly. “The exam will be starting soon.”

~*~*~*~

Izuku disdainfully tossed the files for two of his picks into the ‘rejection’ pile. The girls with the Chameleon quirk and the hair and eye color changing quirk had both done dismally. He had such high hopes for the Chameleon quirked girl, but it seemed she didn’t realize her tongue was useful, since he hadn’t seen her use it once! And the color changing girl never went past the first few meters of the cityscape, clearly not wanting to be there.

But on the other hand, the boy who could control animals and the girl with the earphones did both manage to get enough points in the exam to not need Izuku to come up with an argument, and the brainwasher and the invisible girl both showed their determination to make it to the Hero Course.

All Izuku needed to do now was come up with a compelling argument just in case Shouta didn’t just accept them right off.

“Why are we only looking at the top 34 students on the exam?” All Might asked. “I thought there were 40 slots for the Hero Course?”

“There are,” Cementoss said. “Four positions are for the recommendation students, and then there are another two slots reserved for Underground Candidates.”

“Underground Candidates?”

“Yes!” Nedzu exclaimed. “There has been a steady decline in Underground Hero graduates, so we have decided to add two slots for students with quirks that would do extremely well in Underground Heroics but who might not have managed to pass the entrance exam otherwise.”

“Who decides on these students?” All Might asked, looking pointedly at Shouta, the only Underground Hero in the room. “You?”

“I have final say, yes, but no. Izuku chooses the students.”

“A child? You let a literal child choose who is admitted to the Heroics Course?”

Izuku raised an eyebrow at All Might. “And why shouldn’t I?” he asked. “I am the analysis teacher for UA, Shouta trained me in Underground Heroics, I have a license in quirk counseling and training. I am more qualified to choose students for this course than most of the teachers present.”

“It’s true, and you should say it!” Snipe cheered from the other side of the conference table, earning himself a grin from the green-haired boy.

“Which students are you advocating?” Shouta said, blocking off All Might’s next comment.

“Okay, so first up, Hagakure Toru. She did what she could in the exam, she picked up pieces of robot and started attacking them. She only managed to get herself 23 points, but she was able to use her stealth on each of the robots she managed to take down, ensuring she got them from behind and she had used her observational skills to locate weak points. Nearly every robot she took down, she managed to do with a single hit.” Izuku played footage of the invisible girl observing the robots and then a compilation of her taking down the robots.

Shouta hummed in thought. “If she had another ten minutes, she would have been able to get enough points to get in,” he observed. “She was learning quite quickly. I approve of her joining the Hero Course.”

“Now hold on,” All Might interjected. “There’s nothing eye-catching about her! She’d never make it as a hero, she’d never move up the ranks!”

Each teacher in the room stared at him blankly for a few moments before Hizashi spoke up. “You know, that’s actually the whole point of Underground Heroics, All Might. They don’t want to be noticed. Unders have their own ranking system, it’s not open to the public, and it’s based completely on their takedowns and successful missions. The flashier heroes are at the bottom of the Underground Rankings because they can’t complete their missions as easily because they get noticed too often.”

“Unders need to use their intelligence and observational skills more often that Limelight Heroes,” Snipe added. “And that’s one of the reasons for the decline in Underground Heroes, everyone assumes they need a flashy quirk in order to be a hero, and those bright, loud, flashy quirks aren’t suited for the subtleties of the Underground.”

All Might looked around, trying to gather some support for his position, but only saw opposition in everyone’s expressions. “Very well, who’s the next student?”

“Shinsou Hitoshi. His quirk is called Brainwashing, and in the exam—”

“Absolutely not!” All Might exclaimed. “That’s a villain’s quirk! A villain like that doesn’t belong in a Hero School like UA!”

Before Izuku could say anything in defense of Shinsou, Shouta spoke up. “I approve this student as well.”

“Great!” Nedzu cheered. “Now that we have sorted that out, let’s discuss the split for 1-A and 1-B, yes?”

“I still don’t agree with that villain kid joining the Heroics Course!”

Izuku smiled the smile he learned from his dad and said, “It’s a good thing the choice has nothing to do with you, then, hmm?”

Shouta, Vlad, and Hizashi were all glaring at All Might, and Izuku was sure if he could see Kurose-chan or Snipe’s face, they’d also be glaring at the man. All five of them had been called villains at one point in their childhood, and the biggest way to get them all upset was to refer to a kid as a villain based solely on their quirks.

“As the Number One hero, I believe I should have some say in this matter!” All Might insisted.

“And yet,” Izuku stated calmly, “as the least tenured person on staff, your opinion means absolutely nothing. Here’s something I want to make totally clear for you, All Might,” Izuku continued. “A quirk doesn’t mean anything when it comes to if a person is a hero, villain, or civilian. Quirks are not inherently good or bad, and they don't make the person. A villain can take a quirk like yours, and do unspeakably cruel things, or a hero can take a quirk that has a negative association and do wonderous things.”

All Might sputtered, trying to find a way to argue that, but Izuku simply steamrolled over him.

“Take Kurose-chan, for example,” he said, gesturing to Thirteen. “Black Hole is very destructive and could easily be used in a villainous way. But does that mean she’s a villain? No. She’s the top Rescue Hero in the country. Once again, the quirk doesn’t make the person, the person makes the quirk.”

He tapped the file for Shinsou. “This boy has most likely been called a villain since his quirk manifested, but instead of allowing himself to fall into the negative patterns that too many others have fallen into, he decided to try to rise above and become a hero. His motivation maybe spite, a desperate attempt to prove the world wrong, but that same drive is what has driven quite a few other heroes with less socially acceptable quirks.”

“He’s right,” Shouta said. “Becoming a hero was my way of telling my fosters to go fuck themselves.”

“I didn’t have fosters, but I was the same,” Vlad muttered. “Blood-based quirks are really looked down on.” Hizashi and Snipe were both nodding their agreement.

“So, to sort the children!” Nedzu clapped his paws, changing the mood in the room. “We have our 40 students, which classes are they going to?”

Chapter Text

“Every single fucking year!” Shouta shouted. “Why can’t Vlad take the volatile quirks for one year?!”

Izuku and Nedzu both giggled as Vlad stared at Shouta. “Gee, it’s almost as if you can stop their quirks with next to no effort,” Vlad deadpanned. “What am I going to do if a kid with,” Vlad looked back at the three student files, “oh, for fuck’s sake, a fire and ice quirk? Yeah, I can totally just stop that with a single look.”

Shouta grumbled and slumped back in his seat. “Fuck you, Vlad,” he grumped in defeat.

“No thanks, I like being able to hear,” he sassed back, causing both Shouta and Hizashi to blush lightly.

Izuku snickered and placed the files for Todoroki Shouto, Kaminari Denki, and Bakugou Katsuki in the 1-A pile. He was looking forward to being in class with a few people he already knew, mainly Todoroki Shouto, but he also knew Yarorozu Momo and Iida Tenya, all three of which were going to be in 1-A. “Moving on-“ He was interrupted by Vlad.

“Can I get the Underground Candidates this year?” he asked hopefully.

“Over my cold, dead body!” Shouta exclaimed. “If you want them, you’re taking the volatile quirks too!”

Chuckling, Izuku said, “Sure Vlad, just let me know when exactly you changed from Limelight Heroics to Underground so I can update your files and skillsets. After all, we can’t have Underground prospects learning from a Limelight hero. Can we?”

Vlad sighed in defeat. “Ugh, fine.”

Izuku moved the files for Shinsou Hitoshi, Hagakure Toru, Jirou Kyoka, and Kouda Koji into the 1-A pile. “Okay, so there are only two left. Kamakiri Togaru, and Monoma Neito.”

“I’ll take them,” Vlad said. “I only have 18 students currently.”

Nedzu hummed at the files, and Izuku could hear the discontent in his dad’s action. “You don’t agree?”

“I think Monoma would do better with Shouta-kun,” he said. “Look at his quirk.”

Izuku looked at his quirk and almost instantly saw what his dad had been pointing out. “Ah, right. Touch activated. He’s going to need more quirkless combat instruction.” Izuku put Monoma’s file in the 1-A pile and Kamakiri’s to 1-B. “But now we’re going to have to move one of the other students to 1-B,” he muttered and started flipping through the student files again.

“I will willingly give up the explosion kid,” Shouta volunteered.

“No,” came the resounding vote from all the present staff. Shouta flipped them all off.

Thirteen raised her hand. “Um, I hate to be the one to say this,” she started, “but I think Kouda Koji is more of a Rescue Hero type than an Underground Hero. Maybe he can go to Vlad?”

Izuku looked up at her with tears in his eyes. “Kurose-chan, don’t take my Underground babies away!”

“I’m sorry, Zuzu, but look at him!” she insisted, pointing to his picture. “He’s a walking cinnamon roll, does that look like the face of someone who would willingly work the kind of cases a typical Under works?”

The rest of the staff all looked at Kouda’s file. “She’s got a point,” Snipe said. “That kid looks like the modern-day personification of Snow White.”

“I know, but he also would be better with a calmer, more neutral teacher! One who doesn’t get easily excited!” Izuku objected.

“Eraser is the most sadistic teacher in this whole school!” Vlad pointed out.

“I didn’t say he wasn’t, I just said he’s more calm and less excited!”

“Zuku,” Shouta interrupted. “Let the kid go to Vlad. He’d only believe I’m the easier teacher to get along with for about fifteen minutes. First expulsion threat, and he’ll have a mild panic attack.”

Izuku pouted for another few moments before sighing. “Fine. He can go to Vlad.”

“Great!” Nedzu exclaimed. “And with that, the distribution of the students for the Heroics Course is complete! We’ll start recording the acceptance letters tomorrow. Everyone, have a great weekend!”

“Nii-chan, I’m staying the night with you,” Izuku grumbled. “I need time with my babies.”

All Might just stared at the kid with concern. Babies???

“Not your Nii-chan,” Shouta replied automatically. “Sure thing, runt. Zashi and I were going to go grocery shopping after the meeting anyways, so you can help us pick out dinner for tonight.”

“Excuse me, but what babies?” All Might asked, mildly concerned.

“Oh!” Izuku grinned. “I found two kittens when I was 5, but after a year I finally accepted the fact that they hated Dad, so I gave them both to Nii-chan and Zashi-nii. I still stop by every few days to see them –  they might not live with me, but they are still my babies. Their names are Present Meow and EraserCat!”

Hizashi grinned. “They are the cutest, fluffiest little shits ever!”

As Nedzu walked out the room, he called back to them, “Second cutest, fluffiest little shits.”

Izuku nodded with a massive grin. “Present Meow is a blond tabby with green eyes, and he doesn’t ever shut up! He meows, chirps, chitters, and yowls the entire time he’s awake! And EraserCat is a black cat with a shock of white fur as this neck, and he’s got these bright yellow eyes. He never makes a sound other than purring, and he doesn’t ever beg for anything. Instead, EraserCat just sits there and stares at you until you decide to do the right thing.”

“Just like the real Mic and Eraser,” Thirteen giggled.

“Come on, runt. Let’s head out,” Shouta grumbled.

“Coming, Nii-chan!” Izuku chirped before jumping on Shouta’s back.

“Really?” Shouta raised an eyebrow at the tiny demon child clinging to his back.

Izuku just grinned back at him and called out, “Onward, my noble steed!”

Shouta rolled his eyes and put his hands under Izuku’s legs, adjusting him to make it easier to carry him. “You’re such a headache.”

Izuku buried his face in Shouta’s capture scarf and giggled. “Love you too, Nii-chan.”

“Not your Nii-chan,” Shouta muttered with a fond smile as they walked out the room, leaving the rest of the teachers behind.

All Might looked at the others. “Is that… normal for them?”

“Yep,” Snipe said. “That kid’s got Eraser wrapped around his little finger.”

Midnight cut in, “He has ever since Shouta was in high school himself.”

“He met Izuku when he was sixteen, I think, partway through his second year?” Thirteen looked at Midnight to confirm.

Midnight nodded. “Right after a friend of ours died, Shou almost dropped out of the Hero Course. Nedzu introduced him to little Izuku, and somehow the kid managed to convince Shouta to keep going. They’ve been as close as brothers ever since.”

“What is his quirk?” All Might asked. He hadn’t gotten an answer when he had asked earlier, so he decided to try again.

Vlad snorted. “If you really want to know, you’re going to have to figure it out yourself, or get Izuku to tell you. All we’re going to say is that it’s not obvious.”

All Might couldn’t help but wonder if the boy had a villainous quirk. After all, he had been quite adamant about defending the brainwashing child with the villainous quirk, and that would explain why no one was willing to tell him what the boy’s quirk was.

~*~*~*~

Once Izuku got to Shouta and Hizashi’s place, he immediately went looking for his cats, both of which were on the couch. They instantly started lapping up the affection, EraserCat hopping up on Izuku’s shoulders, rubbing his head against Izuku’s cheek while Present Meow yowled to be picked up and held like a baby. Izuku was content to let them both do what they wanted with him while Hizashi and Shouta went to the kitchen to make dinner.

Shouta put away the groceries except what Hizashi was using to cook the Oyakodon they were going to be having for dinner, and then joined Izuku in the sitting room with the cats.

“You ready for the coming school year?” he asked.

“I think so,” Izuku answered. “I’ve been a TA for a few years now, so I know I can handle the Heroics classes. It’s the analysis classes I’m worried about.”

“You’ll do fine,” Shouta encouraged, ruffling Present Meow’s head. “Have you been working on lesson plans?”

“Yes. I’m not too sure how good they are, though. I’ll be teaching heroics, support, and business classes, as well as being the TA for 1-A.” Izuku scratched under EraserCat’s chin. “I may have taken on too much of a workload for my first year teaching,” Izuku admitted.

“Maybe. But I’m sure you won’t be doing each class daily, right?” Shouta asked.

“No. Heroics will be once per week, and the other courses will be once per month.”

“Okay, so that’s six classes per week for Heroics, and eighteen spread throughout the course of a month. If you spread them over three weeks, you can do six per week, and have the fourth week free. That doesn’t seem too bad. And you can easily fit in the 1-A Heroics class daily. That’d be only three classes total per day, with only two per day on the off week.” Shouta gave him an encouraging hair ruffle. “You got this, Zuku.”

“Hmm. When you put it that way, it might not be too bad.” Izuku grinned up at Shouta. “Thanks, Nii-chan!”

“Anytime, runt.”

“Dinner’s ready, guys!” Hizashi called out.

As the three started eating, Shouta asked, “Do you want me to look over your lesson plans?”

Izuku nodded. “Dad wants to look over them too, but I’d feel better about it if you did first,” he said with a blush. “I know Dad won’t be upset with me if I mess up, but…”

“I get it,” Shouta said. “Nedzu’s a great teacher and mentor, and even now I hate even the thought of disappointing him, and I haven’t been his student in almost ten years.”

Hizashi snorted. “Lies! Once his student, always his student! You know full well he still claims you as his student.”

“I haven’t had active classes with him since I was twenty!” Shouta shot back.

Hizashi just shrugged. “You still meet up with him for tea almost daily, and I know you discuss some weird shit. Those are lessons, and you know it.”

“He’s right,” Izuku pointed out. “Maybe not formal lessons, but Dad’s still guiding you. You’re still his student, regardless of if he gives you assignments or not.”

“Ugh, fine. But my point still remains – I know you don’t want to disappoint him. And you won’t, Zuku. You’re fifteen, almost sixteen, and you’re a teacher at UA! Do you even realize just how amazing you are? And this is all without an intelligence quirk like Nedzu.” Shouta lightly punched Izuku’s arm. “You’re going to be a great teacher.”

“Even if there are some minor things that need adjustment in your lesson plans,” Hizashi said, “the fact that you’re able to do all this at your age is impressive. There’s no way you will disappoint Nedzu. You’d have to show up with no lesson plans at all to receive so much as a frown from him.”

Izuku smiled at them both. “Thanks.”

~*~*~*~

Izuku changed into his hero costume. He was going to run the obstacle course in Gym Upsilon with Shouta to get his mind off the start of the school year in three days.

He had everything ready, Dad had approved all of his lesson plans, he had even planned out the classes for the Heroics class for the very likely case that All Might didn’t have anything planned. Everything was set and ready, and Izuku was a nervous wreck.

So, Shouta decided to take his mind off things by having a day of training in costume. Izuku’s costume was almost a mixture of Shouta and Hizashi’s costumes – he had a jumpsuit and utility belt like Shouta, but it was a much tighter fit, like Hizashi’s, and he had a capture scarf just like Shouta. The similarities ended there, though. Izuku’s jumpsuit was white, and his boots, gloves, utility belt, and capture scarf were a dark green. His gloves and boots both had reinforcements and shock absorption to give his kicks and punches a lot more power while keeping himself from getting hurt, as well as a few support items on his gloves that helped with his quirk. The final piece of his costume was a dark green collapsible bo staff that clipped onto his belt.

Izuku loved the way he looked in his costume. It was a mix of his top three favorite people, his dad, Nii-chan, and Zashi-nii. He happily skipped over to the Gym he was going to be training in and started stretching while waiting for Shouta.

“Hey, runt, you ready?” Shouta asked as he arrived and joined Izuku in stretching.

“Mm, almost. I just started my stretches, I’ll be ready soon.”

“We’re going quirkless,” Shouta said.

“I know, it’d be unfair to you if I used my quirk to run this,” Izuku winked.

Shouta rolled his eyes at him. “Yeah, yeah. Keep it up and we’ll be doing spars afterwards.”

“I don’t mind,” Izuku chirped. “You’re the only one I can’t beat in a fight.”

“And don’t you forget it, runt!” Shouta smirked.

“Oh hush, if you had literally any other quirk it’d be a piece of cake,” Izuku grumbled. “The only reason I can’t beat you is because you always cancel my quirk.”

“You can’t be a good hero if you rely solely on your quirk, Zuku,” Shouta reminded him.

“I don’t!” Izuku whined. “I barely use it when I go up against the other teachers, but you and Cementoss are so hard to beat! He’s got such a good defense, and you’re… well, you’re you!”

Shouta ruffled his hair. “Come on, if you get to the end before me, I’ll buy you some dango.”

“Dango sounds good,” Izuku grinned and looked out at the obstacle course.

Gym Upsilon was an urban setting, and it was where Shouta had taught Izuku how to parkour around the city. The buildings weren’t tall enough to do any major damage if a person missed a landing and fell, but they were still tall enough to course correct before you could hit the ground. Izuku had been playing in this gym for years now and was almost as fast as Shouta was. The only way Izuku could win a race, though, was if he analyzed the course and went for an alternative route than what he and Shouta would normally take.

Putting his hand on his capture scarf, Izuku got in position. “You ready, Nii-chan?”

“Yup.” At that, they both took off, flying over the rooftops, swinging on lamp posts and fire escapes. Izuku threw a stray wooden box at Shouta to try to unbalance him, only for him to simply dodge it and keep going.

Izuku narrowed his eyes at Shouta. Everything he tried to do to pass him was failing. He had even taken a shortcut and emerged to find Shouta waiting for him with a quirked eyebrow and a smirk.

Izuku flew past the finish line barely three seconds after Shouta and then just plopped on the ground. “You sneaky bastard,” Izuku laughed. “You’ve been going easy on me this whole time, haven’t you?”

Shouta wasn’t even breathing hard. “I’ve been doing this a little longer than you have, runt. You really think you’re good enough to beat me at your age?” He laughed. “Come on, Zuku, maybe you can still earn some dango if you manage to get a few good hits on me while sparring.”

Spoiler: he couldn’t. So they got ice cream instead.

Chapter Text

Izuku walked out of his bedroom, dressed for his first day of school as an official teacher! He dropped his black leather messenger bag on the couch and then entered the kitchen to get some breakfast ready for both himself and his dad.

He was grilling some rabbit for his dad while frying up some eggs for himself when Nedzu walked into the kitchen.

Nedzu took one look at Izuku’s outfit for the day and cackled.

~*~*~*~

Izuku had stopped at the teacher’s lounge to drop off his bag at his desk and saw Shouta downing what looked like the full pot of coffee.

“Morning, Nii-chan,” Izuku greeted before grabbing the hand Shouta was using to hold the coffee pot and taking a gulp of his coffee while he was still holding it.

“Not your nii-chan. And get your own coffee,” he grumbled, after looking at what Izuku was wearing with a raised eyebrow.

“I would, but you see, you are holding the pot, not a single serve mug.” Izuku shrugged and took another gulp of coffee before relinquishing it. “I’m going to go torture your students!”

“If any of them are actually here this early, they deserve the torture,” Shouta muttered, downing the rest of the pot of coffee, and starting a new one.

Izuku giggled and bounced his way to class 1-A.

~*~*~*~

When Izuku arrived at the classroom it was empty. He looked back and forth from the seating chart to the desks, trying to remember the faces that went with all of the names. He could clearly remember the three Underground Candidates (he was still a little bitter about Kouda being moved to rescue, but he did agree with the decision) and glanced at their desks. Should he place a note for them, letting them know they were going to be receiving extra lessons on Underground Heroics? What if that’s not the path they wanted to take? Hmm….

He also mentally tagged the locations of the three students he already knew, Todoroki Shouto, Iida Tenya, and Yayorozu Momo. Being a Legacy Kid himself, he’d attended a few events where various Pros brought their kids. Plus, Iida Tensei was friends with Shouta and Hizashi, so he’d gotten pretty attached to him. Tenya, eh, not so much. He was too strict for Izuku’s peace of mind.

Todoroki Shouto was arguably his favorite person his age, though. Bordering on his best friend, if he was being honest. Shouto was one of the funniest people Izuku had ever met! And the fact that he could deliver his humor with a perfectly straight face every time just made it better!

Izuku decided to also memorize the locations of the two other students with volatile quirks, Bakugou Katsuki and Kaminari Denki. Most of the student seemed as though they had a pretty good handle on their quirks, but that wasn’t going to stop Izuku from making sure they were the best they could possibly be.

Shortly after placing the seating chart back down, Izuku heard the footsteps of who could only be Iida Tenya. Glancing at the clock, he was amused to see that Iida would be exactly thirty minutes early for class. Izuku hopped up on the teacher’s desk and crossed his legs, wondering how long it would take Iida to rag on him about not being in uniform.

“Ah, Midoriya! How nice to see you … again…” Iida’s face started twitching, and Izuku grinned.

He was sure Iida wouldn’t be able to hold himself together for much longer. Let’s see, sitting on a teacher’s desk, out of dress code, no school supplies in sight, Iida knows he’s already graduated high school, so just being at school would be triggering for him. Izuku’s grin turned a little taunting. “It’s good to see you as well, Iida! How’s Tensei doing? It’s been a while since I’ve last spoken to him!”

“He’s… doing quite well,” Iida started, haltingly, wanting to correct Izuku’s behavior but also wanting to talk about his brother, while also being slightly suspicious of Izuku’s motives. Finally giving up the fight, Iida exclaimed, “It is quite disrespectful to be sitting on the furniture! Get down at once! And where is your uniform?!”

Laughing, Izuku gestured to his bright pink, yellow, teal, and purple tie-dye shirt that said ‘School Uniform’ in neon green kanji. “What do you mean? It’s right here, Iida!” Izuku giggled more as Iida simply turned around, looked at the seating chart and then went to his seat, half-way between bluescreening and twitching the entire time.

The next person to enter the classroom was Shouto, who took one look at Izuku and raised an eyebrow. “Izuku,” he greeted quietly as he looked at the seating chart. “I like your uniform.”

“Thanks, Shouto!” Izuku smiled brightly at him. “I almost wore a sequined ball gown instead, but I grew out of the shoes since the last time I wore them.”

“Understandable. Let me know next time, you might be the same size as Fuyumi by now,” he offered.

Iida was staring at the two of them in open horror, muttering about how “this is going to be my life?”

“Will you be joining us in this class this year?” Shouto asked curiously.

“That’s a secret!” Izuku chirped and booped Shouto’s nose.

Shouto’s eyes lit up. “That’s not a no,” he muttered before turning to go to his desk.

“Oh, Shouto, Iida? Don’t tell anyone who my dad is, or what my quirk is, okay? I’m saving the reveal for now.” Izuku could practically see Iida’s soul leave his body as Shouto merely nodded with a smirk. “And Shouto, Momo has the desk next to you, if there are more people here by the time she gets here, can you pass the message to her, please?” Shouto nodded again.

Over the next thirty minutes, the class filled up and everyone had made at least one comment to Izuku about his attire.

Izuku had been sitting on Shouto’s desk, in conversation with both him and Momo when the door to the classroom silently opened and Shouta inched in, bundled up in his gloriously yellow sleeping bag. Izuku ruffled Shouto’s hair and silently moved back to the teacher’s desk, showing off his stealth skills by not being noticed, regardless of the horrendously garish t-shirt he was wearing.

Izuku was leaning against the desk, observing the students, looking to see if any of them had noticed the arrival of Shouta, pleased to see that Shouto, and surprisingly Shinsou Hitoshi, had noticed, but were not saying anything.

Izuku had continued to watch the students not notice Shouta for a few more minutes before he decided to take pity on the students. “Okay, okay, you might want to settle down before the teacher decides to expel the lot of you.”

“Hah?” one of the students in the front row, Bakugou Katsuki if the seating chart is accurate, asked in a rough voice. “What are you talking about?”

Izuku simply pointed to where Shouta was still laying on the ground in his sleeping bag. “Teacher,” he said helpfully.

All at once the students gaped at Shouta as he got out of his sleeping bag. “It took you four minutes from after the bell rang for you to notice me, and even then, only because Midoriya pointed me out.” He pulled out a jelly pouch and slurped the contents. “My name is Aizawa Shouta, and I will be your homeroom teacher. Welcome.” Shouta’s gaze swept the students before he pulled a box of gym uniforms from under the podium. “Change into these and meet me at Training Ground Gamma.”

As Shouta turned to leave the room, Izuku followed him. “I’m actually going to head to orientation this year,” he said. “I’ll be working with more than just 1-A, so Dad wants me there this year.”

“That’s fine,” Shouta muttered. “I still can’t believe he let you leave the house wearing that monstrosity.”

“He cackled like a psycho when he saw it,” Izuku stated proudly.

Shouta snorted. “Of course, he did. You didn’t just pick up your tendency for chaos out of thin air, after all.”

“See if you can make the tests last longer than orientation, I want to watch some of the tests.”

“We’ll see.”

~*~*~*~

“Good morning! It is my great pleasure to welcome you all to UA High School. I’m delighted to see you here so early in the morning. A special welcome to those of you who are on campus for the first time. I hope you will discover over the next few days, what I have discovered in my many years at UA: that you have entered a lively, challenging, diverse, and warm community!” Nedzu started the orientation, and Izuku couldn’t help chuckling to himself as he was seated between Present Mic and Power Loader, many of the students in the crowd kept glancing at him and his choice of outfit.

Nedzu continued his orientation speech, ignoring the students whispering to each other about the kid on stage who looked like a first-year. “UA’s incredibly talented faculty will be your guides and allies in the exploration of your future careers. They are your greatest resource. The teachers here are leaders in their fields and are applying their expertise through scholarship, research and real-world practice to address both the most pressing challenges of the day and the enduring human questions. Get to know them – talk to them after class, seek them out at campus events and during office hours (they are there waiting for you to come talk), ask them about their research, tell them about your own ideas. They will challenge you, guide you, and open doors to new possibilities.”

Izuku nudged Maijima-san, “For some reason, I think you’d prefer a few less students bothering you during office hours?”

“Speaking of our staff, I am pleased to announce we have added a new class for Heroics, Business, and Support Courses this year, and we may expand this to include General Education next year. This class is Analysis and will be taught by Midoriya Izuku.” Nedzu gestured to Izuku, and he stood up and waved at the students with a grin. “Midoriya not only looks young, he is,” he continued. “He graduated High School when he was only thirteen and has been working on obtaining a teaching certificate and the necessary degrees to teach students. Some of the second- and third-year Hero Students will recognize Midoriya as a Teacher’s Aide for the Heroic course. Rest assured, he will be continuing that role with class 1-A this year.”

Izuku sat back down as Nedzu moved on to introducing the rest of the staff individually.

Hizashi nudged him after Nedzu did his introduction, “How are you liking your first orientation?”

Izuku shrugged. “Not too bad. It’s interesting to see how many students aren’t paying any attention to the speech, though. Not even the third years. Don’t they realize he’s giving important information?”

Hizashi quickly glanced at him and was a bit surprised to see he was serious. “They’ve all heard this before,” he muttered to Izuku.

Izuku just hummed, not really wanting to point out to Zashi-nii that some of the information his dad was saying was updated for the new year, and that he was in essence giving the students a puzzle to figure out. Looking over the students again, he decided that none of them were going to figure out the puzzle.

If any of them had been paying attention, the puzzle was that they could have gone to Nedzu after school and taken a short quiz on the details of the orientation and gotten a free letter grade bump on any one class. “Hmm, maybe it’s just because I know him so well?” Izuku whispered, getting another nudge from Zashi-nii. “Oh, I’ll tell you later,” he said.

Izuku could feel that the end of the speech had arrived, so he turned his full attention back to his dad. “I want you to know that the entire school’s community is here to support, sustain, and encourage you as you commit to study at UA. We could not be more privileged to welcome you into this vibrant learning community. It is you who make us what we are, and we look forward to the fresh ideas and energy you bring to our campus. I speak for the entire faculty, staff, and student community of UA in saying we are so happy you have made the decision to join us. Welcome!”

~*~*~*~

Izuku skipped his way to the training ground where he knew Shouta was testing the 1-A students. He was feeling a little snack-ish, so he was thinking of how best to steal one of Shouta’s jelly pouches. He probably had one on him, right? He always did. That one from the start of Homeroom couldn’t have been his only one.

Izuku got to the field just in time to see a blond boy – Monoma? – tap another blond – that one is Bakugou. Right? – on the arm before walking up to do the ball throw. As he watched, Monoma drew his arm back and threw the ball with a huge explosion and a massive grin.

“Oooh, impressive!” Izuku called out as he got close to the class. “How far was that, Nii-chan?”

“Not your Nii-chan,” Shouta muttered before holding up the reader that read 647.9 meters.

“Wow, not bad! Especially since that’s not your quirk! You don’t have much practice with Bakugou’s quirk, so being able to use it that well is really impressive! Nii-chan, what did Bakugou get?”

“705.2 meters,” Shouta deadpanned as he wrote down Monoma’s score.

Izuku whistled appreciatively. “Very nice!” He then walked up to Shouta and took the clipboard and started glancing at everyone’s scores, making noises of appreciation when he saw someone get a really high mark.

“Hey,” one of the students called out, Izuku thought his name was Mineta? “Why aren’t you participating? Aren’t you a student too?”

“Hmm? Oh, no, I’m not. I should probably introduce myself, huh? – Hey, ow!” Izuku yelped as Shouta slapped his hand, noticing his attempt to pickpocket his jelly pouch.

“Mine.” Shouta glared at him.

Izuku glared right back. “For now.” Looking back at the students, Izuku smiled pleasantly. “My name is Midoriya Izuku, and I am the TA for 1-A’s Fundamental Heroic’s and Homeroom. When Nii-chan doesn’t feel like teaching Homeroom, you’ll have me. I am also teaching your Analysis classes!”

The students were stunned silent for a few moments before Shouto broke the silence. “So will I be able to present my theories in class?”

“Yes, but only if you back them up with proper analysis. Otherwise, I’ll be docking points on each unfounded theory,” he winked at Shouto.

“Understandable.” Shouto nodded.

That was when the rest of the students seemed to process that they had a teacher that was their age and most of them started asking questions all at once. “Woah, hold on, guys, calm down! Nii-chan, do the thing, do the thing!”

“Not your Nii-chan,” Shouta said before activating his quirk, silencing the students all at once.

“Thanks, Nii-chan!” Turning to the students again, “Okay, so I’m pretty sure you aren’t done with your Quirk Apprehension Tests, so you need to finish those. I didn’t come here to interrupt Nii-chan’s time with you, just to observe! You’ll have a class with me soon enough, and you can ask your questions then.”

The class reluctantly went back to their tests, and Izuku went back to attempting to pickpocket Shouta’s jelly pouch.

~*~*~*~

The students all gathered around Shouta to see their scores, and Izuku wasn’t very surprised. That’s about where he had expected them all to be – Momo and Shouto at the top and his Underground Picks at the bottom. Although, he had expected Mineta to be at the very bottom, but no, he beat out Hagakure by one single point. Oh well.

Or, is it oh well? Hagakure was crying.

“Hey now,” Izuku walked over to her and put his hand on her shoulder. “Getting last place isn’t so bad, there’s twenty students here, someone had to get last place!”

“B-but, S-sen-sei s-said l-last pl-place was g-g-getting ex-ex-expelled!” she managed to say through her tears.

“Oh, oh no, did someone say these tests were going to be fun?” he asked, looking around at the students. Ashido was looking down at the ground guiltily. “Yeah, Ni-chan doesn’t do fun.”

“Not your Nii-chan.”

“Whatever you tell yourself, Nii-chan. Don’t worry, everyone, I’m sure he’s not going to be expelling anyone today!" Izuku called out cheerfully.

“As much as I hate to admit the Problem Child is right, the Problem Child is right. I only said that to ensure you all took these tests seriously. It was a logical ruse.”

“Just because he didn’t expel anyone today doesn’t mean he won’t expel someone tomorrow!” Izuku called out. “Don’t get complacent now, Nii-chan is the strictest teacher in UA!” Izuku finally managed to successfully steal one of Shouta’s jelly pouches. “And on that note, I’m going to run for my life before Nii-chan decides to commit a homicide!”

Shouta growled at Izuku as he ran off. “Your syllabuses are on your desks. Grab one and go home. I’ll see you all tomorrow.” Shouta took off after Izuku. “Get back here, Problem Child!”

Chapter Text

Izuku was at his desk in the teacher’s lounge, reviewing his lesson plan for his class of third year support students when Shouta walked in. When Izuku didn’t look up to greet him, Shouta knew he was right in thinking the runt was going to be nervous today. He placed the coffee he had forced Zashi to stop and get on Izu’s desk and ruffled his hair.

“Relax, Problem Child, you’re going to do fine.”

“Nii-chan, were you nervous on your first day as a teacher?” Izuku asked.

“Not too much, no, but maybe a little? Zashi was, though. He wouldn’t stop talking the entire day before, and the morning of he forgot how to speak English.”

Izuku’s eyes lit up. “Really?”

Shouta nodded. “I had to remind him that English was his first language like three times that day.” Shouta took a sip of his own coffee. “So, what’s got you nervous today?”

“I have 3-H and 2-G today. I’m not worried about the 1-A Fundamental Heroics class after lunch, but my first analysis classes are with the support department!” Izuku was holding his coffee but hadn’t taken a sip yet. “What if they think I’m just some random kid? Maybe I should have worn a professional outfit yesterday? Or, hell, today!” Izuku was wearing a simple pair of jeans and a black Present Mic t-shirt.

Shouta placed his hand on Izuku’s head and forced him to meet his eyes. “Problem Child, Izuku, I don’t think there is anyone who knows analysis better than you do in this entire school, with Nedzu as an exception. You will be fine!”

Izuku took a deep breath and nodded. “You’re right, Nii-chan. I earned my way to this position.”

Shouta leaned back in his seat with a smirk. “There’s the little brother I know and love.” He downed the last of his coffee. “Are you joining me for Homeroom today?”

“Yeah,” Izuku said, hesitating for only a moment. “I’ve reviewed my lesson plans for the classes, everything is ready. I can do this.”

“Good. And I expect to hear all about your first two classes at lunch,” Shouta said, ruffling Izuku’s hair as he got up.

~*~*~*~

Izuku was in a much better and more cheerful mood by the time lunch rolled around, and he was chatting with Zashi about their similar ‘first day jitters.’

Shouta leaned over Izuku and stole a piece of chicken from Izuku’s lunch. “How’d your first few classes go, runt?”

“Pretty good!” Izuku replied, not bothered by Shouta stealing his food – he steals from Shouta’s food often enough to make up for it. “The students are actually really open to the idea of analysis, especially after I used Zashi-nii as an example, with some common knowledge about his quirk.”

“Oh? Care to share?” Shouta asked as he stole another bite of Izuku’s lunch.

“Well, since my classes today were for support, I don’t need to go over how to help the students improve their own quirks, rather how to analyze others and their weaknesses, so they can build gear to cover those weaknesses.” Izuku paused to take a sip of his water. “So, in using Zashi-nii as my example, I asked them to list out his strengths and weaknesses. Well, they didn’t really come up with many weaknesses, but I think that really just goes to show how well Zashi-nii is at covering up his weaknesses. The only one they came up with on their own was his occasional, unintended slip of control.”

“Damn, and these were the second- and third-year students, right?” Zashi asked.

Izuku nodded. “So, I told them one single weakness, which any support company that works with you should know – your quirk has done irreversible damage to your hearing. I had them then figure out what your support items did, how they helped you, if they could come up with any other gear that could help.” Izuku shrugged. “They managed to figure out your gear, but no one could come up with any improvements. So. Still a work in progress.”

“Hey, wait, be fair to them, Izu, between you, Nedzu, and Maijima, I think you covered all of my weaknesses already. I don’t think there’s really anything else that they could add,” Hizashi grinned.

“While that is completely accurate, I didn’t show them any of your hidden support gear, nor your close combat weapons. Those are the things I wanted them to suggest, and none of them did.”

“Okay, fair enough.”

Shouta pulled out a jelly pouch and as he was opening it, asked, “What do you think All Might’s going to do to my kids today?”

“If he knows what’s good for him? A costume critique, and or running the obstacle course at Gym Beta,” Izuku responded quickly. “But, because he’s not the sharpest marble in the shed, I think he’s going to try something stupid, like a battle trial. Which I will shut down instantly.”

~*~*~*~

Izuku was sitting at the teacher’s desk while waiting for the class to start, scrolling the news sites on his phone when All Might entered the classroom.

“I am entering the room LIKE A NORMAL PERSON!” he announced, striking numerous ridiculous poses while the students all ‘ooh-ed and awe-ed’ at him. It took everything Izuku had not to roll his eyes. “Welcome to the most important class at UA High School! Think of it as Heroing 101! Here you will learn the basics of being a Pro, and what it means to fight in the name of good!”

“Let’s get into it! Today’s lesson will pull no punches!” All Might held up a flashcard that read ‘BATTLE’ as the entire class started whispering to each other excitedly. All Might gestured to the wall and rows of costume cases opened up. “One of the main parts of being a hero is looking good! These were designed for you based on your quirk registration forms and the requests you sent in before school started! Get yourselves suited up and then meet me at Training Ground Beta!”

“Nope,” Izuku said and stood up. “I’m pretty sure you meant to say GYM Beta, right?”

“Of course not, Young Midoriya, Gym Beta has nothing but an obstacle course! That’s no place for a battle trial!” All Might laughed.

“Well then, it’s a good thing they are not doing battle trials today.” Izuku turned to the class. “Yes, get suited up, but then you are to go to Gym Beta.”

“Now, Young Midoriya, this is my classroom, and I am the teacher! I say we are doing battle trials!”

Izuku stared All Might dead in the eyes. “Tell me, All Might, how many students that you can say with perfect confidence have had prior combat training?” When All Might hesitated to answer, Izuku continued. “Three. That’s how many I know for certain have had combat training. Have there been more than that? Perhaps. But I can’t speak to the level of training anyone outside of those initial three have had.” Izuku glanced over the students again, and then turned to All Might. “What do you think would happen if you put someone like Asui Tsuyu against Todoroki Shouto? You do know their quirks, right?”

All Might stuttered, not quite able to answer the question.

“I’ll tell you. If Asui-san doesn’t have proper thermoregulation in her gear, then going up against Todoroki, unless he holds back significantly, would send her to Recovery Girl for either Hypothermia or Hyperthermia, since frogs aren’t really able to regulate their temperatures very well. This would not be the fault of Todoroki, as he would not have had any prior information on his classmates’ quirks, since you would have been jumping directly into an exercise they are not prepared to perform yet.”

Bakugou Katsuki raised his hand and spoke with a grimace on his face, “My quirk is really destructive, and I’ve never really been able to train with it in full, since no one can take it when I go all out. I don’t want to go up against someone who can’t take it, but I don’t know who all in the class can take it yet.”

Izuku pointed at Bakugou. “My point exactly. Why does a student have more common sense than you do?”

Izuku could see All Might getting even angrier, so decided to give him one more kick. “Fine, if you are that insistent on doing battle trials, go for it – but if any student gets seriously injured, I’ll be sending a recording of this conversation to the parents of said student, and they can decide what to do with the recording,” he said, pointing at the camera in the classroom.

All Might practically growled at Izuku, “Then what are you proposing for the class to do, exactly, Young Midoriya?”

“Simple!” Izuku replied with a bright grin. “Costume critiques! Ensuring that everyone’s costumes are what they wanted, making sure everything fits, submitting alteration requests for anything that doesn’t work quite as well as the pictured idea, adding things that have recently been thought of. You know, things like that.”

“And then what? Surely that won’t take the entire class period?”

“Well, that’s why we’re going to Gym Beta, so they can run the obstacle course in their costumes, so they will know for certain that they can move in their costumes. After all, just because it works perfectly when standing still or walking back and forth, doesn’t mean it’ll work as well while being active.” Facing the students again, Izuku smiled brightly. “Get suited up and meet in Gym Beta!”

~*~*~*~

Izuku was tapping a pen against his notebook when the first students started entering the gym. At first glance, all he could say is that they were very colorful. At second glance, he rubbed his temples – he could feel that he was going to have a headache after this.

“Well, they say the clothes make the pros, and you are all looking amazing!” All Might called out.

“Colorful,” Izuku corrected. “They look colorful. I see so much that needs to be corrected already.”

The students looked uncertainly at Izuku, and Ojiro raised a hand, “Um, Midoriya-sensei, what’s wrong with our costumes?”

“Do you want that list alphabetically, or in order of seriousness?” he snarked back. “Sorry, sorry,” he amended. “Not everyone’s is bad, some are quite good. But a lot of you need some alterations. Okay, let’s start in order of student number, I guess. I’d like everyone to pay attention, even if I’m not critiquing your costume now, you may have the same issues, and if you realize the issues before I get to you, we can simply write them down instead of discussing them a second time. After I go over your costume with you, please go through the obstacle course at whatever speed feels comfortable for you.”

The class nodded in agreement, and Izuku went up to Aoyama Yuga to start.

“Isn’t this cape magnifique?!” he called out, sparkling brightly.

Izuku narrowed his eyes at him. “You’re definitely going Limelight, aren’t you?” Aoyama nodded. “Alright, in that case, the cape can stay. The armor, however,” Izuku tapped it, “is a bit heavy. You’d get a lot more mobility with a different composition.” Izuku thought for another moment. The costume wasn’t actually as bad as he wanted to say it was. Yes, it looked horribly gaudy, but that was Aoyama’s personality, and since he wanted to be Limelight… Izuku shuddered and moved on to Ashido.

After a few moments spent purposely making her nervous, Izuku grinned. “I don’t actually have anything bad to say. This will work just fine as your initial costume. Think more on if you want to add any support gear or weapons, but this fine.”

“Oh, thank goodness, I was sure you were going to say something bad!” she sighed in relief.

“Nope! Not today! Go run the course, see if it works as well out there as it seems it will.” As Ashido went to run the course, he turned his attention to Asui. “Oh, good! Your costume does have thermoregulators! That was the main thing I was worried about!” Her costume was quickly approved, and she was sent on her way to the obstacle course.

Izuku blinked at Iida. “Please tell me you were listening when I told Aoyama to think about the material of his armor.” Iida nodded. “Why do you have exhaust pipes on your back? Your engines are in your calves, you have no reason to have exhaust pipes anywhere above your legs, they are doing nothing more than weighing you down.”

“They are an homage to my brother!” Iida stated confidently.

“There’s a difference between paying an homage and stealing a look. Tensei has a reason for exhaust pipes in his upper half – while part of it is for the aesthetics, it is a hidden support feature that is in fact cooling the engines in his arms to prevent overheating, disguised as exhaust pipes. Yours do nothing. I want them gone.” Iida nodded.

“I look pretty good, huh?” Uraraka gushed. “I mean, it’s a little more skintight than I was expecting, but I like it!”

Izuku quirked an eyebrow. “Yeah, sure, that’s what’s wrong with your costume.” He nodded. “It has nothing to do with how clunky your boots are – are those heels?! – and the pressure point bracelets being in the way.”

“What? No, my costume is perfect! I want the heels, they look great, and the boots and wrist guards help to tie in my space theme!”

“So, you mean to tell me that this,” Izuku gestured to her entire costume, “was all your design?” When she nodded proudly, Izuku sighed. “Okay. I want a three-page essay, due tomorrow, as to the dangers of heels in an active battle or disaster environment, including the various injuries that are likely to be included.”

“What?! But that’s not fair! You didn’t make anyone else write an essay on their costumes!” Uraraka complained.

“No one else has fought back on my critiques,” Izuku countered. “You can get a much better costume with some minor changes, while still keeping with your theme.”

“My boots aren’t a hazard! I’ll prove it to you!” And with that, she moved on to the obstacle course.

While waiting for her to roll or twist her ankle, Izuku moved on to Ojiro and Kaminari, passing both of their costumes. They would be fine for initial costumes. Before Izuku could say anything about Kirishima and his lack of shirt, he heard Uraraka cry out in distress.

Iida already had her in his arms and was on his way over when Izuku got there. “Let me guess. Your ankle?” Uraraka nodded sheepishly. “That essay is due tomorrow, and we will be changing your boots.” She nodded again. “Good. Iida, can you take her to Recovery Girl?”

“Yes Midoriya-sensei!”

Izuku returned to the students.

~*~*~*~

“Seven students need alterations,” Izuku said as he walked into the support labs to talk with Maijima. “Did you see any of these before they were put in their cases?

“Izuku, I had so much to do in preparation for the first day for my own classes, no I didn’t look at the hero costumes for first years. How bad are they?” Maijima reached into his desk and pulled out a bottle of headache medicine. He pulled out two pills and offered the bottle to Izuku, who also took two pills, before putting it away.

“One of the students, my underground pick Hagakure Toru, her entire costume is comprised of a pair of gloves and some boots.”

“. . . what.”

Izuku nodded. “And two of the girls have heels on their boots. One of the girls requested them, but Yayorozu said the costume she received only has the same colors as the design she submitted. Then both Aoyama and Iida have armor that’s made of a very heavy material, and Mineta is wearing a metal diaper.”

Maijima started reaching for a different drawer but stopped himself. “No, the whiskey comes after school hours,” he muttered. “Okay, I’m assuming that’s a list of all the corrections needed? Leave them here, and I’ll have them fixed before the USJ trip.”

“Thanks!” Izuku gave him a huge grin. “A lot of the costumes were pretty good for a first costume, so additions and corrections will mostly be minor for now. It was just these seven that I felt had to be corrected now.”

Izuku started walking out of the lab but turned back around. “How much trouble would we be in if we put in something in Mineta’s costume that gave him an electrical shock to the nuts every time he perved on the girls in class?”

Chapter Text

Hello all!

I just wanted to let you all know that even though it's been a long time since this was updated, it has not been abandoned. I got slapped in the face by another story idea, and that took over my life for the past few weeks. If you want to read that, it's called Shadowstep, and I have up until chapter 15 currently written.

I also realized that Legacy of Chaos didn't have an actual plot. So I had to work on that. As of right now, the plot has finally been figured out, and I have over 20 chapters outlined. Legacy of Chaos will be returning soon! I promise!

Thank you to everyone who has been waiting patiently for this to come back, and I'm sorry this is just an update and not an actual chapter.

Chapter Text

Nedzu was already home by the time Izuku got home. He kicked his shoes off and face planted on the couch, with his dad soon grooming his hair. “Rough day, Pup?”

Izuku’s answer was completely unintelligible, since his entire face was still in the cushions, but somehow or another, Nedzu was able to understand. “I see. Well, as much as I’m sure you want to get Yagi removed from his position, there is a reason I allowed him a spot on the staff this year, and it wasn’t because the HPSC ordered it.”

Raising his head in curiosity, Izuku asked, “Oh? Sharing is caring.”

Nedzu laughed and ruffled his son’s hair before jumping off the couch. “Nice try, Pup. If you are able to figure out my reason, I’ll confirm it, but no random guesses!”

“Fine. But Dad, seriously, he tried to do battle trials, on the first day, with the first years! I asked him what he thought would happen if Asui went up against Todoroki, and he couldn’t answer. He practically admitted he didn’t know any of their quirks,” Izuku pouted. “He’s going to get a kid seriously hurt.”

“Well then, it’s a good thing he’s got you there to supervise him, isn’t it?” Nedzu walked into the kitchen. “Do you have any requests for dinner?”

~*~*~*~

“Welcome to your first day of analysis class!” Izuku exclaimed to his class. 1-A had developed a level of respect for him the day before during his costume critiques, and many of them were seemingly eager for this class. “Todoroki, I see you brought something to present. Let’s wait for next class, yes?”

Shouto pouted but nodded.

“So, for this first class, I want to see how well you can analyze your fellow students. I’m going to call for volunteers to come to the front of the class, and the only information you’ll supply the class with is the name of your quirk, not what you can do with it. If you don’t feel comfortable with this, you don’t have to volunteer.” Izuku made sure to leave that in so people like Shinsou or Monoma wouldn’t feel pressured to disclose their quirks.

“Once all of you who feel comfortable sharing have come up, I will give you the option to try to figure out my quirk. However, I will not be telling you the name of my quirk,” he winked at them. “That would make things too easy.”

“So, who wants to go first?” Izuku looked out at the students, over half of them with their hands raised, and smiled. “Okay, let’s start off with an easy one. Bakugou! Come on up.”

Bakugou got up and came to the front. “I’m an easy one?” he asked with a small frown.

“For me, yes. Please state your quirk for the class, and we’ll get started!”

He smirked at the rest of the class. “My quirk is called Explosion!”

Izuku grinned. “So. Who wants to take a guess as to what his quirk can do?” Kirishima raised a hand.

When Izuku nodded at him, Kirishima guessed, “He can make explosions, right?”

“Good. How?”

“Uh…” Kirishima stared blankly at him.

“Anyone can answer. Anyone at all.” Izuku waited patiently for someone to come up with an idea.

Finally, Monoma raised a hand. “From what I saw of his costume yesterday, he had huge gauntlets around his forearms and wrists, so I’m going to assume they doubled as a weapon and a wrist brace. Would I be correct is assuming your explosions are centered around your hands?”

Bakugou nodded, and Monoma continued. “I was smelling something sweet yesterday, something that almost smelled like caramel.” Monoma put his hand to his chin in thought. “If I remember correctly, some explosive agents smell sweet? I don’t remember much more, though,” he admitted. “That’s all I have. I’m assuming he generates some type of explosive agent and is able to ignite it with his hands.”

 Turning to Bakugou, Izuku asked, “Well? Was he right?”

He nodded. “Yeah, I sweat nitroglycerin, and it does have a sweet, caramel scent, and I can ignite it with my hands. My gauntlets are designed to capture excess sweat and store it – when I pull the pin, it creates a massive explosion, using all of the stored up sweat.”

“Thank you, Bakugou! I don’t want to go into too much detail in front of the class.” Izuku looked around at the class again. “Who’s next?”

Izuku looked at the sea of hands and winced as he noticed Momo’s smirk. Her quirk was utter bullshit. It was batshit crazy, and not even he and his dad could really make it make sense. Where was the equivalent exchange?! What was the equation for lipid to creation ratio?! It drove the both of them up the goddamn wall, and she knew it.

She knew it.

Izuku pointedly skipped her and watched as she giggled and put her hand down.

“Ashido, come on up!” Izuku decided on the hyper pink girl.

“Okay!” She bounced up to the front of the class. “My quirk is called Acid!” she exclaimed with a huge grin. “Oh, and Kirishima can’t participate! We’ve known each other since middle school!”

“Aww, Mina!” he complained with a grin. “That’s totally not manly!”

“Fair enough,” Izuku laughed. “Kirishima is exempt from this round of analysis, and when it’s his turn, Ashido will be exempt. So! Who has any ideas about Ashido’s quirk?”

Asui raised her hand. “Well, since it’s called Acid, I’m going to assume she can create acid, kero.”

Izuku nodded. “Yes, that’s a given, but can you go a little further?” Asui hesitantly shook her head. “That’s okay! This is our first lesson, I’m not expecting everyone to be a great analyst today! Does anyone else have any ideas?” he asked.

Momo raised her hand. “Acids have a large range in solubility and viscosity, and it can be highly corrosive. Ashido, would it be correct of me to assume your skin coloring is a mutation that makes your skin more durable towards your acid?”

“Yup!” she bounced.

Monoma raised his hand again. “Something I noticed in yesterday’s obstacle course…” he hesitated, but then decided to just plow on. “You seem very athletic, and I saw you sliding on ground that should not have been able to be slid on. I think you’re able to control the acid you secrete to be non-corrosive, but highly slippery, enabling a greater level of mobility.”

“Yeah! I love dancing, and it’s been a great way to increase my balance and reaction times, so sliding on my acid was just the next level for me!” Ashido’s smile was huge.

“Thank you, Ashido!” Izuku gestured for her to take her seat again. “So, who wants to come up next? Momo, put your hand down, I’m not talking about your batshit quirk today.”

~*~*~*~

Most of the class had gone up to the front, and Izuku stopped it there, while there were a few volunteers remaining. He really didn’t want to pressure the students who didn’t want to go.

“Okay, so now that we’ve all seen some basic examples, and have discussed some analysis ideas, tell me. What is my quirk?” Izuku smirked at the class, knowing they wouldn’t get it. “And it’s okay if more than one of you pick the same thing, but I won’t confirm or deny until there are no more guesses.”

Ashido raised her hand and exclaimed, “You have an intelligence quirk, don’t you, Sensei!?”

“That’s one guess, anyone else?” Izuku smiled.

It seemed the class was split almost in half between an intelligence quirk or an analysis quirk, much to Izuku’s amusement. “No more guesses? How about you, Monoma? You’ve been able to give a lot of input today, do you have a guess?”

“No, Sensei. I’m not getting any ideas from you, other than your quirk isn’t intelligence or analysis,” he said, causing the entire class to erupt.

“What?! But he’s so smart!”

“Of course, he’s got an intelligence or analysis quirk!”

“No, no, no!” Monoma argued. “Don’t you see? He’s got a smile on his face when you all say he’s got an intelligence quirk, almost a mocking smirk, he’s just naturally smart and you’re all assuming his natural smarts is a quirk when it’s not!”

Izuku giggled. “Very good! Monoma is indeed correct – I do not have any sort of intelligence nor analysis quirk.” He grinned. “My dad, however, does. He has a mixed analysis/intelligence quirk, and he’s the one who taught me. So, since nearly all of my learning was done at my dad’s side, I did pick up quite a few of his habits.”

“Aww, come on, Midoriya-sensei!” complained Kaminari. “Can’t you give us a hint?”

Izuku made a show of thinking, before he grinned at them and chirped, “Nope!”

~*~*~*~

Izuku plopped himself down on the couch next to Shouta, taking the lid off his bento. “So, apparently the students were all convinced I had an intelligence quirk. How crazy is that!?”

“You do realize you’re insanely smart, right, runt?” Shouta asked, leaning over to eye his bento for anything he wanted to steal.

“Well, yeah, but I never thought I was anywhere near quirked levels of intelligence! I just have a simple emitter quirk!”

Hizashi snorted at that and placed an egg roll from his own bento into Izuku’s while he took a slice of pork. “Simple emitter, please. I have a simple emitter quirk – there is nothing ‘simple’ about your quirk.”

“Zashi-nii, you don’t have a simple quirk either!” Izuku contested. “There are so many complicated nuances to your quirk!” He donned a mischievous smirk. “If anything, Nii-chan’s quirk is the most simple of all.”

Shouta shrugged. “Yeah, it’s either ‘on’ or ‘off,’ no real in between. It’s simple alright. Except for the fact that it’s a mutation that alters the make-up of my brain and eyes.”

“The way it affects you is the most complicated of us, yes, but the usage is the most simple.” Izuku popped his egg roll into his mouth with a happy hum. He loved Hizashi’s cooking. “Zashi-nii, if I come over this weekend, can we make egg rolls together?”

“Sure th-“ Hizashi was interrupted by a blaring alarm, stating there had been a level three security breech.

“Go, I’ll find it and contact your coms!” Izuku dived behind his computer and pulled up the security footage as Shouta and Hizashi bolted out of the lounge. Keying into their coms, Izuku said, “It was triggered at the front gate, looks like the media got through the barricade.”

“Copy that, Izu. We’ll keep them out,” Shouta answered.

Izuku narrowed his eyes at the screen. This seemed too blatantly obvious. Besides, why would the press risk everything like this? He could understand taking advantage of an opportunity to swarm, but no one out there would be stupid enough to destroy UA property, they’d be risking the wrath of Nedzu! Not only would their network be hit with a lawsuit, but they would also be getting a private lawsuit.

‘And they’d lose their jobs, there’s that too, I guess,’ Izuku thought to himself. ‘This is a distraction.’

Izuku decided to pull up other cameras from inside the school. With the alarms already going off, they wouldn’t trigger a second time if a door was opened, and Izuku should clearly know who was and who wasn’t a student, since he had seen the files of nearly the entire school for his classes.

With this in mind, he scanned the empty corridors, searching for anything that was out of place. He was annoyed to notice that the students were all making their way back to their classrooms, and he wanted to slap whoever made that call – the announcement literally said to evacuate the building!– he was trying to find movement in the halls that shouldn’t be there, and with the students all in the halls, that just made his task all the more difficult.

‘Whatever, just avoid the student paths for now,’ he grumbled. As annoyed as he was, he almost missed a slight movement in one of the staff offices, the office that belonged to All Might. And with All Might not even being in today, there shouldn’t be any movement in his office at all.

Izuku watched closely, but nothing else happened. Narrowing his eyes at the screen, he rewound the footage a few minutes, and saw a black and purple misty thing that could easily be a portal. It was confirmed to be a portal when a person in a black hoodie stepped out. The camera angle didn’t lend itself to being able to pick up the man’s face, but Izuku could see light blue hair poking out of the hood.

As he continued watching, the man searched the office, opening empty cabinets and drawers, looking through the bookshelves that held nothing but personal memorabilia, and then coming to the desk that had papers strewn all over it. The person looked at all of the papers, and then picked up one – Izuku noticed he only used four fingers, keeping one raised – ‘Must be a five-point touch activation quirk.’ – before folding it in half and putting it in his pocket. The man then pulled out his phone and sent a text, causing the black-purple portal to open and stepping through, coming to where Izuku had found him.

Izuku leaned back in his chair. This is definitely something his dad will need to know.

Picking up the phone, Izuku called his dad.

“Did you find something, Pup?” Nedzu asked in lieu of a greeting.

“I did. Someone used the media as a distraction. There was a person in All Might’s office, searching for something. He took a piece of paper off of his desk. It looked like the man had a five-point touch quirk, he was very careful not to use all of his fingers when touching anything. Also, there must be a second party, since there was a portal that let him both in and out of the office.”

“Please compile everything into a report, we’ll be having a meeting with the rest of the staff after classes are dismissed. I won’t be able to get around to reviewing the footage for another hour or two, so see if you can discover how the media was able to gain access through the barricades.”

“Of course, Dad. Will you be having words with the media about their actions today?” Izuku asked with a smirk clear in his voice.

Instead of answering, Nedzu simply cackled before hanging up the phone.

~*~*~*~

Izuku passed around his ten-page report to the various heroes sitting at the table, and then he pulled up the footage from the cameras he wanted to show.

“First, the barricades were destroyed by a rapid disintegration type quirk, the only visible part of the perpetrator is his hand, right here.” Izuku paused the footage and zoomed in to show the hand. “It seems the person has a skin condition, perhaps a side effect of his quirk? I am bringing this up because a few minutes later, there was someone infiltrating All Might’s office.”

Izuku pulled up the new footage, showing the blue-haired person exiting from the portal. “I believe this is the same person who disintegrated the barricade. If you’ll notice, he is careful to never touch anything with all five fingers, so he most likely has a five-point touch quirk. And when I zoom in,” he demonstrated by zooming in close to the man’s hand, “he has the same skin condition as the person outside.”

“The portal is a second person,” Shouta spoke up.

“That’s correct, Nii-chan. I don’t know how they got a portal into the school, a quirk like that feels as though it would need to be closely calibrated.” Izuku narrowed his eyes. “Perhaps a former student is involved somehow? I don’t want to think about it being a current student, but somehow these people had information on where to enter.”

“Do you know what was taken from All Might’s desk?” Nedzu asked, glaring at the screen.

“Sadly, no. The angle of the camera didn’t catch it,” Izuku was mirroring his dad’s actions, also glaring at the screen. Most of the heroes in the room shivered at the sight of their boss and his son both aiming their glares at the same person.

“I see.” Nedzu closed his eyes briefly. “Suggestions?”

“Aside from increasing security, the USJ trip is tomorrow. Perhaps sending an additional teacher just in case would be beneficial,” Izuku offered.

Shouta sighed. “Yeah, an additional teacher would be good, however that might tip off the students that they might be in danger. If they are already feeling put out, they’ll be more distracted during the training, and if nothing happens, it might shake their faith in us.”

Izuku cursed quietly, agreeing with Shouta’s assessment.

“There is a simple solution to that,” Nedzu said. “Pup, you’ll be joining 1-A to the USJ tomorrow.”

Izuku simply nodded. “That will work.”

Snipe chuckled at that. “Normally, I’d be against adding another kid to a potentially dangerous situation, but damn if Izu ain’t the strongest sumbitch among us.”

Hizashi snorted and elbowed Shouta. “I almost pity anyone who tries to attack the USJ with Izuku there.”

Izuku rolled his eyes at that but smirked. “May the gods have mercy on them, because I won’t.”

Chapter Text

Izuku had his class with 2-B in the morning, and then he was free for the rest of the day. He had originally been planning to help Hizashi grade his English papers, and maybe even grade some of Snipe’s Physics homework, but now he was double-checking his gear.

He was going to go to the USJ with 1-A today, and with the possible threat of a villain attack, Izuku wanted to make sure his gear was in perfect condition. He almost never used his support bracers, so he wanted to make sure he had time to have Maijima calibrate them if needed. He knew his capture scarf was still in good condition, as were his gloves and boots, but again, he wanted to check everything over.

If the students were in danger, Izuku would make sure whoever put them in danger would be put down, swiftly and without mercy.

~*~*~*~

“I didn’t expect you to be in your costume, Izuku,” Momo commented as they were all sitting on the bus, on their way to the USJ.

Izuku shrugged. “I felt like it. Who knows, I might even use my quirk a little today, and without my support items, I really can’t use it to its fullest.”

Hagakure looked over to him. “What do all of your support items do?” she asked.

“Hmm,” Izuku hummed. “Some of that could give away what my quirk is,” he teased, “and I still want you all to figure that out on your own. But the other parts,” he gestured to his boots, “I have the same shock absorption boots that Nii-chan has. They help me in my landings when I jump from rooftops, or if I deliver a particularly strong kick. I can break down a wall with relative ease, knowing that I won’t be messing up my feet or knees.”

He then gestured to his gloves, “Likewise, my gloves also have the same shock absorptions in them, so I can put a lot more force into my punches without taking any damage myself.” He then lightly gripped his capture scarf. “This is my favorite piece of gear, though. Nii-chan started teaching me how to use his capture scarf when I was seven and had this one made for me when I was eleven.”

“Not your Nii-chan,” Shouta monotonously called back.

“Midoriya-sensei, I tend to speak my mind,” Asui said bluntly, “and I have a question for you.”

“Go for it, Asui-chan!” Izuku encouraged.

“Call me Tsu,” she replied. “My question is this – you seem to be really close to Aizawa-sensei, and you even call him your brother. Yet he constantly denies this. Why?”

Izuku laughed. “That’s because Nii-chan doesn’t like being called Nii-chan. I’ve known him since I was only a year old, back when he was still in his second year at UA. I don’t remember that far back, but my dad said that it was Nii-chan who had told me to call him Nii-chan in the first place.”

“I expected you to grow up eventually,” Shouta grumbled, sitting up. “Is it really too much to ask to be called Nii-san? Or even better, Shouta-nii?”

“Look, Nii-chan, just because I call Present Mic Zashi-nii doesn’t mean you get the same treatment. Honestly, you act as if you’re not my favorite or something!” Izuku playfully huffed.

Kaminari leaned over. “You also call Present Mic your older brother?”

“Mhm!” Izuku nodded. “And Midnight is my big sister! Mic, Midnight, and Nii-chan were really close friends when they were in school, so sometimes when Nii-chan was babysitting me, the other two would tag along.”

“Aww, Sensei, you used to babysit Midoriya-sensei?” Ashido cooed.

Shouta ignored her.

As the bus reached the USJ, Izuku ran one last check on his bracers. Everything was looking good, Maijima had recalibrated them earlier, even though they were still in perfect condition, so there was no reason for Izuku to be worried about them. He’d be prepared if he needed to go all out.

As soon as Izuku hopped off the bus, he looked around. No All Might to be seen. ‘Figures,’ he thought to himself. All the more reason he’s glad his gear is in top condition.

Shouta walked up to Kurose-chan and asked something, to which they put up three fingers. Izuku narrowed his eyes in annoyance. That could only mean Nii-chan asked about All Might and Kurose-chan’s reply was that he had already used up his three hours for the day. If there was an attack, it really would be up to him and Shouta to take care of any villains.

Shouta grumbled his way back to where Izuku was standing as Kurose-chan introduced the USJ to the students. “He’s not coming, is he?” Izuku muttered to Shouta, attempting to distract him while he went for a jelly pouch.

Shouta smacked his hand away and replied, “Nope. It’ll just be us.”

“Why did Dad even hire him?” Izuku grumbled.

Shouta glanced at him. “He didn’t tell you either, huh?”

“What he said was, and I quote, ‘If you figure it out on your own, I’ll confirm it.’ But no, he won’t just tell me,” Izuku rolled his eyes and sighed. “I’ll figure it out sooner or later. I just haven’t put any effort into it yet.”

Shouta ruffled Izuku’s hair. “The only thing more terrifying than Nedzu putting effort into figuring out something is when you put effort into figuring out something.”

“Hey, I am not that bad!” Izuku giggled.

Suddenly Izuku snapped his attention to the plaza. “Nii-chan, something’s happening,” he whispered.

Shouta’s attention went to the plaza where Izuku was looking, but he didn’t see anything. “Where?”

“I can feel it in the air,” he muttered. “There’s a disturbance in the currents. . . “ Izuku paused for a moment as the power flickered out momentarily and he quickly hit his panic button. There was a constant signal from his button to his dad, and when pushed, the signal was cut off. His dad would know something was wrong and would send back up. Izuku then pointed near the fountain, where he had seen something dark purple forming, what looked like the portal from the day before. “There.”

The brothers both gripped their capture scarves as they glared at the villains pouring out of the portal. “That’s the same portal as from the security camera footage, isn’t it?” Shouta asked.

“Yeah. You take care of the villains, and I’ll get the students out before I help you.” Izuku quickly turned back to the students. “Okay, this is a real situation, you all need to stick together and get out! Go!”

They hesitated, still watching the events unfold in the plaza, watching as Shouta jumped down and started fighting. “Is this part of the training?” Kirishima asked.

“NO!” Izuku yelled at him. “This is real, now get the hell out of here!”

They still weren’t listening to him, standing still, nervously watching the events unfold down below, and causing Izuku to start to lose his shit. Before Izuku could really vent his frustration at the students, the purple portal guy appeared in between the students and the exit. Great.

Izuku noticed the doors to the facility were starting to close, so he turned to Iida and said, “Run to the main campus and get help.” Iida started to argue but Izuku was just done with everything. He mustered up a tight-knit gust of wind and picked up Iida and threw him out of the building right before the doors closed.

‘Looks like I really will have to use my quirk today.’ Izuku thought. ‘These bastards better have their affairs in order.’

The portal guy seemed to glare right at Izuku. “I was going to introduce ourselves, but now,” his purple mist expanded to cover the students, and Izuku glared at him and used his wind to push as many students out of the way of the mist as he could, unfortunately not getting them all. He watched in grim silence as more than half the students were sucked into the portals, including himself. As he was falling through the portal, he heard the man finish his sentence, “I won’t.”

‘Pretentious dick,’ was Izuku’s only thought on that, as he was spat out of the portal above the lake.

Izuku didn’t have any issues with water, but he didn’t want to get his support gear wet, so he stopped his decent with a gust of wind and landed on the boat, just in time to watch Tsu pull Shinsou out of the water.

“Sensei, what do we do?” she asked him, with a hint of fear in her voice.

Shinsou was looking at the water and all of the villains sitting there, waiting for them. “I don’t know how long they’ll sit there and wait for us to come up with a plan,” he said nervously, and then looked at Izuku.

Izuku smiled at them grimly. “Tsu, grab Shinsou and get ready to jump out of here when I tell you to, okay?” He waited for her to nod and then grab Shinsou around the waist with her tongue before he turned to the villains in the lake with narrowed eyes. With a flick of his hand, he instantly froze the water around each of the villains, ensuring they couldn’t attack them.

“Okay, Tsu, head for the shore, I’ll stay in the rear to make sure none of them get free and come after us.” The three of them made it back to shore with no issues. “Okay, let’s get you out of here,” Izuku said, and then started heading to the stairs back towards the entrance, when Izuku got his first look at the plaza.

The horde of thugs were all down, clearly Shouta’s work, and he was now fighting the villain with the blue hair, covered in disembodied hands. Izuku hoped his Nii-chan remembered what he had said about the five-point touch quirk likely being some type of disintegration quirk, as he turned his attention back to Shinsou and Tsu, making sure they were able to get back to the stairs in one piece.

Izuku heard a pained grunt and turned back to Shouta in time to see him kick the blue haired guy away, some of the skin on his elbow having disintegrated. “Nii-chan!” Izuku called out, getting ignored.

“I never said I was the final boss, hero!” the villain hissed at Shouta. “Nomu!” Izuku watched in open horror as the beaked monster slammed into Shouta and broke one of his arms.

“NII-CHAN!!” he screamed out, running towards the monster. “Get away from my Nii-chan!” Izuku pulled his arms in tight and then extend them, making the ground around Shouta shift, and sharp earthen spikes extend around him, jabbing the monster and pushing him away from Shouta.

Izuku then pulled at the air, looping a current around the monster and dragging it closer to where Izuku was standing. “No one hurts my Nii-chan!” he hissed, and activated the bracer on his left wrist, sending out wave after wave of electricity, carefully arching it to only hit the monster.

The creature fell to the ground twitching, but the blue haired man just started laughing. Izuku narrowed his eyes at him. ‘There’s no reason for him to be laughing like that if I just killed his monster,’ Izuku thought to himself, so he turned back to the creature, just in time to see the damage his lightning had inflicted start to heal. ‘Regeneration. Fantastic.’

Izuku had noticed the creature had speed, possibly a strength enhancement, and now regeneration. Those were very different quirks. Did this creature have multiple quirks? Izuku’s mind was reeling. This creature had at least two quirks, possibly more. The theories of quirk singularity show that a person’s body sometimes isn’t evolved enough to handle their quirk, but if they were being given more than one quirk, then they really wouldn’t be able to handle the multiple quirks. Izuku narrowed his eyes at the monster again. ‘Exposed brain, doesn’t seem to be able to form cohesive sentences… or thoughts? Is it even alive?’

Izuku was using the air currents to keep the attacking monster away from him, but that wasn’t doing anything, so he started punting the creature with boulders he pulled from the ground, but that just made the blue haired guy laugh even harder. ‘Shock absorption, too, it seems.’

As Izuku dodged again, he continued analyzing. ‘Speed, regeneration, shock absorption, and judging from how easily he hurt Nii-chan, probably strength enhancement, too. Obvious weakness in the brain.’ Izuku let out an irritated sigh. He’d have to do some serious damage to stop this thing. Electrocution obviously didn’t work, crushing it with boulders is just slowing it down for a few seconds at a time…

Izuku let the wind carry him to the edge of the lake and watched with grim satisfaction as the creature followed him. ‘Ice spears it is.’ Izuku focused on the water in the lake and pulled it out, freezing it in the process into large spears, and sent them all into the creature, piercing every available section with dozens of spears, including three into its brain.

This time, when the creature fell, it didn’t get back up.

“NOMU! Get up! What are you doing?!” the man shrieked at the creature, and then turned to Izuku. “You killed my Nomu!” Izuku raised an eyebrow at the man, and he screamed again and started rushing at Izuku.

Remembering full well that this man had a five-point touch quirk, Izuku decided that he wasn’t going to risk his capture scarf on this man, nor would he be letting him get close. Izuku reached for his right wrist bracer and unleashed a torrent of flames, using his quirk to make them burn hotter than the bracer could achieve alone.

The man with the blue hair stopped in his tracks as the fire weaved around him. “Just how many quirks do you have, you cheater?!”

“Just one,” Izuku replied. “Now, you sit there patiently while I deal with-“ Before Izuku could finish his sentence, the purple mist guy created a portal and took the blue haired man with him and they left.

Izuku let his flames dissipate as he kept an eye out for them to return. After a few seconds, he decided to tend to Shouta, and just keep an ear open for any further villains.

Izuku knelt next to Shouta and quickly started assessing his injuries. Sometime between the monster breaking his arm and Izuku scaring the villains off, Shouta had passed out. Izuku couldn’t tell if Shouta had a concussion or not, but he was going to assume he did. His elbow was slightly disintegrated, and one of his arms was broken, but that was the extent of what Izuku could see.

He focused on the ground underneath Shouta and molded it into a stretcher and started guiding it to the stairs. Just as he was about to manipulate the earth again, Shouto and Monoma reached him. “Can we help, Sensei?” Monoma asked.

Izuku smiled at them. “Yeah, help me carry him up to the entrance. Medical should be showing up soon.”

Just as they had gotten to the top of the stairs, the doors blew off the hinges, All Might making his grand show, calling out “I AM HERE!”

“You’re late,” Izuku glared at him. “I already cleaned up your mess and almost lost my brother in the process. Now go make yourself useful and see if you can find the rest of the students. You can at least do that much properly, right?”

Chapter Text

Shigaraki Tomura stumbled through the portal, patting at his arms to make sure there was no fire clinging to him. Kurogiri had gotten him out of the flaming cage the green kid had put around him, but the heat was so intense Tomura wasn’t sure he hadn’t been set on fire.

Tomura turned on Kurogiri and snarled, “How did that kid have multiple quirks?!”

“Shigaraki Tomura, he stated he only had one. Perhaps it is a complicated quirk that functions as more than one?” Kurogiri offered.

“He had to be cheating! There is no way that was only one quirk!”

From the television screen against the wall, a voice spoke softly, but still commanding respect, “Who are you speaking of?”

Tomura spun around to face the television. “Sensei, All Might wasn’t there! Instead, it was just Eraserhead and Thirteen!” Tomura whined. “One of those brats had a really overpowered quirk, and he killed my Nomu!”

“Is that so. Please describe this student, for me, Tomura. I will have our source of information provide me with further details on this student,” Sensei said with a hint of amusement.

“Yes, Sensei. He was wearing a white and green costume, had the same type of weapon Eraserhead has, he was fairly short, had green hair and eyes. I think he may have had freckles, too, or he had dirt on his face,” Tomura eagerly supplied.

“I see,” Sensei mused. “What of his quirk?”

“It seemed like multiple elemental quirks, but when I asked how many quirks he had, he said only one. I saw him manipulate the ground, some electricity, he turned water into ice to kill my Nomu, and he used fire to try to cage me in.” Tomura was glaring at the glass in his hands as he recounted his experience to Sensei.

“This is fascinating,” Sensei muttered. “I wonder. . .”

“Sensei?” Tomura asked curiously.

“No matter,” Sensei dismissed. “You may have failed in your mission to bring down All Might this time, but don’t lose faith, Tomura. I will help you to achieve your goal how ever many times as needed.”

~*~*~*~

Shigaraki Akihiko went by many names – Symbol of Evil, Sensei, All For One.

Akihiko hit a button to summon his Doctor. While he could do many things on his own, reading was not currently one of them.

Garaki Kyudai entered the room moments later. “You summoned me, sir?”

“Indeed. It seems Tomura has run into an issue with one of the students in class 1-A. They appear to have a powerful quirk, and I want that quirk in my arsenal. Find the student,” Akihiko stated.

Garaki pulled out the file the informant had sent him on the students in class 1-A. Including him, there were 20 students. Removing the six girls, that dropped the potential students down to fourteen. “Which one is the green haired boy with the elemental quirk that gave Tomura such difficulty?” Akihiko asked.

“I am sorry to say, sir, but none of the boys have green hair. There is one green-haired girl, but her quirk is a frog mutation,” Garaki said apologetically.

Akihiko smirked. “Ah, so they are a mystery.” He grinned to himself for a moment and then said, “Inform our little informant that I wish for more details on the green-haired boy who foiled Tomura’s attack.”

“Yes, sir,” Garaki bowed, and then left the room to follow his new orders.

Akihiko mused more on the description of the child. Green hair and eyes, freckles, short. Could it be? Could this child be the brat that Hisashi refused to hand over to him? Thirteen years ago, Hisashi had killed his wife instead of handing over his son to Akihiko. Hisashi had stated that the child would be safe from Akihiko’s grasp.

The only thing Akihiko was able to get out of Hisashi’s mind before he died was that the boy’s name was Izuku.

The boy was supposed to have a powerful pyrokinesis quirk, and Akihiko had been scouring the quirk registries for any quirk that sounded like that, but he had never found one. Now, Tomura has found a child that is green, as Izuku most likely would have been, with freckles, just like Hisashi had, and fire is a part of the boy’s quirk.

Perhaps the reason Akihiko couldn’t find a pyrokinesis quirk is because the quirk is far stronger. He’ll have to tell Garaki to see if there is a quirk registered for . . . hmm. It sounds a lot like elemental manipulation?

Akihiko grinned. This would be fun.

Chapter Text

Izuku paced back and forth in Nedzu’s office, waiting for his Nii-chan to get healed. Izuku had managed to get the multi-quirked monster off of him before there was too much damage done to Nii-chan, so Granny Chiyo really only had to heal his ribs, arm, and his concussion. Nii-chan would be sleeping off the aftereffects for a while, but that’s fine. It would just give Izuku plenty of time to let his mind go over the events that had conspired and let him come up with theories.

Sometime during his pacing, Izuku had picked up his dad and was holding him as though he was a teddy bear while he was creating his theories as to what and why and how the events earlier in the day had occurred. Izuku was muttering up a storm, while petting his dad’s head and scratching behind his ears, not really registering that he was carrying his dad, but Nedzu didn’t mind at all. Rather, he liked being this close to his son while he was letting his thoughts run rampant, since Izuku’s muttering was so quiet that he couldn’t really be heard unless Nedzu was this close.

“That thing had multiple quirks. It had regeneration, strength, speed, shock absorption. Did it have any others? I didn’t notice any others. Although, the speed could be a by-product of the strength? Hmm, no, probably not. Not with that build. That kind of build looks like it would restrict movement more than increase speed. But why did it have an exposed brain? It didn’t seem natural, at all. Perhaps this creature was some sort of science experiment? But how would multiple quirks get into one person? Did they stitch several people together? Hmm, no, the quirk factor is primarily located in the brain. Is that why it was exposed?”

Izuku continued to mumble and Nedzu continued to revel in the thought process of his son.

Izuku’s mumbling was finally interrupted by a knock on the door. “Come in,” Nedzu said, hitting the button on his remote control for the door and letting Detective Tsukauchi inside.

“Hey there, Masa-chan!” Izuku called out with a wide grin. “Glad you could join our insane party of the day?”

“I prefer my parties with fewer villains, actually,” the detective sighed. “Hello Nedzu, Izuku. I’ve already taken the statements of all the students and the teachers who responded to the attack. The only ones left are you two and Aizawa.”

Izuku nodded his head. “Nii-chan should be awake soon, and he’ll be here. So, you can stay here to wait for him if you’d like after my statement.”

Tsukauchi agreed and pulled out his notepad. “Izuku, if you could start from the beginning, please?”

“Certainly.” Izuku stopped his pacing and took a seat on the sofa across from the seat Tsukauchi had chosen, still holding his dad in his arms. “Yesterday there was a break-in at the school, so we decided to increase security for the trip to the USJ today. I was not originally on the roster for the USJ trip, but we didn’t want to raise the student’s suspicions by sending an additional teacher and have nothing happen.”

“And you’re one of the strongest members of the faculty,” Tsukauchi confirmed.

Izuku smiled slightly. “Yes. And the students are aware that I am a TA for their heroics classes, so it would be only natural to have me join them.” Izuku closed his eyes and scratched behind his dad’s ear. “When the attack started, Nii-chan went to fight the villains and I attempted to evacuate the students – which reminds me, I need to make a note for Monday. I need to rip into those idiots, they ignored my orders to stick together and get out long enough for one of the villains, the one with a warping quirk, to get between us and the door. I managed to throw Iida Tenya out the door so he could run to the main campus to get help, assuming my panic button hadn’t worked to alert my dad.”

Narrowing his eyes in irritation, Izuku then continued. “We were spread out into the various zones, and by the time my group reached the plaza, the monster had Nii-chan pinned to the ground with his reported injuries. I will admit, I may have snapped a little bit and used a bit more force than I normally would have, however the creature didn’t seem to register my attacks much.”

Tsukauchi interrupted. “How so?”

Izuku hummed. “Well, when I first attacked, I used earthen spikes to get the creature off my Nii-chan and to provide a layer of protection to him. I originally thought the spikes didn’t penetrate its skin since there wasn’t an injury. I pulled it further away from Nii-chan with wind ropes, and that worked as intended, but when I unleashed lightning on it, the creature was only down for a few moments before standing up, regenerating its injuries. I again used earth manipulation to hurl boulders at it, and those seemed not to do much or any damage to it. Eventually I maneuvered it to the lake and pulled out ice spikes from the water to skewer it. It didn’t regenerate from that.”

“I believe this creature had multiple quirks,” Izuku stated. And oh, did the detective twitch at that. Interesting. ‘I wonder what this means?’

“What makes you believe he had multiple quirks?”

“I am glad you asked,” Izuku grinned. “The first clue was how it was able to take down Nii-chan. If this creature only had the regeneration, then Nii-chan would have easily been able to take him down. He’s well accustomed to fighting large, muscled people. Nii-chan is built for speed and power, and even if his opponent is strong, as long as they don’t have a strength enhancement quirk, I would bet real money on Nii-chan every time. So. It clearly had regeneration and strength, based solely on those two.”

“The next clue is for a speed-quirk. This creature was fast. If I wasn’t using my wind currents to enhance my own speed and provide additional resistance for the creature, I may have been overpowered myself. Now, while a strength enhancement quirk can sometimes add to speed, this creature was built in a way that would hinder speed, normally.”

“Finally,” Izuku prepared to end his impromptu analysis, “the boulders that I hit it with did nearly nothing to it, hinting at a shock-absorption quirk. It was not a damage-nullification quirk, as when I impaled it with the icicles, I was able to stop it permanently, but the boulders did nothing.”

Izuku lowered his face a little to hide his smirk amongst his dad’s furry head. “How would something have multiple quirks like that, do you think, Masa-chan?”

Tsukauchi scratched at his head. “I don’t know, Izuku. I can’t think of anyone alive that could have been able to do something like that.”

Izuku tilted his head slightly. “So, there may have been someone in the past who could have done this? Fascinating.”

“There were rumors, yeah, but that man was killed a few years back.”

“Hm. Let’s pretend he survived. My current theory is that this creature is a science experiment of some kind. Quirks that must have come from several different people and pulled into one single body. The body seems to have been modified since, I’m sorry, nature isn’t going to just leave a brain exposed like that. Quirk factors are most typically located in a person’s brain, so perhaps they modified their subjects to add the additional quirk factors.”

Nedzu was doing his best not to grin maniacally at what Izuku was doing. He was trying to pull answers out of the detective without letting him realize it. And Izuku was doing a very good job at it.

“This man, his quirk allowed him to take and give quirks from others,” Tsukauchi said quietly. “If what you’re saying is true, he could have taken quirks from multiple people and once they had a subject that could house multiple quirk factors, he could have given the subject the additional quirks.”

Izuku nodded solemnly. “Yes, that is the most logical conclusion. What was his name, again?”

“All For One – Hey!” Tsukauchi glared at Izuku. “Stop that! I’m supposed to be the one asking questions!”

Izuku giggled. “I got more information from you than I thought I would, thank you, Masa-chan! I’ll be digging in your servers sometime this weekend for the rest of the information.”

“Dammit, Izuku! Nedzu, can you make him stop?”

“Now, Detective, why would I do that?” Nedzu inquired. “I would never stifle my son’s desire to learn!”

“He wasn’t supposed to know about that, Nedzu, and you know it! That’s a secret that is only supposed to be allowed out with Yagi’s permis-“ Tsukauchi blanched as his eyes widened and he looked fearfully at Izuku’s expression.

“Well, would you look at that!” he smirked. “Christmas came early.”

Nedzu cackled as Tsukauchi hung his head in defeat.

“Did you have any more questions for me, Masa-chan?” Izuku asked sweetly. Tsukauchi just sighed and shook his head. Izuku shrugged. “Well, Nii-chan should be up and about any minute now.”

Nedzu hopped off Izuku’s lap. “I’ll make tea!”

The three of them didn’t have to wait long at all – the tea had just finished brewing when Shouta and Hizashi entered the office, Shouta almost instantly getting an armful of teenager.

“Nii-chan!” Izuku’s face was buried in Shouta’s capture scarf, and Shouta could feel that the teen was just barely keeping himself from sobbing. “I was so scared you were going to be killed,” he whispered.

“I know, Izu, but I’m alright. You made sure of that.” Shouta tightened his grip on his little brother. “Thank you, Izu.”

~*~*~*~

Izuku had barely let Shouta go since he had walked into Nedzu’s office, so no one was surprised when he invited himself over, Nedzu only requesting that he come home before he started hacking into government databases, as their home computer was already set up to be untraceable and he wouldn’t need to waste time with the settings on Shouta’s computer.

As soon as they had gotten inside, Izuku had to release Shouta so he could give the required attention to his babies. EraserCat seemed to realize that Izuku’s attention was not focused on him, so after a few pats, the mostly black cat trotted back to his place in his cat tree, but Present Meow wasn’t as considerate. Izuku ended up picking up the blond tabby and then settling down on the couch tucked under Shouta’s arm, still not willing to let Shouta too far out of his reach.

“Will you still be such a clingy shit on Monday?” Shouta asked. “I’m pretty sure you have classes to teach.”

Izuku nodded. “I’m going to try to get all the cling out of my system today and tomorrow. I also have government servers to hack into. Masa-chan let slip some things I need to follow up on,” Izuku said with a devious glitter in his eyes. “It has to do with the guys that attacked today, and they possibly have a more sturdy link to All Might other than just wanting to kill him.”

Shouta nodded and pet Present Meow’s head as Izuku was scratching under the cat’s chin.

“Also, I’m going to rip into your class on Monday, I think. Not sure if I’m going to wait for Homeroom to start or not, so you might want to get there early, just in case I go too far.”

“What did they do?” Shouta asked. This was the first time he’s heard anything bad about how the class reacted.

“They were idiots,” Izuku shrugged. “They didn’t listen to orders when I told them to evacuate. More than just Tenya could have escaped if they had run when I told them to. Hell, even Tenya just stood there and attempted to argue with me about escaping. I had to pick him up and throw him out the door to get him to move.” Izuku sighed in disgust. “If there were less students still in the facility, I could have focused more on stopping the warper from acting, but with so many students I couldn’t act without potentially hurting the students. As such, we were all spread throughout the facility.”

Shouta moved from petting the cat to running his fingers through Izuku’s curls. “As much as I’m sure you’re frustrated with them, you do have to remember this was their first villain attack. They are still in their first week of training. Not everyone had the opportunity to be trained the way you were.”

Izuku huffed in annoyance. “Doesn’t change the fact that because they were in the way, I couldn’t act how I wanted, and you ended up getting hurt.”

“You can talk to them about it, but don’t be too harsh. I know you’re upset with them, but that’s not something that they can really have learned prior to the attack.”

“I want to make sure they learn that there is no room for hesitation on the field, whether it’s in an attack or in an exercise. Hesitating is a good way to risk the death of either a partner, civilian, or oneself. I won’t have them risking the death of anyone just because they hesitated.” Izuku grumbled to himself, “I won’t let my Nii-chan die just because of someone hesitating.”

Hizashi popped his head out of the kitchen where he had been working on dinner. “I hope you’re hungry, food’s ready.”

~*~*~*~

Izuku was humming to himself as he made his way into the police station’s secure computer servers. With all the practice he’s had at hacking, he’d almost think he was on a dummy server, or a bait server, if it weren’t for the fact that this wasn’t the easiest government system he’d played with.

Within minutes, he found Tsukauchi’s private system and started looking through the files. “Oh, Masa-chan, that’s adorable,” Izuku cooed at the screen. It seems the files he was looking for had been saved to an external hard drive and then deleted from his system. Izuku cracked his knuckles and started undeleting the files.

All For One, an approximately 200-year-old from the dawn of quirks, a person who has been collecting and hoarding them for two centuries. “Yeah, that could be a challenge,” Izuku muttered to himself. As he continued searching through the undeleted files, he came across a video clip of this man fighting against All Might. The clip was only about fifteen seconds, but Izuku could see at least five different quirks at work in those fifteen seconds.

When the video ended, Izuku found the incident report, and even a slightly redacted version of All Might’s medical history. “One For All?” Izuku whispered. “That name sounds too close to the villain. . .”

Izuku continued his research all night, and by the time he was satisfied, he could smell breakfast being cooked. He stood up and stretched, before going to the bathroom to take care of business and then went to the kitchen.

“So. All Might is teaching this year to find a successor to his quirk, One For All,” Izuku said plainly.

Nedzu nodded. “That’s right, Pup. I’m sure you saw a lot more than just his quirk name, yes?” Izuku nodded and stifled a yawn. “I am of the opinion that All For One survived their fight, even though All Might swears the man is dead. One For All will be needed in a fight to take down that man, but Yagi-san is no longer physically fit enough to handle the requirements of such a battle.”

Izuku snorted. “Me and Nii-chan. Five minutes. Then say it can only be done with All Might’s special quirk.”

Chapter Text

Shouta watched as Izuku fidgeted with a button on his shirt and then rolled up his sleeves. He looked at his reflection in a window and Shouta could see he was contemplating attempting to tame his hair, but eventually decided against it. While he wanted to make an impression, he wasn’t willing to spend an hour on his appearance to make it happen. Izuku was too similar to Shouta to go that far.

“You ready, runt?” Shouta asked.

Izuku grinned up at him. “Yep! Let’s go, Nii-chan!”

Muttering a half-hearted, “Not your Nii-chan,” the two made their way to 1-A, Shouta hoping that Izuku didn’t demoralize his students too much.

As the two entered the classroom, the students erupted in cheers that Shouta was okay, but silenced instantly when Izuku turned his glare to them. Not wanting to get in the way of the scolding Izuku was about to give, Shouta went to his desk and sat to enjoy the show, whispering a simple “Be nice.”

Izuku heard Shouta’s whispered plea, but looking at the students in front of him, he wasn’t sure if they deserved his niceness. Not right now. Shouto and Momo were looking properly contrite, but the rest of them seemed not to understand why he was upset. Well, he supposes it’s time to educate them.

The bell rang, signaling the start of class, and Izuku took a breath.

“I’m extremely disappointed in your performance at the USJ last week,” he started. “While I understand this was the first time many of you have experienced a life-or-death situation, you must realize you are all students of the Heroics Course, and that these situations will happen. You will not have the luxury of sitting around with your thumbs up your rears, watching as others deal with an attack.”

Izuku looked them all over, keeping eye contact with some for a few seconds before moving on to others. “When the attack first commenced, you were all given an order. Can anyone tell me what that order was?”

He was met with silence, before Shouto slowly raised his hand. “Todoroki,” Izuku acknowledged coolly, causing his friend to wince.

“You ordered us to evacuate, sensei,” he answered quietly.

“Correct. There was a real situation, I informed you all that it was a real situation and ordered you to stick together and leave. And what did you do?” Izuku’s eyes were narrowed as he looked at his students, none of who were willing to look him in the eyes. “Kirishima.” The red-haired boy looked up, startled at the sudden attention. “When ordered to evacuate, what did you do instead?”

“Um, I don’t remember?” he admitted. “Probably not what you ordered us to do.”

“Once again, that is correct. The lot of you hesitated and watched as Aizawa-sensei jumped into the fray. He was expecting me to be able to assist him, after getting you all to safety. Since you did not leave when ordered, you opened up an opportunity for a villain to get in between you and the exit.” Izuku turned his glare to Iida. “Iida, when you were ordered to run to the main campus, what did you do?”

Iida bristled at the accusing tone and stated, “I did as you instructed! I ran to the main campus to get help!”

“Oh really?” Izuku’s tone caused him to deflate. “I didn’t have to pick you up in a gust of wind and throw you out the door? I imagined myself doing that?”

“N-no, sensei, you didn’t imagine doing that,” Iida said quietly.

“Because of your actions on Thursday, I was not able to assist Aizawa-sensei until the very end of the attack, and as a result, he very easily could have been killed by one of the villains that had a quirk he was unable to erase. Can anyone tell me what his condition was after the fight?”

Monoma raised his hand, and after getting a nod from Izuku, said, “He was unconscious, one arm was visibly broken, and his elbow was heavily bleeding.”

Izuku nodded. “You don’t have the medical training yet to accurately gauge the extent of injuries, but that was fairly good. Yes, he had a broken arm, the muscles and skin around his right elbow were disintegrated, he had a mild concussion, and three broken ribs. I had managed, finally, to enter the battle at that point and was able to prevent further injuries.”

With a deep breath to center himself, Izuku continued. “If you had all followed my orders and evacuated when told, I could have entered the fight earlier and prevented most of Aizawa-sensei’s injuries. While he is an extremely well-rounded fighter, I excel at long range combat. The only reason he entered the battle instead of me at the beginning is because we trusted you all to be able to handle yourselves in that situation and to follow orders.”

“I want you to understand that the only reason why this is the only punishment you are receiving is because this was the first time you have been in a situation like this. But know this,” Izuku paused for dramatic effect. “The next time you hesitate in following orders while in a situation like this, I will take that as an admission that you do not feel you are qualified for the Hero Course and I will have you transferred to General Education.”

“Izuku, that’s enough,” Shouta stated calmly.

Izuku nodded. “One last thing, before I hand you over to Nii-chan for the rest of homeroom,” Izuku let the anger drain out of his voice and expression. “While your performance at the start of the attack was abysmal, you did manage to get your acts together and you all fought well when you were forced into combat. I want you all to learn from this event, and next time you are given an order, you will follow it. Understood?”

Nineteen voices agreed, but one voice scoffed at him. Izuku turned to the student. “Do you have something you’d like to share, Bakugou?”

“You think you’re some bigshot just because you’re Sensei’s little brother? Please, IcyHot back there is Endeavor’s kid and he’s not acting like some know-it-all up here, and Engines is also related to some pro. What makes you think you’re so much better than the rest of us? You’re not even older than us!”

Izuku shrugged. “I started some basic training under Nii-chan when I was 7, then it got ramped up to the same level you’re currently receiving when I was 10. If the HPSC would have allowed me to take the Hero Licensing Exams, I’d have my license by now. UA acknowledges my actual skill and is giving me the same privileges as if I’d already received my license. So, to answer your question, I am not better than you, I am just more experienced.”

“Bullshit!” Bakugou stated. “I bet I could take you in a fight easy!”

Izuku raised an eyebrow. “Is that so.” He checked the time and then grinned. “Well, sadly I have a class to teach, so I don’t have time right now to call your bluff.” Izuku turned to Shouta, “Nii-chan, do you think we could have a quick match during Heroics today?”

Shouta ducked his face into his capture scarf to hide his grin. “I’m sure that can be arranged.”

Izuku turned his attention back to Bakugou. “Well, since you believe you can take me, feel free to try during class after lunch.”

“I’ll crush you,” he hissed.

Izuku shrugged. “We’ll see. I’ll see you all after lunch,” Izuku said and then left the classroom, turning things back over to Shouta.

Shouta stood up and walked to the podium. “Well, now that Izuku’s done with his impromptu lecture, I’d like to inform you all that the school board has decided we are still going to be holding the Sports Festival.”

“But Sensei,” Jirou called out, “isn’t that a little too soon after what just happened?” Several other students agreed with her.

“The school board, in their infinite wisdom, has decided that this will show the country how well UA handles threats. This is a way to show the country that we have a good crisis management mindset, and a little attack isn’t enough to break our spirits. Or something like that, I don’t know, I wasn’t paying attention, to be honest." Shouta shrugged, showing exactly what he felt towards the school board.

“So, you’ve got two weeks to prepare. The gyms are open for use, you can sign up for time slots.” Shouta scratched at his cheek. “This is one of the few times during your tenure at UA where you have the opportunity to be scouted by agencies for an internship, and later on as a sidekick or even being brought on as a full hero. Don’t screw up. The timing of this is crap, but the chance it presents is invaluable.”

~*~*~*~

Izuku was flicking through camera feeds on his phone while he walked down the halls with his lunch, searching for Yagi Toshinori. Izuku wanted to discuss some things with him about this All For One guy, and possibly even his quirk. One For All sounded like an interesting quirk, and Izuku was curious as to what kind of parameters Yagi was using in deciding on a successor.

“Ah, there you are!” Izuku grinned at his phone and put it away. He whistled merrily as he made his way to the meeting room Yagi had decided to hole himself away in for lunch.

Izuku got to the door to the room and opened it, “Hey there, Yagi-san!” Izuku greeted. “Mind if I join you?”

Yagi looked up sharply at him and hesitantly said, “Young Midoriya, you seem. . . rather chipper today?”

“Oh, I got a lot of my anger out on 1-A this morning, so I’m not in as bad a mood as I could otherwise be. I do have some things I’d like to discuss with you, though.” Izuku sat in a seat across from Yagi. “You see, on Thursday, Masa-chan let a little bit of information slip when he was collecting my statement on the USJ attack, and so after a little bit of research, I have some questions.”

“Masa-chan? Oh, you mean Tsukauchi Naomasa? Yes, he warned me that you had pried information out of him on some extremely classified cases,” Yagi narrowed his eyes at Izuku. “Cases that you are not cleared on.”

Izuku merely waved away the accusations. “I’m an analyst, I fought a creature with multiple quirks, noticed that Masa-chan knew something about multi-quired things, and got information on it. I didn’t pry for information on a case I wasn’t even part of.” Izuku’s gaze sharpened on Yagi. “That said, it did bring up information that I feel is important and relates to my students.”

“How so?” Yagi questioned.

“What parameters are you using to choose a successor for your quirk?” Izuku tilted his head.

Yagi blanched and coughed up some blood into a napkin. “I-I’m not sure I know what you’re talking about, Young Midoriya.”

Izuku hummed thoughtfully. “After doing some digging, I came to discover that One For All can be transferred to other people, and to be quite frank, you don’t have the qualifications to be a teacher, much less a teacher at this school. The fact that you’ve even been allowed to be one at first made me believe my dad was forced to accept your placement.” Izuku sighed in despair. “He all but admitted he wants you to find a successor amongst my students. Which leads me back to my question. What parameters are you using to choose a successor?”

Izuku watched at Yagi sputtered, trying to come up with something to say, and narrowed his eyes. “Please, Yagi-san, tell me you actually have some parameters you’re using to choose your successor?”

“Well, Young Midoriya, I don’t think that’s any of your business! Who I choose as my successor is between me and them, and no one else!”

Izuku stared him dead in the eyes. “I sincerely hope you are including the student’s parents in this, seeing as you would be painting a huge, blinking, neon target on their back.”

Yagi’s expression turned surprised. “W-what do you mean?”

“This quirk of yours is clearly being targeted by All For One, yes?” Izuku asked. Upon receiving a tentative nod from Yagi, Izuku continued. “Why would you think you shouldn’t inform a student’s parents that you are essentially handing their child a 200-year-old nemesis? That you are setting their child up to be a sacrifice?”

“I am doing no such thing!” Yagi stood up to shout at Izuku, but with a flick of his wrist, Izuku sent a gust of wind to knock him back to his seat.

“Aren’t you?” Izuku asked quietly. “The creature the other day had multiple quirks, Yagi-san. Clearly, your enemy All For One is making a move, and you either haven’t passed on your quirk yet, or you have just recently done so. Your successor will not have enough training yet to know how to use the quirk effectively, and as they will no doubt be a student, they will be targeted.”

Izuku stood up, deciding he no longer wanted to eat with Yagi. “Consider using some parameters in choosing your successor, and also informing their parents. Because if I find you have passed your quirk on to a student without speaking to their parents, I will be speaking to them for you.”

~*~*~*~

As everyone got into their gym uniforms, Katsuki noticed Engines approach him. “Bakugou, please reconsider your challenge to Midoriya-sensei. He is extremely formidable, and not to be taken lightly.”

“Shove off, Four-eyes,” Katsuki growled. “If no one else is going to call him out on being an arrogant prick, then I will!” Katsuki stomped his way out of the locker room and to the training ground where Hobo-sensei told them to be. He looked around, looking for that stupid green runt, and scowled when he didn’t see him.

“Ah, Bakugou,” Ponytail walked up to him with a worried expression. “I know you have challenged Izuku-sensei to a fight, but I think it might not be-“

Interrupting her, Katsuki let a few sparks fly from his palms. “That arrogant bastard is about to get crushed! I don’t care what you and Four-eyes think, I’m going to blast that smug look off his damn face. Got it!?”

Ponytail looked at him with a resigned expression and walked off.

Katsuki snarled at IcyHot as he was the next to approach. “What, are you going to try to get me to change my mind too?”

“No, not at all.” IcyHot shook his head with a neutral expression. “If neither Iida nor Momo were able to convince you to give up this useless challenge, then I know nothing I say will change your mind. I just have one question for you.”

“What?”

“Would you like your headstone to say anything in particular? Or will you be content with something generic?” IcyHot had a slight smirk on his face.

“Why the fuck does no one think I can take that smug little shit?!” Katsuki screeched.

IcyHot tilted his head slightly. “Who would you consider the strongest student in this class? Aside from yourself, since I know that will be your answer.”

“Why?” Katsuki glared at him.

“Humor me, please.”

Still glaring at him, Katsuki answered reluctantly, “Either you or Ponytail.”

IcyHot nodded. “Neither Momo nor I have been able to land a hit on Izuku in years.” With that, IcyHot walked back to where Ponytail was standing.

Well shit. The three Legacy kids have all tried to warn him away from this fight, and IcyHot, arguably the strongest student in class, has admitted to not being able to land so much as a hit on him? Katsuki was almost reconsidering this match, but as he saw the smug green bastard walking up to the field laughing next to Hobo-sensei, Katsuki felt his competitive nature flare up. He was going to show this guy that he shouldn’t underestimate Bakugou Katsuki!

Chapter Text

Name: Midoriya Izuku

Age: 15

Quirk: Seems to be elemental manipulation?

Quirk Description: Appears to be able to control but not create fire, electricity, water, ice, wind, and earth

Quirk Weaknesses: He can’t create the elements he controls, but no other weaknesses were observed

Personality: Kind and friendly, intelligent, doesn’t seem to have a temper unless someone he cares about is in danger

Strengths: Skilled in hand-to-hand combat, able to demonstrate combat techniques while in combat, able to keep his emotions in check while fighting, does not let insults get to him, very powerful quirk

Weakness:  Does not seem to use his quirk except in extreme situations, has a few friends among the students (Todoroki Shouto, Yayorozu Momo, possibly Iida Tenya), is very friendly with most of the teachers, most notably Aizawa Shouta (Eraserhead) and Yamada Hizashi (Present Mic), but also said he is close to Kayama Nemuri (Midnight).

Other Observations: Midoriya is a teacher at UA, his class is Analysis, and he is also the Heroics Teaching Assistant. He claims to have been personally trained by Aizawa Shouta since he was 7 years old and would have had his Pro Hero License if the HPSC would let him take the exams, but he is too young. Furthermore, he will not be participating in the Sports Festival due to being a teacher.

Akihiko hummed in interest as he listened to the report his informant provided to him. This was definitely the child of Hisashi, the child that was supposed to be handed over to him fifteen years ago. Hmm, how should he go about collecting this child?

“Sir,” his doctor said quietly, “there seems to be a video attached to the report. Would you like me to play it for you?”

Akihiko grinned and Garaki, barely able to hide his fear, pressed play on the video.

The video was clearly taken from a phone camera, and it was clear that the informant was not the only one with their phones out, recording the match.

--

Midoriya and Bakugou stand facing each other, both in gym clothes – Bakugou in the typical blue with white and red accents, while Midoriya is in white with blue and red accents. Midoriya also seems to be wearing an extremely long off-white scarf.

Bakugou started the fight with a right hook, and Midoriya easily grabbed him and threw him over the shoulder. "So, one thing I want you all to understand, when you are fighting, do keep the telegraphing of your movements to the barest minimum. I was able to see every movement of that right hook. Next time you try to do that attack, try it like this," Midoriya aimed a much tighter right hook at Bakugou, dropping him to the ground once again.

Bakugou got to his feet and growled at Midoriya. Holding his hands out, he attempted to throw a quirk-infused hit, only to have his wrists wrapped in the off-white scarf and tugged, throwing the boy off-balance. “When your opponent comes at you,” Midoriya calmly stated, “if you have the chance, throw them off balance. Not only will it put you in a position to swiftly end the fight, but it can also demoralize your opponent. Or it could also enrage them to the point of making a mistake,” Midoriya smirked, as Bakugou screamed in rage and threw another punch.

This time Midoriya sidestepped the attack and tripped the boy. “Never underestimate the versatility of simply dodging an attack. You can counterattack, trip, or simply get yourself a few seconds of breathing room if your dodge is performed correctly.”

Once again Bakugou jumped to his feet, but this time instead of attacking with a punch, he tried for a leg sweep, one that Midoriya just jumped over. “When attempting a leg sweep, try to be quicker than your opponent,” Midoriya said with an amused smirk on his face.

Bakugou screamed out what sounded a lot like “Die!” before he released an explosion from a few feet away from Midoriya, an explosion that would have been quite painful had Midoriya not once again used the scarf to grab the boy’s wrists, and this time used the scarf to throw the boy across the training circle they were fighting in.

“Would you like to try that again?” Midoriya asked sweetly.

Screaming in rage yet again, Bakugou used his explosions to propel himself at Midoriya, and once again, the green-haired boy stepped to the side. However, this time he also used the scarf to catch Bakugou and slam him back into the ground.

“Do you yield?” he asked calmly. Bakugou was completely wrapped in the scarf, unable to do more than just wiggle. “I can stand here all day, if you like,” Midoriya shrugged.

After another few moments, it seemed the fight left Bakugou. “I yield,” he practically spat out.

--

The video ended there, and Akihiko couldn’t help the grin that spread across his face. Yes, Midoriya Izuku was coming along nicely!

Soon, Akihiko would be able to finally take the boy and make him his true successor. Tomura was a good back-up plan, yes, but Izuku was always the one he’d had his eye on. If only Hisashi had followed orders and brought the boy to him when he was first born. No matter. He’d be getting his hands on the young boy soon enough.

Akihiko couldn’t stop the cackles that escaped from him if he tried.

Chapter Text

Izuku walked into class with a small grin on his face. Today he was going to be going over Quirk Singularity Theory, and he was going to be letting the students of 1-A finally discuss his quirk. They had been asking since the USJ, but he had told them that he was making them wait for this class.

“Good morning, everyone!” Izuku chirped at the students.

“Good morning, Sensei!” a few students chimed back to him.

Before Izuku could get started in today’s lecture, Ashido raised her hand. Izuku nodded at her, “Mido-sensei, we’ve been asking all week, and you keep saying you’ll tell us in class. And now we’re in class. Just what is your quirk???” Almost half of the students were nodding their heads, also wanting the answer to that question.

Izuku tilted his head and looked out at the students with a small grin. “Hmm. I think you should tell me your new theories. You all saw me at the USJ. What do you think my quirk is now? Knowing full well it’s not analysis or intelligence based.”

Knowing that Momo, Shouto, and Tenya knew Izuku outside of classes, most of the students turned on them to try to get their input on their sensei’s quirk, and Shouto, being the wonderful chaos troll he is, started giving more and more incorrect theories. Izuku’s favorites were Vector Manipulation, Physics Manipulation, and Atom Manipulation.

Finally, one person decided to address Izuku. “Elemental Manipulation,” Monoma stated. “That’s your quirk.”

The class all quieted down to see if he was right or not, and Izuku smiled. “Can you elaborate, please?”

Monoma nodded. “From what I saw, you could control air, fire, water, earth, and electricity. It also didn’t look like you created any of the elements, just manipulated what was already there. So that’s my guess. Elemental Manipulation.”

Izuku clapped at him. “Yes! Very good! That is exactly what my quirk is! Unlike Todoroki and Kaminari, I cannot generate the elements I wish to control, but if an element is already there, I can have full control of it. Since air is the element I am most often in contact with, I have almost a passive affinity to air now – I can feel when someone or something is moving in the air, when there is a disturbance, heck, if Hagakure was sneaking around fully invisible, I’d be able to sense exactly where she was.”

Ojijou raised his hand. “How is it that you have such a powerful quirk, Sensei?”

“Perfect question! And that leads me to today’s topic! Quirk Singularity Theory! Other than Shouto and Momo, can anyone tell me what the Quirk Singularity Theory is?” Izuku asked.

“Why are they exempt from answering questions?” Mineta asked with a whine.

“Because I’ve had long conversations with the both of them regarding Singularity in the past. I already know they fully understand today’s lesson.” Izuku raised an eyebrow at him. “But please, since you wanted to complain, you can answer the question. Mineta, what is the Quirk Singularity Theory?”

Mineta scowled at him. “It’s uh… where every quirk is unique? Or something like that?”

“Ah, so you’re just taking the definition of ‘singular’ and basing your answer on that?” Izuku nodded. “Not a bad approach, however it isn’t correct here. Does anyone else want to give it a try?” Hesitantly, Shinsou raised his hand. “Shinsou, you’re up!”

“Um, it’s where the quirks of two people blend together to make a new, more powerful quirk?”

“Yes! Very good! I’m paraphrasing here, but about seventy years ago, a doctor presented the Quirk Singularity Theory. According to him, as the generations follow one another, Quirks blend and evolve, producing stronger and more complex Quirks. However, with this increase in power, the Quirks will also become more difficult to control, since the human body doesn't evolve quickly enough to keep up. There is an add-on to this theory, the Quirk Singularity Doomsday Theory that states eventually, there will come a point when Quirks will become too overpowered and complicated, and no one will be able to control them anymore.”

Many of the students nodded their understanding, but Ojirou raised his hand again. “Is that why your quirk is so strong?”

Izuku nodded his head. “There are quite a few of you in here today that have also been subjected to the Quirk Singularity Theory. I would like to speak as to how this has happened, but if you are not comfortable with me discussing your quirks in this matter, please raise your hand.” Izuku waited a moment to see if any hands raised and was pleased when none did. “Wonderful! I am going to be discussing the quirks of two of you, before I discuss my own.”

“First – Bakugou Katsuki. He is an example of two quirks that are different merging to evolve and create a much more powerful quirk. Bakugou, can you please state for the class what your parent’s quirks are?” Izuku asked cheerily.

“My dad’s quirk is called Acid Sweat, and my old hag’s quirk is called Glycerin.”

Izuku smiled. “Yes, Acid Sweat. This quirk allows your father to secrete acidic sweat with combustive properties from the palms of his hands. He’s not able to forcibly secret it, and if he rubs his hands together, then he can create an explosion. Glycerin. This quirk gives your mother the ability to secrete glycerin from her skin, and because of its moisturizing effects, I’m sure she has great skin?”

Bakugou nodded, surprised at how much Izuku knew about his parents.

“Now, from what we all know about Bakugou, his quirk is Explosion. He is able to secrete sweat with the properties of nitroglycerin and then combust that sweat into explosions. Unlike his father, Bakugou is able to forcibly secrete more sweat in his hands. So, if we’re thinking along the lines of the Singularity Theory, his quirk evolved into something much more powerful than either of his parents. Does this make sense so far?” Izuku asked.

His question was met with nods from the class, and he smiled. “Good. Now, let’s see if we can apply the Singularity Doomsday Theory to him as well, yes?” Izuku turned to Bakugou. “If you are up to sharing, can you tell us about a drawback to your quirk?”

Bakugou slowly lifted his arm. “My arms, well, my wrists, mostly. The bigger the explosion, the more the recoil damages my wrists. That’s why my costume has so many supports on my wrists and forearms.”

Izuku nodded. “Yes, there is that, but I was thinking of another one.”

“Another one?” Bakugou asked confused.

“Yes. If you don’t mind my sharing it?” Izuku paused for him to nod, still confused. Maybe he doesn’t realize this is connected to the Singularity Doomsday? “Your hearing.” Bakugou’s eyes widened in realization as he reached up to touch his ears. “While the recoil is part of your weaknesses, with enough training you can build up muscles and learn the correct way to reduce recoil. However, in working on how to reduce and prevent damage from the recoil, you are leaving yourself open to hearing damage. I am positive you will, or have already, suffered some hearing loss. Your quirk evolved to be incredibly powerful, however your body did not evolve enough ways to protect you from it.”

Bakugou slowly nodded. “I suggest you visit with Recovery Girl for a hearing evaluation, and then schedule a meeting with PowerLoader to see about getting some ear protection added to your costume.”

Izuku paused again to let that information sink in with the class. Once he felt they were ready to move on to the next person, Izuku turned to Kaminari. “After seeing how the lesson can go, are you still comfortable with me sharing this information?”

Kaminari nodded. “Yeah. And I’m guessing you want to know about my parent’s quirks?” Izuku nodded with a gentle smile and Kaminari said, “Well, they both had practically the same quirks, Mom has Mild Shock and Dad’s quirk is called Static Touch. They are both pretty much just an extremely weak version of mine.”

“In your case,” Izuku started, “two quirks merged together to create something much more powerful. That said, I’m sure everyone here has seen Kaminari’s weakness?” Everyone in the class nodded. “Kaminari, I am going to be working with you personally in the coming weeks to see if there is a way to reduce the harm your quirk does to you, and if not, we’ll be working with PowerLoader to find a support item that can help.”

“That would be awesome, Sensei!” Kaminari grinned.

Monoma raised his hand and then asked, “So your parents had elemental quirks, Sensei? Is that why your quirk is so strong?”

“Partially, yes. My mother’s quirk was called Attract Small Objects, which gave her the telekinetic ability to move and attract objects that were less than 5 kilos. My dad’s quirk was Fire Breath, which is fairly self-explanatory – he could breathe fire. Now, what everyone expected from my quirk was a form of Pyrokinesis, the ability to summon and control flames, similar to Endeavor but with more control.” Izuku grinned at the students. “Can anyone – other than Shouto and Momo – theorize why that isn’t my quirk?”

Shinsou is again the one to hesitantly raise his hand after no one else could figure it out. “If I’m understanding the lesson correctly,” he started, “then your quirk probably was going to be Pyrokinesis but was effected by the Singularity Theory.” He paused to see if he was on the right track and continued after Izuku nodded. “I think the Fire Breath aspect was seen as ‘elemental’ and not specifically ‘fire’ when the quirks combined? Or maybe the qualities of your mom’s quirk attracted other elements?”

Izuku’s smile at him was blindingly bright. “That is exactly what I’ve deducted! The Singularity slapped my quirk with an evolution and upgraded the elemental aspect of Fire Breath, and since the individual molecules of the elements are small, my mothers Attract Small Objects gave me the ability to control the elements.”

“Does anyone have any questions about the Quirk Singularity Theory?”

~*~*~*~

At first, Izuku thought it was a trick of the light, but as dinner went on, Izuku became more and more certain that his dad’s fur wasn’t as glossy as normal. He must be really stressed to be letting his fur lose some of its gloss like that.

“Hey Dad?” Izuku asked as he was doing the dishes after dinner.

“Yes, Pup?”

“I noticed your fur isn’t as glossy as normal. I think you need to take the rest of the night to relax, do something fun.” Izuku looked over his shoulder at his dad. “I have a research project I want to start tonight, and I’m sure ruining the lives of a few abusers, maybe also taking down a corrupt school, would help you relax. How about it?”

Nedzu blinked at Izuku for a moment and then looked at his arms to see if he could notice the difference in gloss himself and slumped minutely in his chair when he saw that yes, his fur was a tiny bit less glossy. “I hadn’t even noticed, Pup.” Nedzu looked back up to his son and grinned. “Who are we investigating and why?”

Izuku grinned back at him before returning to the dishes. “I’ve noticed that Shinsou Hitoshi seems to have difficulties in speaking in the mornings, and he also hesitates when using his quirk. He’s been advancing steadily in his other training, but his quirk training is moving at an incredibly slow pace. Earlier today, I saw him wipe away sweat with a towel, and there was some make up on his towel. While I don’t want to say for sure he’s hiding facial scars, he’s also not bothering to hide the bags under his eyes, leading me to think he’s not a vain person.”

Nedzu nodded along, easily following his son’s train of thought. “You think he may have been abused.”

“Yes. You and I both know that muzzles are common ways to attempt to control those with vocal quirks, as Zashi-nii has proven, and a quirk that can affect another is often times seen as ‘villainous’ as Nii-chan has proven. If my theories are correct, Shinsou was either abused by his parents or his former schools, and I am not going to stand around and accept that.” Izuku took a breath, finished drying the last plate and put it up. “I’m worried he’s still being abused.”

Nedzu nodded. “Well, it seems we have an investigation to get started!”

Chapter Text

Classes had ended for the day, but Hitoshi wasn’t on his way home. There were multiple reasons for that normally, from not wanting to be stuck in his room the rest of the night, to wanting to openly stare at the cute blond boy in his class. But today’s reason was because Midoriya-sensei asked to speak with him after classes.

Normally, Hitoshi had training sessions with Aizawa-sensei at the end of the day three days a week, and quirk training with Midoriya-sensei the other two days. Today was one of the days where he was normally training with Aizawa-sensei, but here he was, approaching Midoriya-sensei’s office.

After a quick knock on the door and a quiet “Come in,” Hitoshi opened the door and stepped inside. He had never actually been to Midoriya-sensei’s office, and he had to admit, he had been expecting something a lot. . . different.

Hitoshi had been expecting bookcases with analysis texts, maybe some quirk theory texts, who knows, something to show that he was a teacher, and that he took his job as a teacher seriously. But no, that’s not what his office looked like at all. It was almost as if it was a shrine to his favorite heroes, with Eraserhead, Present Mic, Midnight, and Nedzu being the most prominent, but others, such as Snipe, Fat Gum, and Ryukyu also having a strong presence. As he continued to look around, he also saw a lot of lesser-known underground heroes, too.

Midoriya-sensei giggled at him. “Not what you were expecting?”

Shaking his head, Hitoshi said, “I didn’t peg you as a hero fanboy.”

Midoriya-sensei shrugged. “I’m not.” He giggled again when Hitoshi raised a doubtful eyebrow at him and pointedly looked around the office again. “I know, it seems like I am, but do you know what each and every one of these heroes have in common?”

Hitoshi looked at the heroes again, now looking to see if there was anything similar about them. Midoriya-sensei seemed content to let him try to figure it out himself, not rushing him, and not trying to bring the conversation to the purpose of Hitoshi’s visit, but after a few minutes, Hitoshi had to admit defeat. “I don’t know.”

“I honestly wasn’t expecting you to know. I would have been surprised if you knew.” Midoriya-sensei gestured to the heroes adorning his walls. “Every single hero is an alumnus of UA I’m on good terms with. The ones I have the most merch of are the only ones I am actually a fan of.”

“So Aizawa-sensei, Yamada-sensei, Kayama-sensei, and Principal Nedzu?” Hitoshi asked for verification.

Midoriya-sensei nodded. “Zashi-nii and Nemu-nee keep adding more merch to my collection, both merch of them and custom pieces they find on sites like Etsy for Nii-chan. All of my Nedzu merch, though, has to be constantly replaced – he keeps breaking into my office and tossing it out.” He shrugged, turning a brilliant smile on him. “I toss out his tea stash when he does that, so he usually waits until his tea is nearly depleted before he cleanses my office of his merch.”

Hitoshi snorted in amusement and took a seat across from Midoriya-sensei. “So, Sensei, what was it you wanted to talk about?”

Midoriya-sensei’s expression turned serious, causing Hitoshi to sit up straighter. “Shinsou, I want you to know that after years of studying analysis, I have come to be quite observant.” Hitoshi nodded along hesitantly. He wasn’t sure where Midoriya-sensei was going with this, but he was sure he wasn’t going to like it. “Now, unless those bags under your eyes are a fashion statement, you’re not a vain person. Am I wrong?”

“No, Sensei, you’re not wrong,” he answered.

“I noticed on Monday that you wear concealer on your face. I sincerely hope you just have freckles you’re embarrassed about, but knowing what I do about you, I fear what you’re hiding are scars.”

Hitoshi felt his breath freeze in his lungs and his eyes widen. No one was supposed to figure that out!

“Shinsou-kun,” he continued in a soft voice, “are you safe at home?”

Hitoshi dropped his gaze to his hands. What was he supposed to say? How was he supposed to answer that? He opened his mouth, but nothing came out. Letting out a breath of frustration, because honestly, he had to go mute now, Hitoshi brought up his hands to sign. ‘Can you sign?’

“I can, yes,” came Midoriya-sensei’s easy answer.

Nodding, Hitoshi continued. ‘So long as I follow the rules,’ he signed slowly, ‘I’m safe.’

“Thank you for telling me,” Midoriya-sensei said seriously. “I know this is a difficult topic for you, but if you’re willing to continue, please do. I want to help you.”

Hitoshi huffed out a laugh. ‘Help? There is no help for me. I’ve been trying to get help for years.’ Midoriya-sensei pushed a box of tissues towards Hitoshi, and that was when he realized that he had started crying. Hitoshi pulled a tissue out and started dabbing at his eyes, careful not to smudge the make-up covering his scars.

“Shinsou-kun, you know by now that Present Mic is one of my favorite heroes, that I love him like a brother. He’s an amazing person, full of kindness and joy. He is sunshine personified.” Hitoshi nodded. “What you may not know, however, is that he spent most of his childhood with his voice locked away behind a muzzle.”

Hitoshi’s eyes widened almost comically. Present Mic. . . had been muzzled?

Midoriya-sensei nodded gravely at that. “I asked him about his scars when I was about six or seven. He told me that even though it’s frowned upon for people to muzzle children, it’s not illegal. Because so many parents or guardians muzzle their children when they manifest a voice-activated quirk, it’s become common for those children to have a steeper learning curve when it comes to learning control.”

Hitoshi looked back down at his hands. He didn’t want to be here anymore, listening to his teacher explain what he already knew. He didn’t know what all his quirk was really capable of because he was never allowed to use it, not until he came to UA and started lessons with Midoriya-sensei. He just wanted to go home, crawl under the covers, and sleep for a week.

“I promise you, Shinsou-kun, I will make sure you learn everything there is to know about your quirk. But in the meantime, I also want to help you get out of a home that may be hurting you. I just need you to tell me.”

Hitoshi glanced up at his teacher to find such a sincere look on his face, Hitoshi couldn’t help himself. He told Midoriya-sensei everything.

He told him about how his parents abandoned him when he turned 4 after his quirk manifested, how he had been muzzled within the first day of being dropped off at the orphanage, how he was sent from one home to another, how he had been starved at a few homes when they would only allow his muzzle to be removed every other day for meals, and finally, how this latest home was the best one he’d ever lived at.

This home only muzzled him when he spoke, this home allowed him to apply for UA, and then let him attend when he was accepted. This home let him eat every day, even if they didn’t let him eat with them at mealtimes.

Midoriya-sensei stayed quiet for a few moments as he processed what Hitoshi had said. Finally, he looked up at Hitoshi. “If I can find someone with a foster license, someone I know would take much better care of you than your current home, would you be willing to give them a chance?”

Hitoshi’s eyes widened again. ‘Who?’ he asked.

Midoriya-sensei smiled a wry smile. “I have to ask them first. I don’t want to get your hopes up just for them to say no. I just want to know if you’d accept if I found someone. If you won’t accept a new placement, then there is no point in looking. We can’t get you into a safe and caring home if you won’t work with us.”

Hitoshi had to blink hard, trying to stop a fresh wave of tears from coming, and nodded hard. “Please,” he whispered. He looked back up at Midoriya-sensei, “Please, help me.”

Midoriya-sensei gently took Hitoshi’s hand. “I will. I promise,” he said, and then pulled Hitoshi in for a hug, letting him cry out his relief at finally getting help.

~*~*~*~

Izuku skipped to the teacher’s lounge, hoping that there were a few teachers still there, including Nii-chan and Zashi-nii, otherwise his playful mode of picking a new parent for Shinsou would be ruined. He was hopeful, though!

And sure enough, he opened the door to the lounge to find Snipe and Nemu-nee flirting – excuse him, “chatting” – while Zashi-nii was talking with Higari. Nii-chan was glaring at Sekijiro who wasn’t doing anything other than eating chips while grading. Perfect.

Izuku waited until all eyes were on him before he grinned, an expression learned straight from his dad. “Eenie, meenie, miny, you!” Izuku called out in a sing-song voice as he pointed to various teachers, landing on Zashi-nii. “Congrats, Zashi-nii! You have been randomly selected to acquire a new assignment! Follow me to learn the details!”

Zashi-nii gulped audibly and muttered to Higari, “Pray for me,” before he got up to follow Izuku out of the lounge.

“So, what’s up?” Zashi-nii asked as they reached Izuku’s office but didn’t go inside.

“Zashi-nii, I’m going to be honest. I did not pick you randomly,” Izuku admitted.

Zashi-nii snorted. “Yeah, I never thought you did. I’m just surprised you picked me and not Shouta.”

Izuku hedged a bit, but finally said, “It’s a 50/50 chance on if Nii-chan would just go along with what I need, but after hearing the situation, there’s a 97% chance you’ll do what I need. And I know that between the both of us, we can get Nii-chan to agree.”

Zashi-nii nodded. “Tell me now and be perfectly honest.” He waited for Izuku to nod in agreement. “What’s waiting for me in your office?”

“Shinsou Hitoshi,” Izuku answered easily. “He’s been bounced around from one abusive foster home after another since he was four years old. He says this is the best one he’s ever lived at because they don’t muzzle him unless he talks at home. I know you and Nii-chan have foster licenses.”

Zashi-nii held up a hand to stop Izuku from talking. “You had me at ‘abusive foster home,’ kiddo, mentioning the muzzle was just the icing on the top.” He self-consciously rubbed his own muzzle scars. “You could have asked Shouta and as soon as you mentioned either of those, he would have been 100% on board also.”

“I may have also mentioned to Shinsou-kun that you had been treated the same as him as a kid,” Izuku admitted with a sheepish expression. “I didn’t know just how bad his homelife was, and I needed him to be open and honest. I didn’t want him to think I felt he was weak for receiving help.”

“That’s fine, Zuzu,” Zashi-nii said and ruffled his hair. “Let’s go in and talk to Shinsou-kun, yeah?”

Izuku hugged Zashi-nii quickly and muttered out a soft, “Thanks,” before he opened the door to his office.

~*~*~*~

‘My chaos brother senses are tingling,’ Shouta thought to himself. ‘What fresh bullshit am I getting dragged into?’ He had been having a slightly worrying feeling ever since Izuku had pulled Zashi out of the lounge, and now he couldn’t even focus properly on glaring at Vlad.

He had just decided to go search for where Izuku had dragged Zashi when his phone dinged with a text message.

Spotlight – Our spare room doesn’t have a bunch of crap in it, right?

NightGremlin – I want you to know I’m squinting at you very suspiciously.

Spotlight – We’re taking in one of your kids. Shinsou Hitoshi. Abusive foster parents + muzzle = he’s ours now.

Shouta’s eyes flashed red with the force of his instant fury. If there was one thing he hated more than anything, it was abusive parents who muzzled their kids. It took him entirely too long to convince Zashi to see a therapist for the nightmares he had from his own childhood with muzzles. Shit, Zashi was probably going to have a few nightmares again after hearing about a student going through his same situation.

Shouta managed to calm himself down and replied to Zashi’s last text.

NightGremlin – That would explain why he’s so quiet. I think the room is empty, but it could definitely stand to air out. Want me to head home now, or wait for you? Is the kid coming home with you tonight?

Spotlight – I’m going to escort him to the place he’s currently living to pick up his things, and I’ve already contacted his social worker regarding a change of custody – they’ll meet us there – but yes, he’s coming home with me tonight. You can come with us, or you can go home, but I need the car.

NightGremlin – I’ll go home and get it ready for him. If I tag along, I’d be charged with keeping you from screaming at the parents. You should know I’m making a face at that idea.

Spotlight – And you should know I’m laughing at you. Zuzu giggled when I showed him what you said.

Shouta slipped his phone back into his pocket and packed up his bag. It wouldn’t take him too long to walk back home, they only lived about 15-minutes from the school. The only reason they drove today was because Shouta refused to wake up until the last possible minute in order to get to class on time.

“Not waiting for Zashi?” Nemuri asked as Shouta slipped his bag over his shoulder.

“He’s got things to do and asked me to do something before he gets home,” Shouta replied. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Chapter Text

Hitoshi adjusted his grip on the duffel bag across his back and walked down the stairs. He didn’t have much to pack, having mostly been living out of the bag since he started living in this home, knowing he could be moved at any time. He was downstairs less than ten minutes after being told to go pack.

“You’re going to need this,” he heard his former foster mom say. “You don’t want to let him speak to you.”

For a second Hitoshi froze, realizing she was handing his new guardian his muzzle, but then remembered his new guardian was Yamada-sensei. Present Mic.

“So, funny story,” Yamada-sensei said, Hitoshi hearing the strain of keeping his voice at an acceptable level. “When you treat someone like a villain their entire lives, they sometimes get angry enough to just lean into the position they’ve been put in. You keep kicking someone, don’t be surprised when they kick back. That said, I’m taking Shinsou away from you before he snaps and decides to show you the monster you apparently want to see him as. He wants to be a hero to show you and the rest of society just how wrong about him you are, and I am going to be behind him the entire time.”

Hitoshi came the rest of the way into the living area, but before he could tell Yamada-sensei that he was ready to go, his foster dad spoke up. “What makes you think you’ll be able to fight him off if he controls you if you’re not going to muzzle him?”

“Nothing,” Yamada-sensei answered. “If he catches me in his quirk, then he catches me. The difference is, though, I trust him not to do anything bad. He’s been forced to remain silent for so long, now that he’s training his quirk, accidents will happen. That’s just how these things work. He’d have much better control now if he’d been allowed to practice as a kid, but sadly, he wasn’t allowed that luxury.”

“And you’re not scared of what he could make you do?”

“Not in the slightest, no. Shinsou’s a good kid. I’m going to be helping him learn his quirk anyways, so I’ll actively be encouraging him to use his quirk on me. I trust him. Simple as that.” Hizashi seemed to realize then that Hitoshi was watching him and turned around. With a huge smile, he asked, “You all packed? Ready to ditch this popsicle stand?”

Hitoshi snorted at that. “Yeah, I’m ready to go.”

As they walked towards the car, Hitoshi was struck with a thought – Present Mic trusted him. He couldn’t figure out why, though. He’s a villain kid, everyone says that. Yeah, he’s trying to be a hero, but it’d be so easy for him to cause damage, especially if he had access to someone like Present Mic! The man had a powerful quirk, and if Hitoshi wanted to…

“Why-“ Hitoshi cut himself off before he could finish his question, scowling at the ground. He needed to ask Yamada-sensei, but his voice was starting to fail him.

“What’s up, listener?”

Hitoshi looked up at him again and opened his mouth to try asking, but his voice refused to work with him this time. Raising his hands to sign instead he asked, ‘Why do you trust me so much?’

Hizashi blinked at him for a moment, but then walked up to him and put his hands on his shoulders. “Shinsou, like I said earlier, you’re a good kid. Life has given you a shit hand, but the fact that you are still a good kid is enough for me to trust you.”

‘But the things I could make you do-‘

Yamada-sensei cut him off. “Nope, no doubting is allowed here. I have full faith in you. You’re going to be an amazing hero, and I’m not going to let anyone say otherwise, not even you.” He ruffled Hitoshi’s hair before pulling him in for a hug. “Let’s go home, Listener, yeah?”

~*~*~*~

As much as Hizashi had tried to pull Shinsou into a conversation, the boy kept to short replies. That’s fine, though, he’s had a lot of practice carrying conversations with his husband.

“And we’re here!” Hizashi exclaimed, parking the car. “I think you’ll like it here, at least I hope so! But we can be a little chaotic at times, especially when Zuzu comes over.”

“Zuzu?” Shinsou questioned.

“Mhm! Izuku and Shouta have been close since Izu was a baby, didn’t Zuzu mention that?” Hizashi asked with a head tilt.

“Wait, are you talking about Midoriya-sensei and Aizawa-sensei?”

“Yup! Oh, did I forget to mention that Shouta’s my husband? Sorry about that!” Hizashi had been so gung-ho about getting Shinsou out of his former home, he may have skipped over some details. “Come on, let’s head on in!”

Shinsou nodded and hefted his bag up on his shoulder and the two of them went upstairs. “We’ve got two cats, although I guess I should say Izuku has two cats that live with us, and their names are EraserCat and Present Meow.” Shinsou snorted, so Hizashi took that as a victory. “He was 5 when he named them, and we happen to be his second and third favorite heroes.”

“Second and third? Who’s his first? Is it Principal Nedzu?” Shinsou asked.

“Yup!” Hizashi nodded enthusiastically. “I doubt anyone will ever take his place as Izu’s favorite, but Shouta comes really close.” Hizashi unlocked the door and let Shinsou inside. At noticing Izuku’s shoes in the genkan, he chuckled. “Speak of the green devil, and he’ll appear!”

The two of them walked further into the apartment and Hizashi had to slap his hands over his mouth to keep himself from laughing. Izuku was sitting on the coffee table, looking seriously at the two cats that were relaxing on Shouta’s lap. “You two better behave yourselves, now. You’re getting a new housemate, and you will love him like you love Nii-chan, am I understood?”

“Not your Nii-chan,” Shouta said, somehow maintaining a straight face.

“Hush, you,” Izuku dismissed. “I know you’ll behave yourself, EraserCat, but Present Meow, I need you to promise me you won’t make an ungodly racket at two in the morning.”

Shinsou apparently wasn’t as accomplished at holding back his laughter and burst into a fit of giggles at Izuku giving the cats a very stern talking to.

“I can’t – pfft – is he really doing this right now?” he managed to get out between his laughter.

“Oh, you can hush, too!” Izuku threw over his shoulder. “I’m trying to make sure Present Meow doesn’t wake you up at 2am. He can be an annoying loudmouth!” As if to prove Izuku’s point, the blond tabby let out a loud, wailing yowl. “Unless you want to be woken up by that?”

Shouta lost his battle with keeping a straight face when EraserCat swiped at Present Meow’s head in retaliation for the noise. Present Meow just turned around and screamed his displeasure at EraserCat, who started bapping him on the head rapid fire. Present Meow jumped down from Shouta’s lap, turned back to EraserCat and hissed at him, then ran off when EraserCat moved to tackle the tabby.

Izuku stood up and put his hands on his hips. “I told you two to behave!” he scolded the cats. “Ugh, children never listen!” Izuku flopped himself on Shouta and pouted as everyone else started laughing at him.

“So, Shinsou, welcome,” Shouta said, standing up and shoving Izuku to the other side of the couch. “I’ve opened the window in your room, but it might still be a little musty. The only person who’s used it recently is Izuku, but he mentioned that the bed in there isn’t comfy, so he always sleeps on the couch when he comes over. If the bed really isn’t comfy, let us know and we’ll get you a new one. Izuku might just be picky.”

“Yeah, that’s a possibility,” Izuku admitted. “Dad’s really picky about where he sleeps, and he’s always made sure I never have any complaints about the furniture at home.”

Shinsou shrugged. “I’ve slept on the floor in a few homes, so even if there is something wrong with the bed, I probably won’t notice it.”

Izuku put both hands on Shinsou’s cheeks and squeezed. “You are my nephew now, and in this family, we spoil the kids. Prepare to be spoiled.”

“Shit,” Shouta breathed. “If you’re claiming uncle rights, then does that mean Nedzu’s claiming grandpa rights?”

Releasing Shinsou’s cheeks and turning to Shouta, Izuku smiled brightly. “That’s right! He would have come today, but I told him to go home and take care of his fur. He’s been pretty stressed since the USJ happened, and one night of investigations didn’t help him relax as much as I had hoped.”

Shinsou raised his hand tentatively. “Um. Is Principal Nedzu your dad?”

“Yes! He’s the best dad in the world! But please don’t tell any of your classmates that he’s my dad, I’m curious about how long it will take them to figure it out,”

“Are you staying the night, kiddo?” Hizashi asked Izuku.

“Nah, just wanted to make sure Shinsou-kun made it here tonight and give the babies a talking-to. I have to head home to get dinner started for Dad. If I don’t get home soon, he might cut his fur care down to get it started himself.”

~*~*~*~

“Okay everyone, good job! Before you get changed, I want to go over an announcement!” Izuku called out to the students. They had just finished up an hour at one of the gyms, doing some strength training, and they were all understandably exhausted. Just as Izuku was about to give the announcement, All Might interrupted.

“That’s right, Young Midoriya! Class, as you know, the Sports Festival is going to be held in just two short weeks! I expect each and every one of you to put in your full effort! Show the world what it means to be a student in UA’s Hero Course!” All Might made a few poses and then continued with his impromptu speech. “In years past, the world looked to The Olympics, but nowadays, the world looks to The UA Sports Fest! There will be thousands, if not millions of viewers for this event, and this is your stage!”

All Might’s speech did encourage some of the students, however there were a few who looked at Izuku, clearly hoping he was going to say something along the lines of ‘Just Kidding!’ Those kids were lucky that his announcement was different.

“Yeah, like All Might said, the Sports Fest is in two weeks. But! Participation is not mandatory, so if you don’t want to show off your quirks for the entire world to see, you don’t have to. I do encourage you to participate in the first event, but you are not obligated to participate. Furthermore, the event will not be broadcast to the whole world like in years past. As teachers, we have petitioned the School Board to limit live showings to Pro Heroes, and outside of direct family and friends of students, tickets to the event will be limited as well. There will still be a rather large audience, but nothing like in previous years.” Izuku looked at each of the students, noticing which ones were showing relief and which were showing disappointment in not making as big a showing as they were hoping.

Tenya raised his hand, and when Izuku nodded to him, he asked, “If we’re not going to be televised as in years past, how will we be able to get our names out for internships? My brother has mentioned that the Sports Fest is the best way to advertise our abilities for potential mentors!”

All Might laughed at him and answered, “You should all aim to participate and do your best! You don’t want to let down your instructors, now, do you?”

“Regardless of what All Might is saying,” Izuku added, “There will be a list of heroes who are open to accepting students no matter what position they received in the competition, or if they even participated at all. Additionally, if you are aiming for the Underground, you might want to skip the Sports Fest entirely, as that would make your future careers that much more difficult in the future. You don’t have to worry about letting me down if you choose to sit out this year, or even future years.”

Izuku could see the little vein on All Might’s forehead twitching with the strain of not arguing with Izuku in front of the students, but that didn’t stop him from dismissing the class and then turning to Izuku with a glare. “Why must you constantly undermine me?! The students should all participate!”

“Yagi,” Izuku sighed in annoyance. “The only reason we’re even having the Sports Fest this year is because the School Board won’t pull their heads out of their asses. Literally every single teacher on staff petitioned to cancel or at least postpone the event this year-“

“That is not true! I am in full support of-“

“You are not a teacher!” Izuku hissed at him. “Do you even realize what happened?? The school was broken into, twice, because some villains want to kill you! They decided to target the students, hoping that would draw you out. The only reason the students all survived that encounter was because the villains didn’t know their quirks and didn’t plan accordingly. If we force the kids to participate in a widely televised event, the villains will certainly be watching, taking notes on them, and the next time they attack, they might succeed in killing a student. I am not going to force these kids to take that risk if they don’t want to, and neither is my dad.”

Izuku turned on his heel and stormed away. He wasn’t going to waste braincells on arguing with All Might today.

Chapter Text

Izuku had given the speech about how the Sports Fest was optional this year to each of his classes, and some of the students who still wanted to participate had said they wouldn’t be giving it their all this year and would instead focus on just having fun. They all understood that there was a risk of villains getting their information that was greater this year than ever before.

So Izuku didn’t bother showing up.

He was a teacher, yes, however since he wasn’t a licensed hero, if anything did happen, he wouldn’t be allowed to fight and there were going to be a lot of heroes in attendance anyways.

So, instead of watching the matches in person, Izuku decided he was going to get started on grading some extra credit essays he had assigned while the Sports Fest played in the background.

Kaminari had turned in an essay that was surprisingly well thought out on the analysis of why the Pikachu line, while adorable, was fairly weak and nowhere near the hype. Izuku thoroughly enjoyed that essay and gave it full marks not only for originality, but also for the research Kaminari had put into electricity, the theoretical anatomy of Pokémon, and how he could incorporate some of the various electric moves into his own move set.

Tenya had also turned in an essay, but upon reading it, Izuku was highly disappointed. Tenya’s essay was, admittedly, a fairly decent analysis on the hero Ingenium, but with Ingenium being Tenya’s older brother and having a quirk nearly identical to Tenya’s, there was very little actual analysis or research put in.

Izuku glanced up at the television to check on his student’s progress in the Sports Fest and was surprised to see he missed out on the first and second rounds. Oh well. Zashi-nii probably won’t mind giving him the highlight reels tonight at dinner.

Bakugou also wrote an essay, his on various explosive mediums. Izuku was impressed at the sheer amount of explosives he had managed to include, clearly having put in a lot of research, however he had to dock points for the lack of analysis elements.

Finally, Izuku got to the one he had been looking forward to since he saw the spark of amusement in Shouto’s eyes as he turned it in.

Mutation-quirk births

An essay by Todoroki Shouto

Izuku took one look at the title and had to put down the essay. He needed something to snack on while reading this gem. A few minutes later, Izuku returned to the paper with a bowl of popcorn, ready for the entertainment that he had saved for last.

Humans with mutation quirks give birth differently than the usual quirked human due to their mutation; their anatomy differs from the standard human anatomy. As a result, they give birth the same way that the creature their mutation is based on does.

I will be using my classmates – Tokoyami and Tsuyu as examples. Tokoyami and Dark Shadow were clearly hatched from an egg due to their bird mutation. Tsuyu was hatched from a frog egg and then grew from tadpole to full-fledged frog. To confirm my theories, I have asked the classmates in question, Tokoyami and Tsuyu, as to how they were born.

Tokoyami says he was born in the normal manner for humans, however - I am sure that he is lying because, it would be embarrassing for him to say he hatched from an egg. I have another theory about him but I am certain that would derail this essay so I shall leave it for another time.

Tsuyu neither confirmed nor denied my assumption that she was born as a tadpole. To quote her; “A frog is considered a tadpole until it grows legs at which point it is considered a froglet.” In conclusion she was not only hatched from a frog egg, she also went through the typical process of becoming a fully-fledged frog - including being a tadpole.

I also ventured as far as to ask Kamakiri from Class 1-B as to if he too was birthed from an egg. He stared at me strangely before cocking his head and asking, “How did you know?” Kamakiri’s father is still alive (surprisingly enough). I am very grateful I asked Kamakiri for he gave me a concrete example to use unlike Tsuyu and Tokoyami.

Looking at the data I have collected thus far I have concluded that all persons with mutation quirks have hatched from eggs. That leads me to believe that "mutation quirks" are simply quirked animals - the reason for this is that though humanoid in appearance, intelligence, and mannerisms many people with mutation quirks closely resemble the animal their quirk is named after. Not to mention that all of them have hatched from eggs.

I believe that my classmates and peers like Koda, Mina, Shouji, Pony, Kuroiro and Ojiro do not have mutation quirks because they were not hatched from eggs. According to the research I have done, people with mutation quirks hatch from eggs and therefore, that disqualifies them from having mutation quirks.

In conclusion I may need to survey and collect data from a wider range of individuals with mutation quirks in order to discover the answer to my question. However, my current evidence leads me to the conclusive answer that people with mutation quirks are indeed born differently from other individuals in that they are hatched from eggs.

“Oh, I needed that,” Izuku managed to wheeze out around his giggles after reading Shouto’s essay.

Shouto would most definitely not be getting full marks on that, but as it was just the extra credit essay, he knew Shouto wasn’t expecting a high score. Shouto had a few notebooks at home, ones he’s shared with Izuku on countless occasions, that were full of conspiracy theories, and now that he had the opportunity to share them? Share them he would.

After entering the grade for Shouto, Izuku looked up to check the progress of the Sports Fest. It looked like it was the third round of the 1v1 matches, and according to the screen, it was supposed to be Shouto versus Tenya. Shouto was standing on the stage, but Tenya was nowhere to be seen.

“Hang on, Listeners!” Izuku heard Zashi-nii call out over the mic. “It seems there’s been a family emergency for our young Iida Tenya, so he’s chosen to withdraw from the competition. The winner by default is Todoroki Shouto!”

As the crowd cheered for Shouto, Izuku pulled out his phone and called his dad.

“I take it you’re calling to inquire about Iida-kun’s family emergency, Pup?” his dad asked instead of a greeting.

“Did something happen to Tensei?” Izuku asked. There really was no other way Tenya would withdraw from an event like this. Something happening to his brother was the only thing Izuku could think of.

“Yes,” his dad answered. “Iida Tensei was attacked by the Hero Killer an hour and a half ago. He is still in surgery as of right now. I am afraid I don’t have any other information for you, Pup.”

“That’s fine,” Izuku said. “Thanks, Dad. I’ll look into it on my own, you go back to paying attention to the Sports Fest.”

They ended the call and Izuku walked into his room. Both him and his dad had complicated computer set ups in their rooms for their ‘research projects’ when they didn’t want to make the trip to UA. Izuku powered on the computer and cracked his knuckles. He had a serial killer to analyze.

An hour later saw Izuku on the phone with Police Chief Tsuragamae Kenji, wanting to reach through the line and strangle the useless waste of oxygen.

“I could charge you with obstruction of justice!” Chief Tsuragamae snarled to Izuku. “No one gave you permission to interfere in our investigation!”

“Please, pray tell how I’m obstructing anything when I am literally telling you what Stain’s quirk is!” Izuku snapped back. “I am giving you information, and you’re willfully disregarding me. If anything, you are the one obstructing your own justice!”

Izuku could hear the police chief growling on the other end of the line. “You hacked into our databases to get information that you were not privy to.”

“That is not correct,” Izuku countered. “I have a police log in, and information on the Hero Killer is not limited to just Hosu. I haven’t looked at what little information you have on him, since Ingenium was the first hero in your city to be attacked.”

“Your so-called ‘help’ is not welcome here. I don’t know what kind of standards the other precincts keep, but here in Hosu, we only employ licensed heroes! Now, you need to keep your teenage nose out of adult business, am I clear?”

Izuku growled at the police chief with a sound that could easily be mistaken for one of his dad’s. “Crystal.” Izuku disconnected the call and almost threw his phone across the room.

~*~*~*~

RatGod – Shouta-kun, please collect my son. He’s in gym upsilon. He won’t answer my calls or texts.

NightGremlin – I thought he was staying at home today?

RatGod – He was. He got to UA shortly after the Sports Fest ended. He was researching the Hero Killer but has not kept me updated.

NightGremlin – okay. I will probably end up keeping him for the night, but I’ll make sure he calls you

RatGod – thank you Shouta-kun

Shouta put his phone back in his pocket. “Zashi, I need to stop by Upsilon. Apparently, the brat’s not answering his phone and Nedzu’s worried.”

Hizashi frowned but nodded. “He must be really upset if he’s ignoring Nedzu. Do you think he heard about Tensei?”

“Yeah. Nedzu said he was researching Stain. If you can wait a while, I’ll probably be bringing him home with us,” Shouta said. Hizashi nodded and Shouta took off at a light jog for the gym.

As he got closer to the gym, Shouta started to feel tremors in the ground. “Shit, Izu’s pissed,” Shouta muttered to himself. From the tremors, Shouta could just imagine Izuku ripping up chunks of ground and throwing them around the gym with his wind streams. It takes a lot to anger his little brother, but when he does get mad, he unleashes his quirk at full power. “Yeah, there goes the electricity,” he groaned as the lights in the gym went out.

Shouta contemplated the likelihood of getting a boulder or bolt of lightning shot at him before he could erase Izuku’s quirk before he just opened the door to the gym with his quirk active. Instantly, the electrical storm ended, and all chunks of ground fell to the floor.

Izuku stood in the center of the gym with his arms to his side. Without even turning around to face him, Izuku called out to Shouta. “He’s going to willingly let at least two more heroes get hurt or killed.”

Knowing that Izuku was at least aware of his presence, Shouta dropped his quirk and approached. “Who?”

“Hosu’s chief of police.” Izuku finally turned to Shouta. “I figured out what Stain’s quirk was, so I called up Hosu to let them know, since that’s the city he’s currently hunting. I was basically told to keep out of the adult’s business, and that he didn’t want my information.”

Shouta had reached Izuku by this point and the kid leaned in for a hug, burying his face in Shouta’s chest. “If Dad calls them up with my information, do you think he’ll accept it? I don’t want anymore heroes to get hurt just because the chief is an idiot.”

“I don’t know,” Shouta hummed, carding his hand through Izuku’s curls. “But I have an idea to get back at him, if you’re interested.”

“He’s got the head of a dog, meaning he’s got enhanced senses,” Izuku muttered. “I’m planning to find his home address and cover his entire house or apartment in deer urine. Maybe plant some catnip in the area to attract all of the city’s stray cats.”

“Definitely still do that,” Shouta snorted, “but also, come to Hosu with me as my intern. We can hunt Stain ourselves. If the chief doesn’t want your help to catch him, fine. We can take the credit for his capture ourselves.”

Izuku grinned at him. “Really? You’ll actually take the credit for something?”

“Well,” Shouta amended, “I’ll let you take the credit, while I’m just the mentor in the background. How’s that sound?”

“Sounds good, Nii-chan!”

Chapter Text

“Tenya, how long have we known each other?” Izuku asked as Tenya took a seat in front of Izuku’s desk.

“About ten years now, I believe?” he answered.

Izuku nodded. “Yeah, that’s about how long I thought it was. In any of those ten years, have you ever thought me to be an idiot?”

“What?! No! Never! You’re one of the smartest people I’ve ever met, Midoriya!” Tenya enthusiastically denied. “What makes you believe I think such about you?”

Izuku slid Tenya’s Internship selection back to him. “Do you want to explain why you picked Manual? Who knows, if you can manage to convince me you aren’t going to try for revenge against Stain, I might just consider letting you go.”

Tenya swallowed nervously and glanced at his hands. Izuku narrowed his eyes. “You will not be going to Hosu, Tenya. Stain has killed 17 Pro Heroes. Let me repeat that, to make sure it gets through your thick skull. Stain has killed 17 Pro Heroes! You, Tenya, are not a Pro Hero.”

He looked back up at Izuku and for the first time since Tensei was hurt, Tenya wasn’t hiding his emotions. “I know that! You think I don’t know that?! But I can’t just sit here and do nothing! He needs to pay for what he did to my brother!” Tenya yelled, tears gathering in his eyes.

“And he will,” Izuku promised in a quiet voice. “But if you go after him, you’ll only raise his number from 17 to 18. I am not letting you go to Hosu, so pick another hero to intern with.”

“How do you know?” Tenya whispered, voice cracking. “How do you know someone will make him pay for what he’s done?”

Izuku was silent for a few moments as he waited for Tenya to look back up at him. When he did, Izuku finally replied to his question. “Because I am going to Hosu with Nii-chan next week.”

Tenya’s expression morphed into anger again. “So, it’s fine for you to go, but not me?! How is that fair?!”

“Do you know what his quirk is, Tenya?” Izuku asked, not allowing himself to react to Tenya’s anger. “Because I do.”

That seemed to have stalled his mounting anger, because Tenya’s face scrunched in confusion. “What’s his quirk?”

“No, I’m not telling you. I don’t want there to be any chance of you showing up in Hosu, believing you can take him on.”

“But you’ll be there!” Tenya shot back.

“Yes, I will. With a hero who knows what my abilities are, knows what my intentions are, and is prepared to offer back up. If I need him to, Shouta will erase Stain’s quirk, taking away the advantage he has against others. His quirk will put nearly anyone who goes up against him at a serious disadvantage, but his quirk isn’t his biggest strength.” Izuku shook his head. “You are not ready to face him, Tenya.”

~*~*~*~

“Alright everyone,” Midoriya-sensei called out to the students who were all gathered around at the train station. “You all have your cases, and directions on how to get to the agency or to the meeting place for the hero you’re interning with. Keep in mind that in addition to being a learning experience for you, this is also your first debut into the Hero Society. Pros talk. Make sure that they only have good things to say about you. It is a lot easier to ruin your reputation than it is to build it up.”

“Yes, Sensei,” most of the class chimed.

Midoriya-sensei nodded at them. “Take care, call me or Aizawa if you need us, and I’ll see you all next week.”

And with that, everyone split up to find their trains. Hitoshi quickly realized he was going to be on the same train as Kaminari, and he wasn’t sure if he should thank or curse his luck for that.

“Hey Shinsou!” Kaminari said. “You going to Tokyo too?”

Hitoshi nodded. “Yeah, I’m going to be with an Undergound Hero out there. How about you?”

“I’m going with Livewire! She’s getting close to retirement, but Mido-sensei said he asked her personally to take me as her quirk is similar to mine. Apparently, she’s got some cool support gear, and Mido-sensei wants me to see if that would work for me.”

“I think I’ve heard of her,” Hitoshi admitted. “She was a pretty big deal about ten years ago, I think she managed to make it to 5^th or 6^th place in the charts before she started stepping back.”

“Which hero are you going with?” Kaminari asked. “I don’t really know any underground heroes aside from Aizawa-sensei, so I doubt I’ve heard of them.”

Hitoshi shrugged. “Yeah, I hadn’t even heard of her until Midoriya-sensei suggested her. Her name is Shroud, and she’s got an illusion quirk, I guess.”

“Huh. I would have thought you’d be going with Aizawa-sensei. I mean, he’s been training you in his capture scarf thing, right? And in his fighting style?” Kaminari tilted his head in confusion, and Hitoshi couldn’t help but compare him to Present Meow.

Hitoshi rubbed the back of his neck to avoid looking at Kaminari. “That was the original plan, yeah, but something came up. He’s taking Midoriya-sensei as an intern for the week instead.”

“Wait, what? Why? Isn’t Mido-sensei a hero already? Why does he need to do an internship?”

Hitoshi shook his head. “No, remember? Midoriya-sensei was too young to take the licensing exams. He needs to have a valid internship to qualify for the Provisional Licensing Exam, and he needs the Provisional License to qualify for the Pro Hero Licensing Exam.”

“Oh yeah! Now I remember him saying that. I think I was assuming he’d intern with the Principal, since he’s an analyst, though. Why’s he going with Aizawa?” Kaminari asked as their train arrived.

Hitoshi waited until they had gotten on the train and into their seats before he replied. “I think they’re going after the Hero Killer. And after what Midoriya-sensei did at the USJ, I think he could take him.”

~*~*~*~

“I still can’t believe you got us a room at this hotel,” Shouta complained. His original plan had been to stay at a motel near the last attack, but Izuku refused, opting to instead stay in a suite at a mid-range hotel.

“Yeah, yeah, you would have been happy on a park bench with your sleeping bag, I know,” Izuku dismissed. “But I need room to work, analyze patterns, and this is one of the only hotels that had an empty wall big enough for me to work with.”

“Wait, I thought everything was on the computer?” Shouta asked, thoroughly confused.

“It is. But I like to project it onto a larger screen to help me think,” Izuku shrugged. He opened up one of the suitcases he had brought with him and pulled out both his laptop and a portable projector. It took him next to no time to set them up and pull up the information he had been working on the past few days. “Now, according to Stain’s past patterns, he’s going to be after a Hero who he feels isn’t living up to the name.”

“Tensei does live up to the name, though, doesn’t he?”

“Mhm. That’s why he was left alive.” Izuku tilted his head and gestured to the 23, now 24, heroes that had been wounded in their encounters. “I believe that these heroes were either those who ran across him and attempted to stop him, getting injured because they wouldn’t let him go, or those who he had targeted, but during their fight said or did something to make him believe they didn’t deserve death.”

“So, he didn’t specifically target Tensei?” Shouta asked for clarification.

“Nope!” Izuku grinned widely. “The location where Tensei was attacked was where his patrol route crosses over with three other heroes, Native, Red Line, and Binoc. I think Stain was casing the area for a good ambush site, and Tensei noticed him.”

“And since Tensei is a speed-based hero, Stain couldn’t get away from him. His only option was to disable him.” Shouta remembered that Tensei’s injuries wouldn’t have been quite as severe if he had just stopped trying to go after the villain, but Tensei admitted that he hadn’t realized just how badly he had been injured due to the adrenaline in his system. “In other words, Stain’s target was likely one of the other three.”

“My money is on Native,” Izuku agreed. “He’s got decent stats, and nothing really stands out as bad, however his image is problematic, as is his name. One of Stain’s early targets was the hero Thor. All Thor had was a mild strength quirk, but his name came from Norse Mythology, and he used a support item he named Mjolnir, but it was a staff. I’m fairly certain that Stain targeted him due to the cultural appropriation that he didn’t even bother to get correct. That is the same thing I’m seeing here with Native – he styled himself off of the Native American peoples. If he had been doing it to raise awareness of their cultures, or donated to some of their museums, or did something to make up for using their image, I don’t think he’d be targeted.” Izuku shrugged. “That’s just my guess, though. Maybe he’s after Binoc instead.”

Shouta snorted. “We’ll tail Native while we’re here. You brought your stealth suit, right? Not that garishly bright white thing?”

“Hey!” Izuku defended, hand over his heart. “I happen to like my white suit!” Izuku stuck his tongue out at him. “But yes, I brought the black one.”

“Good.” Izuku’s normal suit had nearly the same functions as his stealth suit did, but the stealth suit was designed to minimize sound – the fabric didn’t make noise when rubbed, and the boots wouldn’t make a sound even if he was stomping around. “We’ll get started with following him tomorrow. For tonight, I’m hungry. Let’s get something to eat.”

“Okay, Nii-chan!”

“Not your Nii-chan.”

~*~*~*~

The building was on fire. The city was on fire. Everything was on fire!

“Why is everything on fire?!” Izuku hissed to Shouta.

“Fuck if I know,” he replied, glancing to where the chaos was, and then back to Native, debating on what to do.

Native had looked at the columns of smoke and abruptly turned the opposite direction, showing for the first time in the three days they’d been following him that he might not be as good of a hero as he appeared to be on paper.

Izuku glanced at the fires as well. “I can help more there than I can here,” he muttered, “but this would be the perfect opportunity to ambush Native, with the rest of the city distracted.”

“Go,” Shouta said. “If he shows up, I’ll ping you, but you’re right, you’d be a huge help to deal with those fires.”

Izuku nodded and with a twitch of his fingers, angled a windstream to carry him towards the fires. He and Shouta both had a panic button that would alert the other to their locations if they got into trouble. They both knew that while Shouta would be able to hold his own against Stain, he wasn’t likely to be able to defeat him. The villain just had too many blades and would likely be able to cut through Shouta’s capture scarf with ease.

They were planning on Izuku being the one to take him down.

Chapter Text

As Izuku got closer to the fires, he saw the creatures that had caused them. Or at least, they had caused the destruction. It didn’t look like any of them had fire quirks, but as one of the evacuating children tripped, he saw a few sparks come from their hands. Panicked civilians were at least partially responsible, but he remembered that there were also a few fire heroes in Hosu.

There were already a few sidekicks helping with the evacuation, so Izuku didn’t slow down to offer assistance. He was needed at the fires.

He saw a few heroes fighting the creatures – Nomu, if he remembered what Shigaraki had called them at the USJ – and more than a few were having trouble landing hits. The Nomus were fast, but not faster than the one at the USJ, it seemed they didn’t have the same enhanced speed or strength, which was good. But they did seem to have extra durability, and some seemed like they had some regenerative abilities.

Izuku landed near the largest fire and started pulling the flames away from the buildings. “Hey, Endeavor, be careful with these!” Izuku scolded when he saw the flame hero throwing another bout of flame at one of the creatures. He almost took back what he said when the creature ignored the fire entirely, healing the few burns it had obtained, and leaped at Endeavor again.

“If you don’t like the way I fight, then come up with another way to stop these things!” he replied as he threw another fireball at the Nomu he was fighting.

Izuku narrowed his eyes and took the fire Endeavor had thrown before it could hit the building behind the creature. “They aren’t really being affected by your normal flames, try your hottest ones,” Izuku suggested.

Endeavor gritted his teeth, but grabbed ahold of the Nomu he was fighting and used one of his ultimate moves on it. “Prominence Burn!” This time, the Nomu wasn’t able to shake off the attack and fell to the ground, dead.

Izuku nodded. “Okay, cool, we can work with that. Prominence Burn’s, what, 2.7C?” He looked up at the four remaining Nomu in the area, winced, and split the fires he’d acquired into four separate streams. He was good with fire, but it wasn’t his best element. He was most proficient in air and earth, and trying to emulate the skills of a pure fire user like Endeavor was going to deplete his ability to use fire for a bit. But it would be worth it to take down these Nomu.

Izuku raised the temperature of the four streams of fire high enough to turn the flames blue, and then sent them at the Nomu.

The four creatures all dropped to the ground, barely more than a chared husk, and Izuku dropped to a knee. That had taken more out of him than he had thought. He hadn’t had to manipulate that much fire to that high a degree before, and he had to take a minute to catch his breath.

Just as he was ready to continue, with a different element this time, he felt the transmitter that was attached to Nii-chan’s panic button go off. Nii-chan must have found Stain.

~*~*~*~

Tomura narrowed his eyes as he watched the carnage that was his Nomus destroying the city. Everything was going perfectly until that green-haired cheater showed up! Tomura recognized him from the time he had tried to kill All Might at the USJ. This was the same brat that had manipulated fire into a net to try to trap him.

Well, it seemed that he may have reached his limits. That trick he did with the fire took a toll on him, and Tomura didn’t think he’d be able to do it again.

He reached up to scratch at his neck and his face split into a wide grin. “Kurogiri.”

“Yes, Shigaraki Tomura?” Kurogiri replied easily.

“Bring one of the flying Nomu here. I want it to kill that lying, multi-quirked bastard,” Tomura hissed.

“Might I remind you, Master has stated he wants that one brought to him alive?” Kurogiri reminded, while opening a portal to bring the requested Nomu.

Tomura scowled. He had forgotten that Sensei wanted the brat alive. Oh well. If he dies, that’ll just mean he wasn’t as strong as Sensei thought he was. “Nomu,” Tomura growled out when the requested Nomu appeared. “Capture the green-haired kid and bring him here.”

~*~*~*~

The second he saw Stain, Shouta had pushed his button to get Izuku to return, but that didn’t mean he would just let the villain do whatever he wanted while waiting. So as quickly and quietly as he could, Shouta had slingshot himself at the villain and kicked him away from Native, but not before he had stabbed the hero in the shoulder.

Stain regained his balance and looked at Shouta. “And just who are you?” he asked. “Some new vigilante?”

“You’re a vigilante?” Native asked from behind. “Do you think you can take him?”

Shouta growled in annoyance. “Just because I’m not out here in neon spandex doesn’t mean I’m not a hero.”

Stain narrowed his eyes at him. “I’ve never seen you before.” He adjusted his grip on his katana. “But no matter. If you’re protecting this obvious fake, then you’ll join him in death!”

“Oh, yeah? You’re going to kill me? You and what army?” Shouta snarked back with a vicious grin.

“Don’t get cocky just because it’s two against one!” Stain gritted out as he ran towards Shouta.

Shouta would have laughed at that if he wasn’t so focused on dodging attacks. Native had been backed up against a wall when Stain had originally attacked him and was now just nursing the wound on his shoulder, not even attempting to help fight.

“Ha!” Stain cheered as he managed to stab Shouta on the arm. He brought up his blade to lick the blood off of it, but Shouta activated his quirk before he could touch the blood to his tongue.

“That’s cute, Stain, but no. I know what your quirk is, you’re not going to be bringing me down by paralyzing me.”

“Ah, now I know who you are,” Stain said, taking a single step back. “You’re Eraserhead, one of the few heroes I consider a true hero.”

“That’s nice. So does that mean you’ll let me arrest you?” Shouta knew the answer but felt the need to ask anyways. He sent his scarf at the villain and managed to wrap him up a few times, but that must have been the villain’s plan all along, because he shifted his katana again and cut through Shouta’s scarf with minimal effort, removing about half of it in a single moment.

Stain grinned at him. “And now you’re without your main weapon. Your choices now, Eraserhead, are to stand aside and let me kill that pretend hero. . . or die with him.”

“Dramatic pause? Really? What are you, ten?” Shouta dropped the remainder of his scarf and pulled out his knife, wishing he had more than just the one. As he shifted his stance for a knife-fight, he noticed a spec in the sky quickly getting closer. Recognizing it as Izuku, Shouta said, “I’ll take option three, in any case.”

Stain tilted his head. “Option three?”

“Yeah. It’s the one where you surrender, and you don’t get too hurt.”

Stain laughed at him, as if he wasn’t being deathly serious. “And how do you suppose you’ll hurt me? I’ve destroyed your weapon!”

“Oh, no, I’m not the one you have to worry about. My little brother is. Say hi, little brother.”

All at once, a huge column of wind came down and slammed Stain into the ground, which then opened up and gripped Stain by both arms and legs. “Hi.”

~*~*~*~

Izuku glanced at Shouta and Native and felt his eye twitch when he saw they were both injured. Not badly, thankfully, but they would need to go to the hospital to take care of their wounds.

“Nii-chan-“

“Not your Nii-chan.”

“- I leave you alone for five minutes-“

“Ten minutes.”

“- and you get yourself stabbed.”

“It was only a small stabbing.”

“Nii-chan, I cannot stress this enough, but that’s not the point! You were still stabbed!” Izuku rubbed his temples. “And the commission says I’m too immature to be a licensed hero,” he muttered.

“They said you’re too young, nothing about your maturity level,” Nii-chan supplied with a smirk.

“Keep it up, Nii-chan, and I’ll be stabbing you next.”

Native choose that moment to remind the brothers that he was there. “Uh, just who are the two of you?”

“He’s Eraserhead, and I’m his intern, Matrix,” Izuku replied.

“Oh? So, you’re going with Matrix?” Nii-chan asked. “I thought you were still thinking about Tempest?”

Izuku shrugged. “Tempest sounds elemental, and you know I don’t really want to be known for my quirk. Matrix sounds more analytical.”

“Fair enough.”

“Great, Eraserhead, Matrix, can one of you call an ambulance? You might not care, but I’ve been stabbed!” Native whined.

“Oh, hush, you big baby, you’ll live. Nii-chan’s been stabbed plenty of times before and he never complains about it,” Izuku dismissed. “From the blood that’s pooling at your feet, you haven’t moved since you were stabbed, have you? You didn’t bother to help Eraser in the fight, so I have no pity for you and your minor stab.”

“Oh, so his is minor, but mine is something to be all upset about? Freaking double standards,” Shouta joked.

Izuku was about to reply to Shouta’s complaint when he sensed something in the air coming at him. After using so much energy in such a short time, Izuku’s reaction times were just a little off, so when he tried to dodge, the creature that had flown down managed to grab him by the arm instead of what he assumed would be his torso.

Izuku could feel the creature’s talons grip into his arm and growled at it. He just had this suit made, and now it’s got puncture holes in the arm! The creature flapped its wings a few times to get some altitude, but Izuku wasn’t having it.

He activated his left bracer and unleashed a massive electrical current, directing it into the creature. It dropped him, and Izuku caught himself in a gust of wind, slowing his descent. The entire thing only lasted about ten seconds, but still. “Bitch,” Izuku muttered, looking at the blood running down his arm.

“I see you have also been stabbed,” Nii-chan pointed out helpfully.

“Unless you really do want me to stab you again, I suggest you shut up.”

“You should be more careful.”

Izuku’s eyebrow twitched. “That’s it!” He pulled out one of the knives he had on him and started chasing Shouta around the alley.

~*~*~*~

Shouta normally hated hospitals, but this time, he wasn’t sure if he should leave or not. On the one hand, leaving the hospital, yay. On the other, explaining to Nedzu why Izuku got hurt on his watch. He glanced over to Izuku, watching as he scowled at his ruined stealth suit. Maybe he should let Izuku explain what happened?

“He didn’t help at all, did he?” Izuku asked, fingering the hole in his sleeve. “Native, I mean.”

Shouta sighed out an annoyed breath. “No. Stain was a lot faster than I had thought he’d be, and he got in close to Native and stabbed him in the shoulder before I could reach them. Then just like you said, he never moved from that spot.”

Izuku nodded. “He better be seriously considering relinquishing his license, otherwise I’m going to have to figure out a way to make him do it.”

“I’ve said it before, but you’re scary when you’re channeling your dad,” Shouta pointed out.

Izuku smirked at him, “I know.” He then looked at the time, and then back to Shouta. “Why are we still here? You’re not actually choosing to stay in the hospital for the recommended duration the doctor suggested, are you?”

Shouta hesitated but decided what the hell. “There are two reasons. One of them is if we’re still in the hospital when Nedzu finds out I let you get hurt, well, at least there will be witnesses, so he won’t actually kill me.”

Izuku dismissed his concerns with a wave. “I already told Dad. You were injured in the fight with Stain and got your scarf destroyed. My reaction times were off due to using a lot more fire at a much higher proficiency than I’m used to. It’s not your fault and the injuries were mild. He might glare at you, but that’s about it.”

A knock came at their door and opened before either of them could reply. Police Chief Tsuragamae Kenji walked into the room, barely containing a snarl.

“Oh, that’s the reason we’re still here!” Izuku cheered, clapping his hands and dropping his ruined suit in the process.

“I believe I remember specifically telling you I did not want your involvement in this case!” the chief growled at Izuku. “Therefore, your presence in my city—”

Izuku interrupted him. “Oh, dear. You seem to believe you have some sort of territorial jurisdiction here.” Izuku tsked and shook his head slowly. “You see, while you have the authority to determine the patrol routes of Limelight and Twilight heroes, you have no say over the patrol routes of Underground heroes. They make their own routes.”

“I am aware of the nuances of the various hero classes. None of which you belong to, I might add!” Tsuragamae looked as though he was about to keep talking, but Izuku raised his hand to stop him.

“I wasn’t finished.” Izuku’s voice was cold, and Shouta had to fight to hide his shudder. Izuku really was way too similar to Nedzu sometimes. “I am in this city, not as a hero, or even as an analyst, but as the student intern to an Underground hero. My hero mentor decided to come to this city to hunt Stain. So here we are.”

“I have reports of you in the middle of the city, without your mentor-“

The chief was once again cut off. “Yes. My quirk is elemental manipulation, and since fire is an element that I am able to manipulate, Eraserhead decided to send me to the place where I could provide the most benefit. I noticed that there was only one hero with a water quirk, Manual, and the rest either had a fire-generation quirk or one that would not be of any help. I am able to re-direct flames, and even snuff them out if I want to. Even though you haven’t thanked me yet, I’m feeling generous enough to say you’re welcome for ensuring that you still have a city left standing.”

Chief Tsuragamae was left speechless as he processed that yes, the city would have been in much worse condition had Izuku not put out most of the fires as he encountered them.

“Now,” Izuku continued, polite mask back on his face. “You are either going to thank me and my mentor for deciding to come to this city to get rid of a serial killer, or I am going to show you exactly why not even Endeavor is willing to dismiss me like you have.”

It was clear that the chief was struggling with the idea of thanking a teenager for disobeying his orders, when he was roughly shoved aside by another teenager.

“Izuku!” Shouto charged into the room and attached himself to Izuku’s side. “Dad said he saw you in Hosu, and you weren’t answering your phone, so I called your dad, and he said you were in the hospital!”

Izuku scowled at Shouta when he snorted. “Izuku got stabbed,” he supplied.

“What?!”

“It was just a minor stab—oh gods, I sound like Nii-chan,” he groaned.

Shouta heard a throat clearing and he looked up to see Endeavor standing in the doorway, behind the chief. “Midoriya,” he nodded in greeting.

“Hey there, Enji-san,” Izuku greeted back.

With an irritated huff and a glance at the wall, Endeavor gruffly said, “Thanks for the assist during the attack. We’d still be trying to put fires out if you weren’t there.”

Izuku smiled brightly at him. “You’re welcome, Enji-san!”

“How did you get hurt? I didn’t see any injuries on you when you left.” Shouta raised an eyebrow at that. Endeavor almost sounded concerned.

“Oh, Stain used the chaos in the city to attack Native. Me and Nii-chan took him down, then one more of those Nomu, a flying one this time, managed to snag my arm.” Izuku shrugged as if it was no big deal. “The chief here was just about to thank me for coming to Hosu to deal with Stain.”

Endeavor nodded. “I’m surprised you didn’t just phone in the details on how to beat him and let one of the local heroes deal with it. That’s how you normally work.” He tilted his head. “Are you going to finally start taking credit for the captures you facilitate?”

Izuku patted Shouto on the head and Shouta could see the boy relax. “Nope, not in my current plans. I can’t take credit for them before I’m licensed, in any case. This one was a special situation.”

The chief seemed to finally find his words. “I specifically told him to stay out of the city, and that we didn’t need the help of some teenager pretending to be a hero.”

Endeavor looked at him as though he was stupid. “Never admit that out loud again. Midoriya is a strategic genius nearly on par with Nedzu. He has yet to offer a plan to take down a villain that hasn’t worked. Refusing his help is the same as killing heroes yourself.”

Endeavor shook his head. “Shouto, I’ll be in the cafeteria when you’re ready to leave.” He then walked out of the room.

Chief Tsuragamae stared after Endeavor as he left and then slowly turned back to Izuku. “On par with Nedzu?” he asked quietly.

Izuku smirked. “Well, he is my dad. It’d be pretty embarrassing if I hadn’t picked up at least a little bit of his way of thinking.”

“R-right. Well. Um. Thank you, I suppose.” With those stammered words, he quickly left.

Chapter Text

“Yagi, can I have a word?” Izuku asked absently as he entered the teacher’s lounge, reading an email he had received.

“I suppose,” he replied a bit apprehensively.

Izuku finally looked up from his phone and sighed. “I need you to step in for the 1-A heroics finals. I’ve been asked to consult on an emergency raid happening next week, so I won’t be able to take my spot.”

“But I was told I wouldn’t be participating?” Izuku was glad to see he hadn’t forgotten the discussion Nii-chan had with him after one of the last mishaps the oaf had with the classes, but unfortunately…

“That was before we needed another teacher for the finals. You’ll be up against Bakugou and Monoma.” Izuku pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to stave off a headache. “I really shouldn’t need to say this, but if you don’t hold back and they end up in Granny’s care for more than mild injuries, I am going to have you meet me in the pit. Understood?”

“Young Midoriya-“ Yagi started, most likely trying to convince Izuku that the hero students were strong enough to not need to be babied, but Izuku cut him off.

“No. Do you understand me or not?” He was glaring at the Number One Hero with all the venom he could muster, knowing his glare was looking a lot like Nii-chan’s glare at the moment.

Yagi’s nervously stuttered “Y-yes,” was enough to prove that Izuku, regardless of his normal sunny disposition, could even scare All Might.

“Good.”

~*~*~*~

Nearly a week later, Izuku was on a video call with a special task force in the Kamino Ward. Apparently, there had been reports of a few children having gone missing in the past three years, but no one had paid any attention to it until the daughter of a wealthy businessman with a shock absorption quirk disappeared a few months before the start of the school year.

The police had started looking into the case of the missing kids, finding that nearly 100 kids, 97 to be exact, had been reported missing. There were no leads, and aside from the businessman’s kid, no one else was really trying to find them. That is, not until the villain Phantom Touch stepped forward claiming their son had also been taken.

Phantom Touch had been in charge of a Trigger import and distribution ring. The police and heroes had been after him for ages, so when he said he’d stop all operations while they looked for his son, and possibly turn himself in if the boy was recovered safely, they decided to bring in some outside help. Enter Izuku.

“So let me get this straight,” Izuku started, glaring mildly at the officers on his screen. “You had received reports of children being abducted, and no one bothered to look further into this?”

“Well, the children-“ one brave officer tried to defend themselves, unknowing just how upset Izuku was.

Izuku held up a hand and the officer stopped talking. “Thirteen quirkless children, twenty four children with mutation quirks, thirty two with supposedly villainous quirks, and twenty six weak quirks. And it took one man waving money around for you to care? And a villain offering to turn himself in before you reached out to someone for help?”

With a disgusted huff, Izuku decided to move on. “Blatant quirk discrimination aside, the fact that all of the reports were supplied made this a little bit easier for me to find common ground.”

“Now, hold on, there wasn’t any quirk discrimination!” one of the detectives shouted as they stood up. “This precinct is underfunded and understaffed! We couldn’t afford to—”

Izuku cut her off. “You couldn’t afford to look into the disappearance of nearly a hundred children? These children were all from a poor neighborhood, all who had seen one of three quirk specialists – who it turns out is the same person operating under different names – and the fact that a wealthy man threatened to sue you is the only reason you put any effort at all into this case. I can promise you now that the reason this happened here, in your district, is because of the attitude you and your officers have towards the poor, the quirkless, and quirks that aren’t seen as typically heroic.”

“Just because you have some fancy intelligence quirk doesn’t mean you can speak to us this way!” the detective said defensively.

Izuku snorted. “Who said anything about an intelligence quirk? I have an elemental emitter quirk.” The silence that met that statement was deafening. Izuku knew he was born with the quirk that everyone thought was one of the most perfect quirks to exist, but he also knew all about discrimination. After all, he had Nedzu as a dad, his Nii-chan, and his Zashi-nii, all who had experienced some sort of discrimination in their lives.

“Now, as I was saying,” Izuku continued with the case. “All 97 of the children were seen by the same quirk specialist, Doctor Garaki Kyudai, also known as Doctor Ozaki Tsubasa, and Doctor Ujiko Daruma. This man is currently chairman on the board for the Jaku General Hospital. Now, I have my own theories about what you’ll find when you finally arrest the doctor, and because of those, I suggest you bring a few extremely heavy hitters along with you for the arrest.”

The other detective spoke up, “Who would you suggest?”

Izuku tapped his chin as he thought. As much as he didn’t like him, All Might would be the best option. That said, Izuku knew that he wouldn’t be needed, not if he was able to get a few other Top Ten heroes involved. “Endeavor, Hawks, and Miruko should be enough to handle what might be there,” Izuku finally settled on. “Although, if you can manage to get Edgeshot and Best Jeanist to come along as well, that would be good.”

“That’s half of the Top Ten!” the detective refuted.

“And the only reason I’m not also suggesting All Might is because he’s busy with his duties to the students of UA,” Izuku countered.

“Is all that really necessary?”

Izuku tilted his head. “Tell me. Do you know much about the break in that UA had at the USJ facility at the start of the school year?” The officers all exchanged confused looks, clearly not following Izuku’s tangent. “I didn’t think so. Short version – the League of Villains sent in a bio-engineered monster that had multiple quirks, one of which was Shock Absorption. Remind me, what was the quirk of the man’s daughter that made you take notice of this case?”

There was a collective sharp intake as the officers all realized what Izuku was thinking.

“There are 97 missing children. That. You. Know. Of. There may be more people missing, other than the children, and quite possibly from other precincts. If the doctor was responsible for the one monster, there could be more monsters. When Hosu was attacked, there were more of the same creatures, no doubt the doctor’s creations. I am only licensed for consultations such as these, so I will not be able to participate in the capture of the doctor, therefore I want to ensure that the team that goes will be prepared to handle what may be there.” Izuku raised an eyebrow at his screen. “Or are you certain that you don’t need them?”

“We’ll keep you updated on the raid, Midoriya-san,” the detective said.

~*~*~*~

Today had been a fairly bad day for Shouto. While his dad wasn’t his favorite person around, he did still care about him, so when he found out he was going to be involved in a big raid, he was instantly worried. His dad had said that everything would be fine, since Izuku had planned out the raid, but that didn’t stop Shouto from worrying.

And it just had to be the day of the Hero Practical Final Exams.

To make it even worse, because of course it could get worse, Shouto had been up against Aizawa-sensei. At least Shouto had been teamed up with Momo for the exam, so they were able to squeak out a win. His head was not in it today, and while they had been going to see Recovery Girl after the match, Aizawa-sensei had pulled Shouto aside and asked if he was okay, noticing he wasn’t really present for the day.

Shouto really wanted to know how the raid was going, so he invited himself over to Izuku’s after school, only to find Izuku kept pacing back and forth because he wasn’t being updated on the raid either.

Not sure about what else to do, Shouto picked Izuku up and carried him to the couch and proceeded to use him like a pillow while they waited for news on the raid.

“How was your final?” Izuku asked.

“I passed, but just barely,” Shouto admitted. “If Momo wasn’t there, I would have failed, hanging upside down in Aizawa-sensei’s scarf over a bunch of caltrops.”

Izuku lightly scratched Shouto’s head and chuckled. “Sounds about right,” he admitted. “I noticed that Momo was lacking a bit of confidence and you were relying a little too much on your quirk. That’s why I put you two together.”

“So, I can blame you for my near failure?” Shouto joked.

“I’ll take the blame for your distraction, but not the near failure,” Izuku said, flicking Shouto on the forehead.

“Fair enough.”

They fell into silence for a little bit, but then Izuku asked, “Did you manage to watch any of the other matches?”

Shouto shook his head. “Shinsou mentioned winning his match, and I heard Monoma complaining about Bakugou, but I don’t know anything else.”

Izuku hummed in slight annoyance, clearly wanting to know about the results, but not enough to make Shouto get up. And Shouto was not getting up unless it was with information on the raid.

“Oh, hello, Shouto-kun!” Nedzu chirped as he came out of the kitchen with a cup of tea. “I didn’t realize you were here. I should have, though, with how the pup finally stopped pacing.”

Shouto raised his head off of Izuku’s stomach. “Hello Nedzu-san.”

“Dad, can you tell me how the matches went for the 1-A kids? Shouto wasn’t paying attention to them.”

He looked back and forth between Izuku and Shouto for a moment before he let out an amused huff of breath and took a seat on the couch.

“I take it you need a distraction?” he asked.

“Yes. I’m hoping they just haven’t bothered to update me, but the longer it takes, the more I worry something went wrong. I can’t just call them to ask because what if I distract them?” Shouto tightened his hold on Izuku a little because those were his reasons for being nervous as well.

Nedzu nodded at that. “Alright, Pup. Which matches did you want to know about?”

Izuku seemed to consider that for a moment before a grin split his face. “How did my new nephew do?”

Nedzu laughed at that. “He and Jirou-chan did quite well! They struggled a little at first, I don’t think either of them realized just how loud Hizashi-kun could be even while holding back. Hitoshi-kun adjusted the sound dampeners on his mask, and with Jirou-chan acting as a diversion, he snuck up on Hizashi-kun and managed to wrap him up in the capture scarf he’s been learning.”

Izuku tilted his head. “No way Zashi-nii let himself get caught like that. What else happened?”

“Hitoshi-kun may or may not have thrown a spider at Hizashi-kun before he attempted the scarf,” Nedzu admitted with a cackle.

Izuku dissolved into a fit of giggles. “I can’t wait to watch that footage!”

Shouto finally sat up, Izuku not being a comfortable pillow while laughing, and asked, “How about Bakugou’s match? I heard Monoma complaining about him.”

“As he should. An aside, though. Pup, did you threaten All Might?”

“Define ‘threat,’” Izuku smirked. “I told him that if the students he fought ended up with injuries he was going to have to meet me in the pit.”

“Ah, that explains it,” Nedzu nodded sagely. “When you see him next, be warned that All Might is terrified of you.” Nedzu took a sip of his tea. “Bakugou-kun decided he was not going to take the escape route through the gate for his final and attacked Monoma-kun for even suggesting it. Monoma-kun decided to let Bakugou-kun charge headfirst at All Might and made his way to the gate and passed through. Bakugou-kun refused to stop even after the match was over. The only way All Might got him to stop was to send him to Recovery Girl for an overnight stay.”

Izuku stared at him with a look of confusion. “Is he really that stupid?” he whispered. He quickly shook his head. “I’ll forgive All Might this once. It sounds like he tried to hold back but his opponent has a terminal case of idiocy. I’m hoping he didn’t pass his exam?”

“Oh, heavens no,” Nedzu agreed. “He would have, if he had stopped when his teammate passed through the gate, but since he continued to fight long past his teammates victory, he did indeed fail.”

“Did anyone else fail?”

“Mhm!” Nedzu finished up his tea and placed the empty cup on a saucer. “Kaminari-kun looked as though he realized he was in a maze, but Ashido-chan took him by the sleeve and he just followed her.”

Izuku let out a disappointed sigh. “I was hoping he’d stand up for himself and admit that he was smarter than he acts. Maybe I should have teamed him up with—” His phone ringing broke him out of his concentration.

“Midoriya Izuku speaking.” He paused for a few minutes, just listening to the person on the other side of the phone, before he sighed in relief. “Okay, thank you for the update. And the heroes who were there?” Another few minutes. “Thank you. And anytime you have a case you need help on, please reach out. You never know when a few missing kids is actually a huge mess like this.”

Izuku hung up the call and looked at Shouto. “Enji-san had a few mild cuts and chemical burns, but his costume kept the worst at bay. He’s fine. He’ll be staying the night at the hospital for the chemical burns, but there likely won’t even be any scarring. Hawks lost a few feathers, and Miruko twisted an ankle. That’s the extent of the injuries.”

Shouto released the tension he hadn’t even realized he was carrying as he slumped onto his best friend again. “Thank you,” he whispered.

Izuku hummed in acknowledgement. Clearly speaking to Nedzu, Izuku said, “They caught the doctor, and there were nearly fifty of the monsters, but only twenty-seven were functioning. All of them were destroyed, but the computers were all scrubbed clean. The equipment is going to be sent to forensics to attempt to get any information, but the monsters alone should be enough to ensure the doctor never gets the chance to go free. None of the missing children were found, but there was an incinerator in the doctor’s lab.”

“You did good, Pup. The doctor won’t be able to hurt any more children, thanks to you.”

Shouto hugged Izuku tightly and was rewarded with an equally tight hug in return.

Chapter Text

Akihiko was incandescently livid. Kyudai had been running his experiments behind his back and had gotten noticed! And then caught! Akihiko was glad that his equipment had been serviced a few days before the doctor had been captured, but now he was going to have to spend resources in getting him free, resources he didn’t feel like spending at the moment.

Well. Kyudai hadn’t consulted him on abducting children, so Akihiko didn’t feel his release was too urgent. He still had twenty-three Nomu in his Kamino warehouse. He could afford to let Kyudai marinate in prison for a few weeks. The biggest inconvenience of his arrest was being unable to read the report that his informant had submitted.

“Master, you summoned me?” It’s a good thing he still had Kurogiri.

“Yes. My informant inside UA should have sent in their update today. Read it to me.”

“Certainly.” Kurogiri located the report quickly. “It says that the hero courses will be going to a summer camp in the middle of August. They do not yet have a location to give us, however, but assure that each student in the hero course will be in attendance. They are also informing you that the analysis teacher, Midoriya Izuku, should be there as well.”

“Perfect,” Akihiko grinned to himself. If the class is out on a summer camp, there will be fewer heroes there to get in the way of Tomura. Perhaps this would be a good time to bring Hisashi’s son back to where he belongs. “Kurogiri. Bring Tomura here.”

“Yes, Master.” Kurogiri stepped through a portal back to the bar where Akihiko’s protégé currently resided. In less than a minute, another portal opened, and Tomura stepped through.

“Hello, Sensei,” he greeted.

“Tomura, welcome. How has your mission of recruiting a team been going?” Akihiko asked.

“It’s gone well!” Tomura answered with a manic grin. “I’ve recruited two rogues, two fighters, a generalist, and a sorcerer. We’ll be ready for whatever quest you send us on!”

Akihiko was grateful for the days he used to play games with his brother, because sometimes Tomura would forget that not everyone played video games. “That’s good, Tomura. I need you to ensure that your team is able to work together. I have an assignment for you in the middle of August, so you have just over a month to prepare. It will be a recruitment.”

Tomura nodded eagerly. “Can we recruit the blond kid with the explosions?”

“Perhaps,” Akihiko agreed. “But the ones I want are Todoroki Shouto and Midoriya Izuku.” If he managed to grab Todoroki, then Midoriya was certain to come as well. Yes, this would be perfect.

“If they’re the ones you want, Sensei, then they’re the ones we’ll get,” Tomura agreed.

“Good. You may leave to relay the instructions to your team.”

~*~*~*~

Shouta leveled a playful glare at Hizashi who kept tossing and turning on the couch he was sprawled on, clearly trying to get Shouta to pay him some attention. “If you don’t stop that, I’m going to lock you out of the apartment,” Shouta warned. “I’m trying to get some actual work done.”

“But Shouuuuu!!!!!! It’s summer break!” Zashi whined. “You don’t have to do anything for almost two months!”

Shouta snorted. “It must be nice to have a gen ed class instead of a hero class. You do remember I have the summer camp in 5 weeks, right?”

“Shit,” he whispered, clearly having forgotten. “But still! That’s 5 weeks away! I’m bored now!” He looked up at Shouta with wide, pleading eyes.

“I have to come up with a training program for all of the students, Zashi,” Shouta sighed. “Izuku is too busy to do it himself.”

Hizashi pouted. “Fine. But I’m not getting up!”

Shouta smirked. “I never said I wanted you to get up. Just to stop moving.”

Hizashi grinned and moved just enough to bury his face in Shouta’s stomach.

Shouta heard muffled laughter coming from the hallway and looked up to see Hitoshi standing there, hand covering his mouth.

"Dads, I need to talk to you about something," Hitoshi began, his voice filled with barely contained amusement.

Shouta raised an eyebrow. "What's the matter, Hitoshi?"

Hitoshi took a seat in the chair across from Shouta, his eyes dancing with mischief. "So, I've been spending time with this guy from school, and he’s always full of energy and cracking jokes. Izuku said I should probably warn you."

Shouta sighed, running a hand through his hair. "Dammit, that means he’s a loud blond... They can be a bit much, always buzzing around and causing chaos. You need to be careful, Hitoshi. Their energy can be overwhelming."

Hizashi, offended by Shouta's words, sat up with a mock gasp, placing a hand over his heart. "Shouta! How dare you speak ill of the vibrant, lively, and fantastic blonds? We bring sunshine and joy to the world!"

Shouta smirked, tugging on a strand of blond hair with a playful glint in his eyes. "Sunshine, yes, but sometimes we all need a little shade too."

Chapter Text

It had been a month since the raid on the Nomu factory, and the doctor that had been arrested hadn’t said a single thing about who he was working for. Izuku knew the doctor was working for a certain villain, one in which Shouta didn’t have clearance to know about apparently, so he had been trying to find the villain’s location while the police were busy spinning their wheels.

Every day that passed with no new information was another day that led his little brother to a higher level of annoyance. Shouta had finally managed to talk Nedzu into forcing Izuku to accompany him to the Summer Camp to take his mind off of the search. Currently, Izuku had tucked himself under Shouta’s arm as they were on the bus to the forest where the Wild Wild Pussycats had their training camp.

“I still can’t believe you wouldn’t let me switch out with someone else,” Izuku pouted.

Shouta ruffled Izuku’s hair. “You need a break from that case you’re working on, and you were already scheduled to come. I’m just not letting you shirk your pre-planned responsibilities.”

Izuku let out an annoyed huff. “Fine. But I’m taking a nap. Wake me up when we get there.”

“Do you want to play in the forest?” Shouta asked, purposely being vague just in case either Jirou or Shouji were listening in.

Izuku hummed for a moment, giving it actual thought, before he shook his head. “Not this time. I’m feeling lazy today. I’m not moving from this seat unless someone is carrying me.”

Shouta shook his head with fond exasperation. “You’re such a brat,” he muttered. “Get some sleep.” He angled himself to lean against the window of the bus while keeping Izuku tucked under his arm and settled in for the ride.

Even though he had his eyes mostly closed and was messing with Izuku’s hair, Shouta was still paying attention to his class of hellspawn, and he most definitely did not miss how Hitoshi kept sneaking glances at Kaminari. He had to suppress a groan at that. He had been secretly hoping that Hitoshi’s loud blond was Monoma, at least he had the confidence to show off his intelligence, but no, it was Kaminari.

Shouta made a mental note to shove that kid in Zashi’s direction for tips on how to act like an idiot while not sabotaging yourself at the same time. He had seen the recording of the kid’s final against the Rat.

There was a sharp sounding smack and Shouta heard Mineta let out a pained “Hey!”

Shouta growled in irritation at that. Everyone in the school knew the repulsive grape was a walking sexual harassment lawsuit in the making, but he had more than one family member on the school board, so his hands were tied since Nedzu had already rejected his expulsion request for him three times. The most Shouta could do was send him back to Nemuri, again, for another detention when they got back to school.

“Stop growling, Nii-chan,” Izuku muttered sleepily. “No matter how many times people joke, you’re not actually a feral cat.”

~*~*~*~

Izuku had managed to wake up in time to poke his head up into the window and watch as the students slowly realized their training camp had officially started. He saw Hitoshi’s eyes filled with horror, and Shouto’s glanced to him in the bus’s window, slightly betrayed at Izuku’s grin.

Izuku opened the window and stuck his head out. “Have fun in the forest!” he called as the ground underneath them gave way and they tumbled out of sight.

When Nii-chan got back on the bus, he was accompanied by Mandalay and a kid who couldn’t be older than 5. “Sosaki, this is Midoriya Izuku. Runt, this is Sosaki Shino and her nephew Izumi Kota.”

“Nice to meet you!” Izuku said cheerfully. “Don’t listen to anything Nii-chan says about me, I am an absolute delight!”

“I haven’t even said anything about you yet,” Nii-chan scowled as the bus started moving again.

Izuku ignored him and turned his attention to focus solely on Sosaki. “So, I looked over the plans that Nii-chan and Vlad put together for the student’s training, and while it’s all pretty good, I’m wondering if your team will have the resources for the amount of sparring that will be needed?”

Sosaki stared at him with wide eyes for a moment before she managed to reign in her surprise. “I’m sorry, Midoriya-san, no one mentioned you looked so young! I thought you were a student!” She cleared her throat and continued. “Yes, myself, Yawara-kun – sorry, Tiger – and Pixie-Bob will be available to help with sparring. Ragdoll will be monitoring all the students, ensuring that no one is pushing themselves too far.”

“Perfect,” Izuku grinned. “I’m going to be handling two of the students myself while Nii-chan ensures that no one loses control of their quirks.” He tilted his head slightly. “Also, don’t worry about thinking I look young, I get it all the time. After all, I am the same age as the students that just got punted off the cliff.”

The kid by Mandalay’s side scoffed at him and turned to look out the window, ignoring them with a scowl on his face. Izuku tilted his head at him, wondering what happened to make such a young kid act so bitter. He’ll probably try to strike up a conversation with him when they get off the bus.

“Wait, you’re only fifteen?” Mandalay asked, astounded.

“Sixteen!” Izuku corrected. “My birthday was last month!”

Nii-chan scoffed this time. “Not like you even bothered to come to the party your friends so painstakingly planned for you.”

Izuku blushed and ducked his head, not unlike how Nii-chan does. “I lost track of time!” he whined. “I was working!”

Nii-chan hooked an arm around his neck and roughly ruffled his hair. “You’re a teenager, I don’t care how many police cases you’re involved in, you need to enjoy what little bit of your childhood you have left.”

“I do!” Izuku protested. “I happen to really enjoy tracking down villains for—”

Nii-chan interrupted him again. “You’ll have plenty of time to do that when you’re officially an adult, Brat. I expect you to act your age when we get back from camp, at least for a day.”

Izuku stuck out his tongue. “When we get back, I have to get ready for my provisional license exam, tweak one of the assignments I had planned for the second-year business course, and depending on his performance this week, alter my training schedule for Kaminari. When, pray tell, will I have time to act my age?”

Nii-chan scowled at him but relented. He knew he had lost the point. Besides, the bus had finally made it to the camp.

As they got off the bus, Izuku stretched and looked over to the kid. “So, Kota-kun, is there anything fun to do here while we wait for the others to get here?”

The kid scoffed at him and rolled his eyes. “Why don’t you just show off your quirk like all the other heroes keep doing. That’s all you heroes ever do.”

“Hmm, well, I have to correct you on a few points there,” Izuku said cheerily. “First – I’m not a hero. Not yet, at least, I don’t even have my provisional license yet. I am a teacher for this group of students, but my subject is analysis. Second – I really don’t like using my quirk.” Izuku shrugged at the second statement.

Kota looked at him curiously. “You don’t like your quirk? Why not?”

Izuku smiled. “No, you misunderstood. I like my quirk, I just don’t like using it.” When Kota just tilted his head to the side, Izuku elaborated. “You see, my quirk is really strong. It’s elemental manipulation. I can control air, water, fire, earth, and lightning. I can alter water to where I can freeze it, or I can turn it into steam. I can mix fire and earth to create lava. I’ve even been experimenting with water and earth to manipulate plants, but that one is really difficult, so not combat-ready at all.”

Izuku shrugged again. “A lot of people judge others based on their quirks. I try not to use my quirk unless it’s absolutely necessary for a situation. I much prefer to think my way through a problem, or if I must fight, do it quirkless.”

“But why? If you have such a strong quirk, why don’t you show it off like all the other heroes?” Kota asked.

“Because if I use my quirk for everything, then someone else might look at what I did and think they couldn’t do the same because their quirk isn’t capable of doing the same thing. But if I solve a problem using my mind, or if I do it quirkless, then that shows someone that they can do it too. I’m going to be a hero, but I’m not going to be like the ones who use their quirk for everything.”

The kid was thoughtful for a few moments before he shook his head. “Heroes are still stupid. Getting into fights, showing off, getting hurt, getting killed. It’s stupid.” He stomped off before Izuku could say anything else to him.

“Don’t mind Kota,” Sosaki said, coming to stand next to Izuku as they watched the kid wander into the forest. “His parents were both heroes – Water Hose. They were killed recently by a villain, and he’s still upset about it.”

“I heard about that,” Izuku muttered. “Muscular, right?”

She nodded. “I think what’s the hardest for him is how people keep talking about them, as if the way they died was noble, and how it was a death worthy of such strong heroes.”

Izuku winced. “Yeah, I can see how that would look from his perspective. If my dad or Nii-chan had been hurt or killed when I was only 5, I would probably be the same as him.” He shook his head slowly. “The only reason I’m not upset about my mom’s death is because I was too young to even understand what happened, and my dad did an amazing job in taking care of me.”

“Was your mom a hero too?” Sosaki asked.

“No,” Izuku shook his head. “She was a lawyer. My bio dad killed her when she refused to grant him visitation rights.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

Izuku shrugged. “My dad still talks about her to me, and I’ve seen pictures, but I really don’t remember her at all. My dad and my Nii-chan have been the main people in my life since I was a toddler, so they’re the ones I really consider to be my family now.”

“Wait,” Sosaki seemed confused. “Is Aizawa not your actual brother?”

Izuku giggled. “Nope! We’re not related, but he’s known me since I was a year old. He’s Dad’s personal student, and especially after my mom died, he started helping Dad with babysitting. I was a good kid, but I was still only 2, you know? When the smartest creature in the world needs to focus on work, having an energetic toddler trying to play isn’t really conductive to hero work.”

“Hey Brat!” Nii-chan called out before Sosaki could reply. “Come here and help with the cooking. You’re less likely to poison the food then I am.”

“Coming, Nii-chan!” Izuku laughed.

“Not your Nii-chan.”

~*~*~*~

He’s not going to lie, when Hitoshi first heard he and Hagakure were going to be training directly with Izuku for the duration of camp, he was relieved. He thought he might actually be able to win a match since there was no way Izuku was as good as his dad was. Right?

Izuku poked Hitoshi, who was lying on the ground, in the side with his foot. “You going to get up anytime soon?”

What Hitoshi failed to take into consideration was that his dad had been training the green menace since he was in the single digits. “You killed me,” Hitoshi groaned out. “You gotta give me time to resurrect.” He heard Hagakure laughing at him from the sidelines and glared over to her. “Tag, you’re it. Your turn to deal with this tiny gremlin.”

“What?! Me?!” she squeaked in dismay. “If you can’t beat him, what hope do I have?!”

“He can’t see you, for one,” Hitoshi said as he finally managed to get to his feet. “And for two, I’m sure you’re sneakier than you appear.”

Hitoshi watched as Hagakure stepped up, started an attack, and was summarily deposited onto the ground.

“Huh,” Hitoshi commented. “Maybe he can see you after all?”

Izuku just laughed and offered her a hand up. “It’s not that I can see you,” he corrected. “I can feel you. Your movements are wide, generating more movement than is strictly necessary in the air around you. I’m not actively using my quirk, but I can still sense air currents passively.”

“That’s not fair!” Hagakure whined. “How am I supposed to beat you if my invisibility won’t work against you?”

“Well, first of all, who said anything about this was going to be fair?” Izuku asked, raising an eyebrow. “Didn’t Nii-chan give you all a lecture on the first day of class about fairness?”

“Well, yeah,” she admitted reluctantly.

“I thought so. Secondly, you’re not supposed to be able to beat me. Honestly, if either of you did manage to get me, I’d have to suffer through a beat down of my own thanks to Nii-chan.” Izuku shuddered. “No thanks, I’d really rather not.”

That caused Hitoshi to perk up. Maybe, if he and Hagakure worked together, they could manage to take Izuku down? And then they’d get a reward, in watching their sunshine sadist get knocked down.

The idea kept circling in Hitoshi’s mind the rest of the day as they continued sparring with Izuku, pausing occasionally to give advice on improving their footing or tightening their stances, but by the time dinner rolled around, neither one had gotten close to scoring a single win on him.

“Hey,” Hitoshi nudged Hagakure as they made their way to the rest of the class, ready to eat. “What do you say to teaming up against the sunshine sadist tomorrow? I kinda want to see Sensei humble him for once.”

“Oh my god yes,” she breathed. “I’ve never lost a fight until I got here, and now I can’t even manage to land a single hit to either Sensei or – what did you call him? Sadist sunshine?”

“Sunshine Sadist. But yeah, I never expected to be able to land a hit on Sensei, I mean, he’s Eraserhead after all, but Izuku’s – he’s younger than I am! I should be able to get one hit in!” Hitoshi complained.

“Good luck with that,” Todoroki said, coming up next to them. “It’s not just his fighting abilities you’re up against, but his analytical skills. He’s learning your fighting styles and how you move and countering that.”

“So how are we supposed to beat him?” Hagakure whined.

Todoroki shrugged. “When I figure it out, I’ll let you know. But I haven’t managed to beat him since I turned 10.”

Chapter Text

Hitoshi groaned in pain as he finally sat down to dinner. It was the third day of their Summer Training Camp, and he still hadn’t managed to land a solid hit on that Sunshine Sadist. He and Hagakure had been trying for two days, and all they had to show for it were a plethora of bruises.

Denki flopped next to Hitoshi and leaned on him. “I have made mistakes and I regret them so much,” he whined, taking a bite of the horrible curry the class had made.

Hitoshi raised an eyebrow at him and shrugged his shoulder to get him off. “What did you do this time?”

“Nothing,” he muttered, sitting up. “It’s what I did during the finals. I really wish I hadn’t just gone along with Mina and passed the final instead. If I manage to survive this Hell Camp, it’ll be a miracle!”

Hitoshi snorted. “I still don’t know why you failed,” Hitoshi admitted. “I mean, you knew there would be some sort of punishment for failure, right?”

“All Sensei said was we couldn’t go to camp. He didn’t say anything about night lessons with Explody-Boy!” Denki muttered.

“I take it lessons are bad?” Hitoshi asked with a wince.

Denki didn’t give a verbal answer, groaning instead and slumping back onto Hitoshi’s shoulder. “We spent the first night going over what we did wrong in our matches. Midoriya-Sensei was there for the first half of it, but Aizawa-sensei kicked him out after a few hours.”

Hitoshi nodded. “Yeah, I heard he was working on some huge case and not sleeping well for the past month. And you know D-uh…. Aizawa-sensei is kinda protective over his little brother.” Hitoshi somehow managed to stop himself from his near slip up in calling Aizawa his dad, but Denki totally picked up on his slip up. “Not one word,” he warned, blushing.

With a snort, Denki continued. “Before he was kicked out, he explained exactly where we all went wrong. Most of us were able to accept our failures, but not Bakugou. He still thinks he should have passed.” Denki shook his head.

“He kept fighting even after the test was over,” Hitoshi stated incredulously. “What was his excuse?”

Denki only shrugged.

“Whatever,” Hitoshi sighed in disgust. Changing the subject, he asked, “Are you looking forward to this Test of Courage?”

Denki groaned and put his face in his hands. “Don’t remind me!” he wailed. “There’s no way Sensei is gonna let us off from the remedial lessons for something fun. I’m going to be stuck in a room with Sensei and Vlad as they go over, in detail how to properly fill out collateral damage paperwork.”

“Ouch,” Hitoshi sympathized. “I guess you really won’t ever willingly fail something again, huh?”

“It could be worse,” Denki said quietly, nervously making sure none of the teachers were paying them any attention. “It could be Midoriya-sensei leading these lessons. He’d be giving the same information, but he’d also be giving us that disappointed stare, and that would be so much worse than Aizawa-sensei’s sadistic grin.”

Hitoshi nodded. “Yeah, I don’t ever want to be on the receiving end of one of his looks.”

When it was obvious that the students were finished with dinner, Pixie-Bob stood up. “Alright, everyone! It's time for the Test of Courage! Get ready to face your fears!”

“Good luck, Denks,” Hitoshi teased, giving his boyfriend a quick kiss on the cheek for moral support. While Denki smiled at him, Hitoshi didn’t fail to notice his dad’s eyes narrow at him. Oops, he may have forgotten to tell his dad that he and Denki started dating a few days after he was warned to stay away from loud blonds.

In his defense, Denki was very pretty. And Dad didn’t have any room to talk, he married the loudest blond to have ever lived.

“But before that,” Dad growled out, “I've got some unfortunate news. The extra lessons group will now have classes with me.”

Hitoshi pat Denki on the shoulder as he hung his head in defeat.

Ashido whined out an annoyed, “Seriously? Come on...”

While Sero groaned out, “Give us a break! We're here for the Test of Courage, not more lessons!”

~*~*~*~

Izuku laughed as the remedial students were all dragged away. They really should have known that there would be consequences for failing the finals.

As he watched, the students were paired up and started heading into the woods in pairs. Shouto had picked the same number as Aoyama and had sent Izuku a look that clearly screamed out ‘Kill me now’ before he headed into the forest.

Actually, Shouto wasn’t the only one to send him a look. Momo’s look was almost one of physical pain when she was paired up with Mineta. Izuku really needed to look into that boy more. There was something about him that just rubbed him the wrong way. None of the girls in class seemed comfortable around him, which alone was a red flag, but that’s not quite where the uneasy feeling came from.

“Thinking deep thoughts?” Tiger asked, sliding up next to Izuku.

Izuku waved his hand in a so-so motion. “One of the students makes me uneasy. I hate it, because I can’t pinpoint what the reason is. I’m so firmly focused on logic, evidence, things I can see and understand, that when it comes to a gut feeling, it just makes it that much more difficult to understand.”

“What’s your gut telling you?”

“That’s the thing, I don’t know.” Izuku rubbed his eyes. “I almost think he’s hiding something, but he’s a teenage pervert, of course he’s hiding something. It’s probably a dirty magazine collection he smuggled into the camp.”

“Now would be the perfect time to go check,” Tiger suggested.

Izuku narrowed his eyes at the forest in thought. “No,” he finally decided. “I may be a teacher, but since I’m not a hero, I don’t have any legal right to search through a student’s belongings just based on a gut feeling.”

Tiger shrugged. “Fair enough.”

As the pairs continued to head into the forest, the atmosphere began to shift, and Izuku started feeling more and more off. A distant explosion echoed through the air, and the ground beneath them trembled ever so slightly.

“Did you feel that?” he asked Tiger.

“Feel what?” Tiger tensed and started looking around. While he hadn’t felt anything, after the past few days of working with the kid he knew that he was damn good.

“That tremor, and the sound... It's not right.” Izuku knelt down and touched the ground, letting his earth-awareness loose. He wasn’t as good with it as he was with his air-awareness, but he still got called Toph when Zashi-nii saw him do this.

Tiger hummed before nodding. “You might be onto something. Stay here and keep an eye on the students. I'll investigate.”

Tiger disappeared into the darkness, leaving Izuku to his thoughts. The unease that had been lingering in his gut intensified, and a sense of urgency began to take over.

Then, suddenly, chaos erupted. The training camp, meant to be a period of growth and bonding, had transformed into a battlefield. Without hesitation, Izuku knew what he had to do. His instincts told him that the League of Villains was responsible for this attack, and his thoughts immediately turned to Kota.

Over the past few days, Izuku had managed to break through the wall Kota had keeping everyone away, he had even allowed Izuku to join him in his secret hideout. So when the test of courage had started, had muttered something about not caring about the stupid test of courage and told Izuku he was going to his hideout. “I need to find Kota,” Izuku muttered to himself.

Without wasting another moment, Izuku sprinted towards Mandalay and told her he was going to find Kota, and then activated his wind and took off to the cliff where the boy would be.

As he reached the cliff side, Izuku looked around. “Kota... Kota, are you here?”

Kota’s voice was trembling as he called out quietly, “Y-yeah, I’m here!”

Izuku's heart swelled with relief as he spotted Kota huddled within the small hideout. The boy's fearful eyes met Izuku's. “It's okay, Kota. I'm here to keep you safe. We need to leave this area.”

“I-I'm scared! That fire... Are we being attacked?” he asked.

Izuku put his hand on the boy’s head and smiled grimly. “Yes, Kota, but I promise I'll keep you safe. We're going to face this together, and I’m going to get you somewhere safe. Okay?”

Before they could move, a chilling voice echoed from behind them, sending a shiver down Izuku's spine. “Well, well, well. What do we have here?” Izuku turned around to face the hulking figure of Muscular emerging from the shadows, his menacing grin causing Izuku to growl in anger.

“Muscular.” Izuku practically spat out the name. This was the guy that killed Kota’s parents.

With a smirk, Muscular cheered. “Oh, you know me, huh? Good. Saves me the trouble of introductions. Now, before I kill the both of you, maybe you can answer a question for me. Where's the Todoroki kid?”

“What do you want with him?” Izuku asked. If they were here for Shouto, Izuku needed to know why.

“It doesn’t matter what business we have with that Todoroki brat. So, I'll ask you nicely just one more time. Where is he?”

Izuku chuckled darkly. “How about you eat shit? I’m not telling you anything.” Izuku knew Shouto was part of the first group through the forest, was he out by now? Did he turn back when the attack started? Where in the forest was he now?

More importantly, would Izuku be able to get to him before anyone else did?

Muscular cracked his knuckles. “You heroes are all the same. Stubborn to the end.” He grinned widely at Izuku. “Oh well. I’ll just kill you and then go look for him on my own.”

Kota clung to Izuku's side, fear etched on his face. “What are we going to do?” he asked fearfully.

“Oh, I’m sorry, my mind was wandering for a moment.” Izuku lifted a hand and the mountain opened up underneath Muscular, dropping him inside, and then sealing shut. “Hopefully I won’t forget he’s in there.” Izuku picked up Kota. “Now, let’s get you back to the camp, yeah?”

Kota looked at where the villain disappeared and slowly nodded.

~*~*~*~

Shouto wasn’t the biggest fan of fire.

It had been quite a few years now, but he could still remember the days before he had met Izuku, the days where his father’s training was more akin to abuse. The days where even the thought of using the fire half of his quirk would send him into a panic attack.

His father had eased back on the training when he found out that his son was friends with Nedzu’s son, afraid of what could happen to him if Nedzu somehow found out about the abuse. But it had still taken a while for Shouto to be okay with the fire side of his quirk.

Looking at the forest now, at the raging blue fires spreading, Shouto was glad he had gotten past most of his issues with fire.

“More ice!” Aoyama screamed at him in terror.

Shouto did his best not to roll his eyes. “That’s what I was doing,” he answered. “The heat is evaporating the ice before it can melt. We need actual water to put this fire out.” Shouto threw another layer of ice at the fire’s edge. “Or Izuku.”

“Midoriya-sensei? Can he put it out with wind?” Aoyama practically screeched. He was dodging the flames fairly well, but his sleeves were starting to singe.

“He can manipulate fire, too,” Shouto said, quickly rolling out of the way of an attack. “Head’s up,” he warned.

Aoyama shrieked and moved to hide behind Shouto. Shouto’s eyebrow twitched in annoyance as he wished he had been set up with literally any other classmate.

They had just been attacked by a guy in what looked like a black straitjacket with metal. . . things. . . coming out of his mouth. Were those his teeth?!

The two of them started the fight, and Shouto was quickly tiring out. His main weakness was the same as his father’s – overheating. Or hypothermia, depending on which side of his quirk he was using too much of. But right now? The blue flames were too hot for his ice to cool. No matter how much ice he threw out at the villain, it melted and evaporated before he could do anything to help, and Shouto’s internal temperature just kept rising.

Just as Shouto fell to his knees, the flames were snuffed out and Izuku landed in the middle of the clearing, a gust of wind throwing the villain away.

“Hey Sho, hope I’m not late,” he said with a grim smile.

Shouto made a small bit of ice and placed it around his neck. “You’re just in time,” he managed to say through his heavy breathing. “Give me a minute to cool down and I’ll be able to help again.”

Aoyama was doubled over, clutching at his stomach. “Je suis désolé de ne pouvoir être plus utile,” he said as he fell over onto his side.

Izuku nodded. “It’s fine, Aoyama. Shouto, let me know if you see anything.”

“I’ll try, but no promises,” Shouta agreed.

Izuku reached for his scarf before letting his hand fall back down. Shouto could hear him muttering, something about metal teeth and moon fish? Shouto was too exhausted to pay too much attention as Izuku started his fight, instead covering his body in a light casing of ice, hoping to speed the cooling process.

Izuku must have rendered the villain unconscious somehow, because the next time Shouto looked up was when he heard Izuku scream his name. Shouto looked behind him to see a man in a yellow jacket, top hat, and a black and white mask reaching out to touch him. Shouto didn’t have the energy to jump back, but he didn’t need it.

Izuku grabbed hold of him with his capture scarf and threw him to the side – but in that brief moment, when Izuku was ever-so-slightly off-balance, the man changed from reaching out for Shouto, to reaching out for Izuku. The touch was brief, but right in front of Shouto’s eyes, Izuku was compressed into a small blue marble.

“Thanks for the diversion, Todoroki. Couldn’t have done it without you!” The man gave him a slight bow before taking off.

“Izuku’s going to be pissed when he gets out of there,” Shouto mumbled.

Chapter Text

Izuku's vision gradually cleared as he regained awareness, but the overwhelming brightness disoriented him. He stumbled, but strong hands caught him before he could fall. In an instant, cold metal cuffs were snapped onto his wrists, and he was forcibly pushed against a nearby wall. Chains, or something similar, wrapped around him tightly, allowing him only limited movement.

His other senses slowly returned, and as the initial shock wore off, Izuku began to recognize the faces around him. Some were familiar, like the guy with a hand covering his face, Shigaraki, and the misty person Izuku was sure was named Kurogiri was behind a bar. Izuku was also mildly surprised to find Mineta there also, unrestrained and looking unusually smug next to Shigaraki.

Izuku couldn't help but mutter sarcastically, "I knew I should have listened to my gut, but nooo, I had to rely on evidence."

Mineta's voice shot up an octave as he retorted, "What's that supposed to mean?!"

Ignoring Mineta's outburst, Izuku scanned the room, trying to make sense of the situation. He noticed the magician in the yellow coat standing to the side, leaning casually against the bar counter. Two others, a man with a lizard-like quirk and another with severe burn scars on his arms and face, were holding onto the restraints that kept him bound.

As he observed the smug expressions on the faces of these unknown individuals, a chilling realization struck him.

"You were never after Shouto," Izuku concluded, his voice firm despite the dire circumstances. "You were using him as bait all along."

The room fell momentarily silent, the weight of Izuku's revelation sinking in. Shigaraki's lips curled into a malicious grin as he stepped forward, his presence commanding attention. "Sharp as ever, aren't you, brat? I guess I can see why Sensei wanted to take you, you have some brains in that skull. But still!” Shigaraki used the palm of his hand to shove Izuku’s head back. “Don’t get some inflated ego knowing that Sensei has been wanting to meet you for a long time!”

Izuku's heart skipped a beat as the implications of Shigaraki’s words sank in. He was pretty sure this enigmatic "Sensei" and was All For One, the mysterious villain who had injured All Might. Now, it seemed he was to come face to face with the orchestrator of the chaos that had enveloped him.

With a wave of his misty hand, Kurogiri conjured a swirling portal of dark energy that hung ominously in the air, its depths a void of uncertainty.

Kurogiri's gaze shifted to Izuku, his voice taking on an inviting tone. “Shall we, young Midoriya? Sensei has been eager to meet you for quite some time.”

Well. When put that way, what else could he do? Plus Ultra, I guess?

~*~*~*~

“Please tell me you know where he is!” Shouta practically begged Nedzu. “You always know where he is!”

“Calm down, Shouta-kun,” Nedzu said, voice somehow both soft and made of steel at the same time. “Of course I know where my son is. He has trackers in his boots, as do you. I will never lose one of my sons.”

Shouta glanced down at his boots in shock, wondering when Nedzu had placed trackers in them before deciding it wasn’t important. “So where is he?”

Nedzu looked at him with a calculating glance. “If I told you now, you would go off on your own. Shouta-kun, when the team is ready, I will let you know. Please be patient until then.”

Shouta winced, but acknowledged that Nedzu was right and sat down on the sofa in the office. Nedzu continued to tap away at his control panel, orchestrating the rescue effort with methodical precision, even as he sensed Shouta's growing distress. He understood the gravity of the situation and the toll it was taking on his eldest son.

As Shouta's desperation started to become more of a distraction for Nedzu, he looked up from his work, his beady eyes meeting Shouta's with a mixture of concern and determination. “Shouta-kun, you know how much I love and care about Izuku. Surely you aren’t doubting that I will find Izuku and bring him home safely, are you?”

Shouta's shoulders slumped, his voice barely above a whisper as he confessed his deepest fears. "I just... I can't help but worry. He's my little brother, and I promised I'd protect him."

Nedzu's empathy for his son was unwavering, and he considered what could provide comfort in this trying time. With a soft sigh, he made a surprising offer, after all, it worked for his youngest son, why not his eldest?

In a gentle voice, Nedzu made his suggestion. “Shouta-kun, sometimes, in moments like these, we need something to hold onto, a source of comfort. If it would help ease your anxiety, you can hold me like a teddy bear. I'll be right here with you.”

Shouta blinked in surprise, not expecting such an offer from his usually composed teacher. But in that moment of vulnerability, he realized that Nedzu's gesture was genuine, an offer of comfort from his dad.

Without a word, Shouta reached out and gently picked up Nedzu, cradling him in his arms, holding him close, burying his face into Nedzu’s fur. In that simple yet profound act, even though he was scared of what his brother was going through, he knew that he was going to be okay. Nedzu would come up with something, and Shouta would be there to collect his brother.

~*~*~*~

Izuku's world spun as he was forcibly shoved through the swirling vortex created by Kurogiri. It felt like being caught in a whirlwind of darkness and uncertainty, a chaotic journey through an otherworldly abyss. When the disorienting tumult finally ceased, he stumbled forward, his senses gradually adjusting to the unfamiliar surroundings.

Before him stood a colossal chamber, a vast expanse filled with ominous shadows, screens, and tanks full of some sort of liquid. At the heart of it all, on a throne-like structure that had various wires and tubes attached, sat a man Izuku could only assume was this Sensei that everyone was talking about. All For One.

Sensei's voice was chilling as he spoke from the shrouded depths. “Welcome, young Midoriya. It's been a long time coming.”

Izuku, eyes still wandering the room, analyzing everything surrounding him, looking for a weakness or escape route, asked, “Who are you? What do you want with me?”

The shadows seemed to deepen around Sensei as he leaned forward, revealing only his chilling smile. “My, my, that’s no way to speak to your grandfather.”

Izuku felt his mind come to a screeching halt. He rewound the past few seconds back, wondering if his brain had finally snapped. “I’m sorry, can you repeat that? I think I misheard you, because there is no way you just called yourself my grandfather.”

Sensei let out a warm chuckle. “You heard me correctly. I am your grandfather.”

Izuku’s eyes narrowed into a glare at him as he thought. His dad had never hidden the fact that his mother was an only child and that her parents had lived in Okinawa before they had died in an accident long before Izuku had been born. So, if this man was claiming to be his grandfather, then he was his father’s father. And the one thing he knew was that his father had killed his mother.

“Forgive me for not being excited about a possible relation, seeing as your apparent son is responsible for the death of my mother,” Izuku said with an icy voice.

“Yes,” Sensei said, melancholic. “Hisashi was supposed to bring you to me upon your birth, but instead he decided to abandon you and your mother.” He shook his head sadly. “It took nearly a year before I decided to send someone else to collect you. Hisashi decided to oppose me, killing his ex-wife and letting the trail go cold.”

“You’re wrong,” Izuku interrupted. “They were never married.”

Sensei was silent for a few minutes after that. “Then who was the woman he killed? Tanaka Haruki?”

Izuku tilted his head and shrugged. “No clue. My mother’s name was Midoriya Inko.”

As the silence stretched for a few more minutes, Izuku finally said, “So, since I’m not who you thought I was, can I just—”

“No, you’re still Hisashi’s son. All this means is he managed to throw me off your trail successfully for a number of years. It also explains why it was so hard to find you. That’s all.” He stood up and walked over to Izuku, placing his hand on Izuku’s shoulder. “You are my grandson.”

“If I said I didn’t want to be, would you let me go?” Izuku asked rhetorically.

Sensei, his apparent grandfather, laughed at him. “Of course not! You’re going to be joining me as we take over society!”

“Hmm,” Izuku made a show of thinking it over. “How about no? If I’m going to be taking over the world, I’m going to be doing it in a way that benefits the world. Not by killing and destroying.” Izuku took a step away from his grandfather, letting his hand fall off his shoulder. “Besides, what guarantee would I have that you wouldn’t turn on me? I can’t help but notice my father is nowhere to be seen.”

“I did kill him, yes, but only because he directly opposed me. You, however, are a smart boy. You’ll see sense. And if you don’t, you’ll join your father in death.” The easy way he said that made a shiver run up Izuku’s spine. “Are you going to join me, or are you going to be joining your father in an early grave?”

The tense silence that enveloped the chamber seemed to stretch on for an eternity as Izuku and Sensei locked eyes, or at least, Izuku stared at where he thought Sensei’s eyes were, each refusing to yield to the other's will.

Sensei's calculating attention bore into Izuku's soul, searching for any hint of doubt or hesitation. But Izuku had long since made up his mind, and his conviction burned brighter with each passing moment. “It seems you are quite stubborn, my boy,” he finally said. “I’ll give you a day to think about it.”

~*~*~*~

As Kurogiri opened the portal and let Izuku back into the bar, Akihiko turned his attention to the nearby monitor and its broadcast of the bar that Tomura insisted on buying. He tuned in just as Tomura finished decaying the other boy that had come through with his grandson.

With a coldly indifferent voice, Akihiko sighed, “That boy was the only informant I had in that school.”

The room was filled with an eerie silence, the assembled group exchanging knowing glances. Toga, her eyes glinting with fury, was the first to speak up. “He kept feeling up my skirt.”

Dabi added his own disdain. “The comments he made about how women should be passive irritated me.”

Tomura, dusting his hands off, couldn't help but grimace as he said, “He tried to hide behind me when Toga pulled her knife.”

Akihiko nodded in understanding. “Well, I suppose it can't be helped. Kurogiri, clean up the mess.”

With a simple nod, Kurogiri stepped forward, summoning a portal in which a vacuum emerged and began to suck up the remains of Mineta Minoru. The process was swift, and within moments, there was nothing left of the traitorous student but a disgusting memory.

“Tomura,” Akihiko decided to change the subject. “Make sure my grandson is comfortable, but do not remove the cuffs. We want him to join us, not run away.”

“Yes, Sensei,” Tomura replied, poorly covering his frustration. Akihiko knew that he was feeling threatened by the existence of someone else who could replace him in Akihiko’s favor, but he really shouldn’t.

After all, Akihiko wanted to take over Tomura’s body, but he wanted Izuku to be his second in command.

~*~*~*~

"We have two locations," Nedzu said, standing atop the table in the high-tech conference room, his diminutive form commanding the attention of the assembled heroes. In his paws, he held a remote control, ready to unveil his meticulously crafted plan to rescue his son. "The trackers in Izuku-kun's boots pinged at this bar, and again at this warehouse."

The room buzzed with anticipation as the heroes gathered around, their expressions a mix of determination and concern. Shouta, who had been pacing nervously at the back of the room, now focused his attention on Nedzu, desperate for any sign of hope.

Nedzu clicked a button on the remote, and the screen changed, showing detailed schematics of the two locations, the bar and the warehouse, each marked with a blinking red dot. “The intel indicates that the League of Villains has taken Izuku-kun to both of these locations. Even though Izuku-kun’s tracker is currently pinging at the bar, we cannot afford to risk them moving to the warehouse and failing in the retrieval. We'll strike both locations simultaneously.”

He clicked the remote again, revealing a split-screen projection. One side displayed a team of heroes, led by Shouta, assembling outside the nondescript warehouse. The other showed a similar team preparing to breach the bar, led by Hizashi.

“Shouta-kun, you will lead the warehouse team. Your mission is to extract Izuku-kun and neutralize any threats. Remember, speed and precision are crucial. We have reason to believe the bar may be a diversion.”

Shouta nodded, his eyes locked onto the holographic representation of the warehouse. He couldn't afford to fail; Izuku's safety depended on his every action. “Understood, Nedzu. I won't let anything happen to him.”

“Good. On the chance that Izuku is still at the bar when the attack happens, Hizashi-kun, you have the same mission. Extract Izuku-kun and neutralize any threats.” Nedzu’s eyes had a very dangerous glint to them and most of the heroes in the room were nervously looking at each other, but Hizashi just nodded his head.

“I’m definitely going to be bringing my little brother home safely.”

Nedzu's gaze shifted to the heroes assigned to the bar operation, their faces illuminated by the holographic display. “The rest of you will breach the bar. While our priority is Izuku-kun's safety, we must also minimize collateral damage. The League of Villains has an advantage with their insider knowledge, but we have the element of surprise.”

While most of the heroes nodded in agreement, ready to execute their part in the coordinated rescue effort, All Might seemed to be pouting. Shouta could only guess it was because he was being told he had to follow orders from someone else and not be the leader of his team.

One hero, Mount Lady, raised her hand. “Uh, just out of curiosity, wasn’t there another kid taken?”

Nedzu nodded solemnly. “Yes, however, Izuku-kun managed to communicate with me that not only was Mineta Minoru the informant who was leaking information to the League, he was also killed by them.”

“Oh,” Mount Lady muttered, lowering her hand. Shouta remembered that Mineta had interned with her and felt a little bad for her.

“Alright,” Nedzu looked at the assembled heroes. “You all know your assignments. Let’s go.”

~*~*~*~

In the dimly lit room, Izuku sat alone, his back pressed against a cold, unforgiving wall. His captivity had stretched on for what felt like an eternity, but was really only a day, and boredom had become his constant companion. The lack of stimulation gnawed at his patience, but he knew better than to let his guard down.

Hours passed in agonizing monotony until the sound of footsteps finally reached his ears. Kurogiri unlocked the door and opened a portal. “Sensei is calling for you,” he said, voice light.

Izuku stood up, not wanting to see the man who called himself his grandfather, but also bored enough to just go for it. He just had to hope his dad had gotten the message that he was just as likely to be at the other location as he was this one. There was no way a rescue wasn’t in progress, so Izuku just had to be a little more patient.

The ominous presence of Sensei was thick at his arrival, and Izuku braced himself for the inevitable confrontation. “Well, well, young Izuku, are you enjoying your stay?”

Izuku couldn't help but roll his eyes at the villain's taunting tone. "It's not exactly a five-star hotel, if that's what you're asking."

Sensei chuckled, a deep, unsettling sound that echoed through the chamber. He approached Izuku with an air of malevolence, his intentions clear. ”You know, my boy, you could have everything you've ever wanted. Power, influence, a world that bows to your will. All you have to do is join me.”

Izuku's response was resolute, unwavering in the face of temptation. “I've told you before, I won't join you. I won't become a part of your twisted vision.”

Sensei's patience began to wane, and a dark glint entered his eyes. “Very well, Midoriya. You leave me no choice. I would prefer you to join me, but if you won't willingly join me, then I'll simply have to take your quirk. It is far too valuable to leave in the hands of someone who won’t see reason.”

Izuku lifted his head in clear defiance. “Go ahead, try. You won't succeed. Even if you do take my quirk, you won’t have my cooperation.”

With a sinister smile, Sensei extended his hand, reaching out and touched Izuku's forehead, the quirk-stealing power surging through his veins.

Izuku gritted his teeth, enduring the excruciating sensation as his quirk was forcibly stripped away. Now came the hard part – pretending to be devastated that he followed through on stealing his quirk. “You... you took it. My quirk. I thought you were bluffing!”

Sensei watched with satisfaction as Izuku hung his head in apparent defeat. He removed the cuffs that had bound him, believing that he had broken the young hero's spirit. “Now, my dear grandson, perhaps you'll see reason. If you have a change of heart and dedicate yourself to the cause, I just might return this quirk to you. Wouldn’t that be nice?”

He pat Izuku on the head a few times, but as Sensei turned to leave, Izuku's eyes flashed with a glimmer of defiance, hidden beneath the mask of sorrow. He reached up to the capture scarf he was still surprised no one took from him and grinned.

Who said he needed a quirk to kick a faceless old man in the teeth?

Chapter Text

Izuku knew that a direct confrontation with Sensei – his grandfather? Really? Ugh – could be disastrous, given the villain's many quirks, but there was a quote from some pre-quirk actor that struck him at this point. “I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.”

His “grandfather” was the textbook definition of the man who had practiced 10,000 kicks once. But Izuku? He’s practiced his kicks 10,000 times.

So, he waited for the opportune moment, a moment of vulnerability when Sensei's guard was down, and when he turned away from him, seemingly preoccupied with trying to figure out his new quirk, Izuku seized the chance to strike. His capture scarf shot forward with lightning speed, aiming to immobilize the villain before he could react.

The scarf coiled around Sensei, ensnaring his arms and upper body, restricting his movements. Izuku's quick thinking and the precision of his attack had caught Sensei off guard, giving Izuku a temporary advantage.

“What are you doing?!” he exclaimed. “This is not how you go about earning your way into my good graces!”

Izuku didn't waste a moment. He used the temporary advantage to deliver a swift series of blows and kicks, aiming to incapacitate the villain. However, Sensei's resistance was fierce, and he fought back with all the stolen power at his disposal.

Sensei was doing a frustratingly good job of tanking the hits and kicks Izuku was delivering to him, most likely being aided by a shock absorption quirk, while he was clearly gathering strength to fight the coiling grip of Izuku's capture scarf. The fabric held tight, but it was clear that it wouldn't withstand the villain's relentless assault for long.

Realizing that it might be torn apart if he allowed the battle to continue as it was, Izuku made a quick decision. He knew he had to release the scarf before it was destroyed, but not without a plan.

In a swift, strategic move, Izuku deactivated his scarf, retracting it and freeing Sensei. The villain stumbled backward, momentarily off balance from the sudden release, but Izuku didn’t let him take the time to recover.

He once again shot his scarf forward, this time wrapping it around the villain’s head and pulling him off-balance and into the nearby wall. Before he could recover, Izuku was sling-shotting himself towards him in a move he’d practiced with his Nii-chan at least a thousand times and kicked Sensei in the face.

“That’s it!” he hissed. “I’m done playing nicely with you! If you won’t submit and learn your proper place, then you’ll join your father in death!”

“Oh, I’ll be joining my dad soon enough, alright,” Izuku agreed. “Right after I finish beating your ass into the ground, I’m going to have a nice cup of tea, maybe even a relaxing game of chess, with my dad.”

~*~*~*~

Shouta couldn't help but shake his head in frustration as he stared at the imposing wall of the warehouse. He always knew that All Might was an idiot, but when he refused to switch to the warehouse after they received the coded message from Izuku’s tracker that hinted the location he was being kept was a decoy, Shouta’s already low opinion dropped even further. For someone who was so upset with being assigned to the bar, Shouta would have thought he’d be eager to jump at the reassignment.

Hizashi’s text that All Might was afraid of Shouta was only a minor appeasement.

Mount Lady, Best Jeanist, Gang Orca, and Miruko stood alongside him, ready to breach the warehouse and rescue Izuku. Despite his exasperation with All Might's stubbornness, Shouta knew that he had a decent team of highly skilled heroes at his side, and they were determined to carry out this critical mission.

“Alright, everyone. We have to get inside and find Izuku as quickly as possible. His safety is our top priority.” The rest of them nodded, fully in agreement.

Mount Lady took a step forward and positioned herself in front of the warehouse wall. Her enormous form was imposing, and her quirk was ideal for breaching the building. “I've got this, Eraserhead. Stand back.”

With a determined expression, she slammed her massive fist into the warehouse wall. The impact created a deafening crash as the concrete and steel structure crumbled, creating a gaping hole in the exterior.

Best Jeanist was quick to follow, using his quirk to manipulate long, sturdy threads of cloth to help stabilize the partially demolished wall and prevent it from collapsing further.

As the dust started to settle, Shouta saw what looked like Izuku’s capture scarf shoot out and grab a decent sized chunk of concrete and pull it back. “Perfect timing, Nii-chan!” Izuku called out. “Wanna lend me a hand?”

Shouta darted forward to see his little brother, chunks of concrete in his scarf, attacking a man in a suit who had his arms transformed into tentacles, attempting to kill him. Shouta, recognizing an opening, activated his quirk, rendering all of Sensei's stolen quirks temporarily null. The villain's eyes would have widened with surprise if he still had them as his multiple quirks disappeared, leaving him vulnerable.

Sensei stumbled back, disoriented by the sudden loss of his quirk, and Izuku seized the opportunity. He lunged forward, a barrage of quick, precise punches and kicks targeting the villain's weakened defenses. Shouta moved in alongside Izuku, activating his quirk once more, ensuring that Sensei remained powerless. He used his own capture scarf to restrict the villain's movements further, ensuring that he could not escape.

Before long, Izuku’s scarf-carried concrete chunks landed a solid blow to the man’s stomach, and Izuku followed it up with a kick to the head, rendering him unconscious.

Izuku stood up, panting, and grinned at Shouta.

~*~*~*~

Toshinori arrived at the warehouse to find both Midoriya and Aizawa sitting in the back of an ambulance. Neither looked very injured, so he went over to them, attempting to figure out why there hadn’t been a battle at the location.

“I know you don’t like using your quirk sometimes, but really, this was one of those times where it would have been useful,” he heard Aizawa say.

Midoriya just shrugged. “Kind of hard to use it when it was taken.”

“Your quirk was stolen?!” Toshinori exclaimed when he realized what the boy had said.

“Yeah. But that’s fine, I don’t really use it all that much anyways.” The boy seemed to be completely fine with this! How?! How was he not utterly destroyed by the news that his quirk was missing?! “Besides, I didn’t really need it to kick the ugly potato head in the face a dozen times.”

“Ugly potato head..?” Toshinori asked confused.

“Yeah. All For One? His entire face is just one massive scar. He looks a lot like a wrinkly potato.”

“You fought him?! Without a quirk!?”

“Yeah? I mean, all he did was take my quirk, he didn’t take my weapon, he didn’t take my training, he didn’t take my intelligence.” Midoriya shrugged again and leaned against Aizawa. “The only real thing different in this fight from most of my other fights is I was tired. I didn’t sleep well, not with being held captive and all.”

Aizawa reached up and started combing his fingers through the boy’s hair. “I made sure while training Izuku that he could fight quirkless. Too many people, even heroes, rely on their quirks and panic when they find themselves in a situation where they either can’t use their quirks or find them erased. That will never be my little brother.”

“Aww, I knew you loved me, Nii-chan!” Midoriya beamed at Aizawa.

“Not your Nii-chan,” he replied automatically, ruffling the kid’s hair.

Toshinori didn’t know what to do with this information. All For One was defeated, not by him, not by anyone with a powerful quirk, but by two people fighting – for the most part – quirkless. They had a single, non-combat quirk between them, and they managed to defeat the worst villain the world had ever seen.

And this was even after the boy had his quirk stolen!

Toshinori could maybe understand how they did it if the boy was just unable to use his quirk, as Aizawa mentioned, he’d trained Midoriya to be able to fight without the use of his quirk, but after having his quirk ripped so savagely out of him? How was the boy able to smile and laugh like he was? He didn’t have a quirk anymore!

Now, he was going to be useless. Just as useless as Toshinori was before he got One For All.

. . . wait.

He could give Midoriya One For All!

Toshinori had been looking for a student to take his quirk, and the one student that Mirai had been training, Togata Mirio, had already declined the quirk for some strange reason. So, it was perfect! Midoriya needed a quirk, and Toshinori had a quirk that needed a new holder!

Besides, looking at where All For One was being loaded into prisoner transport, if the boy could do that without a quirk, just imagine what he could do with One For All?

Chapter Text

“Young Midoriya, may I have a word?”

Izuku glanced up from the essay he was grading to see Yagi standing in front of him. “Not right now, I’m too busy rethinking my life choices.” This particular paper was from a third-year support student who was tasked with coming up with a support item for a hero like Endeavor, and they were blatantly copying the hero’s current gear instead of coming up with anything new or different.

“This is quite an important thing I would like to discuss with you,” Yagi tried again.

“That’s nice. Come back in an hour and I might be done with my grading by then,” Izuku shrugged, planning to take his grading and hide in his dad’s office. Whatever Yagi wanted from him, it was probably more of a hassle than it was worth.

Instead of leaving, Yagi took a seat across from Izuku. Well, there goes his plans to hide.

Izuku finished three more essays before Yagi’s presence got too annoying to ignore and then looked up. “Okay, since you obviously can’t take a hint, what do you want?”

Yagi’s oblivious grin made Izuku’s eye twitch. “I’d like to speak to you in private, my boy! Come, let’s go to one of the private meeting rooms!”

Izuku followed Yagi to one of the meeting rooms and then leaned against the couch facing the blond. “So, what did you want to talk about that was so secret you had to bring me here?”

“Well, my boy, I couldn’t help but think about the fact that you lost your quirk. I know you had wanted to be a hero, but, well, without a quirk, I’m afraid that is no longer an option for you. However—”

“Who says?” Izuku interrupted.

“. . . What?”

“Who says I can’t be a hero without a quirk?” Izuku repeated. “Nii-chan fights quirkless against anyone with a mutation quirk. Dad’s quirk doesn’t help him in a physical way. Mandalay and Ragdoll of the Wild Wild Pussycats don’t fight with their quirks. Hell, even your old sidekick, Sir Nighteye fights quirkless. Why can’t I?”

“W-well, they’re all different! They still have quirks. And my point, Young Midoriya, is I have decided that you deserve a second chance on becoming a hero!” Yagi grinned widely at Izuku. “I would like for you to inherit my quirk, One For—”

“No.”

“All! With this quirk—wait, did you just say no?” Yagi tilted his head in confusion.

“That is correct. I said no. I don’t want your quirk.” Izuku ran his fingers through his hair and sighed. “Society bases everything around quirks, these days. It’s honestly disgusting, and most of the blame can be placed squarely at the feet of the top ranked heroes like you and Endeavor.”

Yagi took a breath as if to counter, but Izuku didn’t give him the chance. “It’s not likely something you’ve done intentionally, but you’ve both been the top two heroes for decades. You show up, perform incredible shows with your quirks, and you especially, make another show of posing for the crowd when the fights are over. You value strength and quirks over intelligence and cunning. And the people see that.”

Yagi blinked at him, not sure how to counter his claims.

“I had a powerful quirk, made even more so by the level of control I trained myself to have, but I rarely ever used it outside of training. My dad did an excellent job at making sure I could use my brain, and my Nii-chan ensured I would never be reliant on my quirk. Yes, a quirk would be helpful in certain situations, such as when I fought the Nomu at the USJ. However.” Izuku stood back up. “I clearly didn’t need one to kick Potato Head in the face a dozen times.”

As Izuku walked to the door to leave, Yagi finally seemed to find his voice. “If it wasn’t for Young Aizawa using his quirk, you never would have been able to survive that fight!”

Izuku turned back to him and with a smirk said, “Then how did I survive the ten minutes before Nii-chan showed up?”

~*~*~*~

“As irritating as it is, yeah, I’m pretty sure he was telling the truth,” Izuku grumbled. He was in his dad’s office, and they were discussing the bombshell that had been dropped on him – All For One is Izuku’s grandfather.

“Your father, from what I remember of him, was a charming person,” his dad admitted. “Inko fell hard for him right away. If he was the son of All For One, then it makes sense that he would have had lessons in manipulation.”

Izuku waved his hand at that. “Yeah, you’re probably right, but I was talking more along the lines of how I was able to use so many different elements when I still had my quirk. It’s basically unheard of for someone to have more than one element as their quirk. The closest to that is Shouto, but his quirk is really just extreme control of temperature. I probably inherited a mutation that allows me to have multiple quirks, even if—”

Their conversation was interrupted by the door opening and Yagi walking in. “Ah! Young Midoriya! Just who I was looking for!”

Izuku groaned in annoyance. “Why won’t you just leave me alone?! I’ve already told you I don’t want your stupid quirk!”

“And I have heard you, but I don’t agree with your decision.” Yagi turned his attention to Nedzu. “Can you please help to convince Young Midoriya that he would be an amazing successor to One For All?”

Dad twitched his nose in consideration. “While you are correct, Yagi-san, if Izuku does not want your quirk, I am not going to force him to accept it. I am fully aware as to why he is willing to remain quirkless, and I fully support his decision.”

“But he wants to be a hero!” Yagi protested. “He can’t be a hero without a quirk!”

“While you are entitled to your own opinion, I would like to remind you there are plenty of heroes who do not have flashy quirks to aid them in combat and they still manage just fine. Heroes like myself,” he added, baring his teeth.

Yagi huffed an irritated breath. “I understand that you think Young Midoriya can be successful without a quirk, and perhaps he can manage to do some hero work, but he’ll never be a popular hero without a quirk!”

“Who said I wanted to be popular?” Izuku asked incredulously. “I want to be an even mix of Underground and Investigational, so popularity would actually be a hindrance to me.”

“With the level of quirk control you have, why would you ever want to waste your potential in the Underground?” Yagi asked.

Izuku glared at him for a second. “Ah, I see what the issue here is. I’m talking in Japanese, but you’re listening in Dumbass.” He looked at his dad before he pulled out his phone. “Can I push the button?”

Izuku didn’t miss the anticipatory glint in his dad’s eyes as he agreed. “Since he’s been bothering you so much lately, yes, you may push the button. As a treat.”

With a grin to rival his Nii-chan’s, Izuku pushed the button that he had brought up on his phone for the defense system in his dad’s office. Instantly, the floor underneath Yagi fell away and the blond idiot was sent hurtling down a chute and away from the office.

“Now, back to what we were talking about before the interruption. You think you have the genetic capability to hold multiple quirks?”

~*~*~*~

“Alright everyone, it’s that special time of the week!” Izuku exclaimed to 1-A. “Let’s see what amazing theory Todoroki has for us today!”

The class giggled as Shouto’s face lit up and he pulled a posterboard out from the back of the class and practically skipped to the front.

As he was setting up, however, the door opened, and All Might stuck his head in the classroom. “Young Midoriya, can I speak to you?”

Izuku leveled a deadpan stare at him. “I am clearly in the middle of class.”

“But this is important!” he tried to counter.

“So is my class.” Izuku sighed. “Is anyone dead or dying?”

“No.”

“Then sit down, shut up, and learn, or go away.” Turning back to Shouto, who had finished setting up his posterboard, Izuku asked, “Are you ready?”

Shouto nodded, and with a shit-eating grin confidently said, "Toga Himiko, of the League of Villains, is the secret love-child of Vlad King-sensei and All For One."

"Proof?" Izuku quirked an eyebrow at him, barely managing to restrain his own giggles.

Shoto gestures to his conspiracy board. "Right, so the timeline starts way back here," Shoto points to the left side of the board, "with All For One, whose quirk is giving and taking quirks. All For One, in a fit of rage – I’m not sure over what – went bar-hopping and ended up meeting Kan Sekijirou off-duty. Kan Sekijirou is also the pro-hero known as Vlad King - and the homeroom teacher of 1-B, and as we all know, his quirk is Blood Control and allows him to control his own blood after it has left his body.”

Izuku sat forwards in his seat when he saw the mischievous glint in Shouto’s eyes. “On this particular night he decided to go sit at his local bar and try to get a date - however All For One came along and sat down next to Vlad King-sensei and struck up a conversation about blood-based quirks with the intent of stealing Vlad King-sensei's quirk."

“Now hold on a second,” All Might stood up only for Izuku to glare at him.

“Interruptions are not permitted during presentations. If you have questions, you need to save them for when the presentation is complete.” Turning back to Shouto, “Continue, Shouto. You have my interest.”

"Are you still following? Good." Shoto continues, suppressing a grin. "That brings us to the next point in this timeline! The night of passion and drinking that led to Vlad King-sensei and All For One having a child - namely Toga Himiko. How did they have Toga? All For One's doctor combined their DNA and then they had a surrogate give birth to Toga since the male anatomy doesn't allow for childbearing. Anyways - Toga Himiko was born, and at the tender age of four, her fangs grew in and All For One immediately identified her quirk as a blood-based transformation quirk. You know, because he can steal quirks. Here's a picture of four-year-old Toga by the way!"

Shoto gently unpins the photo and passes it around so everyone can have a look. If you were to squint at the photo, you could see two male figures, neither showing their faces, one is wearing a suit and the other is wearing a zip-up hoodie and joggers. They are holding an albino vampire bat in a blanket. But that is irrelevant.

"Anyways, anyways, where was I again? Oh yeah - Toga got her quirk and... what's next?" Shoto takes a moment to glance at his timeline. "Oh yeah, the divorce. Wait, they never got married, how can they divorce? Guess we'll skip that then. Oh well, after All For One skipped out on Vlad King-sensei he couldn't bear to continue caring for Toga and put her up for adoption."

As he turned back to the class from his posterboard, Shouto had an incredibly amused gleam in his eyes. "Thank you for listening so attentively. This concludes my theory on why Toga Himiko is the secret love-child of Vlad King-sensei and All For One. Are there any questions?"

The students of 1-A all knew by now not to encourage Shouto’s shenanigans, so no one raised their hands. Shoto took a small bow before putting his conspiracy board away and took his seat.

Izuku finally lost the battle over his giggles and stood up. “That was beautiful, Shouto! I especially loved the baby picture of Toga.” Izuku wiped the tears that were streaming down his face. “Unfortunately, since dear Toga’s parent’s faces couldn’t be seen, I cannot give you credit for this presentation.”

Shouto smirked and nodded. It was never about the points for him. He just wanted the captive audience to share his theories with.

“How do you know about All For One?” All Might asked.

Shouto raised an eyebrow. “Was he supposed to be a secret?”

~*~*~*~

Izuku had skipped out on the hero course’s class today, not in the mood to deal with Yagi. The man just wouldn’t take no for an answer and kept trying to force Izuku to take his quirk. So, instead of being in class, he found himself in the lounge, a cup of coffee in hand, when Shouta wandered in.

Shouta, ever the picture of casual indifference, glanced at Izuku. "Runt, you look like you've been through a blender. Tough day?"

Izuku grinned, his eyes reflecting a mix of exhaustion and determination. "More like a tough few weeks, Nii-chan. Just another day trying to avoid Yagi."

Shouta raised an eyebrow. "Avoid Yagi? Last I checked, you're supposed to be supervising him."

Izuku chuckled. "Well, right now, I really rather throw him out a window. I’m choosing to remove the temptation."

Shouta smirked. "Well, I could always drag you to a training ground and let you get some more practice in. Gotta keep you on your toes. Heroes don't get the luxury of predictability."

Izuku took a sip of his coffee, leaning back in his chair. "True, but I'm starting to think you just enjoy watching me dodge explosions."

Shouta's deadpan expression didn't waver. "Call it character-building."

“Character-building my ass!” Izuku laughed. “You’re a sadistic asshole!”

Shouta simply shrugged, not denying the accusation, and went to get himself a cup of coffee. “So, why are you avoiding Yagi?”

Izuku rolled his eyes. “I’m not really supposed to share this, so sorry. I love you Nii-chan, but you know how it is with the classified stuff.”

Shouta nodded. “Yeah, it sucks. But word of advice?”

“Hmm?”

“Pay attention to what time it is next time.”

Just as Izuku tilted his head to ask for clarification, Yagi walked in. “Ah,” Izuku muttered. He hadn’t realized that the heroics class was over for the day.

“Young Midoriya!” Yagi cheered. “I missed you during class! I wanted to talk to you about something!”

Izuku stood up and placed his coffee on the table in front of him and walked over to Shouta. “Lemme just borrow this real quick,” he muttered as he pulled Shouta’s capture scarf off, earning a raised eyebrow from him.

“Young Midoriya?” Yagi questioned as Izuku turned back to him. “Why do you need Young Aizawa’s capture scarf?”

“Well, since you refuse to accept no as an answer, maybe you’ll accept a defenestration instead?” Izuku shot the scarf out at Yagi, prepared to toss him out the window, but Yagi activated his quirk, going from just over 100 pounds to well over 600 pounds. “Oh, come on!” Izuku complained. “That’s cheating!”

“Young Midoriya, were you really trying to throw me out a window?!”

Chapter Text

“Hey Dad? How much trouble would I get in if I managed to kill Yagi?” Izuku asked curiously during dinner.

“Well, that’s an interesting question, Pup. Do you have a plan in place to hide the evidence? How about an alibi?” Nedzu replied.

Izuku slumped. “I’m not talking about legal trouble,” Izuku admitted. “I mean trouble with you. You’d have to find a new teacher to replace him, along with fielding reporters asking how he got killed while on UA grounds, and how if the school couldn’t protect a hero like All Might, how would we expect to protect the students. It’d be extremely annoying for you to handle, and I want to know what to expect if I go through with that.”

Nedzu's chuckle trailed off, his beady eyes glinting with amusement and a hint of mischief. "Ah, young Pup, always thinking ahead!" He took a thoughtful sip of his tea, savoring the silence Izuku's question created. "Let's just say," he continued, his voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper, "I wouldn't be the only one inconvenienced by All Might's… untimely demise."

He leaned closer, his whiskers twitching. "Imagine the hero rankings in shambles, the public's trust in heroes shaken, villains emboldened… and the entire curriculum at UA needing a drastic overhaul! New training exercises, updated textbooks, revamped simulations – even the cafeteria menu might need a heroism boost!"

Izuku's eyes widened as Nedzu painted a vivid picture of the chaos his hypothetical act would unleash. "Damn," he breathed, a nervous laugh escaping his lips. "So much paperwork..."

Nedzu chuckled again, his eyes twinkling. "Indeed, Pup. Paperwork beyond measure.”

Izuku sighed in defeat. “Then I guess I have no choice. I’m going to have to get my quirk back.”

“Will you be taking anyone with you when you go?” Nedzu asked with a flick of his ear.

Izuku tilted his head in thought for a moment. “No, I don’t think so. I’ll call and schedule the visit for next week, though, so if they demand I have someone accompany me, I’ll probably drag Nii-chan along.”

~*~*~*~

Unfortunately, Izuku did need someone to accompany him to visit All For One in Tartarus. The warden had decided it wouldn’t be safe for him, seeing as how he was quirkless now, and no matter how Izuku tried to word it, the man wouldn’t budge.

So here he was, walking down the sterile hallway towards the highest security section of the prison with Nii-chan following behind grumpily.

"Are you ready for this?" Nii-chan asked.

Izuku nodded, face clearly showing how annoying he thought this whole thing was. “Yeah, let’s get this over with.”

A heavy metal door hissed open, revealing a dimly lit cell where All For One sat, hunched over in a metal chair. The villain's face, no longer covered by the black mask, was an unsettling canvas of wrinkles and scars. Izuku hadn’t realized before that he no longer had eyes, but it made more sense now that his mask didn’t have eyes.

“Who’s there?” he asked, tilting his head slightly.

Izuku shoved his hands in his pockets and frowned. “Midoriya Izuku,” he answered. “And Aizawa Shouta.”

"Ah, my grandson," All For One rasped, a twisted amusement in his voice. "So, you finally graced me with your presence."

“Yeah, yeah,” Izuku huffed in annoyance. “I’m just here to request my quirk back.”

“Now, why would I do that?” All For One questioned. “I said I’d return it if you behaved yourself. You did not behave.”

“Really?” Izuku tilted his head. “I think kicking you in your smug face is very commendable behavior. Both my dad and Nii-chan thought I did a good job.”

“Not your Nii-chan,” Shouta replied automatically.

“You have been living with Eraserhead this whole time?” All For One asked. “That would explain why I was never able to locate you.”

“No,” Izuku corrected. “I’ve been living with my dad.”

“Nonsense, your father is dead. I made sure of that when he refused to obey orders,” he said as he waved a hand dismissively. “I do wish Hisashi had delivered you to me as he was supposed to. I am so far behind in your conditioning.”

“Uh huh,” Izuku rolled his eyes. “Look, the only reason I’m here is to get my quirk back. And even then, the only reason I want it is because All Might is pissing me off and it’s less paperwork to deal with you than to deal with him.” Shouta snorted at that, knowing how Izuku felt about paperwork. “Honestly, I don’t mind being quirkless, and if it wasn’t for All Might being a pest, I’d be more than happy to forget you even existed.”

“Is he trying to give you One For All?” All For One asked with a tilt of his head.

Izuku nodded. “I don’t want some hand-me-down quirk,” he answered honestly. “I barely even wanted my own quirk.”

“That’s interesting,” the villain mused. “Most young people in this age are obsessed with powerful quirks. What makes you different?”

“My favorite people either don’t have physical quirks, or don’t use them often. They rely on their intelligence, their training. My quirk is primarily a combat quirk, and while it did take an incredible amount of training to make it as useful as I have, I still would have preferred something more like Erasure, High Specs, or even Somnambulist.”

“Well, that simply won’t do,” All For One said. “As my grandson, you need to embrace your strength, your power.”

“And yet,” Shouta mused, “you took his quirk. How is he supposed to embrace his power now?”

“It was merely a punishment for his misbehavior. I had planned to return it eventually.”

“Well, could eventually be now?” Izuku asked.

Izuku was certain that the villain was trying to peer into his very soul, even though he didn’t have eyes. “Tell me, why exactly do you want your quirk back so badly? You claim to be happy without it.”

Izuku huffed out an annoyed breath. “Do you have any idea how hard it is to defenestrate a man who is approximately 600 pounds of pure muscle? Even with my capture scarf, which I am very skilled with, I can’t throw the meathead out the window.”

All For One’s laugh was still dry, but was so much more genuine than anything Izuku had heard yet. “Is that why you want your quirk back so badly? Just so you can throw All Might out a window?”

“Yes!” Izuku hissed. “With a strong enough wind current, I can throw up to 3,000 pounds with ease! I’d be able to get that damn idiot to back off. It’s so hard to grade student essays when All Might keeps popping up every hour, on the hour, offering me his stupid hand-me-down quirk.”

"Essays, you say? A hero in the making with a penchant for academia – how very uncharacteristic of this bloodline,” he hummed thoughtfully. “Very well,” All For One finally said. “If you can convince the wardens to deactivate the suppression field in this cell, I will return your quirk.”

Shouta finally spoke up at that. “Just keep in mind, in case you want to try something stupid, that the two of us, with only one quirk between us, are why you’re in here to begin with.”

All For One seemed as though he would have rolled his eyes if he still had them, and soon the guards had turned off the suppression field. They were standing next to it, ready to turn it back on should either Shouta or Izuku hint that there was any sort of danger, though.

Izuku was both nervous and not nervous at the same time. Yes, the villain before him could definitely kill him with next to no effort, and Izuku really would just be allowing it at this point, but at the same time, it’s not like he could take his quirk again. So aside from the potential murder, it’s not like he had anything to lose.

All For One placed his head on Izuku’s head and frowned in concentration. “I need to find the right quirk,” he muttered, explaining why it was taking so long. “Ah, there it is.” Izuku felt three separate sharp pangs echo throughout his body before the villain removed his hand and sat back. “Since you are of my blood, I don’t think there will be any issues, but do return if you experience any complications.”

Izuku backed up a little, feeling weird. “What did you do?” he whispered, concentrating on his quirk. He could feel his Elemental Manipulation humming away, feel the return of the air currents that had become second nature to him since his quirk first manifested, but now he felt something . . . else. “You gave me a second quirk?!” Izuku snapped open his eyes, fury blazing brightly.

“No.” All For One’s voice was smug. “I gave you three quirks.”

“I didn’t want any hand-me-down quirks!” Izuku hissed. “That’s why I refused to accept All Might’s!”

“You are my grandson, and I need you to remain safe for when I do eventually get out of here. I want to ensure you are able to join me at my side at that time, and the extra quirks I gave you will ensure that happens.”

Izuku felt the suppression field reactivate in the room and he growled. Now, he’d have to beat this old man’s ass with his—

Before Izuku could make a move to kick his grandfather in the face, Shouta wrapped him up in his scarf and picked him up. “Thanks for returning his quirk. I’ll make sure he comes back to kick what’s remaining of your face if he has any negative side effects.” With those words, the two of them left.

~*~*~*~

Izuku could feel his anger simmering at a solid 7/10 as he graded essays. He knew he was being overly harsh and would probably give some extra points later on to make up for it, but he could feel the slight energy of additional quirks thrumming inside of him and it just pissed him off even more.

He hadn’t gotten around to testing out what the new quirks were, still so upset at the fact that they were even there. His dad had managed to calm him down slightly by reminding him there was grading to do, and he could think about the quirks later, but that really only brought him from a 9/10 to his current 7.

And as he saw Yagi walk into the lounge, notice him, smile brightly, and start over to him, Izuku’s anger started climbing right back up to that 9. Yagi was the whole reason he had decided to visit his grandfather in the first place. If it wasn’t for that blond oaf, Izuku would have been perfectly content to live out the rest of his life quirkless, but no.

“If you value your life,” Snipe spoke up, noticing Izuku’s instantly worsening mood, “Yagi, just turn around and walk away. Sprout’s not in the mood for your shit today.”

“You’re being dramatic,” All Might dismissed Snipe’s warning. “Besides, I have very important things to discuss with Young Midoriya!”

Snipe just shrugged, said, “It’s your funeral,” and left the room. He wanted to be able to claim plausible deniability for what was about to happen.

Izuku was tempted to ask his dad to give the man a raise.

“Now my boy, it’s about time you stopped being so stubborn!” Yagi started, giving Izuku a disappointed look. “I know you think it’s noble, attempting to be a hero without a quirk, but it’s just not realistic!”

Izuku took a deep breath and put down his red pen. “Yagi, would you like to know what I did yesterday?” he asked, doing his best to remain as civil as possible. When All Might just looked at him in confusion, not understanding where Izuku’s tangent was headed, he continued. “I went to Tartarus with Nii-chan. I decided to visit my . . . grandfather.”

“Young Midoriya! That’s very reckless of you! That man is extremely dangerous!”

“Yes, I’m aware.” Izuku stood up and walked around his desk. “But you see, I have gotten to the point with you to where, even though I was happy being quirkless, I was willing to visit the man to request my quirk be returned.”

“Sorry to disappoint, Young Midoriya, but there is no way that monster would ever return a quirk once he’s stolen it. He’s the Symbol of Evil for a reason. But if you just wanted a quirk, I have one that I have been trying to give you for the past few weeks!” All Might stated.

“The thing is, Yagi, he had always intended to return my quirk. He took it, thinking that would be some sort of punishment for acting out. He was wrong, so he did something else as a punishment, after he returned my quirk.”

“He returned your quirk...?” All Might asked.

“Yes. He did.” Izuku let out a smile that was eerily similar to his dad’s. “So now I can do this.” With a flick of his wrist, Izuku gathered the air in the room into a whip, coiled it around Yagi’s waist, and threw him out the window with a crash.

Yagi screamed as he fell 12 floors.

Izuku looked out the broken window in disappointment. Yagi had buffed up and landed on his feet, unharmed save for a few cuts from the broken glass.

“Pity,” he muttered as he picked up his phone. Two rings later, his dad picked up. “Hey Dad. Sorry, but I broke a window in the teacher’s lounge.”

“Yes, I know. I watched you do it. Don’t worry, I have already called for a repair crew to come by.” Izuku could hear the clink of a teacup. “In the meantime, would you like to come to my office so we can design sensors that will automatically open a window when someone is going to be defenestrated?”

“I would love to!” Izuku replied chipperly. His dad was always able to cheer him up.