Chapter Text
The weekend came and went with little fanfare. Izuku spent some time with his mother, but focused largely on tracking Overhaul, and creating plans to get Eri, factoring in anything that could possibly go wrong. By Monday morning he was confident that he was prepared for almost anything. Which means when Majima handed him a briefcase as he stepped through the staff room door at exactly 07:30, he was especially ecstatic. He took the briefcase with a nod and bright grin, before moving through the room to deposit his bag at his desk, place the caramel Iced Latte on Yamada's and slip into the conjoining changing room.
With his new costume on, Ghost felt… real. Like he was finally grounded in his body. He is here. In the past. Teaching at the high school he was supposed to be attending. Planning murders that he'd already commit once before.
He could feel every thread of his shirt and trousers. The straps of the holsters on his thighs shifted, feeling tighter, then loser, every time he shifted his weight around. It was just as grounding as it was surreal. He swallowed thickly as he looked at himself in the mirror. This. This is him. Not the green-blue bunny suit. Not the stuttering, overexcited first year. Not the traumatised war veteran that lost Eri. This.
A soldier. A fighter. The ghost of a rewritten future.
He took a deep breath, and pushed out of the changing room, back towards his teachersfriends co-workers.
The room went quiet and still as Ghost walked back in. None of his co-workers had seen him give off such a large presence before. The man was wearing steel toed black combat boots and dark green cargo trousers, with a black knife holster strapped to each thigh. Tucked into the waistband of his trousers was a tight black turtleneck, partially hidden by a muddy green cargo jacket with pockets on the chest and sleeves. The black belt around his waist also had a few pouches similar to Aizawa’s utility belt.
The man stalked across the room to where Powerloader was talking to Thirteen.
“What do you think, Midoriya?” he asked, turning to the younger hero.
“It's perfect, thank you Majima.” Ghost replied easily, with a sincere nod of thanks. “I didn't expect you to get it done so quickly. When I asked for priority I thought it would take a week, not one weekend.” He finished with a light smile. Majima laughed at the comment, used to his co-workers being surprised at his efficiency.
“Yes, well it wasn't very difficult. Your design was simple, and outside of the interwoven metal and Kevlar on your shirt and trousers there's not much in the way of tech on you for me to fiddle with. Not like I haven't used that technique on clothing before anyway, right?” he gestured vaguely in the direction of Aizawa, who hadn't taken his eyes off of Izuku since he stepped out of the changing room. Izuku laughed and nodded in agreement.
“That's very true. Still, thank you. You shouldn't have wasted your weekend, but I'm grateful you did.” he smiled up at his co-worker before stepping back and moving to his desk, allowing Majima to continue his previous conversation.
Sitting down, Ghost logged into his computer, checked his cameras, then his emails, before opening his lesson plans for the new year. He managed to convince Aizawa over the weekend to help him get started, and wanted to get a head start now before the two had to go help Vlad with his first years. The whole time, he could feel eyes watching him. Staring. Waiting to be acknowledged. Eventually, once he had opened the files he wanted, Ghost turned to his left and made eye contact with Aizawa, raising an eyebrow in a silent question. Why are you staring at me?
“It suits you.” the man said simply, before shifting to move his chair beside Izuku’s, ready to change the subject.
The statement was simple, to the point and relatively off-handed to their co-workers. None of them batted an eye at it, if they noticed at all. Izuku however; he heard the words for what they were. A genuine compliment. A short statement because anything else would be too much, or not enough. Though the way Shouta’s eyes tracked him across the room told him more than the words spoken did. He was relieved that his friend liked it.
“Thank you…” he whispered once his friend was close enough to hear, and that was it.
The two spent the rest of free time and homeroom building up a skeleton for Izuku’s lesson plans for all three year groups, and by the time the bell rang signalling that the pair needed to head to gym gamma, Izuku was confident he’d be able to get some pretty solid plans drawn up to be approved by Nedzu by the end of the week.
“Same rules as last week heathens. No maiming, no serious injuries, two minutes or someone needs to be pinned.” Aizawa called out to the students.
“And yes, you can use your quirks this time. Tanaka, you start.” Vlad continued, pointing at the named student before gesturing to where the Ghost was already standing on the sparring mat.
For safety's sake, Ghost had left his boots at the edge of the room, and discarded his jacket alongside. Best to get used to fighting in it with a pro rather than a student that could get seriously hurt, or accidentally hurt him, if he fumbled because of the different weight.
The boy, Tanaka, looked at Vlad like a deer in headlights before making his way to the mat, standing on the opposite side to his opponent, who looked much more intimidating now that he wasn't wearing basketball shorts and a loose tank top, like last week. He eyed the man warily, dropping into a tight defensive stance. Today however, Ghost didn't do the mirror opposite. Instead the hero just stood there, relaxed, hands in his pockets and a lazy smile plastered on his face. It didn't take long for Tanaka to realise that Ghost had no intentions of beginning the fight himself. The student grimaced and shifted his stance slowly, hyper aware of the piercing eyes of his classmates and teachers burning holes into his side. He took a deep breath, and used his quirk, Blip, to teleport directly behind Ghost; immediately turning to try and kick the other’s legs out from under him. The hero managed to jump out of the way, narrowly avoiding being tripped, and spun quickly, once again facing his student. Now, gone was the relaxed posture and lazy smirk, instead replaced by a guarded defensive stance and a wild grin, Tanaka absently wondered what kind of unattainable standard he’d accidentally set for himself.
“Wonder if you’ll be able to last the full two minutes today, Tanaka. You nearly managed it last week without your quirk.” The soldier said, blocking another attack when the boy lurched forward with a false right hook. He didn't reply, choosing instead to focus on at least landing another hit on his opponent. He took another deep breath, and a couple of steps backwards, putting some distance between himself and the hero.
Vlad-sensei mentioned that confusion can be an effective weapon…
Tanaka tensed, tightened his stance again, and began to rapidly teleport as randomly as possible within his 15 foot reach, occasionally getting close to Ghost in an attempt to disorient him enough to knock him down. For a minute it seemed to be working; Ghost was turning in every direction trying to get a handle on where Tanaka was, and the student had even managed to land three hits - though weak- on the man.
But, Ghost did eventually manage to catch on and regain the upper hand when Tanaka unconsciously fell into an easy pattern, flitting around the mat briefly before coming up for a hit. And at one minute and thirty-four seconds into the match he was able to predict Tanaka’s next landing point, delivering a hard(quirkless) sucker-punch before the student had even fully materialised in front of him. The boy went down immediately, hitting the ground with a dull thud and a groan.
It was now that Ghost took the opportunity to really look at the student. He had dark hair, brown eyes and a plain face, red from overexertion and blood running from his nose. He looked no different than last week, really. Ghost smiled a little. The kid had promise. Most of the students in the class did. The young hero was excited to see what these kids did with that potential. He was almost disappointed that he hadn't paid attention the first time around.
“Good job. I doubt many of your classmates could beat that yet. You should work on keeping away from patterned or repetitive movements though. It's how I caught you. Would've had to use my quirk if you’d stayed as random as you started.” he said, helping the boy up and handing him a tissue from one of his belt pouches. Tanaka took the tissue slowly and looked at Ghost with wide eyes. The teacher hadn't given anyone advice in between matches on Friday; why was he doing it now? Tanaka would be the first to admit that it's probably a bad idea to look a gift horse in the mouth, however, and took the tip with a grateful nod before scurrying away to re-join his classmates, tagging in the first one he came to, getting the second match started.
The rest of the class went well. Four other students were able to land a hit on Ghost, and the shortest match lasted fifty-one seconds, with Tanaka’s remaining the longest. Ghost didn't give any more advice between the matches though, much to the confusion of the students, and interest to his co-workers. The soldier thought it was probably a good idea to put them out of their misery. kind of.
"Good job today everyone. You did well. Before you leave though, I'm sure you noticed that Tanaka was the only one of you to receive any feedback today. The simple explanation to that is I realised I wouldn't have time to give everyone tailored advice today. So instead, all of you will be receiving written feedback on both your fighting and your quirks from me at some point this week. I'll give Vlad the reports once they're finished and he can hand them out to you whenever he feels is appropriate." Ghost called to the crowd of students. A couple of them paled slightly at the mention of getting written feedback, though Aizawa couldn't be sure whether that was because they were worried they did badly in their matches or if they had heard the rumours going around about The Soldier's ruthless analysis. Either way, it brought joy to the older man to know that he now wasn't the only teacher capable of scaring the kids shitless without lifting a finger.
With that announcement out of the way, the students turned tail and all but ran to the changing rooms, ready to be done with heroics for the day, and Ghost moved in the opposite direction to retrieve his boots and jacket.
"You're taking to teaching well," Vlad called. "even if your methods are… unusual."
"Thank you! Honestly I wasn't sure how exactly I'd do, but I'm really enjoying it so far. Though I'm surprised by their progress. For some reason I thought they'd be further, though I am going off of my own training, which was mostly on the front lines. Anyway, I have a meeting with Nedzu, so I'll see you in the staff room later." Midoriya directed the last statement towards Aizawa before leaving with a skip in his step, having put on his boots and jacket while he and Vlad were talking.
"Front lines?" Vlad asked Aizawa.
The Underground Hero just shrugged and followed his friend out of the gym.
Two months later saw Midoriya teaching his regular analysis courses. The rapid fire third year course was by far his favourite. A lot of analysis seems to happen automatically during fights, so many of the students actually had the practical techniques down subconsciously. The point of Midoriya's lessons for them was teaching them to do it consciously during battle. If he's honest, Midoriya would have been pretty scared if he had a teacher like himself in school…
"Come on, I have an easily targeted weakness. Find it and use it against me!" He shouted at his opponent- one of the top fighters in class 3-A.
He did, too. The teacher had forgotten to put his knee braces on that morning and was sore from a new workout routine. He had been favouring his left leg because of that, and even sat in his chair during the first part of the lesson in the classroom. The student's eyes scanned him again, taking in his uniform, the way he's stood and his face, trying to find something in his eyes that would give it away. The timer pinged to signal the end of the run, and the student deflated.
"Remember, you can't just use what is directly in front of you. You also have to use other information that you already have. Previous injuries, quirk drawbacks, or even topics. Questions or insults you can use to throw off your opponent. Effective analysis requires as much information as you can get. Now, who's next?"
The next student on the list stepped forward hesitantly, eyes still scanning him. Midoriya could almost see the cogs turning as they wracked their brain for anything and everything they know about him. Out of the corner of his eye, the pro hero saw another student suddenly light up, clearly believing they had figured out todays weakness.
Midoriya turned his attention back towards his opponent and started the timer, allowing them to come to him. As expected, this match turned out much like the others. The student picked the wrong thing, having just guessed blindly and was taken out quickly and efficiently. Midoriya didn't really expect anything different honestly. They were still early on in the course, rapid pace or not.
"You guessed again." Midoriya stated when the match ended. He took a deep breath through his nose, trying his best to remain patient, before calling for the next student. The kid that seemed to have thought of something earlier stepped up to the mat before his classmates had even registered the instruction, and fell into an offensive stance with a hesitant grin.
"Don't hesitate. Act confident, even if you're not." He called, dropping into his own defence I've stance once again.
The student took a breath, nodded then lunged at his teacher, stepping forward in a way that usually comes right before a harsh left hook. Midoriya braced and shifted to catch the oncoming swing, while in the same moment, the student pulled back and shifted their weight, bringing their right foot up to kick the inside of his right knee.
The kick made contact before Midoriya had registered the shift, and the teacher went down, crashing into the mat with a thud, one hand moving to try and catch himself while the other instinctively went to grip his now dislocated knee.
The students in the gym gasped when Midoriya went down, and the student on the mat took a few startled steps backwards, bringing a hand up to cover their mouth in shock.
"Oh my Gods, Midoriya-Sensei I am so sorry I really thought you'd block that too, oh gosh should I go and get recovery girl? I should-" the boy rattled, shocked and unable to look away from his teacher's leg, sitting at a rather grotesque angle. The room went completely silent when Midoriya started to laugh.
"No, no need to bother recovery girl right now." He chuckled. "Well done. You got it exactly right- My joint problem isn't exactly a secret, as much as I'd like it to be. I'm also not wearing my braces today.'
'For future reference, when facing an opponent that you know has a physical condition, target it. Even if they are using any and all aides they have available to them. A supported weakness is still a weakness. That being said, I would prefer it if you lot didn't do this to me every lesson. It hurts a bit, you know?" The students looked at him like he'd grown a second head and the one Midoriya had been fighting nodded, pale faced and seeming about ready to pass out.
After a moment to decide, Midoriya dismissed the class early, telling them to head back to the classroom and study or do homework until their next lesson started. Once the last student had filed out of the gym, and the door had closed behind them, Izuku finally allowed his face to crumple into a grimace, and let slip a pained hiss through his clenched teeth. Still on the floor, he gingerly examined his leg. The dislocation was clear to anyone who knew what the word meant, and where he was kicked was probably already turning black and purple. Just as he was about to try and put the joint back himself, the door opened with a bang and Aizawa stalked through the room towards him, followed closely by Yamada.
"What are you doing problem hero? " Aizawa asked, concern clear on his face to anyone who knew how to see it. Yamada also looked worries, though far more visibly.
"Teaching, Sho. I was teaching." he replied, twisting a little to try and get a better angle for his knee. "Hey, gimme a hand with this, would you? I've got theory with Vlad's lot in like fifteen minuets."
"I meant what are you doing letting students dislocate your joints?" The older man hissed, already moving to help reposition Izuku.
"Same answer, believe it or not. You're not the only one around here with unorthodox methods you know- FUCK" The wet pop of Izuku's kneecap being forced back into place did nothing to drown out the young hero's curse, nor the sigh of relief once Aizawa stopped touching the offending leg. The glare Aizawa shot him at that told Izuku everything he needed to know, and he nodded, resigned.
"I know; that's not an excuse to get myself injured, and yes, I know I'm not getting out of seeing recovery girl. Yes you can tail me the rest of the day if you need to, no, I'm not going home. No, Mum wont have a problem with you stopping by later, she'll probably feed you if you do honestly, no I'm not cancelling my other practical lessons for the day, but I will alter them a little. Happy?"
Aizawa nodded, deciding that he really needs to stop being surprised when Izuku reads him like that.
"Acceptable, I suppose. Let Midoriya-San know that I'm bringing you home, and find out if she needs anything from the store, we can grab it on the way. I'm going to sit in on your practical lessons, be a practice dummy if needed. I'll leave you be the rest of the day though, so long as recovery girl is happy with the relocation." Izuku nodded, knowing that was the best deal that could be negotiated, and allowed Shouta to help him up. Pain shot through his knee when he tried to put his weight on the offending leg, drawing a surprised yelp from the young hero. He laughed a little at the surprise, and shouta's curse. Then he took a deep breath and tried again. It still hurt, but less so without the shock of not realising it would.
"You okay, problem hero?" Izuku smiled and nodded up at his friend, moving to make his way towards the door. Shouta simply rolled his eyes and followed closely, prepared to catch his friend if he fell. Midoriya threw a quick request over his shoulder, asking Hizashi to check on the student that took him out. The young teacher didn't wait for him to agree.
"Huh…" Hizashi made a quiet noise as he was left behind in the gym, watching after his friends. He always found watching the two interact interesting, but that was something else…
Twenty minutes before the end of the day, every heroics teacher received the same email from principal Nedzu, with the same subject line.
Staff meeting tonight - attendance mandatory.
Midoriya held back a dramatic groan as he read the whole Email from where he was sat at his desk. Then he pulled out his phone to let his mum know that he and Shouta would be late home. Finally he sends a text to the older hero, asking if he'd seen the email, only to be left on read.
The teacher rolled his eyes and got up, ready to begin wrapping up the lesson. It didn't take long. Summarising the lessons content in a few sentences, asking for any questions and assigning the weeks homework. He finished speaking seconds before the bell rang, the same as most lessons, and dismissed the class of second years easily.
Students filed out quickly, chatting about their days, making plans for the evening, and ready to get home. By he time Midoriya's notes were packed up into his bag, the classroom was empty, and the teacher could easily slink out of the room himself, heading directly to the meeting room.
When he got there, the only other staff members present were Kayama, who didn't have a class last period, and Aizawa, who was sleeping in the corner.
"Room in there for one more?" Midoriya grumbled, flopping into the chair closest to the lump of yellow. The chair happened to be right next to Kayama, who offered a fist bump.
"No, get your own." The lump deadpanned, as if it was the most obvious answer in the world.
"Understood." Midoriya turned to Kayama and they talked about anything they could think of while waiting for the meeting to start.
Eventually everyone had arrived, and Nedzu, stood on the table at the end, called for attention.
"Thank you all for coming, I know this was very last minute. I do have some very exciting news however. We are once again adding a new teacher to our team. Please give him a warm welcome. I will be wandering around the school, observing him and answering any questions you have for the next few weeks."
Nedzu didn't say the new teachers name. There was only one new teacher when Izuku was a first year. The realisation hit the young hero just as the door slammed open, and a voice bellowed into the room;
"I AM HERE!"
A few heroes in the room flinched at the noise, Deku Ghost included, while others just stared. After a moment to recover, Ghost voiced the thought they all had.
"What the fuck."
All Might turned his head a little to look at who spoke, only to be met with the same sad eyes that, months ago, had asked him if a quirkless person could be a hero. The same worried eyes that that watched him deflated on the roof. The same determined eyes that had saved the explosive child from the sludge villain in the street.
He hadn't changed at all, yet he looked older. Wiser. Angry.
The other teachers in the room looked at him All-Might with varying expressions from interest, to confusion, to downright distrust. And the green haired boy he'd saved, looked resigned. Tired almost. Like he'd expected an event but was hoping for it's opposite anyway. All Might had a feeling it was because of him, at least partially.
"Please mind your language, Midoriya-kun, there may still be students around. Of course, you're all familiar with who All Might is. He will be joining our team as a teaching assistant, aiding you all in your practical lessons, and giving guest lectures on academic topics that he is well experienced in. I expect you all to treat him the same way you treated Midoriya; with respect, kindness and understanding when it comes to matters of personal, or private importance."
Murmurs of agreement ripples around the room when Nedzu stopped talking, and All Might realised that the boy- Midoriya, shouldn't be there, surely? This was a staff meeting for the heroics teachers of UA. Before he could say anything, however, Nedzu asked for any questions and his chance was gone. No matter, he could bring it up to Nedzu later.
The boy in question hadn't seemed to pay attention to the meeting, nor the Q and A anyway; too focused on whatever he was doodling in a notebook.
When the questions from staff was starting to die down, Midoriya ripped out the pages he'd been writing on and stood up. On his way towards the door he kicked a lump of yellow fabric All Might hadn't noticed before walking right up to the NO.1, handing him the pages with a deadpan expression, then he walked out of the room.
At the same time, the yellow fabric, which turned out to be a man in an obnoxiously bright sleeping bag also got up, following the boy out of the room without acknowledging All Might.
Confused, the hero looked down at the pages, expecting drawings of some kind. What he didn't expect was to see detailed pages of analysis and labelled sketches of his hero costumes. There was a concerning amount of attention paid to how someone could use his weaknesses against him.
He stayed behind to show Nedzu, concerned. Nedzu simply laughed at him.
"…and the idiot just stood there, it was hilarious!" Izuku cackled as his mum just shook her head with an amused smile on her face.
"I'm sure it was sweetie. And how was your day Aizawa-Kun?" She turned to look at the man in question, who was still staring at her son.
"It was alright, thank you Midoriya-San. " He replied easily. "Long, especially with this one-" he jerked a thumb in Izuku's direction. "-getting me to go up against groups of students at a time. then the meeting."
"Sho, you were half asleep the whole meeting. I heard you snoring."
"Shush, problem hero."
Inko laughed at the exchange. She was still so happy her Izuku was able to make a genuine friend, despite everything. It was a relief knowing that he'd be okay. She took a moment to bask in her reality. The loud, real laughter of her son and his closest friend, the bickering she hasn't heard from her baby in years, the deep timber of Aizawa-Kun that seemed to match Izuku's higher pitched rambles perfectly. Then she stood up, a smile still plastered on her face.
"well, if you boys have finished bickering like children, there's a pile of dishes in that kitchen that have your names written all over them." She chuckles at Izuku's dramatic groan as they both stood up, presumably to actually go and wash the dishes.
When Inko made it to the living room, she sat on the sofa, and pulled out her phone, checking it for the first time in a few hours, only to be met with a couple dozen missed calls from a private number.
She turned her phone off, and put on a movie instead.