Excuse Me When is This?

by RandomReaderSmiles

Summary:

All he wanted to do was go for a walk. Now Izuku Midoriya finds himself in a strange room.

OR
when Izuku Midoriya time travelled from modern day to a quirked future.

Notes:

I do not own My Hero Academia or any of the associated characters - all rights reserved to Kohei Horikoshi and Bones Studio

Do not copy to another site, sell, or print for profit as that is against the creative commons laws this site is able to operate under.

Chapter 1: Excuse Me, Where am I?

It was a perfect day for a walk. Sunny, if not a bit cold. Izuku Midoriya pulled on a jacket, beanie, and medical mask as he stepped out the door to explore the familiar landscape. With music blaring on black and green over-ear headphones, he was lost in his own world. That is, until it was suddenly warm with no sun and a weird cloth out of nowhere wrapping around him.

Izuku’s eyes widened as he took in his surroundings. He was standing on a long table in a room surrounded by people dressed in odd clothing. Holding onto the cloth is a scruffy man in all black, eyes bright red and hair appearing to float. What is this, a comic convention?

“Who do we have the pleasure of meeting?” a high pitched voice softly questioned. He turned his head to look from where the sound came, but there was nothing but some kind of animal in that direction. What is that? A mammal for sure. No bigger than lap dog. Dismissing the animal, he continued to search for the owner of the voice. The animal, seemingly not pleased with the dismissal, climbed onto the table and walked up to him. With Izuku’s full attention it repeated itself.

“Who are you?”

Izuku rapidly blinked a few times. What. The Hell.

“My name is Nedzu. He/Him,” the animal continued, “what is your name?”

Why is an…animal? Asking for my name.

While Izuku mentally erred, he felt the cloth binding him release. Izuku finally stuttered, “I-Izuku. Izuku M-Midoriya.” God why did I stutter. Come on brain, catch up.

“Well, Midoriya, why don’t you climb off my table and tell me what you are doing here.” With a nervous laugh Izuku followed instructions. Once down he glanced around the room again. There are quite a few people in here. Based on clothing this really does seem like a comicon.

A man with a tall mohawk offered a chair him. Once situated Izuku took a deep breath to gather himself.

“Um. I don’t really know. Where is this?” Nedzu made a motion that could only be interpreted as his version of raising an eyebrow. A scoff could be heard from across the table. The general sentiment seemed to be disbelief.

“You are in a staff meeting room at my school: UA.” Nedzu responded slowly.

“Okaaaayyy. I have no idea where that is. Um…so…I’m sorry if I interrupted something.” may as well try to be at least little polite. Momma didn’t raise me to be rude, even if I’m probably tripping.

Nedzu, carefully looked over the stranger – Midoriya – again. His mask. His clothing style. Something seemed out of place. Just then a knock sounded on the door. Izuku glanced to his left to see a tall, skeletal blonde letting whoever it was enter the room.

“Perfect timing, Detective. We were just beginning to question our trespasser here.” After acknowledging the newcomer Nedzu turned back to the stranger, “I hope you don’t mind we called in the Detective, we need to be sure there is nothing…nefarious going on here. Tsukauchi, would you like to take over?” Nodding in affirmation the detective – Tsukauchi – grabbed a chair and sat across from Izuku.

Huh. I guess I am a trespasser. Great. Hope I don’t lose my job over this.

“Can you tell me your name and age?” He asked.

Izuku took another deep breath. I should probably be as cooperative as possible. It may lesson whatever trouble this is.

“Izuku Midoriya. 26.”

“Ok Good. What is your quirk?”

At this question Izuku furrowed his eyebrows and slightly tilted his head. What the fuck is a quirk. Is he asking what makes me different from others?

“My…what? I mean I guess I have an odd dislike of ketchup?”

Tsukauchi briefly paused his pen’s movements over the notepad and looked back up, confused by the response. Nedzu cleared his throat. “Midoriya, do mind me asking, when is your birthday?”

“July 15, 1994”

At that Tsukauchi completely set down the notepad with wide eyes.

“And can you tell me the current date?”

Odd. Why would they ask me that. They think I’m crazy or something?  “January 15, 2021”.

Chapter 2: Excuse Me, When am I?

Summary:

Izuku's identity is confirmed.

The silence was deafening. After what felt like forever soft shuffling and murmurs echoed around the room from the occupants.

“Um,” began the skeletal blonde, “the day is right but…it is 2321.” At that the scruffy man glared at the blonde from over Izuku’s head. Izuku blinked once. Twice. A third time. Excuse me, when the fuck am I? No. No. This is not possible.

After the mental panic Izuku blurted out, “LARP or hidden cameras?”

A muffled laugh came from the man with a mohawk while the scruffy man rolled his eyes. Tsukauchi and the skeletal blonde stared at Izuku like that was the oddest thing they'd heard in their life.

“This is no joke or role play,” Nedzu straightforwardly answered, “it is indeed January 15, 2321.” From behind the man with a mohawk held up his phone showing the current date and time. 3:23 PM 15 Jan 2321. Fuck.

A ding prompted Tsukauchi to glance at his phone. Eyebrows raised, he typed something on the device. After another ding Tsukauchi looked over to Nedzu.

“Do you mind if I use your computer? Sansa sent me a file with what he could find in relation to the name Izuku Midoriya.”

“No problem, help yourself” Nedzu replied while gesturing to the laptop sitting at the head of the table. Silence one again reigned as Tsukauchi pulled the computer closer to himself. From where he sat Izuku was unable to see what, exactly, the detective did, but heard a printer spin up from a corner of the room after a few moments. The scruffy man walked over to pick up the papers and began quickly scanning, passing them over to Tsukauchi while Nedzu reclaimed the computer to read over them.

“Do you mind taking the mask and hat off?” Tsukauchi asked as he began to ruffle through the small stack. Izuku quickly tugged off his beanie, revealing a mess of black curls fading into a stylishly died dark green. He then hesitated for a moment before removing the face mask. Once done everyone in the room took a moment to observe the stranger they had been speaking with.

“The name, birthdate, and picture all match. I am inclined to believe Midoriya is who he says he is. There is also a missing persons report filed 2 days after the date he gave.” Nedzu squeaked from behind the screen.

A missing persons two days from today? Or, I guess not today if the evidence is true. I really did go missing from my life. Wait…if there is a missing persons…

“Is there anything about me being found? A successful case closed?” Izuku asks quietly.

Nedzu’s eyes seemed to sparkle a little at that question, but the same was not true for the oblivious skeletal man.

“Why do you –“ he began before being cut off by Tsukauchi.

“No, it’s a cold case.”

If I’m not noted as found, then that can only mean…shit. Don’t panic. Do NOT panic. Now is not the time. Figure this out first. One thing at a time.

“OK, where do we go from here. If you really believe I am who I say I am and it is really the 24^th century, what should I expect to happen?”

“First things first is we need to arrange a place for you to stay” thank God they aren’t going to just release me to the streets in an unknown place “then from there we will see what we can do about getting you home. Someone is bound to have a time travel quirk on the registry.”

Nodding along to Tsukauchi’s decision, Izuku couldn’t help but feel relieved. He may be in an unfamiliar place and time, but these people seem to be willing to work with him at least to a small extent.

“Pardon me” an elderly lady in a nurse outfit politely voiced, “but I think before that we need to get Midoriya a medical examination. January 2021 is the middle of a highly contagious global pandemic. That is highly likely why he was wearing a mask. While we now have the means to prevent any issues from that disease, I think it best to be pre-emptive and ensure none of us are exposed. No one should leave here until I’ve confirmed at least that part of his health.”

“I-I’m sorry. I probably should have warned you before removing the mask.” mumbled Izuku.

“It is quite alright, dearie. We all knew from when you came. I trust if you were aware of being ill you’d have told us.”

Notes:

For sake of realistic-ness there is a bit of character design OC. Since Izuku is from pre-quirk era I decided to make his hair black with it fading into some green hair dye on the ends. It felt like it wouldn't make sense for him to have naturally green hair given how genetics works. Hope no one minds!

Not 100% sure where I'm going to be taking this, but have a few ideas. Thinking about doing full on age-up of characters to UA being a University. Since Izuku is aged up to 26, that means with canon ages he is only a couple years younger than Aizawa and crew but a good 10 years older than the other students. That would make interactions a little awkward, so by ageing up everyone else to end of University age (say 20-22) potential friendships would be more natural.

Chapter 3: Excuse Me, Heroes are REAL?

Summary:

Izuku is brought to Yamada and Aizawa's apartment.
He has a minor mumble fest.

The examination completed efficiently with no unexpected surprises. Now he was sitting in a car on his way to the home of the scruffy man and blonde mohawk man. Izuku observed everything about his surroundings, curious to see what has changed in 300 years. Oddly enough, it doesn’t seem like much.

Huh. This car doesn’t seem any different from what I’m used to. Wheels. Not autopilot. Guess Tesla didn’t succeed. Wasn’t technology supposed to double in processing and advancements every few years? Wonder what happened.

“HEY! So, I know this is a little awkward since we’re already in a car together” the mohawk man quickly, almost excitedly announced, “but I am Hizashi Yamada. Call me what you will. The grumpy one there is my roommate Shouta Aizawa.”

The scruffy man – Aizawa – grunted out a “nice to meet you officially” before reaching over to mess with the radio volume.

“O-oh. Nice to officially meet you, too, Mr. Yamada and Mr. Aizawa” responded a nervous Izuku.

“Aizawa and Yamada is fine, you don’t need the Mr.”

The rest of the ride remained quiet except for unfamiliar music emanating from the speakers. A few minutes later they arrived at an apartment building. Yamada and Aizawa exited the car with Izuku close behind, continuing his observations as they treaded up a flight of stairs to a simple white door. Aizawa unlocked it and directed Izuku inside. Taking his shoes off at the door, Izuku followed his hosts into what appeared to be a living room.

“You can make yourself at home here. Ask us if you need anything. The guest room is the second on the left down the hall.” said Aizawa.

Izuku simply nodded as he took a seat on a chair placed next to the couch. Shortly after the other men returned to the room no longer dressed in their 'costumes' as they called them. It appeared they had some work to do, so he took out his phone to occupy the time. Curious, Izuku clicked on the Internet Access icon. He stared at the screen for a moment and just. Laughed. Full, near breakdown disbelief laugh. Yamada and Aizawa lifted their heads from the papers they were marking and stared at him with expressions somewhere between confusion and concern. As the laughter dwindled Izuku wiped under his eyes to remove the evidence of tears.

“Are you OK there?” asked Yamada.

Am I OK. AM I OK? Where do I even begin. “It's just…networking has seriously not changed in 300 years? Are you kidding me?” Izuku replied, exasperated.

“Ah, you had me worried there for a sec. For various reasons certain tech is probably not too different from what you are used to. Developments went in a different direction. You trying to get to the internet?” Izuku nods. “Our wifi is ‘YEAHHH!!!!’. Password ‘yeahmeister’ spelled ‘y3aHme1$ter’.”

“Thanks. But um. I don’t really get why my phone can connect. I mean, IPv7 was just taking over in my time and theoretically the protocol should have been replaced with something more advanced. My phone’s software should not be able to keep up with modern advances. I guess it would make sense if priorities of where to focus on changed, but it is still baffling. If security hasn't beefed up like I'm guessing based on the fact that the router connection is using the same WPA2 it is likely hackers have found an efficient way to bypass most security.”

Yamada stares at him for a moment before Aizawa spoke up, “What, exactly, did you do for a living?”

“Oh, I just worked in IT. Nothing fancy, but it kept me occupied and bills paid.”

“Huh” was the only response Yamada could vocalize. It appeared they were not expecting that. Guess the files on me missed a few details.

The trio sat a while longer in the room, each occupied by their own tasks. Izuku scrolled through the internet, first looking at the latest headlines to really let the fact he is in the future set in. It was a shock to say the least. Headlines looked like what you would expect from a Marvel or DC comic. People in spandex with cheesy superhero like names battling what looked like stereotypical villain types were in picture after picture.

“A Hero is seriously a real profession?” he muttered in a low voice, too quiet for the others to really make out. “These abilities look seriously dangerous. And they are damaging buildings left and right. The infrastructure costs must be through the roof. It is like modern life is a constant worry of being dropped in a war zone…” The mumbles went on and on for a good couple minutes before being interrupted by Aizawa.

“Hey. If you are asking something speak up a bit.”

“O-Oh. Sorry. Kindof a bad habit of mine to mumble. Please stop me if I start to bother you with it, I don't always realize I'm doing it. It is nothing, really. Just trying to make sense of what I’m seeing. It’s weird, seeing that a” Izuku raises his fingers to make air quotes, “ ‘hero’ and ‘villain’ is a real thing.”

“I can imagine it being so. After quirks were more widespread it became common for criminals to use them in their activities. Since police force were outlawed from using a quirk in the line of duty in an attempt to prevent additional brutality charges and temptation a new branch of law enforcement was added to handle that gap.”

“pffft guess that makes a bit of sense. I can imagine what could have happened in my time if the police were using things like super strength or, I don’t know, laser eyes. It would NOT have ended well. We already have enough issues to deal with.” Have. The right word is probably had in this context. Oh well, doesn't really matter.

Aizawa nodded in understanding, fully aware of the potential for corruption.

“Are you sure you’re alright? This is a lot to take in.”

“No kidding. I’ll be fine. I’m still wrapping my mind around this, though, so don’t be surprised if I just…stop being fine.”

“If you feel overwhelmed remember there are people here you can talk to.”

“Thanks, I appreciate it.”

Notes:

Remember to take care of your mental health if you ever end up time travelling to a distant future with shocking revelations! Kidding on the time travel part - but seriously, take care of yourselves ;)

Chapter 4: Excuse Me, That's a Quirk?

Summary:

Izuku goes to the mall.

Notes:

Should I mention there has not really been any edits on any of the chapters thus far? I'm really just going for it.

After a restless night Izuku blearily began preparing for the day. Well shit. Don’t have a change of clothes. He washes his face and attempts to untangle some of the mess his tossing and turning caused to the mop he called hair. Determining it was as good as it was going to get in his tired state, Izuku leaves his fortress of solitude and denial to re-enter the unfamiliar world.

“Good morning, Midoriya.” Yamada brightly declares as he sees the man trudge into the kitchen area for breakfast. Noticing Izuku’s state, Yamada offers a cup of coffee with the fixings placed on the table in front of where Izuku plopped himself rather ungracefully into the chair. “What do you say we go to the mall and pick up a few outfits today? Can’t be having a guest stuck with one option, now, can we?!”

Looking up and the man speaking, Izuku lazily nods his head before remembering he could use his words, “yeah, ok, that sounds good” Might be a good distraction. Plus I can see a little more for myself what this time is like.

Once Aizawa joined them the group shuffled out the door.

Ever curious, Izuku’s head was on a swivel as he entered the busy building. Clothing stores displayed modern fashion along side hero merchandise, much like how they used to display designs for popular bands and movies.

“What do you say we start here to get the basics.” Startled by Yamada suddenly talking, Izuku’s eyes followed to where he was pointing. A small nod was all it took for the group to enter. It didn’t take long for Yamada and Aizawa to pick up on Izuku’s style choices. They began to pick out various comfortable T-Shirts with mismatching clothing item names scrawled across the front to add to the small pile. Izuku slightly smiled at that, internally laughing about the fact that he initially grabbed one for a joke to see the other’s reactions. But if they were cool with the odd choice, who was he to complain?

Less than an hour later of wandering the mall Izuku had everything he needed to get through a week or so. Just enough to stay hygienic, but not so much to feel as if he were imposing more than necessary on his temporary hosts. As enthralled with his surrounding as he was, Izuku did not notice the individual that suddenly stopped in front of him. He ran into them hard and fell back, landing on his bottom with bags dropped to his sides.

Aizawa and Yamada looked down at him is surprise.

“owww. S-sorry fo-“ Izuku stopped speaking suddenly when his eyes finally met the person he bumped, their size growing with surprise. “y-y-you h-ha-ha” He stammered ungracefully, unable to find the works while his brain froze. The man, now facing Izuku, had a beak with sharp, raptor-like teeth. Noticing Izuku’s reaction to him, he narrowed his eyes in a grimace, turned back around and walked away leaving the stunned man behind.

Izuku’s heartbeat gradually sped up faster and faster as his mind raced with fear. Since when – how – his mouth? A beak? sharp. Teeth sharp. Human? His breathing reflected this inner panic, not noticing Aizawa bend down in front of him as Izuku curled his legs into a cradle.  Yamada kept onlookers at bay in an effort to reduce increasing Izuku’s stressors.

Slowly, carefully, Aizawa coaxed Izuku out of his anxious state. Once the rapid breaths slowed and deepened to a more manageable rate Yamada leaned over to help Izuku stand back up. Aizawa gathered the fallen bags and rose from his crouched position. After giving Izuku a long look he simply said, “let’s get out of here.”

Back at the apartment, Izuku seemed a bit more subdued than the previous day with a slight frown tugging at his lips.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Yamada asked.

Izuku sighed as he leaned further back into the couch he sat on, “Not really, no. It’s just –“ he paused for a moment attempting to gather his thoughts, well aware that his reaction earlier was probably hurtful to the person he bumped into, “I’ve never seen a human with animal-like features in person. It was a shock. A jolt of reality, really.” Izuku’s hands began to shake. He reached up to run them through his hair in frustration, a tangle catching his fingers and causing him to stop. Leaning forwards with both hands still gripping his head, elbows now resting on his thighs, he struggled to keep his breaths even and prevent another panic.

“It’s fine. Don’t worry about your reaction, it is understandable given your situation.”

“But I- their eyes looked so hurt. I- I-“

“Stop berating yourself,” Aizawa interrupted, “it won’t do you any good. Now you’ve seen an animal quirk, are aware of their existence, and can manage the interaction a bit better next time.”

Izuku just sighed again before leaning back and resting his head on the back of the couch.

I guess they are right. My reaction wasn’t right. It was wrong and hurtful. Hell, that type of shit is what I’ve been trying to fight against as long as I can remember. But now I can be sure to not hurt anyone else with my out of time gut reaction.

Izuku looked back at Yamada and Aizawa. After a moment he grumbled, “I am going to take a nap”

I can’t handle anything else today.

Notes:

Don't worry stressed out Izuku, you'll get a bit of fun next chapter.

Chapter 5: **just some random fun**

Summary:

Izuku needs to relax.

Notes:

Extremely short fluff chapter because Izuku needs some fun to relax after the oh shiznitz I'm really in a different time panic.

Don't worry, next one should be getting back to the interesting problem at hand...but it may take me some time to get it out.

The next morning brings a sense of calm. Sure, Izuku is still upset from the previous day, but it seems Yamada has decided to do his best to cheer him up. It started small – Izuku came out of his room quietly humming along to a song, headphones fully on distracting him from thinking too hard.

“HEY listener, watcha listening to?” Yamada asked once he sees Izuku enter the kitchen. Izuku shifts his headphones off one of his ears, “what was that?”

“What are you listening to? Anything new?”

“No, nothing new. Just all the good girls go to hell”

“Don’t know that one. Mind if I hear?”

Izuku unplugs his headphones and turns up the volume so Yamada can hear. When the song finished Yamada looked at him with slightly squinted eyes, almost like he was contemplating something. “That’s a mood” he eventually said.

“Hah, I guess you could say that.”

Suddenly a sly smile lights up Izuku’s features. It seemed almost out of place with its mischievous air. He looked back to the living room, double checking that he did in fact see a Play Station set up by the TV before.

“Speaking of music and all the good girls go to hell…have you ever played Just Dance? It is one of the songs on there”

“I can’t say I know what that game is”

Izuku’s grin widens as he reaches over to grab Yamada’s hand and pull him into the living room.

“OK that’s it. We have GOT to see if that game still exists or is at least compatible with your system…um…if you want?” he ended uncertainly.

Yamanda laughed, surprised by the joy that the idea of playing a game brought. Wanting to keep that smile on the other’s face he readily agreed, “Sure Midoriya, that sounds fun!” Yamada reached over to turn on the game system and searched for the game Izuku mentioned. There were more versions available than what Izuku was familiar with, so Yamada selected the one from the year of Izuku’s disappearance in an attempt at something familiar.

An hour later, after much laughter, Aizawa walked in from the front door.

“What the hell are you two doing?”

Both Izuku and Yamada froze in place and turned their heads to look at him. Their arms were bent at odd angles, legs with one in front of the other. Their eyes were reminiscent of deer caught in headlights. The music continued to play in the background.

“ummmmm HI SHO!!!!” shouted Yamada. Aizawa took out his phone and snapped a quick picture of the spectacle while saying, “blackmail.” Izuku suddenly burst out laughing, dispelling the tension in the room. Once he calmed down he asked, “want to join us? It’s fun!”

“No.” was the too quick response accompanied by a slight grin.

Chapter 6: New Start

Summary:

A decision is made.

A week passed all to quickly as Izuku accustomed himself to his new reality. Before he knew it he was being escorted back to Nedzu’s office.

“Thank you for coming, Midoriya” Nedzu greeted once Izuku, Aizawa, and Yamada entered the room. Nedzu sat on a couch far too large for an animal of his size, Detective Tsukauchi nervously tugging at his shirt sleeves by his side.

“Oh. Um. O-of course Mr.Nedzu. What did you want to speak with me about?” Izuku replied while taking the seat offered to him.

“It seems our investigations have born no fruit.”

“Ah, I suspected that would be the case. So, what do you plan to do now?”

“Well, that all depends on you, Midoriya. You can continue in limo hoping to go home at any given time or you can make a decision.” Izuku looked carefully at Nedzu’s body language, trying to suss out what hidden meanings may be behind those words. If he learned anything about the rat-bear-thing this past week it was that he is a highly intelligent, difficult to read being not afraid of manipulating a situation to his own benefit. He glanced to the side to gauge the expressions of the men who have been hosting him thus far. Seeing nothing to worry about, Izuku came to a hesitant decision.

“I think it best to not get my hopes up meaninglessly. It seems clear I will be here for the long haul, so should begin preparing myself to handle that situation. I doubt any of my assets survived in my name between my last known residence and now, so I need to find a way to support myself without needing to rely on you hero’s generosity.”

A look of surprise passed over Tsukauchi’s face while Nedzu appeared pleased.

“What makes you say that, if you don’t mind me asking?” asked Tsukauchi.

“The first day I arrived here I asked if my case had been closed with my location being found. You all said no. Given that information, and the fact that your investigations are not fruitful, I can assume that I never go home. Honestly, I’m just being practical here. It hurts. It hurts a lot to know my mom will always wonder what happened to me. But overall it is something I can deal with.”

“That is practical indeed, Midoriya. You probably get along with Aizawa pretty well,” Nedzu joyously stated. “Very well, we can assist you in integrating into society as it is today. How about a position here at UA? I see you are proficient in technology given your Master’s degree in the subjet. Power Loader, our support course head, may be able to use your skills if you are willing to play catch up for a bit on technological advancements. Otherwise we are looking for an instructor to fill in for pre-quirk history and society studies.”

“Thank you for understanding, Nedzu. As much as I succeeded with my old work, I think it best for me mental health wise to pursue a different means of living. If it is not too much trouble, I would be grateful for the opportunity to be an instructor.”

“Good, good! I was hoping you would choose that. There is no better way to learn history then by someone who lived through it!”

------ ++++++ ------

Izuku stared at the faculty dorms, unsure of what to do. Yamada, who helped him pack his things from the shared apartment, stood next to him waiting for Izuku to make the first move. After too long Yamada finally spoke, “You going in or are we just going to plant roots here?”

“Oh. Sorry.” Izuku quietly whispered before at long last moving his feet to cross the building’s threshold. It didn’t take long to settle in given Izuku only had the bare necessities up to this point. Now Izuku sat in the shared common room with a stack of books next to a composition book quickly being filled with notes. Earlier that day Nedzu, upon Izuku’s request, had a variety of books relating to the history of quirks, major changes of laws Izuku would be unfamiliar with, and recent geopolitical relations.

He was deeply involved in note taking and analysis of proper modern behavior when someone entered the room.

“Hey, watcha studyin’ there?” Asked the man wearing a cowboy hat.

Izuku jumped, having not noticed their entrance. “Just catching up on modern society. You know, standard culture. Can’t go around accidentally pissing people off, can I?”

The cowboy hat man laughed, “that sure would be a shame for someone who seems so caring to cause mass faux pas trauma. I didn’t get to introduce myself earlier. Name’s Snipe. If you need any help adjusting give me a holler, Midoriya. Any of the other staff here would be glad to assist.”

“Thank you. Luckily I’ll just be shadowing other instructors to get a feel on how each of you work with the students for now. I think I’m with Aizawa for the first week.”

“Good luck with that one. I hear his class this year is expected to be a bit on the wild side.”

Izuku smiled brightly at Snipe, excited for the week to come. I think this new start is exactly what I needed.

Notes:

I know it's been a slow start up, but we are almost at a place to start bringing in some modified canon events! Wanted to get the flow going first and establish a view of Izuku's mental state.

In this story Izuku only had his mom in his life before the time travel -- no consistent friendships, only acquaintances. This more or less lines up with the canon relationship statuses for Izuku before attending UA as a student. Of course, here Izuku is too old to be a student at a high school so is instead temporarily working as a teaching assistant before taking over teaching of his own subject at UA as a university program following a structured cohort style of instruction instead of typical university class choice structure.

Let me know if there is anything you all would find interesting to add in to the story! I can try my best to work it in if it fits with the overall story!

Chapter 7: The start of a habit

Summary:

It's a standard day 1 of UA University -
Except Izuku is a teacher who is having too much fun messing with the students thanks to Aizawa's bad influence.

Notes:

And cannon begins.

I am also living and dying by doing no editing. Any other first draft warriors in the house?

The first day of the semester finally arrived. With it came a new group of people and experiences. Izuku sat on the long table in front of the classroom of 1A, watching as the new students arrived. Aizawa was yet to enter, claiming a preference to wait in the teacher’s lounge until last minute as a test to gauge the student’s awareness. That didn’t fool Izuku, though. Having only knew the man for a short while, even he could tell Aizawa’s true intention was to catch up on as much sleep as possible before dealing with what is sure to be an excessively energetic crowd.

It being early and the students not yet knowing one another, the room was quieter than what Izuku suspects it will be like the rest of the year. That is, except for a rather formal, stiff seeming student attempting to tell off his complete opposite for sitting improperly at the desk.

Amused, Izuku intervened, “you seem rather bothered by his posture, but have no problem with my own?”

The formal young man paused and squinted his eyes as if he were thinking hard. Ever so slowly he eventually replied, “I assumed you were a teacher given the lack of uniform. It would be improper of me to address your choice of seat.”

Izuku nodded, gaining a bit of insight into what kind of character the other man was, before laughing, “Well you aren’t exactly wrong there. But don’t you think I would have said something if it was a big deal? It’s not like lessons have begun.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t realize.”

At that time Izuku noticed Aizawa laying down in his god-awful yellow sleeping bag by the open door. He tried not to laugh when Aizawa finally spoke up to get the student’s attention.

“Sit down. You all took too long to notice me. We’ll need to work on that. I’m your homeroom teacher, Shouta Aizawa. This is Izuku Midoriya. He will be assisting me this week and is also your pre-quirk studies teacher.”

At that Izuku saluted the class before moving behind the table to pull out boxes. Within the boxes were various sized gym uniforms which he handed out to the students as Aizawa explained that they are to immediately put them on and meet outside at the field.

------ ++++++ ------

Waiting for the students seemed to take forever, though in reality it was only 10 minutes or so. It gave Izuku and Aizawa time to discuss their initial observations of the class.

“They took too long to notice my presence. Even you, a non-hero hopeful, saw me. It’s not a good sign.” Aizawa began.

“Come now, Aizawa. They are, what, 19 at the oldest? Most of them just graduated high school or finished a gap year.”

Aizawa snorted at Izuku’s response, “I know you’ve not been around here long, but please tell me you don’t honestly believe them not noticing a stranger to their back - as people preparing to take on dangerous criminals - is not an issue?”

“I did not say that,” huffed Izuku, “I simply mean they can’t be expected to be on par with someone older than them even if that someone happens to be an untrained civilian. I’d keep an eye on spiky blond dude, though. He seems like he’d have an explosive personality. It won’t mesh well with the blue haired stiff guy at all.”

“I’ll keep that in mind, thanks.”

They wound down the conversation as students arrived for the start of career-what do we have to work with first day fitness quirk test.

“Hey, Aizawa.” Izuku started after some students seemed angered at the fact that Aizawa ‘threatened’ expulsion to poor performers, “you mind if I participate, too? It’ll be a fun little challenge between potential heroes and a lifelong civilian.”

Aizawa grinned evilly with a twinkle in his eye. The students who noticed widened their eyes and shuffled back a little, worried for what was to come. They already had a pretty good gauge on the dynamics between their two teachers at this point. One being serious with a side of scary, the other being laid back but obviously intelligent. “Sure, Midoriya. Why don’t we change it up, then? If you guys can’t beat this civilian, who is not allowed to use a quirk, then I’ll deem you lacking of potential.” This was, of course, just a ruse. He knew Izuku was not completely weak on the base fitness level, though he didn’t work hard enough to match up to anyone who actually cared to have a fitness routine, so it would provide a bit of a push for the students.

The test went exactly as planned, with students trying to push past not only Izuku’s middle of the road scores, but also showing off creative ways their quirks could give an advantage in any particular trial. By the end of it Aizawa announced no one would be expelled before dismissing them for the day.

------ ++++++ ------

Sitting in the staff room, Izuku reflected on the events of the morning. Deep in thought, he muttered quietly. These superpowers – quirks- are amazing! Reading about them in a book or seeing a video is one thing, but seeing them in action in person? I wonder how many different ways they can be used. Thinking about the acid girl, she used it to make it easier to move quickly. Was she controlling the pH while doing that, or was that the strongest it could go? There was no damage made in her tracks, even if we had to make sure the acid was neutralized for safety sake. If she was controlling the pH I wonder if it could be strong enough to eat into the ground….

“Midoriya.” Aizawa grumbled. Izuku didn’t notice at first until he repeated himself.

“Oh, sorry. I was thinking about what we saw during the tests this morning.”

“You know, if it interested you that much why don’t you write up your observations? Based on what I could understand from your...ahem…rant…I’d say it could be pretty helpful in improving how they use their quirks.”

Izuku stared at Aizawa, floored that the man could interpret even a fraction of the garble he was spitting out. He blinked a few times before at last responding, “yeah, I can do that. It would be interesting to try and break down their quirks. Not like there is much for me to do yet as a teacher, anyway. My course doesn’t start up until next week.”

Izuku stood and walked over to a metal cabinet to claim ownership of one of the notebooks within. On the cover he wrote ‘1A’ and began his analysis.

Chapter 8: Sharing the Analysis

Summary:

Izuku completes the class analysis.

Did he need to stay up all night to do an analysis of all 19 students of 1-A? No. Did he you it anyway? You bet. Now, though, Izuku is regretting his hyper-focus. Having only taken a short 20 minute nap, Izuku dragged himself across campus to the teacher lounge. If one didn’t know better, they’d think he had some kind of undead quirk looking to satisfy its…ahem…nutritional needs.

When Izuku finally entered the lounge, the other teachers glanced at him before returning back to their work. Snipe and Yamada, however, raised their eyebrows.

“You know…just because you’re working with Aizawa doesn’t mean you need to be as exhausted as him, too.” Snipe sighed. Izuku stared blankly at the cowboy, not fully registering what was said. Ignoring Snipe, Izuku turned towards a couch where Aizawa was pretending to nap. He moved to stand directly in front of Aizawa’s face, paused long enough to be obviously awkward, then rasped, “Here” as he threw the notebook on Aizawa’s lap, “it isn’t completely accurate given the amount of information I had to work with, but should be a good start.”

Yamada, having followed Izuku over in fear for his safety, yelled, “SHO! What did you make him DO?!”

“I didn’t make him do anything.” Aizawa grumbled, “he seemed interested in how the students quirks worked and was doing that mumbling thing. It sounded like there were some interesting ideas so I suggested he write down his analysis of the students.”

“To complete in one night? That’s, what, 20 people?”

“19. I left a spot open in case someone who didn’t fit the physical exam caught my interest.”

“Still-“

“It’s my fault” Izuku interrupted, “I have a tendency to forget time when something interests me. Sorry to worry you.” He then slumped onto the couch next to Aizawa as the analysis was being reviewed.

“This is some good work. You point out strengths and ways to improve. The weakness sections seems a bit incomplete yet, but that would make sense given you only just met everyone.” Aizawa finally said.

“Ah. About that section. I decided it was best not to write down anything too specific there in case something happened to the notebook. Pen and paper in plain Japanese isn’t exactly the most secure place of information storage in the world.” Izuku responds.

“Makes sense. You mind if I make copies to hand out to the students?”

“Go ahead.”

------ ++++++ ------

Homeroom that day was a flurry of questions. Aizawa, as promised, gave each student Izuku’s analysis while Izuku sat in his usual place on the front room table.

“Thank you for putting these together for us, Aizawa sensei, it is very thoughtful.” The stiff robotic like student, Tenya Iida, said with a slight bow.

Aizawa glanced at the young man before responding, “It was all thanks to Midoriya’s hard work.”

“Oh, well, thank you Midoriya sensei.”

Izuku smiled at Iida’s hesitant yet sincere thanks. Then it caught up to him. His smile dropped to a slight frown. Iida just called me sensei? What? Ugh that feels weird. Nope, cutting that in the bud right now. “Iida, you needn’t call me sensei, just Midoriya is fine. If you all have any questions on the analysis please feel free to ask me.”

“HAH? THE FUCK IS THIS! You list things to improve but hardly any weaknesses. How am I supposed to improve if I don’t know what needs improving?” The aggressive blonde from the first day, who Izuku now knew was named Katsuku Bakugou, yelled.

“That is why I am open for questions. Writing detailed information on your weaknesses seemed like a rather bad idea in case a future opponent gets a hold on it.”

Bakugou blinked at Izuku, looking slightly less aggravated. “That seems fair.”

“A very logical conclusion, Midoriya! Do you have time during lunch to speak with me?” Iida declared.

“Sure thing. Just find me at the teacher’s lounge and we can relocate somewhere a little less crowded.”

------ ++++++ ------

As it turns out, a small group of the students decided to join Iida in his quest to seek out Izuku. It being a warm day, Izuku led Iida, Uraraka, and Tsuyu outside to a picnic table under a large tree just far enough from others their conversations wouldn’t be overheard.

Izuku fielded each of their questions regarding their quirk’s potential after ensuring it was not information that they cared if the others heard. Towards the end of the break Uraraka gathered her courage to ask Izuku more personal questions, “Midoriya, you were able to analyze the quirks of our class to great detail after only a short demonstration. You must have some sort of mental quirk, right?”

Izuku started at the question. How do I answer that? I can’t lie, that is out of the question, but in the short time here I’ve seen how the majority of the population perceive those without quirks. Oh well, if they link two and two together and decide I’m not worth associating with it’s their loss, not mine. “Nope, just pure brain power.”

Uraraka’s eyes widened in surprise, clearly impressed by that revelation. She didn’t get a chance to ask further question, though, as with a glance at her phone she noticed it was nearing time for the next class. “Wow that is awesome! No wonder you are teaching here so young.” She scratched her cheek and blushed when she realized she said the second sentence out loud, “I-I-I mean you don’t seem much older than us so I was just curious is all.”

Luckily Tsu came to her aid, “we need to get back to class. Thank your for your help, Midoriya!” At that Tsu grabbed Uraraka’s hand and ran off, Iida trailing behind after a quick bow.

Notes:

I'm going to tone down Bakugou's cursing a bit since I find it looses value if overused, but will still have it there since it is a major part of the character.

Izuku's hyper-focus on the analysis is something I pulled from my own personality since it seemed like a trait that could work given his obsession with heroes in cannon. I tend to work on things until they are done. Sometimes that means forgetting a meal or getting to sleep way later than planned.

No, there is no Ochako/Izuku ship. She is simply embarrassed for mentioning Izuku's age out loud.

Chapter 9: Excuse Me, Do You Listen?

Summary:

Training gone wrong.

Notes:

Writing this chapter felt like pulling teeth.
Don't read the last paragraph if you don't like descriptions of burns.

All in all this new gig suited Izuku. Sure, he has to speak in front of many people on a daily basis, but he also gets to use his brain for analysis. It is a nice change of pace from the old desk job. Sadly, opinions on how great a job is can change fast.

“Midoriya, I won’t be able to join the battle training today. Can I trust you to keep an eye on the class while All Might conducts his first official lesson?” Aizawa said in a more serious tone than usual.

Knowing Aizawa’s stance on All Might attempting to teach a basic heroics course – and having seen the potentially disastrous plan better suited to more advanced courses - Izuku could do nothing but accept. Not like I’ll be much help given I know nothing about actually working in the field. He hadn’t had much hope going into the day, but what little remained rapidly dried up when All Might entered the classroom in a peculiar manner.

“I AM HERE! LIKE A REGULAR PERSON!” Upon seeing the ridiculously muscled western comic lookalike Izuku could not hold back the laughter. All Might coughed nervously as Izuku calmed while suffering through Iida’s speech on disrespecting one of societies most famed figures. It seems Iida has gotten over his teacher formalities with me. Oh well, I did tell him to not treat me as such.

At last, the room quieted enough for All Might to speak. “Ahem. Well then. Let us go to the training city grounds.”

------ ++++++ ------

Izuku may have generally known what was in store for today, but that does not mean he was expecting All Might to allow the use of deadly weapons. Why Bakugou was permitted to have his explosion grenade gauntlets during a training exercise revolved around combatting other students was beyond him. Then came another problem.

“I am going to pair you all up. Take a number from this box.” All Might said while walking over to Izuku and holding the box out for him.

“Um, sir, I am just observing in Aizawa’s place.” Izuku attempted to remind the hero.

“Nonsense Midoriya my boy. We need to balance the numbers since there are 19 of them. I see no harm in you participating to even things out.”

This guy has GOT to be kidding me. “That is a terrible idea. You know I have no battle experience or skills. Frankly, I would be a detriment to whatever student I’m placed with. I’m just a history teacher.”

“This is just the first class, none of them have experience either!” All Might responds, completely ignoring the ‘skills’ part Izuku attempted to throw in as a reminder of his no training, no quirk situation.

What the actual fuck does he think he’s doing. “Why don’t we have one of the students go twice. Once on the side protecting the bomb and the other infiltrating.”

All Might paused for a moment to think over Izuku’s words. Seeming to decide them acceptable, he responds, “Very well. If by the time all other teams have gone any of the student who wishes may volunteer to fill in the open spot.”

Hearing this some of 1-A appeared excited. Getting the chance to participate in the exercise twice could be nothing but beneficial to their learning curve.

Everything seemed to go as well as can be expected until Bakugou and Iida teamed up against Uraraka and Sero. Bakugou, with his overkill grenade support items, was getting overly frustrated with Sero constantly sticking tape to things.

“Bakugou, do not use your support items! They could kill him!” All Might yelled into the microphone. Bakugou paused briefly, looking at the camera in the corner of the room, and showed off his middle finger while saying, “it won’t be a problem if he just dodges.”

While this exchange occurred Izuku already began to run to the building in which the two groups battled. This lesson needs to stop NOW. By force if necessary. Ensuring an earpiece he grabbed was activated, Izuku spat out between breaths, “All Might, he is not going to listen. If you aren’t going to stop Bakugou then I will.” Izuku enters the room of the battle just as Bakugou finished responding to All Might’s less than stellar attempt at de-escalation. Breathing heavily after rapidly ascending multiple flights of stairs, Izuku takes a moment to observe the situation. As of yet no one is irreparably injured, but Bakugou has his hand in place to pull the trigger for his gauntlets.

“Bakugou, you need to stop now. This is unnecessary use of force for a training simulation.” Izuku attempted to reason.

Barely turning his head to respond, Bakugou yells, “FUCK YOU!” while slowly pulling on the item’s trigger.

Izuku uses up the last of his energy to sprint towards Bakugou and push his arm aside in an attempt to alter the blast’s direction away from Sero. Unfortunately, being too close to a rather large explosion, Izuku took the brunt of the force. Pain throbbed up Izuku’s arm as the skin seared. When the scent of stomach-turning burning flesh met his nose Izuku lost consciousness.

Chapter 10: Aftermath

Summary:

Izuku needs some healing.
Aizawa has some words.

Slowly, ever so slowly, Izuku cracked his eyes open to let in the bright fluorescent lights of whatever room he was in. Noting he lay on a rather uncomfortable bed, Izuku turned his head to examine his surroundings. The elderly nurse that previously examined him sat on a chair behind a desk in the corner typing something up in the computer. At peace with his location being the infirmary, Izuku slowly sat up. The movement caught the nurse, Recovery Girl’s, attention.

“How are you feeling?” Recovery Girl asked.

Izuku shut his eyes and breathed in deeply, assessing his body. Opening them once again he noted the bandages wrapping his left arm and hand. Grimacing, Izuku replied, “Sore, but not bad. My arm took the brunt of things, though I’m surprised it doesn’t sting as much as I expected.”

“That would be because I healed the worst of it when you were brought in. Since you are up let’s change the bandages. If you don’t mind I will use my quirk again to get it a bit further along.”

Izuku nodded his head, watching as Recovery Girl hopped out of the chair and, using her odd syringe-shaped cane, waddled over to a cabinet storing clean bandages and disinfectants. Once at his side she began to unwrap the gauze, careful of any areas where it may have begun to stick to the skin. It was clearly a severe burn, with marbling that indicated he may have had need a skin graft without the use of a quirk.

“That’s going to leave a pretty nasty scar, isn’t it?” Izuku eventually asked after Recovery Girl kissed a clean spot on his arm.

“Very likely, yes. The damage was severe enough that I chose to focus on repairing the nerves and muscle over the skin. At this point it is only a surface wound, so you will still feel a bit of discomfort for a day or two.” Stepping back from the bedside, Recovery Girl glares at Izuku intensely, “Now, what in the world were you thinking, running in like that?! Then again, I should probably be thanking you. Healing up one burnt to a crisp arm is nothing compared to having to call a family to tell them their child was severely injured or worse during training in their first week.”

Izuku snorted, unwilling to say his thoughts out loud to this sweet but tough nurse. They aren’t exactly children anymore, but I get it. What else was I supposed to do? Watch someone in my care die? Not like that muscle dude was going to do anything that would actually stop the fight. I’ve only known the man for a few days and could already tell he is too good hearted for his own good.  

“Sorry you had to heal me, none the less. Am I cleared to return?”

“The school day is almost over, so there is no point in continuing your duties assisting Aizawa today. Just go back to the apartments and get some rest. I already informed Aizawa that you would not be returning. By the way, be expecting him to drop by. He may seem gruff, but the man has a soft spot for anyone he deems a friend.”

Friend? I guess we could be called that at this point.

------ ++++++ ------

Recovery Girl was right. An hour after students were released for the day Aizawa came storming into the faculty dorms to hunt Izuku down. At the time Izuku was in the living room reading yet another book about quirks. This time healing quirks. He found Recovery Girl’s rather fascinating and wanted to know more without harassing the poor woman with basic questions an elementary schooler would have answers for.

 Aizawa simply stood at the entrance to the room glaring at Izuku. He didn’t move a muscle, hair slightly floating and eyes glowing red. Izuku stared back with an eyebrow raised at the interruption to his study. Eventually Izuku couldn’t handle the silence any longer and said, “staring is rude, you know.” This pulled a huff of a laugh out of Aizawa, who then strolled over to an armchair across from Izuku and collapsed.

“You seriously had to go and get yourself injured while the students were training.”

“Hey, it’s not my fault the rules for the lesson were…less than stellar for a mere exercise. Why the hell was Bakugou allowed that fucking weapon to use against other students?”

“Don’t look at me, I didn’t come up with that plan. There was a reason I wanted to be there. Let me guess, sir all mighty tried to talk the hot head down.”

“Yup” Izuku responded, popping the ‘p’, “and surprise surprise it didn’t work. I see why people like him as a hero. He is always trying his hardest and believing the best in others, but that doesn’t really mesh well with training potentially volatile individuals.”

Aizawa rolled his eyes. “I’m starting to think I’ve influenced you a little too much in regards to All Might.”

Izuku laughed and put down the book he had been holding. “Sure, it has nothing to do with the fact that I have trained people in the past as a TA while getting my masters and actually know how to teach. Or that I’m from a time where heroes are fiction and first responders, not some guy in spandex with superpowers.”

“You have a point.”

They sat in silence for a moment before Izuku stood up to make some tea.

“Would you like any?” He asked Aizawa.

“Sure, I’ll have a cup.”

Sitting in companionable silence while the water boiled and tea steeped, Izuku finished reading the chapter he was in the middle of as Aizawa pulled out a few papers to grade. When the tea was ready and his chapter finished Izuku watched the grading. Eventually Aizawa finished the small stack and leaned back with a sigh.

“I get why you jumped in, but don’t scare me like that. You are fast and, honestly, without my quirk to stop the explosion, that was probably the best move anyone could have made. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t stupid, though.” Aizawa said sternly.

“I know. I just…moved without thinking. Seeing that All Might’s actions weren’t going to help – knowing how damaging that blast would be to Sero – I couldn’t help myself. Something needed to be done.”

“You know, they say moving without thinking is the sign of a true hero. Bet you could have been a great one born in this time. Hell, you still could be if you wanted, though you’d be starting a bit late.”

Izuku thought on Aizawa’s words. Could I be what these people call a hero? Looking towards the ceiling, then back at Aizawa, Izuku knew the answer. No.

“As much as I am aware that is high praise, I don’t think that path is for me. Teaching others to be their best self, being able to protect myself and anyone I’m working with – that is good enough for me. You’re observant, so are probably already aware, but I don’t exactly approve of the whole ‘hero vs. villain’ mindset you all got going on. Call me old fashioned or whatever.”

Once again Aizawa sighed. “I respect that, but don’t go around telling others. They will begin thinking you are a villain for it.”

Izuku nodded, having already noticed how some civilians outside UA treat those that do not follow popular opinions. Hell, he’s even been subjected to some of that discrimination himself thanks to the requirement to have a quirk, or lack thereof, listed on government identification. It makes sense for authorities to know what they are dealing with when checking IDs for security purposes, but it sucks when a little x mark can cause unnecessary trouble when doing something simple like buying movie tickets.

Notes:

Sorry for the burn scar, Izuku, but that is only realistic with the severity of being pretty much on top of an explosion! But you'll be OK.

The revelation of anti-hero/villain sentiment begins. I don't know where I'm going with that, but I feel like it opens up plot for some interesting interactions.

Chapter 11: Excuse Me, When Were You Born?

Summary:

Izuku tells the truth.
No one believes him.

Today was just another day learning and living in Earth 2321 – wake up and get ready, stumble to the shared kitchen for a small breakfast, then leave for the main campus building. While it has only been a few days since the semester started, Izuku was finding the routine comforting in a world of surprises. His anxiety of the unknown appreciated it. Reveled in it, really, when there are so many other things that could trigger panic. Perhaps that is why when Izuku quietly took his place at the front of the classroom before the day began, he did not register the disbelieving stares the students were giving. That is until Bakugou yelled, “WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?!”. Izuku jumped in shock from the sudden outburst, head jerking up to stare at the angry blonde.

And he continued staring.

“What, not going to answer me?! Think that redirecting the blast makes you so tough?” Bakugou continued to rant, “well let me tell you, that little trick may have stopped Sero from getting hurt but it was fucking stupid. Hell, if you moved just wrong I would have done a lot more than burn up an arm.”

Izuku continued to stare.

And blink.

His mind slowly rebooting to take in what was aggressively implied.

“Are you saying you’re sorry?” he eventually asked.

Bakugou huffed, crossing his arms, and turning his head. “I ain’t proud of it, that’s for sure. Why the fuck did you guys let me have the gauntlets in training if they were that powerful?!”

Izuku sent him an unimpressed stare. He has a point, but… “What, All Might telling you to stop wasn’t a good enough signal for you?”

Bakugou narrowed his eyes even more than they already were. At this point Izuku was surprised he could still see the glare was so intense.

“You don’t have a physical quirk. Otherwise, as hero, you most likely wouldn’t have gotten hurt.”

Astute, but also wrong. Izuku’s face took on a slightly mischievous grin. “Who said anything about me being a hero?”

At that the entire class looked confused. Iida spoke up, “But Midoriya, UA doesn’t hire non-heroes as teacher, especially for positions working directly with hero course students.”

I didn’t realize this before, but that is true, isn’t it? Oh boy this is going to be fun.

“Hmm. I guess that is the unspoken rule, huh? Let’s look at it this way – who is better qualified to teach courses on pre-quirk history than a certified historical artifact?” Izuku responded after taking in the meaning, the true oddity, of his position at the school.

Once again the class appeared completely confused. Luckily for Izuku, Aizawa opened the door to interrupt, “what, you telling them all your secrets now?”

Izuku smirked at the man, noting the note of amusement hidden in the deadpan expression.

------ ++++++ ------

It seems his comment really threw everyone for a loop. They spent the entirety of their lessons taking turns glancing at Izuku, likely trying to parse out if he was joking. I wonder if anyone is actually going to comment on that? This is a good test of everyone’s logic.

When lunch rolled around Izuku took the chance to escape any social interaction with the other staff and found a tree outside to lean against. Not long after settling the lighting shifted unexpectedly. Looking up, Izuku saw Iida, Uraraka, and Tsuyu leading almost the entirety of 1-A over. I should have expected this given I am near where I took those three to discuss their quirk questions.

Surprisingly it was Todoroki that led the discussion. “You are only a couple years older than us, right Midoriya?”

“mmhmm”

“And yet you are a ‘historical artifact’?”

“Yup”

“…when were you born?”

“1994”

Todoroki blinked, a slight crease forming between his brows, then nods, seeming to take that revelation in stride. He then picked up his chop sticks and shoveled some soba into his mouth with a thoughtful look in his eyes.

The others watching the interaction were horrified. Izuku gleefully, yet guiltily, took in their expressions before asking, “What?” in an innocent manner.

Iida leaned forward, pushing up his glasses. “That is impossible. You cannot have been born in 1994 and be about our age.”

Izuku tilted his head slightly and responded, “but I am? In a world of quirks I’m surprised this seems to be confusing.”

“Midoriya, the only explanations for such a case would be a longevity quirk causing you to have stopped ageing and thus be arguably our age via physical appearance or time travel. You said you don’t have a physical quirk.”

“That is right, I do not have a quirk. And yet here I am.”

Todoroki looked back up from his lunch and quietly said, “it’s time travel. He fell into a wormhole created by one of the old space travel experiments and can’t get back because we no longer invest in such technology.”

Izuku’s brightest smile directed at Todoroki right before he cackles a full-belly laugh at the incredulous expressions of everyone else who had the misfortune of hearing the theory. That is so close, yet so far. I…I…I don’t know whether to think he is a genius or complete idiot. I mean, for all I know that is exactly what happened. Once calmed Izuku swallowed and nervously rubbed his neck.

“Yeah, that is as good a theory as any at this point. No one knows how I got here.”

The mixture of confused and disbelieving expressions turned to shock.

“Nope. I refuse to believe this!” Uraraka eventually yelled, followed by agreement of all but Todoroki and Izuku.

Not my fault if they don’t believe the truth.

Notes:

Sooo any fans of oddly close to the truth conspiracy Todoroki?

Chapter 12: Unexpected Field Trip (part 1)

Summary:

Izuku was not planning on accompanying Aizawa on 1-A's field trip.
He had to anyway -- and learns a few more things about the quirked world while he's at it.

Notes:

Since it may be confusing:
quotes + italics = Izuku is mumbling
quotes = standard speaking
italics = Izuku's inner thoughts

Was Izuku happy to be woken up an hour early with a phone call? No. Did he appreciate Nedzu requesting (read: requiring) him to take All Might’s place as a supervisor on a field trip he had no business being on? No. He planned on spending the day with Snipe and the Gen Ed course prepping for the start of his official teacher duties. The pre-quirk history course is supposed to start in the third week of classes, so that leaves him with one more week to get accustomed to UA and modern culture. Instead, here he is standing outside before his normal start of day waiting for the students of 1-A to pile into a bus travelling to some unknown off-site campus location. Nedzu and Aizawa never did tell him where they were going – he only knew of the existence of a field trip thanks to his own schedule being rearranged for the day.

To pass the time, Izuku examines his surroundings.

“Transportation really hasn’t progressed. I still find that crazy. This bus looks almost identical to the ones I used back home. From what I understand it is still run on gasoline, too! You’d think we’d have found a better energy source than fossil fuels at this point. How is it that gas is even still a viable resource? Weren’t scientists predicting we only had 50-100 years worth of resources left to burn before it ran out completely? That was one of the reasons, besides pollution, companies were researching electric vehicles…”

“Midoriya”

“Then again, the construction of an electric vehicle is considered by some just as bad for the environment as the use of a standard gas due to the mining of rare resources and pollution released during manufacture. Maybe that is why that source of energy didn’t take off?”

“Mid-Midoriya--”

“I’ve also not heard much about alternative fuel for electric generation. It seems the conspiracy theorists, along with environment groups worried about the amount of debris and e-waste from upkeep, stopped a lot of those efforts. The argument seems to be ‘we need a more environmentally friendly source of energy – let’s try this’ followed by ‘but that isn’t good enough, it has some waste issues too’ causing the status quo to continue….”

“IZUKU MIDORIYA!”

Izuku stopped and breathed in, startled out of his muttering. He lifted his head from where it tucked into his fist. “S-s-sorry, what was that?”

Aizawa sighed, shaking his head in amusement. “It’s time to get on the bus, everyone is here. By the way, to answer one of your questions, we are using artificial fossil fuels. It is no longer refined from oil fields.”

“Huh. Ok.” Izuku responded before tiredly dragging himself up the stairs onto the bus.

On board was a bit rowdy. Bakugou, ever so articulate, yelled, "The hell are you doing here? I thought this was a hero training field trip? Aren't you just shadowing for standard courses?"

Izuku rolled his eyes. Based on the other's expressions, Bakugou wasn't the only one questioning his presence in light of the 'I'm not a hero' news they received the day before, so he humored the rudely put question. "I'd like to know, too. Apparently your #1 had something come up. They needed 1 more staff member to come along and all the other teachers were already occupied."

------ ++++++ ------

Once off the bus Izuku observes a rather large building with a glass dome top. Standing out front was one of the teachers he rarely interacted with, Thirteen. Still unsure of what to expect other than something proclaimed hero-y, he followed Aizawa to stand next to Thirteen and face 1-A.

“Today we are going to be doing rescue training. Thirteen here will explain a bit about where we are before we go inside.” Aizawa announced.

Rescue training? That sounds like disaster recovery work. I wonder what sort of equipment they will be trained on. Is there any new technology related to identifying how best to shift debris and find people in need? This sounds exciting!

Izuku perked up at this explanation, curious to what he could learn even if it doesn’t directly affect his new life.

Thirteen began their speech, “Welcome to the USJ. Unforeseen Simulation Joint. As you know, not only are natural disasters an ongoing issue, villain fights can cause a lot of damage –“

wait a minute…

“That is why inside there are multiple zones designed for each type of disaster you may face. Rescue heroes like myself use their quirks to help people affected by these situations.”

wait one fucking minute…

“A quirk like mine, for example, can be dangerous if used without precision and control. This exercise will help you identify how best you can use your quirk in rescue scenarios. Let us head inside to group up teams and go over the exercise in more detail.”

Thirteen leads the group indoors while pointing out the various zones.

Just their quirks?! No protective gear? No gloves. No helmets. They must be expected to have their costumes already prepared for any scenario, but…Izuku observes the varying costumes of 1-A. Only Uraraka, Tsu, and Iida have any real form of head or eye protection. I’d blame it on them still learning and having not known what the day’s trip was about, but the pros I’ve seen don’t have any special protection gear either.

Izuku leans closer to Aizawa to whisper, “Do heroes usually do rescue operations without protective gear or assisting technology?”

Aizawa gives him a long look before responding, “Yes, we usually just go in with whatever costume we have on at the time and whatever quirk the particular hero has. Then again, most heroes are specialized in what type of job they do. Those that focus on rescue heroics will usually have a costume and quirk geared towards protection and rescue efforts. Heroes like me, who work underground, tend to have darker costumes designed for stealth. None the less everyone is expected to have proficient basic knowledge in each part of heroics.”

Shock is obvious on Izuku’s face at this response. I get everyone understanding the different jobs and functions for hero specializations, but this almost makes it seem like heroics is a chaotic first come first serve free-for-all for work. What makes that any different than comic book vigilantes outside of the plastic license saying they are allowed to do it for pay?

Recovering from that new tidbit of knowledge, Izuku tunes back into Thirteen’s attempt at corralling the students.

Notes:

It has always bothered me how they just...do all this rescue stuff wearing no protection at all. So, once again projecting myself into the fic, Izuku is questioning things.

Chapter 13: Unexpected Field Trip (part 2)

Summary:

Apparently no one knows de-escalation is a thing that should be attempted.

Just as Thirteen was ready to unleash the students Todoroki had an odd look cross his face while staring out behind the teachers. Aizawa and Izuku both glanced back to see what caught his eye. Immediately Aizawa yelled out, “Huddle up and don’t go anywhere, those are villains! Thirteen, Izuku, stay with the students.” He abruptly about faced, taking quick steps in the direction of what appeared to be a black hole in the middle of the plaza. Izuku grabbed Aizawa’s arm before he could get far, slight panic beginning to set in. “Don’t – there are too many. Let’s see what they want before reacting.”

Aizawa’s eyebrows slightly bunched up with a frown, obviously ready to ignore Izuku’s warning and react in immediate violence. Noticing this, Izuku looks up to where the horde of unfamiliar people crowded together and yelled out, “What are you all doing here?”

A thin man with hands covering various parts of his body (creepy, much?) pushed through the group standing in from of him, staring daggers in the direction of the UA staff and students.

“What do you think we’re doing? Killing All Might, of course.”

Gasps sounded from 1-A, seemingly shocked anyone would be so daring as to attempt murder of the number one hero. A person of unidentifiable gender covered in black wispy smoke-like clouds appeared behind the grouped students, cutting off their potential escape route. Izuku tensed, knowing the situation was bad.

Only one person is blocking the way out, but that person seems to be covered in the same substance as the weird circle those others stepped out from. Is that his quirk? Some sort of quick travel? A worm hole? I wonder if there is oxygen in that space connecting wherever they came from to here. No. Stop. Focus on the problem at hand. If it is some sort of travel thing, he could easily completely block the doors to keep everyone inside – unless there is a limit to how many of those…portals? It looks like that game Portal…can be opened at once.

Thirteen moved to attack the cloudy person. “NO wait. He could easily send you somewhere else if you attack.” Izuku firmly stated. Why is their first reaction to attack? Seriously, does no one teach about de-escalation tactics? Are they not worried about excessive force or any legal action as a result? Thirteen paused, helmet tilting slightly in Izuku’s direction while their full attention trained on the unknown entity.

Turning back to face the crowd, Izuku said, “All Might isn’t here, so your goal can’t be accomplished today. Please leave before someone does something stupid.”

The hand man laughed in a crazed manner. “Not here? That schedule said he would be. I guess we just have to make him come.” MAKE him come? What would they…oh…oh crap. They have 23 hostages and are not afraid of homicide. Hmm ok, no. What to do…

“We can probably call him to talk to you?” Izuku looked at Aizawa, who had an odd expression on his face, but took out his phone anyway to do as Izuku suggested. After a moment of attempting to reach the hero, Aizawa shook his head. Izuku huffed, exasperated that his attempt at a peaceful solution seemed to be failing.

Hand man laughed louder this time. “Of course you wouldn’t get through to your OH-SO-GREAT number one hero! We blocked the signals.”

Izuku stared blandly at the man. “Are you kidding me? I know you expected him to be here - and realistically it would have been smart to prevent us from calling for help until you were well on your way to accomplishing shit - but now that is just bothersome. I can’t help you if you don’t work with me.”

The laughter abruptly stopped. The crazed humor in the man’s eyes turned closer to fanatic hatred. “Help? HELP? Why the hell would a HERO want to HELP a villain? You heroes are all the same, spouting platitudes to please the masses while leaving those that could actually use them behind.”

“Good thing I’m not a hero, then.” At that, the man tilted his head squinted his blood-red eyes, put off by the statement.

“Not a hero? So one of you actually admit it.”

“No – I mean I’m literally not a hero. I have no license. Quite frankly all this hero vs. villain nonsense is complete bullshit. You can’t expect heroes to be perfect. No one can be everywhere at once and save everyone, just like you can’t expect them all to be actually good people. Good people fall into bad situations and bad people can appear to be good. It’s just a matter of perspective manipulation.”

The students watching this unexpected exchange looked baffled. They couldn’t understand why someone would just talk to a villain – an incarnation of evil who obviously wants to destroy the world. All except Todoroki. His passive expression barely betrayed his curiosity at the teacher who so succinctly expressed the confusion in his mind over what a hero is.

From behind 1-A a strong yet soothing voice spoke up, “Then you know why Shigaraki is here.”

Izuku glanced back at the cloud man, surprised he spoke.

“Shut up Kurogiri. I didn’t give you permission to speak.” The hand man, Shigaraki, growled. “But your point is valid. That is exactly why we must kill All Might! Kill him and the whole hero-villain system crumbles! Since he is not here, we may as well hit him where it hurts! Let’s kill these wanna-be heroes!” The other ‘villains’ as they called themselves yelled in approval, growing rowdier as they anticipate the fight they came for.

During the short speech Izuku slowly, subtly backed into the group of students, fishing out his phone and handing it to Iida before responding to the rant.

“Killing us all won’t help accomplish your goal. It will backfire on your cause. You can’t convince people you are right if you are doing something that can easily be taken as more destructive than those you are fighting against. Killing uninvolved by-standards –“ please consider non-licensed people as by-standards even if they are training to be heroes “-is more likely to push potential sympathizers away.”

Kurogiri sighed softly, whispering to the group under his breath quietly enough the other villains wouldn’t hear, “You know, I agree with you there, but…” before being interrupted by an enraged yell from Shigaraki.

“Fuck you! I don’t care! I just want to kill someone! GO! ATTACK!”

While Aizawa re-started his sprint to ward off the villain horde Izuku grabbed Iida, shoving him in the direction of the exit while saying, “GO Iida, you are the fastest. Get outside and use my phone to call for help as soon as you get a signal.”

Iida looked like he wanted to protest, mumbling something about being class president. Suddenly Kurogiri’s portals – or warp gates as they seemed to call it – began swallowing up students. Izuku managed to push Iida out of the way of the gate near them just in time, once again urging the speedster to go. This time Iida listened, just barely making it out of the building before a gate opened in the potential exit path.

The next thing Izuku knows he is falling.

Notes:

I am loving all your comments and ideas! Thank you for interacting! Sometimes it is hard to find the right combination of words to respond (thanks, illogical fear of how people will react to things I do/say. I may have been scolded one too many times for seemingly benign turns of phrases as a kid. Apparently saying something is interesting in a completely honest way is offensive? IDK. That one still confuses.) but know even if I don't manage say something to everyone I've read them all and can't express how much I appreciate and enjoy your words!

Chapter 14: Unexpected Field Trip (part 3)

Summary:

How do you fight off a horde of villains accustomed to working in water?

Notes:

WARNING: drowning described

The fall was quick, as was the suddenness of being surrounded by water. In reality the surprise landing was no different from one of those dump air drop water slides, but given his clothes were not designed to work well in water Izuku felt weighed down. He was tugged back under the surface as soon as he took a breath, not managing to get enough air to last more than a few seconds. Kicking hard to un-lodge the unwelcome grip Izuku only felt his lungs burn quicker. Just as he could hold out no longer an oddly textured ropelike thing wrapped around him and tugged him out of the water. Izuku was deposited roughly on a metal surface, dripping from head to toe.

“Are you OK, Midoriya-sensei?” Tsuyu asked.

Izuku looked up from his prone position to see Tsu leaning over in concern, her tongue slightly out. Not dealing with the ‘sensei’ comment for now…

“Was that you who pulled me from the water?” Tsu nodded. “Thank you. It looks like we are in the flood zone. Who else is here?”

Tsu moved back as Izuku sat up to reveal a trembling Mineta. Well then, 2 relatively untrained students and 1 completely untrained civilian. Great. “You good, Mineta?”

Tears flowed down Mineta’s face as he sniffled, yelling, “We’re going to die!”

“Are you sure the hero course is right for you?” Tsu responded bluntly.

As much as Izuku agreed with Tsuyu’s sentiment given the guy didn’t seem to do well under unexpected pressure, now probably wasn’t the most tactful time to mention that.

Izuku looked out over a railing, which appeared to be part of a ship. No dip it’s a ship, that is the only solid thing in the flood zone. In the water numerous people treaded, watching for what their trio would do. They all seem comfortable in the water. Well prepared. We’re probably surrounded.

Izuku whispered, “Do either of you happen to know if this ship is fully functional or just a display automaton for sinking and raising?”

Mineta shook his head violently as Tsu said, “no”.

“Then let’s find check. Can you keep an eye on those guys in the water while I scope out for a wheelhouse?”

With a vague plan in place, Izuku kept low to hide his movement as he made way towards what looked like a good candidate location. The first door was just a closet with some standard water rescue devices, but the second appeared to be the right place. The only question now is – is this just decorative?

Now that he was shielded from the villains Izuku stood to walk around the wheelhouse. A dashboard sat with various gauges. On the right-hand side rested a lever with a keyhole. It looked as if the lever controlled the speed while the key was necessary to start the engine.

Mother Fucker! No key in sight. Why the hell did I think there would be one? That would be too easy. I bet Thirteen has it. Frustrated that the best choice option flopped, Izuku made his way back to Tsuyu and Mineta to formulate a plan B.

“It’s a no go.”

“NO! What are we going to DO?! They are just going to –mmf—” Tsu covered Mineta’s mouth as the pessimistic rant continued.

“That is not helping, Mineta. I get that you’re scared, but we need to think.” She scolded lightly.

Izuku ignored the interaction, opting instead to stay on track. “We really only have 2 options. Sit here and hope for the best or find a way to break through their ranks to the shore. Personally, I’d rather not fight anyone given I’m more likely to drown in the water than be of any actual use. Mineta is probably in the same boat,” Izuku briefly cringes at his accidental pun before continuing, “Asui, you’re the only one of us that could even think of trying something directly, but there are too many. You’d be quickly overwhelmed.”

Tsuyu placed a finger on her chin, thinking about the options. “Call me Tsu – and I may be able to jump halfway to the shore over their heads to escape, but that still leaves you two behind. If there was a chance to get reinforcements it would be a good option. Unfortunately, the whole class is separated who knows where.”

She’s right. I also see where that could be a moral dilemma for a hero in training. I can’t ask that of her. “Guess we’re staying put, then. Any ideas on what we can do to prepare for defense? Technically we have the high ground. They all need to climb up to get to us. If we can keep them from doing that or activating the sink sequence we’ll be good. Based on the information I found in the wheelhouse even if they put a hole in the hull the ship won’t actually sink thanks to the mechanisms running the simulation.”

By this point Mineta’s shaking has somewhat subsided, though his eyes still shone with unshed tears. Stuttering with a slight wobble to his voice, he finally spoke up with an idea, “I-I ummm I can throw m-m-m-my balls into the ummm water around the um ship. They won’t know what it i-is s-so should try to avoid them for a time,” As the speech continued Mineta seemed to overcome some of his fear and speak more strongly, “If anyone is brave enough to go through the balls will just stick to them. That would make it more difficult to swim and climb without getting stuck to the others or the side of the ship.”

Izuku and Tsu both smiled at Mineta, pleasantly surprised by the idea. Then again, getting into the hero course is no joke. They don’t take people with completely poor academics in UA, so they really shouldn’t have underestimated him regardless of his poor social decisions.

“Sounds like a good plan! While you do that Tsu and I can see if there is anything useful in that utility closed I passed on the way to the wheelhouse.”

The three of them moved with a stress-induced efficiency borne by adrenaline. Group control balls set and armed with long poles, each of them took stance at a part of the boat with the goal to hold off any who makes it up the edge by shoving them back over. They didn’t have to wait long for the villains to become impatient enough to disregard the potential danger of Mineta’s balls.

The first group to attempt passing the no-mans-land quickly found themselves stuck together, unable to continue the attack. There weren’t enough balls in the water to stop all of them, though. Those who waited swam through the gaps created by the first wave to climb on board. Mineta, pushing his quirk to its limits, ran around the deck throwing more into the depleted areas as Tsu and Izuku used the poles to push the villains back down. Some of those that fell landed in piles of the balls, joining the contained group. Others brushed it off as if it were nothing, determined to ‘play’ with a few wannabe heroes.

With only a quarter of the villains left, that group got smart. The next time Izuku and Tsu used the poles the villains they directed them to grabbed ahold and pulled. Tsu, with her sticking ability, was able to stay on board, though she lost the pole to the water. Izuku had less luck. He was dragged over the edge into the water. Landing with a loud splash, one of the villains was on him in an instant. Izuku clawed at the hands grabbing him, unable to do any actual damage without the leverage the ground could provide. Water entered his lungs. He shifted and struggled, trying to get his head above the surface, but the villain pulled him further under. The last thing Izuku felt before losing consciousness was a sudden chill.

Notes:

I couldn't leave this hanging, so wrote the next chapter today as well! Double day updates! Wow that's 3 chapters in a week. Random updates as inspiration hits for the win?

This is the last USJ chapter. The next will be aftermath.

Chapter 15: USJ Clean Up

Summary:

Goodbye villains. The USJ arc is over (sortof).

Someone was slapping his face. It was hard to breathe – a pressure against his chest mixed with a sore throat. Izuku turned to the side and coughed. It was an unpleasant hacking sound, but once it stopped the pressure lessened. He opened his eyes, pushing off the ground into a seated position.

“Midoriya, are you ok? Please say something.” The person – All Might in his skinny form? – worriedly said to him.

“Why are you slapping me?” Izuku hoarsely asked once the man came into focus. At that All Might took on a sheepish look. Izuku began to observe his surroundings. The first thing he noted were the various heroes that walked around the facility officially arresting the already subdued villains. The second was that no students were left inside. Returning his attention back to All Might Izuku asked, “the students?”

“Safe”

“Aizawa and Thirteen?”

All Might cleared his throat, eyes taking on a shifty appearance. Eventually he nervously looked into Izuku’s eyes. “Thirteen is fine, if not a little roughed up from trying to keep the warp villain occupied. Nothing Recovery Girl can’t handle.” The man paused there, looking hesitant to continue.

“And Aizawa?” Izuku prompted.

Taking in a deep breath All Might continued, “Hurt. Bad. They just took him to the hospital.”

Izuku nodded, looking pained at the knowledge. With All Might’s assistance he stood shakily, making his way out the building and towards one of the EMTs so they could check on his lungs.

Once confirmed nothing was wrong Izuku walked to the side of the building. He slowly sat with his back against the brick, trying not to irritate the bruising that was sure to be hidden under sodden clothing. The events of the day were too much. He couldn’t process everything, instead electing to stare blankly into the open space in front of him. He allowed the movements of people around him to blur, his mind to stop comprehending the sounds his ears took in. This is fine. I’ll just space out for a while. We’re all fine.

After an unknown time, a blurry form stepped into Izuku’s line of vision attempting to get his attention. It took longer than it should have, but Izuku raised his head to look at the person’s eyes. With the strained expression of one wishing for the day to just be over, the man said, “Are you able to give a statement about what just happened?”

Izuku blinked a couple times before using the wall to push himself back up to his feet, nodding in response. That was when he realized the man was familiar – Tsukauchi, the one who questioned him when he first arrived. Izuku gave his statement, glossing over the conversation with the villains. Tsukauchi left shortly after looking even more stressed than at the start of the conversation.

Spotting Tsu, Izuku slowly walked over to her. “What happened after I got dragged into the water?”

Tsu shivered slightly at the memory before responding, “Mineta and I – we couldn’t do anything. Then Todoroki showed up and froze everyone. That was around the same time All Might and the other heroes showed up. All Might pulled you out of the lake after hitting something hard enough it broke through the ceiling. We were ushered out of the building before we could verify you were ok, though. I’m glad you’re ok.”

They must have been rushed out to avoid revealing All Might’s other form.

“Thank you, Tsu.”

For once Izuku’s mind was quiet. Other than the brief conversations with Tsukauchi and Tsu it felt as if the world was moving without him. He was aware of his surroundings, but in a bubble unable to fully interact. After thanking Tsu for filling in missing details Izuku boarded an eerily quiet bus heading back to the main campus.

Notes:

I couldn't leave you all hanging too long on that last chapter's ending, so here's to closing off the action!

How will Izuku react once he comes back online? It won't be pretty, that's for sure.

Chapter 16: Izuku, evil masterind?

Summary:

Angry, Izuku starts planning.

Notes:

quotes + italics = Izuku mumbling
italics = Izuku's inner thoughts

Izuku headed straight to his bedroom once returned to main campus and softly closed the door. He shakily breathed in, hand slowly releasing the handle. What the fuck. Izuku shrugs off his still damp clothing, roughly stuffing them into the hamper before grabbing a fresh set of sweats from the dresser.

“What the fuck.” He whispered into the room.  Walking over to the foot of the bed, Izuku slams his forearms down against the mattress. Tears gather at the edges of his eyes as he slightly louder states, “What the FUCK” then screams “WHAT THE EVER LOVING FUCK WAS THAT?!”

Now full on sobbing, breaths ragged and heavy, Izuku turns to the notebooks on his desk. Grabbing his ‘things to remember about 2321’ notebook he furiously writes the events of the day. Messy handwriting, near impossible to read, filled page after page with his experiences and every thought. Eventually, fingers cramped and wrist shaking, Izuku slows to a stop, placing the pen down. His breathing becomes more regular – his mind more clear – but the rough outline of a plan is in place.

Step 1 – research hero regulations and best practices regarding

• When it is considered appropriate for heroes to act with violence
• Best practices and equipment used for rescue operation
• Training methodologies used in heroics
• What makes someone a hero vs villain? Is there a common root cause for ‘villains’ (IE: quirk discrimination, lack of work, medical hardships, etc. pushing them to desperation?)

Step 2 – evaluate what can be done about it

Step 3 – create plan of action

Occupied by this obsession, Izuku’s morning alarm rang before he realized. Looking at it, he shut it off, put the notes aside, and attempted to make himself presentable. On the way to the teacher’s lounge he read an email informing staff that students of 1-A have the day off to recuperate and undergo any needed counseling but staff – being majority professional heroes and apparently being ‘used’ to dealing with potentially traumatic situations – are expected to report for campus security briefings in addition to their standard day of work. He entered the staff room mid-mumble. “Well then. Good for the class. Maybe I can ask Snipe if it’s fine to do the shadowing meant for yesterday today. Then I can continue my research and plan for ways to incorporate new ideas into the lesson plans in a subtle manner. I wonder if Power Loader would mind if I asked him a few questions about modern technology? At this point I doubt it would be too difficult for me to catch up on it and starting working on a few ideas to help non-heroes complete rescue roles.”

“You seem tired today, Midoriya. And yes, you are welcome to come to gen ed with me today,” Snipe replied, apparently having understood the relatively non-linear thoughts Izuku spoke outloud.

“Tired?” Izuku asked.

“Yeah, tired. Yer mumblin’ more, and messier, than usual. Plus those are some grade-A Aizawa level eyebags yer sportin’”

It takes a moment for Izuku to put together what Snape said. I really am tired. That’s what I get for staying up all night after being assaulted and nearly drowned.

“Oh. Yeah. Sorry. I didn’t get any sleep last night.”

“No need to apologize to me, though ya probably should get some rest instead of pushing through today. I bet Nedzu would give you the day off if you asked. Especially after yesterday.”

Izuku paused, debating the merits of attempting a conversation with Nedzu. No – I’d rather not use up my work with Nedzu mental quota on that today. There is something else I'll want to talk to him about soon. Shaking his head, Izuku states, “I’ll be fine, it will be good to keep my mind occupied for now.”

------ ++++++ ------

Izuku was most definitely not fine. Throughout the day, when not spacing out or jumping at every rustle of movement, Izuku was deeply occupied by his planning. It got to the point where Aizawa, bandaged up and low on patience, had enough.

“Stop. You’re going to run yourself to the ground and it’s only been one day” Aizawa tells him after an especially large flinch. “I get you want to do what you can to make sure something like yesterday doesn’t happen again, trust me I really do, but you should get some rest and then speak with Hound Dog. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind working with you given you can’t exactly tell-all for your situation to any unauthorized personnel.”

Izuku stared at the man, glare strongly imitating the one Aizawa usually wears when activating his quirk - two matching expressions battling for dominance. Eventually Aizawa’s dry eye forced him to blink.

Izuku finally said, “You’re one to talk. Shouldn’t you still be at the hospital?” then stood from his desk and left the room.

Why did I say that to him? That was so insensitive! I need to apologize. But I can’t. I just…can’t right now. I’m still too angry.

Chapter 17: A plan set in motion

Summary:

Izuku meets with Nedzu and Aizawa

Izuku walked around campus in a desperate attempt to cool off his temper, the lack of sleep not helping. Eventually he decides to call it an early day. Once confirming with Nedzu, Izuku heads back to his room for much needed shut eye.

The next morning before the start of classes Izuku finds himself in front of Nedzu’s office, notebook in the left hand with the right raised to knock. He hesitates a moment longer before eventually tapping softly. The door opens on its own, revealing Nedzu seated at his desk.

“Hello Midoriya. To what do I owe the pleasure this morning?” Nedzu greeted.

Izuku cleared his throat and took a step into the room, closing the door behind him. “I have some ideas I’d like to run by you.”

“Is that what had caused the obsessive studying and foul mood yesterday?”

Izuku blinked, blushing slightly with a sheepish smile. “Um. Well. Yes. That. Um.”

“Don’t worry about it, the staff were more amused than anything seeing as you are normally a bit on the timid side when not expressly involved in anything dangerous.”

Failing to have a response, Izuku took Nedzu’s gesture towards the seat across the desk as invitation to sit.

“So” Nedzu continued, “what is it you worked so diligently on?”

“It is…um…about a few things. I guess it can be broken into hero training requirements and technological opportunities categories.”

Nedzu raised an eyebrow at the mention of hero training. “I was under the impression you had no interested in the hero aesthetic of our society?”

“You aren’t wrong about that, but that doesn’t mean I can ignore how large of an impact heroics as a field has on the average person.”

“Understandable. Let’s start with that one, then.”

-

Izuku left Nedzu’s office in a wonderful mood having received agreeable terms for adjusting his schedule to allow for time to work in the tech lab and a slight curriculum change to the ‘pre-quirk studies’ course. Now, instead of simply stating facts as they happened, he has permission to delve into deep discussions on topics relevant to hero society – the stalling of technology, how people lived successfully without quirks dominating life, the transformation from idols of music and theatre to idols of superpowers, and so much more. He will be able to have the students think critically about their society and brainstorm solutions.

The use of the tech lab is imperative to working towards allowing non-heroes to help with emergency operations in a more meaningful manner –that is if he can convince the world that such technology is not inherently a ‘support item’ meant to be scoffed at or over-regulated to the point where you can’t get it without a hero license. Walking into the teacher’s lounge, still deep in thought, Izuku doesn’t notice when Aizawa appears in front of him. Izuku stops centimeters from collision and looks up at the man. Aizawa’s face is completely impassive under the bandages. I haven’t seen him this expressionless in a while.

“S-s-s-sorry for-umm-almost b-bumping you.” Taking a sudden large step back and bows, yelling out, “AND FOR CRITISIZING YOU COMING IN WHILE INJURED”

Hearing a sigh, Izuku peaked up to see a slight twitch of a smile mixed with exasperation.

“It’s fine, Midoryia, I get where you were coming from. Though I didn’t appreciate your tone yesterday. As far as bumping into me, that was entirely my fault. I knew you were distracted and still stepped in the way.” Aizawa gently responded.

Izuku stood upright, awkward smile in place. “Can…can we talk for a moment?”

Aizawa nods, leading him to one of the single offices attached to the lounge.

“If it is about your meeting with Nedzu earlier, I already know.”

“Wait, you do?! How?”

Aizawa lightly bonks Izuku on the head as he makes his way to a chair. “You mumble, remember? That and Nedzu sent an email out to the staff informing us of changes to your schedule.”

“Ah, I see. Well. That is actually exactly what I wanted to talk to you about since you have more teaching experience. I was wondering if you could give a few pointers to how you get the students thinking during ethics discussions?”

Aizawa smiled. He actually smiled. “Izuku, are you telling me you plan to have them do more than just listen to you lecture on the past and take bubble tests?”

“I-Izuku?!”

Huffing out a laugh with an eyeroll, Aizawa says, “Yes, Izuku, if you don’t mind me calling you that.”

Izuku blushes, embarrassed. I’ve never really had anyone other than Mom call me by my name. “Th-that’s fine. I like that, actually. This is a first, I can’t believe someone has decided to like me as a friend enough to use my name…”

“Wait, has no one else really used your name before? Seriously? No school friends, coworkers…family?”

“Oh. Did I say that out loud? Umm well, my mom calls me Izuku, obviously, but I don’t really have any other family. At school I was bullied due to my interest in tech and manga and at work it was a pretty formal environment. So…Umm…can I call you Sho?”

Aizawa blinks at that quickly enunciated statement. “Sure. You can call me whatever you want.”

Grinning as wide as possible, Izuku’s eyes light up. “Thank you! Anyway, yeah, to answer you question, I plan on having discussions with them where we compare past society to today with the goal of pointing out areas of progress and regression. I also hope to influence their opinions on support gear and technology in general since it could make them so much more effective than just relying on their quirks and physical capabilities.”

“You’re going to do right by them.”

Shota then works with Izuku to plan out how to integrate the discussions with standard history lessons.

Notes:

Sooo anyone notice the switch in narration regarding Aizawa's name? That was 100% intentional.

Also, Izuku will be introduced to a crazy goggle wearing genius next chapter!

Chapter 18: First Meetings Galore

Summary:

Izuku meets a few people.

Notes:

This is just a let's meet other characters that may be relevant in the future chapter. Setting things up, you know?

Returning to the main lounge, Izuku scans the room.

“Kan! Do you mind if I come by during your homeroom? I think it may be good to introduce myself to them before they have any classes with me. Plus, if you don’t mind, I made some analysis of 1-B’s quirks like I’d done with 1-A. Figured that would only be fair, no?” Izuku excitedly says while walking up to Vlad King - AKA Kan to the staff.

“No problem, Midoriya. There aren’t really any announcements for homeroom today other than the sport’s festival date.”

-

After Kan makes the sports festival announcement to 1-B Izuku enters the room.

“What’s the 1-A loser doing here?” A blonde person asks with a snotty tone.

Izuku tilts his head, assessing the statement and body language of the questioner. “I’m not part of 1-A, Monoma.”

“Oh Yeah, tell that to those guys then.”

Izuku sighs, shaking his head, “I knew I should have stopped in here sooner, but your class wasn’t part of my shadowing schedule. My name is Izuku Midoriya. I’m going to be your pre-quirk studies teacher. I came here today to introduce myself and pass out these.” Izuku holds up a stack of papers. He then one-by-one hands a sheet to the students. “On these papers you will see an analysis of your quirk and suggestions on how to improve. If you’d like more information, such as weaknesses, you are welcome to come speak with me at any time. With the sports festival coming up, this might help out with some of your last minute training.”

Monoma sneered at his paper, “You don’t think we can beat 1-A without your help?”

Izuku raises his eyebrows. “Not what I said at all. If you don’t want to use the information there to become a better hero, that’s your prerogative.”

“Monoma, stop being rude. He’s a teacher.” Their class representative, Kendo, scolded.

Izuku nods to her in thanks. “Do any of you have questions?”

Tetsutetsu raised his hand. After being acknowledged, he asked, “Are you a quirk analyst? Is that how you were able to see through our quirks and understand them so well? Or is it your quirk?”

Izuku smiled. “I’m no analyst and it isn’t my quirk. Your abilities simply intrigue me, so I learned what I could about them. Given I’m one of your teachers, sharing what I know to help you improve is standard practice.”

After fielding various questions about the analysis and how the information on each of them was obtained, Izuku excused himself from the classroom pleased with the impression he left.

-

Once the classes scheduled for the tech lab were done for the day, Izuku, led by Maijima, toured the room.

“These are the workstations students and a few staff reserve for their use. You should keep any designs and materials locked up in the shelving for security purposes. The tables are bolted to the ground so they don’t shift while doing delicate work.” Maijima explains.

Nodding along, Izuku selects an empty station to claim as his own. “What about prototypes? I’m sure some are a bit larger than what can fit in one of the locked drawers.”

“We have a room in the back for such items. Only a select few staff members have the key – those running classes here or working on a project themselves. I’ll get you a copy if any of your projects end up needing the space.”

“That sounds good, thanks. For now I’m not planning on building anything particularly large since I first need to familiarize myself with modern tech, but there is one project in mind that will need it.”

“I’ll leave you be, then. Oh, right. I should probably tell you –“ suddenly the door slammed open and a pink haired, goggle wearing young woman bounced in. “-about her…” Maijima finished with a sigh.

“OH HI! People are never here after classes. Well, except me. I have babies that need construction! They’re going to be the best products shown at the sports festival!” The woman rapidly said.

Izuku took a step back, eyes wide. Her energy was abundant, making him feel slight pressure out of a mix of respect and fear of what chaos that may bring.

“o-o-h ummm h-hi” Izuku said after a moment.

“I’m Mae Hatsume! Just call me Mae, everyone does, Hatsume are my parents. Who are you, greenie?”

“Greenie?!”

“Yeah! Your eyes are green and you have some green hair dye on the ends of your hair.” 

Interesting way of greeting someone. “I-um-I I guess that makes sense? I’m Midoriya. Izuku Midoriya.”

Mae rapidly nods her head before seeming to realize Maijima is standing right next to Izuku. “Oh, hello Power Loader sensei! I’m here to keep working on my project. Don’t worry, I signed it into the logbook earlier.”

She then glanced back at Izuku, smiled, and ran off to a workstation a few rows over.

Izuku stared at her for a moment before turning back toward Maijima. Giving the man a flat stare, he said, “I take it she is what you were about to mention. Is that the person who keeps exploding things?”

In response Maijima slowly nods while simultaneously shuddering.

Chapter 19: First Lesson

Summary:

A partnership begins.
A class is left in chaos.

What the heck am I doing?

Izuku stares at his computer screen, trying to work out where he went wrong. The idea was simple – bring back the search and rescue bot. After some research he found that he may be able to get his hands on an ancient model, but it likely wouldn’t work. As for modernizing the software, it seems no new computer languages have emerged and the general concepts of software engineering are ever cyclical. There haven’t even been any major new frameworks, though versions are much higher numbers than he remembered – meaning the infrastructure strategies he knows won’t be as outdated as he thought.

The problem is the implementation. Izuku knows software and networking and software, but hardware? Nope. Not his thing. The mock-up model looks good, but he isn’t sure it is the optimal choice of materials. That is one field that has significantly advanced due to need. After all, you can’t have appliances, clothing, and other basics become useless with the misfiring of a quirk.

Slamming his head down on the desk, he doesn’t notice Mae peaking over his shoulder.

“Stuck on something, greenie?” she asks.

Izuku, keeping his head resting on his arms, turns to the side to look at her. “Yeah. I have a general idea of what to code, but I’m stumped on the hardware design. Trying to select the right materials and create an initial design before requesting what may not be on hand for a prototype.”

Mae looks at the sketches and shorthand documentation a moment longer. Suddenly she declares, “Ooo I like it! So the idea is to have a robot that can find people under rubble and then calculate the safest way to extract them. Kind of like those pre-quirk earthquake bots!”

“Exactly.”

Mae nudges Izuku over and makes a few adjustments to his design. “This should do the trick. Hey, do you want to be partners? With your brain and my babies we’d have the support industry on lockdown!”

Izuku huffed a short laugh. What would it hurt? I need assistance with some of this and she strikes me as one of those brilliant eccentrics. “Sure.”

Noticing the time, he then excuses himself from the lab.

-

“Morning, everyone.” Izuku called out when he entered 1-A. Looking around, he notices some of the less studious of them nodding off in their seats while those like Iida and Yaoyarozu tidy up notes from the previous lesson. It must have been a rather dull one.

Iida looks up from his notebook to give salutations. A moment later, he looks to the door as if expecting someone. Chuckling, Izuku asks, “are we missing anyone?”

Iida returns his focus to Izuku and slightly squints. “Is Aizawa-sensei not coming today?”

Izuku smiled in understanding. “Nope! Today is your first pre-quirk studies lesson! That means it will just be me.”

Everyone sat up a little straighter in their seats at that declaration. Seeming oddly usure, Kirishima raised his hand.

“Yes, Kirishima?”

“Midoriya, what exactly is pre-quirk studies? You and the other teachers have mentioned the class before, but the only thing I’ve gathered is that it is some kind of history or social studies course.”

“Yes, and no. My goal is that, by the end of this course, you will have a better understanding on where our society diverted from its path when quirks were introduced. We will be discussing pretty much anything I can come up with that may be relevant to that point.”

Kirishima nodded in understanding, still seeming uncertain of what he and the rest of the class are getting into. Iida, on the other hand, seemed to try to write down every word Izuku said.

“As this is the first day, I’d like to pose an introductory question: what do you think life without quirks was like?”

Based on expressions Mineta and Shoji seemed confused by the question, so Izuku expanded on it, “alternatively, what do you think would be different in your life if you didn’t have a quirk?”

This attempt at clarification only seemed to make things worse. That is, until the ever-quiet Todoroki lifted his hand.

“Yes, Todoroki?”

“I would not have spent so much of my time training growing up. We would not all be trying to be heroes.”

Tsu was next to offer a response, “For me, I’d probably not have been made fun of for my animal characteristics since my quirk is a mutation. But if I understood your question correctly, you wanted to know what we know about life in the pre-quirk era in general, right?”

“That is right.”

“Ok” she continued, “According to my middle school history teacher everyone was the same. There were no heroes and villains. If someone got hurt they had to heal slowly, making some injuries and illnesses much more dangerous than they are now.”

Yaoyarozu was the next to speak up, “There was a lot of discrimination based on race, sexuality, and gender identity, too.”

“That sounds boring!” yelled Kaminari.

Izuku leaned back against the dry erase board, listening to each point made. Once the conversation began to devolve into near chaos, he intervened.

“For the most part you all are correct. Life without quirks wasn’t much different than life today with them. Quirks being introduced didn’t negate the previous societal issues, only shifted them. However much some of you seem to think it, though, life was not boring in the pre-quirk era. Nor were people all the same just because they couldn’t pull water out of thin air.”

Some of them know what it is like to be judged for a change of genes. Their mutation quirks are looked at much the same ways as some view people of different social and cultural backgrounds. This I can use to further discussions later.

Bakugou, who had been uncharacteristically silent all discussion, finally blew up. “How could you know what life was like without quirks?! Just reading it from a book is not the same a truly understanding and experiencing it!”

While the point was given rather gruffly, Izuku smiled at Bakugou. Finally a good point. “Exactly. Knowing about something and experiencing it first hand are two very different things. Luckily for you all I did experience the pre-quirk era first-hand, so you will be able to learn more accurately from me than any of those modern textbooks attempting to parse out societal context for various events and memes.”

Suddenly the room got quiet. “YOU WERE BEING SERIOUS BEFORE?!” Uraraka yelled once she was able to form a coherent thought.

At this, Izuku simply walked to the door and bowed while saying, “and that, ladies and gentleman, is the end of your first pre-quirk studies class. I hope this will prove to be an enlightening subject”. He then exited the room.

Notes:

Sorry it took so long to get this out! I was having trouble coming up with how I wanted to go about both the tech aspect and class itself. I won't be showing too much of the class time, so I wanted to have at least one scene so you all have a general idea of the format.

Chapter 20: A meeting

Summary:

A day off and a dangerous proposition.

Izuku sat in the teacher’s dorm common room reviewing his upcoming lesson plans. In the middle of making a note in the margins, Yamada suddenly yelled.

“MIDORIYAAAAA! Why did you have to leave me chaos today?!”

Izuku jerked at the sudden noise, causing a long, unwanted line to appear on his paper. Registering what was said, he smirked and looked up at Yamada.

“I didn’t really do anything special, just went through the lesson and left in time for yours to begin.”

“You KNOW what you did!”

“Not my fault most of the students didn’t believe me the first two times I dropped hints at my origins.”

“You’re not supposed to just…’BOOM. Guess what? I’m 300 years old.’ and ditch!”

Rolling his eyes, Izuku responds, “Like being older than one looks is really that uncommon in today’s world.”

“You…I guess you have a point there. Just, next time, at least attempt to calm them down before passing off the class of mischief to someone else.”

Izuku laughed at that while nodding in reassurance.

-

During his next day off Izuku decided it was time to explore the changed city in person. Before leaving campus Izuku sends a message to Nedzu to let him know he will be off campus (a rather necessary thing given his current questionable circumstances). After receiving confirmation, Izuku pulls up a guidebook website for Musutafu. He then selects the one day self tour path and puts in headphones to listen to music.

Theoretically he could take the train from stop to stop to hit the biggest places, but Izuku would rather get a full view of the city. He elects to walk past the station towards the first destination – a statue of the first known licensed hero, Quickstep.

Late morning, after seeing a few things, Izuku spotted a small café down an alley. Curious and ready for a break, he enters. The inside of the café is what one would expect – a few areas with comfortable chairs mixed with typical restaurant table/chair seating, a checkout counter/coffee bar combo area, and tasteful decorations. On the wall behind the register what Izuku would guess is the logo was painted. Lost Café, huh. Interesting motif.

Walking up to the counter, Izuku orders a chai tea latte and muffin. Once ready, he takes his items to a small table near the far corner. As he scrolled on his phone to determine where he wants to go next, a shadow appeared at the end of the table. Looking up, Izuku’s eyes widened. A young man with a familiar, dry face, light blue hair, red eyes, and a black hoodie stood staring at him. The man leaned over, placing both hands on the edge of the table with pinkies raised, and moved his face close to Izuku’s.

“Don’t say a word. Do not call anyone. I just want to talk to you.” The man said.

Izuku swallowed and briefly closed his eyes before nodding. The man slid into the seat across from him then continued to stare. Izuku shifted in his seat, becoming nervous from the intensity of the look.

“W-w-what is it y-you want to t-t-talk to me about?”

“USJ. What you said. Were you serious?”

“Which p-part?”

“The ‘Good people fall into bad situations and bad people can appear to be good’ part. Do you truly believe that.”

Izuku straightens up in his seat, finally relaxing enough to hold this conversation, “Yes. I do. The problem is identifying which is which.”

“Can you do that? Identify which is which?”

“Maybe, with enough background information. But knowing is only half the battle. If you just want to identify bad heroes and good villains you could probably just ask that guy that’s been making a ruckus, Stain. I wouldn’t recommend his solution, though. Not really going to fix things in the long run.”

The man, Shigaraki Izuku recalled, narrowed his eyes. The slightly crazed look from the USJ battle made an appearance as he said the next words, “I already spoke with that shit stain Stain. We don’t exactly see eye to eye.”

Izuku raised an eyebrow, gesturing for Shigaraki to continue.

The man does. “I can’t have him, but you are right in front of me. So, I’ll ask you this. You said our actions wouldn’t help our cause. I hate to admit it, but it appears you were right. Not nearly as many as we hoped are on board. How do I recruit more people and prove to the world heroes are worth nothing?”

“I don’t exactly know what your cause is. Why should I answer that question.”

Shigaraki leaned closer, slowly stretching his hand across the table to place it over Izuku’s. “Because if you don’t I’ll disintegrate your hand right here.”

Izuku takes in a shaky breath, attempting to calm himself. He looks down to see the way Shigaraki’s pinky hovers, slowly moving up and down in the air above his hand.

“Fine. I’ll tell you what I’m doing - maybe that will give you some ideas. I’m working from the inside. Developing technology to make it so society is less reliant on heroes. Teaching the next generation of heroes to be less reliant on their quirks and learn to view people as people instead of a label. I want to blur the lines on the concept of hero and villain.”

Shigaraki pulls his hand back with a smirk.

“You think the heroes really want that? To blur lines? To deconstruct the definition of hero and villain? If they catch wind of that thought they’ll label you a villain, too.”

The man then takes out a pen and scribbles something on one of the napkins sitting on the table. He pushes the napkin towards Izuku, then leaves.

Izuku stares down at the napkin. It has a phone number. A number he knows he should take to the nearest police station or hero. A number he should not have, should not keep, and definitely should not use. But he can’t bring himself to do it. Instead, Izuku gently folds the napkin and places it in his wallet for safe keeping.

Notes:

Sorry it has been a bit since the last update! I've had to deal with some family things so did not have time to dedicate to hobbies.

Chapter 21: A decision is made

Summary:

A short one where Izuku makes bad decisions

Returning to campus, Izuku is nervous. How likely is it that they know about my encounter? Nedzu tends to know way more than he lets on. This could be problematic. Shaking his head to clear the thoughts, he collapses into the common room couch with a loud sigh, face flat against the seat. Aizawa, who was in the kitchen, raised an eyebrow at this display. Without saying anything the man settles into a chair nearby to continue grading an assignment. Izuku turns his head to look at Aizawa, face scrunched.

“Shota.”

Aizawa looks up from the papers with a blank face, “what, no ‘sho’?”

With the slightest of smiles, Izuku responded, “I’m actually surprised you didn’t wrap me up in that weapon of yours for that joke.”

Aizawa’s face morphed into a manic grin. “Who said I still won’t?”

Izuku sighs again, rotating to his back. While looking at the ceiling he eventually asks, “What would you do if someone you…dislike…decide they want to be allies of sorts? Hypothetically speaking.”

“I’d question the motives behind that decision.”

Aizawa stares at Izuku for a few moments before returning to his work, it being obvious the conversation was over.

-

The next few days were hectic as staff prepared for the sports festival at the end of the week. Students in 1-A and 1-B requested time with Izuku to work out some of the information from his analysis in hopes of a last-minute edge.

When the day finally came, Izuku knew he wouldn’t be needed. He had no desire to watch the dangerous spectacle, so instead took the time to pick up his explorations where they left off after Shigaraki’s interruption. Passing the café reminded him of the number burning a whole in his wallet. Should I text it? If there ever were a day I’d be able to get away with an intentional meeting with a ‘villain’ it would be today. So many of the ‘heroes’ are occupied.

Izuku grimaced, attempting to remove the thoughts from his head. No. No, this is not a good idea. None the less, he found himself typing in his phone’s password and opening a messaging app that would allow him to use mask his phone number with another. The next thing he knew, a message was sent.

MI: Perhaps I’ll need to place myself in the grey zone.

Surprisingly quickly, a response came in.

ST: I knew it wouldn’t take long.

ST: Ally next to the café. 1 hour.

Izuku swallowed, closing his eyes and breathing in deeply. There is no turning back now. Let’s see if I can play this right.

Notes:

Running low on plot points, so this one is short to try and get the ball rolling in some kind of direction.

Chapter 22: Suspicious Meeting

Summary:

Izuku makes another bad decision.

Ask motives, Aizawa said. Now how am I to do that and still be on the friendly side with this sociopath? I already know what he wants – to kill All Might and destroy society.

Izuku meanders into the ally where the meeting with Shigaraki is to take place. He is on high alert, checking everything from the rooftops to behind the dumpster. No one is there until a lanky, pale man steps out of a warp gate. Izuku broadens his stance and crosses his arms in an attempt to look somewhat intimidating. He undoubtedly failed if Shigaraki’s expression was anything to go by.

“Why hello there Mr. Gray Zone.”

Izuku nods while saying, “Shigaraki.”

“You texted me. What can you do for me?”

What the hell, he’s the one who left his number. Is he trying to pull a power move? I have no experience with this type of negotiation. I need to be careful else things could go south. “Yeah. I did. I was under the impression we may be able to come to an agreement.”

“About?” Shigaraki narrowed his eyes with suspicion. Whether it is due to not trusting Izuku or something else, Izuku could not tell.

“Heroes. I’m sure we can both agree that the system isn’t perfect, yeah?”

“Go on.”

“How about we work together. I help you find a good strategy to poke holes at the hero system – slightly more legally – and you stop targeting and causing collateral damage of civilians, children, and hero students.”

“Why would I do that? The hero students are going to grow up to be terrible, useless heroes. Might as well cut that off at the source.”

Izuku stares intensely at Shigaraki, attempting to read the twitchy body language. OK, he has a point. What can I tell him? He won’t buy that I can do better for him than those attacks right off the bat. Maybe…maybe…oh fuck I’m going to have to step a little deeper into this than I’d like.

“You have a point; but, don’t you think by changing the system at the source and altering common opinion we can prevent those kids from making the same mistakes as their elders? It’s not like we’re going to be completely golden in doing this. I’m planning on doing quite a bit of hacking to expose the current heroes. If enough attention is garnered, then the younglings who were hoping to use the position for ill will think twice.”

“You can hack?”

“Yes. I am rather good at it.”

“I don’t have a cheat in my party. I could use you.”

“Abide by my terms and you can have me.”

“Fine. Nothing to hurt ‘innocent’” Shigaraki spit the word like it physically hurt to say, “people or…the hero students.”

Izuku closed the distance between him and Shigaraki, holding his hand out. Shigaraki waved the handoff, mumbling something about ‘stupid NPCs and touching’. Izuku pulled his hand back, stating, “you have my number. Contact me when you are ready to strategize or need my…services.”

-

Izuku grasped a mug of tea tightly between shaking hands. Taking a sip, he thought back on the conversation with that villain.

This is risky. Extremely risky. What am I even thinking? Hacking?! If I don’t set things up right it could easily be traced right back to me. Getting away from UA to meet with their group will be difficult enough. I can’t risk doing any suspicious online activity within the UA networks. Nedzu would catch it in a heartbeat.

Izuku reached into his pocket to check the time, only to remember he didn’t take his phone with him. Sighing, he finished the tea and began the trek back to campus.

Notes:

Oh boy. Will he get caught?

Chapter 23: A reviewing of footage

Summary:

Now that the sports festival is over, Izuku reviews what he missed. He is not happy.

Izuku had a headache. No, scratch that – he had a massive migraine by the name of ‘future hero school logic’. He knew about the sports festival, it being the reason he was able to leave campus without too much worry, but he didn’t think to ask what it entailed, exactly. In Izuku’s experience, a sports festival is just that – students competing in various sporting competitions. The list including things like track races, long jumps, and other basic physical events. Not…whatever THIS disaster he has the displeasure of reviewing footage of is.

Tell me again WHY they thought it was a good idea to have a competition consisting of potentially deadly events? Giant attacking robots? BOMBS?! Ok, I’ll admit they did at least tone down the bombs to non-lethal levels, but still! At least this is a university so it’s not like children are involved. That would be an absolute abomination.

Resisting the urge to march into Nedzu’s office and rant, Izuku began writing observations from the hero student’s performances throughout the events. A few things irked him more than others. For example, Todoroki’s seeming willingness to gain frostbite when he knows full well the guy has the ability to prevent it. Or maybe it was the podium display with a feral-looking Bakugou that took the cake? Things like that – muzzling a competitor who is obviously acting excessively violent out of indignance instead of talking to him – are why some people may turn their back on this hero vs. villain lifestyle. When the heroes act like they are in the right regardless of their actual actions…that is dangerous. That is a slippery slope to societal manipulation and hidden secrets. Then again, I am pretty sure that this society is already at the bottom of that slope. Maybe if I can find some concrete evidence from records it can be used to push for change? Yes, I think I will do that. If I’m careful about what type of evidence I find it could be used by Shigaraki without putting people in real danger. A social marketing campaign, if you will.

Seeing the absurdity recorded and how the staff and audience reacted to each event was not good for Izuku’s current mental state. He was already dangerously close to the edge of falling to the wrong side (depending on who you asked). It only gave him ideas on what kinds of hidden information he may be able to dredge up about the parts of society the average joe was blissfully unaware.

“Izuku.” Izuku looked up from his computer, pulled from his contemplations. Standing by the opposite couch, Aizawa stared at him with furrowed brows.

“Yes, Shota?”

“What has you looking so intense?”
Izuku considered how to answer for a moment, wondering if there was a gentle way to say what is on his mind. Then he remembered that Aizawa didn’t particularly care that he had a less-than pink-tinted view of their modern society, so it didn’t matter. The man preferred straightforward speech, anyway.

“I’m wondering what possessed you all to create such an absurd competition, display it on national television where anyone can view – including villains who may take advantage of the intel, and treating the winner of the competition like a wild dog.”

Aizawa blinked, digesting the roughly spouted words. He sighed and took a seat.

“I assume you feel this is another thing that could do with change.”

“No duh. I am aware the participants are all consenting adults, but at least be a little conscious of how this could look from an outside perspective! People will think Bakugou is a complete menace. Those that don’t will think – and I personally agree – that he was acting justified given the fact that he was GAGGED and TIED UP TO A POLE in front of thousands. That is like asking for backlash!”

“You aren’t wrong about the Bakugo thing. Or the villain thing. Any student wishing to be an underground hero is at a disadvantage.”

Izuku huffed. He’s obviously not completely getting my point.

Changing the time on his video, Izuku points to a tall purple-haired student, “What about this guy?”

“Ah, yes. He is a general education student. It surprised us all that he made it to the final stages of the competition. I’d like to train him as a member of the hero course. He has potential.”

“I agree with the ‘potential’ statement, though I have to ask why he isn’t already in the course? I’m going to assume it had to do with however your entrance exams are set up given that he appears to be able to manipulate people to a degree.”

“You would be right. That is something that I’ve been trying to get changed for a while now given that I personally had issues getting into the hero course thanks to my non-physical quirk.”

Izuku hummed lightly, acknowledging the efforts of the hero with vague disappointment.

“I think I’ll leave that particular fight to you. The analysis for the hero students will be done by morning. I’m going to include that purple guy in them. By the way, you probably need to have a talk with Todoroki about his quirk. The way he lacks balance is dangerous.”

With that Aizawa stands and bids Izuku a good night. Izuku returns to his task, mentally noting that even though Aizawa cares and can see some of the issues he is still a product of these times.

Notes:

I have no idea where I am going with this anymore. I ran out of my initial plotted-out plotline about 10 chapters ago and am now running off of a vague idea of direction. So I guess things are just going to happen until it gets to a stopping point?

Chapter 24: Izuku is grumpy

Summary:

Grumpy Izuku does not do well as a teacher.

With the rest of the staff either asleep or off-campus, Izuku feels safe enough to open a fresh notebook for drafting ideas of what types of information would be safe to pass over to Shigaraki without incriminating himself or causing undue harm. Then again, undue harm is one of those ‘in the eye of the beholder’ types of deals. Something he’d think is important for the people to know might just cause unintended side effects to those who are involved. Once a basic list is completed Izuku turns in for the night.

-
The next day Izuku shares the individual student analysis with the rest of the staff to help them determine any course modifications necessary. Seeing as he has no real experience on that front, Izuku does not involve himself in the decisions outside of the occasional question of why something is or isn’t taught each year.

Eventually, it is time for Izuku to teach once again. He gathers his bullet-point notes on what to discuss in class before heading towards 1-A’s room. Upon opening the door he is surprised to see a subdued room.

Yaoyarozu is the first to break the silence, “Midoriya-sensei, were you the one to write up all those notes on each of us from the festival?”

Izuku tilts his head, wondering where this is leading. Their expressions are oddly guarded. Is something wrong? Thoe notes were a bit blunt compared to others I’ve given them before, so maybe the delivery method threw them off.

“Yes,” He eventually responds.

Yaoyarozu deflates slightly as if a weight came off her shoulders. “Ok, that is good. To be honest, we were a bit worried about how detailed the weakness descriptions were. That, combined with the fact that they were just sitting on our desks after a class break it seemed a bit suspicious.”

Who the hell thought it was a good idea to just place those papers on unwatched desks?! Was it not discussed initially that I wanted to be careful about how any analysis on the students is handled? Someone is going to be getting a talking to.

Out loud Izuku merely sighs. Moving to the table at the front of the room and relaxing against it, he scans the room. Yaoyarozu seems to be a bit self-conscious right now. That is unusual. Bakugou looks unsurprisingly angry. I’m guessing he didn’t like the part about his need to be careful of how he is perceived when upset due to the potential of it affecting his success in dealing with civilians. Uraraka seems a bit more determined. Iida, though…that is an interesting expression. That is not what I would expect as a response from him. It seems too stiff, even for one as proper-presenting as him. Something else must have occurred. Todoroki seems to be tense as well. Did Shota talk with him about the quirk thing before he received the analysis? If not then the delivery of the information was likely ill-received.

“I’m sorry that those were written so harshly. This was my first time seeing the sports festival and, to be honest, I don’t exactly agree with its contents. Not only are you all subjected to brutal trials, but your skills and weaknesses are displayed openly for the entire world to see. Anyone with any desire to harm now knows exactly what they need to take each and every one of you down. That makes it more important than ever to learn from and cover your weaknesses.”

Crackling sounds come from Bakugou’s direction as his quirk activates. The young man abruptly stands, face contorted with unrestrained rage. “What the fuck do you mean ‘brutal trials’?! It’s a game – a test of our strength. Don’t be looking down on us you extra!”

Izuku narrows his eyes, staring intensely at Bakugou. “You think that was a simple game? Do you think me being worried about the implications of participating is looking down on you all? No. This is me looking at something from a different lens than the rest of you. A viewpoint not inundated with the modern-day worship of quirks. If you can not acknowledge the disadvantages early media coverage may have on your career then I question your motives for being a hero. There are already enough people out there searching for the spotlight, only scratching the surface of their expected role in society.”

Bakugou crashed back down into his seat in a huff with his arms crossed, seeming to know nothing he says can change the facts presented. Izuku looks back around the room, noting how tense they all appear. Shit, that was too harsh. Between the analysis and that confrontation…I need to chill a bit. No one benefits from continuous slaps in the face. They won’t gain anything from what was originally planned for today.

“There will be no lesson today. Instead, please think about all the information you’ve been given. If you need to talk to anyone about anything you are welcome to come to me or any of the other staff. We are here to help you grow. I’ll be in the staff room if you need me.”

Izuku scans the room one more time before awkwardly leaving the room. Once the door shuts he takes a deep breath and lets out a quiet, “what the fuck is wrong with you today, Izu”.

Notes:

Hints of what is to come are hidden within! Sort of.

Chapter 25: A trip to a bar

Summary:

Izuku tries to find out who did it...it being last chapter's oopsie.

Notes:

**making small edits (no content changes) 14 Dec 2021 before publishing next chapter due to not having done any editing initially**

Last Chapter ended on: Once the door shuts he takes a deep breath and lets out a quiet, “what the fuck is wrong with you today, Izu”.

 

Apparently, what was wrong with him was that he woke on the completely wrong side of the bed. After spending the next 40 minutes revising lesson plans at his desk to account for the day’s lack of one, the other teachers made their way into the staff room for a break between classes. Izuku stood from his chair and leaned against the nearest wall to observe the low-volume interactions and shuffling of papers. A few moments later, he interrupted their tasks with a rather abrasive, “why were the student’s analyses sitting on their desks this morning?”

One by one the others turned to look at the obviously irritated young man. Izuku raised an eyebrow, waiting for an answer. Eventually, Kan bravely spoke up. “The information was good and needed to be shared with them.”

Izuku sighed. “I understand the majority of you were not there when I expressed this, but please be careful with any information like that. Being heroes, I thought you all would be aware of the dangers knowledge can pose. Leaving it out, even in a place where you feel confident there will be no loss, is less than ideal. Especially when you all are still trying to figure out how those villains got into the USJ without detection. That one…villain…has a warp gate. They could probably pop here at any time if they so desired.”

And isn’t that ironic – someone who made a deal to share information warning the dangers of snoops.

Midnight, Snipe, and Kan looked particularly surprised at Izuku’s mild scolding. Aizawa, looking a bit perturbed, asked, “they were on all the desks? I didn’t see anything when homeroom started.”

“That is what Yaoyarozu implied when they asked me if those were my notes before starting the class. They could have been distributed at a different time, though. I didn’t exactly ask a lot of questions.”

“I’ll look into it.”

Izuku nodded, then returned to his desk. Attempting to lighten the mood, Yamada loudly cried, “Man you gave me a scare there with that stare down, Midoriya! Sho seems to be rubbing off on ya a bit!”

Aizawa rolled his eyes while Izuku gave a quiet huff. Everyone else broke into laughter.

-

It didn’t take long for Izuku’s plan to feed Shigaraki information to get underway. He decided to start small by gathering publicly available records about crimes relating to persons of power, be it heroes, law enforcement, lawmakers, or major company figureheads. With the information already readily available, it would help improve the public’s confidence in the legitimacy of their information. After all, if they chose to start out with some big undercover scandal with covered evidence they would be forever known as just another conspiracy theorist. Sure, conspiracy theories can throw a wrench in public opinion, but they wouldn’t be large enough to accomplish the League’s goals.

One evening, after having been requested to meet at the League’s bar, Izuku found himself listening in on a rather odd conversation.

“I will not work with a group that is after All Might,” snarled a sharp-chinned man wearing katanas and a Raphael eye mask.

“Why not?! You want to kill heroes, I want to kill heroes. It is a perfect match!” Shigaraki growled while scratching incessantly at his neck.

“All Might is the epitome of heroic ideology! He is the One True Hero!”

“All Might is scum that needs to be…”

Finding himself unable to take any more of this senseless argument, Izuku walks between the two villains to interrupt them.

“Shigaraki, this is why I told you your original plans weren’t going to work.” Turning to the other, unnamed man, he continued, “What is your vision of an ideal hero? Why does All Might fit it? He is referred to as the symbol of peace, but at what cost?”

The man responds, “All Might is a hero who only wishes to save people. He does not chase glory and fame. His pedestal was earned through honest action.”

Izuku takes a moment to think through the obvious All Might hero-worship, wondering if he might have been the same had he been born in this time period. “It is true that he has the best of intentions and has succeeded in reducing crime. I, personally, disagree with Shigaraki’s methods. That is actually why I agreed to help him. To nudge things in a…more productive line of attack. He is ultimately the one that makes the decisions, so there may be times when things happen that neither of us agrees with and can opt to not participate in.”

“How can you work with someone who has such egregious missions, then? That is not heroic.”

“I am not a hero. And from where I am standing, it does not look like you are either.”

“Someone needs to stain their hands to clean up the corrupt.”

“Exactly my thoughts. You do it by slaughtering heroes you think are undeserving. Shigaraki…well, he just causes chaos out of angst. Me? I am here to find and share information that we can spread to the people so they truly understand the inner workings of their society. I am trying to peacefully get under their skin and open their eyes so they might begin a grassroots movement that will legally accomplish all of our goals combined.”

“What you are saying is that even though our methods do not align, our end goals do.”

“Yes.”

Shigaraki huffs loudly from behind Izuku, obviously annoyed with the route the conversation has taken but smart enough to stay quiet.

The man in the Rafael mask stares intently at Izuku a moment longer before seeming to come to a decision. “Very well. I will not join your organization officially, but if there are any missions that align with my ideals I may be at your service. Shigaraki knows my name already, but you can call me Stain.”

“Thank you for your cooperation, Stain. I look forward to working with you. I am...” Izuku takes a moment to think through what he wants this man to call him, not quite comfortable with more people learning of his full name, “…you can call me Solomon.”

Notes:

This is not dead, I promise! Just took a while to get the next idea out. Regarding the whole 'leaving information out' thing, that is something that is really important when you work in certain career fields. I had a job once where all of our computers were literally chained to the desk and we had to lock all papers up when leaving the desk space.

Chapter 26: Planning

Summary:

LoV makes plans.
Internship offers are discussed.

Last Chapter: “Thank you for your cooperation, Stain. I look forward to working with you. I am...” Izuku takes a moment to think through what he wants this man to call him, not quite comfortable with more people learning of his full name, “…you can call me Solomon.”

 

Izuku - no, Solomon now - stared at the door Stain departed through, processing what just occurred. He just made an alliance with yet another 'villain'. If his current boss and coworkers ever found out, they would be shocked. Or would they? Shota already knows I don't exactly think like the modern heroes. I suspect Nedzu may be amused by the way I am going about things, as well. Shaking his head, he turns back to face Shigaraki. 

"So, now that you have Stain as a semi-aly what's the plan?"

Shigaraki went to scratch his neck, obviously still worked up from the previous conversation. At Izuku's cough, he paused the action, instead stating, "the plan is to cause more chaos now that we have our party's assassin."

"And you are going to do that, how, exactly?"

"My Nomu, of course! Sensei has plenty of them for me to play with."

Izuku shakes his head and leans against the bar. He briefly glances at Kurogiri to gauge the being's opinion on that statement but gleams nothing per usual. He then opens his laptop and pulls up his research. I guess a little more guidance is in order. Hopefully, I can get him to agree to a plan to garner these reports I've created some attention.

"Ok, so you want to use the 'party assassin' and the nomu. How?"

"Attack. We are going to create a big attack that affects civilians and causes the heroes to look bad."

"Where?"

"Hosu - it is where Stain is currently operating. The League needs to show we have an alliance. What better way?"

Izuku leans his chin on his hands, contemplating Shigaraki's plan. This is basically a terrorist attack. An attempt to change opinion via fear. I don't like it and do not want to be involved, but this can be used. "Ok, so you are going to be attacking Hosu with your nomu to create chaos the same day Stain attacks his next hero. That is good timing for me to release a set of the data about corruption to the public under the pseudonym I just created. I'll ask Stain who his target is - if I have information on them I can make sure that it is included in the release to further affirm the connection."

Shigaraki gives Izuku a slightly frightening smirk, pleased with this plan.

-

Once back at UA's campus, Izuku quietly walks through the teacher common room, hoping no one will question his late-night activities. Unfortunately for him, Aizawa is preparing for a quick midnight patrol. When the man sees Izuku he raises an eyebrow in question.

"Ah, hi Shota," Izuku nervously says with a slightly lopsided smile.

"Izuku. You're out rather late."

Izuku reaches his hand to the back of his head sheepishly, head tilted slightly to his left, "Yeah, I was exploring what the nightlife is like now. Not much seems to have changed there."

Aizawa snorts at this, knowing full well Izuku does not have a 'nightlife' personality, "don't make it a habit, we don't need another Hizashi running around here". 

Izuku chuckles, remembering the boisterous man's many attempts just in the time since he's known then at dragging Aizawa out for a 'fun evening'.

"No need to worry about me, I think I'll stick with the occasional moonlit stroll from now on."

Waving goodnight to the other man, Izuku leaves the common room and returns to his room. Once there he lets out a sigh of relief. That could have been bad if I had anything obvious on me. 

-

The next week is a flurry of research as the UA staff prepares paperwork and compiles information for students about post-sports festival internship offers. Unfortunately for Izuku, that means looking into each hero 1A and 1B students received offers from in order to be prepared to give the best advice he can for them. It also means noting when internship week is and which students are expected to be in Hosu at that time. He wants to warn these students to be careful but knows it would be suspicious, so settles for a plan in keeping an eye on them as a third-party observer.

Research finally completed, Izuku leans back in his chair.

"Hey, Midnight?"

The woman looks up at him with a hum.

"Why are so many of the offers to Yaoyarozu and Kendo focussed on their appearances rather than their skills?"

Midnight's lips pinch slightly at the question, a sad look in her eyes, as she responds, "That is probably because many of the women in the hero industry use their costumes and looks for some type of advantage be it in the popularity polls with male fans or, like myself, as a byproduct of their quirk."

Izuku frowns at that. So sexism is still alive and strong. At least they are trying to take advantage of the situation. "If you were to do your internships again, what type of hero would you look for? Do you mind if in my notes I direct the female students to talk to you before making a decision? I think you'll have a better perspective from that standpoint. The only thing I can do is annotate which heroes have skills that can help them with aspects of their quirks, but that may not be the best place for them given the other types of difficulties a woman in heroics may face."

Midnight smiles gently at him, pleased he is looking at multiple aspects of the challenges students need to be prepared for. "Please do. It is rare that anyone in their first year receives offers, let alone anyone in the second year asking for guidance in this department when they finally get the chance."

Satisfied with that response, Izuku notes on each of the ladies' papers to speak with Midnight before making their final decisions. Hopefully, this will prevent them from being stuck in an internship focused on how to pose for photographers instead of a broader spectrum of skills. It is important to learn how to deal with media, but that won't give them a good idea of what the dirtier side of heroics is like.

 

Notes:

As a female in tech - yeah I can picture pretty well what the female heroes may be dealing with in a likely male-prevalent workforce. Given in Canon Yaoyarozu and Kendo were disappointed in their internship I thought it the perfect chance to point to that issue.